Page 94 of Borden 3

The charity.

Jason’s death and then…

“He messed you up good, didn’t he?” Hector wondered, eyeing me peculiarly.

I gave him a half-smile. “Borden is rough around the edges, but he grounds me better than anyone.”

Hector paused. “I was talking about the other one.”

My smile vanished. I thought of Theo. Of the basements and the dark places. Of the blood and starry skies. “Like I said…he’s like tar.”

“What part of you can’t you wash off?”

I pointed to my chest.

“Your heart?”

I shook my head. “No…it’s that spot in yourself that you don’t want to look at. The part that gives you shame.”

Hector slowly nodded. “I get it.”

I believed him.

“Anyway, even before he’d showed up, I started to think about him.” I blew out a breath, feeling so utterly tired. “I had nightmares of being in that damn coffin. I’d be going over everything. Again and again. Then, one night, I thought of him, and I guess…I guess my being just latched to it. And what do you know, he shows up out of the blue.”

“What does he want?” Hector wondered.

“Something.” I was certain of that. “He left this city in a bad way, determined to never come back. What would bring a man like that back?”

Hector was quick to answer. “He’s been run out.”

That was exactly what I thought. Now that the city was in different hands, the people he’d made into enemies were long gone. It was easy for Theo to come back, but he always had a motive. Everything he did, he did it for a reason.

“Let’s get out of here,” Hector said next. “I’ll pick up that sushi crap you like so much, you know, the dark looking shit—”

“Unagi.”

“That’s it.”

“You like Unagi,” I smirked as I moved to the car. “You always eat my leftovers.”

“I am not a wasteful man,” Hector said, grinning in return.

We drove back, and it was peak hour traffic. Hector had to drive strategically, making sure we were sandwiched behind two of our cars. We must have looked so ridiculous, all three black cars pressed bumper to bumper, inching one measly step at a time.

New Raven could have used all that corrupted money to build better roads.

“Are you going to meet up with Hawke?” I asked Hector.

Hector’s lips twisted. “Nah, I’ll drop you off and head back to the house.”

I eyed him closely. “You wanna talk about it?”

He tapped on the steering wheel with this thumb. “Man is everything I ain’t. I don’t need that reminder, right?”

“You’re better company,” I said sympathetically.

He laughed, glancing out the window. “Is that right?”

---