Page 93 of Borden 3

“I’m not going to take it and pretend to exist in your world. I’m not going to turn into you, Emma.”

I reared back, shocked.

Hector immediately put his hand out for me, trying to ease me, but I just stared at Shaunie, wondering what she meant.

She looked back, understanding. “You’re not the same,” she said. “You drip in money, you act like you’re so above the rest of us in your fancy house. I heard you were like us once, and now you can’t even walk the same street and act like you belong. I’m not trying to offend you. I swear it. I just don’t want to be like that.” She swiped at a fallen tear. “I’ll take care of my baby girl just fine.”

“Shaunie,” Hector growled now. “This is just grief talking. Don’t even treat the money like it’s for you. It’s for Jason’s daughter, you feel me? This is to make sure Joy is given the best in life. You’re going to accept what you’re being given. I don’t fucking care if you don’t spend a dime of it. Put it aside for Joy.”

“Joy needs her father,” Shaunie hissed, her face growing red now. “She needs Jason. Not your dirty money—”

“Jason worked for Borden and earned that dirty money,” Hector retorted. “He knew what he was getting himself into. Don’t be turning your back on us because you’re hurtin’.”

“I’m hurting because your boss sent my husband on a death mission.”

“Is that what you’ve been sayin’?” Hector asked, moving toward her. His large body loomed over hers. His eyes were hard, his mouth pressed in a firm line. “You been doing a lot of talking, haven’t you? Stirred some people up with some of the words you’ve been raging on about.”

I went still, confused. I slowly closed the file, realising I may have come here on a mission, but so had Hector.

Shaunie tensed at the stare Hector was giving her. The room went cold. She clutched her baby tightly, like Joy was her lifeline. Fear shone in her eyes as she whispered, “I’ve just been falling apart, that’s all. Not trying to cause any trouble.”

“Borden paid for Jason’s funeral. He’s giving you a lifetime of money to take care of your little girl.” Hector moved even closer, dropping his head, growling, “He didn’t send Jason to his death. Jason was told to back down from the firefight. Not run toward it.” He pointed a finger at her face. “You’re going to stop talking shit. Got it?”

Shaunie nodded straightaway, looking down at her feet now. She’d gone completely still from fear.

“You’re putting yourself in mad danger when you start yapping, especially when you’re talking shit about Borden’s fucking wife. That sort of fucking dissent won’t be tolerated.”

I felt a strange blow to my chest. I’d come here with the best intentions in mind. I’d never…I’d never known Shaunie was doing any of this. I felt my shoulders sag. I got up, gathering my purse, tucking the folder back into it. I didn’t want to have to hear this.

I walked out of there. Hector’s car was parked in the community lot the residents shared. It was locked, so I waited outside of it. The cool air blew against my warmed cheeks, relaxing me. Shortly after, I heard the crunch of Hector’s boots.

“Don’t let it get to you,” Hector said as he approached me.

“I’m not,” I replied. “I know she’s hurting. We’re not ourselves when we’re hurt.”

“Nah, she’s been talking shit for a while. It’s about time someone put a stop to it. Now that Jason’s gone and all.”

That just sucked even more. I sighed, turning around to look up at him. He may not have been a biker, but he still rugged up like them. He was turning more and more like past Hawke, too. His beard was growing out, same with the hair. Soon, you wouldn’t see much but a bushy face and that angry scowl.

“She’s right, you know,” I muttered. “I’m nothing like them anymore, am I?”

“She was doing just fine when Jason was around,” Hector returned swiftly. “She wasn’t eating out of garbage bins or nothing.”

“I try to raise money to help the kids around these parts. I try to ground myself all the time. But now it’s like…I’m starting to get scared, you know? Scared I’m growing detached. It’s easy to raise money, Hector, and to talk to these kids about having big dreams and hopes and all these things, but the only reason I got out of it was because I took a breather in an alleyway where someone was getting strangled to death and I wound up in Borden’s sights.” I shrugged. “It was chance. I’d be a struggling mess without him.”

“I think you’d have done just fine. You went through a crummy time. You would have gotten out of it.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because you got out of shit before.” Hector rubbed at all his scruff, looking down at me like I was being stupid. “You weren’t some damsel in distress.”

“Yeah, maybe.”

It was impossible to know.

Lately it gnawed on me.

The big fucking house that we could hardly fill.

---