Page 36 of Breaking Hudson

“Why? They hurt you. They threatened the life of your child,” he says. “You can only push someone so far before they break.”

“What happens when you break?” I ask.

“I move my best friend in and fuck her,” he smirks, tucking stray hair behind my ear.

“I broke you?” I ask. “I thought breaking Hudson would be harder than just existing.”

“Cole, I will happily break for you over and over again,” he says sweetly. “Let’s go home.”

“Oh… there is definitely a spy,” I say.

“Yeah,” he sighs. “Pretty sure I know who it is.”

“Can we take care of that first?” I ask.

“You just want to see me shoot someone,” he laughs.

“Yeah,” I smile.

“Colton,” Hudson calls out.

“Yeah?” Colton answers.

“Go get our spies,” he says.

We walk over to join everyone else while I watch Colton and Andrew snatch two younger men by the arms and drag them over in front of Hudson. “W-What’s going on?” one stammers.

“You were working for Vlad. Why?” he asks.

“No,” he says quickly.

“Don’t play me for a fool. Why?”

“He paid me,” the other says quietly.

“Shut the fuck up, Sean,” the other growls.

“No,” I say. “Talk. Why?”

“Why did he pay me?” the man asks.

“Why did you need the money? Chris, your father is in the fights, correct?”

“Yeah,” he says quietly.

“So why would you go against everything you’ve ever known that was not abusive or harmful to you?” I ask.

“My mom has breast cancer. The treatments are so expensive… She doesn’t want to do the treatments because of the money… The cancer is treatable if she’ll just do the treatments. He came to me about two months ago and offered to pay for her treatments if I just relayed information about where you guys were at and what you were doing,” Sean says. “I know I’m going to die. Just don’t let my mom die. Please.”

“Why didn’t you come to me?” Hudson asks. “Carrie and Rob our friends of mine. If you had just told me she needed the money, I would’ve paid for it myself.”

“Randy convinced me it was better this way,” he says, gesturing to the guy beside him. “Vlad promised him a spot with him if he helped.”

With no hesitation, Hudson pulls his pistol and shoots Randy. When he turns to Sean, he lowers the pistol. Sean seems to be accepting of his death, but Hudson‘s not going to kill him. “If I ever find out that you betrayed me again, I will fucking kill you. If you ever put my wife in danger again, I will fucking kill you. Do you understand me?” Hudson asks with a dangerously low tone.

“Yes sir. I swear to God I will never do this again. I was just desperate. I’m so sorry,” he says pleading.

“Go,” Hudson says. “And Sean?”