“His body?” I repeated, my voice deadening.

Hector shrugged, frowning. “Babe, we have to be realistic about this.”

“Babe? Last night I was Bitch and now I’m Babe?”

“After my dear brother punched me, I’ve upgraded my fucking speech for you. Would you rather I continue calling you Bitch?”

“Fucking hell,” Hawke cursed. “Why the fuck are we arguing right now?”

I pointed at Hector and screamed, “Because he just assumed Borden is dead!”

“Terry Mulligan is a crazy fucking lunatic,” Hector snapped, leaning down to my level. “Look how fast he ordered your hit. They didn’t even fucking rape you, did they?”

I hesitated before responding, “No, they didn’t.”

“Yeah, because he wanted you out of the fucking picture as soon as humanly possible. If he’s got Borden, then who’s to say the same outcome hasn’t happened?”

“It hasn’t,” I argued, my voice cracking. “You’re not searching hard enough.”

Hector scoffed and shook his head. “Look at my brother, woman. Look how broken he is. He’s been out there for hours. We’ve all been doing our part, and we haven’t come up with anything. So please, if you’re so much fucking better at this criminal fuckery than the criminal fucking brigade, enlighten us. Where shall we look? You tell us and we’ll fucking obey your high command.”

I didn’t respond straight away. Hector stood up and continued to shake his head, mouthing off about my ignorance. I wracked my brain for something – anything – that would prove him wrong. Borden wasn’t dead. He couldn’t be dead. He had always appeared so untouchable to me. There was no way…

“I mean, what the fuck were you guys doing out in the middle of bumfuck anyway?” Hector muttered under his breath. “You were fucking looking for trouble.”

And then it hit me.

“Blythe,” I said quietly, grabbing their attention. “We were going to get my friend Blythe from a titty bar.” I felt like an idiot. “She seemed desperate for a ride and said there were men out front that were threatening. She begged me to pick her up. Said she had nobody else to turn to. We didn’t make it. There were already tire spikes on the road. They knew…they knew we were coming.”

The brothers stared at one another.

“Emma,” Hawke then said softly, “we’re going to give you a piece of paper and you’re going to give us her name and her address. Can you do that?”

I nodded. My life was falling apart all around me. “I can do that.”

Nineteen

Emma

They were gone for several hours. The only person that came to see me was Tyler with a plate of breakfast. Why she was back after Hawke was so adamant she leave was beyond me.

“You hungry?” she asked me.

I stared at her. She was small and soft looking. Her hair was the colour of caramel and her skin was creamy white. She had a look of innocence I didn’t think was possible to have given her choice of residence. I didn’t say anything to her as she placed the plate of waffles on the bed and slowly backed away, looking uncomfortable by my silence.

“You don’t have to go,” I found myself whispering just as she reached the door.

She turned around. “You want me to stay?”

I nodded, swallowing a lump in my throat. “Please.”

She came to me and sat down on the bed, resting her back against the wall. She didn’t try and make conversation. She didn’t even lay a comforting hand on my shoulder. It was like she didn’t know how to, or she chose not to. I glanced at her as she stared ahead, focused on a spot on the wall. Her indifference reminded me of myself at her age. Was she rough around the edges? Was that why she was here?

I liked having these questions. They distracted me from feeling pain.

“How old are you?” I asked her.

“Nineteen,” she answered.

“You’re very pretty.”

Her cheeks flushed and she smiled. She had particularly plump lips. “Thanks. You are too.”

“Can you talk?” I asked her. “I need to get my head away from Borden right now. I’m barely coping and I don’t want to spend all my time crying right now.”

She just looked at me with this surprise in her eyes. “You want to talk to me? You don’t want me to get anyone else?”

“No, I prefer you.”

She let out a long breath, as if truly shocked that someone was interested in her. “Okay, um. What do you want me to say?”

“I don’t care. Anything. Everything.”

She nodded quickly and then talked. Little did I realize the door I’d just opened.

Tyler never shut up.

*

“You fucking serious right now?” Hawke fumed as he walked into the room, glaring at Tyler. “I dropped you off at the apartment, Ty!”

“I had nowhere else to go,” she replied snottily, that teenage fire alive inside her.

He just pursed his lips and stared hard at her for a long moment. Then he said, “Get out. I need to talk to Emma.”

She left the room in a hurry. The girl was awkward for a reason. Her life was a pretty fucked up one. My ears were still ringing from all that information dump. Hawke took a seat next to me, and I waited patiently, resignedly, for what he had to say. I knew what was coming. Blythe had sold me out. That was the only logical explanation.

“What happened?” I asked him. He just looked at me, and that was answer enough. Anger ignited inside of me. “Why did she do it?”

“She said men had come around and forced her to. But then we found over five thousand dollars and a small bag of coke under her mattress, and she fucking crumbled. They paid her off. Your good friend is a coke whore, darling, ever since she met a fucked up guy with a bit of money and too much attention to give her. She made excuses, that Borden was a stalker, and that she was only trying to look out for you.”

“Fucking bitch,” I cursed sharply, fisting my hands as the anger continued to flow within me. “That fucking little bitch, I trusted her!”

“You gotta start trusting people in your own circle.”

“She was in my circle.”

“Not when you decided to be with Borden.”

My breathing sped up. “Have you killed her?”