I’m sorry, Kate.

He’d spent so long trying to keep her memory alive in him. Buying his place over the river was his first mistake. It had tormented him, that fucking river, every single night, and he’d depended on that pain to drive him forward.

Mulligan’s trying to fuck with you, and it’s working. You’re thinking of her and you’re hurting. You’re letting him win.

Borden exhaled and shook his head again. Instead of Kate, he thought of Emma. Sweet, feisty Emma with that saucy little mouth. He imagined those lips wrapped around his thick cock, and he chuckled in spite of everything. Only she could get him hard while he was tied to a chair and frozen solid.

We’ll move. He promised himself, like getting out of this cesspool was a given. I’ll take her somewhere else. Somewhere nice. Away from that river. Away from the past. She’ll take my name and it’ll just be us.

He took deep breaths, and rested easy with these promises, and then he continued to imagine her lips around his cock with a tired smile on his face.

*

Another bucket of ice cold water splashed over his head, and this time he opened his mouth and took gulps of it. The same five men were in the room, and one by one they struck his face and upper body, and he laughed at them, telling them how much of a weak pussy they each were. They’d usually sneak a few strikes in, pissed at his mockery, then they’d leave the room and he’d face more lonely hours before they did it again… and again.

Ice water.

Punch.

Laugh.

Repeat.

Borden knew they were trying to weaken him, and with the hunger gnawing within him, they were succeeding. He just didn’t want to make it easy. After the fourth round, they returned and stripped him of his clothes until he was in nothing but his briefs. They splashed four buckets of ice cold water over his bare body, chilling him in place and then they brought two other buckets half filled with water in. They lit a lamp in one corner of the room and dumped bags of ice in each bucket. They dragged the two buckets over to where he was and forced his foot in each. The jolt he felt was sharp and acute, traveling up his legs and through his body like lightning bolts.

“We won’t punch you anymore, Borden,” one of the men said. “We’ll just fuck with you in different ways.”

“F-fuck with me in different ways?” Borden repeated, fighting the clatter of his teeth. “Didn’t know you loved the dick so much, gentleman. But then again, you’re fucking pussies, so –”

Another punch landed across his face and Borden just laughed, spitting out a glob of blood in the process. Unprofessional little fucks couldn’t even stick to their word the second they got angry. It was going to make killing them that much easier.

They left him alone with the lamp still lit in the corner of the small cellar. He stared around the stone walls, trying to get his mind off the excruciating chill radiating up his legs. His toes were quickly becoming numb, and he found himself breathing faster, harder. His lips formed an o as he sucked the air in and out. The cold water was fucking with him physically, making every muscle in his body tense and then grow tired.

This was bad. This was very fucking bad.

He was so exposed, his skin slick with cold water in an already chilly room. Was he going to freeze to death? No, that wouldn’t be a fit ending that a sadist like Mulligan would have in store. However, it was a step in that direction.

“Fuck,” he cursed angrily under his breath, panting through the icy feeling. He tried to move his legs around, but they were too pinned in place. This was torture. Absolutely fucking torture, and it was almost too much.

He thought of Emma again. He had to be strong for her. He couldn’t die. No other dick would fulfil his little alley cat. Poor fuck would have a lifetime of work cut out for him, living in Borden’s shadow. And just the thought of another man touching her gave him that anger he needed to push through.

He would survive, just for her.

Twenty One

Borden

The next time they returned, Mulligan was present. Borden was half-conscious, every part of him so strained and sore, he couldn’t think straight. His skin was pale, his lips blue, and his giant body shook like an earthquake. He pressed his lips together at the sight of Mulligan observing the state of him. He raised his head and straightened his neck, unwilling to allow the bastard to see his pain, but Mulligan smirked knowingly.

Two men moved to Borden and removed his legs from the buckets. Borden hissed at the spasm of muscle pain in the back of his legs as they pushed away the buckets and dropped his legs back to the ground. As for his feet, he didn’t feel a thing. He couldn’t even wriggle his toes, they were that unresponsive.

“Leave me with him,” Mulligan told his men.

All five of the same bastards marched out of the room, shutting the door behind them. Mulligan moved to the wall and leaned his back against it. He placed both hands in the pockets of his black trousers and tilted his head to the side. Just as he was studying Borden, Borden was doing the same. The man was large, capable looking, and had a fierce, aged face. This man once owned a good portion of the city and had a huge following, and just being watched by those dark eyes, Borden understood why. He was an unfeeling lunatic.

They didn’t say anything for a while, but their gazes never shifted away for a second. Mulligan appeared triumphant, his entire body relaxed like he wasn’t standing in front of a threat. “You’ll break after I leave,” he remarked with certainty. “You’ll be begging for death sometime tomorrow or the next.”

Borden just smirked. “You’re a fucking fool, Mulligan.”

“Don’t believe me?”

“There’s only one way this is going to end, and it’s me standing over your dead body.”

Mulligan chuckled. “With what army?”

“I’m my own army, motherfucker,” Borden retorted. “And you’re just a pussy, like the men you hire. There’s no real loyalty to a man that’s been sitting in a jail cell for all those years, and you can’t fucking take bragging rights for killing the most feared man in New Raven when you’ve beaten him to an inch of his life and then sent him out into the wild to hunt him down. I know all about your fucking sadistic, unequal games, and men like you don’t stay at the top.”

Borden saw a flash of anger in the man’s eyes. He forced the smirk on his face, but it wasn’t as real as it had been seconds ago. Borden was getting to him. Good.