Borden’s heart thudded harder. “Don’t you fucking play with me, kid.”

“I’m not! I swear.” The boy looked over his shoulder and peered out the door of the cellar. Then he turned back to Borden and leaned in closer, whispering, “They went back to the gravesite when the men that were supposed to kill her never returned. They found the men dead and the grave had been dug out. She was gone. They don’t know where she went.”

Borden shut his eyes, fighting the tears that surfaced from spilling. He swallowed hard, and it felt like all the tension he’d been coiling within him had immediately unfurled. After several moments, he opened his eyes back and murmured, “I know where she is.”

“Where is she?”

Borden focused back on the boy. “Why the fuck are you doing this?”

“Because he killed my mother,” the boy replied, his voice pained. “He came out of prison, murdered her and forced me here because he didn’t like how soft I was. Said I was going to be like him, and…I’m scared of him. I’m scared of all the fucking evil he’s done. I want to get away. I didn’t want to point the gun in your face, Mr Borden. I didn’t want to do any of it, I swear.”

Borden had no time to doubt the boy. “What’s your name?”

“Jem.”

“Where are the rest?”

“There’s only three in the cabin outside. Nobody knows I’m here. I heard them talking about Mulligan coming back. Said he’s going to finish you off.”

“They’ll find out if I’m gone, won’t they?”

“Mulligan has his hunting dogs tied outside. They don’t find me a threat so they don’t bark, but they will with you. Then they’ll know what I just did and we’ll both be dead.”

Borden rested his head on the ground and thought hard about what needed to be done. His body was in ruins. They had done a number on him, and he wasn’t sure how far he could go if he escaped, but he did know that he wasn’t capable of surviving another beating. His ribs were broken, his body was sore, and his blood had pumped out of him in a scarily fast pace – another wound to him and he’d die. There was no way he could take them down with his bare hands.

“Can you do something for me kid?” he asked, staring at the boy.

“Like what?”

“If you help me out, I’ll set you up good. You hear?”

Jem nodded. “Yeah, I hear.”

“You’re going to leave and I’m going to tell you where you’re going to go, and what you’re going to do when you get there.”

The boy nodded again. “Okay.”

“Good, now listen up.”

Twenty Two

Emma

I was in hell. There were no other words to describe it. Just…hell. It felt like my life had completely halted and suspended in limbo. If Borden was dead, I was going to crash and burn. If he was alive...my God, if he was alive! Just the thought of it pricked my eyes with tears, but I’d cried too much. I had shut down around the third day of his disappearance. Hawke had pressed me to get out of the room, and I only conceded because Tyler needed some things from there in peace. I almost forgot how many secrets a girl her age has until I looked under that mattress. Oh boy. Condoms and love notes, but to whom they were addressed, I didn’t dare check. I didn’t care.

The bikers were everywhere in the pub. I got used to them after a few hours. They were surprisingly tolerable. Some even stopped by to give me a comforting pat on the back. Any other day and I would have questioned their motives, but there was genuine sympathy in their gazes, and I accepted their light touches because I was desperate for reassurance. Go figure. The fuckers weren’t as sleazy and awful as I’d initially thought.

But they did love their women.

Females were everywhere, ranging between the ages of twenty to thirty five. I didn’t see many over that age, and it disturbed me just a little bit. They hung off any biker they could get their hands on. Their need for attention was a little sickening; their desperation for the club life meant they would obey any order from any man with a cut, no matter how disgraceful or humiliating that order was.

If Hawke wasn’t around, I was left to my own devices most of the time. That usually consisted of sitting down on one far end of the bar and blankly watching the television screen while waiting for Hawke to return for some news. He never did have anything concrete, just loose ends and name dropping from men him and his brother had visited.

By the fifth day, I was a void. I stared but didn’t look. I listened but didn’t hear. I spoke but didn’t talk. I was just…there.

I was currently sitting on my usual stool, forcing a few pistachios down my throat – and just thinking about pistachios reminded me of Borden’s stash under his desk he used to pick at when he was angry. A figure slid into the stool next to me, and I glanced that way for a second and then frowned.

Linda.

Of course.

She idly watched the same television as me and didn’t say a word for a few minutes. It was the first time I’d seen her since everything went down, and I wasn’t in the mood for her smartass remarks. She lit a cigarette next to me and smoked, uncaring about the second hand smoke clouding around me. Unfortunately, I didn’t care for it either.

“I’m just as scared as you, Emma,” she finally spoke, turning to look at me. “I care for him too, and I want him back.”

“Present tense,” I remarked. “You’re talking like he’s still alive.”

“He is. I know it. He’s a tough man.”

“Means nothing when you’re outnumbered.”

“Means everything when you’re Marcus Borden.”

I didn’t respond straight away. Truthfully, it felt nice to hear another person talk about him like he was still around. Everyone else was using past tenses to describe what a tough man he “used” to be.

“I hated you for so long,” she suddenly said, turning her body to me. “I kept asking myself what you have that I don’t. I’ve been with Borden since he opened Owls, and he’s never looked at me the way he does to you, and you’ve only been on the scene for a fraction of the time I have.”

I shrugged. “What do you want me to say, Linda? Sorry?”

“No, but him being gone makes me realize how much you’re hurting, and I don’t want to be that horrible woman that puts you down when you need to be carried more than anything. Hawke told me what you’ve been through. The men are hurting for you, and I’m…I’m hurting for you.”