BORDEN 2 (9 page)

“What do you think she needed the money for then?” I asked him quietly.

He shrugged absently. “Does it matter at the end of the day? You should be more concerned about the lie, shouldn’t you?”

“Should I?”

He chuckled. “You have a big heart, Emma. That’s your problem. You’re not upset that she lied. You’re upset that she’s keeping something from you and you don’t know what it is.”

I looked back more closely on the way she reacted while we’d eaten. None of her actions or glances indicated to me that she’d been lying. Either she was a damn good actor, or she just successfully preyed on my emotions bad acting and all. I hated to think which one of those was the answer.

“What should I do? Let it go or call her out on it?”

He shrugged. “If you call her out on it, you could drive her away. Better to be patient. Lies usually find their way out, no matter how deep you bury them. Besides, it’s not your burden to carry. Let it play out.”

I blinked in surprise at him. “You should have been a therapist, Graeme. A lot of wisdom pouring out of your bushy mouth.”

He smirked. “What else do you expect from a fifty five year old?”

“Fifty five? You look thirty five.”

He laughed heartily, and I smiled at my lame compliment. I didn’t think it was possible, but I totally made Graeme blush. And I almost forgot about tonight’s dinner while I sat alongside him.

Almost.

Emma

When we returned to the club, Linda strode up to me and Graeme on our way to the office. Her long red hair was piled high in a neat little up-do. With her make-up done up the way it was, her cheekbones were so accentuated, they looked like they could cut steel. She was gorgeous. Bitch or not, I had to appreciate it.

“Borden’s busy,” she informed us, her face neutral. “He’s having a meeting with one of those insane bikers in a private room. Said for you guys to go to the office and go about your day until it’s over.”

“Is he meeting with Hector” I asked her.

“I don’t know him by his name. But tall good looking guy with this cheeky as hell smile. Acted like he owned the place and stared at me like a piece of meat.”

Yeah, that was him alright.

“If it weren’t for the half dozen ladies striding in after him, I would have thought he’d force me in too,” she added distractedly. “Fuck, being a woman is tiring some days.”

My heart stopped for a beat, and I tried not to let my fears show as I asked, “There are girls in the room?”

She nodded once, running a hand over the top of her hair as she looked around. “Yep. A couple dancers from here, and a few others that came with him. Slutty little things.”

“Slutty how?”

Her eyes met mine. “Oh, you know, tiny little booty skirts and belly tops, big tits spilling out of their cleavage. And these girls were in their mid-fucking-twenties. They were rubbing up against each other, holding hands like sorority girls in a porn video. Pretty much warming up for their show. That sort of slutty.”

“Their show,” I repeated slowly.

“Mm. The biker said he wanted some background noise, and they jumped at the chance. They’re in one of the larger rooms. You know, the kind of rooms people hire their bachelorette parties in. Don’t ask me why it has to be that big for two men talking business.”

The raw feeling of anger shot up my veins as I pictured the women she spoke of. Hector’s kind of women, no doubt. What decent female would want to spend her time, intimately, with somebody like Hector?

I let out a long breath and glanced over at Graeme. I needed to be cool about this, not react like a crazy jealous person. “What do you think is going on?” I asked him.

Graeme shrugged in an unconcerned way. “Could be anything.”

Like, what kind of anything? The kind that would cause Borden to have some crazy orgy fest with a bunch of women in his own club? I remembered the hard ridge in his pants before I left for lunch. He’d been horny as hell and I hadn’t taken care of it. Was it being taken care of now? More anger bubbled within as I envisioned all kinds of horrid things. I fought hard to suppress my body’s urge to shake. I swallowed it down with a forced nod.

“Let’s return to the office,” Graeme suggested.

“I’ll wait for Borden,” I replied tightly. “If it has something to do with Hector, then it would be important for me to know straight away.”

Graeme raised a brow at my lame excuse, no doubt seeing straight through my bullshit. I wasn’t going to work when Borden might currently be getting a lap dance, or worse. No, if I was in the office, I wouldn’t see them emerge from the rooms and make their exit, and I wouldn’t be able to analyse the situation – meaning the state of undress he might be in – if I wasn’t around the main rooms. I’d never felt this paranoid before. I’d never been given a reason to feel this way, and I wasn’t liking how hard the feeling slammed into me. We turned back around and settled ourselves at the empty main bar area. All the while, I kept fighting to keep my mind clear.

Seated on a stool, I waited with Graeme standing nearby. He was looking around with this look of caution on his face – a face that was consumed with frown lines and dark circles beneath his eyes. Did the guy ever take a break? He desperately needed one.

“Everyone’s been real antsy,” Linda said, sidling up to me on a stool. “It’s got something to do with you, right? That’s the only reason Borden would have ten thousand men following you around.”

I turned to her. “No point in denying the obvious.”

Her cool eyes met mine. “So what’s going on then? Someone out to kill you or something?”

I suppressed the chill those words gave me and didn’t respond. All I kept thinking about were giant boobs and short skirts around
my
Borden, around
my
man, around the hard dick I’d put in his pants.

She smiled arrogantly. “Ah, now that’s a shame. I kind of liked having you around.”

“Kind of as in none at all?”

“Precisely. I miss the way things used to be, sans you. It was less complicated. Only a matter of time.”

“Writing me off already?”

“Mm, not entirely, but Borden’s got a lot of enemies. It only takes one.”

Sigh.
“Duly noted, Linda. Thanks for your positivity in the matter.”

She smiled wider, those little pink lips now aggravating me to no end. “In the unlikely but likely event something does happen, just know I’ll take good care of the boss man, alright?”

My whole being tensed and my eyes narrowed. “How about you just fuck off now, Linda, or else I might accidentally not pay you this week. I do take care of payroll services, you know.”

That smile bared teeth just then. Really white ones. “Alrighty then. See you later,
doll
.”

I clenched my fists, shaking with the urge to sucker punch her. She turned around and walked off, those hips shimmying from side to side in that way a man would salivate over. I wanted to rip her face in two, the snotty little bitch that she was. What the hell had Borden seen in her to hire her as manager – making a small fortune, no less – to this place anyway? How could she be given such a large responsibility when she was such a fuckwad? I looked her slim and tall body over before she disappeared into another room and briefly wondered if he’d touched her at all. Had he given her a taste and that was why she was hungry for him?

The rational side of me said hell no. Borden had never been like that. My mind was tormenting me right now because he was in a room with scantily clad women, and I was seething over it. Was this how angry he felt when a man looked at me? Was I feeling the same level of possessiveness? If so, it sucked, and I understood him better.

Minutes passed in miserable silence. The kind that had me simmering in a pool of self-pitying thoughts of being cheated on by a criminal kingpin that had the city beneath his boot. I scoffed at myself. I deserved no sympathy for being in this spot in time. I firmly placed my ass upon it willingly.

I heard the entrance of the club open and heavy footsteps followed. I looked up and rolled my eyes at the sight of Hawke. He noticed Graeme first and stopped in front of him. “What’s going on? You’re meant to be with Emma.”

Graeme cocked his head to where I was seated. “I am. Borden’s with Hector at the moment.”

“Then he’s found something.”

“Possibly.”

“So why are you out here instead of the office?”

Graeme jerked his head in my direction again and said nothing.

Hawke then glanced at me, understanding dawning. “Okay.”

I looked away from them and down at my cell phone, half-heartedly playing one of my mind numbing games. When I noticed him approaching, stopping at the stool Linda had just been on, I sighed and turned my body away from him, dismissing his presence entirely.

“That friend of yours you just had lunch with, how much money did you end up giving her?” he suddenly asked.

I stalled before answering. The asshole had still followed me.

“Emma,” he pressed.

“I thought you were all knowing,” I replied disinterestedly. “You can leaf through my life but don’t know my bank details?”

“I can figure it out if I wanted to, but it’d save me a few minutes of cracking into your account if you just opened your mouth and told me.”

First, I dealt with a friend that lied to me about her issues. Then, I faced Linda’s bitch face telling me Borden was in a room surrounded by barely clothed women. And now, I was copping Hawke’s bullshit.

And I
really
didn’t want to deal with Hawke’s bullshit.

The tornado inside of me spun uncontrollably, and I ended up spinning back to him, icily replying, “How about it’s none of your goddamn business, Hawke? I’m not going to willingly tell you jack shit about the money that’s sitting in my bank account. You can figure that shit out yourself. If you don’t like it, join Linda’s ‘I Hate Emma Club’ and fuck off into the sunset.”

He blinked at me, his dark eyes searching my face for several moments. “You done?”

“Done what?”

“Done having your little bitch rant? Because I got a lot of time right now, so if there’s more, go right out and fucking say it.”

I nodded at him, feeling that pent up anger seeping out of me. “Yeah, there’s more.”

“Yeah? What else you got for me, little one?”

I slid off the stool and stood in front of him. I craned my head up at him and spat out, “I don’t get you, Hawke. You’re an asshole, always have been, and it’s for no reason at all. Strutting around all day glaring at me and shit. I haven’t done anything to you!”

“Is that right?”

“Yeah, and I’m sick of your fucking ego.”

“My ego?”

“Yeah, and you following me around.”

“What else?”

What else? I looked him over, taking in his large ass frame before pointing at his face. “And I fucking hate your crumb catching beard. Shave it the hell off, you look like Chewbacca.”

He paused, blinked again, and then said, “Great.
Now
are you done acting like a petulant fifteen year old instead of a grown ass woman?”

Was I done acting like a petulant fifteen year old? I took a few breaths, trying to determine how I felt. The anger was still there, but it’d faded some after my rant. I didn’t feel like a ticking time bomb, so...

“Yeah, I’m done,” I told him.

“Good,” he gritted out. “Now how much did you fucking give her?”

I answered robotically, “Four hundred and thirty dollars.”

He just stared at me, his brows shooting up in disbelief. “Four hundred fucking dollars, Emma?”

“She’s an idiot,” Graeme called out from nearby.

“I was trying to help out a friend,” I stressed defensively. “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

Graeme laughed in response and Hawke dug into his pocket, shaking his head more to himself as he cursed under his breath. He pulled out his wallet and produced several hundred dollar bills. I watched in confusion as he slammed it on the bar in front of me.

“Once news travels to Borden about what you did, he’s going to demand you be compensated for whatever you gave her,” he explained. “There’s five hundred right there. Take that to your bank and deposit it. Next time, let us know when you intend on helping out your friends, and we’ll do things the right way.”

“What’s the right way?” I retorted.

He took a step closer and leaned his head down to my level. I felt unnerved by his close proximity. Hawke liked to keep his distance, and he was suddenly invading my personal space with his hard brown eyes.

“You don’t give people money,” he told me slowly and harshly. “If they whine about going hungry, you buy them some fucking food if you can. If they’re complaining they can’t make rent, you pay their fucking rent if you can. Pretty much, you fix the problem by going to the very source of the problem, instead of blindly handing cash over. Got it? Or are you going to argue over this too?”