Borden (Borden #1) (5 page)

Five

Kate

“So what happened next?” the man asked me.

I stared at him and at the knife he was lazily dangling in his hands.

“With what exactly?” I numbly replied.

“With the two of you, obviously. What the fuck else could I be talking about?”

I flinched at his anger. “Why do you want to know?”

“Like I said, I’m killing time before I get around to killing. Just tell me. It might be good to unload, especially since you’re going to your death and all. Hell, if you humanize yourself enough, I might have you pass on peacefully.”

I shuddered and brought my knees to my chest, holding back the sobs that were bubbling to the surface. “Why do you want to kill me?”

The man leaned forward, his eyes dark and ominous. “Let’s just say my brother is restoring balance. Eye for an eye kind of thing. Your dream boy ripped him off good, and he can’t get away with that. He can’t just show up out of the blue and steal our turf. He has to be scared of crossing us, and what better way to do that than to sort you out?”

“Marcus will find you.”

“No, he won’t. When your body is rotting at the bottom of the New Raven River, he’ll be so consumed in your death, he’ll never think to find us.”

I didn’t respond to that.

The man was crazy, and I was certain then, more than I’d ever been certain about anything else, I truly was going to my death. There were no words to describe the horror of that, but there was also something eerily peaceful about it. I was making amends to myself, forgiving all the wrongs I’d committed, letting go of the problems that now seemed so drastically insignificant.

Life really was short, and had I savoured every minute of it?

My soul consoled me that I’d tried.

I’d tried damn hard to live for myself.

“Talk,” he then demanded. “Tell me about your relationship.”

“I’m not going to give you anymore moments,” I retorted, fighting hard to keep my voice steady. “You won’t steal another one. Now I answered you already. I told you how we met, and I gave you a little more too, but that’s it. No more.”

He stared at me for a solid minute, and the seconds dragged with unease.

“You want to cut to the chase then?” he suddenly asked. “You want me to cut your heart out now instead of later?”

I stared at the knife, shaking like a leaf at the thought of him sticking it in my chest.

“I don’t understand why you’re doing this,” I cried out in frustration, my teeth chattering. “I’m a good person! I haven’t harmed anybody. I haven’t done anything to deserve this.”

“How long were you with him?” he went on, completely disregarding my words. “If he left four years ago, that means he had one with you. Isn’t that right?”

I just gaped at him, wordless.

“One year with you shouldn’t have impacted him so much, should it?”

“After a few months, we started spending every day together.”

“Were you open lovers? Did the world know?”

“No,” I whispered, vacantly looking past him as I resurfaced those moments in my life I’d never get back. “We were together in secret. We crafted our own world. It didn’t matter Marcus didn’t have money. It didn’t matter what part of town I came from. We left our troubles and our lives behind us when we came together.”

“Was it just sex?”

“No, and yes. It was…everything. Sometimes I was at his place, other times he was at mine.”

“Did he pleasure you every time?”

I overlooked his desperation to know and nodded. “Yes.”

Marcus had explored every inch of me, always pleasing me while he reserved his pleasure until the very end. But… even then, I felt that he had some other side to him sexually. I didn’t know what it was, and he never talked about it, but he held back every time he took me.

“And nobody knew?” my killer pressed.

“Eventually they did. I started to distance myself from everybody and I got careless about hiding my tracks. After I neglected my friends, spent little time talking to my parents, and my grades suffered, people started to get really suspicious.”

“So he became your world.”

“Yeah.”

Nothing thrilled me anymore except the feel of him and what he could do to my body. Or that I could open up to him and tell him every little thing and he would never judge me the way others would.

“Who discovered it?”

I sighed, reliving that horrible memory. “My father.”

And that was when everything changed.

*

Marcus had dropped me off at six in the morning, well aware that my father was due to come pick me up for breakfast at seven. We’d been together for nearly a year at this stage, and it was just as brilliant and addictive as day one. In our own little world, we lived and breathed each other in, and it was always cathartic ending the day in his arms. It balanced me out, made me feel like maybe I could tackle on his ugly life after all. I’d reminisced about it often. In my mind, I saw myself abandoning my studies, forsaking my father’s expectations, moving in with Marcus, both of us getting a job and making it by. It could work, couldn’t it? I didn’t care if that meant being poor or going without. I didn’t care so long as I had those full lips against my own.

“Call me,” I told him, kissing him. “Don’t make me wait around again, Marcus. You take forever.”

“I’ll call you tonight,” he promised, running his fingers through my hair with this look of worship. “I won’t make you wait, beautiful.”

I gave him one more heart melting kiss before breaking it off and rushing into my building. I looked like shit, and the elevator mirrors confirmed my suspicions. My skirt wasn’t in place straight, my hair was frizzy and my make-up was everywhere – the mascara in particular had completely rubbed beneath my eyes, making me look like a raccoon. Yeah, if anyone saw me, they’d know exactly what I’d been up to all night.

My cheeks flushed at the memory. My God, the things that man did with his tongue. I felt an ache again just thinking about it, but I didn’t have time to. I needed to hurry up and shower, look presentable, have my hair in place, and mentally prepare myself for an hour long interrogation about why I wasn’t perfect to my father.

I unlocked my door and hurriedly entered. I’d just shut the door and turned when I stopped short, jumping in surprise. My father stood there, in the middle of my living room, turning away from the windows where he would have likely just seen me getting dropped off. He was dressed in his golf pants and collared shirt. It was golf day, of course, and he was usually happy the days he went golfing with his uppity buddies, but today he was far from it. While still looking immaculate – that was my dad for you – his face was nothing to smile at, especially when he took in the state of me. He was pissed. Royally pissed and I flinched when he strode to me.

“So this is what you’ve been up to!” he shouted, stopping in front of me to peer at me from head to toe. “You think your mother will be proud when I tell her you’re jumping into bed on the other side of town with an uneducated thug who sells dope on the side?”

Oh my God, I felt like my life was over.

I didn’t know how to react. My emotions were all over the place. Mostly, I was surprised he’d figured it out because I’d told no one of Marcus, not even my closest friends.

“Did you have me followed?” I whispered in shock.

“Of course I had you followed,” he retorted angrily. “You’re my only child, my little girl. Did you think I’d just sit back while you suffered in class and avoided us? Your mother is going to be devastated, Kate. You’ve put me in a terrible position. Did you do this to me on purpose?”

“No.”

“Are you trying to rebel?” he questioned, his face pained. “Have we stifled you? Did I fail you as a father?”

“No, Dad, no.”

“Then why?”

“It had nothing to do with you.”

“Everything that is part of you has to do with me!”

My eyes watered. “This wasn’t malicious, and I understand your anger, Dad –”

“No,” he cut in with a shake of his head. “I’m disappointed more than angry. I truly thought you were different from all the rest. Never did I think I’d catch you doing something like this. Throwing it all away for a boy, a criminal who is nothing – who will
forever
be nothing!”

“He’s good, Dad, I wouldn’t spend time with someone if he wasn’t a good person –”

“I’ve had him checked out, Kate. He’s not a good person. He’s been in out and of trouble since he was fifteen. Look where he lives, look what he does, think about what you’re saying before you tell me he’s a good person.”

It wasn’t fair. Anyone could look through his life and paint him out to be a terrible person, but there was so much more to Marcus than that. It just wasn’t fair.

I didn’t respond. I was too lost for words. I’d been caught out, red handed, no way of hiding it or trying to sugar coat the situation. I felt like I’d done the walk of shame in front of my freaking dad, and I was mortified and embarrassed, but, more importantly, I was disappointed in myself. It wasn’t because of my dishonesty, either, but for not being more careful, which further cemented how glued I was to Marcus.

“Now,” he continued, “this is what’s going to happen next –”

A knock interrupted him, and I froze at the sound. There was only one person who could be at the door right now.
Shit.

Dad’s eyes widened at the realization. “You gave him a key?” he whispered in shock.

I hesitated and his face darkened. He stormed past me, and I followed him frantically.

“Dad, stop!” I called out to him. “Don’t, please, don’t do anything.”

He pushed me aside and opened the door, and he stilled at the sight of Marcus holding my wallet, looking like his usual self in baggy jeans and a black tank. Dad went five different shades of red, and I grabbed at his arm quickly when he made to move to him.

“You son of a bitch!” he hollered at him, pointing his finger at Marcus. “You stay away from my daughter! Do you hear me?”

Marcus took a step back, looking between him and me with a blank look on his face.

“You’re a fucking nothing!” my dad went on, and I grimaced and pleaded for him to stop. “I know all about you! I know you’re a black hole and you’re no good for my daughter. Do you hear? You leave her alone!”

Marcus just stared at me, his face void of emotion. “You left your wallet,” he then quietly said, and before he could continue, Dad tore it out of his hand.

“Get out,” he demanded. “You go around my daughter one more time and you’re done. I’ll have the police on you and you’ll be put away for all you do on the side. Do you hear me?”

Marcus didn’t respond to him. He was good at keeping his emotions hidden, and I’d have preferred to see him angry instead of looking like an empty void in front of us.

“Marcus,” I whispered to him, pouring out the sorrow in my voice.

He simply shoved his hands in his pockets, shot me one last look, and took off down the hallway. I was quivering by the time Dad slammed the door shut and phoned my mother. I felt lost and trapped, and while Dad carried on about how I was going to change my ways, the same question buzzed through my mind, over and over again.

How the hell was I going to see him now?

*

The entire day was hell. My mother acted like I’d committed murder, sobbing at my apartment, threatening to bring me back home so she could “show me the way again”. Dad didn’t go to golf until the afternoon, after he’d spent three hours giving me a lecture of how we were going to fix this before people in our social circle found out I was with a “criminal.”

It was disastrous.

I resented them, and I’d never had a bad thought of my parents before that day. But I hated them for judging, for not letting me explain the way I felt for him.

And then, to make matters worse, Marcus didn’t call me like he promised he would. I’d kept my phone on vibrate in my pocket the entire time, and they were so upset, they hadn’t once thought to take it off me.

The built up of anger inside my body was explosive. That night, I was so furious at my father for what he said to Marcus, I decided I didn’t care that he didn’t accept him. I wanted my thoughts of leaving to become a reality, and I convinced myself Marcus was worth leaving it all behind for

I drove to his apartment after my parents left for the night. I wasn’t entirely in the right frame of mind, I knew that, but I needed to see him. It was only when I was creeping down the street that I came to my senses and realized it was a bad time to be out. There were people all over the streets, and their heads turned to my blue Corvette inching into a parking spot. It was dangerous territory, and I was close to talking myself out of stepping out, but then I saw him with a group of guys just outside his building. He was leaning back against the brick wall, downing a bottle of beer, looking particularly unhappy when he followed the attentive stares in my direction.

It was too late to turn back now.

I stepped out in my flip-flops. I didn’t look impressive like usual. I had plain black tights on and an oversized top. My hair was up, with fallen strands framing my make-up-less face. It was good I dressed down, I realized, as I slowly made my way to him, ignoring the deep stares of others as they scrutinized me.