The Border Part Eight Read Online Free

him to take a look, just in time to see another drip of blood falling. Gasping, she let go of her husband and stepped to one side just as he fell back, his whole body trembling violently as blood poured from his nose.
    “Alex?” she stammered, dropping to her knees and trying to take hold of him, even as the shaking intensified. “Alex, what’s wrong? Alex!”
    ***
    Shoving her bag into the locker, Katie paused for a moment. All day, she’d been feeling distinctly uneasy, to the extent that she’d almost canceled her shift and stayed at home. Now, however, she knew there was no turning back. Simon would already have seen her on the CCTV monitors, and she figured she might as well earn another night’s pay. Besides, she’d been thinking about her plans and she’d come to realize that she could just about afford to leave Bowley already.
    With a sense of relief, she told herself that tonight would be her last night at the Border.
    Her last night in Bowley.
    She frowned. Bowley, the Border… In her mind, they were starting to seem like the same thing. Sometimes she felt as if one day she’d go so far down into the depths of the Border, she’d open the final door and find herself in the town square. That, she felt, would be the kind of irony she enjoyed, even though she knew it was impossible. The Border was just a club, albeit one that took itself a little too seriously.
    Closing her locker, she walked naked along the corridor until she reached the door to the office. She paused for a moment, feeling a knot of anticipation in her chest, and then finally she stepped inside. Sure enough, Simon was at the desk, and sure enough he glanced at her briefly and then looked back down at his paperwork as if he wanted to pretend everything was normal.
    “Hey,” she said finally.
    “Hey,” he replied, turning to another page in his notebook. “You’re late. The other girls started their shifts half an hour ago.”
    “Sorry, I -”
    “No excuses.”
    “Sorry.” She paused, before making her way over to the desk. “I just wanted to say that -”
    “You should get down there,” he continued, turning to yet another page. “Time is money and money is time. Remember?”
    “Sure, I just…” She felt she had to say something, to somehow make the situation right, but she didn’t know where to start. She also felt that if she told Simon she was planning to quit the Border, he might make some big show of affection to get her to stay, and that was the last thing she wanted. She just wanted to slip away at the end of her shift and disappear with a hint of mystery. “So I’ll get down there, then,” she said after a moment, heading to the door in the corner.
    “I was joking, you know.”
    She opened the door and glanced back at him. “When?”
    “All that stuff I said the other day, after the funeral. You do realize I was joking, right?” He paused, still not looking at her. “It was a test.”
    “It was?”
    “I wanted to make sure that you’re loyal. I do it to all the girls. Don’t ask them about it, though, because I make them pretend it never happened. You should do that too. It’s part of the test.”
    “Oh.” She paused, painfully aware that he was lying but not wanting to cause a scene. “Sure. I mean, I figured it was a joke or something like that. It had to be, otherwise it’d have been completely ridiculous.”
    “Completely.”
    “That’s good, then.”
    She waited for him to say something else, before realizing that he was studiously ignoring her. Turning, she made her way through the door and then pulled it shut, before taking a moment to gather her composure and then heading down the steps. Loud music was blaring from nearby speakers, and when she got to the bottom of the steps she saw that several customers were already in place, while naked girls served drinks and sat with a few of the visitors. Making her way across the red-walled room, Katie smiled at a few of the customers and exchanged