Page 31 of Love Thief

Candy from PR adds, “They’re mostly from a few years ago. I think if we use the pap photos and favourable bloggers we can get in front of it.”

“What angle are they going on?” Xander asks.

“Rags to riches via Marcus’s bed. The photos are years old, and it’s making out she was poor and look at her now types with up-to-date stuff.”

“Flimsy then, because she has her own money. Can’t we get stuff out there about her businesses? Not that I’m fucking bothered, fuck ‘em,” I say to them all, just in case there’s still any bit of doubt about my feelings on the subject.

“It’s not for you though, Marcus. Everyone knows you don’t give a shit. It’s for her,” Tim states, annoyed with me already.

“I’ll get Jonno to take a load of stuff down. He did it for years, hiding her from me, shouldn’t be an issue hiding her from it,” I say.

“To be honest, if we do a slow drip on her success, it’ll shut down most of the noise. You’re always going to get some shit, goes with the territory,” Candy says. “No one wants to believe a rockstar's wife can do anything other than shop.”

“What about tonight?” asks Levi. “Are the girls ok to come.”

“They are fucking coming. I’m not hiding my wife, not a fucking chance,” I stand up shouting, going from zero to sixty in the blink of an eye.

“Calm the fuck down, Marcus. No one’s said they can’t go. You’ve only got a thirty minute cameo slot, see and be seen in the VIP area, and then onto a club for the same stuff. You can go home tomorrow,” Tim placates me, shaking his head.

“Good. I’m off home as soon as it’s done. If anyone wants to stay, feel free, but I’m going back to Devon. And I want to go out today. Evie’s never been to Vegas, she wants to do the sights. Make it happen, Carl.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “It’s a big ask, man, especially today. Can’t you come back another time and do them?”

“No, we don’t have time. I want to go in an hour, tell me when you’re ready.” I walk towards the doors. I know I’m being a dick, but I don’t care. They can go fuck themselves and sort it out. I want to make this happen for her.

“Have you got a list of where you want to go?” Carl asks my retreating back.

“Yeah, Mick’s got it.” I look down at my phone as it vibrates in my hand. “Just a sec, I’ve got Jonno on.” Putting it on speaker, I ask, “Jonno, can I patch you into this call?”

“Yeah, do it,” he says.

I dive straight in. “Can you take some of the shit down? Speak to Carl about it. I don’t want Evie to see a lot of it if I can help it.”

“Yeah, straight forward enough. It’s not as bad as you think, a lot of repeated stuff. If you get rid of that, it’s not so bad.”

Tim looks seriously impressed. “Jonno, it’s Tim. Can you let us know what you’re doing and?—”

“No, I’ll sort it and you can see what’s left. And let me know if you want anything else done.”

Carl is grinning at Tim. “Told you, Tim,” he mouths. They’d obviously been chatting about the family beforehand.

“Did you really keep James and Evie off the internet for all those years?” Tim asks him.

“Did either Kellen or Xander find them when they looked for them? Or should I say her, as they didn’t know about James. I know they both looked several times. Kell, that investigator you got was shit, don’t employ him ever again. Walked straight into my traps,” he cackles like a madman.

Tim raises his eyes at both me and Xan. I look at Xan. I hadn’t realised he'd looked for her, he never said. He’s a dark horse at times.

“Right, I’m off. I have work to do. Speak later. Look after my sister, dickheads.” He points to both me and Xan and cuts off.

“Can he do that?” Tim asks. “He's a bit scary.”

“You’ve no idea,” says Xander. “And yes, he can. To be honest, so could James if he wanted to.”

I look at Xander. “You looked for her? You never said. Even the night we found her, you never let on.”

He sighs out, and shakes his head. “I did a few times, mainly towards the end of your marriage, when you were not in a good place. I thought Evie could help you, that you might listen to her, but as you know, I didn’t find her. I never said at the time. I thought it would push you over the edge if I mentioned her name. It was bad enough when she first left.” His eyes have turned totally black as if remembering how bleak it was at that time. How desolate we both were.

I nod at him, understanding exactly what he means. “Thanks for trying. I thought we might not survive university at one point. We were messed up big time. Twisted out of shape and hanging on by a thread.” I grin at him, shaking my head. “The wrong fucking pub, unbelievable.”

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