Page 83 of Love Thief

Evie bats her eyes at me coyly. “Well they are Jude’s, and a bit good.”

After a quick shower, I join everyone in the main area of the bus. Tim catches my eye and grins. “Your boys are getting super hyped for tonight. You’d better calm them down. They’ll be knackered if they’re not careful. We have a bit of press for them today, then the live stage at 6 p.m. Everyone’s looking forward to it.”

We hang around with them through the presser, and I’m in awe watching James Greystone, singer and frontman, for the first time. He is the cockiest fucker on this planet. Worse than me, and that’s saying something. He's such a big personality, he drags the entire band into the limelight. He has back up in Bucky, and they banter with the reporters, Finn and Nicci chipping in. But the star, definitely James.

I wonder if they’ll put up with it, but then I hear him talking to them as they walk away, asking if he went too far and what did they think of the experience. Fucking tactics already. The boy is a quick learner. He tells Nicci no one asked about his brother, so should be okay, and I realise he was deflecting for Nicci—something they must have agreed on beforehand.

Tim looks at me and nods at James. “He’s clever. Nicci’s brother’s been arrested for drugs. They didn’t want any questions as some info is already out there. Apparently James ‘will get it removed, or certainly keep things as quiet as possible,’ with his internet skills. Until that happens, he went big to take the attention from Nicci. Smart move, it’s the only press for today.” He grins. “He may be better than you.”

“I fucking hope so. I made so many mistakes, if I can save him from some of them, I’ll feel like I’ve contributed a bit.”

He slaps my back. “We’ll protect them as much as possible, Marcus. You know that.”

I’ve not seen my boys live since my fateful foray into the Green Dragon. Now, watching them on that stage, I’m struck by how they’ve come on, how mature they seem. How much has changed in their lives and ours.

My life, Jesus, so fucking much. And all of it for the better. I still can’t quite believe how lucky I’ve been. How, despite the roller coaster, I know I’ve landed on my feet.

We wait until they really get started before my band and Evie move to the VIP section to watch. James is whipping the crowd into a frenzy, shirt off, displaying his tattoos. I see the Greystone brand and a few newish ones, including one that looks a lot like my coat of arms.

I point it out to Xan. “He’s getting mine, too,” he tells me proudly, smiling up at the boys.

The biggest smile, however, is on the face of my wife. My fucking heart hurts when I take her in watching her sons. Fuck me, how the hell did this happen? Would it have happened anyway? We would have been here at this festival, would he have been here too? Even if I hadn’t gone to the wrong pub? It's totally unreal.

“The wrong fucking pub,” I say to Xan.

He grins then shrugs. “Yeah, but also no. Maybe it was just time. Time for us to find her and then them. It was just our time.”

I think about that, how we’d lived in LA for ten years with no intentions to come home. A flying visit, a twist of fate, a thread pulling me into that pub, and now this. Maybe he’s right, it was just time.

We’re all crazy, shouting and singing, dancing to their songs. James does a shout-out to his family, and I feel the eyes on us. I pull Evie to me, and we grin up at our son. She feels so fucking hot, and I can see the beads of sweat on her forehead. We haven’t danced for a while, so she shouldn’t be that hot.

James starts to wrap up the show, and they do an encore with a song we’re going to release in a few days. I’m completely focused on the stage when I feel Evie go limp in my arms. I shout out her name, but it’s so loud here my voice gets lost in the racket.

Xan, standing next to me, hears me when I call her name a second time, and looks around, his eyes widening with fear when he looks at Evie. She’s fainted, passed the fuck out.

I pick her up and run towards the backstage area. I know there will be a medic there, so I don’t panic, just push through, shouting for Tim and Mick to get me help.

As they rush toward me, I shout at Tommy to not let the boys see her like this. “She wouldn’t want to spoil their night,” I tell him. “Let’s find what’s up first.”

I can feel her coming to as I head into the medical tent. She’s so fucking pale. I lay her down and the medic puts her on her side. She’s come around and is getting a bit upset at how stupid she feels. She tells the medic she felt a bit dizzy and then got really hot and couldn’t cool down.

He checks her blood pressure, which is on the low side, and could be the reason why she passed out. It just went too low, but why? Xan comes in with Tommy, and she tells them she’s fine, probably tired from yesterday and then today with the excitement of James.

Sitting up, she asks them, “He hasn’t seen me like this, has he? He’ll freak out. Don't tell him, Tommy.”

“All sorted, Kiddo. He’s on his way to the afterparty. I told him you got caught talking shop with Kellen’s group and he said pop in, but not too late.”

She laughs softly, “Yeah, I don’t want to know what they do.”

“Have you eaten today?”

She shakes her head at Xan’s question. “Only this morning. But we were so busy, just snacks. It’s probably that. I’ll get checked out at home,” she tells us all.

The medic advises us to stay a while and he’ll recheck her blood pressure before she leaves. But I can see she is itching to go. “I feel fine now. I honestly think it was lack of food, lack of sleep,” she pushes at me, “and probably not drunk enough water. The usual.”

We wait as the medic checks her out and says her pressure is better and she’s looking a lot better, and she practically jumps off the bed, taking hold of my hand. “Let’s go see James,” she says as she smiles at us all, trying to infuse us with confidence.

She looks a bit pale, but not too bad, so we walk out of the tents and follow the noise for the backstage after party,

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