Page 61 of Love Thief

“That’ll not be an issue then,” I hear Evie chime in as she leaves John mid-sentence to come over and kiss me, grabbing hold of my hair and giving it a pull.

“Do I need my crop, Marcus?”

I growl at her. “You better bring it for that, ten for you, Kitten.”

She laughs into my mouth. “I can’t wait to see you live. John’s just winding you up. Don’t worry, I won’t leave Tommy.”

I hold her face and kiss her, and am still kissing her when they call me to get ready. Thirty minutes to go.

I’m full of nervous energy tonight, and so pumped up that she’s here. Xan is bouncing around as usual. Gabe gets things started with a customary, “Let’s kick it’s arse.” Shots of whiskey are poured for the team. Putting one of our hands in while holding the shot with the other, we all shout, turn away, and down the shot.

That out of the way, the room clears and it’s just the four of us. We put our arms around each other in a huddle. “Let’s do this, my brothers,” I say. We all smile at each other, pull each other in tight, and then release each other, slapping backs.

As we head to the stage, the atmosphere ramps up to fever pitch. I’m running on full adrenaline. Levi steps up first on the drums, Gabe goes next and picks up his bass, and Xan runs on after him, waving and shouting out to the crowd. I wait an extra moment, seeking out Evie until I find her standing with Tommy, and fucking John, next to the stage. She blows me a kiss and I grin like a fool at her. I walk out cocky as fuck, feeling ten feet tall, and we kill it.

We start high energy, take the crowd down into mellow, and Xan and I get set up to do the cover of the “Kiss Me” song. The crowd starts to go mental, they’re all waiting for it. I shout out about my marriage and can feel the love and energy coming back to me.

When we start the intro, I look over to see Evie stood stock still watching us both. She’s holding Tommy’s hand, her other hand on her throat as if she can’t breathe. The crowd is singing the lyrics back to us, back to her. Xan grins like a madman as we finish and looks at Evie. She blows each of us a kiss and wipes her tears away.

Fuck I want her. I’m so hard, it’ll be obvious to the front row at this point. In fact, row five might be able to tell, I’m bulging that much.

We move off stage to get a drink as Levi starts back up with a drum solo.

Dragging her off Tommy, I pull her into me. “Breathe, baby.” I kiss her and go to walk back on stage, seeing Xan do the same to her behind me. She hugs him and waves him back off.

We start to crank up the pace until, by the end of the set, we’re full-pelt and everyone in the festival is jumping along to our songs. I haven’t felt so alive about our music in a long time, and it’s all about her.

When I leave the stage to towel off and get ready for the encore, she’s gone. “What the fuck? Where is she?” I shout at Tommy.

“Gone down to the VIP area out front with John and Jase.”

“She better be alright. John’s a dick,” I tell him.

“She’s fine. Coming back up here as soon as you come off.”

“Make sure she does.”

We walk out for a couple of encore songs, and when I look down and see her standing with Jase and John, I blow her a kiss. People in the area turn to look at her, pulling out cameras and phones, talking and pointing, and she moves closer to Jase. Good, stay away from that fucker John Clayton. They all want what’s mine, him and that wanker Becker.

We finish with our biggest hit “Up in Smoke” and go off to the loudest cheers of the night, only to be pulled in for post gig interviews and have a meet and greet.

I grab Evie, who has come back up stageside from the VIP area. “Excuse me,” I say to the interviewer, “I just need to kiss my wife.” I kiss her long and deep, whispering, “Wait for me, I’ll be thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be here, Kellen. I’m going nowhere.” She looks me in the eye, grey, clear and damned beautiful.

I kiss her again, and the interviewer is laughing now. “Marcus, can you prise yourself away?”

“No chance,” I answer and the gang all turn up high on adrenaline to help answer questions, moving me along for the meet and greet.

Thirty minutes later, I’m dying. My hands are itching to touch her skin. “I need to go,” I tell Xan.

He looks at me, an impish knowing look on his face. “Careful, you’ve got that look in your eye,” he laughs.

“I need to go,” I repeat and he nods. I move towards the doors, Mick following me, and I lean back toward him, still moving. “I need Evie. Where is she?”

“She was outside last I saw her,” he answers.

I pull open the door to see the worst sight I could have imagined. The three witches surround Evie, talking to her, smiling, but the smiles are totally fake and not touching their eyes. I can see every word is poison.

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