Page 115 of Thick as Thieves
“What?” She demands, shocked by his voice.
“My name is Marcus. M.A.R.C.U.S.” He spells it out like she’s stupid, his voice dripping with disdain.
“She calls you Kellen”—Issy practically pokes Evie—“and he does sometimes.” She throws her hand towards me dismissively.
“He can call me what he wants when he wants. She calls me Kellen, but only her and her brothers. No one else. To the rest of you, I am Marcus,” he pronounces to the room at large, and everyone else shrugs, they don’t care. “Did she say that about the girl, Xan?” he asks me. He trusts me to tell him the truth.
“She did,” I confirm, looking her dead in the eyes.
“You liar, Xander. You would say anything to make me look bad.”
Evie laughs out, and we move to stand together. Isobel huffs and storms off.
Marcus sighs. “Sorry, Kitten.” He pulls her to him. He can’t stop touching her hands, her hair, her face. He’s clearly getting high on her scent. “I never noticed your boots. They look cool.”
She shrugs. “Not what I wanted to wear, but…” She kisses him on the lips, knocking out a few more brain cells, then turns away from us as a few of the other girls have come over to talk to her.
“She draws a crowd,” I say to Kell.
“And the rest, is she okay? They’ve tried to embarrass her tonight. I won’t forget that. A fucking borrowed dress that’s really a shirt, and a pair of boots with holes in them, and she still out shines everyone.” He looks at me. “Help me, Xander. I don’t want to make a mess of it, and you know I will. I know you love her as much as me, but help me keep her, please.”
I look at this boy/man who I love, who is my closest friend, and the girl who I would love beyond everything if only my friend did not love her as much as me. But I nod. I would give him anything if he asked me, and I think he just did.
53
Xander
Current Day,London
I hear clapping and we both spin around to look behind us to see Bug coming through the door of the dining room, still clapping at Marcus. “About time, cousin,” he grins out. “Xander.”
He comes and hugs and kisses us both, the man is so emotional. “I was coming to quit. Aunt Rowena and her friends have made it impossible for me to run Eastwood. Unless you bail it out again, it's going under. And I don’t want you to do that, cousin. I’m sick of taking your money when I can see how to make it turn a profit. If I didn’t have the interference, that is. They want to carry on the same old show. No changes. Much more of that, they’ll take it under.” His deep sincere voice rings out across the room.
I hear Chrissy make a noise and I glare at her. “Something to say, Chrissy?” I snap. She shakes her head. “The gravy train may just be about to stop. Time for you to exit, I think. Both of you.” I look at Isobel and she screws her face up at me. Finally dropping the thinly veiled façade. She hates me. It’s written in venom all over her face.
“You disgust me,” she snarls at me before turning her sights on Marcus. Her face changes in a heartbeat. It’s like night and day. It’s weird to watch. “Don’t throw us away, Marcus. We could be great together.”
I see Marcus look at her in amazement and watch as Rowena looks up in hope. Mick is on his phone. Not sure who he’s calling at this point. Clearly Isobel looks a bit unhinged, but nothing new there.
Isobel stands and walks over to us. “I’ve always been there for you. I’ve loved you forever.” She gesticulates with her hands between Marcus and herself. “Evie does not love you, she’s left you. Let her go with Xander. She loves him, she always has. I saw them years ago in the churchyard. And then early in the mornings coming out of his bedroom. Down ladders, running home with him, hand in hand. She wanted him, not you.” She’s pleading with Marcus, her desire fully out in the open, on show, written all over her face.
I throw my head back and laugh at her. “Always seeing what you want to see, Issy. She was with Marcus, not me. I just never slept, so I would walk her home.”
“I never loved you, Isobel,” Marcus tells her. “Not like that. I’ve loved Xander all my life, and I fell in love with Evie that day in the river. You were there, you saw it happen. You trashed her all the time, and all she ever did was love us, both Xander and me. I will never love you like I love them.” His eyes are blazing, his voice commanding, but he’s still trying to placate her. To be kind due to their long held family ties.
“I don’t care. It isn’t right what you’re doing. People will never accept you. Your children will be?—”
“Stop right there,” Marcus commands, stepping away from her, his whole demeanour changing in an instant. “Stop, before you break everything, Isobel. I’ve told you I love Xander and Evie, no one else. Not like that. My children are loved. Maybe not by someone like you, but by people who matter to me. My true family, my band, and the Greystones. That’s enough for me.” He points to himself and the assembled entourage. “I don’t give a fuck about anyone else.
“Have you not been paying attention all these years? When was I ever bothered about anyone other than Xander growing up? Never! I do what the fuck I want when I want, and if you don’t like it, you and your mother can fuck off.”
He glares over at Chrissy and Bettina, who are shrinking by the second, before he turns his furious green gaze on his mother. “Oh, and if you don’t like it, Rowena—Mother, you can join them.”
I can feel the fury flowing through him. Mick is now off his phone and on the move to stop Marcus going overboard. Mick stands behind Chrissy and pulls her chair out, politely telling her to get up. He does the same to a stupefied Bettina. Jase has moved to stand next to Isobel.
“Time to choose, Mother.” He turns to her, anger pulsing out of him. “Which one brought all the people to you to prove Evie’sguilt?” I see her eyes flick to Isobel. Marcus doesn’t miss it either. “Isobel,” he says with disgust.
“Time’s up, Issy,” I say, moving in front of Marcus. “Stay away from us. He warned you off in Scotland, but it seems you just aren’t listening.”
