Page 5 of Thick as Thieves
I shrug and grin. “Not sure, and I don’t want to get in the way. Push him into any decisions.” I sip at my whisky, savouring the familiar heat of our family's brand. “To be honest, they’ve hardly had any real time together, what with Marcus’s fuck ups. So maybe it’ll be good for me to be away from them, let them have some time alone.”
“Do you think she’ll let you go?”
I look up at him sharply. “It’s not up to her, though, is it? It’s me, my decision.” But then I add with a smirk, “She’ll let me go if I ask her.”
He shakes his head at me. “Xander, my beautiful boy, sometimes in life we have to make decisions. You need to be brave, son, and make one.” He gets up, plonking his empty glass down with a thunk before leaving the room.
Fuck, I know I do. I can’t hang around them all the time like a spare part. They don’t make me feel like one, never have, even when we were young. But at the end of the day, I am one. I need a life of my own. I can still share theirs, but I definitely need one of my own. Whatever fits my wants and desires.
I leave two days later. “I’ll FaceTime you and the boys,” I tell Evie, who is crying at my telling her.
“Why, Xan? Why are you going? Is it me? Are you fed up with the tears?”
“No, Kitten, I’ve got business to sort, as well as lots of women to attend to.” I laugh. “Now you’ve taken Marcus Russell totally and utterly off the market, someone has to bear the burden. Keep our band image up.” She doesn’t laugh along with me.
“I knew you’d go, I just didn’t think it would be so soon. Are you coming back for Christmas?”
“Yes, I’ll be there.”
I kiss her, closing my eyes as I do. Leaving my lips on her skin longer than I should.
She gasps out a little, and looks into my eyes. I know I’m hiding nothing. Everything I feel for her is there.
But then I shutter my gaze. I can’t give in now.
“Xander, I'm sorry,” she whispers.
I shake my head. “Don’t be. We should be happy, we have these two,” I say quietly, moving to stand next to the crib they’re both in. “They’ll be too big to put together soon. I wonder which one will shout the loudest?” When I look over at her, her face is blank. And I can’t tell if it’s on purpose or not.
Marcus is not so nice.
“You’re leaving us? I cannot fucking believe it. I knew it. I can’t go to London and sneak off now, and my fucking mother will want us to go to Yorkshire. We can’t go there without you. Evie will kill her if you’re not there to rein her in.”
He is not rational at times. And I’m annoyed with him. It’s his fucking family.
“Well, get Rowena to see you in London. You can go to the London house, stay for tea and leave. You better stop your mother, though, if she starts with the polite insults. You’ll end up with so much pain if you don’t stop her early. Evie won’t go and see her and you’ll be nagged to death about the twins and James.”
“Fuck me. Women.” He rolls his eyes. “Evie’s got the nanny waiting in Devon for us. But you’re right. As soon as the kids can fly, which is very soon, we’ll go to London then Devon,” he states confidently.
I leave for London, letting Jonno know I’m coming, and telling him I need to go out. I remember the first time he took me to his club. We’d just met back up with Evie, and Marcus was acting crazy, obsessed with meeting up with her after so many years of searching. Acting like the lovesick teenager she’d left behind at eighteen. He was welcome to try and make up for the full eighteen years in a night. I’d had no plans to wait around for him without company of my own.
3
Xander
Eleven months ago,London in December.
Jase pulls upat the Elizabeth Hotel, where Marcus stays when he’s in London. Like me, he doesn’t stay at his family home. Marcus is avoiding his family, I’m avoiding the coldest place on earth. Full of ghosts and no happy memories for me. Marcus likes the relative anonymity of a hotel. I prefer to not stay where Marcus does when in London, so I stay in a friend’s house in Chelsea.
I walk into the hotel practically side by side with Jonno Greystone, getting through the doors just to see Marcus dragging Evie across the floor of the foyer, pressing the lift button, and kissing her like he might die if he doesn’t get inside her.
I look at Jonno. “Looks like their meeting went well.” I shake my head.
“What the fuck? I punched him this morning for having a go at her, he’s a complete dick,” Jonno says, the scowl changing his angelic face to the assassin I know he can be.
“Yeah I gave him some shit over that. He just can’t control himself where she’s concerned. Never has been able to.”
I wave at Mick, a sarcastic flick of my fingers. “Have you been told to shoot to kill, Mick?” I ask him and point to me and Jonno. Mick grins, and he and Tommy—Evie’s security—abandon their perch by the bar to come over.
