Page 80 of Thick as Thieves
I nod at his rapid fire questions. “I saw her, she was being carried by Tommy. She?—”
“Fucking carried?” His voice is rising by the word. “What the hell is wrong with her? Let’s go.” He starts to scour the room for his top.
“No, it wasn’t serious, she’d vomited from too much tequila. She said for me to stay with you. To look after you. That people would be disappointed if we left, as it’s your birthday treat.” I furrow my brow at that comment. Finally starting to process her words. Fuck, I don’t speak fluent Greystone.
“People? Who the hell are people? Like Gabe and Levi. Why would they be bothered? And she only had one drink. I watched her.”
My insides start to simmer with worry. A knock on the door breaks my spiralling thought process. “It’ll be Mick. I told him to text Tommy for an update.”
I stride over to the door, flicking the lock open, yanking the door nearly off its hinges.
“Still got your clothes on? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Gabe’s grinning face greets me. He pushes into the room, followed by Levi and all the girls. Xan’s still looking for his shirt, and I can see all the women blatantly checking his body out. Clara even whistles, she’s that obvious, moving towards him as if he’s using the power of hypnosis.
“What are you doing here?” I’m still holding the door open and bob my head out into the corridor to look for Mick. No sign of him. I stand with the door in my hands, gesturing for them to go back out through it. “Get lost. Fuck off, all of you. We’re busy.”
“Where’s Evie?” Gabe is walking around the room. Touching all the benches. Running his hands down the sheets. Texas is hot on his heels, but veers off towards the bathroom, clearly searching for Kitten.
“Gone. She’s ill.” I watch as Texas’s shoulders slump in disappointment. What the fuck is going on here? “Get lost, we’re leaving,” I repeat.
Levi has already started to kiss Tanya. Manoeuvring her around towards the large cross in the corner.
“Why? I’m happy to watch.” Gabe smirks at me then turns to watch Levi. “Looks like you're out of luck, Texas.” He makes a grab for the tall brunette who looks like she lost her life savings on a horse race. “You’ll have to settle for me. I know I might not match up to Evie, but I’ll give it a go for you.” He’s grinning like a madman.
But I see Xander standing stock still. His body all taut and stiff.
“Fuck off, Gabe, Levi. Those days are done. You know this. We've told you we’re exclusive with Evie. We’re fucking married. If you want all this, you need to get your own room. Or at least wait til we leave.” I’m fed up with people not listening to anything we say. Always working on their own agenda.
“Where was Evie ill?” Xander’s not registering anything that’s going on in the room. He’s wrestled into his shirt, shoving his feet into his boots, seeming to be focused on what Gabe had said.
“Toilets,” I respond, watching everyone watch Xander. They’re like a plague of locusts eyeing up a field of wheat. Waiting for the moment that he changes his mind and joins in. They must be unmitigatedly stupid if they think that is ever happening again. He’s all in with Evie and I. Nobody will come between us again.
“She wasn’t in there earlier,” Candy states, perplexed. “We were all there. The toilet was empty and the other one was out of order.”
My body locks into place. Shewasin that toilet. She was in the out of order one. What did she hear? ‘Shocks’ Roza said ‘Shocks’ not shots. She was right the first time. Fuck.
“Did any of you discuss Evie whilst you were in there?”
They all look guiltily at Texas. Xander has latched onto the conversation and the expression on my face.
“What the fuck have you said?” Xan growls.
Not one of them speaks. Gabe blows out a breath and looks up at the ceiling for divine help.
“They were discussing tonight, how they wanted to get with you all.” He points to us both. Xander has moved to stand next to me by the door. “They also talked about getting with Evie if you tied her up.” He points at Texas, throwing his hands in the air in helplessness.
All the girls look at Candy, who clearly has verbatim replayed that conversation to Gabe.
“Fucking Jesus Christ. What else?” Xander roars at them all. “You might as well come clean now. She’s fucking left.” His agitation is making him twitch. His fists balling together.
“We talked about our night in LA, with you tying us up and using a hairbrush.”
Xander pales at Tanya’s words. His disgust is evident at both her and himself.
“We need to leave. Now. Find Mick, Marcus. Now.”
Xander is pushing at me to move. I’m replaying the conversation. How she looked. We are in big trouble here.
We run into Mick who is coming the other way. “Have you got Tommy?” Xan asks, completely out of breath, the panic taking it all.
