Page 91 of Revive
“Fuck!” she heard Ginny swear.
Alle’s attention flashed towards her, but the threat was closer to hand. Not one, but two of her brothers standing between her and her ride out of here. Spook stiffened beside her. She could feel the hammer of his heart through his body, and the clenching of his every muscle. She sought his hand and held it fast.
Christ, not now. Why now? He’d barely been out in the world for months. It wasn’t fair that his first venture off Liddell Island put him straight into the path of the last people he’d want to see.
“What the fuck do you want, Marshall? Did I not make it plain enough earlier that I want nothing to do with you? With either of you.”
Marshall closed the gap between them, but she noted Flynn hung back, his whole demeanour cagey.
“Maybe don’t do this now, Marsh,” he pleaded.
Spook’s grip had turned clammy.
“Yeah, Marsh,” Alle echoed, loathe to agree with Flynn given all that he had done, but totally on board with the notion. “Why don’t you listen to him and piss off.”
“The man’s a fraud, Alle. He’s a filthy pervert.” He spat at Spook’s feet.
Alle jerked Spook behind her, her heart bleeding for him. “Is that so? And on whose authority is that? Yours? You don’t know a fucking thing, Marshall Hutton. Not a goddamned thing, and if you’re about to spout more gobshite that bitch told you, save it. We all know Siv Gyllensköld’s a fucking liar.”
“Princess, Siv might have lied about the consent, but the events still took place.” Marshall never had been good at accepting he was wrong. “It all still happened. He broke her bones—”
“Her finger.”
“I didn’t break it. I dislocated it,” Spook muttered.
“He pissed on her—”
“She pissed on him. That’s not illegal.”
“Left welts that lasted for days.”
“Yes. Yes, I did,” Spook raised his head as he spoke this time. He moved so that he was no longer behind Alle, his head held high. “You’re right, I did. More than once. And you know what, she begged me to do it, and never ever fucking wanted me to stop. But I did, every time. And I took care of her. Not that what happened between her and me when I was barely more than a child has anything to do with you. You weren’t there. You think you know everything, but you know nothing. No one does, no one else lived it, and therefore no one gets to judge.”
“You’re dating my sister, cretin.”
“That’s right, Marsh, he is. And you know what, I’m a grown woman, so I can make that choice. You don’t get to have a say in the matter.”
“You don’t think I should have a say in who you date or that I should care that the man you’re with is into all manner of toxic shit?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Also, can we not pretend this has ever been about that? This has never been about you protecting me. It was only ever about you controlling the narrative, and milking a story to better your career. You sold me out, Marsh. You saw a scandal you could create, and you didn’t give a shit how that would affect me. The only thing that mattered was that you got your by-line. And now, now you’re sore because it all backfired and you proved yourself to be a complete hack.”
“That’s not—”
“At least Flynn genuinely believed he was protecting me,” she continued, cutting him off. “Sure, it was misguided, vicious, and dumb, but at least his concern was real.” She snapped her attention over to where Flynn continued to linger, swaying his weight uneasily from foot to foot. He was staying remarkably quiet. “No, you’re not forgiven,” she said to him. “You could have talked to me. You could have listened, instead of letting this idiot manipulate you into shattering a man’s skull.”
Spook flinched.
Flynn was burning through his freckles.
“And you,” she turned her attention back to Marshall. “You’re the one who incited it, so you can wipe the dumb smirk off your face before I decide to go to the police with that fact.”
“Alle.” Still holding her hand, Spook turned so that he was facing her, and rested his free hand against her upper arm. She wasn’t sure what he was trying to communicate, perhaps that these were waters he didn’t want to tread in, that the hurts were still too raw, and even standing here so exposed was too much. It made her rein in some of her temper, but not all of it. Much of this stuff, she’d been waiting to say for months. Some of it was old frustrations welling up. She was not brainwashed. She was no victim. She wasn’t thick. She was sick of being judged and found lacking because she liked having her arse reddened.
“I wasn’t there,” Marshall snapped, still sneering at her like she was a toddler throwing a tantrum, and who he’d soon wrestle under control and take home for a nap.
“You told me…” Flynn began, though his words dried up almost at once in response to Marshall’s vicious glare.
“Don’t be a snitch, Flynn. What about Huttons sticking together?”
