Page 77 of Thick as Thieves
I slump further onto the back wall of the toilet, in a nightclub, in Mexico City. My life is in tatters. What I thought I knew, I didn’t. What I thought of as control, how I’d managed to control and calm the storms raging around us all, I hadn’t. I know nothing. I’m the enthralled audience at an illusion show, gasping at the tricks being performed. Sleight of hand, deception, trickery. I’ve drunk it all down like a wide-eyed innocent.
32
Evie
He’s here.I hear him speak in Spanish to Roza. He’s a dark horse—he’s not done that for the three months we’ve been here. I smile. I should’ve known. He wouldn’t let me stay somewhere he didn’t know what was going on. He does our knock, a code we worked out years ago so I would know it was him.
I open the door and Tommy stands there, shaking his head at me.
His eyes take me in, and he goes abnormally still. “What’s up, are we leaving? What’s happened, Kiddo?”
I wipe at my eyes. I haven't got time for tears, even though they’re tears of frustration. I throw my hands in the air in helplessness and he pulls me into a hug.
“Give yourself a minute. You’ve had a lot to process these last few months. The kids, them two, the press, living here, the hounding we’re getting every day.” He pulls me into his chest tighter. “I see you, pulling on your armour every morning, having to listen to the vile things that are said.” He pushes me back gently to look at my face. “We can leave, go home to Devon and Marshall. They’ll come. They won’t manage without you. You are it, Evie. You are the thing that binds everyone. Do not underestimate that.” He’s imploring me to be rational.
“I feel like I’m always running away, Tom. But then I go back, just like with my brothers.” I hear the disgust in my own voice.
“But you didn’t go back. It’s not the same as it was, it never will be.” He shakes his head at me. “But you have to say what you want. You don’t ask for it, Kiddo. You let them push you around in a nice way, they’re such forceful personalities. You don’t do anything, but then you blow up. Go big or go home was invented for you, Evie. Then everyone panics.”
“I’ve told them I don’t want communal sex. I’ve told them loads of times. I’m not sure how much clearer I can be on that.” My voice is low. This is sooo embarrassing.
“Is that what’s causing this?” He’s incredulous, raising his eyebrows at them more than me.
I nod, blowing out a breath of exasperation and hurt. Not wanting to start yet on the other villainy. “Partly. I heard Texas and Co talking about what Xan’s got planned. I’m to be tied up and then they’re forming an orderly queue, with Texas at the front apparently, to do with me as directed by Xander for his birthday wish.” I shake my head, my heart starting to harden along with my resolve. “Hell will freeze over before I do that.” I’m also starting to simmer when I think about it. “Do you think he wants that?” I’m trying to parse out the reality of the situation, because after everything, I can’t believe he wants that. He’s never said he did. My eyebrows are near my hairline now.
“I think you need to talk to him, to them,” he says seriously, his face a mask.
“Well, to top this night off, and I don’t think for one minute we’re finished yet, I’ve just had a very enlightening call with my brother.”
I deliberately don’t name which one. I wonder if he knows all about what I’m going to say. He looks wary now.
“My husband and my-whatever he is,” I say dismissively. Tommy looks shocked by my tone of voice. “They had my twin's paternity tested more or less at birth, against my very expressly voiced wishes. Did you know that Tommy?”I feel violated, ill, as I say those words.
He looks down. That’s a ‘yes’ then.
I don’t wait for his lies, or explanations. “And then I find out he kissed Isobel at his birthday party and she had his cock in her hands and he never said a word. Did you knowthat,Tommy?”
He looks up at that. ‘No’ then.
I stand and stare at him. “He and Xander cooked that test up to ‘protect me and the twins.’ What a load of crap.” I can’t even think straight anymore. How dare they.
I stare at him again. I don’t think he knows what to do. “And to top it off”—my voice is in the rafters now—“apparently I don’t need to worry about a paternity test for any other kids. Because my incredibly considerate husband went and got the snip. Again without telling me, or asking if I wanted any more children. Nothing, not a goddamn word.” I laugh out, bordering on hysterical. “Maybe they decided it was Xander’s turn for a baby. I’m such a good baby momma, my womb is for hire. Maybe I’ll offer my womb out to Gabe and Levi. Why not? A new band for Velvet smoke. Velvet Smoke 2.0.” And now I know I sound hysterical, because I am.
“So, Tommy, no more running for me. I’m going to that club, and if this plays out like I expect it to, we’ll be home by morning. In fact I would get a plane sorted if I were you, because they’re nothing if not predictable. It’s ridiculous.”
My anger has hit Himalayan heights. I may have been tapping out before, but now I’m Bruce Lee, preparing to face an army of villains. Kung Fu me up baby.
He stands looking at me, trying to calm me with his voice. “You need to speak to them, Evie. Why not call Marshall. I don’t think you should go out there and into the plans they have. You’re not thinking straight.” He’s trying any tactic to delay me, calm me down.
“I am. Oh boy, I am. Straight as a dye. But I’m the only one who is, and that’s the shame of it all. Let’s see if I get asked to partake in something at the sex club next door. Let’s see where we’re really at.” I see Tommy visibly gulp. “Let’s see if everything I’ve put up with is really enough for them. The abuse, the slating. Let’s see, shall we?”
I’ve gone from white hot rage to cold as ice. Like the images of a slo-mo camera catching the freezing process. I can feel it cementing my blood in my veins. Freezing out everything else.
“I don’t think you should go, Kiddo.” He’s still counselling caution. Probably remembering the last time I fled from a gaggle of vindictive women, and a bunch of liars. “Let’s get a cab home to Valentina. We can sort all this out rationally tomorrow.” He’s pleading with me now, hanging onto my elbows for grim death.
I look at him and offer what I know must be a chilling smile. “Not my style. It may have appeared that it is, for a little while at least, but no, I need to know. They’ve made me promises, let’s see if they keep them. Or at least one, because I’m sure the promises Marcus Russell made, he’ll manage to blow them all up.”
Tommy baulks at the names I’m calling them. I grin at him, feeling a bit unhinged. “Are you with me? I’m happy to go it alone. I don’t expect you to fall in line if you disagree with me.” I deliver my ultimatum.
