Page 63 of The Devil's Detail
“Yeah, and look what happened to us. Evie ditched us. Don’t do it, Jackson. Honestly. Sort it out. I’ll bet Carter wants to. I’ll bet he was going to tell you when they all left.” Xander is always the calm, rational one. He needs to be in this marriage.
“Well, it got ahead of him. And he should have told me. It happened in March. We are in fucking October. Nearly November. He’s had time. He’s had an opportunity. But he waited until I was in love with him and then blew me away. I don't think I can get over the deceit. It’s a joke.”
“You love him, brother?” Evie asks quietly, her hand in mine, squeezing it gently.
“Out of all that lot, that’s what you heard?” I ask her incredulously.
She nods. “That's all anyone wants to hear.”
Her phone starts to ring, and I see Carter’s name on the header. She declines the call.
“Are we talking to him?”
My heart swells as her phone starts up again. They’ve got my back. Always.
It’s Kasey this time. Again, she declines the call. But her phone keeps ringing on and on. Carter incessantly ringing.
Then Kell’s, then Xan’s. Everyone’s except mine. Obviously seeing how the land lies.
Well he can fuck off.
“I don’t want to talk to him, not today. I’m not sure what to do. In terms of security, I suppose I ought to keep Ash on him. It’s only fair until he can sort out another firm. I’ll think about which security firm to send him to.”
I can see Xander texting. Next thing, my phone rings. Jonno.
“No fucking privacy in this family,” I state and Evie smiles widely. She’s normally on the end of Jonno’s stalking habits. “Jonno, I’ll ring you back. I?—”
“No, put me on speaker. I need to know what’s going on. Oh, Jude’s calling. And James and Bucky. I’ll add them in.”
My head is spinning. I can’t go through it again.
“What the fuck is going on? Did you all know Carter Maywood is Jameson Bonney? Are you having a party?” Jude asks.
Kell starts to laugh.
“I can’t go through it again. You tell them, Evie.”
She baulks, likely at the thought of the details.
“I’ll do it. Is that okay?” Kell asks. I nod. He loves an audience.
“Carter was Jackson's rider at the runners and riders night back in March. You know the one, Jonno. The very same night you got your wife pregnant.” He’s grinning like the devil has got cookies and cream. “But Jax didn’t know, as Carter trussed him up like a Christmas turkey and blindfolded him for the whole night.” Kell is enjoying himself.
“Lucky bastard,” gets in Xan, and smiles at Evie. Kell snaps his fingers at Xan’s face. Trying to get him to focus.
“Spoke in an English accent, so Jax was unaware it was him. Then dumped him. Then set about a seduction as Carter, whilst knowing all the time, he’d already tasted the goodies.” He pauses for breath. “As Carter, he asked Jackson to date him. Told him no secrets and that he was falling for him. Jackson is just about to capitulate, and jump his bones, when Jackson walks into a room with the rider Bonney’s voice on stereo. And what Jackson thinks is another willing victim signing up as his next mount.”
Kell pulls Xan off the chair and pushes him down onto all fours, straddling him as if he’s riding him. Everyone is grinning, even me.
“Then he finds out rider Bonney was actually Carter, and Jackson here thinks Carter is setting up a younger model, in case Jackson has lost his touch since March.”
Xander and Jonno are pissing themselves at what they think is my idiocy. It’s not helped at this end, because every time Kell says rider, he does the impression of riding a horse. With clearly a whip in his hand, he pretends to be whipping Xander’s arse. To make him go faster.
“Did you try to kill the younger model, Uncle?” James asks. I can hear the laugh in his voice. “I’ll bet that was a sight. Who stopped you? Ash?”
“You know me well, nephew. I would have strangled him. If Ash had not been trying to talk me down after he tried to kill Freddie,” I laugh out.
“We didn’t put it all together until the film announcement. That Carter is actually both Rider Mr Bonney and actual Agent Jameson Bonney. And that the entourage were talking about NDAs for the film, not Carter's sexploits.” Kell finishes with a flourish and actually smacks Xander on the arse. “Giddy up, Xan.”
