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“So you tell me, Isobel.” The look she’s aiming at Isobel could melt iron, but her voice is blood curdling, menace dripping from every word.”Shall I forgive you?”
She turns to her brothers, especially Jude. “I begged you not to touch her. I told you she was abhorrent, but you didn’t want to listen. Well maybe you will now, maybe you won’t. Good thing is, I won’t have to watch it all.”
Jude collapses on the settee. Isobel looks like she’s about to pass out, crying and pawing at Jude. She grabs onto Evie’s legs as she sinks to the floor. I actually think Evie may kick her, but she reaches down and pulls her hands off her legs instead.
“Don’t touch me. You disgust me. You’re a coward. You should have said years ago what you did. Instead, you’ve been bad mouthing me around town since you showed up. Telling anyone who’ll listen how petty I am for not speaking to you. Well, maybe I’ll have a story of my own to tell now it’s all out in the open.” She pushes her off and Isobel falls to the floor crying.
“James, Bucky,” I can hear it in her voice, she’s on the edge of hysteria. “I’m going home. Come with me boys, we can sort everything there.”
I look round and see Anthony has got hold of Jackson, stopping him getting at Gabe. Jonno and Xander stopped arguing when Evie dropped the bomb about Isobel.
“Please, Evie, don’t leave us,” Jonno pleads with her. “I’m sorry, we’re all sorry. We didn’t see what was going on with you.”
A sad smile graces her face as she turns to him. “Why would you all look too closely? They,” she sweeps her arm around towards myself and my band brothers, “give you so many green lights to do what you want. No consequences. Why would you look at the person who might say no. No, Jonno, you didn’t look because you didn’t want to see. Why spoil a good party.”
She takes in a deep breath. “James, Bucky, boys please, I’m ready to leave. Are you coming or staying? No repercussions for you both either way.” She starts to move towards the door. James moves with her and takes her hand while Bucky follows, grabbing James’s other hand. They form a human chain as Tommy steps forward to herd her into the car. I see him nod at Jackson and they’re gone.
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
Evie
The boys sit in the back of the car with me on the drive down to the new house in Devon. They have nothing with them, just the clothes they stood up in.
“Is the new house far away from Marshall’s farm?” Bucky asks.
“No, baby, it’s just down the road. We bought Cornhill Manor Racing Yard last year, and we’ve done the house up.”
“Cornhill?” queries James. “The big house and yard? Are you going into racing? Is that why you don’t want to do the properties anymore? And who’s we?” He sounds just like Jonno at the last bit.
“Marshall and I bought it over a year ago. The owner needed cash, so we bought it and rented it back to him for peppercorn rent. He was getting on, so we knew it wouldn’t be that many years before he called it a day. His daughter wasn’t interested in taking over the licence. Then he got ill, so we’ve covered all costs for the past ten months.”
“You paid for everything up until he died?” James’s cogs are whirring.
“Yes. By the time he’d paid all his debts, there wasn’t much left for family, so we covered costs. The yard ran itself down, owners taking horses etc, so we covered what was left and sorted the staff out. We’ve done it up and are doing a stud farm, amongst other things.” I smile tentatively at them.
“So you’ve been planning this for ages? Over twelve months?” I can see James is getting annoyed.
“No, just the business side of it. We’ve only had full possession for the last two months, so I had lots of building work to sort and decorate. I never expected to live there. I only decided to move out four weeks ago, after France. I didn't want to tell you. I knew it was going to be hard, whatever the outcome.”
“Fuck, Dad’s fault again!” James shakes his head.
“No, James. Everyone’s fault. No one got out of that debacle without some blame, me included.”
“Will you tell us what he did?” James asks.
“He broke his word to me. He forgot who he was with—lost his mind I think—made me promises he then broke, before the sun even came up.”
“Did Xander or Gabe hurt you?” Bucky this time.
“No, Xander kissed me, twice, but that’s all. I suppose a bit like I did to him in that nightclub.” I smirk, more at myself than them or the memory. I am definitely not blameless. “But for both him and Gabe, it was more about the intent behind it, rather than the thing itself.”
“Dad did nothing to stop them?” James persists.
“No, he didn’t.”
I see the dawning realisation on their faces. James knows his Dad well enough, as does Bucky. LA was the eye opener, and I would say things have gotten a lot worse since then. They see how he lives, they know the amount of women that pass through and what they’re doing there.
