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Spook had curled into a foetal position by the time Xane returned with two glasses.“Are you okay?Need a drink?Whisky?”
Spook gave a non-committal grunt.After a few seconds, he settled his head upon Xane’s thigh, and wrapped an arm around the back of Xane’s waist.“How did you know?”he asked, making upside down eye contact.“I never specifically told you or anyone.”Having got that out, he nodded for Xane to pass him the whisky tumbler.
Xane did so, then settled his shoulders more comfortably against the padded headboard.He took his time responding, determined to give both an honest and clear-sighted answer.“I didn’t.Not for definite.I only suspected.A lot of things have added up over time.Back when you told me what happened with Siv, I knew there were some things you’d left out.I figured you’d get around to telling me when you were ready.”That had been a very long time ago.He hadn’t banked on Spook clamming up quite so tightly.
Xane rested his hand upon Spook’s head.He began to play with the bright, glossy strands, allowing them to waterfall through his splayed fingers.“It was her brothers, right?”
“Right.”Spook’s voice echoed with dull pain.His posture stiffened like someone had welded steel rods to his spine.
“They can’t hurt you now, Spook,” Xane soothed, continuing to play with the other man’s blond hair.Both men were dead and buried.He guessed their spectres lingered, still large, still terrifying in Spook’s mind no matter the actual reality.And their sister making an unanticipated and unwelcome appearance wouldn’t have helped.
“I suppose you know all the details.”
Not all.Not about the attack itself, but what came before and after.Yes, he was clued up on those aspects.
“Enough of them,” he confessed.He wasn’t proud of the fact he’d dug to discover them, but dossiers on private individuals had been a routine part of his life growing up.
“You ran a background check on me,” Spook huffed.The humour in his tone, dry and self-depreciating.Like he’d have done the same if he’d adopted himself as a friend.
Xane sighed, wearied by the reminder of his screwed-up family and their insane obsessions.Actually, he’d been content to discover who Spook was in the usual way that friends did, by talking, and getting drunk together, and through shared experiences.Thank God, they’d done those things too.“You’ve met my siblings,” he said by way of explanation.“Art didn’t give me a choice.‘Do the research’ or he’d do it for me.I figured after what you’d told me early on that whatever you’d left out, it probably wasn’t something I wanted him poring over.”
Chances were Art had done so anyway, but at least Xane had spared himself the mortification of having Art deliver judgement on the man he’d made his friend.These days, they hardly spoke and had blessedly little to do with one another.Still, Xane figured his brother—half-brother, if the skeletons in the family closet were to be believed—was probably still running checks on everyone who crossed his path in order to anticipate any threats to the family purse.He was a paranoid git like that, especially when it came to money and the family name.A name, incidentally, that Xane didn’t even share.Bletchley.Thank God he wasn’t a fucking Bletchley and he’d been given his mother’s name instead.At least the Liddells were fucked up in artistic ways.
Xane realised he’d been locked in his own head awhile, when he saw Spook regarding him with curiosity.He shrugged off the old resentments he felt towards his family, and focused on his friend again.“Do you want to tell me about it?”The reported version of events that he’d gleaned from various legal documents and translated newspaper articles had only outlined a rather dry and clinical depiction of events.
“No,” he said eventually.“There’s probably little to add to what you know, anyway.”
“It would seem counterproductive to raise their ghosts when you’ve just sent them packing.”
“If that’s what I’ve done…”
Spook propped himself up on one elbow.“It is.Not completely, obviously, but it feels like I left them a few stops ago instead of them being right behind me breathing down my neck.
“Thank you,” he added a moment later.“For being there, for getting it, and being willing to help despite the screw-up it’s going to cause.”
“You mean too much to me to leave you floundering about in the dark.”Xane pursed his lips as he compared the man before him now with the one he’d been not so very long ago.There were still shadows around Spook’s eyes, but he no longer looked so haunted.There wasn’t the same dread lingering in the depths, or wariness when his lips turned upwards into a smile.That was real progress, and beautiful to see.
It definitely made the inevitable backlash worth it, because that backlash was coming, and they both knew it.
They spoke of a few related things after that, general life stuff, details about tomorrow’s gig, and when they were going to go back into the studio.Eventually, the interludes between remarks became longer, until they fell into a companionable silence, broken only by successive yawns.
Eventually, Xane wriggled down the mattress so that he and Spook were lying face to face.Dark, puffy circles ringed Spook’s eyes, the corners of which were tinted almost as blue as his irises.Xane clasped Spook’s hands.They were covered in cuts, the sort that were going to niggle like hell when he had to play guitar tomorrow.“Talk to me about Alle,” he said.
Spook wet his lips.“She’s going to be damned hurt by this.As are Dani and Luthor.”
Xane nodded.He’d deserve their wrath.He hated that this would hurt them, but it wouldn’t make him shy from telling them.They’d, all three of them, promised one another they’d be completely honest.“No secrets,” he murmured.“I just hope they understand.”
“I know what Alle will say.‘You’ll fuck him, but you won’t fuck me!’And it’s all the worse because she’s right.”
“Maybe you could consider explaining why and how we reached this point?”
A lone, fat tear rolled over the bridge of Spook’s nose and dripped onto the sheet.Awkwardly, Spook rubbed at his skin as if he meant to hide his upset.“I actually meant to do that tonight.I was going to try and explain.Tell her about Siv.I wasn’t anticipating the bitch showing up.She’s spoken toBang!Xane, I know she has.She was in that bar with Ava.”
Xane scowled.Fucking Ava Leigh and her new lackey Marshall Hutton probably thought they’d hit the dirt digging jackpot when they’d found Siv Gyllensköld.“It was inevitable your history would come to light sooner or later, Spook.It’s a miracle it hasn’t done before now.”
“It could kill us, Xane.As a band…”
