The Letters (Carnage #4)(35)

“Yeah, bored. Bored. Bored,” Ash adds.

“Gee, thanks ladies.”

“Anytime. Now, go to f*cking sleep before I put this pillow over your head.”

“And I help her hold it down,” Jimmie offers.

I go to sleep.





EPILOGUE


I put the potato salad I just made into the fridge. I’ve followed Marian’s recipe to the letter and can only hope and pray I haven’t f*cked it up. There was very little cooking involved, except for parboiling some potatoes and frying the bacon, so I have every hope.

I know he’s there before I even straighten up. The hairs on the back of my neck stand on end as his big arms slide around my waist.

He trails kisses over my neck before whispering in my ear, “I’m gonna slap that skinny little arse of yours till it’s raw next time you ignore my texts and calls. Whose dick indeed.” He bites and then sucks my neck. “I’ve missed you so f*cking much, Mrs King.”

I turn myself around in his arms and wrap mine around his neck. “You have no idea, baby. No f*cking idea.”

He claims my mouth, and it takes me less than a second to surrender.

I waited for Dido to start playing “White Flag”. But instead, it is Shine Down’s “Second Chance” that comes over the hidden speakers.

“Get a room you two. Where are the beers, big man?”

I look around Cam’s broad chest to see my brother trying to get around us to the fridge.

“Big brother Marley, me and you need to talk.”

He stops in his tracks. “We do? About what?”

I’m not gonna hold back, I don’t care that Cam is here to witness this. I don’t want there to be any secrets between us, and I want the truth from my brother. What’s done is done, nothing can be changed now, and I’d just like to know the truth. He either slept with her while we were together, or he didn’t. Whatever the answer, I’ll live with it. It’ll hurt and I’ll be pissed off. I am, in fact, pissed off but I’m not as angry as I should be. I don’t know if that’s because of my age or because I’ve got my head around the idea that neither of us were perfect. If Marley doesn’t know the truth, well then I’ll just have to live with that, too.

“Carla.”

Not missing a beat or breaking eye contact with me, Marley nods his head slightly.

Cam steps to my side with one arm still around my waist, holding me against his side.

“Honest to god, George, there’s really not much to tell. They were together on and off when you two were apart. They were never exclusive, and I don’t think she was anything more than a warm and willing body. Apparently, she got pregnant, but because he got back together with you, she terminated the pregnancy without even letting him know. She announced it in a room full of people years later, and he distanced himself from her completely after that.” I watch his throat move as he swallows hard.

“When you lost the baby on New Year’s and things were a little rough between the two of you, she started sniffing around. He wanted no part of it, George. Despite the fact that you kept pushing him away, despite the fact that he was grieving for the loss of his baby just like you were, he kept her at arm’s length. She turned up at your house in Hampstead and made a pass at him. I walked in.”

Whoa. He knew? Marley knew and never said anything to me. The disappointment I felt at that moment almost floored me.

“Don’t look at me like that, George. I walked in on him pushing her away. Things weren’t good between the two of you as it was, and I wasn’t about to make them worse. He told her to leave. He went to Mum’s the next day and you two sorted your shit out, and that was it.”

I nod my head, hating the fact that I actually understand why he didn’t say anything to me. I watch as a look passes between Cam and Marley, and instantly, my suspicions are raised again. Did Cam know about Carla too? Had he also kept quiet all these years?

“What? What was that?” I ask.

“What was what?” they ask in unison. Making me even more suspicious.

“That look you just gave him? Don’t even think about lying to me, Marley Layton.”

He looks from me to Cam, who shrugs his big shoulders from beside me.

I watch my brother rake his fingers through his brown hair, which has the first signs of grey appearing just above his ears.

“I went to see Cam.”

“What?” I ask, thinking that I’ve asked this question a lot lately.

“The night I walked in on Maca and Carla, me and him had a long chat. He was worried that he was losing you. He had it in his head that there was something going on between you and Cam. He’d seen photos of the two of you together at Cam’s club from that night you had a run in with Haley White. He felt that the way Cam looked at you in those pictures meant there might be something going on. Anyway, I told him to man up and sort his shit out, the next day, he went over to mums and the pair of you flew off somewhere on holiday, remember?”

I nod my head. “The Dominican. We stayed for two weeks.”

“Whatever. Anyway, in my infinite wisdom, I thought it would be a good idea to give Cam a visit and warn him to stay the f*ck away from you.”

My mouth quite literally hangs open as I step back from Cam and look up at him. He holds his hands up as if he’s surrendering. “Don’t go blaming me for this. I told you in Australia that your mum and brothers had all threatened me with bodily harm.”