Page 22

I stood watching as the identical Cades hit the floor, one on top of the other, fists flying. Men in leather came at us from all sides. Someone grabbed my arm, pulling me away, my feet stumbling over something in the dark, powerful arms, catching me before I fell, leading me away from the mayhem that was now wrestling on the floor.

“Howay lass. Stay here. We’ll sort them out,” the low rumble of words from a man with greying hair, and a darker, neatly trimmed goatee. “You’ll be safe here,” he added when I looked at him, not knowing what to do next.

“Hey,” someone else nudged my arm gently. “Come sit with us. This’ll be over in a few…oh. Now. It’ll be over right about. Yep. Yep, it’s over.”

I watched the grey-haired man approach the men on the floor, angry Cade’s arms flailing around like a wild animal. The grey-haired man stepped in behind the men, trying to restrain Cade, letting the others step out to the side, then sinking down, wrapping his arms around the angry one’s neck. Cade’s hands clawed at the bright tattoos that covered every inch of the older man’s arms, but eventually I watched as his fingers went limp, his arms dropping to his sides and he was dragged off other Cade like a rag doll.

Whatever the grey-haired man had done to him was momentary, because in an instant he was awake again, his eyes springing open, gasping a big lungful of air.

“Don’t worry, honey,” the short woman beside me shouted over the music, guiding me into the round booth gently. “The boys will be ok. They’re just having words.”

“Words?” I shook my head, my eyes still fixed on the carnage that was slowly subsiding in the middle of the floor.

The Cades were surrounded by men in leather, the older one beckoning with his head for them to follow. Follow they did, flanked by some of the scariest looking men I had ever set my eyes on.

“Can I get you a drink?” The blonde lady asked, looking at me with concern.

“Yes. Yes, please. Anything. No, something strong.”

“I’ll sort you out. Sit.” She pointed to another blonde woman watching me from the back of the booth. “This is Heidi. She’s pretty new round here, too.”

The older woman smiled, an attempt to be friendly, unconvincing all the same.

She shuffled closer. “You get used to it.”

“What?”

“This madness. Someone always punches someone else. They’ll be friends again in a minute. You just watch.”

But I didn’t know what I was watching. Or what I was still doing here.

“So, which one of the twins are you with? I can never tell them apart.”

I just stared at the woman, my mouth hanging open, my brain somersaulting, unable to put my thoughts in any sort of order, never mind into words. A drink slid across the table in front of me, and I turned in the direction it had come from, my mouth still gaping.

“You ok?” the smaller blonde asked.

“I…I…There’s two of them….”

The woman smiled sympathetically. “Identical twins. Cade and Caleb. Or Chaos and Carnage, as we like to call them.”

“I didn’t know. He said he had a brother. An older brother.”

“Which ‘he’, sweetheart?” the little blonde asked.

She was older than me, older than the woman sat on my other side.

“I…err… Cade.”

“And Cade didn’t tell you he was a twin, huh?”

I shook my head, heat prickling at the back of my eyes.

“I need to go. I need to call a taxi.”

“I’ll get my hubby to ring one. Just wait here a moment.”

She stood up, just over five feet of her. But then, she wobbled, pushing her palm into the table and squeezing her eyes shut.

“You ok?” I asked, realising that out of the two of us still sitting, I was the only one that had noticed.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“That’s Suzy.” A voice beside me joined the melee of rock songs and the rumble of voices. “She’s a good little egg. Well, more like mother hen to half these boys, and is as much part of the club as her man, Magnet. There’s a lot to take in…” Heidi paused, the gap in conversation allowing me the opportunity to introduce myself.

“I’m Alice.” I took a big mouthful of the drink in front of me, instantly regretting it as the paint stripper tasting substance burnt my throat. My God, that was foul. But instantly it warmed my stomach, distracting me from the hundreds of tiny piecemeal thoughts rotating round my head.

Little Suzy returned quickly, bikers moving to the side to let her through. But behind her, he followed. Cade? No. I wasn’t sure. One of them. I just didn’t know which one. And now I was confused and flustered again, unable to hold onto a single forming thought.

“Taxi is on its way for you, Alice,” Suzy smiled, just not convincingly enough.

“Thank you. I’ll wait outside for it.”

“No. Wait.” His fingers clasped round my wrist, an attempt to stop me.

“Get. Off. Me.”

His eyes searched mine, saying nothing. And my eyes searched his, trying to see if I could figure out which one of them it was. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t tell them apart. Shit. And now I realised the thoughts I had been chasing all round my aching head were all made up of this one thing. I didn’t know which one I’d had sex with. And I had an awful feeling I’d been with both of them. Bile rose to my throat, and I wrenched my arm free of him, fleeing to the door.

The music faded away, the doors of the pub closing behind me. Outside it was cold. So cold. My breath streamed out in front of me in a big white plume. But out here I could breathe. And think. The incessant throbbing of the beat of the music no longer disturbed my thoughts.

“Alice.” His voice. Behind me.

I closed my eyes. Trying not to hear him. Whoever he was.

“Alice. Please. Just let me explain.”

“Explain what?” I didn’t turn around.

“I didn’t know he knew about you.”

“I don’t know who you are.”

“It’s me, Cade.”

“You could be the other one. How would I know?”

“Caleb,” he said, his voice quieting behind me. “Caleb is the other one.”

“I can’t tell who you are. You could tell me you’re anyone.”

“You know me, Al.”

I breathed. A big, long exhalation. Cade. I turned to face him. He tried to smile. A movement at the corner of his lips, but his eyes were filled with something. Sadness. Maybe? Or regret that this little shit show they’d pulled had been found out.

“Please, Al. Just let me explain. At least what I know.”

“You’ve got till the taxi gets here.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

“I’m a twin,” he began.

“I can see that. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was going to.”

“Why hide it? Why not say when we were talking in bed ‘I have a twin brother’? Or was that not really you?”

“No, Al. That was really me.”

“And what about last night? Who was that?”

Cade’s eyes grew dark, a twitch of the muscles in his neck. But the darkness faded, the sadness back in its place.

“That wasn’t me. That was Caleb.”

Those words hit me hard in the stomach. Like someone had punched me right in the solar plexus, disabling me. If I could have bent double and vomited on my feet, I would have. And yet, when I’d seen them both tonight, when I realised there were two of them, I’d known then the brother I was with at that very moment wasn’t Cade.

“Don’t come near me, Cade.” I warned.

From my right, a tiny prick of light bobbed.

“Alice. Babe. Please. I’ll keep him away. I’ll make sure he never comes near you again. I promise. All of this,” he waved his hand over his head. “None of this was supposed to happen.”

“No. You’re right.” Anger filled my chest now, heavy and suffocating. “This shouldn’t have happened. You are my client. This was inappropriate. None of this should have happened. It won’t happen again.”

The tiny prick of light grew. And grew and now the headlights lit up the road. Please be the taxi. Please. I turned away from him.

“Al,” he pleaded, gently catching my arm.

“Goodbye, Cade.”

“Please, Al.”

“Kinobi can go home on Monday. Get someone else to pick her up, please. I never want to see you again.”

The taxi slowed, pulling to a stop in front of the pub. I yanked the door open. Not looking back. But I could feel those green eyes on me, burning into my back. And still, I didn’t turn. I didn’t want to see his perfect face, or his perfect lips and the thick blond hair that always flopped over his, their, foreheads. I couldn’t.

The taxi pulled into the carpark, completed a U-turn, and I watched the black shadows of the trees and the bushes that lined the river as we drove away.