I shook my head. “No. I haven’t seen him for years. But tonight… I had this job…” My words got stuck in my throat as Liz’s empty eyes flashed across my mind. “It was bad,” I managed to choke out. “So much shit went down, murder and blood, and now his guys are after me. I need to get out of Siena. I need to run and not look back.”
Rhett was quiet, and I assumed he was weighing up if it was worth the hassle of dealing with me for a moment longer. I couldn’t blame him. Nice guy or not, there were limits to how much anyone would let a stranger fuck up their night. Especially when that stranger was the enemy of your friend.
Taking another step back, I released a low gasp when his hand shot out and wrapped around my wrist, effectively holding me in place. He leaned in, and I tried not to breathe in his unique, smoky scent. “I don’t know your story, Thorn, and it’s fucked up that I have to hurt my brother, but I made you a promise.” He leaned in even closer so I could hear him over the new song. “You need help tonight, and I can provide it. No strings attached.”
No strings attached.That sort of offer came along… never. Well, maybe tonight when I’d been given a job and place to stay by Liz… Look how the fuck that had turned out for both of us. Not that her death was my fault, for once. It seemed we were both just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Plus, I’d like to hear your side of things,” Rhett added when I didn’t say anything. He released his hold on my wrist. “Because I’ve only ever known you as the devil. The evil in Jace’s story. The girl who broke him. But having met you now, I wonder… Shit, I dunno. There’re always two sides, right? I want to hear yours.”
A cold sweat broke out across my entire body, a visceral reaction to the memories I’d tried so hard to bury. The grief I’d refused to feel. The pain that had almost killed me.
Before I could think about it, I backed away once more, my hands trembling as I lifted them as if to ward off a blow. “I can’t…” I choke out. “I can’t go back there. Whatever Jace told you… then that’s what happened, I guess.”
He examined me for a long moment. So long that another song had started and almost ended by the time he spoke. “I can feel your pain,” he finally said. “And I can’t just ignore it. You can tell me the story when you’re ready, but for tonight, let’s just get you safe, okay? We can order room service and pretend this awkward encounter with Jace never happened.”
Without a single glance back at the table that we both knew was filled with his band mates—even if I hadn’t looked that way once—he stepped closer and wrapped an arm around me, pulling me into his side. “Come on, Thorn. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
five
BILLIE
Every instinct screamed at me that this—leaving with Rhett, going back to his hotel—was aterribleidea. One of the worst. The second I realized who he was, I should have walked the fuck away and not looked back. But… that was Jace’s specialty. Driving those away who didn’t fall into his narrative. His cold fury when he saw meafter all these yearsjust made me dig my heels in.
So, in part, I accepted Rhett’s offer to send a giantfuck youto the gorgeous man who had made good on his promise to haunt me. Mostly, though, I accepted because I was exhausted. I was cold, hungry, scared, and now reeling from not one buttwoghosts stepping out of my past within the space of an evening.
When Rhett told meno strings attached, I believed him. He radiated that white knight energy that I would never have attributed to a rock star before. He saw how close I was to giving up and was determined to pull me off the ledge.
On our exit from the VIP area, two identical security men appeared out of nowhere. They silently flanked us as we left the club through a back entrance and climbed straight into a waiting car with blacked-out safety glass. Not once did Rhett let my hand go, and I was way past the point of trying to pull away from him. Deep down, under the shock and pain that were dominating my system, was a part of me thatlikedhow he held my hand so securely.
I sighed heavily, sinking back into the leather seat as the matching security guys climbed into the front and drove us away from the club. What a fucking night.
“Hey,” Rhett said softly, pulling my attention. “Do you like steak? The hotel does a pretty great filet mignon with red wine jus.”
That… was not what I thought he was going to ask. “Steak?”
“It really is good,” the security guy in the front passenger seat offered. “Unless you’re a vegetarian or whatever.”
My lips parted, but no words came out. What the fuck was going on? I was in the back of an expensive, blacked-out SUV, holding hands with a rock star and talking to a bodyguard about room service steak.
No one else spoke, though, so I wet my lips and gave Rhett a small nod. “Sounds delicious.”
“You gotta get the brownie sundae, too,” the driver rumbled in a low, gravelly voice.
Rhett must have seen my stunned confusion because he grinned when I glanced over. “It’s okay to relax, Thorn,” he whispered. “Jace isn’t here. I won’t press you for information you don’t want to share. I just want to helpyou. Nothing more. No ulterior motives.”
I swallowed hard. It had been a long,longtime since someone had wanted to help me without standing to gain. Not since…fuck. Not since Angelo on the morning of my sixteenth birthday.
I will take care of you, Bella.
“Thank you, Rhett.”
He chuckled softly, lifting my hand and brushing a kiss over my knuckles in such a casual gesture it was like we’d been dating for months, not hours. Wait, shit. We weren’tdating. He was just… ugh. I needed sleep.
“You’ve got to stop thanking me, Thorn.” He glanced out the window as the vehicle glided past the front entry of the Viper Hotel, one of the most expensive and exclusive hotels in Siena.
“Paps are still camped out,” the driver grunted, explaining to me for some reason. “We’re taking the service elevator from the loading dock.”
I supposed those were the kind of precautions people like Rhett—and Jace—needed to take just to avoid being inundated with media and fans. What a crazy life they must live.
