I rolled my eyes. Dickhead. I didn’t likehimcalling me Gray. Flo was my little sister; she could call me whatever the fuck she wanted.
Florence knew it, too, smirking. “We talking about Rhett’s mystery girl?”
“You saw her too?” I grunted. “Where the fuck was I?”
“Knuckles deep in a groupie,” she retorted with a teasing grin. “We didn’t wanna interrupt. Man, I really thought Jace was gonna punch Rhett. It wasintense.”
I processed that. I guess that explained why Jace wanted to know if Rhett was alone this morning. He always was, though, so I didn’t know why Jace thought today would be any different. Rhett banged groupies in clubs, in bathrooms, in alleyways, in cars… He didn’t bring them back to the hotel. They wereneverin his bed. He had too many issues for a leap of trust like that.
“Jace has been in a mood for days,” I reminded her, shrugging. “You know how he gets when we play Siena.”
“True,” she agreed, yawning again. “It’s like he still thinks the mysterious Billie will just walk up to him while we’re in town and be all ‘Hey, Adams, remember me?’ Like that would ever fucking happen.”
Tom snickered, dropping his cigarette butt on the balcony and returning inside. “I’m starting to wonder if she’s even a real person. Maybe she’s just a metaphor or some shit.”
I gave him a narrow-eyed look, letting him know that I generally hated everything that came out his mouth. He gave me an uncomfortable frown back but dropped it.
Our conversation shifted to the concert last night. It was a good one, but not one of our best. Once again, it came back to Jace being on edge while we were in his home city. I had no doubt tonight’s show would be the same, then when we got to New York, he would be like a totally different man.
Jace emerged from his room again some minutes later, still dripping water from his wet hair. He was laser-focused on Rhett’s closed door, a deep scowl setting his features.
“Why isn’t Rhett out here?” he demanded, shifting his cold gaze my way. Jace fucking Adams didn’t scare me, and the fucking punk knew it. Iput up with him,and that was as good as it got.
My answering glare was hard and unintimidated. “Because he’s stillsleeping, Jace. And we will let him sleep as long as he needs. Won’t we?” The threat was clear under my words. Rhett didn’t sleep enough on the best of days, and we wereallworried about him.
Okay, maybe not Tucker. But he was a douche, and no one cared what he thought. Jace, Florence, and I had discussed Rhett’s insomnia all too many times to go waking him up now. Just because… what? Rhett got with a girl Jace wanted? Since when did we compete for groupies?
Jace seemed like he wanted to ignore my warning anyway, glaring hard at Rhett’s door. His fists clenched at his sides, and his jaw ticked. Eventually, he gritted his teeth and forced himself to cross over to a vacant seat instead.
“You worried he’s got that chick in there with him?” Tom asked, never smart enough to read a fucking room. “Rhett doesn’t bring them home, dude; he would have fucked her in the back of the car, then tossed her to the twins.”
For some reason, this provoked Jace faster than I’d ever seen before. Anger creased his face, and one second he was seated in the armchair across the room, the next he had Tom up against a wall with his hand around his throat.
“Whoa, Jace!” Florence protested, rising out of her seat. “Let him go! What the hell, dude?” She looked over at me, silently asking for me to intervene, but I just shrugged. What the fuck did I care if Tom fucking Tucker finally got his teeth broken? He’d been begging for it.
Jace held Tom there a moment longer, then released him with what seemed to be a whole lot of effort.
“What was that about?” Tom wheezed, rubbing his throat. “What’s this chick got going for her that you’re so bent out of shape about Rhett sticking his di—”
“She’s not some randomchick,” Jace spat, stalking away a few paces to try and calm himself down. Maybe.
None of us spoke, though. There had to be more to Jace’s admission, and I for one was happy to wait him out and hear what was so special about the girl Rhett had picked up.
“I need to wake Rhett up,” Jace said in a calmer voice, turning back to implore Florence and I with his eyes. “I need to ask him what happened after I left. What happened withher. Where he left her. I need to know.”
Florence shook her head, beating me to it. “Whatever this is about, it can wait. Rhett needs to sleep. Let him.”
Jace gave a hollow laugh, scrubbing his hands over his face. “It really can’t, Flo. Ineedto know what happened between them last night.” His expression was full of anguish. It was the deep kind of pain that only ever surfaced when he was drawing deeply on his old memories to write about…Billie.
“You’re fucking with us,” I muttered in disbelief.
Jace just winced, shaking his head. “God, I wish I was. That wasn’t a groupie Rhett picked up at the club last night. It washer. BilliefuckingBellerose.”
Well. Now I was interested.
I sat forward in my seat, even as Tom sidled up to Rhett’s bedroom door. His ear was against it, his face full of glee. I’d never met a guy that thrived on gossip as hard as Tom Tucker.
“Guys, Rhett’s awake,” Tom reported, smirking over at Jace, “and he’s not alone.”
