“Like it fucking mattersnow,” Tom muttered under his breath as he and Flo walked ahead.
“Rhett, put me down,” I protested when he started walking with me still wrapped around him like a fucking squid. “Come on, this is insane; they’re going to think—”
“That I’m seeing someone? Good. I am.” He strode forward, uncaring that the screaming girls were calling his name in desperation. Panic made me just cuddle tighter and hide my face under Tom’s hoody. There was no time to do anything else.
Rhett didn’t put me down again until we were in the greenroom with the door firmly shut behind us. Then Jace lost hisshitbefore my feet even touched the ground. Fantastic.
“What thefuck, Rhett? It’s not enough that you’re banging my ex on our goddamn bus, now you’re goingpublicabout it. What happened to Billie hiding, huh? Or was that all just bullshit cooked up to manipulate us? Maybe her pussy lost its magical appeal and she needed to resort to cheap tricks just to—”
The rest of his rant was cut short when Rhett punched him square in the face.
I sucked in a sharp gasp, and the whole room went silent. No one spoke, no one moved. Then Grayson started laughing.
Jace’s eyes damn near popped out of his head as he pressed a hand to his face and swiveled to stare at his drummer. Apparently I wasn’t the only one shocked to hear Grayson laughing. Or maybe not outrightlaughing,but he was definitely chuckling.
“Calm down, Adams,” he muttered with a smirk, grabbing a beer from an ice bucket and holding it out in a peace offering. “You’ve been asking to get punched for days.”
Jace glowered but reached out to take the beer. Grayson held onto it a moment longer though, leaning in close to say something in Jace’s ear, too quiet for anyone else to hear. Whatever it was made Jace snap his venomous glare my way, then stalk out of the greenroom without another word.
“What… the fuck?” Flo asked as the door slammed behind him. “Rhett, you can’t just—”
“Smack some sense into him? Yeah, Flo, I can. And I’ll do it again, too. The way he’s been talking about Billie is unacceptable. About any woman. Period. And if it takes physical violence to make him see sense, then so be it.” Rhett was totally unapologetic for his actions, but the gentle way he looped his arm around my waist seemed to be seeking forgiveness.
Tom sneered. “Oh, it’s unacceptable because suddenly your dick is invested?”
Rhett stiffened. “It’s unacceptable because Jace isn’t that guy. He doesn’t call womenwhoresor accuse them of manipulation or imply that they orchestrated an assault situation. He’s not acting like himself, and he needs to be smacked out of it before that petty hatred seeps into his soul and leaves an indelible stain.”
Goddamn musicians were all poetic fucks.
“Agreed,” Grayson grunted. Grabbing himself a beer, he collapsed into the couch and gave me a curious look under his long lashes. I had his book in hand, having managed not to drop it when Rhett picked me up, and his headphones were looped around my neck. He didn’t say anything about it, but I could sense he wanted to ask whether I liked the book.
And I did. A lot. Not just because it was gripping—it was—but because he hadlistenedwhen I said I didn’t want to attend their concert. He cared. And now I wanted to understandwhy. But then that thought made me nauseous with guilt because I was quietly attracted to Grayson while Rhett, my dark knight, had just punched his best friend to defend my honor.
Shit. Maybe Jace was right about me after all.
“He had a point though,” Tom whined. “Yesterday little miss Billie was so paranoid about her anonymity that she was prepared to be our maid, and now she’s happy to be outed as Rhett’s girlfriend?”
Wait, what? Rhett’sgirlfriend?
“That’s not—” I started to say, shaking my head. “I’m not—” Shit.Shit. “We’re just—”
“No one isoutingBillie as anything,” Rhett drawled, shrugging the whole thing off and smoothing past my obvious panic. “Her face was covered; no one saw her. She’s just an unidentified woman that the gossip mill can go nuts over, butno onewill guess who she really is unless one of us confirms it. Right?”
Florence winced, holding up her phone. “Sorry, Billie. Too late for anonymous…”
Detaching myself from Rhett, I raced over and grabbed the phone from Flo’s hand. Sure enough, Flo had just been tagged in the background of a fan’s Instagram image—an image of me and Rhett kissing like we were madly in love. While it might not show mywholeface, it was enough that I could recognize myself. Enough that Angelo would too.
“Maybe Angelo isn’t a Bellerose fan?” Flo offered in a weak attempt at levity.
I gave a bitter, choked laugh as I gripped her phone like I could somehow erase the image with the power of thought. “Oh, trust me, he’s not. But… how long until this crosses his radar anyway?”
Rhett gently took the phone and handed it back to Flo. “It doesn’t matter, Thorn. We’re out of Illinois now; the Ricci family can’t possibly have the entire country in their pocket. With the new security, it wouldn’t matter if we put out a formal press release with your full name; he can’t touch you.”
I swallowed hard. I wanted to believe him, but shit… I’d been let down so much that I didn’t like to depend onanyoneanymore.
“He’s right, you know?” Florence added, giving me a gentle smile. “We won’t let the Riccis get you.”
For some fucking reason, my eyes shifted to Grayson. Did he agree?
