I winced. “I wasn’t saying…” But, wasn’t I? “I dunno, man. Maybe I do. I just know that I’veneverfelt like this. And yeah, you’re right. I don’t even know her, and Ialreadyfeel this way. So doesn’t that mean something?”
My friend was quiet a long time, and I kept my own mouth shut. It wasn’t until we had nearly finished sharing the joint that Jace spoke again.
“You will,” he said softly, his voice dripping in regret. “Fall for her, I mean. If you haven’t already, then you will when you really get to know her. Rose is fucking special. She’s… she’s just one in a million. But you can already see that, so you’re a smarter asshole than I was.”
Words failed me, and I swallowed hard.
“But that was then, and this is now, and no amount ofspecialchanges the fact that she ripped my beating heart clean out of my chest and stomped all over it.” His smile turned brittle, and his laugh sounded forced. “I’m gonna hit up some groupies and spend the afternoon balls deep in some anonymous pussy. Maybe I can even get some girl-on-girl shit going on… Care to join me? Like old times?”
I scowled, and he just laughed, tossing his head back like he was really trying to make us both believe the levity of the joke.
‘Kidding, Rhett. Kidding.” He snickered as he pulled out his phone, probably already sending out booty calls. Shit like that would have been a great time last week. Now it just seemedsad. Had Jace always been masking his heartache with his man-whoring ways? Or was this a new twist thanks to Billie’s return?
I sighed and pulled out my own phone as we wandered back to the bus. As soon as I saw the thousands of notifications on Instagram, I remembered the photo incident of last night. The fan upload of me and Billie kissing like we were in love.
Clicking into the image, I smiled. Oh man, I was such a sap because I screenshot the image, cropped it, and saved it to my wallpaper. Fuck it, my phone was passcoded; no one would see it but me.
Just as I was about to close the app and leave the notifications for our PR team to handle, my eyes caught on a username in my message requests.
“Hey, Jace?” I called out, dread curling through me. “This might be picking at the scab, but did Billie used to call Angelo by a nickname? Like, uh,Angel?”
Jace spun around to face me, his brow set in a scowl. “Yeah. Why the fuck would you ask me that?”
“Shit,” I breathed, opening the message. Panic fluttered in my chest, and I turned my phone for Jace to see it.
His eyes widened almost immediately, and his face paled at least six shades. “Fuck.”
My thoughts exactly. Because there in my inbox from a usernameBellasAngelwas a clear warning.
Ricci family wants her back, dead or alive. Don’t be a fucking idiot, Silver. Ask Jace what happens to anyone who gets in the way.
twenty-three
BILLIE
Something was going on, I was sure of it. Rhett had been acting really strange ever since he and Jace went for a private chat first thing in the morning. They’d come back smelling of weed and looking like they’d both seen a ghost.
Neither one of them were talking about it, either, but I could swear there was double the usual security protocols at the concert venue when we arrived later that night.
“Flo, hey.” I caught up with the cute punk-rock bassist as we made our way through the busy backstage corridors.
She paused, offering me a smile. “What’s up?”
“That’s kinda what I wanted to ask you,” I replied with an awkward laugh. “Why do I get the feeling everyone knows something that concerns me but they’re nottellingme?”
Flo shrugged, but not before I caught a flicker of guilt cross her face. “Maybe ask Rhett, babe. I gotta go, you know, get my head in the zone and shit. But, um, maybe just stick close during the show, ‘kay? So the boys don’t stress and mess up the lyrics.”
Her suggestion was great, if not for the fact that Rhett suddenly seemed too busy to talk. Weirdly, so was Jace. Not that I’d be inclined to reach out to him, but it seemed awfully suspicious. The only personnotavoiding me was Grayson, and I was still too damn mortified to seek him out after he’d seen me getting thoroughly finger-blasted by Rhett this morning.
So that was how I wound up pacing the greenroom like an angry tiger while they played their show. Fuck theirneedto keep eyes on me; if they couldn’t respect me enough to let me in on whatever was going on, then why the hell should I suffer through another Bellerose concert? Like fucking ear-torture.
Okay, that wasn’t fair. They were fantastic musicians. I just wished their lyrics were even slightly vaguer so I could pretend that I wasn’t the hated subject in all of them. Jace was really milking the whole art is pain shit, that was for sure.
“Terry is going to grab some coffee,” one of my new personal security informed me. “You want anything?”
I jerked my head in a terse negative. “No, I’m fine.” Then winced at my own tone. “Thanks.”
The heavyset guy just arched a brow. “I’ll grab you one, anyway. You seem… tense.”
