Irritation flared hot through me, and I parked my hands on my hips. “Iamtense. You must know something, Clint. Why did Rhett increase security tonight? What happened that no one is telling me?”
Clint seemed unconcerned with my temper, shrugging one broad shoulder. “We’re kept informed pretty strictly on aneed-to-knowbasis. For this job, all weneeded to knowwas that there had been an attempted abduction on you, and we’ve been brought in to ensure it doesn’t happen again.” He gave me a long look. “Is there something more we should know?”
I sighed and shook my head. “No, that’s the gist of it. Except that if he’d succeeded… the guy who tried to take me, I mean. If he had gotten away, I’d be dead right now.”Or worse, whatever that might be.
Shivering, I wrapped my arms around myself. Clint just gave a stoic nod.
“Well, then it's a good thing my team is here now. As for why there's extra security on tonight, I couldn’t say, except that it wasn’t Mr. Silver who placed the order, it was Mr. Adams.”
Clint was gone again before I found my tongue, but even then I had nothing to say exceptwhat the fuck?
The only logical conclusion was that Clint was mistaken and the orders had come from Rhett… because Jace couldn’t give two shits whether I got taken or not. Hell, he probably still thought I was making the whole thing up for attention.
Whatever, at least I could give him more material for his music if I died.
Eventually, I got bored enough with my pacing that I poured a glass of champagne from the bottles laid out for the band and settled down with Grayson’s book about smoke-jumpers. Before I knew it, I’d finished the bottleandthe book and only had a few minutes until the concert ended.
Whether it was the alcohol or the warm fuzz of a good love story, I was in amuchbetter mood by the time the band returned to the greenroom. It was a shame that mood soured so quickly when Jace immediately got up in my face, demanding to know where I’d been for the last two hours.
“Oh, so it’s not enough that you’ve built your million-dollar career on hating me, you seriously want me to sit there and listen to it live? You’re fucking delusional, Adams.” I was tipsy as fuck. Okay, sure, I was more than tipsy, and I swayed somewhat as I tried to stand up to him. Whoops, that sort of ruined the tough girl act, huh?
Jace’s eyes widened like I’d slapped him, and TomFuckersneered. “Multimillion,” the asshole corrected.
Jace snapped a death glare at his… what the fuck was Tom, anyway? He wasn’t a manager. He was… a parasite. Hah, that was fitting. Tom Tucker was like a leech, sucking money and fame out of Bellerose and offering a whole lot of nothing in return.
“Are you drunk, beautiful?” Rhett asked with a lopsided smile, breaking the tension by literally standing in front of Jace. His sweaty, tattoo-covered arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me close, and I gratefully let him hold me up.
“Maybe a little,” I admitted. Then hiccupped.
Jace muttered something about beingirresponsible,but Rhett just kissed my forehead and laughed. “I don’t blame you, Thorn. Let’s get back to the bus; I’m dying to shower.”
“It’ll have to wait,” Tom interrupted, shaking his greasy head. Huh, I hadn’t noticed before that he looked kind of like an oily meerkat. Big head, skinny body, no shoulders or jawline. Sexy did not apply to Tom Tucker. If I hadn’t already gotten to know him, I’d have assumed he had an amazing personality to snag a babe like Florence. But thatdefinitelywasn’t the case.
Here’s hoping he at least had a huge dick, but looking at his size-seven boots, I’d have to guess that wasn’t the case either. Poor Flo…
Oops, I’d tuned out what the fucker was saying. Something about a meet and greet that fans had bid on in a charity auction or… something.
“Oh, come on,” Rhett groaned. “They only want to meet Jace and you know it. They won’t even notice if the rest of us don’t show up.”
“Not true,” Tom replied with a smug look on his face. “One of the auction items was specifically for a ten-minute date with the one and only Rhett Silver.”
Rhett’s jaw twitched with tension, and I could sense he was about to tell Tom where to shove his meet and greet, charity or not. But that would be bad for his career, bad for PR, and ultimately not going to win me any favors with the rest of the band. So I leaned into him and tipped my head back to kiss his throat. It was all I could reach unless he leaned down.
“I’ll go with Clint back to the bus,” I offered.
Rhett scowled. “You could come—”
“No, she can’t,” Jace snapped, shaking his head. “Everyone at the meet and greet has a camera.”
I winced, thinking about how much of a mess that Instagram kiss must have caused today. Crap, maybethatwas why Rhett and Jace were acting all cagey today? They’d been dealing with the fallout of my actions?
Rhett and Jace shared a long look, basically confirming my suspicion, then Rhett sighed.
“I’ll stay with her,” Grayson rumbled, shocking the pants off of me. “Not like anyone came to see me, anyway.” He gave a nonchalant shrug, then tipped his head toward the door. “You coming, Prickles?”
Rhett appeared to relax the moment Grayson offered to stay with me. The security might be from him—and Jace, apparently—but there was no one he trusted more than his fellow bandmate.
“Coming,” I trilled, and it didn’t escape my tipsy notice that Grayson actually smiled. Maybe it was the suggestive word, or more likely it was my distinct lack of intonation. I couldn’t sing for shit, but I was excellent with song lyrics and putting music together. Just because I couldn’t sing didn’t mean I couldn’thearthe music. Not everyone could be Jace Fucking Adams and have the full musical trifecta. Some of us had to sing in the shower and for fun.
