Grayson had stopped all of us just before the light, his hands shifting side to side so that the security knew to halt as well.
“You betrayed mewith her!” Her last scream was the loudest, and the truth hit me like a fucking truck.
This was about the photo. The photo of Rhett kissing me.
Holy fuck. I had to do something.
twenty-six
BILLIE
Somehow, in the few seconds that followed my realization, my brain went through an entire range of scenarios of what I could do to stop this from happening. I could live with a lot of bad shit going on in this world, even being homeless and on the run for the rest of my life. But I couldn’t lose anyone I cared about again. I was so fucking broken from the last time, and Rhett didn’t deserve this.
Grayson said something to me then, and I blinked at him, trying to figure out what he’d asked. Leaning in, he repeated himself. “It’s not the Ricci family, right?”
My head was shaking before words could emerge. “No. No. This is about the photo.”
Despite all the scenarios from before, I found my body reacting on instinct. I straightened and took a step away from Grayson. He blinked at me, no doubt wondering what the hell I was doing.
I didn’t even know, but I had to try something.
“Hey!” I screamed.
The chick had been so focused on Rhett, who’d had both hands up in front of him, trying to reason with her, that it took another shout before her eyes flicked in my direction. This was also the moment that Rhett and the other band members noticed I was there.
Not that it mattered. With whatever flawed reasoning I had going on, I had to save them. Even if it was the last thing I ever did.
“It’s me you’re angry with,” I said, lowering my voice a touch. Grayson moved toward me, no doubt wanting to step in front of me, but I didn’t give him the chance.
Knowing I had to act now, before Grayson or our security tackled me to the ground, I raced toward the gun-wielding girl. When I was ten feet from her, I ground to a halt, and she looked somewhat shocked as she stared at me. She was very pretty, with blond hair and huge blue eyes. She had very dark eyebrows and eyelashes, which should have stood out against her light hair and skin tone but instead, framed her beauty perfectly.
Beauty which morphed into something dark and twisted at the realization of who I was.
The gun was pointed at me a beat later, and this time, her hands didn’t shake. Her pose had everyone else in the vicinity frozen. I felt Grayson behind me, but he was no longer trying to grab me.
“You,” she said, and now her voice was calm. Almost detached.
“Back toward me, Billie,” Grayson said, voice low.
“If she moves, she dies,” the girl said, her smile weird and unnatural. She was also crying, silent tears I hadn’t noticed at first tracking down her cheeks. “Why did you take him from me?”
I didn’t pretend to misunderstand her.
“Rhett is his own person. I’m not even important. It was just a kiss of adrenaline after a fantastic concert.”
A derisive snort sounded from the table behind her, and I took a split second to remove my eyes from the threat to see that Rhett and Jace were half out of their chairs. If I had to guess, I’d say the only reason they hadn’t charged her yet was the worry that their actions would trigger her to shoot me. Or maybe they figured I’d brought this on myself, and I was on my own.
Either way, it almost appeared that they were frozen in midmotion, their bodies twisted as if they were about to launch over the table and head toward us. Noticing my distraction, the chick shifted her gaze to the table, and Jace spoke up quickly.
“Sheisfucking nobody,” he said with a sneer. An all too familiar sneer. Ouch.
In typical Jace fashion, he captured her attention fully with just that perfect tone he was born with. This deranged fan might have been wigging out over Rhett, but she wasn’t immune to Jace’s charms either, as she leaned closer toward him, the gun falling a touch so it was no longer angled directly at anyone.
Before another word was spoken, someone grabbed me roughly and I was hauled away and all but handed off to someone. “Get her the hell out of here,” Grayson said, and his voice was so coldly empty that it sent a chill down my spine.
Whoever had me was moving so fast that I didn’t see much outside of Grayson, like a silent panther, lunging for the chick and managing to steal the gun from her in seconds. At least it looked like that, as they got smaller and smaller in my vision until I finally focused on the guard sprinting away with me.
“Put me down!” I demanded, desperate to get back there andhelp. Logically, I knew I was way underqualified and would probably get myself killed in the process, but shit, try telling that to my primal need to protect the ones I loved.
