I scoffed. “Of course you do. Come on then, let’s hear it.”
For the next several hours, Jace and I did what we’d done a hundred times already. We collaborated and made music. This time, though, he finessedmysong, not the other way around. It was… nice.
Flo and Gray stayed, adding comments and suggestions every now and then, but the bulk of the creating was on Jace and me. Just like old times.
As the fire started dying down and we all rocked a nice, warm tequila buzz, car headlights started crawling up the long gravel road toward the house. Confused, I checked the time on my watch.
“It’s a bit late for Brenda, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Jace agreed, nodding. “It is. Maybe someone from Big Noise came to check on us.”
Gray shook his head, rising to his feet. “At this time of night? No way. Besides, Brenda swore they’d leave us alone out here.” He reached under his coat and came out with a gun in hand.
“What the fuck?” Flo squeaked, voicing my own thoughts. “Gray, you can’t—”
“Quiet,” he growled. “Stay here.”
He started toward the approaching car, but I rushed forward to grab his arm. “Gray, stop. It’s probably someone who got lost and needs directions. Or an Uber delivery with some quality weed for me. Just fucking chill, and put the gun away. Jesus.”
“Rhett, don’t be an idiot, they’re not looking for fucking directions.” Grayson shook my hand from his arm, not making any move to put his gun away. “Just stay back here and keep Jace and Flo safe.”
“Excuse me?” Jace drawled. “Since when was I so helpless?”
Gray and I exchanged a quick smirk, then Gray was stalking toward the car again. It’d pulled up in front of the house, so we were a fair distance away still. A man climbed out of the driver’s side, looking confident and not at all lost.
“Hey!” Gray barked out, drawing the shadowed man’s attention away from the house. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
Well… at least he was asking questions first, even if he did plan to shoot second.
I hurried along behind him, eager to know what the hell was going on but not so suicidal that I wanted to catch a stray bullet if shit went sideways.
“Grayson Taylor, I presume,” the man called back. His voice wasn’t familiar, but it was deep and rich, stained with an edge of an accent.
“Who’s asking?” Gray replied, hiding his gun behind his thigh as he strode closer.
The guy didn’t answer immediately, then a low chuckle caught my ears as we approached. “Where’s Jace?” he asked instead of answering.
Gray paused, glancing back at me. His brow had dipped in a frown, but he didn’t seem too trigger-happy. In fact, he tucked his gun back under his coat as he tipped his head toward our campfire. I got the message and backtracked quickly.
“Jace! Some guy here to see you,” I called out to my best friend. “Seems super sketchy, though, if you want my opinion. You expecting anyone?”
Jace left his guitar beside mine and jogged across the paddock to reach me. Flo followed slower, like she didn’t want to be left behind but also didn’t know whether to join us.
“I’m not expecting anyone,” Jace muttered, heading for Grayson, who’d just reached the driveway where the man was parked. “We don’t even have phones to let people know where we are.”
“Well, he asked for you,” I replied, hurrying to keep up with his long strides. “And no one knows we’re here except Brenda. She must have sent him.”
“I guess,” Jace agreed, climbing over the paddock fence that separated us from the house area. I paused to help Flo over the wire, so I wasn’t close enough to see Jace reach the guy. All I heard was the reaction.
“Getfucked,” Jace roared, then he must have punched the guy because a second later when Flo and I sprinted over to the car, we found Gray restraining Jace while the stranger sat in the gravel with his hand over his bleeding nose.
“What the shit?” I exclaimed, looking between Jace, thrashing against Grayson’s steel grip, and the bleeding dude. He was young, probably the same age as Jace and I, and had tattoos on his hands. The rest of him was covered in winter clothes, but he had a distinctivedangerlook to him.
“Get the fuck out of here; you haveno right,” Jace bellowed at the guy as he struggled against Gray’s hold. “No fucking right to be here! I told you if I saw you again, I’d fucking kill you, Angel, I fuckingmeant it. You’re a dead man!”
Whoa.What?
“Angelo?” I gaped down at the bleeding man. It checked out; he oozedmafia. “What are—”
