“Right,” Jace agreed. “Then I punched him again.”
“You mean heletyou punch him,” I teased, unable to help myself.
A flash of irritation crossed Jace’s features, then he smirked. “Right. So… I take it there’s more we need to know?”
I nodded. “Yeah, the Ricci corporation—or whatever the fuck they’re called—just bought a bunch of businesses from some other dumb-name company, and as Angel said, Big Noise Records was one of them. He got sent to Naples to deal with some guy who was working for some other bad guys or… something.” I shuddered, remembering the blood on my skin. “Anyway. It’s notjustBig Noise recording you guys for behind-the-scenes footage. It's Giovanni keeping an eye on his heir.”
Jace’s eyes flicked down to my belly, and I nodded.
Rhett sighed dramatically. “We need marshmallows. I fucking love toasted marshmallows.”
Jace and I exchanged a look of confusion, then I snickered. Rhett really was high.
“I need to take a piss,” Jace muttered, pushing to his feet with a groan. “Play Rose that tune we just worked out; see what she thinks.”
He was gone before I could recover from the shock of not only hearing my old nickname on his lips, but the fact that he was being even slightlyciviltoward me. Ever since the kitchen incident with Rhett, it had felt like I’d landed in a weird alternate reality.
“Hey Thorn?” Rhett murmured as Jace walked away from the campfire. “You know you broke my heart?”
Fuck. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered, shifting my position so I could look up at him. “But Rhett… you didn’t love me. You didn’t even know me. We’d only been together for a heartbeat, and—”
“And sometimes that’s all that you need. When you know… you know.” He gave a loose shrug. “Not that it matters now, I guess. You’re… living your best life as a mafia mistress. Or whatever the fuck you are to him. He doesn’t deserve you, though.”
Christ, was he trying to kill me? At a loss for words, and still too scared to admit my truth, I did the only thing I could think of. I cupped the back of his neck with my hand and pulled him down to kiss.
The moment our lips met, I knew I’d fucked up.
Rhett groaned, leaning into me as his hand found the back of my head. His tongue expertly teased my lips apart, and I turned to a puddle of goo. All thoughts of Angelo, thebaby, all of it just evaporated out of my brain because this was exactly where I was meant to be.
“Fuck, Thorn…” He breathed the words as he hauled me into his lap, his hard length grinding against my crotch, but the swell of my belly between us was like a bucket of ice water over my head.
“Shit.” I pulled away, putting my fingers to his lips. “Rhett… wecan’tdo this.”
His brow dipped in anger. “You—”
“What thehellis going on?” Angelo snarled, his hand grabbing me by the back of the neck and all but dragging me out of Rhett’s lap.
Then he dropped me when Jace appeared out of nowhere and punched him right in the face, knocking him off balance and into the campfire.
I screamed, horrific memories of my own burns flashing through my mind, but Angelo was quick to roll to the side, thrashing back and forth in the dirt to put the small flames on his clothes out. Then, instead of striking back at Jace, he rushed to me.
“Hey, hey, Bella. You’re okay. It’s okay, see? I’m fine. No burns. Just a few holes. See?” he held up his coat to show me, his expression full of concern.
It wasn’t until Jace stared at me in bewilderment that I realized I was rocking back and forth, whimpering. Fuck. I’d have to explain this… but not now. Not tonight.
I swallowed back my old trauma and peeled myself out of Angelo’s grip.
“I’m fine,” I lied. “I just… I need some air.” Despite the fact that we were outside. I didn’t give them a chance to point that out, taking off into the darkness.
I just needed to be alone.
nineteen
JACE
Billie took off and Angelo followed her, leaving me wondering what the actual fuck I’d missed in both of their lives. Twice now she’d revealed a piece of her past, a piece of her broken soul, before she’d snatched it back away, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the life Billie had lived without me. For years after she dumped my ass, I’d refused to think, discuss, or hear her fucking name. Ironic, considering I’d named the damn band after her, but music was the only avenue of “Billie pain” I’d allowed myself, and it was my nightly torture on stage—hearingBellerosescreamed out by tens of thousands of fans.
But the girl who’d inspired it all… I had no idea what she’d been through after her sixteenth birthday.
