My teeth ground together as I bit back the need to tear her head off. She didn’t know I’d put a tracker on Billie, and if I showed anyone those surveillance photos, they’d say she looksfine.
Fuckingfine. Such a pile of shit. But without any concrete proof, it was just the suspicions of a paranoid, angry man.
“What do you want, Florence?” I asked again, instead of saying everything I really wanted to say.
She wet her lips, her fingers twisting in the hem of her Bellerose tour t-shirt. “We still owe the label a new record, don’t we? I know they aren’t happy about us canceling the rest of the tour, so I thought—”
My bitter laughter cut her off, and her hopeful expression drained away. “You thought, what? Get the band back together and make some music?” I shook my head, then ran a hand over my hair. “You’re deluded, girl.”
“Gray!” she exclaimed, slapping her hand against the door when I tried to close it. “Come on, I’m serious. I can’t…fuck, I can’t afford to pay the label back for our advance, and if they sue…”
I frowned, peering at her harder. “How? Where the fuck is all your money, Flo?” As far as I knew, she didn’t own property or cars and always dressed in thrift-store clothes and band merch. Even without our tour—which we were in deep legal shit over cancelling—we still made crap loads from album sales. None of us should have to work again for the rest of our lives.
Her eyes dipped to the ground. “Tom took it all,” she whispered. “I’m totally broke, and I’m desperate.”
My lips parted in shock as her confession sank in. Then my fist balled up and I punched a hole through my wall while picturing Tom Tuckers face.
“Shit, Gray!” Flo exclaimed, reaching for my hand as I shook drywall dust off my knuckles. “Dude, what the hell?”
I gently extracted my hand from her grip, not feeling the cuts I’d opened up over old scars. “You’re a fucking idiot, Florence, you know that?”
She grimaced. “Yeah, I know.”
I gave a heavy sigh and nodded. “It’s not up to me, and you know it. If you’re going to come back to Bellerose…”
“I know,” she whispered, “I need Rhett to forgive me.”
“That’s gonna be harder than you think,” I told her, squinting down at my hand. Shit, it was bleeding on my cream carpet. “I’ll get you in to see him; the rest is on you. So I suggest you come up with a fucking impeccable argument because you won’t get another shot. Clear?”
Flo bobbed her head frantically in agreement. “Clear.”
I cast my eyes to the sky, wishing for not the first time that I had faith in a higher power. Maybe then I could shirk the weight of everyone’s problems onto someone more qualified.
“I’ll call you,” I grunted, making it clear that I wasn’t inviting her inside. She didn’t need to see my surveillance notes and photographs of Billie scattered all over my coffee table. It’d only make me look obsessive and desperate, when really, I was justconcerned.
Florence looked like she was going to hug me, so I gave her a little nudge back out of my doorway, then shut the door fully this time. I hated people coming to my house. The next person who showed up unannounced probably would get shot.
“Okay, thanks!” she called through the door, her voice muffled. “I’ll just… I’ll wait for your call! It was good to see you, Gray!”
Huffing an irritated sigh, I went to clean up my hand. Fucking Flo… we should have known Tom was screwing her over. Hell, we did know, just not that he wasalsostealing from her.
If I got my hands on that slimy shit…
My fist tightened around the bottle of antiseptic I’d just pulled from my bathroom cabinet, crushing the plastic and squirting brown-orange liquid everywhere, picturing Tom’s head exploding. If that was the worst that happened to Tom Tucker, he’d be getting off easy.
three
RHETT
“One tequila… two tequila… three tequila…” I sang to myself between shots of amber liquor, barely even feeling the burn anymore. Hell, my veins stopped pumping blood weeks ago; I was pure alcohol and cocaine now.
What was I saying again?
Fuzzy confusion crossed my eyes as I slid from the couch to the carpet, my head swimming too hard to hold me upright.
“Floor.” Someone else muttered nearby.
The couch dipped near where my head rested, and I cracked my eyes to squint up at Jace. “Huh?”
