Pain crumpled his face briefly, before he swallowed roughly and got himself together. “Did you plan on going back to Angelo?”
The shake of my head was fierce, disturbing some of the blankets around us. “No. Not a fucking chance. I was taking off to disappear, change my name and hair color, and hope that no one caught up to me. Tom and Flodidsell me out to the Riccis. They captured me in the concert, and yeah… let’s just say that if Angelo hadn’t tracked me down to where his dad’s thugs had me chained up, I’d be dead now. I nearly was then, too.”
He lifted a hand to cup my face, his touch jagged as if his control was almost shot. “They’re the ones who hurt you?”
I nodded into his hold. “Yeah, what’s a bit of light torture between friends, right?”
Only they weren’t friends, and it hadn’t been light.
Rhett didn’t smile at my attempt at humor. “And Angelo saved you?”
“He did,” I confirmed. “And he killed both of them without asking a single question. I don’t know if we can trust him totally, but he’s taken a lot of risks to keep me alive. The fake pregnancy thing for one. Mafia mistresses are protected, especially if they’re carrying the family heir.”
Rhett’s eyes narrowed as he did some deep breathing. Probably counting to ten. “I can’t say that I will ever like that bastard, but I might worry a little less about Grayson now that I know Angelo has some integrity.”
“He’ll keep his word as long as they’re both working toward the same goals,” I assured Rhett. “And figuring out who attacked us is a pretty solid goal.”
Rhett nodded. “Yes, and we need to do our part now too.”
“Which is what, exactly?”
His thumb brushed over my cheek, sending tingles through my body. “Gray wants us to contact Brenda and then lay low. He said that taking out these guys won’t stop the hit. He said he’ll get word to Brenda of where we should hide until it’s fine to return.”
I was nodding, but inside all I could think about was hiding out with Jace and Rhett. What possibly could go wrong?
And should I be angry with fate right now? Or sending her a fucking thank you gift basket?
The door to the bathroom banged open, Jace emerging with a towel around him, steam billowing from the door. “We need to find some clothes,” he said shortly. “We can’t keep running around in dirty pajamas.”
“We can look while Billie showers,” Rhett said, rolling out of bed and taking me with him so when he stood, he had my naked ass plastered to his front. Jace’s glare dragged across both of us before he let out a huff and exited the bedroom.
“Moody bastard,” Rhett said with a laugh, sounding more like his old self. It was only a brief glimpse, but it made me happy. “It’s going to be an interesting few days with just the three of us.”
We were having the same thoughts on that, clearly.
“Shower, Thorn,” he said, then dropped another random kiss on my lips, leaving me a little breathless. “Then we can plan our next steps.”
A shower and refresh did sound nice, especially when I had to deal with two rock stars under these circumstances. When he set me down on the tiled floor, his hands lingered on my bare skin longer than was probably necessary, and the look on his face was pained as he finally released me. “I wish I could come in with you,” he said softly, “but this is not the time.”
It wasn’t, but I appreciated the desire all the same. “We’ll figure this out,” I told him. “We will deal with the assholes trying to destroy us, and then we can finally have some time together.”
“The assholes who killed Flo,” he rasped. “We can’t rest until they’re ended.”
The heat behind my eyes burned stronger, and I pressed the heels of my palms against them. “I’ve been trying really hard not to think about it,” I confessed. “I know that makes me a shitty human, but… seeing her face when they grabbed her, it’s haunting me, and I won’t make it through the next days if I keep reliving it.”
Rhett nodded. “I understand. There will be time to mourn her soon, but if we fall apart now, we will end up in the same situation. It’s survival mode, and once we’re safe, then we’ll deal with the emotional fallout.”
The matter-of-fact way he said that told me this wasn’t his first death. Nor the first person he’d mourned. Rhett’s scars weren’t as visible as mine, but they were as deep.
We all had cuts, bruises, breaks, and losses in our past, and it appeared that the darkness wasn’t quite done with us yet. It had already cost us one friend and their band sister.
I just had to hope that there were no more losses. Rhett, Jace, Grayson… and even Angelo, to some degree, were parts of my past, owning sections of my heart and soul, and if I lost one of them… I wouldn’t survive it.
twenty-four
BILLIE
There was one small hurdle in our way when we agreed to get in contact with Brenda. None of us had our phones, and the landline for the house was disconnected. Theonlylogical ideas we could come up with were that we should either walk out to the main road and hope a passing driver would lend us their phone… or return to Brenda’s farmhouse.
