They did, and their healing was almost as beautiful to me as my own. All of us were growing to be better fucking people and couples than I’d ever expected, and I was totally here for it.
thirteen
BILLIE
The trip to Rhett’s hometown was a bust. First, we got delayed countless times by road construction, then we arrived at the hospital after the doctor we’d been sent to see had gone home. He’d apparently just finished a thirty-hour shift, so neither of us had the heart to make a fuss.
The nurse on desk duty apologized profusely, but we had also arrived after visiting hours and had to come back in the morning. After a polite discussion with Grayson on the phone, Rhett and I checked into a lakeside B&B about forty minutes away from Townsend.
Okay, who was I kidding? The phone call had quickly devolved into a shouting match between Gray and Rhett over our safety and resulted in Gray barking at us that he was sending a bodyguard to meet us, and Rhett snarling that he could take care of me just fine without a bodyguard.
After the call ended, though, Rhett sheepishly admitted he was relieved that Gray was sending backup. A few people had stopped him for autographs at the hospital, and it was making him nervous about our security. He’d thought that in this town he’d be immune to fame, but Bellerose was too big for that, even in the town controlled by his evil family.
The next morning when we returned to the hospital, Mr. Townsend’s doctor whisked Rhett off for the testing, which was a surprisingly easy blood draw. It wasn’t untilafterthey’d taken his sample, though, that the doctor told us Rhett’s mom and grandfather—or father, if we were being accurate—had declined access to visitors.
They’d lured him all the way here, kicking him in the face with the life he’d worked so hard to leave behind, then didn’t even have the decency to look him in the eye.
It made my blood boil, and as I’d predicted, I lost my shit.
“It’s not worth it, Thorn baby,” Rhett soothed, grabbing me before I could slap the unapologetic doctor right in his smug-as-shit face. Based on little things he’d said, I guessed he was fully drinking the Kool-Aid of the Townsend Community, aka cult, but blocking our entry to the room really took the cake.
“Likehellit’s not!” I raged. “You get your ass back there, and you tell that sick, predatoryfuckstainthat he doesn’t deserve to live. Bad people shouldn’t get second chances.”
Rhett swiftly guided me out of the hospital, not slowing or looking back once. As we drove away, I ranted and raved all kinds of expletives about the doctors, his grandfather, even his mom… but then I cut short when I saw the silent tears tracking down his face. Then I demanded he pull the car over and, when he did, climbed into his lap to comfort him.
We probably would have stayed there on the side of the road all day—cuddling, crying, and making love in the cramped driver’s seat—if Grayson hadn’t called to ask what the fuck we were doing. He’d been tracking us on GPS and worried the car had broken down. Our newly acquired security car was behind us, so he could have just called them, but clearly, he wanted information direct from the source.
“Let’s just… forget we ever took this trip, okay?” Rhett asked quietly as we pulled back into Grayson’s driveway later that night. It had been alongdrive to Townsend. “It was fucking dumb of me to think she’d actually see me. That’s not how excommunication works, right? Even if they want my liver.”
I hated that they’d done that to him. Hated that he’d had his hope dashed when he’d been so brave to take that massive step. “Is that why she’s never reached out before?” I was curious and wanted to understand more about the Townsend Community. “They like… pretend you’re dead?”
Rhett nodded, kissing my hair as we entered the house. “I don’t know if you remember, but when we were in Dublin, there was a guy waiting at the hotel to talk to me.”
I blushed. Yes, I remembered, because that’d meant I was alone in the elevator with Jace, which had resulted in us fucking on camera for the hotel security. Whoops. “He was part of the cult?”
“Yeah. He apparently got out a few years after me. He’s been living over there ever since because Jeremiah destroyed his name here. He couldn’t get a job, couldn’t get anywhere to live. That’s one of the many things the vindictive shit of a leader does to control people. If you leave, sooner or later you’ll come crawling back because he’llmakeyou desperate. But Johnny was smart and moved overseas, started fresh. He just wanted to… I dunno. He saw Bellerose was in town and took the opportunity to just say hello. Tell me he got out. Say he was sorry.” Rhett paused, swallowing hard. “That’s the first time I’ve so much as set eyes on anyone from the community since the day I left.”
Fuck. I’d had no idea. “That’s what gave you the push to talk with Dr. Candace?”
He nodded, his hand squeezing my waist. “And I’m so glad I did. The peace I achieved when I was able to tellyouabout my past… it’s unlike any high I’ve gotten from drugs. So I don’t need to face my mom. You’ve already given me the closure I needed, Thorn.”
Oh geez, my heart.
He pinned me against the wall, his kiss deep and slow, full to overflowing with affection and appreciation, and I didn’t realize I could fall harder than I already had. And yet, there I went… tumbling into the abyss of warmth and happiness that was Rhett Silver’s love.
Grayson, of course, scolded us for the unexpected overnight stay without security. He gave up on his bad mood pretty quickly, though, as we dove back into preparation for Operation Save Angelo.
Three nights later, I found myself head-to-toe in black and looking like some kind of badass mercenary. My hair was braided tightly away from my face, and Grayson had personally seen to strapping me into a bulletproof vest. Then he’d made me take off my pants and fucked me hard and fast while I was bent over the end of his bed wearing the vest.
It’d been hot and dirty and played to some seriously naughty fantasies since he’d been decked out in weapons when he railed me.
“Stay still, Prickles,” he murmured sometime later as I squirmed beside him on the rooftop where we waited. We were set up on the roof of a high-rise office building roughly amileaway from the docks, and I was already grumbling about how I should have known there was a reason he’d agreed to let me come along so easily.
“Why?” I replied, huffing with irritation. “We are literally a mile away from the action; no one can see if I squirm. Or hear us, for that matter. Iknewyou agreed too easily to let me come along. Why am I even wearing a vest, Gray? No one can shoot me here unless they also have a sniper rifle.”
He turned to look at me with a quirked brow. “Theydohave a sniper, but he’s just focused on the wrong location. Here.” He passed me the long-range binoculars. “Third floor from the top, sixth window from the left.”
I brought the binoculars to my eyes to look at the building he was pointing out. Sure enough, the window he directed me to had a small section cut out and the long nose of a rifle protruded. Holy shit, how’d he even spot that?
