Jace blinked at me, then scrubbed his hands over his face with a longer groan. “Okay. Yep. That all happened. I’m awake.”
“Hungry?” Rhett asked with the hotel tablet in hand.
“Fuck no,” Jace replied, sitting up. “But I’ll take a pancake stack and coffee.”
“Same,” I added, my stomach rumbling. We never did get to eat the pasta Angelo was making last night, and now my belly was reminding me. Gray still held me in his lap, and his hand slipped beneath my shirt to stroke my skin under my ribs, sending little butterflies flapping.
Rhett finished the order, then flopped down on the armchair opposite us. “Okay, what’s the news?”
“Vee’s contacts did some research into Wilson,” Gray said. “Or whenthisWilson took over control. The original Wilson founded the group some twenty-odd years ago in Northern California but ran afoul of the local controlling gang and got chased out of the area. He then set up shopveryquietly in Siena and spent several years working from the shadows to build his power base without alerting the Riccis.”
Confusion rattled through my brain. “The original Wilsonwasn’tmy father?”
“No. From what we can see, he worked for the original Wilson, laundering money through his mechanic business. Then around the time of the fire… things changed hands.” Grayson’s fingers stroked across my belly in a soothing way, and I tried really hard to absorb the information with detachment, like we were talking about strangers… which we kind of were.
Rhett muttered some choice curses, looking up at the ceiling. “That makes more sense as to how he grew so powerful so fast, I guess.”
“Definitely,” Grayson agreed. “But we still aren’t sure what his quarrel is with Giovanni. It seems more personally motivated than just market share. And then there’s the question of what happened to…”
“My mom,” I croaked. “Here I was, thinking she got killed for her involvement in criminal finances and my dad was collateral damage. Now I don’t know what happened or who was to blame and—” I broke off with a hiccupping sob. Fuck, I needed to pull it together.
“We’ll work it out, Rose,” Jace said softly, reaching out to take my hand in his. It was an intensely comforting gesture from him, and I gratefully squeezed his fingers. He got it. He knew how close I’d been with my parents. Thinking of them as criminals was tearing me up inside.
“So, what now?” Rhett asked, yawning. “What happens to Angelo… and to us? The tour?”
“Canceled,” Jace replied, not letting go of my hand. “I told Brenda to sort that side out. I’m fucking done playing nice with Giovanni’s bullshit.”
Grayson and Rhett rumbled their agreement, and a small measure of relief washed through me. At least that was one thing off our minds, not needing to keep up the pretense of having fun playing concerts without a bass player… again.
“The three of you need to return to Naples,” Grayson announced, and I stiffened. He held me tighter, preventing me from climbing out of his lap in outrage, butdamn,I was about to. “Hear me out, Prickles,” he growled in my ear.
“You better have a fucking amazing reason because right now the answer is a resoundinghell nofrom me, Grayson.” I was already mad. Big mad. How the fuck he could think I’d be okay returning homewithout Angelo, I had no clue. Surely, he knew that was insane.
“I’m with Rose on this one,” Jace agreed. It didn’t escape my notice that he was calling me Rose more and more or that he still held my hand in his.
Grayson sighed in frustration. “I understand that you all think you can—” He cut off as a knock sounded at the door.
“I’ll get it,” I said, extracting myself from his grip. “In case you guys forgot, you’re all pretty recognizable.”
Rhett leapt over the couch, rushing to the door ahead of me. “I’d rather be recognized than risk you getting shot, Thorn baby.” Before I could argue, he yanked the door open and let the hotel employee push a cart of food and coffee inside.
Thankfully, no one got shot and the hotel staff didn’t make a fuss over the celebrities in the room. Maybe it was a regular occurrence at a place like this. Rhett unloaded the cart onto the coffee table, and Jace grabbed his coffee like an addict. Not that I was much more restrained with my pancake stack.
“Okay, back to Grayson’s momentary lapse in sanity,” Jace said a few minutes later. “I think we are in agreement that none of us are leaving until we find Angelo. Right?”
I nodded firmly. “Right. I won’t just pack up and leave him as my father’s captive, and you can’t fucking make me.”
Gray said nothing, just raised an eyebrow at Rhett, who’d been uncharacteristically quiet.
My blue-haired boy sensed our attention and looked up with a pained expression. “Sorry, Thorn, I’m on Grayson’s side with this. It’s not safe here,especiallyknowing your dad is Wilson. We can protect you better at home in Naples. Right, Gray?” His opinion was a hard punch to the gut.
The big guy nodded, then shifted his concerned gaze to me. “Prickles, I know you want to help, but surely, you can look at this objectively. You don’t have the skills or connections toactuallyhelp, and if I’m constantly worried about your safety, am I really focused on finding and freeing Angelo?”
My eyes widened at the blunt honesty, and it felt like the air had been knocked out of me for a moment. “Wow. Seriously? I’m aliabilitynow?”
Gray was immune to guilt trips. He just held my gaze steadily. “Aren’t you?”
Rhett intervened before I could lose my shit. “Okay, okay, I think we’re getting a bit… uh… Look, let's just start over. Thorn baby, I don’t think Grayson meant you’re a liability, he just means thatyouare more important to him than Angelo. So if he was forced to choose who to protect…”
