“He’s not that Angelo any longer,” Rhett said. “He’s dark now, man. I get that fucking spine tingle, and I don’t like the spine tingle.”
Rhett might not be a killer like Angelo, but he also hadn’t been raised in a white-picket-fence family. I didn’t know his history, but it was fairly obvious that he had terrible shit in his past that he was still running from. Only in his dreams did it catch up to him—those moments of broken sleep, which I’d momentarily soothed. Until I’d been the one adding to his darkness.
I must have moved in my distress because Jace’s body grew tense, and that touch on my arm faded. “She’s awake,” he said without inflection.
Weight landed on my free side as Rhett pulled back the blankets that had been surrounding my face. “Thorn, babe, fucking hell. Are you okay?”
I blinked at the sight of his drawn face, surprised when a genuine smile tilted up his lips before he leaned in and kissed me hard. Some of my panicked thoughts faded under his touch, and I found myself relaxing into the kiss, even as I heard Jace curse and untangle himself from me and the blankets, hauling ass out of bed.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” he bit out, and I managed to catch sight of his perfect, toned, and tanned ass, before he entered the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.
Between that and the taste of Rhett lingering on my tongue, it was no surprise to feel damp heat between my thighs. In other circumstances I’d be squirming and pulling the hot rock star under the sheets with me, but we had a few more pressing items to deal with before any sex could be had. Last night with Jace had been under extenuating circumstances, and it’d probably never happen again…
“Is Gray okay?” I asked him. “Did you see him?”
Rhett kicked off his shoes before he wiggled in under the blankets with me anyway, and I gasped as his colder body came in contact with my very warm one. Another stimulation in my decidedly overstimulated state. “He’s fine. They killed everyone, and now they’re off to figure out who put out the hit on us.”
Angelo and Grayson together. The mental image worked better than I’d have guessed. “Do you think they’ll kill each other?”
Rhett didn’t answer immediately, his hands tracing across my stomach slowly, and I panicked for a second. He didn’t know about the pregnancy. How was he going to react?
“So, yeah, I probably should have mentioned—” I started in a hurry.
“That your pregnancy was a fake,” he said conversationally.
In the low light of the early morning filtering through the blinds, I could see his expression, and he didn’t appear angry. Well, not as angry as I’d have expected.
“You knew?”
A small smirk appeared. “Gray told me before I hauled ass over to you guys. Why did you lie to us?”
“To protect you,” I admitted. “Angelo’s family is very dangerous, and there were eyes and ears everywhere in that fucking house. To ensure none of us were murdered in our sleep, we had to play our parts very well.”
The irony of almost getting murdered anyway wasn’t lost on me. Hence why the belly was gone, never to return again.
“I’d have eventually brought you back into our world, even if the baby was his,” Rhett told me seriously, rolling on his side so that we were facing each other, heads cushioned against the pillows. “It fucked with my head that it wasn’t mine, but I would have loved that fake little rugrat all the same.” My pulse thrummed hard at being back with him like this, and I was desperate to lean forward and kiss him again, play with his lip ring, take all of Rhett. But this was not the time. We had a lot of questions that needed answering first.
“I’m really sorry I lied,” I whispered, voice breaking. “Sorry that I did plan on leaving that night in New York, even if it was only to save you all.”
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 Flo did sell 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.”