As easy as it would’ve been to make her disappear—like all the other bodies—she deserved better. She deserved a funeral and to be mourned by those who loved her. She deserved her death to be recognized.
Brenda gave a long exhale, looking for a moment like she was about to start crying. But she pulled herself back together with a tight nod and professional smile. “Good. You two are the best people for the job here.” Little James stirred in his sleep, whimpering, and Brenda rocked the buggy back and forth to send him back to sleep. “Okay. Good. It seems that the cops went to check out the farmhouse, thanks to that fucking gossip blog. They posted a story about a crime occurring that involved Bellerose, and enough people blew it up that the cops had to do due diligence.”
“The Dirty Truths again?” Angelo scowled. “They seem to have a lot of inside access for Bellerose in particular. Any ideas who’s behind it?”
Brenda shook her head. “None.”
I couldn’t say the same. Ever since reading all the blog posts about us, and Billie, and comparing them to older posts about other celebrities, I was pretty confident the blog had changed hands some time in the past months. Or maybe there were several contributors. Either way, Tom Tucker was my number one suspect for those leaks.
“Well, whoever it is, they’re really starting to piss me off,” Brenda muttered. “Anyway, here’s the coordinates and directions for where I sent Rhett, Jace, and Billie. Also, Rhett told me the belly was a fake, so thank you a whole lot for that one, Ricci.”
Angelo just smirked. “It was a need-to-know subject. You didn’t need to know. Also, tell Rhett to keep his dumb mouth shut. The last thing I need is my father catching wind of that little lie.”
Brenda flapped a hand. “Please. I’m a vault. You know that. In this situation, I won’t even let my husband know. Okay, I’ll let you two get back to whatever you were doing.” She gave the visible gun at Angelo’s waist a pointed look. “And I’ll be in touch if I hear anything more. Try not to leave the other three in the forest too long, or we might have more bodies to clean up.”
Angelo shook his head. “Jace is all talk; he still loves Bella. He just can’t swallow his own pride long enough to admit it.”
Brenda winced. “He’s not the one I’m worried about.”
James started stirring again, so she quickly bid us both farewell and pushed her buggy away at a brisk pace, leaving Angelo and I standing there in silence.
“Now what?” I asked him after a beat.
He glanced over at me. “You mentioned that Flo was broke, didn’t you?” I nodded. “How is that possible? I know what you all get paid.”
“How you know that is an issue for another day,” I muttered, peering out over the empty park. “But we think her boyfriend—ex-boyfriend rather—somehow drained her account when they broke up. She wouldn’t give us the details, but he seemed like the type.”
Angelo nodded thoughtfully. “Let’s shake that tree. See what falls out.”
I smiled. “I knew I liked you, Ricci. Come on, I know where he’s been staying since Flo kicked him out and the band strong armed the label into firing him.”
We’d barely made it five minutes into our drive, though, when Brenda called my phone.
“They found Flo,” she told us in a curt voice as I put her on speakerphone. “Big Noise execs want to see the whole band. They’re talking about a press conference already.”
Angelo and I exchanged a hard look, and I shook my head. “Not a chance. That could be a ruse to pull the others out of hiding. I don’t trust it.”
“Me neither,” Brenda agreed. “Gray, will you do it alone? You can just say Jace and Rhett are overwhelmed with grief and…” She trailed off with a sigh. “Jesus. I dunno. You two chat about it, but meet me at the Big Noise office tomorrow morning at nine, alright? I’ll stall until then.”
She ended the call without saying goodbye, and I looked to Angelo for his opinion. When I’d started caring what he thought, I had no clue. But the arrogant dick knew his shit.
“Big Noise had at least one Wilson employee on the books,” he told me in a carefully calm voice. “I killed him before Billie and I came out to the farmhouse. It stands to reason there might be more.”
That was news to me. “Why?”
Angelo laughed. “Why does anyone do anything? Money. Money and power and influence, but always money. The root of all evil.”
Fuck. How right he was about that.
thirty
BILLIE
None of us addressed the single bed situation again as we went about opening windows, airing out the Airstream, and making it as habitable as we could. Rhett had grabbed a decent array of food from the gas station, including some bread and fruit, but obviously nothing that would require a fridge. There was one in the vehicle, but like the other house, it was off.
“Canned beans or canned spam for dinner?” Rhett said, upending his bags on the table so we could see the full range of potato chips, crackers, cheese, fruit, and canned goods. Along with as many bottles of water as he could fit in the second bag.
“Also got some dessert,” he said with a smirk, pulling a third smaller bag from under his shirt. A dozen or so candy bars spilled out of it. “We can live on the chocolate if all else fails.”
It said a lot about our current situation, but the sight of my favorite candy bar lying there had real happiness filling me. Sad as it was, there hadn’t been much to celebrate in my life lately.
This almost felt like being handed an all-expenses paid vacation.
“I’m used to living on very little food,” I reminded them. “My ration can be pretty small.”
Jace, who had been sitting on the bed away from us, grumpy as per usual, let out a growly, pissed-off sound. “You will get the largest portion because you have no weight to spare.”
When our gazes met, I couldn’t quite figure out what I’d said that was pissing him off. Probably all of it, knowing Jace. “I’m also the smallest, so it stands to reason I need the least amount of food,” I pushed back, and he got to his feet and stalked forward, the magnetic presence he was born with suffocating in this close proximity.
Rhett continued to sort the food and water into piles, while Jace leaned over the top of me, bracing a hand on either side of the chair so that he was caging me in completely. Signature fucking move of his, apparently. When his face was mere inches from mine, he said, “What happened to you, Rose? Why are you used to living without food? Your family was not poor, and they’d never let you starve, even after their deaths.”
My breath stuttered in my lungs, the air constricting until I felt faint. This conversation was skating way too close to the edge of topics I could never discuss with Jace. With anyone. “Thought you said no more past,” I managed to gasp, and his lips flattened into a line of annoyance.
“Maybe you shouldn’t mention things like starving when you weren’t fucking with me, then.”
Another rumble rocked his chest, and I was close enough to see flecks of darkness in his blue eyes. “Didn’t think you’d care,” I told him, and it wasn’t a dig. It was the truth. “It’s been a long time, Jace. You never checked in before; why are you giving a shit now?”