Looking up, I searched the room to find Angelo had returned and was sitting in the armchair, wearing one of Grayson’s black t-shirts and gray sweatpants. His feet were bare, and his jaw set in fury as he stared silently back at me.
“Vee’s girlfriend…” I started, feeling like I was hugely overstepping, “is she… okay? Were they together?”
Angelo arched a brow. “She told you about Giana?”
I nodded. “At the party thing. She cornered me in the bathroom, and I thought she was going to claw my eyes out or something. But she just wanted to reassure me that she wasn’t threatened… that you two weren’t…” I trailed off, my voice breaking.
“That we weren’t fucking?” Angelo finished for me, his tone harsh. “How nice of my wife to offer her blessing to my pregnant mistress.”
I bit my tongue to hold back the desire to yell at him. This wasn’t the time or the place. “Is Giana okay?” I asked instead.
Angelo stared at me a moment longer, then sighed. “She’s fine. I called her while driving over here; she isn’t even in Siena right now and had no clue about this.”
I nodded slowly. “Good. That’s good. I thought maybe…”
“That Vee’s family found out she’s gay and tried to kill her?” He gave a cold laugh. “No, Bella, this is all about politics. They must have decided that with our history, I was at risk of divorcing Vee to marry you.” He scoffed like it was the most preposterous thing he’d ever heard.
I frowned. “Wait. Must have? You don’t know that’s what happened?”
His dark eyes narrowed. “I know enough.”
“Bullshit,” I snapped back. “You assume you know, but what if this was something else entirely? God, you can be so fucking pig-headed sometimes, Angelo. You can’t just—”
“Ahem,” Grayson cleared his throat, cutting off my quickly escalating rant. He’d just returned with an elderly woman a step behind him. “This is Morgana.” He gave no further explanation, and I quickly clambered up from my seat on the carpet to let her closer to Vee.
“Thank you, dear,” she said to me softly with a smile as Gray dropped her huge medical bag on the coffee table, then fetched a chair from the dining room so she could sit beside the couch without being on the floor. “I appreciate your concern, but I’d like some privacy while I examine Valentina, please.”
She gave a pointed look between Angelo and me. He looked like he wanted to tell her where to shove her polite request, so I marched over and grabbed his hand to pull him up out of the chair.
“Come on,” I ordered him, yanking him out of the living room, “let her work.”
“I’m not just going to trust—” he started in protest, but Gray had followed us and now blocked the doorway to the living room with nothing more than his bulk, his thick arms folded over his chest.
The level glare he gave Angelo was patient but didn’t offer any wiggle room. “Last I checked, Angelo, you don’t have a medical degree. Nor have you trained as a paramedic or as a trauma surgeon or even as a psychologist. You have zero useful skills here, and no one in this house needs to be shot. So take your bad-tempered, tattoo-covered ass to the kitchen and wait patiently.”
Angelo was never one to accept intimidation, so it was no shock when he just raised his chin and met Gray’s glare with his own. “Or what?”
I needed to intervene before things turned violent. “Or I’ll search Google for a late-night clown-o-gram to come over and make balloon animals.”
Both men, with their badass attitudes, inked muscles, and deadly stares, turned to look at me. Gray, with pure confusion, Angelo with a twitch of horror in his gaze.
“You wouldn’t,” he whispered, shaking his head. Angelo wasn’t scared of anything… except clowns. Particularly clowns that made balloon animals. That was a story from our childhood for another day.
I folded my arms and matched his stubborn energy. “Try me.”
Angelo’s glare narrowed like he was so damn tempted to call my bluff. But then he swallowed hard and stalked into the kitchen without another word.
Gray’s eyes widened with admiration. “I don’t understand it, but I like it. You’re a badass, Prickles. Yet another thing I like about you.”
I flashed him a grin. “Another?”
His smile turned sultry. “Alongside the sweet taste of your cunt and the glorious way you moan my name while you come.”
Oh. Good answer.
thirty-eight
RHETT
Nearly a week passed between Grayson rescuing us from the wilderness and Flo’s funeral. All the while, we were under strict instructions to stay in our homes. Don’t leave, not even for groceries. We had people deliver everything we needed to avoid offering any ammunition to Dirty Truths.
Not that it made any difference. Almost daily there was a new post about us. About Bellerose. Speculation over who would replace Flo in the band were the hottest discussion threads right now. Somehow, Angelo and Jace’s connection was revealed, and the fans were losing their minds wondering if Angelo Ricci, mafia bad boy and panty-dropper extraordinaire, would be joining the band.
Already, the press was having a field day with those rumors, calling us the boys of Bellerose. Like Flo had never even existed.
My phone rang as I stood in front of my mirror, attempting to get my tie to sit flat. A glance at the caller ID eased some tightness in my chest, and I answered it on speaker.
“Thorny babe,” I greeted Billie. “How’s Vee this morning?”
Angelo’s wife had been heavily drugged with painkillers since her vicious beating a week ago. She wasn’t in a coma, but she also wasn’t conscious. Each passing day seemed more hopeless than the one before, but Gray’s medical friend assured them it was just her body healing in its own time.
“No change,” Billie replied with a sigh. “Her bruises look so much better, but she’s still way out of it. Morgs thinks it was a nasty concussion that her brain is slowly recovering from.”
I winced. I’d never met Valentina, but Billie had assured me she was a good person. The kind of person deserving of her care and stress, I hoped.
“Well, she’s the expert,” I murmured, referring to Morgana. She’d always been cagey about her qualifications, but from what Gray had said, she was more than experienced enough to help Valentina. The only thing better would have been a hospital. Angelo wouldn’t entertain that idea, no matter how badly she’d needed it.
“Yeah, she’s been great. We have her staying here to keep an eye on Vee today,” Billie said, then yawned. “Crap, sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night.”
Jealousy sparked through me. “Uh-huh, do I need to have words with Gray?”
Billie’s laugh was low and throaty, making my dick twitch. “I wish. Man, do I wish. Unfortunately, nothing so fun. With Vee and Angelo both staying here, the mood isn’t amazing for, uh, quality time.”
That made me smirk. As shitty as the situation with Vee was, at least Gray wasn’t just fucking Billie all over his house twenty-four seven and erasing little old Rhett from her head and heart. I still had a chance to win her over.