Shattered Dreams (Boys of Bellerose, #3)(26)

Heat filled my body, starting with my cheeks and dripping into what should be a satisfied pussy. But she was a greedy girl, apparently. “I didn’t know myself.”

Jace threw the guitar to the side and got to his feet, stalking off like his ass was on fire. A feeling I knew quite well after one afternoon with Gray. “I do love it when he leaves a room,” I said, letting out a long sigh as I sank into the plush couch.

I’d spoken too soon, though, since he was back in moments. He was also shirtless now, wearing only loose shorts, and I couldn’t figure out what the fuck was happening. “I’m going to work out,” he said shortly.

That he was frustrated made me happier than I’d ever admit.

“Why exactly are you still here?” I asked him, sitting up straighter. “Surely you have your own fancy gym in your own fancy condo.”

He didn’t reply, choosing instead to shoot me a dark glare before he stalked off, heading for Grayson’s state-of-the-art gym.

“I think we all know why he’s still here,” the big guy said, dropping down next to me on the couch. “Jace is a man filled with demons, those of the past and present, and he has no fucking idea how to deal with them.”

“Jace is a piece of shit,” I said shortly.

“I fucking heard that,” he shouted from down the hall.

Getting to my feet, I shouted back. “Good, I don’t care. You tried to have me committed, and I won’t ever forget it.”

The sound of a door slamming echoed through the building, and then there was silence once more. Silence and Gray, who was waiting for me to rejoin him.

He didn’t say anything for a few minutes, just draped his arm around me and tugged me closer to his body. I sank, exhausted, against him, enjoying these last few moments of peace and comfort.

“He didn’t try and have you committed,” Grayson said softly.

A stab of betrayal hit me at his defense of Jace, and my instinct was to shout and storm off. But part of me couldn’t walk away from Gray like that.

“What would you call it then?” I said shortly.

“Jace doesn’t always go about it the best way, but his aim was to help you deal with the past. He feels immense guilt that he wasn’t there to help you deal at the time of your loss. Steamrolling you into getting help wasn’t his finest hour, but the intention was pure.”

Bitterness rose in my throat, and I had to swallow multiple times before I could talk again. “Once again Jace tried to pass off the issue in his life to someone else. He should have just talked to me. End of story.”

“True,” Grayson nodded, his arm still holding me tight, as if he knew I was seconds from getting out of here. “But he also isn’t a psychiatrist. He doesn’t have the skills to help you work through past trauma, and he wasn’t sure you’d agree to go without a little push. The doctors were already considering an extended stay in another facility to help you deal. Jace was the one who got them to agree to outpatient therapy with one of the best in the city. He pulled a lot of strings to make that happen. For you, not to you.”

A huff escaped me, and as much as I wanted to keep holding onto my anger toward Jace over that, it really wasn’t necessary. We had so much other baggage that it was probably fine to let the therapy one go. For now. “She really is excellent,” I grudgingly admitted. “I’m not upset to be going back to see her tomorrow.”

“That’s good, Prickles,” Gray said, leaning down and dropping a kiss on my forehead. “There’s nothing I want more in this world than to slay your demons for you, but some of them are beyond my reach. I’m always here for you, though, whenever you need a little extra strength.”

I didn’t deserve him. Or Rhett. Or any of them. But I sure as fuck was going to figure out how to be a better person for them all. As Dr. Candace said, “One day at a time when it comes to recovery.”

Angelo entered the room then, cane in one hand and Vee holding the other one. Did it bother me that my fake ex-lover was holding hands with his very real wife?

Nope. Not at all.

Not even a tiny bit.

Fuck my life.

“You’re back,” Vee said in an excited voice. “I’ve been waiting for you to return.”

Why? “You have?” My verbal response was politer than my mental one.

She followed Angelo to the couch near ours, both of them sinking down, and once again I was fighting the monster inside that said he was mine.

Not mine. Not even a fucking little.

“Now that we’re all here, healing, and about to emerge into the world once more,” Vee started, “I need to tell you all what I learned that almost got us killed.”

The atmosphere of the room grew tenser, and somehow Rhett appeared in the next second, as if he’d been close enough to hear. He sat on the other side of me, the three of us squished together. “Someone should call Jace up,” Grayson said. “He’s in the gym.”

I wanted to protest, but unfortunately, this was important enough that he had to be here. Rhett reached over and picked up a phone resting on the side table. It apparently worked as an intercom, because he was able to connect to the gym room, and a few minutes later Jace bounced up with a towel draped over his shoulders and a lot of bare chest on display. Those fucking shorts were hanging low on his hips, so I could see the defined line of every ab, and the trail that led—