“He looks like a little tomato,” Kristie said, as little Rick instinctively grasped her finger with his little hand.
“Our little tomato.”
Kristie smiled at Gray’s joke. She wanted more than anything to hold her son. He looked like a small bird, so fragile and needing to be protected. If Armand hadn’t broken into the apartment, then maybe the pregnancy would have gone smoothly. Rick would have been born stable and healthy. Kristie tried not to get angry. She had to trust that Gray would take care of Armand.
Gray rested his hand on her shoulder as they looked at their son together.
***
Gray looked around the room. Megan’s crib was off to one side. They still hadn’t fully figured out where they were going to put Rick, but they had at least week to figure it out.
“Your uncle said he could clear out the guest room for the kids,” Kristie was saying as she sat down on her bed in her mother’s house, clearly still in pain from the C-section. “So that is something.”
Going back to her mother’s house had been the only option for Kristie. Gray understood why she didn’t want to go back to the apartment. He wasn’t convinced that it was safe for anyone either. While it hurt him to know that Kristie and the children weren’t going to be at the apartment, it gave him the fire he needed to see this treaty through.
Before Gray left to pick up Kristie from the hospital this morning, Dern had called him. Gray hadn’t heard from Ben since the call about Armand but he welcomed a call from Dern.
“Hey, man,” Dern said. “Sorry about everything that happened. Baby okay?”
“Baby is fine, thanks.”
“Any luck with the treaty, man? Grant is rallying everyone to his side. Wants to kick you out.”
“Soon it won’t matter.”
“Does that mean it’s a go then? Are you getting rid of the whole gang? Are you leaving?”
“I can’t tell you anything yet, Dern. Sorry. I have a lot going on. Have you heard anything about Armand?”
“No, man.” Dern sounded like twelve on the phone. “But whatever you have going with Ben, you might want to hurry it up. Grant might blow everything you’re planning with him.”
The conversation left Gray unsatisfied. It felt as if everything was closing in on him. He had to keep his family intact. He needed Ben to get rid of Armand or at least have it so the cops got a hold of him. He had to keep Grant in line till Ben took control of the group.
And now he was about to leave Kristie behind at her mother’s yet again. Anyone else would have left me by now. He sat down next to her, and she winced slightly. Megan was downstairs with Pamela. He could hear her talking to her in loud baby talk.
“Are you going to be okay here?”
“I’ll miss you. But this is for the best. Gray, you understand I can’t wait forever.”
He did. He understood exactly what she was trying to tell him. If he took too long and if Kristie felt that things were too dangerous, she’d move out of town. Maybe even divorce him.
Normally he would have been angry. He would have felt hurt that Kristie was even considering such a thing. But now, with two children and a path of violence behind them, Gray couldn’t fault her. He didn’t want anything to happen to Megan or Rick. He needed his family to be safe.
“I understand.” He gave her hand a squeeze.
Kristie smiled wanly. “Do we just wait for Ben then? To see if he’s going to get rid of Armand?”
“I guess so. We’ll see what happens next. Maybe if the police just bring him in for questioning, this will all be over.”
“I hope so.”
He stood up then, looking around. Kristie looked exhausted. He also knew if he stuck around too long Pamela wouldn’t be pleased. It would be best to go.
“I love you.”
“I love you, too,” Kristie replied.
***
Once again, Kristie found herself at her mother’s house. She didn’t want to be here, really, she wished she was with Gray. Her mother hovered over Kristie whenever she could, paranoid that at any moment Armand would return for her. But Kristie wasn’t worried. She knew that he wasn’t going to come to a place where he knew Gray wasn’t going to be.
And what about Gray’s plan? She wasn’t sure if she believed that he was going to be able to convince Ben to get rid of Armand. She was also worried about Grant, opposing and working against Gray. Everything had to be timed properly or it would end up in ashes. He was juggling so many different things that Kristie would wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. She was afraid for Gray. She was afraid for her son, so small, waiting to come home to her.
She was fast asleep one night when her phone thrummed to life, vibrating next to her on the bed. Kristie opened her eyes, hearing Megan’s soft breathing. She will be one year old in a few days. Soon she will want her own independence moving around, talking, and wanting to figure out life on her own. Kristie took comfort in her daughter’s breathing as she reached for her phone, afraid of what she might find.
To her surprise, it was John. It was past midnight. Why did he text her? Once Kristie was settled in at her mother’s, she made sure to answer any and all questions the police had for her. John wasn’t there at the questioning, having distanced himself from most things to do with Gray since the driver accident. Kristie opened the text.
Hope you are doing well.
She sighed. She hoped that he wasn’t seriously trying to woo her. Apparently her marriage to Gray and her two children weren’t a concern for him. She put her phone back down and turned over, ready to go back to sleep. She needed rest before visiting her newborn son in the morning. The last thing Kristie wanted to worry about was an ex-flame of hers suddenly showing renewed interest.
***
Did you get my text last night?
Kristie sighed, shoving her phone in her purse. Go away, she thought as she stepped out of Gray’s truck. They were going to visit Rick. Hopefully, if all went well the hospital would let him come home in a few days. Kristie was hoping nothing would come up to delay Rick’s release.
John’s text flashed in her head. She needed to answer and tell him to leave her alone. But she had forgotten about the text after she had fallen back asleep and didn’t want to answer him now that she was about to go into the hospital. All thoughts of John vanished as she prepared to visit her son. Megan gurgled in her arms and began to wiggle around. Soon she will want to explore everything around her and then we will all be in trouble.
Kristie walked down toward the neonatal unit with Gray. Gray was silent, lost in thought and hadn’t said much in the truck. Kristie wasn’t sure if that was good news or bad news but she hadn’t probed him to talk. She wanted him to decide to talk to her on his own.
She stopped in front of the window and stepped up to it, peering through it to find her son. He was asleep again, although his skin wasn’t as red as it had been before. They had been visiting Rick every day, and every day her heart would speed up when she saw her son.
Megan was awake now, but thankfully silent as she looked around with her big green eyes.
“Megan,” Gray whispered, getting her attention. “Look. That’s your brother.” He pointed to Rick.
Megan blinked, staring at the babies. Kristie hoped they would get along. Both she and Gray were the only children in their families. Kristie wasn’t sure how it would go with raising siblings. She’d heard brothers and sisters fought a lot. But right now Megan looked peaceful. She had stopped wiggling around in Kristie’s arms, and her eyes were growing heavy with the sudden urge to sleep.
“I hope they get along,” Gray whispered, echoing Kristie’s thoughts.
Kristie nodded in agreement, looking back at Rick. The nurse was going to get him now so that she could hold him again. Her heart thrummed as they walked down the hallway to a side room to see him. Gray shut the door behind him as the nurse stepped out.
Carefully, she held her son. He was small and beautiful. Krist
ie’s heart threatened to burst in her chest.
She turned to the nurse nearby. “Is he still set to come home with us after the end of the week?”
“Yes. He’s stabilized and hasn’t gotten sick. But once you take him home, you’ll have to keep constant watch over him. Preemies have low immune systems. He can get sick very easily. You’ll want to keep him out of crowds and away from anyone who is ill.”
Kristie nodded, although she knew as much already. She spent long hours searching online for anything she could do to make sure she was a good mother to Rick. If she could, she’d keep him in a bubble, although she knew that was taking things a bit far.
Gray and Kristie took turns holding Rick until it was time to go because Megan needed to be changed. Saying goodbye was torture. Kristie would have stayed by Rick’s side all day but the demands of his older sister wouldn’t allow it. She told herself it wouldn’t be long until Rick got to go home with them.
Kristie changed Megan in the bathroom and met up with Gray just outside the hospital. She could tell that he was itching for a cigarette by the way his hands were running over his pockets.
“Hey, changing go okay?” he asked her as she came over.
“Yup.” She motioned to the stroller she had put Megan in. “She really wants to be on the move though. Lately, any time she has to be put in her crib or a stroller, she freaks out.”
“Man, she’ll be running soon, won’t she?” He shook his head. “Hard to believe.”
“I know. I’m nervous about taking Rick home.”
“Because of how small he is?”
She nodded. “That and just him being a preemie in general. I don’t want to mess this up. I don’t want him to get sick and something to happen to him.”
“He’ll be okay. We’ll work hard together. I’m doing all I can on my end to…wrap things up.”
Kristie wrinkled her nose. “What does that mean exactly?”
“It means that I’m trying to control the group on my end, that’s all. I don’t know what Ben is going to do. But I have to keep the Devil’s Advocates in control till I know.”
Fear bloomed in Kristie’s chest. She hated when Gray spoke this way. It made her terrified of what he would do or what would happen to him.
“There has to be an easier way to get out of this mess. I know you said that we couldn’t just move away but…”
“No.” His voice was gruff. “Armand won’t let this go. I know you didn’t want me pursuing something out of revenge. I’m not. Not anymore. But I want my family safe. Armand won’t let us be safe until I take care of him.”
“I can’t imagine someone disliking you so much that they would go to these lengths.” Her voice trembled. “Gray, he wanted to kill you. I mean, we knew that. But he looked at me and told me he wanted to kill you. I got caught in his crossfire. But him telling me as casually as if he was ordering lunch? Why does he hate you so much?”
“He never liked how I ran the gang. He thought he could run both the Infernos and the Devil’s Advocates. He wanted both. He wanted me out. Then you left him for me. Probably left a bad taste in his mouth. I don’t know. He’s mentally unhinged, of course.”
Megan was rattling around in her stroller in an attempt to break free. Kristie sighed. Her daughter was going to be extremely mobile and hard to get a handle on. She had always hated when parents bought their kids those leashes to keep them nearby. But just seeing Megan wiggling around in her stroller made Kristie suddenly understand why parents would buy such a thing.
“We should head back to your mother’s house,” Gray said, breaking the silence. “Before Megan goes into full temper tantrum mode. Besides, I have to get back to work.”
Kristie agreed. As they headed toward the truck, she glanced over at Gray. She wanted this to end in a way that meant she would get to keep her family – her whole family.
***
“I get why your wife would want to chill at her mom’s house,” Dern was saying over lunch. “I mean, Armand is clearly gunning for you.”
Gray wondered how in the world his life had changed so much that Dern was the only man in his life who was on his side when it came to the treaty with the Infernos. He felt confident that somewhere his best friend was up above, snickering down at him for the strange turn of events.
But Gray needed help wherever he could get it. Plus, and this was harder for him to admit, he was lonely. With Kristie at her mother’s with Megan, and his newborn son still in the hospital, Gray felt as if he was disconnected from everything that he held dear. Every nerve of his felt as if it were on edge. He had so many cards in the air that he wasn’t sure if any of them were actually going to pay off.
“Heard anything about Armand?” Dern asked him, snapping Gray out of his thoughts.
“No. Cops are still looking.”
“Seems sort of insane that one guy is so hard to find though, am I right? Although a few years ago, I heard this story about a guy in the Infernos who killed a man and that Ben paid for him to have a whole new face. New fingerprints, too. He was never caught. He could be around us right now.”
“Okay, first off, I’m pretty sure that was a martial arts movie a few years back. Secondly, there are so many things wrong with what you said that I’m going to ignore it,” Gray retorted, shaking his head. “Kristie saw Armand and he had the same ugly mug as always.”
“So basically we’re waiting to see if Ben is going to do anything about Armand?”
“Yeah. Why?” His eyes narrowed at Dern’s tone.
He shrugged. “Sitting around never seemed like your sort of thing. Not with this stuff anyway… with your wife and kids.”
“What do you expect me to do?” Gray snapped. “I can’t tell Ben what to do.”
Dern finished eating and threw some money down on the table, standing up. “No. You can’t, I guess. You can’t control the Infernos. Anyway, I gotta go, man. Talk to you later.”
Gray watched him leave, wondering why he felt so irritated. He knew that Dern didn’t mean anything rude by it. But the words stuck in his head as he ate the rest of his sandwich. No, he supposed he couldn’t do anything with Ben. If Ben really wanted all the turf and all the cars to steal, he’d turn in Armand or he’d keep up the battle.
But Gray was still in charge of the Devil’s Advocates for now.
Chapter Ten
Gray had purposely not told Kristie what he was planning. It was wrong, and he knew he shouldn’t leave things out. But if he had told her, her meltdown would have been on a scale not seen in the history of mankind.
If this plan didn’t work out, it could ruin everything else for Gray. There was a chance he would lose control of the Devil’s Advocates before the right moment. That would mean any promise to Ben would be thrown out the window and Armand would still be out there somewhere.
There was also the possibility that Gray could be killed.
For both of those reasons, he didn’t tell Kristie what he was planning. She was already concerned with Rick coming home and taking care of Megan. He didn’t want to add to her stress.
But what Dern said to him the other day when they were eating lunch together had truly stuck with Gray. He was originally upset, but when he thought about it, he realized he was upset because Dern was right. He was merely waiting for everything to work in his favor instead of trying to make it happen. He couldn’t control the Infernos or Ben.
But Gray was still in charge of the Devil’s Advocates, no matter how loose his grip. Grant was making a push to kick Gray out and overtake it. If he did, he would start firing back at the Infernos. That will give Ben a reason to abandon the treaty. Armand would still be on the loose. Gray would have no protection.
With this in mind, he conceived of a way to alter his plan slightly. He needed to reassert his control over the Devil’s Advocates. He had been progressively letting it slide out of his hands since Rick’s death. Gray worked out a way to take care of Grant as well as find out who the rat was over the ne
xt few days.
***
Gray turned his bike down off the highway exit. The sun was high in the air. It was a little past noon. Riding on the freeway felt exhilarating. The twenty-minute ride was all he needed to keep his blood pumping. He had called a meeting of the group in a bar outside of town. With the Infernos’ bars off limits and their own bar gone, the next biker bar was in the next town over.
Gray pulled into the parking lot. The rest of the gang was already there. He had been nervous that no one would show up. He slid off the bike and stepped inside. The bar was mostly empty for this time of day. There were some sad-looking men off in one corner, drinking beers and talking in low voices. One woman was sipping a mixed drink at the other end of the bar, texting on her phone, looking tired and bored.
Devil's Advocate: A BBW MC New Adult Romance Series - Book 4 (Devil's Advocate BBW MC New Adult Romance Series) Page 6