WARNING
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Copyright 2017 by Revelry Publishing
Published by Revelry Publishing at Smashwords
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Disclaimer
This book is a work of FICTION. It is not to be confused with reality. Neither the author nor the publisher or its associates assume any responsibility for any loss, injury, death or legal consequences resulting from acting on the contents in this book. The characters, incidents and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. Every character in this book is over 18 years of age. The author’s opinions are not to be construed as the opinions of the publisher. The material in this book is for entertainment purposes ONLY. Enjoy.
Other Books by Carla Coxwell:
Fifty Recipes For Disaster New Adult Romance Series
Trying to win a competition for best chef is cut-throat business. Kiara Sands has just won the opportunity of a lifetime. When she arrives at Fission, she has no idea just how much her life is going to change. She’s immediately introduced to Jenny Foster and Robbs Martin, her competitors in the cut throat competition. The only thing Kiara finds more distracting than Robbs’ hateful attitude is the handsome executive chef, Paul Weston. It doesn’t help matters that Paul is quite taken by Kiara, and showers her with more attention than he gives her competitors.
Star Bright New Adult Romance Series
Torn between her feelings for her agent, Jon, and Rich, a charming bad boy who has ties in the movie industry, Jenny finds herself working through her own past to try to get a grip on her present. As she struggles to learn the lesson that in Hollywood not everyone is what they appear to be, Jenny tries to become a person that she can be proud of. Will she be able to find love and success in Hollywood? Or will she be dragged down by her past forever?
Obsessed Bounty Hunter Romance Series
Jacqui Schneider couldn't help it. Every time the memories of her family's brutal murder haunted her, she had to escape. The only thing that could replace her sorrow was sex...and lots of it. Depressed and with no goal in sight, Jacqui continued on with her self-deprecating lifestyle until it all changed one day. Uncle Max, an old family friend, appeared unannounced. Jacqui was astonished when Uncle Max revealed a secret to her about her father. From those few words, Jacqui's world turned completely upside down. She really didn't know her own father. In fact, she didn't even know much about Uncle Max, except that he visited them for a few days at a time over the years.
Get the latest update on new releases from the author at:
http://www.carlacoxwell.com/newsletter
This book is Part Three of the “Devil's Advocate BBW MC New Adult Romance Series”
Book 1
When Kristie comes home from college, the last thing she is expecting is her world to be turned upside down by the appearance of her new step-father’s nephew, Gray. Gray is rash, impulsive and breaks the law. Kristie’s mom asks if she can try to befriend Gray, in hopes to get him on the straight and narrow. The plan backfires, however, as Kristie finds herself falling for Gray. Is it possible he feels the same way? The connection between them threatens to tear down everything Kristie has ever held dear.
Book 2
Kristie has finally graduated from college. With a new boyfriend in tow, Gray’s rival, Armand, and moving back into her mother’s house, it feels as if life might finally fall back into place. But Gray, the love of her life and her cousin by marriage, happens to return after hiding out of town. As Kristie and Gray are drawn closer together, both must choose the life they want – with each other, or alone. No matter what they end up picking, the risks in their lives can end up costing the two of them everything.
Book 3
It’s been six months since Kristie was taken down in a gun fight related to her husband’s gang activity. Despite Gray’s promise to leave the gang behind, he finds himself searching for Armand and a way to take out the Infernos. The cycle of violence continues but this time the stakes might be too high and the price to pay might only be one of blood.
Book 4
When Kristie discovers she is pregnant after thinking she cannot conceive, her world is flipped even more upside down. Her best friend had just been gunned down in a gang related shooting and her husband, Gray, is in a battle for his life with a rival gang. Gray has a plan to get their happily-ever-after life but it is risky. He puts everything at stake to get rid of Armand. But Armand won’t go quietly. As the fighting continues, Kristie and Gray realize that everything is at stake.
Devil’s Advocate
A BBW MC New Adult Romance Series
Book 3
Copyright Revelry Publishing 2017
By Carla Coxwell
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Sample - Devil's Advocate: A BBW MC New Adult Romance Series - Book 4
Sample - Fifty Recipes For Disaster: A New Adult Romance Series - Book 3
Sample - Alpha Feud: A BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance - Book 3
Other Books by Carla Coxwell
About the Author - Carla Coxwell
Connect with Carla Coxwell
Chapter One
THE POPPING noise echoed so loudly that Kristie had to cover her ears. The sudden pain in her abdomen made her nauseous. Surprised, Kristie looked down and saw red soaking through her T-shirt. She looked up, panicked, and saw a cloaked figure running away…
Kristie’s eyes opened and she lurched upward, breathing hard. She clawed at her belly, trying to get the red off, when she realized that she wasn’t on the sidewalk, staring down into the cloaked face of the man who had shot her. No, Kristie was in her apartment with Gray snoring next to her.
Gray, she thought, turning to look at him. She felt covered in sweat, sticky and warm on her body from her nightmare. Always the same nightmare. The morning she had been shot, always a little different than how it actually happened. Kristie rubbed her brow, trying to wipe the sweat off, but her hand was clammy. Gray didn’t stir.
Kristie had hoped that Gray would wake up. Maybe somehow sense that she had been having her same nightmare again and hold her. Almost in response, Gray let out a loud snore and shifted onto his back. A nightlight in the corner illuminated the room in a soft glow. Gray had thought it was silly, Kristie knew, when she had suggested putting them around their apartment. But he hadn’t made fun of her. He unders
tood.
The fear that Kristie had lived with since she had woken up in the hospital six months ago, after being gunned down due to the gang battle Gray was involved in, came rolling over her. She gripped her stomach, feeling sick, remembering the pain of being shot. It was silly to even be thinking about it. But if Kristie allowed herself, she could still vividly recall those few seconds right before the gun had gone off.
Kristie squeezed her eyes tightly. No, not right now. The clock near her side of the bed showed it was four in the morning. She slid out of bed, nervous about heading toward the kitchen alone to get water. Get over it, she lectured herself, always harder on herself than anyone else was. Six months since being shot twice and almost dying. Was she supposed to be over it already? She asked herself those questions almost daily and never had an answer.
The coolness of the tiles in the kitchen helped steady her a bit. Kristie got a glass of water and drank it slowly, looking at the nightlight over the counter, which was brighter than the others. Gray joked that it was almost as if the lights were on. Kristie didn’t care. It was silly, because it hadn’t even been dark when she had been shot. But the darkness now felt imposing, as if it hid a million enemies, all coming after her.
Recovering after being shot had been difficult. Kristie had lost a lot of blood from the two life-threatening bullets. She had been in the hospital for almost a month recovering. Gray had sworn that Armand had been the one who had fired the gun, or hired the person to fire the gun – either way, Gray blamed Armand. Kristie didn’t know who it had been. All she knew was that it had been part of the gang violence that Gray swore he wouldn’t fall back into.
But Gray hadn’t removed himself from it. He said it was because he wanted to avenge her. As Kristie took another sip of water, all she could think was that she didn’t want to be avenged. She hadn’t died. She wanted to live with Gray and start their married life with a new baby. That was all Kristie could think about lately. Having a baby and raising a baby. That would bring Gray back to Earth and give him something to truly care about. It was what Kristie wanted as well.
She finished her water and rubbed her eyes, sighing. If Kristie stayed up like this, she’d be over-thinking everything. I need to go to bed. She had work in the morning and couldn’t be replaying the last year in her mind any longer. Kristie turned around and headed back to bed. She walked a little quicker than she would have in the daylight.
***
Gray wiped his hands on his pants, trying to get some of the car grease off of them. Rick was strolling toward him, puffing on a cigarette. It seemed impossible, but Rick had actually grown bigger in the last six months. He looked like a gladiator or something, Gray mused as he walked out of his uncle’s garage.
“There you are,” Rick said. “I have to get the oil changed in Kass’s car and wouldn’t mind seeing you actually do some work for a change.”
Gray laughed. “Hey, I do plenty here.”
Rick wrinkled his nose as if he didn’t quite believe him. “I’ll admit it – thought you could give me a discount, too.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Gray said, pretending to consider it.
“Thanks, pal.”
“Kass didn’t want to drop it off?” Gray asked, heading over to her car.
Rick shook his head. “She had to get to work. I told her I could do it for her. She’s trying to catch up on work since she had that cold last week.”
Gray nodded, but his thoughts were elsewhere. Rick and Kass had so easily settled into married life. Easier than Kristie and he had. Kass wasn’t shot the morning of their honeymoon though, Gray reminded himself gently. Maybe if Kristie hadn’t been, things wouldn’t be as messy as they were now.
Almost as if Rick sensed Gray’s thoughts, he asked, “How is Kristie doing?”
Gray shifted his weight, leaning back against Kass’s car. “Okay.”
Okay about summed the situation up. Kristie had recovered from her life-threatening gun shots from Armand. Gray had sworn to take Armand down for what he had done but it turned out it hadn’t been that easy. Armand had gone underground, impossible to find. Gray had been trying to have the asshole show his face so he could blow it off, but he’d had no luck.
Instead, the Infernos had been pressing on them harder, just in ways that were harder to strike back against. Burning the warehouse down and trying to shoot Gray in the face had apparently been their big plans. When both had failed to kill Gray and ruin the Devil’s Advocates, they had tried smaller ideas. Trying to frame them for crimes and constantly having the cops on Gray’s ass.
All of it had added a lot of stress to his relationship with Kristie. She wanted Gray to leave the gang, like he had said he would do when they married. But that had been before Kristie had been shot. There was no way that Gray could let Armand get away with almost killing her. No matter how much Kristie wanted everything to go back to a pretty, perfect life, Gray couldn’t allow Armand to get away with what he had been doing.
“She still afraid of the dark?” Rick asked, breaking through Gray’s thoughts.
Gray nodded. “Yeah. Still don’t totally understand it, since the shooting happened in the day but…she’s doing the best she can.”
“She still talking about a kid?”
Gray nodded, falling silent again. Kristie seemed obsessed with the idea of having a child. It wasn’t that Gray was against it, per se, but he didn’t know if now was the best time. They had just moved into their own apartment with the money Gray had made from working at his uncle’s garage as well as what he pulled in from the gang. Kristie had gotten a job at a law office doing clerical work and had been discussing going back to school for her law degree.
“It just doesn’t feel like the best time to have a kid,” Gray finally said.
Rick took a drag off his cigarette. “Never is a good time for one, is it?”
Gray nodded in response as the subject changed back to Kass’s car. Things felt so messy. He wasn’t sure how to put them back into their proper places.
Chapter Two
“I really don’t feel like it, Kass,” Kristie said in a low voice into her phone. “I can’t talk anymore, I’m still at work.”
“Okay,” Kass said on the other end, sounding unsure. “Well, if you change your mind and want to grab a drink…”
“Thanks, Kass,” Kristie said quickly before mumbling goodbye and hanging up the phone.
She looked over her shoulder but no one had noticed that she had been on the phone. Her boss was a grade-A tight ass about cell phone usage in the office and the last thing Kristie needed was getting in trouble. She normally wouldn’t have even picked up but Kass never called her and Kristie thought it had been important.
Instead, Kass had invited her out to the bar that the Devil’s Advocates ran. Kristie had no interest in going back outside in such a crowded place. She had been sticking to staying in the apartment lately and maybe going over to her mom’s house for dinner.
At the thought of her mother, Kristie’s mood darkened and she turned back to her computer screen. Any good will her mother had been feeling toward Gray and their marriage had been burnt up and turned into ash when Kristie had been shot. She had been pressing Kristie to divorce Gray and move back home as soon as she had recovered enough to speak. Kristie had been trying to hide her mother’s displeasure from Gray. Lionel ignored their marriage, never bringing it up, as if it hadn’t happened. Just another layer of stress, she thought numbly.
It was almost time to head home for the day. Gray had already texted her and said he would be home late tonight. She wished that Gray would be home before her for a change. Kristie wasn’t stupid enough to think that he was working at the garage this late. It made her heart ache when she realized she’d be coming back to an empty apartment. She wished Gray would be home so they could try to get pregnant again.
At five, Kristie shut off her computer and headed toward the front door. The law office was quiet. She was usually the last one to
leave at five. The lawyers all left at around two or three. The other girls working in the office had crazy hours, bounding around from this location to the other location forty-five minutes away. Kristie did clerical work but kept hoping she’d get a promotion. She kept talking about going back to school for her law degree but didn’t know if she really wanted to or not. How can I be a lawyer with what my husband does for a living? Kristie headed outside.
The sun was setting. Winter was fast approaching again and Kristie welcomed the chill in the air. The sky was overcast with streaks of orange shooting across the sky. The parking lot was empty except for her car. Suddenly, she saw a flash of color out of the corner of her eye.
Kristie’s breath caught, and she turned on her heels slowly. There was nothing there. You’re imagining it. She walked again toward her car. The parking lot seemed to stretch out ahead of her. Even though it was nice outside, sweat prickled the back of her neck. It seemed as if it each step would take her one step closer to someone hiding behind a tree, or waiting for her in her car…
Breathing hard, Kristie approached her car and peeked in the back seat. She had read online sometimes people would wait in the back seat to strike. No one was there. No one is watching you. She slid into her car. Her hands were clammy as she roared out of the parking lot, hopefully leaving whoever was there far behind.
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