Devil's Advocate - Book 2

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Kristie’s breath caught in her throat. She remembered the last time she had seen Gray, when he’d told her he never cared about her. She’d been so scared that he was going to go to jail for the death of someone he hadn’t actually killed. The night they had spent together flashed before her eyes as well, unbidden, images of their limbs entangled as he moved inside of her.

She shut her eyes briefly and then opened them to watch Gray walk toward her. It was as if no one else was there. The room only held the two of them. Gray’s hair had grown a little, no longer closely shaven to his head. His muscles were tight underneath the dress shirt he wore, and she could see the hint of his tattoos around his wrists. He had no expression on his face.

Next to her, Armand stiffened. She didn’t know the full story of what was going on between the two of them, but she knew it had to do with the g**g. Kristie tried to stay out of it as much as she could. The less she knew about g**g life, the better.

Gray finally made it up to Kristie, and she realized no one else was paying attention to the moment unfolding. The low hum of conversation went on, and she could hear someone nearby droning on with a dull story about a trip they had taken to London.

“Kristie,” Gray said. “Congrats.”

“Thanks,” she replied stiffly.

A beat passed as Gray looked at Armand’s arm around Kristie and then up to Armand’s eyes. “Hey.”

“Hey. You coming back to town?” Armand wasn’t smooth, and Kristie cringed inwardly at his delivery.

“Yes.”

Another beat passed. Kristie wished she could be anywhere than where she was at this moment.

Finally Gray nodded. “Talk to you later, Kristie.”

He walked off and the crowd swallowed him up. Kristie could only watch him go.

>>

Gray’s head felt wrecked. He wished he could slam back all the alcohol in this entire room. People were whispering about him and their voices ground against his ears, driving him crazy. It had been so stupid to come to this graduation party. Lionel had talked him into it, and Gray foolishly believed his former guardian’s words. Everyone will be so happy to see you! Everyone was so worried when that cop came after you for that man’s murder! Everyone knows you didn’t do a thing. This is a great time to turn your life around.

The only thing Gray had noticed since he came back was the glares and stares from people thinking he was a murderer. He was coming back to town but didn’t know where his place was with the Devil’s Advocates. He tried to run them while in hiding, but the rumors he had been hearing were clearly true.

Rick, who had gotten engaged to Kass last month and shell shocked everyone, told Gray that Armand was moving in on his spot in the g**g. Gray had brushed it off, thinking that Armand was a d**k and probably was trying, but there was no way it would work. Things would fall into place when he got back.

Now he wasn’t so sure.

No one had even told him Kristie and Armand were f*****g dating until right before the event started. Kristie’s mother, Pamela, had mentioned Kristie dating someone from Gray’s g**g and how stressed it had made her, to one of her friends. Gray had overheard it. No way. Someone would have told me. Kristie would have f*****g told me. But why would she have? Whatever they once had between them had faded and shattered apart, all because of him.

Now Gray could only watch from afar as Armand leaned over and kissed Kristie on the cheek, his arm firmly wrapped around her... like she was a prize to be won. Something Armand could dangle over Gray’s head – I stole your girlfriend and now I’ll steal your g**g. It was absurd. Armand didn’t know the history between Gray and Kristie.

Gray knew that it meant everything else he had feared was true.

>>

Kristie tried to spend the rest of the graduation dinner in good spirits, but it felt almost impossible whenever she thought of Gray. He sat far away from her, on the other end of the table. Kristie tried her best not to look at him. There was clearly tension between Gray and Armand. Rick was paying attention to Kass, but more than a few times he glanced Gray’s way, as if to say we need to talk.

As dinner wrapped up, Armand held her hand tightly, weaving her away from the crowd. He had her in one of the hallways leading to the restroom and was kissing along her neck. Armand liked to take chances in public, something that Kristie always tried to avoid. Anytime he kissed her in public, she found herself thinking back to the night in the restroom with Gray.

“Armand, not right now,” she hissed.

Armand stopped and removed himself from kissing along her neck, looking up at her. “Why not? No one will come back here.”

Kristie shook her head and Armand launched away from her, running his fingers through his hair. She had a lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away.

“Listen,” Armand said, bouncing on the balls of his feet. “I’m going to head out, okay?”

“Now?”

“I just remembered I have to do something.”

“You just wanted to have s*x three seconds ago.”

But Armand was distracted now. Kristie had seen this look before. He was always gone all night whenever he had it on his face. She didn’t feel like fighting with him about it today.

“Fine, go.”

Armand leaned forward and kissed her. “Congrats, babe.”

Kristie watched him go. As Armand weaved his way through the crowd, Kristie couldn’t remember the last time she felt so alone.

>>

“There you are!” Rick exclaimed.

Gray had snuck outside to the back of the restaurant for a cigarette. He looked over at Rick and shrugged. Dinner had been terrible. He had been foolish to think that he could leave town without anything bad happening. The cigarette tasted terrible when he thought of how he had seen Armand and Kristie sneak off to the back hallway.

Images flashed through his mind of his restroom interlude last December... Kristie’s surprise as Gray burst into the public restroom and had his way with her in the stall. Gray took a long drag on his cigarette and looked up at Rick.

Rick looked tired and stressed out. New lines were around his eyes as he sat down next to him, pulling out his own cigarette.

“Kass looks happy. Never pegged you as the settling down type.”

Rick lit up the cigarette and the flame briefly illuminated his face. “Kass is different.”

“Fast, don’t you think?”

“No.” Smoke plumed out of his mouth. “Not with Kass.”

They fell into a comfortable silence. Gray felt he’d had his head in the sand when he went into hiding. It had been sweet relief when Officer Dipshit John had to take a leave from the force for going after him so hard with zero evidence. Gray had been foolish to think that everything would go back to normal as soon as he rolled back into town.

“Tell me,” he finally said to Rick.

“It’s Armand. I’m sure you knew that already though. I don’t trust him. But everyone else has the wool pulled over their eyes. They see him as this great guy who stepped up when you had to skip town.”

“Why don’t you think that?”

“I know better. And I’m loyal to you. We still don’t know if he had anything to do with that cop coming after you so hard. The Infernos are lying low, but now that Ben is out of jail...”

“That d**k,” Gray mumbled.

“Armand is subtle about it, but I feel as if he’s trying to take over the club. Says you weren’t ever going to come back... that we need to forget about you.”

“Well, here I am.”

“We have problems with the Infernos now, too. Anything we target, they hit first. They seem to tip the cops off, too. It has to be them. Gale is an i***t and pretty much admitted they were calling the cops on us whenever we tried to boost a car.”

Gray scowled. Gale was second-in-command to Ben at the Infernos. He had tried to pull s**t over with Kristie, back before everything had gotten so messy. Gray had put a stop to it, but not before Officer John had rolled up.

“Call a meeting,” Gray said, standing up.

Rick nodded, watching the smoke from their cigarettes blend together in the wind.