Devil's Advocate: A BBW MC New Adult Romance Series - Book 4 (Devil's Advocate BBW MC New Adult Romance Series)

by Carla Coxwell

  He was overwhelmed by the sight of families filling the place up. Kids ran in and out of a playground off to one side, the noise almost deafening from the children fighting or screaming in joy to the people without kids trying to talk over one another. Is this where I’m going to eat the rest of my life once the kids are older?

  “Sir?”

  Gray looked at the hostess. “Hey, a man named Ben is waiting for me.”

  “Big, older guy?”

  “Yeah. Mean looking,” he joked, and the hostess knew exactly who he meant.

  He trailed after her to a booth in the back. Ben was hunched over the table, staring at the menu. Gray realized he didn’t know much about Ben besides the fact he was a pain in the ass. He was clearly taking orders from Armand as well, no matter how much he might try to deny it in their conversation.

  Gray slid into the booth and Ben looked up, letting out a grunt that apparently served as a greeting.

  “Why in the world are we meeting here?” Gray asked first.

  “No one else would meet here, right? You wanted neutral ground. This is as neutral as it’s going to get. Believe me, I don’t want to be here either.” His eyes trailed after a boy who was passing by the table, whining that he wanted dessert. “I can’t stand kids.”

  The waitress came over at that point to see if Gray wanted anything. He ordered a soda, and Ben ordered cheese fries. When she left, Gray looked back at him.

  “So, you wanted to meet. That means you’re somewhat interested.”

  “Is that what that means?” Ben grunted.

  “Why else would you meet with me?”

  “Listen, kid,” Ben said, and Gray felt irritation flare up briefly. “You can talk about this treaty with me. But last I heard, you aren’t exactly in charge of your own group anymore.”

  “Last I heard, you aren’t either. More of a figurehead. Like the Queen of England.”

  Ben’s brows furrowed. Either he didn’t like that Gray was right or he didn’t like being compared to the Queen.

  “Where did you hear that bullshit?”

  “Where did you hear yours?”

  The two men looked at each other. In the distance, a group of waiters and waitresses were singing Happy Birthday to a kid. The whole situation felt slightly surreal. The waitress came back with Gray’s drink.

  After she left, Gray looked back at Ben. “So, are we going to actually talk or just spout off how much we know about each other?”

  ***

  Reality TV had become a terrible guilty pleasure of Kristie’s. She discovered she had a terrible attention span while pregnant. Her mind would wander, and she would think of the baby or what she had to do with Megan. Reality TV offered the perfect venue of distraction and not a ton of brain cells was needed to follow the gibberish unfolding on screen.

  Kristie was in the middle of watching two people fight over cake topping decorations when she thought she heard a noise. She tilted her head to one side and then heard it again. Reaching for the remote, she muted the TV. I’m hearing things.

  When Kristie didn’t hear it again, she unmuted the TV and tried to get comfortable. But the noise was still bothering her. It didn’t fit in with anything else she heard. Thinking it was probably nothing, she still got to her feet and padded out to the main hall of the apartment just to be sure. The door was locked and there was nothing there. Kristie walked up to the front door and peeked out of the peephole. The hallway in front of the doorway was empty.

  “I’m going crazy,” she mumbled to herself.

  Kristie rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming on. Then she turned around to head back to the living room… and found herself staring directly into Armand’s eyes.

  ***

  “What about the car lots?” Ben asked, pointing to the list they had been fighting over on a napkin.

  “What about them?” Gray replied, his patience wearing thin. “We agreed to split them. This area is where you can borrow any cars you want.”

  “This area is a glorified ghetto. Why do we get stuck with that and you get the west end?”

  Gray took a sip of his soda, feeling frustrated. They had been at it for a while and progress was minimal.

  “The terms you want won’t go over well with my own group,” he said to Ben. “I give you everything, and I look like a child being schooled by his father.”

  “That leads me to my next question – once they shove you out of the leadership role, how do I know that Grant will keep to these terms?”

  Gray bristled. Was it truly such common knowledge that Grant was going to take over the Infernos?

  “What about you?” he countered.

  “What about me?”

  “You want a promise from me. Armand is the real head of your gang, isn’t he? How do I know the Infernos will stick to this once Armand is in charge? That he won’t come after my wife or my kids?”

  “Armand isn’t in charge.”

  “So it was you who gunned down my wife then? By your orders?”

  Ben tensed up and then shoved cold cheese fries into his mouth, glaring at him. “I didn’t give that fucking order. He’s a shitty shot.”

  “So let’s pretend then that Grant is in control of my group and you lost control of yours to Armand. What then? I got a murderous asshole in charge of a group that is coming after my family.”

  “So what are you suggesting then?” Ben said.

  Gray leaned back and crossed his arms.

  ***

  Kristie wriggled against the rope, but all it did was rub her wrists raw. She leaned against the counter in the kitchen, sitting on the floor, staring up at Armand. He paced the kitchen floor, looking extremely angry.

  It took minimal effort to restrain Kristie. She was eight months pregnant, after all, and she didn’t struggle when he tied her up. She didn’t want to do anything that would hurt the baby. She knew she’d lose if she tried to break free anyway.

  “He fucking lied to me,” Armand said now, pacing. “Ben fucking lied.”

  The fear tasted metallic in Kristie’s mouth. Armand must have picked the lock and then closed it behind him, waiting to get her. She moved so slowly and was so concerned about the front door that she didn’t notice him hiding in the closet nearby. The last time Kristie had seen Armand was in the bathroom of Kass’s anniversary party. She had been terrified then. Now she was terrified for Megan and her unborn baby.

  “When is he coming back?” He turned to face Kristie now.

  “Who?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me.”

  “I don’t know. He left about an hour ago.”

  Armand walked over and crouched next to her. His eyes still looked snake-like and rage shimmered in them.

  “Ben told me he was leaving in thirty minutes. For some fucking treaty,” he spat, as if it was the most disgusting thing he had ever heard. “He’s going to talk to your fucking husband and make amends with him. The club deserves more than that.”

  “Well, Gray isn’t here, as you can clearly see,” Kristie snapped back. “Congrats on tying up the pregnant woman, by the way. Do you feel like a man now?”

  For a second, she wondered if Armand was going to slap her. But instead he lurched away from her, letting out a groan of frustration.

  “Why would he lie to me?” he mumbled quietly, but Kristie still heard him.

  “Probably because no one wants to do this shit anymore, Armand. You keep this cycle of violence going. You almost killed me. You killed Rick. You killed Kass. Are you impressed with yourself now? So what, did you come here to kill Gray?”

  “Of course I came here to kill Gray.” He rounded on Kristie, his eyes alight with rage. “He deserves to die. I deserve to lead the Devil’s Advocates. He always trusted Rick more than me. Rick was old-fashioned. His ideas were keeping the group back. Gray should have trusted me!” He was ranting now, his breath coming quickly. “When you left me for him, I couldn’t understand what he had that made everyone him. He is weak. He is a
coward. I could…I can…control both clubs. Both of them will follow my lead. With Gray finally fucking dead, I can bring the Devil’s Advocates under my thumb.”

  “What about Ben?”

  “I’ll kill him next.”

  “You can’t just go around killing everyone who thinks you aren’t a great leader.”

  But Armand was shaking his head. “Shut up. I’ll just kill you, you get it? That’ll let Gray know he’s next.”

  Fear shot up her body as Armand turned to look out the kitchen window that overlooked the parking lot. Kristie tried to remember where she left her phone. Her whole body was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane. Armand was silent, staring out the window.

  With a jolt, she realized she left her phone in the master bathroom. She was constantly having to go pee at this point in her pregnancy. It was too far away to get to and, in any case, her feet were firmly tied together.

  “Armand, I need to pee.”

  That snapped him out of whatever thoughts he was dwelling in and he turned on her. “What?”

  “I’m extremely pregnant. I need to pee. Let me pee.”

  “Why should I let you pee when I’m going to kill you?”

  Because you’re not going to kill me. Armand may have no qualms about shooting Gray and sending off people to kill Kass and Rick. But he had been squirming ever since he was faced with her belly. She was gambling on the squirming to mean he wouldn’t be able to kill a pregnant woman. She hoped she was right.

  “Armand, come on. I need to pee. You really going to make a pregnant woman pee on the floor like an animal?”

  Armand seemed lost in thought again, chewing on his bottom lip. Kristie’s heart was beating so hard in her chest that she was worried she would faint. As long as he agreed to let her go to the bathroom, she could call the police. Even if Armand heard, the possibility of cops coming meant Armand would leave.

  Kristie only hoped that he left her alive.

  ***

  “Listen,” Gray said. “Armand is going to take over your gang. People are saying he has already and you’re just letting him. He’s blood thirsty. If he wants to kill me, what is stopping him from killing you?”

  “What you’re suggesting…” Ben shook his head. “I can’t. And I can’t trust you.”

  “Nothing is going to get done if we don’t trust each other on this. You burned down our warehouse and our bar. We make almost nothing now. Our turf is practically gone. And I’m still here. Talking to you.”

  “Right and I have the upper hand, remember that, boy.”

  The waitress came back over. Ben ordered a cheeseburger this time and Gray ordered cheese fries. They had been at it for over an hour now, and his nerves were wearing thin.

  “So what then? You want Armand to off you?”

  Ben stared at Gray for a few long moments, as if mulling something over, before he spoke. “He is getting out of hand. Just the other day, he mugged a guy on his way to one of our meetings. We had to change our location in case the cops were on him.”

  “You know he killed that driver a couple years back.”

  “He said you did it.”

  “No. He wanted everyone to think I did though.”

  Ben grunted. “Let’s say he is bad for business. Then what?”

  Gray leaned forward and dropped his voice down to a whisper. “You can get what you want. Merge the groups. We end the violence. But it won’t truly end with Armand.”

  Understanding lined Ben’s face but he didn’t say anything.

  “I want out of this group. It isn’t fair to my wife or my kids. At one time, it meant everything to me. But not now. This son of a bitch hurt my wife. Killed my best friend. If you do this one thing for me…then you get my entire group. Do what you want with Grant if he acts up.”

  “What about the turf we want?”

  “All of it.”

  “I’ll consider it. That’s the most you’re going to get out of me right now.” Ben threw a napkin down and stood up, tossing a twenty dollar bill on the table.

  Gray watched him go, wondering if he had made the right choice or not. He couldn’t resist adding that final part about Armand. Would Ben really kill him? Even if Gray didn’t pull the trigger himself, it would be as good as if he had. Armand would be dead. Gray would have no link to the crime. He would move to wherever Kristie wanted. He didn’t care where that ended up being.

  He knew no one in the gang would be happy if they learned that Gray would give up the gang to the Infernos. They would say that we lost. He pulled out his own wallet. The thought didn’t upset him as much as it would have before. He was truly drifting away from the Devil’s Advocates.

  Gray paid the bill and headed out to the parking lot, eager to see Kristie.

  ***

  “The door stays open,” Armand said, holding a long switchblade to her neck as they headed down the hallway. “You have thirty seconds.”

  Kristie nodded, shivering as the cold blade touched her skin. Megan started to fuss in her bedroom. When Armand began to lead her to the bathroom closest to the kitchen, she realized she had to find a way to get to the one in her room. Panic was at the edges of her brain, waiting for her to lower her guard once so it could overtake her. She couldn’t let that happen.

  Kristie grabbed her belly and let out a cry of pain, doubling over. Armand moved his blade out of the way, startled by her sudden movement.

  “What the fuck?”

  “Pregnancy pains,” she lied through clenched teeth. “I have to take my pills.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Other bathroom. Down the hallway in my bedroom.”

  When Armand looked as if he wasn’t sure whether to let her go or not, Kristie let out another cry of pain. Armand finally pushed her along toward the hallway. Her pregnancy was probably the one reason he hadn’t killed her yet. Killing a pregnant woman was too much for him. It had taken him by surprise that Gray wasn’t here, and it was only her. He hadn’t thought this through all the way. Kristie was determined to use that to her advantage.

  Megan was wailing now. She probably needed to be fed and changed. It took every urge Kristie had not to run over to her daughter.

  “Shut that kid up,” Armand growled.

  “She’s probably upset the killer of her actual parents is here,” she quipped.

  Feeling overconfident that Armand wasn’t going to hurt her, she realized her mistake as soon as the words left her mouth. Armand twisted her arm hard and spun her around, slamming her back against the wall. This time the pain was real, and Kristie cried out in surprise.

  The blade was back against her throat and anger blazed in Armand’s eyes. “You say nothing else, do you understand?”

  Kristie nodded.

  “Next time I will hurt you.”

  She nodded again, and he yanked her off the wall, down the hallway. Kristie’s fear was making her throat clench. Megan was still crying. Kristie’s vision constricted. The baby kicked in her belly, and she gasped again. They got to the bathroom, and Armand shoved her inside, turning his back.

  Kristie wiped the sweat from her brow and swallowed down the tears that built up. Her phone was on the counter. She snatched it up and looked around wildly. He had said not to shut the door. But if she could barricade herself in, he might not have enough time to stop her right away.

  For once, she was thankful Gray never put things back when he was done with them. He had changed a light bulb in the bathroom yesterday and left the dining room chair he had stood on still in the room. Kristie had been too tired to put it back. Quietly, she lifted up the chair and waddled over to the door. As gently as she could, she closed the door, tilted the chair and slid it underneath the handle. She held her breath, waiting to see if Armand said anything. He didn’t. Megan was wailing now, making enough noise to drown out Kristie.

  She snatched up her phone and wedged herself as far as she could get into the corner between the toilet and the shower. It wasn’t as far as she liked. He
r baby kicked again, and she took in a sharp intake of breath as she dialed 911.

  “Hey, you were supposed to keep the door open. Are you fucking done yet?” Armand yelled and pounded on the door.

  “Help,” Kristie hissed into her phone. “A man, my ex-boyfriend, is in my apartment right now, holding me hostage.”