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“No,” Gray snapped as he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and began dialing. Luke grabbed it from him and tossed it on a nearby desk.
“Gray, listen to me,” Luke said.
“No,” Gray nearly yelled as he tried to grab the phone.
“Damn it, Gray, haven’t you figured it out yet? I don’t want you!” he shouted.
The words had the desired effect and Gray stepped back as if Luke had struck him. But then his eyes hardened and Luke knew it wasn’t going to be that easy so he went in for the kill. “Even if by some miracle your lawyer sorts all this shit out, do you really think I’d stay here with you? After everything I told you about the military being my life?”
Gray paled but thankfully didn’t say anything. Not that it would have mattered because Luke felt like he had a mortal wound inside of him tearing open. “Did you think I’d actually want to be walking down some red carpet by your side, smiling for the cameras like some trained monkey all the while wondering what actor or groupie you were fucking behind my back?” Luke gave the knife one last twist by whispering, “You needed someone to take care of you, Gray, and I needed a place to hide out. The stuff between us was just a …perk.”
Luke actually had to grab the desk to keep himself upright at that point but Gray’s response was the exact opposite. His pretty gold eyes dimmed and then they went blank and Luke knew in that instant that his Gray was gone. The man before him merely reached past him to grab the cell phone off the desk and then he turned and walked out the door. He heard Gray’s truck start up a second later but there wasn’t even the squeal of tires to accompany the sound – no, his lie had done exactly what he’d intended. He turned his attention to Jax and ground out, “Luke Monroe. M.O.N.R.O.E. The charge is murder in the first degree.”
* * *
“Tell me what’s going on,” Luke heard Rhys say softly as a cup of coffee was pushed into his lax grip. The windowless room they were sitting in felt too small but he supposed it was better than a jail cell. He also wasn’t cuffed yet so there was that too. Not that it mattered because he’d been frozen within himself for the last ten minutes and didn’t even remember how he’d made it to the room with the small wood table and chairs.
“I should probably get an attorney first,” Luke whispered because that was the best he could manage considering his throat actually hurt.
“Fuck that,” Rhys snapped and then he was up and pacing the small room. It was soRhys. Even when they were kids, Rhys had never been able to hide his feelings or sit still when confronted with something beyond his control. And he almost never accepted the fact that he couldn’t jump in and save someone or fix the situation.
“You can tell the sheriff that I’m waiving my right to an extradition hearing-”
Rhys slammed his hand down on the table. Lesser men would have jumped at the abrupt move but Luke merely used his sleeve to dab at the splash of coffee that that had sloshed over the cup and onto the table.
“Murder charges? What the hell happened?” Rhys bit out.
Luke sighed and then rehashed the story for Rhys. Rhys didn’t interrupt him at all but as soon as he was done he was asking question after question, just like any good cop would. Since his heart still felt like it had been run through by a knife, Luke finally cut Rhys off and said, “Make the call, Rhys. You know you don’t have a choice.”
“Fuck if I don’t,” Rhys snapped but he finally sat down. “Why didn’t you come to me when you got here?”
“Because I knew you’d go through hell and high water to help me even if meant giving this up,” Luke said as he waved his hand at Rhys’ uniform.
“So your plan was to leave? Just like that? Without even talking to me?”
“That was the plan,” Luke acknowledged.
“And then you met Gray?”
Even the sound of Gray’s name had Luke nearly keeling over in pain so he just nodded.
“Did…did something happen between you two?” Rhys asked, his voice gentle.
Luke could feel tears threatening and he had to blink his eyes rapidly to stop them from falling. “I felt something that first day…something I’d never felt for another man.”
“You were attracted to him?” Rhys offered.
Luke nodded. “But it was so much more than that. I was confused by the physical part of it but it was also the little stuff, you know?” Luke asked, though one look at Rhys told him the man wasn’t sure what he was talking about.
“Like the sound of his laugh or the way his smile is a little higher on one side of his mouth than the other or the way he would sneak Ripley food from his plate when he didn’t think I was watching.” Luke shook his head in frustration because even as he spoke, he realized that the words didn’t do justice for how he felt around Gray.
“Being around him is what I always thought coming home would feel like…but the kind of coming home you and I never got to have when we were kids, you know?”
A smile spread across Rhys’ features making him look much younger than his 30 years. “I do know,” he said wistfully and Luke could only imagine that the man was thinking about his lovers. Gray hadn’t been able to tell Luke much about the two men Rhys had become involved with after his arrival in Dare but it was clear that whatever was happening between the three of them, it was exactly what Rhys needed.
“The things you said to him…” Rhys said, his features darkening.
Luke buried his face in his hands. “He wanted to give up his whole life just so he could go on the run with me.”
