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“Fucker nearly cost you your life,” Luke growled.
Under any other circumstance, Luke’s protectiveness would have caused a warm shiver to run up his spine but now it just frustrated him. “How did you get Shaw?”
“Jax used a high powered rifle to distract the guy guarding the back door. The sound drew him out enough for Rhys to take him out and that distracted Shaw enough for me to get to him. He’s dead.”
Gray nodded and he hated the rush of relief that went through him knowing Luke was free now. Free to go back to the life he loved.
“Your lawyer showed up at the police station a couple hours ago. Said he was my lawyer, actually.”
Gray turned on his side so he wouldn’t have to face Luke anymore because whatever drug was coursing through his blood was doing nothing to ease the ache in his heart. “I’m really tired, Luke. Thanks for stopping by.”
Gray heard movement behind him and his whole body drew tight as he sensed Luke leaning over him. Lips ghosted across his forehead and then stopped by his ear. “Don’t think this is goodbye, Gray, because I’m not going anywhere.”
ChapterEleven
Three weeks. Three fucking weeks.
That was how long it had taken Luke to clear up the shitstorm that had rained down on him when word got out of Shaw’s actions overseas and at home. But it hadn’t even started there. It had started after what should have been a simple run to the cafeteria to get a cup of coffee while Gray was asleep. By the time he’d gotten back to Gray’s room, a burly security guard had been waiting by the door and a grim looking Rhys had informed him that Gray had said he didn’t want to see him anymore. He’d fought it of course but no amount of calling Gray’s name had changed anything and he hadn’t been willing to hurt Rhys just to get past him. So he’d finally allowed Rhys to escort him from the hospital where his foster brother had dropped another load of bad news on him – until the mess with Barnes’ murder was cleared up, Luke was technically under arrest. And while Rhys hadn’t gone so far as to cuff him, he had taken him back to the station where two MPs had been waiting for him to escort him back to Fort Benning. Rhys, as well as the lawyer Gray had hired for him, had followed and Luke was actually grateful for the attorney’s presence because he’d been too overcome with anguish to care about the legal crap going on around him. While Gray’s attorney had worked to secure his freedom, Luke had been trying to figure out how to get Gray back.
Three weeks later and he wasn’t much closer to his goal. He’d managed to convince Dane to give him Gray’s address in California after he discovered that Gray had left Montana a couple days after he’d been discharged from the hospital. He hadn’t bothered trying to call Gray because he knew Gray would tell him to go to hell, and the things he needed to say couldn’t be done over the phone. And although he hadn’t seen or spoken to Gray in person, he had seen his former lover in all his glory as he became exactly what he he’d been so afraid of – a role model.
The first interview had been on some type of nightly entertainment show about a week after Shaw’s assault. Luke had taken in every detail of Gray’s still bruised face and he’d listened as Gray had glossed over his injuries and the details of what had happened that day. And before the reporter could ask her next question, Gray had stunned her and likely the entire audience with his announcement that he had been battling cancer. The reporter had recovered quickly to ask endless and increasingly personal questions and Gray had answered every single one openly and honestly and as the interview drew to a close, he’d looked straight at the camera and sent a message directly to the audience asking them not to wait to go to the doctor if they found anything suspicious. He’d also encouraged anyone battling the disease to find a support system among their family and friends so they would have the strength they needed to become a survivor instead of a statistic. More interviews and articles had followed as Gray became the face of surviving testicular cancer and if the new label bothered him at all, he never showed it.
But it was what Luke hadn’t seen that had him buying a one-way ticket to L.A. instead of driving and then paying a cab driver an exorbitant fee to get him out of the crowded city and on the way to the posh beachside community of Malibu. All the words coming out of Gray’s mouth had been the right ones but there’d been nothing in his eyes. When he’d told the reporter he was excited to be working with the studio on the final version of the script for the first film in his series, there’d been no excitement in his golden eyes. The wide smile that accompanied the reporter’s congratulations on his latest book making the bestseller list a month before its release date was too wide. And when asked about the mysterious man Gray had been with at his cabin, Gray couldn’t mask the pain in his eyes even as he coyly dodged the question.
Finding Gray’s house was surprisingly easy because there were at least half a dozen reporters standing at the edge of the driveway. Luke was glad there wasn’t any kind of security gate to get through and he ignored the reporters calling out to him when he got out of the cab. He’d packed light for the trip so he didn’t need to spend any time digging luggage from the cab’s trunk. But it was an odd feeling to have cameras and flashes going off behind him as he made his way up the walkway of the very modern looking white house. His anxiety was at boiling point and it seemed to take forever for the door to open. But nothing could have prepared him for his first sight of Gray.
It wasn’t that there was anything outwardly wrong with Gray’s physical appearance - in fact, he actually looked healthier than Luke had ever seen him. His beautiful blond hair was almost back to the length it had been that terrible day when he’d watched Gray shave the first of it off and his skin no longer looked pale or sallow. And while he was still a little underweight, his body had started to fill out enough that his clothes fit normally again. But what Luke was seeing was only a shell of a man. There was no spark in his dull eyes and even upon seeing Luke, his expression barely changed.
“Hi,” was all Luke managed to come up with as his hungry eyes raked over Gray. Gray didn’t say anything but he did open the door wider and Luke took that as the only invitation he was going to get. As soon as he was inside, Ripley came up to greet him. The dog’s movements were slow and she had a slight limp but her tail was wagging and she whined excitedly as she pressed her nose into Luke’s hand.
“She looks good,” Luke murmured as he got on the smooth white floor and let Ripley crawl all over him. He used the time to take in the inside of Gray’s house and was overwhelmed by how beautiful it was…and expensive looking. Huge glass windows made up the entire rear, giving him an unfettered view of the beach and ocean. The living room boasted a massive fireplace and had several pieces of leather furniture positioned in a way that guests could talk to each other while still enjoying the view. A marble staircase led to the second floor and off to the side of the house he could see an indoor swimming pool.
“What are you doing here, Luke?” Gray asked tiredly as he began walking up the stairs. Luke gently extricated himself from Ripley and climbed to his feet. The big dog trotted into the living room and curled up in a plush dog bed by the fireplace.
Luke followed Gray upstairs to what he could only assume was the master bedroom. The king sized bed actually looked small in the large room, and the far wall was another set of windows. But there was also a walk out porch with a hot tub. What stood out to Luke though, were the stacked boxes stuffed into each corner of the room.
“Are you moving?” Luke asked as Gray disappeared into the closet. He returned a moment later with a large suitcase which he put on the bed and opened.
“I’m going back to the cabin.”
“Are you selling this place?”
Gray merely nodded.
“What about your career? The movies?”
“I can write from anywhere,” Gray murmured as he went back to the closet and reemerged with an armful of clothes.
“And the movies?”
“I told the studio I wasn’t interested in being involved in the creative process. They can cast whoever they want – my only obligation is to do some promotion work when each film is released.”
“So that fucker Cavelli is going to get the part even after the shit he pulled?”
Gray finally seemed to wake up from whatever haze he was in and all the emotion that had been missing from his features during all his interviews came flooding back at once. “Damn it, Luke, what the hell do you want from me?”
At the naked pain in Gray’s voice, Luke cursed himself for getting off track and he tried reaching for Gray. But Gray shrugged him off and took several steps back.
