ONE WEEK LATER: TWO WEEKS BEFORE TRIAL
"Favorite ice cream?"
"Mint chocolate chip."
"Ewwww what?!"
"Ok, what's yours?"
"Wild & reckless sherbet."
"Damn how old are you, ten?"
"Boy fuck you." I laughed and Gray's laughter followed after. Before ya'll get to talking shit, NO I wasn't playing that dumb. After the Chief called me by my first name and Gerald refused to show me the security tape, I knew some janky shit was going on, but if I tried to bust out Gray with no evidence or no plan, where would that leave me? Homeless, unemployed and broke, and that wasn't the route I was trying to take. All I knew right now was that Gray and the Chief of Police were in cahoots. About what, I still didn't know but if the Chief was involved I was sure it was tied into the DA position. Where I fit in was still unclear, I knew it'd only be a matter of time before shit came to the light; it always did. I still had my own plan to execute, if I had to play dumb a little while longer then so be it.
"Any siblings?" Gray asked out loud, bringing me back to reality. We were at the house in our PJ's playing 21 questions and eating pizza.
"Only child. Do you like your career choice?" I asked, switching gears. Gray paused before answering
"Eh, I wish I would've went for DA when I was younger. It was always a goal for me, but I doubted myself. Now, I want it so bad that I'll do anything to get it." he replied honestly.
"I bet." I mumbled
"What was that?" Gray questioned, but I shoved a hot wing in my mouth so I couldn't respond immediately.
"Favorite holiday?" I asked with a mouth full of meat.
"Moms birthday. September 29th." he answered, becoming quiet as he stared off into space. I let Gray have his moment and continued to chew my food. I made a mental note of all his answers.
"Favorite candy?" Gray shook himself out of his trance to resume the game.
"Ferraro Roche's, that chocolate covered hazelnut is killer." we were coming up on our last few questions and the pizza was finished so I stood up and started to gather all the trash. Gray Proceeded to turn off the television. Once the area was cleaned, he started towards his bedroom and I headed to the guest room. Even though we were fucking, I had never slept in his room. The couple of times we did it in the room I would always go back to the guest room after a shower. So tonight, when he asked me
"You sleeping with me?" I was shocked, but pleased. It let me know that he was trusting me more, letting his guard down; and that was exactly what I needed.
"Oh, you must like me like me." I joked
"It's hard not to." Gray shrugged his shoulders admittedly, opening his room door and waiting for me to enter. I took him up on his offer and stepped across the threshold. His all black room was modernly decorated and the Cali King in the middle was layered with six inches of memory foam. Since we had both already showered, we climbed into the bed. Surprisingly, Gray scooted over to me and wrapped me up in his arms. I wanted to pull away, but it would raise suspicion, so I relaxed against his body to make him think shit was peachy. Gray nuzzled his face into my neck like I was really his bitch, ouuu he was laying it on thick. I chuckled to myself, he thought he had me fooled, whole time we both were running game. We were only cuddled up for about five minutes before Grays hands were rubbing my ass, I allowed it because a little dick never hurt nobody, and even though Gray was on some scandalous shit, that janky dick HIT. I expected him to slide in from the back, but he slipped under the covers right in between my legs. I let him push my legs apart and slide my panties down. Gray skipped the slow play and opened me up with his tongue. I pulled the covers off of us, we were not teenagers, and I liked to watch him taste me. He had Anthony beat,when it came to eating pussy. The tongue God blessed him with was causing me to have convulsions. I nutted over and over again, my body was damn near lifeless when Gray finally came up for air. I was dazed, still trying to recover. Gray smiled at me and kissed my forehead. "Go to sleep." he told me
"I-I gotta give you back...what you gave me.' I mumbled, my body couldn't get up even if I wanted it to. I was dozing off against my own will, trying to stay awake but eventually I fell right the fuck to sleep.
Later that night....
I tossed in the bed, but I could still hear the shuffling around. I wanted to tell Gray to get back in bed, but my sleep was too good I wasn't trying to ruin it by waking all the way up. The sound that made my eyes fly open was a keypad pin followed by a double beep, meaning someone had accessed something. I squinted into the dark, keeping my breathing steady as if I were still sleep. I could see a silhouette, hunched over in the closet. The dim light from the closet showed me that Gray had pushed all his clothes back, the wall had a built in safe! I opened my eyes a little wider, Gray was pushing something inside. I tensed up when he glanced over his shoulder at me, I let out a quick snore and he turned back around. Then I heard the safe door close and the keypad beep again before Gray stepped back and pushed the clothes back into place. Once he flipped the switch we were in complete darkness again. I listened silently as he slowly climbed back into the bed and eased himself behind me like he had never left. I continued to feign sleep, but I was jumping for joy on the inside. He didn't know it yet but Gray had given me the upper hand, he had fucked around and let me get too close. I couldn't wait to be home alone again, I was going to crack that mutha fuckin safe like it was filled with the Governments money, so I could find out what the fuck was really going on.
Three days later...(Eleven days before trial)
I held my breath even though I knew I was alone. It was something about sneaking that made the mind imagine things that weren't really there. It had been seventy-two long ass hours since I had seen the safe, Gray seemed to be at the house more often than usual but today was the day he had to "meet with Evans" again. Now, I know I should've been trying to figure out what the secret meets were about, but I felt like whatever information was in that safe was going to connect all the dots and make the picture crystal clear. I double checked the room door again to make sure it was secured. I figured I had about an hour to spare, so I hurriedly shoved his clothes to the far end of the closet, just as I expected the door of a safe was visible. This wasn't very discreet if you asked me, he should have had something covering the door. I laughed to myself and keeled down to look at the lock. It was a simple pass-code safe and I got even happier. He sho was making shit easy for me. I typed in his birthday and the red light glared at me, letting me know that was incorrect. I typed in the address to the precinct...DENIED...I tried his phone number...DENIED. I huffed my breath and sat back a little bit, resting on the balls of my feet. I racked my brain for any important info Gray might've let slip out that could possibly be the code to his safe and then it hit me. His mother's birthday! My fingers shook as I hit the four number 0-9-2-9, I slipped and hit the 9 twice and the red light flared up again.
"Get it together Lina." I scolded myself in a low voice. I steadied my hand and typed in 0-9-2-9 again, I almost screamed out loud when the green light flashed before making a clicking noise, indicating the safe was unlocked. I slowly pulled the door, not knowing what to expect and when it fully opened my mouth dropped in shock. There was stacks and stacks and stacks of money! All wrapped neatly in mustard colored bands, signifying they were each worth ten thousand. My eyes took in the pretty sight, but I continued to scan the safe. I seen the deed to the house, some other paperwork stacked neatly beside it, two XD pistols and then my eyes seen it, the manila color popped out at me and I smiled as I read the name on the tab. Gray had fucked up. I pulled the folder from underneath everything, making sure not to move nothing out of place. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone to send a text
Me: Can you grab Thai food?
Gray: Yup, meeting over in an hour. I'll be home in two
Me: Ok
I was grateful I had some time because the weight of the folder let me know it was holding a lot of information. I looked over it, it seemed dingy as if it had been handled for over some time. I made my way back into Gray's room and cracked it open, dropping the contents onto his bed. As my eyes skimmed over the papers, my eyebrows knitted together. There were pages with dates and times, notes, there were statements from CO's from the same prison Anthony's father was at, pictures of Anthony and his father at visits, I was confused. Then I seen a police report that was dated for the same day Anthony was arrested, but at the bottom there was no signatures or dates, just a detailed description of the things found in his car. He had two keys of coke when they stopped him, but why wasn't that brought up in court? I rummaged further into the paperwork and came across a pamphlet of some sort. The header had the Chief of Police's information on it. I read the first few lines and realized it was some sort of contract. My heart was beating uncontrollably and I felt as if someone was watching me, of course when I looked over my shoulder I was alone. I turned back to the folder and pushed the contract to the side, revealing pictures of me. There were several from me in the hospital, then there was one from the restaurant the night Gray swore we ran into each other by accident. There were some of me the week that Anthony was gone and then there was one of me and Anthony in the car together. What the fuck was going on? There were more papers that looked somewhat like a timeline, reading it more carefully I seen little notes about me, where I hung out, liked to eat, make and model of my vehicle, the hospitals I had visited and so forth. I started to feel dread in the pit of my stomach as I realized what the hell had been happening. Gray was never comforting me, he had been vetting me. Getting close to me and using me so that he could get closer to Anthony! I pulled the contract back to my view and began to read it. The first page was full of formalities, introduction on who was involved in the case. There was Gray's name, Evans and Knowle front and center! I continued to read as it revealed the terms of the agreement. There was a prison-drug epidemic that was reflecting bad light onto the Corrections and Police department, and under the terms of the agreement Gray had been assigned to get it handle, put someone away for it so that the department could regain public confidence. In return Gray was to be awarded position of District Attorney, if the plan went accordingly. I was in shock. Evans was to play the lawyer in exchange for A-class clients and Knowle was to be paid out for keeping certain records from hitting the records room. My eyes raced across the pages trying to remember everything, then I stopped. I realized that thirty minutes had passed and I was taking a risk by thinking Gray would take exactly two hours. I took the contract and the timeline that was used to track me and walked into the third room. I pushed the papers into the copier and hit print. I bit my nails down to nubs while I waited for the replicas to come out. Once everything was copied, I went back into Gray's room to put the file back. My mind was racing with thoughts, the whole time I was right. I knew he couldn't have that level of empathy for me when he barely even knew me. I knew he was going out of his way to protect and be there for me. It had all seemed too good to be true but me being blind, dumb and damaged took the attention and ran with it. Never questioned it and ignored my womanly intuition. I still didn't know exactly where I fit into Gray's plan, but I knew he was either using me so I would testify that Anthony was into drugs or he was using my domestic violence case to stall so he could continue an existing investigation on Anthony. Here I was again, getting played. My heart hurt, because I felt so naive. He seemed so caring, like he really had some feelings for me. When I felt tears bubbling in my eyes, I shook them away angrily. I refused to cry over another nigga. Especially one like Gray, he was a different kind of sneaky. I made sure that the folder was organized how I found it and I stashed it back in the safe. Before I closed it back, I yanked a stack off the top of the pile, for my troubles then I headed into the other guestroom so I could think straight.