Antidote (Don't) (14 page)

I sighed relief. “Could work,” I said to Jack’s laugh. Then I tried to bury a
hell yes
smile. “Give my reputation a serious boost, if nothing else.”

“Which is the cover story your boss will give to your colleagues. I told him you were really having colon suction to clear out your tubes.”

I choked at Gray’s words, and I wasn’t even drinking anything. “
What
?”

“Just kidding,” said Gray, and he even threw in a wink. “Although a week away with Jack, you’re guaranteed to get sucked senseless in some form or another.”

Oh, well. I tried to suppress the need to rush over and stuff Jack in a suitcase, let alone any clothes. That was the decider there; even Jack had let his eyes darken into the land of
let me at him
.

“Oh, hang on a minute,” said Jack, shaking it off. “You’re due in America for MC business tomorrow.”

Gray grinned.

“And I didn’t want to go to America on damn MC business when I have my own to finalise.”

Gray just smiled some more.

“We’re going to America, aren’t we?” said Jack, his shoulders deflating. “That rogue club you were on about?”

“Yes,” said Gray. “And you’re working.”

“Fuck,” said Jack. “I can’t stand fucking flying, not to mention people—not to mention bastard, ponced-up people who fly.”

“I fly,” I said. “Regularly. Is this another dig against vanillas, Harrison?”

“Yeah, but—”

“I’m an international traveller too,” said Gray. “That a personal dig at me?”

“Fuck. No. But—” Jack tried again, only to have Gray hit Jack’s shoulder.

“Digging your grave with two shovels again, Jack. Shut the fuck up and get ready.” Gray glanced at me then and narrowed his eyes. “Jack will be working over there too, Jan. He’ll be assessing Doms and their psychological status to see if the Dom club they work is a good source to incorporate into the MC. Or whether they need shutting down because it isn’t.”

I fell quiet now. “Assessing? Including sleeping with them?”

“If the need be,” said Gray, and his attention went to Jack. “Jan isn’t MC, Jack,” he said quietly, “he’s struggling to reach a decision over just being with you when choosing a contract. Keep MC business away from him at all times.”

“I know MC rules,” said Jack.

“Your head’s not in the right place. You may know the rules, but don’t ever forget them. I see you struggling or forcing Jan into a position that compromises his peace of mind, I will pull you up.”

“I’ll take care of Jan. You just make it clear to your Doms over there to keep their distance from him and don’t piss me off.”

Gray went over to his desk and brought some files back over. “You do your job too. Read the contracts, learn the Doms. Don’t fuck up.” After tucking the files under his arms, Jack pulled out his mobile and started making a few calls.

Jack

I’d fucking hated the idea of America and had remained stubborn and quiet all the way there. Yet a week later, after getting no news of any more links, or Gray not telling me there’d been any more links, we touched back on home soil and I couldn’t help but chuckle at Jan as we stepped through customs.

“Say anything, Harrison, and you’re dead,” he said, staring at me as I did a double-take of what he wore.

“Not saying anything, honest.” Yeah, like
fuck
I wasn’t gonna say anything. Give it five minutes, just five fucking minutes—just enough time to see him squirm and blush his way through customs, and I’d start. Despite hating the idea of MC work, we’d met some pretty special people at Diadem, the Dom club over in America. And two particular wind-up merchants over there, Gabe and Darrek, had topped off things nicely by giving me and Jan lovely parting gifts.

Ed was waiting for us outside of the airport with the Rolls. He stared at Jan, then me. “Gray, get them to take those off, or they walk.” I chuckled, seeing Jan’s face colour again. “Brits Suck” was printed on the front of our caps, the reason why now forever locked firmly in America with Gabe, Darrek, and that bastard of a lead Dom,
I know Gray better than you
, Trace. Well, okay, and it was also locked in the recesses of my perverted mind, ready to press play again when I needed it. Jan had come alive over there, instantly connecting with Darrek, and more than getting a kick out of watching Gray test out Gabe’s Dom skills. After pissing Gray off, the bastard had left me with Trace, and yeah, I’d found out he knew Gray all right. For now, poor old Ed was true Brits all the way through, so “Brits Suck” wouldn’t go down well with him at, fucking, all. Shame.

“Semantics, Ed,” I said patting his stomach as I passed him.

“That’s what’s bothering me,” said Ed, with a scowl.

“’S not so bad,” I said, winking at Jan. “You should see what the American lads got in return.”

Ed groaned. “I don’t want to know—ever.”

“I don’t know.” Jan finally managed a smile as he looked at Gray. “Wouldn’t mind going back, myself.”

Although Gray smiled, he was the only one still looking a little distant. Something had gone down over in America; well, apart from me seriously pissing him off over not reading the contracts and really screwing up. There had been a personal issue with Trace and the link surrounding the porn sites. I didn’t quite know what happened with the link; just that Gabe had disappeared with Gray a few times, and Gray had come back not looking happy. As for Trace?

The porn sites had been taken down via Gray’s Child Protection and CEOP sources, that I did know. In all honesty, America had been a good place to forget, just live for a few days,
enjoy
, even though I’d gone there with one hell of a chip on my shoulder and caught the backlash off Gabe for it. I’d worked for the MC for so long, any club outside of that seemed lowdown and more than dirty, especially when it came to a pussy of a Dom who had never fucked his clients. But Gabe had been anything but a pussy, in fact I could compare the amount of days I could last in a cock cage to just how rare it was to find a Dom who got me going sub so effortlessly. I’d made some good friends, the exceptional few I’d kill to have working over here with me at the Master’s Circle.

But now we were home, and despite the crisp, clear skies, that dirty feeling returned. All nice and heavy like, pressing on my chest, making it hard to breathe. I got in the Rolls with Jan and watched Gray have a quiet word with Ed, their glances in the Rolls’ direction making the topic more than just a painful kick in the bollocks.

“You okay?”

I gave Jan a weak smile.

“Missing America?”

That spark was still there in his eyes, although there was a tinge of sadness now. “A little,” I said quietly.

“You think Gabe and Darrek will take us up on our offer? Maybe come over?”

I snorted. “Not without Trace.”

Jan laughed softly. “Aw, Jack. Those baby greys have taken on a very dark shade of jealous-green lately. It’s not Trace’s fault he’s biker fit, tanned, chiselled jaw: completely Gray’s wild taste. I could see why he and Gray—”

“Tracey,” I snapped. “His name’s fucking Tracey, all right.”

“Oh, yeah,” said Jan, and I groaned at the devilment there. “Should go down really well, the guys at the garage learning you were wrestled down and tied to a bondage table by a guy with a girl’s name. Street cred’ will really take a dive.”

I gave him the finger, and that just made him laugh more. “You find out anything about Trace and Gray’s history together?” Jan waggled his eyebrows. “Y’know, who managed the fight for top all those years back? Two top Doms like that...”

I groaned,
th’ fuck
did I groan with that image. Trace had as much bastard in him as Gray, and, give the bastard his due, he had that same kick-ass physique too, only Gray wore a suit to temper his, while Trace was all jeans, long legs, T-shirt and biker-fit look. Add Gabe into the mix, it had been Dom heaven for one glorious, fucked-up week. But no, neither Gray nor Trace had given any details on who had topped who. Bastards.

The Rolls shifted slightly as Gray got in. Ed was acting chauffeur, and life became dull in the blur of traffic as we pulled away. “You going to tell me what Gabe found out in America?”

Jan passed Gray a glance. Yeah, he’d been watching him too.

That ability of Gray’s to weigh up every thought before he spoke was really starting to piss me off now. “Are you—?”

“At first the link was thought to have just been uploaded to an American site, but sources also confirmed that it might have come from America’s shores too,” he said through my agitation, and I snorted, maybe realising for the first time the coincidence of where exactly we’d been in America.

“By any chance the state where Gabe and Darrek lived, right?”

“Yes.” Gray rested an elbow on the window, fingers brushing his bottom lip. Was his head still back in America? Gray was unusually quiet, and I didn’t think it surrounded just me. “Gabe actually picked up that the signal had been bounced from another country, with a time delay on uploading,” said Gray.

Now I frowned. “The signal was delayed? What do you mean?”

“Just that the links had an upload delay of about four months from when they were first posted, and from a different country than first thought.”

“Not America?” Jan was frowning. “Four months... that’s still after Mark’s death five months ago. So, what? Someone he knew is getting Jack back?”

“Maybe not one of Mark’s men, no,” said Gray. “Jack? What are your thoughts?”

I shrugged. “Those packages were tampered with by someone who knew both of you two, my mother. Mark didn’t know who Gray was, that was the whole point behind his mind fuck: he wanted you,” I said to Gray. “He just didn’t have the intel to do it. Maybe Keal’s involved in some way? Bastard has the intel, especially since—”

“Yeah.” Jan stiffened slightly. “Since I messed up over talking to one of Keal’s men in a club a few months back and planted Jess smack bang in the middle of the MC, where Mark Shaw needed her to be.”

“Bollocks, Jan,” I said quietly. “That shit over Darren and Jess happened when you were in a bad place. Forget it.” Jan’s drop of gaze to my thigh, to the long since healed scald that made me want to visit Darren again and say hi MC style. Only nobody had seen good old Darren since Gray had gotten his hands on him. Strange that. Jess had been moved on too, but given protection with the MC over in the States. Last we heard, she’d just settled down. “I was going to say, especially since Keal was nearly sent down a few years back for smuggling drugs in via his sex trade. He knows Gray via MI5’s part in that. And from Darren, he’d know where you live now, Jan. And yet the packages were only sent to Gray’s and my mother’s, not you.”

“Maybe.” Gray narrowed his eyes. “The distributer of those films certainly has access to more intelligence than Shaw did. The original upload came from Corsica. Added to how mail was intercepted here, that’s a lot of personnel. Surveillance has been tracking Keal’s movements,” said Gray. “His whereabouts are accounted for during the times the link was uploaded from Corsica.”

I sniffed. “He’s sex trade; Keal has more than enough contacts abroad.”

“There’s nothing on his hardware that I’ve been able to trace.”

“You’ve had access to this Keal’s computers?” said Jan, eyes a little wide. “Don’t you need a court order for that?”

“Sometimes,” said Gray, and he left it at that.

“What about his son, Logan?” I asked. “I never usually hear much about him, other than how he’s always around to offer a
get out of jail card
for his old man.” I half smiled. “Pity, he’s the looker in the family.”

Gray levelled his gaze and Jan didn’t look too happy either.

“Logan has no history of working with his father,” said Gray, evenly, “but there’s always that possibility. Keal also knows where I live from all the times he’s placed surveillance on me.”

“You don’t mind?” asked Jan, looking confused. “That he’s watching?”

“It’s usually the first sign he’s doing something he shouldn’t be.”

“Ah,” said Jan.

“And if it is Keal,” I said just as evenly, “he knows my folks now.”

“Ed informed me that nothing new has come through here, and surveillance was put on your parents, Jack,” said Gray gently. “They can stay there for as long as you like.”

I nodded as Jan said, “There was nothing at mine.” He took some water from a bottle he’d kept in his pocket. We’d checked his villa out Saturday morning before we’d left, then asked Ed to do regular checks throughout the week too, same with my place.

“Doesn’t it cancel Keal out, though?” asked Jan. “If Keal knows, through Darren, where I live, the packages to me would have been sent to my home, not to yours, Gray.”

“Just means someone was watching where we were spending time together, Jan,” I said quietly.

“And someone who knew how to stay hidden,” added Gray.

“What about the deliveries themselves?” Jan messed with his shirt sleeve, a sure sign he was uneasy. “Anything off them? I mean, you’ve checked prints and things?” Jan’s question was aimed at Gray, yet he interlocked two fingers with mine as I started tapping on my knee. All the right touches, at all the right times with this soft sod of a man. He offered the water, then only smiled as I shook my head, my gaze fixed on the offer of shared germs.

“Both wrapping and packages have seen too many handlers,” said Gray. “Those that could be pulled drew a blank.” He gave a thin smile. “But that’s just the basic with checks, Jan. CCTV of the Van’s delivery plus times of deliveries are being checked to see where and when there was opportunity for the packages to be tampered with, as well as checks on personnel history of the delivery depot itself.”

“And?”

“Jan, it’s not TV,” Gray said, giving a wipe at his eyes. “Intel takes time and people.” He looked at Jan and gave a thin smile. “But they will be found. The best thing for you,” he looked at me, “for both of you, is to get back to normal.”

With little choice
but
to get back to normal, that’s pretty much how the next few weeks in December flew by. Jan was the saving grace, using his dinnertime to come over to the garage now that he was back at work. Eventually things started to settle, to find some normalcy. Enough, at least, for me to fail to resist dragging Jan over to the nearest Christmas Forest store and choose a Christmas tree—a big motherfucking one with huge pine needles Ed would be cleaning up for the next twelve months. I’d grinned to myself seeing the look of disgust on his face as me and Jan had dragged it into Gray’s manor. Gray hadn’t been too impressed, just standing there, arms folded, watching me and Jan wrestle it into place with a few expletives off me; then we’d decorated it. Or tried to, at least. Even Jan had stood back at one point, screwing up his face in distaste when I’d pulled out a spanner to dangle from a branch. Hey, it was tradition, in our house at least; welcome the New Year in with no car troubles. Gray didn’t know this shit; it was the first Christmas we’d spent together away from all the formality of the MC contracts. It was going to be a damn good Christmas.