Page 47 of Devious Gambit

“Really?”

“Why do you sound so surprised? I have friends.”

“Okay. You’re becoming irate. We’ll talk about this tomorrow when the kids are at school.”

“Can you answer me one question?”

“Try me.”

“Was he a bad person?”

The line went dead.

“Mom?”

“I’m still here. No, he wasn’t bad, but he wasn’t good either. He sat perfectly in that gray area between predatory beast and the conscience of man.”

“Which is what? What’s the gray area?”

More background noise, kids screeching, cutlery clashing, and my mom shushing them.

“Mom? What’s the gray area?”

“I have to go, hun. Take care, I’ll talk to you later.”

NINETEEN

Jace

She opened the door with the usual fearful expression on her face that I’d come accustomed to. The chick’s constantly living in fear of nothing, especially now Sweeney’s not harassing her anymore. Or maybe, there’s more to the story. I made an effort with dinner by getting something fancy, pasta with pesto sauce and a couple of cans of beer to chill her out.

“So, did you look at the paper?” was the first thing I asked her.

She sighed. She was wearing the same clothes I saw her in earlier, and her shoes were off revealing mismatched socks. I thought she’d tart herself up a little bit. I did. I had a shower and put on some nicer clothes.

“Three counts of murder,” she answered, picking the skin around her thumbnail. “What do you think the gray area between a predatory beast and the conscience of man would be?”

I showed her my palm. “Asking the wrong person here.”

“Try.”

I placed the bag of food on her kitchen bench. I had three condoms in my pocket, which I planned to use on her, so she better not make my life difficult tonight. I was in a bad mood and I didn’t know why, and hoped her tight pussy would fix it.

“I don’t know. The gray area between a predatory beast and the conscience of man would be…an ape?”

“That’s what I thought. That’s what my mom said about my dad.”

“She’s calling him a gorilla,” I stated, finding plates in her cupboard and piling pasta from one dish on the two plates, followed by the pesto sauce.

“I guess that’s fair enough.”

I opened a can of beer and handed it to her, encouraging her to drink it. “I got more lessons to teach you.” She looked pleased when I said that which lifted my mood a little. The girl was hungry for my cock. Good. “Have you been doing your homework?”

“Yes, Mr. Ed,” she answered in the voice of a schoolgirl, which I liked.

“Good. Jeez Rhys, I see you made an effort with your clothes again, although slightly better than pajamas.”

She looked at herself up and down and examined what I was wearing which was nice V-neck sweater and black jeans. “I didn’t think this was a date.”

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