Page 1 of Finding Jeremy
Chapter 1
(Grayson)
Shaking, Gray scarcely dared to breathe as he listened to the grinding rattle-clank of the prison gate slowly rolling open, eyes firmly fixed on the men standing on the other side of it, waiting for him. In his black leather jacket and kutte adorned with patches, Chaos made for an imposing figure, even with his hair sprinkled with more gray than blond strands these days. Gray’s club president and longtime friend was grinning, the sun reflecting off the dark lenses of the sunglasses that shielded his eyes. In his hand, he held a gold and white striped box with a grinning chicken face on the front, keeping the promise he’d made to supply Gray with a crispy fried chicken meal from the Blue Star Diner the moment he’d gotten out.
He should have known Chaos, being Chaos, wouldn’t wait for them to drive back to Foggy Basin to reach the restaurant. Naa, not him, not when he knew people were likely to stare andwhisper the moment Gray walked through the doors after being away for eight years. In a small town like theirs, everyone knew where he’d been and why, and if they didn’t, it was because they’d moved to Foggy Basin after the bullshit at the jewelry store went down and missed the scandal when it hit the paper. Once folks realized he was home, the old gossip was likely to start up again, and people would clutch their pearls and their purses when he walked passed them. Yeah, Gray could see why Chaos would want to spare him that on his first day out.
Fuckin’ gate was so goddamn slow Gray started fidgeting as the gap finally began to widen, and he wasn’t the only one. Beside Chaos, Jeremy stood shuffling from one foot to the other like he was one twitch away from scaling the gate just to get to Gray and carve himself up on the heavy spirals of razor wire in the process. At six foot six and over two hundred and eighty pounds, the widening gap was too frustratingly narrow for Gray to fit through.
That chicken and Jeremy’s lips were going to taste amazing, Gray thought as a light gust of wind wafted the scent of grease and bodywash his way, causing a bit of drool to pool at the corners of his lips. It might not have been the best plan to pass his tray off to another inmate this morning, but his stomach had been so tied up in knots as he’d waited for the hours to tick past that the idea of eating anything had been revolting, not that prison chow had ever been very appetizing in the first place.
No, his anxiety was linked directly back to the nightmares that had awakened him in the dead of night every night for the past few weeks. In his dreams, each time he’d gotten to that gate expecting freedom to be a chain-link barrier away, the guard’s radio crackled, and a disembodied voice demanded that he bring Gray back inside, that they’d gotten the date wrong, or that new charges were pending.
The convict he’d been cellmates with since Haven had finished doing his time and returned home to Foggy Basin to get the Twisted Chassis auto repair shop back off the ground had known exactly what Gray was going through. His gruff voice hushed as he’d spoke in the darkness of the cell, reminding Gray to never forget the sledgehammer to the gut fear carried in those dreams or he was sure to be back.
Never gonna happen.
Gray lurched when the gap was finally wide enough that he thought he could fit through, snagging his t-shirt on a piece of metal and jerking free without a care for if it would leave a hole. All he wanted was to get his hands on Jeremy and that box of chicken Chaos held.
The bond Gray and Jeremy had formed while Jeremy’s best friend, Haven, had been Gray’s cellmate had bloomed over the past year into the promise of a relationship Gray had refused to consider official until he was properly able to hug the man.
Now it was going to happen.
He made it two steps before Jeremy hurled himself into Gray’s arms, driving some of the air out of him even as Gray lifted him, crushed him close, and planted a kiss on him that would have had the cellblock whistling and yelling lewd things if they’d borne witness to it. Jeremy locked his legs around his waist when Gray lifted him higher, the lip lock growing rougher as Gray planted both hands on Jeremy’s ass and gripped tight enough to leave bruises.
Not even the fresh air around them tasted as sweet as Jeremy’s fierce, eager kisses as they were finally able to touch one another for the first time.
“You all need to get out of here,” the guard growled from the other side of the gate, his gruff voice cutting through the soft groans and low grumbling sighs Jeremy let out.
His words were like a bucket of ice water, and Gray abruptly set Jeremy down, only to grab his hand and practically drag him past Chaos and into the waiting pickup truck.
“What is this, Driving Miss Daisy?” Chaos asked as they slid into the back seat of the extended cab Ford F150 while Chaos climbed behind the wheel.
The back wasn’t the most comfortable space for a man Gray’s size, but damn if he was letting Jeremy go. Not when Gray had been waiting months just to feel the warmth of Jeremy’s body molded against his.
When neither answered Chaos, he just rolled his eyes, passed the chicken back, and grumbled at them to at least put their seatbelts on, for fuck’s sake, before driving off, carrying Gray away from his home for the past eight years.
“Been scared as fuck that this wouldn’t happen,” Gray admitted once the sight of the prison had faded from the rearview. “Now I half-ass expect to see flashing lights in the mirror and a whole-ass SWAT team chasing us down.”
“It would be a hell of a thing, trying to stage a jailbreak in broad daylight,” Chaos pointed out, chuckling. “Not to mention the kind of clout I’d need to have to get them to just roll the gate back and let you out when I’m the one running around unarmed.”
Gray snorted, the knot in his gut finally loosening enough to allow him to laugh.
“Thanks for coming to get me, fucker,” Gray said.
“Told you I would,” Chaos replied. “Reggie was pissed that he couldn’t be here too, but Tess had a doctor’s appointment, and there was no way he could be in both places.”
“Is she alright?”
“Gods, I hope so,” Chaos said. “He’s been worried as hell about her lately. Said she’s tired all the time and hasn’t hadmuch of an appetite or any interest in being out with him on the bike.”
“Shit, I can see why he’s worried.”
“You and me both,” Chaos said, reaching over the seat to pass back a chunky green envelope. “He told me to give you this.”
“The hell?” Gray said as he took it so Chaos could put both hands back on the wheel as the road started winding.
Gray opened the envelope to pull out a card that clearly wasn’t made by Hallmark. The front had a bluebird in an orange jumpsuit flying with a key in its beak, a path denoting the bird's winding flight all through the forest of trees on the front of the card. There was even the added touch of it being chased by two cardinals in black and gray prison guard uniforms, complete with nightsticks and badges.
