historical

Chapter 334: You Deserve A Break

Keeley had thought she was going furniture shopping with Alice on Saturday morning so when Aaron told her she went out with someone else she was surprised. Had she found someone else because she slept in too long?

Why didn't anybody wake her up? She never managed to get away with sleeping this long; the babies wouldn't let her.

Aaron handed her an asiago bagel and a cup of raspberry yogurt for before turning back around to pour her a glass of milk. She smiled, feeling a bit spoiled.

"Any particular reason you took care of the babies for me so I could sleep and handled breakfast on top of that?" Keeley asked.

He handed her the milk and gave her a quick but undeniably affectionate kiss. "You've been running yourself ragged lately; you deserve a break."

Even though Keeley had been living with him for about a year now sometimes it still astounded her how considerate Aaron could be. He was always looking out for her and being hyper-attentive to her needs.

To be perfectly honest, he had more than made up for how he treated her in their first marriage by showering her with constant love and affection now. She was quite content with how things had turned out in the end despite the long painful road it took to get there.

"I love you," she said sweetly before taking a bite of her bagel.

Aaron had a blissful smile on his face, as if he could never tire of hearing those simple words. He stood behind her stool at the breakfast bar and wrapped his arms around her.

"I love you too."

Kaleb began to shriek, demanding attention, and he reluctantly let go to attend to their son. When Violet saw that her brother was getting picked up she began to wail as well so Aaron had to take them both back into the kitchen if he wanted to be near his wife.

He ended up standing across from her as he gently bounced both of the babies in his arms. Keeley happily consumed her breakfast until she remembered something. Now that Alice was out of the house, she should bring up her idea on how to handle Gray.

"Hey Aaron..you want Gray out of the way, right?"

He was obviously irritated at the mention of his half-brother. "Of course I do. The man is a ticking time bomb. But I'm not like him—I don't kill people to get rid of them. Why do you ask?"

"Since we're pretty sure he murdered Lacy, why not get Aiden to look for the evidence to prove it? I'm sure the police would appreciate the help and it would get him off the streets so we wouldn't have to worry about him anymore," Keeley suggested.

His eyes widened momentarily in surprise before a thoughtful look settled on his face. It was obvious that her plan threw him off.

She wondered why exactly it was so surprising. This wasn't the first time she had tried to be supportive and help him out. What made this different?

"I could try but would you really be okay with that morally? I don't like Gray one bit but I can't deny that he has helped us on more than one occasion. Isn't it a bit too backstabbing?"

Now it was Keeley's turn to be surprised. She hadn't realized he thought that way about it, but it made sense. Aaron was a very loyal person. He looked out for his own, even if they did happen to be murderous psychopaths.

She shrugged. "It's not like he would know it came from us. Helpful or not, he has proven to be dangerous. Who knows what other murders he might commit someday? Locking him up is the best thing for society at large.

"He had to know getting caught was a risk when he did it. Since Brann Knighton is still offering a reward to anyone with information, it would probably seem like that was how he got caught. We haven't let on that we suspect him so he wouldn't even connect it to us."

"You do have a point. I know a detective in one of the Manhattan precincts that's trustworthy. If—and it might be a pretty big if—Aiden is able to find something we can send it to him and he would make sure it ends up with the right people," Aaron mused.

"He's the one I gave the video to that nailed Lacy for Max's murder. I figured I could use his help again at some point in this life but definitely wouldn't have seen this coming. Originally I thought I would give him material on my father's insider trading."

Though he sounded hesitant, Keeley could tell he was wavering. He really did want Gray out of the way so he couldn't come after them someday if he changed his mind again.

She understood why he was reluctant. Gray was probably even more powerful than Aaron was in this city. He would be a terrifying enemy if this backfired.

If this was going to work, they would need such solid evidence that the case didn't go to trial. It would need to be compelling enough that Gray would choose to plead guilty or no contest rather than try to weasel his way out with a good lawyer. Because if he managed to get off or get a light sentence, he would be able to come after them if he figured out they were behind it.

She had looked this all up on her phone before telling Aaron her idea. If Gray was convicted of first degree murder, meaning it was premeditated; he would get a minimum sentence of 20 years to life and a maximum of life without parole.

But if it was second degree murder, meaning it was spur of the moment, he would get a minimum of 15 years to life and a maximum of 25 years to life. The problem with those sorts of sentences was that after he had the possibility of being released on parole for good behavior. His case would be reevaluated at that point.

A person on parole was less of a threat than a person roaming free because they had certain rules and restrictions to follow or they would get put back in prison. Unfortunately, that didn't necessarily eliminate the threat.