Page 1 of Crime Lord’s Captive

Chapter One

“Do you have to go?” Morgan asked her boyfriend.

Jonathan grinned as he wrapped his arms around her. “Gonna miss me?”

“Yes.” There was a ball of dread in her stomach that she couldn’t get rid of.

“I have to travel for work,” Jonathan said as he stroked her back. “I haven’t traveled since you moved in. I can’t put it off any longer. Three months is a long time.”

“I know.”

Jonathan brushed a kiss over her mouth. “I love that you want me here, but I have to go. If we moved to the West Coast, I wouldn’t need to travel as much.”

Morgan’s stomach jittered. “I like it here in Maine.”

“Then we’ll stay in Maine,” he said.

Jonathan leaned down and gave Morgan a deep kiss. She clutched handfuls of his jacket to prolong the moment. She didn’t realize how much she depended on him until he announced his business trip. It was just her luck that her boyfriend was an IT consultant that had to travel for work. Jonathan pulled back, eyes warm.

“At least I know you’ll be here waiting for me,” he said.

Morgan gave him a weak smile. “Yes, I’ll be here. Hurry back to me.”

Jonathan shouldered a laptop bag and pulled up the handle of his small suitcase. He opened the door and paused to look back at her. “You’re going to be okay, right?”

He didn’t need this, Morgan thought and felt guilty for making him worry about her. “Yes,” she said and tried to sound confident.

Jonathan blew her a kiss before he walked out of the apartment. Morgan stared at the closed door for a long minute before she forced herself to get a move on. She could survive a week on her own. She’d been alone for two years before she met Jonathan. He traveled a lot for work. She had to learn to deal with his long absences.

Morgan went through her morning routine as the world slowly began to light up outside of her window. She styled long honey blonde hair into a french twist and smoothed a hand over her conservative black skirt and white blouse. Morgan surveyed herself in the mirror and was satisfied with her image. She looked competent and boring. Morgan did everything in her power not to draw attention to herself.

Her phone chimed, signaling that it was time to leave for work. She grabbed her bag and gave the tidy apartment a cursory glance before she walked out the door. Morgan walked two blocks to the bus stop just in time to see it pull up to the curb. She claimed the seat she always did and scanned the faces on the bus out of habit.

Morgan tried to shake off her unease as she entered the bank and was greeted by her co-workers. Just another day, she reassured herself. Morgan put her things in the break room and began her daily routine of setting up her desk and counting her money.

It was an uneventful day, which reassured Morgan that she was overreacting to Jonathan’s absence. She felt restless and on edge, but a call from Jonathan on her lunch break made her feel better. Morgan had become very attached to Jonathan since they started dating a year ago. Jonathan’s easygoing personality was a balm to her uptight one and she couldn’t wait for him to come home. Before Jonathan entered her life, she had been a nervous wreck. Now, she felt a little more like her old self every day.

Morgan left the bank at the end of the day, walking briskly as the sun set. She reached the bus stop precisely on time and leapt up the steps with a nod to the driver. Her normal seat was taken so she settled for an aisle seat in the back and tried to settle her nerves, which were taut now that night had fallen. Jonathan would be back in six days. No big deal.

Morgan hopped off the bus and approached her building, climbing two flights before she reached her apartment. She knew her neighbors by sight, none by name and that’s the way she liked it. Morgan glanced both ways as she unlocked her door and swiftly entered. She knocked the main light switch with her elbow, set her keys and purse on the stand beside the door and froze.

A man sat on a stool in her kitchen. Even as she took a step back and slammed into the door, mouth opening to scream, he shook his head in warning. The small gesture made the scream die in her throat. Morgan stared at the man in the black business suit with an awful sense of doom clawing at her throat. He had merciless black eyes and a scar through his left brow.

“Lyla, come away from the door,” Blade said.

Lyla. She hadn’t heard that name for three years. Panic grabbed her by the throat. Her past couldn’t be sitting in the apartment she shared with Jonathan.

“It’s a good thing your boyfriend is away. I had orders to kill him,” Blade said calmly.

She took two unsteady steps forward. “Jonathan has nothing to do with this.”

Blade cocked his head to the side. “You think not?”

“I’ve been gone three years,” she rasped. She thought she was safe.

“And yet, here I am.” Blade withdrew a phone from his pocket. He swiped his finger over the screen and jerked his head at her. “Come, Lyla, say hi to Gavin.”

Nausea churned in her stomach as she watched Blade dial. She was torn between running or snatching the phone to break it into pieces. She did neither. Instead, she watched with her heart in her throat. Even though she knew running would be pointless, she took a step backwards and watched Blade’s eyes narrow into slits.

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