Page 44 of Crime Lord’s Captive

Gavin said nothing.

“You have more money than you could possibly spend in your lifetime. Why risk the Pyre empire over a smaller revenue with so much risk?” Lyla’s eyes filled with tears. “How do you think I feel, knowing that the food I eat and the clothes I wear were bought through blood and murder? Why do you think I left everything behind? I would rather work forty hours a week, earn just enough to survive and have a clear conscience than—”

“Don’t, Lyla. That blood’s on my hands, not yours.”

“And that makes it better?” she challenged.

He looked so remote. She hated it. Lyla took her life in her hands and walked towards him. His eyes tracked her every move and went heavy-lidded when she knelt in front of him. Moving slowly, she reached out and grabbed his hands. She cradled them in hers and looked up.

“You don’t have to have blood on your hands, Gavin.”

“You have no idea what’s at stake.”

“Your lifeis at stake. What if they catch you? You could go to prison for murder!”

“Won’t happen.”

Lyla dropped his hands and rose with a sound of disgust. There was no reasoning, no compromising with him. “So arrogant and pigheaded.” She paced away and then turned back. “I don’t understand you, Gavin. I loved you. I gave you everything and find out you cheated the whole time. Not only that, you have this other life you don’t tell me about, that forces you to do things you wouldn’t have to otherwise. You can’t tell me it doesn’t haunt you. Is that where the other women come in? Is that whereIcome in?” She paused, but there was no answer. “What else aren’t you telling me? What else am I too stupid or young or naive to know about? What we had, Gavin, it wasn’t a relationship. It was a role, one you can have any woman fill.”

Lyla wrapped her arms around herself. His eyes were trained on her, monitoring every nuance.“I want out,” she whispered.

“No.”

“I never told a soul and I won’t!”

Gavin ran his hands through his hair. “God, you’re a piece of work.”

“And you aren’t? You’re hot, cold, hot...” Her voice faded away when their eyes locked. A shaft of heat burst in her belly and spread low. “Fuck! I hate you!”

“Is that why you don’t want my hands on you? Because of what you saw me do?”

“You were so cold. Emotionless.” She shivered and tried to shake away the awful memories. “You can turn your emotions on and off. That’s why you were able to cheat on me and come home with a clear conscience. It’s why you’re good at doing the illegal side of the business.” She tapped her chest, trying to get him to understand her. “That’s not me.”

No response, no flicker of emotion in his eyes.

“I told you, this isn’t going to work,” she said, voice low

“It will if you let me take care of it.”

“By controlling what I do, where I go?”

“It’s the only way I know to keep you safe.”

“If you weren’t doing whatever the fuck you’re doing on the side, you wouldn’t need to ‘keep me safe!’ Don’t you see that?”

“This is what my family has always done.”

“And traditions are meant to be broken,” she spat.

“I never let that shit touch you, not then and not now.”

“The thing with Rafael... You can’t stop it from touching me.”

“You won’t see him ever again.”

She shook her head. “You can’t control that.”

“Yes, I can.”

---