Page 8 of Recaptured by the Crime Lord

When they reached Gavin’s home, she stepped out of the SUV, but made no move to enter. Gavin propelled her inside. Lyla gave their surroundings a cursory glance. Nothing had changed. Had she expected it to? Being here made her want to weep with frustration and rage.

“Shower,” Gavin said and led her upstairs.

When he pulled her into the bathroom, she yanked her hand away and crossed her arms. She wanted a shower, but she wasn’t going to have one withhim.

“We’re not going to shower together,” she snapped.

Gavin opened his mouth to argue and then hesitated. “I guess it wouldn’t be a good idea. We need to talk.”

“Yes, we do,” she agreed.

Abruptly, Gavin stripped out of his ruined suit. Lyla hastily turned away, but not before she caught a glimpse of his incredible body in the mirror. He was even more muscular than before. He looked more like a boxer than the CEO of Pyre Casinos.Washe still the CEO? He went to jail and Vinny’s death left an opening for COO so where did that leave the company? How did Gavin get out of the murder charge? Apparently, he was still wealthy since he had security, the jet and mansion. Questions she refused to think about for the past year and a half bubbled to the surface. She didn’t think about Gavin because it fucking hurt too much. Now, there was no way to avoid him.

That was the thing about Gavin. Being with him was like riding a rollercoaster—unexpected turns, drops and rolls. She wasn’t sure whether to hang on, raise her hands in the air or let go. Her personality demanded she let go, which she didtwice. Gavin had the opposite opinion, which is why she was in this opulent bathroom again with a priceless blue diamond ring on her finger. Gavin shocked her out of her sleepwalking state. Emotions frothed inside of her. She wanted to go back to a half-life where she wasn’t living or dead. No bumps in the road, no drama and no Gavin Pyre. She didn’t want friction. Gavin was a stick of dynamite.

Lyla left the bathroom and went to the walk in closet. Once again she was struck by the fact that nothing changed. Gavin was a stubborn bastard. She left him twice and he still kept her clothes and shoes? Most men would go on a rampage and toss her shit out. Not Gavin. What would Manny say about that? He would probably puff his chest out and beam with pride.

The stabbing pain in her chest made her keel over. Living a half-life meant she didn’t have to think about Manny. The only thing she pondered on the road was where they would drive next. Lyla refused to let herself think about Vegas or the Pyres. Now all she could think of was the father she lost. She didn’t realize she was sobbing until wet arms wrapped around her. She broke free and whirled to find Gavin with a towel around his waist, water streaming everywhere. For the first time that day, she really looked at him. He may have bulked up, but there was a stark quality to his muscles, as if he was working out more than he was eating. As she looked past his implacable expression, she saw something starved and feral lurking in his eyes. It was focused on her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What’s wrong?”

Lyla grabbed a two thousand dollar shoe and hurled it at him. He ducked to the side. The shoe whistled past and cartwheeled across the bedroom floor.

“What the fuck do you want from me, Gavin? Why am I here? I don’t have anything else to give you!” She pounded her chest with a shaking fist. “I don’t have anything left! Vengeance was more important to you than me, than your father, thanlife. You blamed me for Vinny’s death, for ‘influencing’ your choice. You threw me away like I always knew you would. I knew I would never be enough for you. You need the darkness. In that world you’re judge, jury and executioner. That’s fine for you, but me?No.”

Lyla ran her hands through tangled hair and paced in a small circle. After being chased, married and brought back to her past life, she felt as if she were unraveling.

“I never wanted to be a part of your world. I know what I can handle and what you do Ican’t.” Her chest burned as she glared at him through her tears. “Do you know what it feels like to be helpless? Like,reallyhelpless? I do.”

Gavin reached for her, but she backed away, deeper into the closet filled with expensive clothes and sassy heels from another lifetime. Nothing mattered anymore. She didn’t care what she looked like or what she wore. All that mattered was that she got through one day and then the next without giving into the urge to slit her wrists.

How many times had she wondered if Carmen would be better off without her? The world wouldn’t miss Lyla Dalton. She wasn’t the CEO of a big corporation or an integral part of her family. Her parents barely noticed her existence and she was easily replaceable at any job she qualified for. But, she couldn’t do that to Carmen. Her cousin left everything for her. Lyla suspected Carmen needed the time out as well. Now, life threw a curveball and she was back with Gavin. Why? Gavin didn’t need her. She would rather live a half-life where she had no feelings than a life with a man she couldn’t trust and put her through hell. Again.

She couldn’t look at Gavin and not think of his father. Manny and Gavin Pyre, the crime lords of Las Vegas, were the great loves of her life, the first people who saw something special in her. Why she was drawn to these dangerous men, she would never know. They changed her life forever. Gavin Pyre was a law unto himself and would do whatever he thought was necessary. Case in point, she was back in Vegas with his ring on her finger.

“I can still hear your father screaming,” she whispered and swallowed her own howl of grief. “I watched everything. I screamed until I had no voice.”

“You have to know I would do anything in my power to take it back,” Gavin said.

Lyla grasped handfuls of her hair. “I told you to stop and you wouldn’t!”

He said nothing. He just stood there like a gladiator from centuries past.

“What’s the point?” she demanded, striding up to him and jabbing him in the chest. “Why make me your wife? Because that’s what your father would have wanted?”

He shook his head.

“What, Gavin?” she shouted as she pounded his flesh with her fists. “You’re not done with me yet? You want to punish me for Vinny’s death? For not dying when I was stabbed? You can’t hurt me more than I already do! I have nothing left!”

He wrapped her close. She scored his skin with her nails as she tried to get away.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Gavin said.

“Seeing you hurts me, having you touch me hurts,” she sobbed. “Youhurt me. You left me.”

“I won’t leave you again,” he said into her hair, holding her desperately close.

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