Page 71 of Once A Crime Lord

Alice nuzzled Nora. “I’ll see you soon, pretty girl.”

There were hugs and kisses all around, and then they were gone.

“What was that?” Carmen asked.

“What normal feels like,” she said as she settled on a chair to feed Nora.

“No, I mean about Marcus.”

She eyed her frazzled cousin. “There’s something between you two.”

“There isn’t,” Carmen grouched and peered into the cupboard closest to her. “Why are you up so early anyway?”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

Carmen found a box of graham crackers and munched. “What’s the latest drama?”

She glanced around but saw no sign of Blade. “I called Jonathan.”

“You didn’t!”

“I needed to make sure he’s alive!”

“Not for long.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Fine.” Carmen demolished a square and reached for another. “But you know I’m right.”

Blade walked into the kitchen. “After Nora goes down for her nap, I’ll meet you two in the weight room.”

Carmen gave him a baleful glare. “Go away, Satan.”

“Your trainer isn’t coming today, so I’m filling in,” Blade went on as if she hadn’t said anything.

“Don’t you think we deserve a day off?” Carmen snapped, waving her graham cracker.

“No,” Blade said and walked out.

“When we spar, I’m going for his balls,” Carmen said.

13

Gavin

He walkedthrough the apartment Lyla once lived in with Huskin. The apartment was a fusion of traditional and modern. He didn’t see the appeal. He looked out the window at Portland, Maine. It was just after midnight, and there was no movement in the neighborhood. A private car waited across the street for him while other guards kept an eye out for Huskin. What was the nerd doing out so late at night? If he were smart, he would heed Lyla’s advice and run.

He turned from the uninspiring view and paced through the apartment, shoes clicking on the hardwood floors. Huskin’s office was predictably geeky with comic books and Star Wars posters on the wall. He had a three-screen computer set up and gadgets Gavin couldn’t begin to identify. He couldn’t imagine Lyla in the environment. He couldn’t imagine her anywhere but where she was—with him, where she belonged.

He hesitated in front of the bedroom but forced himself to enter. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Like Huskin’s hotel room, it verged on boring. He was grateful since any hint of Lyla’s sex life with this guy was only going to make him draw out his death.

A photograph on the nightstand caught his eye. A Lyla he didn’t recognize smiled shyly at the camera. She looked incredibly young in a hoodie with Huskin wrapped around her. There was a lighthouse in the background along with the choppy sea. She was the one who’d taken the photograph since Huskin’s arms were around her waist. He closed his eyes as a deluge of pain cascaded through him. Only Lyla could do this to him. No other person on the planet had this much power over him. He remembered her indignation about the women he’d been with. What she didn’t understand is he fucked those women without emotion. She had loved another man. No comparison. He put the picture down and walked out of the bedroom. He didn’t look around for any more photographs because he couldn’t take it. He settled in an armchair facing the door and waited.

How did men handle seeing their women with someone else? He sat forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands folded as if he was praying. He took a deep breath and tried to control the impulse to destroy this tidy apartment and turn it into the mess he was becoming. Did Huskin have more photographs of her? Naked photographs? His chest expanded with the need to roar, but he choked his demon and tried to stuff it back into the dark depths. Wrecking Huskin’s apartment would do nothing to assuage his need for retribution. He needed Huskin to accomplish that feat.

He closed his eyes as his head throbbed. He couldn’t afford to sleep longer than two or three hours at a time, not with Santana’s men on the loose and the underworld revolting. The longest stretch he had been unconscious in months is when Blade sedated him. Fuck. There were people to hunt, question, and possibly torture for information, yet here he was in Maine, waiting for Huskin to walk through that door so he could rip out the invisible dagger twisting in his heart.

An image of Lyla’s silver-blue eyes filled with tears flashed in front of him.I love you, but if you do this, you’ll break me, break us.He wasn’t noble. He wasn’t the idiot in the movies who let the woman walk away with the better guy. Fuck that. He would murder any man she thought could make her happy or give her a better life. Even after all these years, she underestimated what he was capable of. He had always known he didn’t deserve her, but he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to find the right guy. He couldn’t believe she fucking found him—Mr. Boring with his nine to five and safe little life. What did Huskin say to her before the attack at the hospital? What was said in the hotel room before he overheard Huskin saying he could make her disappear? Lyla had done an excellent job evading him for three years. He didn’t need her to have a connection with a man who could make her disappear forever. Just the thought of coming home to an empty house without Lyla and Nora made him insane.

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