by Mia Knight
Lyla shoved at the man until she focused on his face. Lyla wept into Gavin’s chest as he held her. Lyla wasn’t sure if hours or minutes passed. She dozed fitfully and took turns demanding he not touch her or plastered against him. Gavin didn’t say a word and obeyed whatever dictate she issued. He didn’t leave the bed. He fed her bland foods so she could take more pain killers and forced her to drink water. He held her hair when she barfed it all up and filled the bathtub when she was so cold that she couldn’t stop shaking. He carried her back to bed, blocked out the sunlight and slid in beside her. No one disturbed them and neither spoke.
Chapter Ten
Lyla woke on her side, facing Gavin. She wasn’t sure how many days passed since she and Gavin locked themselves in his master bedroom. He was asleep with his hand gripping hers, their only skin contact. It was the first time she woke without lashing out or trying to defend herself from a dead man. Her body was still sore, but she felt better. Although she had been in bed for days, she was exhausted. Her mind and body were weighted down with the knowledge of what lurked outside these walls. She had been touched by pure evil. Her mind desperately tried to punch through to fresh air, but her heart cowered in darkness, trying to piece itself together.
Lyla slipped her hand from Gavin’s. He shifted and reached for her, brow furrowing. She hesitated a moment before she ran a hand down his face. He relaxed instantly as if he recognized her touch and settled into deeper sleep. He had dark circles under his eyes and hadn’t shaved in days. He looked dark and dangerous even in sleep. There was a layer of tension around him, a coiled readiness to strike out. Instead of making her back away, it made her want to burrow into him. Gavin kept his word. He killed the pervert with his bare hands.
Lyla went into the bathroom and filled the tub. She had more baths in the past couple of days than she would in two weeks. Lyla tossed in salts and oils before she slipped in. She sat with her arms wrapped around her legs and let the hot water penetrate her aching body. It was hard to think of anything but what happened in the warehouse. She couldn’t get her captors faces out of her mind, couldn’t think past Pervert’s attack. She was grateful that she didn’t remember... But, what did Gavin see? Lyla moaned and buried her face against her knees. It felt like a lifetime that she had been back in Las Vegas. In less than two weeks, she changed irrevocably. There was no way to backtrack or deviate from the path laid out in front of her. She was on a bullet train and there was no getting off.
Lyla heard the door open and Gavin appeared. He sat beside the tub, watching her. Lyla didn’t meet his eyes. She couldn’t. There were things she wanted to say, things she wanted to know... and not know.
“The doctor will be here in an hour,” he said.
With the test results. Lyla clenched her teeth and nodded. It was better to know what Pervert did to her.
“Do you want to see Carmen?”
She shook her head. Carmen was over the top and Lyla couldn’t handle that right now. She could barely handle her own emotions, much less someone else’s.
“Do you want me here when the doctor comes?”
Lyla turned her head and looked at him. He still looked tired, but his eyes were clear and lethal. He was still on edge. So was she.
“Do you want to be?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“That’s fine with me.” After rescuing and caring for her, his presence was a welcome buffer between the horror of what happened and reality.
They sat in silence until there was a knock on the bedroom door. When Gavin went to answer it, she got out of the tub and slipped into a robe. The same doctor from the night of the assault was in the bedroom and wasted no time.
“There was no trace of STD, semen or anything else,” the doctor said.
Something within her loosened. For the first time in days she felt as if she could take a full breath.
“You’re looking better. Let’s take a look at your tear.” The doctor gave Gavin a long, direct look, but when he didn’t move and Lyla didn’t object, she snapped on her gloves and got to work. “It looks good. You’re not spotting?”
“No.”
“Great.”
The doctor checked the wounds on her wrists and ankles and approved of Gavin’s dressings before she prodded Lyla’s concussion. Lyla still felt like she might pass out, so the doctor prescribed more rest and pain killers. She asked if Lyla wanted to speak to a counselor and when Lyla declined, handed her a business card in case she changed her mind. When the doctor left, Lyla changed into yoga pants and Gavin’s sweater that stopped at mid-thigh.
“I want to go outside,” she said.
Gavin didn’t say a word. He opened the bedroom door and they came face to face with Blade. Knowing that he witnessed her being carried out of the warehouse, her breakdown and probably her outbursts over the past couple of days, Lyla didn’t meet his gaze. She passed him and walked down the staircase, through the kitchen and thrust open the door that led into the backyard. Lyla stepped onto heated tiles and tipped her face up to the sun. She didn’t have to look around to accustom herself to her surroundings. An Olympic sized pool took up most of the yard. In the middle of the pool was a sunken cabana with oversized pillows and cushions.
Lyla stood there until she felt uncomfortably warm before she crossed the oversized stones that led to the sitting area in the middle of the pool. The sound of the waterfall cascading into the other end of the pool soothed her. Gavin followed and settled nearby, never taking his eyes from her.
“What did you see?” she asked.
Gavin jerked as if she slapped him. “Don’t ask me that.”
“I am,” she said, their beautiful surrounding at odds with the hell they were dancing around.
“You’re recovering. You don’t need to—”
“Gavin, tell me.”
Gavin rose and turned his back to her, but not before she saw his murderous expression.
“He was on top of you, dick out. I didn’t know if he was finishing, beginning—” Gavin let out a growl and ran his hands through his hair. “You weren’t moving. I fucking lost it. I didn’t even look at you, I just wanted to kill.”
“Gavin.” She held her hands out to him because she could see he was shaking. Gavin turned, movements precise and stiff as he walked to her. When she tugged on his wrist, he fell to his knees in front of her. He didn’t meet her eyes. His were focused on a target over her shoulder that no one could see. Lyla could taste the violence and rage bottled up in him. She clasped his face between her hands and kissed the corner of his mouth. He didn’t relax, didn’t look at her. “I’m fine, Gavin.”
“Are you?” he asked, voice gritty and rough.
Still, he didn’t look at her. Lyla wrapped her arm around his neck and leaned into him, needing and giving comfort.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. In less than a day, being held in a hellhole changed her. How long would it take to feel normal again? To feel safe? When would she feel clean or close her eyes and dream of something other than the monsters who kidnapped her?
They stayed that way, embracing one another, lost in their own thoughts. She rested her chin on his shoulder, but his hands stayed fisted on the cushions on either side of her. Lyla thought back to that night and tightened her hold on him, needing reassurance even though she saw what Gavin did to Pervert.
“Maybe he didn’t have a chance to fuck me,” she whispered.
“That’s what I have to believe,” Gavin bit out.
Lyla bit her bottom lip. She wanted to believe that Pervert didn’t rape her, that Gavin interrupted before he had the chance. Lyla nuzzled Gavin even though he felt like a block of stone. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For coming for me, for taking care of me.” She cursed the tears that rose. At least their position meant she could talk freely without being pinned by Gavin’s soul searching eyes. “I’ve been difficult and I kept you from work—”
Gavin jerked back, forcing her
to loosen her hold on him.
“I promised that it wouldn’t touch you...” he said harshly.
For a moment, he looked crazed. Then, he dropped his head to hide his expression. The cushions shifted beneath her as he strangled them. He was a bomb waiting to detonate. He wouldn’t lash out at her, Lyla knew, but the waves of violence emanating from him turned her stomach.
“He’s dead,” Lyla reminded him.
Gavin raised his head. The intensity of his gaze made her uneasy.
“You saw what I did,” he said.
“Yes.” Even while the savagery of Gavin’s rage terrified her, she would sleep better knowing that that man was dead. He didn’t deserve to live.
“You think I’m a monster?” he asked gruffly.
Lyla clasped his face. “You’re my monster.”
Gavin shuddered and wrapped his arms around her waist, head on her breasts. “Can you forgive me?”
“Yes.” She didn’t need to think about it. He was swimming in guilt, tortured by the kidnapping. Lyla’s hands sifted through his hair in an effort to dim the awful energy engulfing him. “How did you find me?”
“Carmen called us when she couldn’t find you. Stupid bastards didn’t get rid of your phone until they were downtown. I had men searching the area when they called. I kept them on the phone to track them. It still took a couple of hours. Too long.”
“You got the second guy?”
“Second guy?”
Lyla went rigid. “There were two men.”
“He wasn’t at the warehouse when we went through last night.”
“He went to get cigarettes. He’s still out there.” Her voice was hoarse with fear.
“I’ll get him.”
Lyla heard the bloodthirsty eagerness in his voice and it distracted her from the memory of those dark, dead eyes of the captor who hadn’t touched her, but scared her just as much. “You’re going after him?”
“Him and everyone associated with them.”
The flat tone of his voice sent chills down her spine. Even though he allowed her touch, he wasn’t with her, he was planning murder and revenge. She splayed her hand over his heart. “So they kidnap me, you kill them and then what? When does it end?”
“It ends when they’re all dead.”
He still wouldn’t look at her, wouldn’t let her touch penetrate. Lyla let her hands drop from him. It always came back to this part of his life. Even while she was glad that Pervert was dead, Gavin paid a price. They both had. Interacting with people like her captors, it chipped away at Gavin’s soul and pulled him deeper into their world. She saw him in action, face dripping with blood with no trace of humanity in his eyes—just blind rage. Knowing the filth he dealt with, she couldn’t stomach it.
Lyla beat back the pain and asked, “When am I going back to your dad’s house?”
Gavin’s eyes snapped to her. “What?”
“I agreed to stay for a year, but I can’t be around you, not when you’re involved in this.”
Silence. She pushed against his chest, but he didn’t move.
“I told you I can’t live like this. They went for me because they think I mean something to you. They’ll come after me again. They’ll kill me next time. I can’t—”
“Baby—”
She shoved his hand away. “No, Gavin. I want out.”
Gavin’s hands moved to her hips, gripped. “Out?”
Lyla ignored the bite in his words. She had to put as much distance between herself and Gavin as possible. The bond between them was incredibly tight, especially after being kidnapped. She needed to break it off now while she could. She couldn’t reach him. No one could. He would go on a killing spree and she couldn’t talk him out of it.
“I think we both know I can’t...” She waved a hand at herself and then the house where she forced him to hibernate with her. “I can’t,” she repeated. “I’m better. Y-You helped, staying with me. I’m grateful—”
“Lyla—”
She shook her head and hated that she still had a store of tears in her. “I can’t be around you when you’re doing this shit. I can’t go through this again.” Her throat tightened. They left the warehouse covered in another person’s blood and she still hadn’t washed it all away in her mind. Gavin wouldn’t be satisfied with the death of the other captor. How many would he kill before the rage dissipated? Before he felt that justice had been served? How much would die and what toll would it take on his soul? Every kill pushed him further into the dark, further from emotion and anything normal. “You won’t give it up and I—”
“I give it up, you stay with me.”
Lyla wasn’t sure she heard him right. “What?”
His eyes bored into hers. “I let go of that side of the business, you stay with me. Permanently.”
Lyla was stunned speechless.
“That’s why you left me the first time, why you want to leave me now?”
Lyla shook her head to clear the buzzing in her ears. “You’d give it up?” She couldn’t keep the skepticism out of her tone.
“Yes.”
The man before her was a dangerous predator. The businessman was the civilized part of him. The savage side surfaced when he dealt with people like Pervert. There were two sides to Gavin’s nature—both lethal and both a part of him. How could he get rid of the darkness that was so inherently a part of him? Where would the aggression go? How could he let go of the need for revenge and let others handle it? Giving up control wasn’t part of his DNA.
“Tell me what you’re thinking,” he ordered.
“Can you give it up?”
“I need to find someone to take my place, but its possible.”
“Who—?”
“Lyla,” he said impatiently, “answer my question.”
“Why can’t you quit that shit for yourself?”
“Because I don’t care about myself.”
Lyla’s head snapped back. “What do you mean, you don’t care about yourself?”
He tightened his hold on her. “Yes, or no, Lyla.”
“If I say no, you continue doing this on the side?”
“Yes.”
The force of his personality battered at her. He was too much for her to handle. “Gavin, you’re so angry—”
“Yes, I’m fucking angry!” He wrapped his arms around her when she tried to back away. “No, you don’t run when I’m pissed. You go toe to toe with me like you did in my office the other day and when you took my hands in yours. You’ve seen the worst in me and you wanted me to hold you after that fucker—” He cupped her face between rough, shaking palms. “I did you wrong. I made you cry and showed you parts of my world you should never see. I can’t take it back, but I can try to make it right this time around. You have to give me a chance, a real one. No holding back, no hiding in my dad’s house. Before, you were handed to me on a fucking platter. I didn’t have to work for your love, you took me whole. You were tailor-made for me, fucking spoiled me. Then, you left. I won’t take you for granted, ever.”
Lyla’s hands twisted in his shirt as her mind whirled.
“What little I feel revolves around you. Haven’t felt a fucking thing since you left. I brought you back and I keep fucking it up. I feel too much for you.” Brooding eyes traced her features. “I learned to control my emotions at a young age. I learned what to let in and what to keep out. I saw what Mom’s death did to my dad. I didn’t want to be at someone’s mercy like that. I held you at arm’s length on purpose. I thought I had you under control, that I hadn’t let you in. It wasn’t until you left that I realized you were already in. The woman meant for me, gone without a trace.” His eyes burned with a fevered light. “You can’t leave me, Lyla.”
“Gavin,” she whispered.
His kissed her tears away and ran his hands down her sides, as if reassuring himself that she was here with him.
“When I held you in the tub, you pulled away. Fucking killed me. I thought after what you saw, you wouldn�
��t let me touch you ever again. Then, you demanded I stay with you, hold you.”
He dropped his forehead onto hers, amber eyes staring into hers with a desperation that made her heart ache.
“I won’t let you go this time. Whatever you want, I’ll give. You want me to quit, I’ll do it. But, I quit the business, you stay with me.”
“W-what if—?”
“No ifs. Yes, or no.” When she hesitated, his face hardened. “I have you for a year. If you think I’m going to let you hide in my dad’s house, think again. I’m not letting you out of my sight. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you want to stay another year and then another. You try to leave, I’m coming with you. I won’t leave you alone. I can’t.”
They were both surprised by her watery chuckle. She framed his face with her hands. Gavin Pyre was a scary bastard. He was fire and ice in a gorgeous package she wasn’t sure she could handle, but it looked like she had no choice. Neither of them did.
“You’re so romantic,” she said and kissed him.
Gavin drew her closer so she was at the edge of her seat. She could taste his need and the sharp edge of danger that was so much a part of him. When she drew back, his hungry eyes searched hers.
“When you say permanently, you mean...?” she asked.
“No running, no time limit. You stay here, not with my dad.”
Lyla chewed her bottom lip and then said, “I don’t know if I can give you what you want.”
He laughed and wrapped himself around her. There was a dark edge to it, but it was still a sound of humor.
“Baby, you make me happy just by being.”
A warm ray of hope lit her soul and she hugged him to her. “I’ll stay.”
He didn’t move or speak for a long minute. They were locked in their own world, just the two of them. When he pulled back, he smiled at her. She was stunned by the joy that made him look ten years younger. He pressed a gentle kiss to her lips and unwrapped himself from her.
“Are you good?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I have work to do,” he said and rose.
“What?”
“The sooner I get rid of the title, the sooner we can move on.”