by Mia Knight
“What do you want from me?” she asked.
“Everything you promised me.”
She strained beneath him, but had no hope of jostling him. He weighed twice what she did and he was solid muscle.
“You broke your promise to me, Gavin!”
He had and it ate at him. If he listened to her, his father would still be alive and she wouldn’t have run from him again. “Everything is going to be different this time around,” he said against the smooth skin of her throat.
“It doesn’t feel like it. You blackmailed me into marrying you and you’re holding me down.”
“When we get home, I swear it’ll be different.” He couldn’t talk here. He wanted to be in their home, in their bed where he could spill his guts. Knowing that everyone was on the other side of the door made him feel crowded and crazed.
There were three people on the planet he gave a shit about and two of them had been murdered on his watch. He watched life leak out of the man’s eyes that shot Vinny only to find out that he was a pawn of the new crime lord. He dreamed of ways he could torture the man who murdered his father. Some called him a psychopath. Maybe he was. He didn’t have a wide range of emotions unless it involved the small circle of those he loved. With Vinny and his father gone, the only anchor he had was Lyla. He couldn’t function without knowing where she was. He hoped she was ready to take him on because she was the only one who could.
CHAPTER THREE
Lyla
Lyla spent the two hour flight from Montana to Nevada in bed with Gavin. Neither of them slept. Every word out of his mouth sounded as if it pained him. Her struggles and complaints made no difference so she stayed prone, wondering why God hated her so much. When the plane landed, Gavin didn’t move until Blade knocked on the door.
“She’s gone,” Blade said.
“Who’s gone?” Lyla demanded, knowing full well he was referring to Carmen. “Where did she go?”
“To her mother, like I said.” Gavin sat up and paused as if he needed to get his bearings.
“Are you on something?” It would explain his psycho behavior.
“I wish,” he muttered and rose. “Let’s go.”
Lyla stretched and didn’t flinch when Gavin took her hand. After having him lay on top of her for nearly two hours, hand holding was nothing. Gavin led her off the jet and into the dry, desert heat. Las Vegas. She couldn’t escape Sin City, it kept calling her back. Gavin led her to the waiting SUV and once more climbed into the back with her. He wore sunglasses so she couldn’t read his expression. She had no idea what was going on in his head. If they crossed paths again, she expected him to grovel at her feet or be the remote killer he’d been when she left Las Vegas. The man who forced her into marriage was neither. There was something brewing beneath the surface. She didn’t want to find out what it was.
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 with him.
“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. Was he 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 did twice. 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, than life. 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 I can’t.” Her chest burned as she glared at him through her tears. “Do you know what it feels like to be helpless? Like, really helpless? 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. “You hurt me. You left me.”
“I won’t leave you again,” he said into her hair, holding her desperately close.
“No! I’ll never trust you or believe a word you say. I should have died that day with Manny.”
Gavin jerked her chin up. “Don’t say that.”
She shoved at him and got nowhere. “What do you want from me?”
“We can make it, Lyla.”
“I don’t want to make it with you. You broke me!”
Gavin lifted her into his arms and hissed when she bit his shoulder. When he set her down in the bathroom, she tasted blood. It shocked her so much that she didn’t react when he began to undress her. It wasn’t until her chest was bare and his hands stopped that she realized he was staring at her scarred abdomen. She whirled away and crossed her arms over her chest. Her body was covered in white, raised scars and long gashes that made her look like Frankenstein. Even Carmen winced when she caught a glimpse of Lyla’s disfigured body. Lyla hadn’t looked at herself in a mirror since the incident.
She couldn’t stand the silence behind her. Of course Gavin knew about her wounds, but seeing them was a different story. His body was a work of art, unblemished and powerful. Hers looked as battered as she felt. She would never be able to wear a dress or V-neck shirt without horrifying people. Her body was a walking testament to the evil that walked this earth.
“Get out,” she whispered.
“Lyla—”
“Get out, Gavin!”
He hesitated before he walked out of the bathroom, quietly shutting the door behind him. Lyla stripped off what was left of her clothes and sank into the hot bath Gavin prepared for her. When the wounds were fresh, the smallest droplet of hot water made her feel as if she was being stabbed again. Even now, she moved cautiously as the hot water touched her scars, but there was no pain. The sweet aroma of the bath salts and the size of the luxurious tub felt wrong after being on the road for so long. She stiffened when the door opened again.
“Clothes,” Gavin said and set something on the vanity before he left again.
Lyla dropped her forehead on her knees. Their talk wasn’t over, not by a long shot and she felt so incredibly weary. The tumult of events in the past few hours made her feel as if she aged ten years. Lyla turned her back to the mirror as she dressed in the nightgown Gavin produced. It was cut low enough to show the beginning of the ragged scar between her breasts and the wound centimeters from her heart that should have killed her. She fussed with the nightgown before she brushed her hair. She wondered if there was a way to avoid Gavin and then scoffed. He refused to be left behind or ignored.
Lyla walked into the bedroom and found Gavin sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for her. He wore sweat pants and nothing else. She wished he would wear a shirt and realized she should be grateful he was wearing something. His eyes moved over her and then focused on her chest. Did her scars disgust him? Why the fuck did she care?
“I’m tired,” she said.
Gavin’s eyes flicked up to hers.
“I’ll take one of the guest bedrooms.” She started for the door and was brought up short when he stepped in front of her.
“You sleep here.”
“You’re going to sleep somewhere else?” she asked pointedly.
“No.”
“I’m not sleeping with you, Gavin.”
“We’re married.”
“Don’t you dare throw that in my face!” Lyla exploded, stomping her feet and waving her hands wildly. “We’re as married as your father is alive.”
Gavin rocked back as if she shoved him. “It’s legal, Lyla.”
“I’m not married until I feel married.”
“We can rectify that.”
Lyla pointed her finger in his face. “Don’t, Gavin.”
“I’m not going to force you to have sex with me. I just need to be near you.”
“Why?” she asked suspiciously.
He stared at her, a mixture of exasperation and anger on his face. “I need to know you’re with me.” When she said nothing, his hands fisted at his sides. “I haven’t had a decent night of sleep since Dad died. I need to hear you breathing. I need to touch you. Not sexually, if that’s what you want.”
“No sex,” she growled and whirled away from him.
Out of habit, she took the side of the bed that faced the window. As she sank into the mattress, she suppressed a sigh of pleasure. It really was the little things in life...
Gavin climbed onto the opposite side of the bed. He didn’t touch her, but she felt his body heat. How was she supposed to sleep beside her ex who was now her husband? Lyla stared blindly ahead for a long time before her eyes fluttered shut.
CHAPTER FOUR
Lyla
Lyla opened her eyes and froze. She was lying on her side facing Gavin with her arm tossed over his middle. She was tucked against him as if they slept together every night. Apparently, her body forgot that she wasn’t with Gavin anymore. Lyla spied the blue diamond ring on her finger and bared her teeth in a silent snarl. So, ‘technically’ she was married to him. That didn’t mean anything.
Lyla took a minute to examine him. She had no idea what drove Gavin to do the things he did. He blamed her for Vinny’s death, refused to leave the criminal world for her and was an emotionless bastard when she woke in the hospital. Why look for her after he got out of jail? Why force her into marriage? Even though he denied it, she knew it had something to do with Manny. Maybe he felt guilty that she got hurt... No. If he felt guilty, he wouldn’t have threatened to kill Carmen to get her to marry him. Seriously, Gavin was too complex to try to figure out so she wouldn’t.
Although he was asleep, his features weren’t relaxed. He was tense as if he was ready to react at any second. Lyla’s hand twitched on his chest before she slowly began to pull away. Gavin’s eyes snapped open and she stilled. Alert amber eyes moved over her face and then he relaxed.
“Okay?” he asked.
He was asking if she was okay now? She needed him to ask that when she felt as if she died with his father. She needed him to ask that when he saw her in Montana. He didn’t ask how she was, he just demanded that she marry him. Lyla pounded his chest with her fist and found small satisfaction in his grunt of surprise before she rolled out of bed and went into the bathroom. She locked the door and took care of business before she waltzed out. Gavin sat up in bed, but when she walked towards the door, he jumped up.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m hungry,” she said shortly.
Lyla was happy to see that Blade and the other security weren’t patrolling the hallway. Having them hover after being on the road with Carmen would make her f
eel suffocated. Dealing with Gavin was more than she wanted to handle. She opened the fridge, which was usually filled with premade meals and wasn’t disappointed. She made herself a bowl of yogurt, fruit and granola and dug in. Gavin appeared as she finished. She ignored him and went back to the fridge. She popped some waffles in the toaster and slathered them with peanut butter and honey and felt semi-human again.
Gavin leaned against the counter with a cup of coffee and said nothing. She knew he was waiting for her to make the first move, which irritated the hell out of her. He pushed and shoved when he felt like it and now he was acting like a patient gentleman, letting her set the pace of the morning.
“I want to talk to Carmen,” she said.
Gavin waved a hand at the house phone. Lyla ground her teeth as she picked it up and dialed Carmen’s prepaid phone number. Carmen picked up on the second ring.
“Lyla?” Carmen asked.
“Yes. Are you okay?”
“Yes. You?”
She hesitated and then said, “Yes,” a bit grudgingly.
“Really?” Carmen asked, obviously picking up on her tone.
“Yes.” Aside from manhandling her and nearly punching Carmen, Gavin hadn’t made any threatening moves towards her. The last time she arrived in Gavin’s mansion, he’d roughed her up and scared the crap out of her. But, she didn’t sense rage in him this morning. Of course, that could change in a nanosecond. “Are you with your mom?”
“Yes. And he was telling the truth. My dad’s gone.”
Her heart clenched with regret and sadness. Uncle Louie, a former enforcer for Manny had been a good man who had been there for Lyla in her younger years. “When’s the funeral?”
“In a couple of days.”
Silence on both ends of the phone.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Carmen asked.
“Yes, I’ll call you later. You’re going to keep this phone?”
“Yes. You left yours behind, didn’t you?”