Once A Crime Lord (Crime Lord Series Book 3)
Page 15
“From the amount of damage done, the cops are shocked that only one innocent was killed in the crossfire.”
How many of Gavin’s men had been killed? Lyla jumped when Nora shrieked as Alice blew raspberries on her neck. Beau decided the crowd was too much for him and trotted out to the backyard.
Lyla surveyed the small group in her living room. “Coffee?”
“Yes!” all three of them said at once.
Happy for the company, she headed to the kitchen and was trailed by all of them.
“When did you leave the hospital?” Lyla asked.
“Around ten last night. We stopped here on our way to work,” Janice said.
Their level of commitment was unheard of. “You stayed there until ten? Didn’t you get there yesterday at six?”
“Yes, but the hospital staff and patients were all frazzled,” Alice said. “Everyone’s scared and confused. We couldn’t leave.”
Lyla swallowed her guilt as she handed out cups of steaming coffee. Janice and Marcus talked about some business function coming up while Alice bobbed around the kitchen with an ecstatic Nora. Alice looked paler than normal, but still happy. How the heck could she look this awake after dealing with a crisis?
“What’s your next project?” Lyla asked.
Alice’s eyes lit up. “I’m teaming up with a dog shelter and a school to have a play day.”
Lyla’s heart lightened. “Oh my gosh. I want to help.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Marcus’s head turn in her direction, but she ignored him. Marcus had never been one to hover around her like Blade, but it seemed this shooting had shaken him.
“It’s going to be great,” Alice said. “We’re inviting parents to join as well. We’re hoping to have a bunch of adoptions out of this.”
An image of kids running with dogs in a field lightened the heavy weight on her chest. She would like nothing more than to be a part of it, but once again, she would have to sit out not only for her own safety, but for others as well.
Beau came through the doggy door and planted himself at Alice’s feet, staring up at Nora.
“I’m glad to see Beau’s bonding with Nora,” Alice commented.
“He’s obsessed with her,” Lyla said.
“Why shouldn’t he be? She’s adorable!”
Alice baby talked to Beau who wasn’t impressed. His ears twitched in her direction, but his tail didn’t wag. Alice didn’t seem to mind Beau’s subtle rejection.
“I’m so happy Beau found a home with you and Mr. Pyre. If I didn’t work so much, I’d get a pet myself. One day I will.”
“Well, good morning,” Janice drawled.
Lyla turned and saw Carmen standing in the doorway in a red silk robe and Hello Kitty slippers. Her eyes were bleary from sleep and she appeared perplexed by the company. Lyla didn’t blame her. The last time they had this much people in the house was during Nora’s baby shower. It had been a hollow tomb ever since.
“What’s going on?” Carmen asked and made a beeline for the coffee pot.
“We’re stopping by to make sure you and Lyla are okay after yesterday,” Janice said and then examined her red nails. “Although I thought I saw you leave with Kody Singer before everything went haywire.”
“Yeah,” Carmen yawned and noticed Marcus for the first time. “What are you doing here?”
“Good morning, Carmen,” Marcus said politely.
“She’s not a morning person,” Lyla said and shot Carmen a chiding look.
“Well, I’m off,” Marcus said, setting his cup in the sink and kissing Lyla’s temple. “Let me know if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Marcus,” she said as he kissed Nora and headed out.
“You made Marcus her godfather?” Alice asked.
“Yes. Nora has two godfathers, Marcus and Blade,” Lyla said.
“And I’m her only godmother,” Carmen said as she hopped up on the counter to drink her coffee.
“Your bodyguard is her godfather?” Alice asked.
“He’d take a bullet for Nora.” And already had for her.
“Anything happen with Kody?” Janice asked Carmen as she glanced at her watch. “Usually celebrities are difficult, but he was really sweet and prompt. You add gorgeous on top of that, I couldn’t ask for more.”
“I want something a little more than looks and the ability to be somewhere on time,” Carmen drawled. “We were at a restaurant when we saw the news. I came right home.”
“Are you gonna see him again?” Alice asked.
“I don’t know.” Carmen looked extremely bored with the conversation.
“I think she should date Marcus,” Lyla blurted.
Carmen jolted, nearly spilling coffee on herself. “Lyla!”
“You and Marcus?” Alice asked excitedly.
Carmen glared at Lyla. “Marcus and I are nothing.”
“Do you want to be something?” Janice asked with a raised brow.
Carmen hesitated and Janice pulled out her phone.
“What are you doing?” Carmen demanded.
“I’m checking his schedule.”
“I don’t want him!”
Janice narrowed her eyes at Carmen. “I think thou doth protest too much.”
Carmen crossed her arms and glared at them.
“I love Marcus,” Lyla said.
“He’s a fair boss,” Alice said earnestly. “Mr. Pyre is...” She flushed when she looked at Lyla and then shook her head wildly. “I mean, Marcus is great.”
“Gavin’s not mean to you, is he?” Lyla asked.
Alice threaded her fingers together. “No. He’s just...”
“Yes?”
“Scary.” She waved her hands. “I mean, he’s intimidating.”
“He is,” Lyla agreed with a nod.
Alice blinked. “He’s your husband and you think he’s intimidating?”
“He can be.” Alice only knew Gavin in the civilized business world. If she knew how Gavin was at home or in the underworld, she would faint.
“Marcus needs a woman in his life,” Janice said encouragingly to Carmen who had her lips compressed into a straight line. “He works too much and if I’m saying that, it’s pretty bad.”
“I don’t need you guys to hook me up with Marcus. If I want him, I’ll have him,” Carmen growled.
Janice glanced at her watch again. “Alice, we have to roll.”
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,” Lyla said as she settled on a chair to feed Nora.
“No, I mean about Marcus.”
Lyla 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?”
Lyla glanced around, but saw no sign of Blade. “I called Jonathan.”
“Lyla, you didn’t!”
“He’s alive!”
Carmen shook her head. “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.
“Don’t you think we deserve a day off?” Carmen snapped, waving her graham cracker.
“No,” Blade said simply and walked out.
“When we spar today, I’m so going for his balls,” Carmen said.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Gavin
Gavin wal
Gavin 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. Gavin tried to imagine Lyla in this environment, but he couldn’t imagine her anywhere but where she was—with him, where she belonged.
Gavin hesitated in the doorway leading to 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.
Gavin focused on a photograph on the nightstand. 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. Gavin 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 loved another man. No comparison. He put the picture frame 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? Gavin sat forward, elbows resting on his knees, hands folded as if he was praying. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly when everything in him wanted to destroy this tidy apartment and turn it into the mess he was becoming. Did Huskin have more photographs of her? Naked photographs? Gavin’s 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.
Gavin 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 was unconscious in months was 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 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, Lyla underestimated what he was capable of. He had always known that he didn’t deserve her, but he wasn’t going to give her the opportunity to find the right guy. Lyla made that decision herself by leaving and 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 did 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.
He thought they were through being on opposing sides of an issue where neither of them would compromise. First, it had been his position as crime lord, which she had changed her stance on. Now, she was asking him not to kill a man who wanted to save her from him. A normal man would feel jealousy, ignore it and be satisfied with the fact that she wore his ring, bore his child and said she loved him. He wasn’t that logical or evolved. Lyla left him twice and for very good reasons. Even now, any psychologist or sane friend (thank God Carmen grew up in his world and didn’t encourage Lyla to leave him again) would tell Lyla to take Nora and run. He wouldn’t allow it. Lyla would get past this. She had to because he wasn’t going to deviate from his course. Huskin had to die and she had no choice.
Huskin lived a safe existence free of the evil he walked through everyday. Z sent him a recording of Lyla’s conversation with Huskin this morning. She didn’t think he had time to monitor her? Was she fucking crazy? Lyla didn’t comprehend the depth of his obsession with her. She tried her damnedest to warn Huskin that his life was in danger, but Huskin wasn’t concerned. Even through the recording, Gavin could feel the tension between them of things left unsaid and unfinished. Hearing the easiness between Lyla and her ex made his insides feel as if acid was eating away at his organs. She dared call her ex. He didn’t know how to handle her rebellion. His first instinct was to lock her in the basement. An echo of his father’s voice slipped through his mind, The way to make a woman stay isn’t by abusing her. It’s by loving her so much that she can’t imagine being without you. Fuck. He couldn’t love Lyla more than he already did. His parents didn’t have the relationship that he and Lyla did. He couldn’t control her. She left him twice. His mother never left his father, she supported him no matter what.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and read the text. Finally. He couldn’t bear to sit here any longer with his thoughts. He was a man of quick decisions and actions—except when it came to Lyla. She turned him into an indecisive, raving lunatic. If he didn’t love her so much, he’d hate her for her influence over him.
Gavin heard approaching footsteps, the jingle of keys and then the door opened. Jonathan flipped the light switch, placed his messenger bag on the stand beside the door and turned. There was no surprise or fear on his face, just weary acceptance.
When Gavin entered the apartment, he searched for a security system and found none, which he thought was odd at the time, but he was too focused on his mission to ponder it. How could Huskin possibly know that he was here? Or, had he been expecting him?
Gavin’s demon began to salivate, eager for the kill. He could shoot Huskin, but that would be over too quickly. He could break his neck—no, he could start their session by breaking his fingers, digit by digit since those hands knew what Lyla’s skin felt like. On that thought, he should slice off his dick for daring to trespass. Maybe he could—
“No gun?” Huskin asked.
Gavin moved his jacket just enough for Huskin to get a look at a real gun, not the ones he probably saw on video games. “You aren’t surprised to see me.”
Huskin shrugged. “You would have killed me in that hotel room if Lyla didn’t make such a scene. I knew sooner or later you’d finish the job.”
Huskin’s phone rang. Gavin waited to see what he would do. Huskin eyed him for a moment before he slowly reached into his pocket.
“It’s Lyla,” Huskin said.
Every muscle in his body tensed, but he kept his face expressionless. Fuck it. He was going to lock her up in the basement, blister her ass and then fuck her until she came to her senses. He didn’t care what dad said. Calling another man? No. Fuck no. The tips of his fingers twitched with the need to grab his gun and finish this guy. He was a nobody yet Lyla’s loyalty to him made Huskin Gavin’s worst nightmare. Huskin’s hand moved towards the phone and Gavin’s moved to his gun. Huskin pressed a button and Lyla’s voice filled the room.
“Jonathan, you nearly gave me a heart attack! You got off work hours ago! Why’ve you been ignoring my calls?”
“Sorry, I was working late,” Huskin answered.
“Oh my God. You aren’t taking me seriously, are you?” Lyla snapped.
“I am,” Huskin said, eyes fixed on Gavin.
“You aren’t. You don’t know what he’ll do to you.”
“I think I do,” Huskin replied.
The sound of a baby crying filled the room, short-circuiting Gavin’s killing haze. Nora. Fuck he missed his baby girl. Why was she crying? He hated that sound with a passion. He would never be able to ignore her cries if he was in the vicinity. Thank fuck she wasn’t a fussy baby. The sound of his daughter in distress ripped at him.
Huskin nabbed his attention when he staggered as if he had been shot. He leaned against the closed apartment door with an anguished expression.
“You have a child with him?” Huskin whispered.
There was a long pause on the other end. “Yes. A daughter.”
Huskin dropped his head into his hand and didn’t speak.
“I thought I told you,” Lyla said.
“No, you didn’t.”
Even Huskin knew having a child changed everything. It was the reason he impregnated Lyla as quickly as possible. He wasn’t just Lyla’s husband, he was the father of her child and that made them a family. Huskin clearly grasped that Lyla would have to leave her husband and child to be with him, which wouldn’t happen. That’s right, motherfucker, she’s all mine.
“I told you, I love my husband. I’m married and I have a daughter.”
Her desolate tone made his gut tighten. He hurt her, but he couldn’t stop, not when she was focused on keeping Huskin alive.
“I have to go,” Huskin said hoarsely.
“I’m sorry, Jonathan.”
“Bye, Lyla.”
Huskin hung up and looked at Gavin with a suspicious sheen to his eyes.
“What are you doing here?” Huskin snapped.
Gavin blinked. He couldn’t believe this little shit. He had thirteen weapons on his person, not counting his bare hands, which could do more damage than people believed.
“What?” he asked, daring Huskin to speak to him in that tone again.
“You have her. What the hell do you care about me for?”
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