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***
Lyla woke slowly, warm and content. She stretched beneath the covers and yawned as she opened her eyes. Morning light filtered through the window of Manny’s guest bedroom. Something niggled at the back of her mind, but she was too tired to concentrate. She sat up in bed and froze when she saw Gavin sitting on a chair.
Lyla stilled as memories of last night flooded back. Her eyes went to the door. The dresser was back in place against the wall. She was in bed instead of the bathroom floor where she fell asleep. What the fuck? How—?
“How much did you see?” Gavin asked.
His voice was rough and raspy. He wore the same suit from last night, which meant he never left. He looked dangerous with a five o’clock shadow and bright amber eyes.
Lyla opened and closed her mouth, but couldn’t find her voice.
“Lyla, how much did you see?”
Lyla swallowed hard and gripped handfuls of the bed sheet before she admitted, “Everything.”
The air in the room thickened. She didn’t notice Gavin make any movement, but she sensed his body tighten in preparation. Her flight instinct woke and urged her to run, to flee, but Lyla knew it was useless. Nothing would stop him from getting to her.
“Why did you go to the basement?” Gavin asked.
There was no use in trying to cover up the truth now. “I didn’t trust you after the orgy. I thought you might be...”
“You thought I would cheat on you in our own home? Even after I said I wouldn’t?”
Lyla didn’t have to answer. A muscle jumped in his jaw. He leaned forward, elbows braced on his knees.
“You heard why he was there?”
Lyla was glad her stomach was empty so she wouldn’t embarrass herself and vomit. She could see the guard's face in her mind, clear as day. He haunted her. Could she have stopped Gavin or would she be dead and buried along with that man three years ago?
“I did what I had to,” Gavin said.
Lyla couldn’t look at him. Before she witnessed the brutality in the basement, she ignored what the Pyres did in the dark because she could. When she saw what Gavin was capable of, his infidelity seemed trifling. She didn’t want to be around someone who could do that to another human being. She left, disillusioned and chilled to the core.
“So you left because of what you saw in the basement, not the women,” Gavin said.
“I left because of both. I don’t want to be a part of this life, Gavin,” her voice broke and she looked down at her trembling hands.
“You shouldn’t have saw what you did.”
Lyla lifted her head. “But I did. Now what?”
Gavin’s silence made her heart race. In a sudden burst of anger that startled them both, she erupted from the bed. She rearranged the robe so it covered her adequately and fisted her hands at her sides as she faced Gavin.
“I know what you do for work, Gavin, and I can’t stand it,” she said, voice shaking. “His face haunts me. I can hear his pleas in my sleep. You didn’t stop. Youtorturedhim.” She had to stop because bile rose in her throat.
“I needed to know if he was telling the truth.”
Lyla slashed her hand through the air. “Slicing his throat would have been better than what you did.”
“You don’t understand—”
“And I don’t want to!” she screeched.
Gavin flinched, but showed no other reaction to her outburst. She could feel herself splintering into pieces. Watching the man she loved torture someone to death destroyed her. She left Las Vegas, a shadow of her former self.
Her emotions were a tangled mess inside of her. This man incited so much in her—fear, lust, confusion, love. She hated that even after all this time, she cared for him. She loved Gavin with every particle of her being and she had never been the same since. Gavin stole her innocence in more ways than one. He branded her soul and no matter what she did, she couldn’t exorcise him. She clung to Jonathan because he was Gavin’s polar opposite. Did she really love Jonathan? She was grateful that he took her in, but what she felt for him paled in comparison to what she felt for Gavin.
“You don’t have to do this,” she said, voice shaking.
