Page 19 of Capture (Primal #3)

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I think you need to move me to a new location,” I told Mikael when he arrived with my dinner, avoiding his eye because I was still a little embarrassed about him watching me having sex with Ronan.

“Several hours of sex noises are starting to get on my nerves, especially when I’m alone.

” A bashful chuckle exuded from my mouth, and I pressed my fingers over my lips to shut me up.

Gosh, I acted like such a loser when I was in his presence.

That’s what he did to me. His boss's man energy and killer stare rendered me weak and useless.

“Do you like seafood?” he asked, as the sweetness in his tone made me flinch because he was usually so severe.

And there was no sign in his eyes that he was reflecting on the last time he saw me.

Or more accurately, the last time he saw my bare ass getting shagged by his loyal right-hand man.

Jeez, what did I look like from that angle?

Bouncy dimples ass. I bet he’s seen the most beautiful women in the world naked, then lowered himself to looking at my ass.

“Um,” I pulled my focus back to the covered plate. I wasn’t overly hungry because I stuffed my face with potato chips and haven’t used up the excess energy. I think the excess calories were still sitting in my stomach. “What sort of seafood? And any word on Gunner?”

“Crab cakes. And no. We’re conducting a plan,” he kept his answers short.

“Oh, I haven’t had crab cakes before,” I suppressed a cringe. The only crab cakes I’ve seen were the cheap frozen ones from the grocery store that didn’t look too appetizing.

“First time for everything,” he exhaled as if the world was on his shoulders, then retreated to the door, where I thought he was going to leave me.

“So,” I desperately wanted him to stay, just for the company. Riley enjoyed her own company, but Annika wasn’t that good at it, so she pretended. But there was a difference between being alone by choice and being alone by force.

But he stepped out, brought in a cane basket, and placed it in the corner. “Laundry. Clean and folded.”

“Wow,” I gasped. “That’s impressive. It was only…” He walked away as I spoke to him, reminding me of Gunner’s lack of manners. It ran in the family because Lars was like that too, and it used to infuriate Sylvie at times. “Okay, bye.”

The door shut behind him as I shook my head disapprovingly, not that he’d care if I disapproved of his behavior or not.

But my mind was still on Sylvie, causing a physical reaction of nausea and skin crawls.

That was why I worked hard to forget her the most, because she would be the most difficult to convince that I was worthy of forgiveness.

She was my foster mom and saved me from a life of ruin.

How could I possibly face her after what I did?

It occurred to me that Mikael didn’t lock the door after he left, or at least I didn’t hear him lock the door.

It wouldn’t hurt to try the handle, I mean…

I already decided I wanted to stay with them, maybe not as their prisoner as part of their empire, so I wasn’t going to run away.

However, it wouldn’t hurt to test the handle to see if he, the big boss, screwed up.

Flinging the door open, I froze at the sight of narrowed eyes, looking down at me, not filled with fury like I’d expect, but amusement.

“You forgot to lock the door,” I pointed out.

“I’m aware,” he stated smoothly, gaze unflinching.

“Okay, so were you expecting me to escape, or…I mean, it’s a bit irresponsible for the actual boss to leave the door unlocked.”

“I answer to no one,” he asserted, shooting me a dark look.

“What about Sylvie? Do you answer to her?” I pressed, curious about his reaction.

There was a tiny flinch in his face. It was only for a second, but it told me that Sylvie held some weight in his life.

She was his auntie and probably had little to do with her, since they lived in different cities, but I could tell that he also wouldn’t want to piss her off.

And who would be dumb enough to piss the Kaiser Queen?

Well…me. I was dumb enough to piss off the entire clan.

I pointed my finger at him after seeing the ever-so-slight recoil, and he was a little too cocky. “Ha! I knew it. Sylvie scares you.”

“No. She doesn’t,” he told me flatly.

“But you’re pleased you don’t live in the same city and work in the same club, though, aren’t you?” I challenged him.

He refused to reply, but his gaze shifted from warm fondness to icy cold suspicion, back to warm fondness again. Simmering Fall. I hate to think what thoughts were circling in that dark, beautiful head as his vibe turned icy cold.

I swallowed over a lump in my throat, suddenly thirsty for a cool drink.

“Why are you out there anyway?” It was a fair question, as he was lingering out here in the hall, but when a door opened and his gaze shifted to the woman who had just left the room, fear stormed through my body.

“Waiting,” he replied, levelly.

“Waiting for who?” My hands trembled as I started to think the worst.

In seconds, I’d convinced myself that he was waiting for a girl, maybe his favorite girl, to appear so he could follow her into one of these rooms so that he could fuck her. I was not enough for him.

“Do they give you special discounts?” I asked him.

He frowned, confused as his head cocked to the side. “Who?”

I nodded down the hall, so he understood what I meant without having to spell it out, but he still seemed perplexed. Or maybe he was faking it.

“About time,” he stated, gazing down the hall, sounding relieved, and I hesitated to look that way because I didn’t want to see the girl that he chose over me.

“It was awkward,” a calm, warm voice answered. Ronan was carrying a large box and had to turn to the side and shuffle so that the corners wouldn’t graze along the fancy, outdated wallpaper.

“What’s that?” I asked as he seemed to be bringing the box our way.

“A TV,” Mikael replied as if he should already know.

“As per order,” Ronan added as he shuffled into my room.

“Oh, was that why you were waiting out here?” I clarified with Mikael.

“Yes,” he answered slowly, always frowning just like Gunner. “I was waiting for Ronan to lug it up here, so we could install it for you.”

“Wow, thank you, but wait, why am I thanking you when you’re keeping me prisoner?” I argued, and he hushed me, ushering me back inside my room, then closed the door behind us.

“You asked for it, so…here we are,” he stated as a small smile appeared on his face as if he was proud to do a good thing for me.

When I matched his smile with my own, his smile vanished, and a flash of that cold severity appeared behind his eyes.

It must be hard for him to be in my presence when I remind him so much of all the bad stuff and what I did to him.

Ronan began pulling the television out of the box, and all the packaging came out with it as Mikael turned his attention to my dinner. “Have you tried a crab cake yet?”

“No,” I replied. “I’ve been distracted.”

“It’ll go cold if you don’t eat it. And I’m not taking it all the way down to the kitchen to warm it back up for you,” he said scornfully.

I swallowed nervously and sat on the edge of the bed next to the bedside table where he had left the covered plate. I was reluctant to try crab cakes in front of him, fearing I might hate them. I’ve never been fussy about food, but I did know what I liked and disliked.

“Are you planning to keep me here long-term?” I asked to distract him from my meal that I hadn’t touched.

“You keep asking me that, and I keep giving you the same answer. I haven’t decided what I’m going to do with you yet, so it’s better to have you where we can keep an eye on you,” his voice growled as he spoke that even Ronan glanced up to read his expression, “rather than out there where you can go running to the Larsson cops.”

“I swear I’ll never go back to them. I have no loyalties to them,” I tried to convince him, but he shrugged nonchalantly as if it didn’t matter what I said; he wouldn’t believe me.

Ronan’s phone rang just as he was unraveling the electric cord, and he checked the name flashing up on the screen before excusing himself from the room. I noticed that he shot Mikael a sharp look as he left, as if the caller was someone important.

Mikael followed him out, and I then focused on the covered plate. He’d be disappointed in me if I didn’t try it. If I didn’t like the taste, maybe I could hide it under the bed.

I removed the silver cover from the plate and was pleasantly surprised by the meal before me. I had imagined a soft, mayonnaise-smeared slab of crab meat, but instead, it was fried and crispy, and it looked and smelled delicious.

“It looks like you were right about Betty,” Mikael’s voice shuddered down my spine. I didn’t notice him walk back in, and it looked as though Ronan had left.

“You’ve got evidence?” I asked, looking up at that chiseled face as he stood over me. He liked standing over me, imposing his authority because he could see the way he made me nervous, and he liked it.

His nostrils flared. “Let’s just say, we found who she was,” he said, picking up a silver fork and using the side to cut a small piece of the crabcake.

“Who was she? Are you saying she’s not a cop?” I enquired, hoping he’d give me more information than little hints dropped every so often. “Have you heard from Gunner yet?”

“So many questions and none of it is your concern,” he told me as he dug the prongs of the fork into the piece of crab cake. I assumed he was going to swallow it, but instead, he held the fork an inch from my mouth, prompting me to eat it.

“Why did you bring it up then, if you weren’t going to tell me more. Was she a cop? No. Wait. She must’ve been,” I rationalized outwardly, before taking the piece of crab cake in my mouth and chewing it. “Hmm, yum, that’s good.”