Capture: Siren, #1

Capture (Siren #1)

Katie de Long

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

CAPTURE

First edition. June 21, 2016.

Copyright © 2016 Katie de Long.

Written by Katie de Long.

Also by Katie de Long

Anarchy Duo

Anarchy And Roses

Anarchy and Kisses

Black Roses

Oleander's Kiss (Coming Soon)

Love and Lapdances

Party Lights

Step Back

The Hunt

Double Dance

Strangers

Unplanned

The Chase

Teach Me

Plan B

Dare You

Fallen

Bet You

Party Girl

Love and Lapdances Volume One (#1-7)

Siren

Capture

Torture

Restrain

Mindf*ck

Ravage

Deathwish

Standalone

Bad, Bad, Thing

Watch for more at Katie de Long’s site.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Also By Katie de Long

Capture (Siren, #1)

Capture (Siren #1)

Milla Greenwich, Present Day

Eight months earlier...

Calder Roane

Milla

Calder

Milla

Calder

Milla

Calder

Calder

Milla

Calder

Milla

Calder

Milla

Calder

Milla

Calder

Torture (Siren #2) | One | Milla Greenwich, Present Day

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Also By Katie de Long

Love is pain.

Calder Roane has always been the spoiled youngest son, and is struggling to seize the reins to the family business following his mother's death. But when he wakes up imprisoned in a rusted death trap with several others, it's gonna take everything he has to get out alive. As the mystery unfolds and he tries to discover why he's there, a vulnerable and resourceful fellow prisoner could be the key. If he can win Milla's heart.

Under other circumstances, Camilla Greenwich would've grown up as Winchester royalty, born to a life of politics and privilege. But when the Roane family took her family's place, their actions corrupted the entire community, and cost Milla everyone she loved. Now, she has the chance of the lifetime: the chance to punish the heir to the Roane family empire, and those who've abetted him. But seizing that chance could well be her undoing. She'll have to get far closer to her enemy than she dreamed possible, and risk exposing herself. She'll have to become prey, alongside him.

As her war goes on and the collateral damage mounts, they're about to discover how deep the conspiracy runs. Each past sin is exposed, and in the end, they may be the only people who can redeem each other.

Siren, a dark romance series from USA Today bestseller Katie de Long. Siren contains mature material that may be upsetting to some readers.  Don't look for a Happily Ever After until the very end.

Coming soon:

Torture (Siren #2)

Restrain (Siren #3)

Mindfuck (Siren #4)

Ravage (Siren #5)

Deathwish (Siren #6)

Dedication

For the crazy bastard who side-eyes me every time the answer to What'd you do today, is Wrote mechanically assisted murder masturbation, and who hasn't DIY lobotomized me yet. For the Divas who didn't look at me like I was crazy, and for Sera, who encouraged me to at least draft the darkest, most warped version possible of any given scene, just to see if it worked.

Capture (Siren #1)

Twenty years go, the Roane family took power, shoving the leaders who opposed them out with bribes, threats, or force. Money's not a shit motivation, but when it's the only one, it kills.

If no one'll make them carry the weight of the lives they've ended, I will.

By the time Calder Roane breathes his last, he'll know every ounce of pain inflicted on me and mine. There's nothing a capitalist can build that a steelworker can't dismantle.

––––––––

Capture contains graphic material, and is intended for mature readers. The Siren series is a dark romance from USA Today bestseller Katie de Long, publishing monthly. Don't look for an HEA until the very, very end.

Siren

Capture (July 2016)

Torture (August 2016)

Restrain (September 2016)

Mindfuck (October 2016)

Ravage (November 2016)

Deathwish (December 2016)

Continue reading after the end of Capture for an excerpt from Torture, coming August 2016.

One

Milla Greenwich, Present Day

I thought I was ridding the world of a monster. But I was only creating one in my own image.

They say death gets less shocking every time you witness it, but I’m not sure that’s true. I’ve seen my share—more than, truth be told. But nothing could have prepared me for the man dying in front of me.

It’s the culmination of everything I wanted. And it’s going to destroy me.

Once, I found comfort aboard the Siren’s rusted decks. But there will be no comfort here for me. Never again. There’ll only be the ghosts of the man I love.

Calder’s fingerprints stain every surface. His voice echoes in the catwalks and corridors. And his body’s right in front of me, lying where he fell. The gun I threatened him with is somewhere, but there’s no reason for me to find it. It’s far more precious to me to bear witness to Calder’s last moments. To savor the last look I’m gonna get at the man who captured my heart. The most recent man I killed.

It’s not my first night as a murderer... but it feels just as new to me anyways. Eight months ago, I was a laborer like any other. I welded at the shipyard, sealing seams in tankers and salvage vessels. A cog in a system that created things of industry and beauty. I couldn’t see that the machine was broken, and no amount of hard work could fix it.

It’s never just one thing gone wrong. No. That would be too easy. One part warps, and slowly the whole machine falls to pieces. It started before I was born. By the time I was old enough to watch it happen, the whole world was collapsing around me. My body, my mind strained, as I tried not to let it drag me down with it.

And I bent. I warped. I became so much more than a blue-collar worker.

I became a killer. His killer.

Calder’s icy eyes are dazed and unseeing. He’s not dead yet, but he will be, soon. I’ll never again hear his voice, husky with need. I’ll never again put my hands over his as he touches me. I’ll never again sleep in his arms.

Calder’s limbs are twisted and broken, and there’s a stream of blood cascading down his uncomfortable perch. I don’t know whether he’ll bleed out first, or whether he’ll simply fall asleep, and never wake up. I don’t want to look at him in this state; I want to remember him as he was, all powerful muscles, casual leadership, and amiability. I want to remember the man I loved, not the man I broke.

There’s a question in his eyes, one he can’t articulate with his clumsy tongue and dazed movements. He doesn’t need to vocalize it for me to understand: Why?

When the world tilts off its axis and humanity descends into hell, how can you explain that first moment that started the whole apocalyptic cascade? How can you pinpoint exactly what started your world’s downfall?

Me... Calder... we’re like that. I don’t know when it all went wrong. Only that it did. Was it the first time he touched me? Was it the first time that he comforted me? Or is it now, that he’s truly seeing me for the first time, not some illusion of who he thought I was?

His eyes skate along my sunken cheekbones, the product of months of irregular eating habits, same as his. And still there’s that gleam in them that says he thinks I’m beautiful. Not even my bedraggled auburn hair, and the friend’s blood spattered across my face can convince him otherwise.

The good times consume me, their memories pouring from between my lips. Every little moment of bravery or compassion he showed that thawed me, terrified me, exhilarated me. Even the stab wound I bear is a badge of honor. He did that. And because of that, we understand each other. So long as that give-and-take is there, I’m okay with it all. He hurt me, so maybe it’s okay that I hurt him, too. Even if I was the one who threw the first punch.

I’ve made a terrible mistake. Calder’s paid the price for it. But there’ll be a price for me, too. I’ve simply yet to pay it. Maybe it’s time for me to start.

The seconds stretch by like millenia. I can only measure time by Calder’s heartbeat. The halting, irregular pulse beneath my fingers on his wrist is the force tethering me to earth. When he’s gone, I’ll—I’ll face what’s next. I’ll be free from the conflict, the frustration, the uncertainty. I won’t have to second-guess myself all the time, wondering if Calder’s pleasant act is truly just that: an act. Wondering whether my indecision is a mark of how he’s corrupted me, how he’s taken me for a ride.

For better or worse, I’ve done what I promised. I wish I’d known what it would cost.

His labored breaths haunt me. I wish he’d die already, so that the fear and worry could be put out of their misery, leaving only self-loathing behind to comfort me.

Some sick part of me still wishes he’d live. That part of me is aware how close I came to backing out. How even at the end, his death was more accident than intent. The world doing what I was too weak to do.

Nearly a year ago, I made a promise to myself. Those who hurt me and mine would suffer. I might not be able to fix the machine, but I could at least remove the most broken parts. Calder Roane was one. The one. The only one who mattered.

The one I’d kill with my bare hands, before seeing him walk free.

It all seemed so much simpler then. If you told me then that I’d be sitting here, on a rusted pipe, with tears in my eyes as I watched the love of my life—the poisonous Calder Roane—die, I’d have suggested you see a shrink.

And yet here I am. In one of the derelict engine rooms aboard the Siren watching my last victim—the only one who mattered—die in my arms.

Calder Roane. Son of George Roane, one