Shattered Love

Chapter 6

Lyla's POV

We've been staying with Conrad and Avery and while they would let me stay forever, I can't. I also can't go back to my apartment. William knows where I live, and I can't risk that. I would never sleep again, not that I'm sleeping right now anyway, but I for sure wouldn't sleep there. Kenz was sound asleep in the room we were staying in, and so I crept downstairs, knowing that they were cuddled up on the couch watching television like they did every night after they got Creed asleep.

"Can I talk with you two?" I asked quietly. Conrad paused the television and Avery sat up from laying in his lap. "I want to start off by thanking you guys for everything."

"You owe us no, thanks. It's the least we can do for you," Conrad said.

"Well, I think that we are even now. I've saved you guys once, and you've saved me twice. But we need to leave. I can't keep staying here, and I can't go back to my apartment. Kenz and I need to go to a place that he can't find us and start over."

"You really don't have to leave. You can live here until we find him, and then you will be safe," Conrad said.

"No, it puts you all in danger and this town holds too many bad memories. I will always be looking over my shoulder. He has so many people that he owes money and enemies that I'm afraid that they will come after me here, or worse, you guys or Kenz."

"Where would you go?" Avery asked.

"I don't know yet. Somewhere cheap and where I can find a job easily."

"No. If you insist on leaving, you can go to New York. My brother lives there, and you can stay with him, and he can help keep an eye on you and Kenz," Conrad said.

"No, you can't ask that of him."

"He's, my brother. I can ask him anything. I will handle everything and there will be no arguing with me," he said, and then turned the television back on, ignoring me. I just sighed and went back upstairs to where my bedroom was and crawled back into bed with Kenz and stared at the ceiling all night because sleeping brought nightmares.

Two days later, we were walking out of the airport in New York City with two big suitcases that held all of our belongings. I had tried to convince him that this didn't need to be done, but he wasn't hearing it. He got us a car and found us a hotel in the nicest part of town. I was so awe-struck by the people and the buildings and so much traffic. I kept a tight hold of Kenz's hand, and we followed Conrad into the hotel. This was something else I had never seen. It was huge with these chandeliers that were bigger than our dining room table and the way they shimmered light onto the floor was beautiful.

"We're going to share a room if that's OK. It's safer," he said, and I just nodded. Kenz was busy looking around at everything. We stood back while Conrad got us checked in and some man came and took our luggage. We followed him to the elevator, and he took us right to our room, and it was unlike any hotel I had ever been to. Usually, it was a room with two beds, a small television and a bathroom, but this was more like a fancy apartment. It had two rooms, two bathrooms and a small kitchen and living room.

"Is this someone's house?" Kenz asked and Conrad chuckled to himself.

"Nope, people just stay here while they are visiting the town," he said as he walked into one of the bedrooms and pointed out which room was who's to the man bringing our luggage. "I'm going to make a phone call, be right back," he said, shutting the door to the room he was staying in.

"Is this going to be safe?" Kenz asked me like she does almost every night now. She hadn't talked a lot about what happened in our time apart, and I knew that setting her up with counseling needed to be the first thing I did, but I also needed to ask her and right now might be the best time. We were alone for the moment.

"Yes sweetie, Conrad would never send us somewhere that wasn't safe." I told her and she just nodded at me. "Do you want to talk about what happened while we were apart?"

"He was really mean, and he left me with people that were just as mean, but when they fell asleep, they didn't wake back up, and so I snuck out of the house and I walked and walked until a nice police officer found me and I told him that my daddy had taken me to mean peoples house and left and to call you and Vanessa."

"That was very smart of you to do." I told her and hugged her. I had heard this part already, but I was hoping she was going to tell me more. "How were they mean to you?" I asked her and she froze up. She wasn't ready to talk about it, and I understood that because if I had to talk about what happened to me, then I would freeze up as well.

I heard the door open, and slam back shut and when Conrad walked back into the room, I could tell instantly that he was irritated. "Let's go get some food," he grumbled.

"Can we get pizza?" Kenz asked.

"Of course, you've never had pizza until you've had New York pizza," he said, and I could see the irritated look on his face lift, and he was smiling. He always had a soft spot for kids. He couldn't tell his son no ever and it makes Avery so mad.

Conrad pulled a place up on his phone and declared that we could walk there because getting a taxi where we were at was going to be a nightmare, and from what I saw when we got here, the traffic was dumb as well. As soon as we stepped outside the hotel, it was like someone cranked the heat and volume up. It was so loud. The people talking and yelling and the horns honking and the tires screeching.

Kenz wore out before we could get there and ended up getting a piggyback ride and laughing the entire time. The fact that she was laughing, I thought was amazing. I hadn't really heard her do that since before our father showed up. By the time that we had made it to the pizza shop, I felt like we had walked a mile, and I was just exhausted.

We walked in and the cool air felt amazing on my sticky skin, but the smell was nauseating. I wasn't hungry at all, but I knew Conrad all too well, and he was going to try and force me to eat. He ordered for everyone, and I made sure that I got a giant glass of water. It was needed after that walk.

Kenz seemed to be bouncing off the walls now and my head was starting to pound. She sat down beside Conrad and convinced him that she needed to play on his phone.

"Are you OK?" he asked as I saw me not eating the pizza that had been placed down in front of me.

"Ya, just a little bit of a headache," I said, smiling.

"Well, if you ate, maybe it would feel better. I haven't seen you eat all day."

"I'm just not super hungry."

"I know, but you need to eat to get your strength back. I know you're still not feeling great, but you will."

I just smiled at him and took a bite, just in time for his phone ringing. He snatched the phone out of Kenz hand and got up from the table to take the call.

"Eat your pizza," I told Kenz, pointing at the food, and she gave me stupid duck lips pouting about the phone, but quickly dug into her pizza and devoured the whole thing and, by the way, she ate everything so fast I offered her mine, which she took and ate half of it.

I glanced out the window and I could see that Conrad was all worked up. He was yelling and waving his hands. I don't know who he has been trying to call all day, but I'm guessing that he finally got a hold of them, and he wasn't happy about something.

He came back inside about five minutes later, pissed off. "We need to leave. We are going to my brother's apartment," he announced, and then stood back up and dropped money on the table.

This time, instead of walking, we got a taxi and took the hour-long trip, which wasn't that far from where we were, but the traffic was so bad that it took forever.