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“By keeping me imprisoned?”
“By putting a man on you,” he said slowly, “for your own safety.”
“Now we’re back to square one. If you weren’t in the business, I wouldn’t need a bodyguard. I can’t live this way. It doesn’t matter how long I’m here. I know what I can and can’t live with.” Lyla shook her head. “Iwon’t.”
Gavin got to his feet. Lyla couldn’t stop her quick retreat and noticed his jaw lock.
“You think I’m a monster.”
His voice was completely devoid of emotion.
“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Lyla whispered.
Gavin stared at her for a long minute before he walked out the door. Lyla stared after him, not sure what just happened. She felt as if she just avoided an execution. She was breathing hard and her palms were damp with sweat. Her cell phone rang on the nightstand, making her jump. She glanced at the screen and picked it up with a sigh of relief.
“Carmen.”
“Hey, girl. I’m heading to the mall. Want to keep me company?” Carmen asked.
Lyla could tell from the whooshing sound in the background that Carmen probably had the top down on her convertible. “Yes!”
“Be there in five.”
Lyla dashed into the bathroom and made herself look decent before she rushed downstairs. She paused when she found Manny pacing.
“Baby girl, we need to talk.” Manny’s eyes were troubled. “Gavin just left. What did you say to him?”
Too much, too little. Lyla shrugged. “We’re not meant to be, Manny. I think he’s beginning to see it.”
“I’m sorry that you saw what happened in Gavin’s basement.” Manny ran a hand through his hair. “It was business.”
Manny did atrocious things in his time as ruler of the underworld. Lyla had no doubt of that. How was she supposed to feel about these men she cared for? How did she reconcile the men she knew with the ruthless dictators that did what had to be done in the crime world? “I know it’s business, Manny, I just don’t want to be around it.”
“He can shield you from it—”
“Manny,” she said and squeezed his hand, “This type of stuff isn’t for me. Iknow.”
“We’re not asking you to deal with it. You were never supposed to see—Gavin, the look on his face when he left...” He stared at her imploringly. “You have to fix it.”
Lyla ignored the stab in her belly. She was well on her way to making Gavin realize that they weren’t meant for each other. Letting him believe that she thought he was a monster got her a gigantic step closer to freedom. She averted her eyes from Manny because she couldn’t stand to see him in distress.
She squeezed his hand as a car horn honked. “I love you, Manny, but I’m not the one for Gavin.”
“But you are,” Manny insisted. “I know it!”
The honk came again. “I’m going out with Carmen. I’ll be back,” she said and kissed him on the cheek. How could she explain that she couldn’t condone the things they did? She didn’t see things in shades of gray like them. They justified murders by putting it under the label of business. She wasn’t that open minded and didn’t want to be. Her time away from Las Vegas solidified her beliefs. It was better to live a clean, uneventful, possibly boring life than to live on the edge.
Lyla rushed out the front door, desperate for fresh air and time away from the Pyre men. Sure enough, Carmen’s convertible top was down. She would have been windblown, but her hair was done in a slick, kick ass braid. Lyla slid into the passenger seat and they were off.
“Anything exciting happen last night?” Carmen hollered.
“No!” Lyla shouted back. She wasn’t in the mood to talk about Gavin. “What are we shopping for?”
“Don’t know yet.”
Carmen sped towards the city and kicked on the radio which spat out old school tunes. Lyla sang along in an effort to forget Gavin’s expression as he walked away from her. Why the hell did she feel so guilty? She was being honest. She didn’t want to live that way. It would kill her slowly but surely. The people of Las Vegas had questionable morals. When you grew up in a city of illusions and sin, it was hard not to be able to justify almost everything. But murder? No. Gavin was too volatile. She couldn’t handle him and honestly, never had. He wasn’t meant for her, she just had to convince Manny of that.
She and Carmen shopped hand in hand. Lyla was distinctly aware of the fact that she had no money and wondered how she could access her bank accounts and then shrugged that off. It wasn’t worth looking into, not when her life was so out of sorts. Plus, she had a sneaking suspicion that Gavin took care of it.
