Stay For Me - Megan Smith Page 0,39

about that.” I scratch the top of my head. “How is Layla doing? That stomach thing must be pretty rough.”

Her brows pinch together. “Stomach thing?”

This is one weird ass conversation. “Yeah, she called me about a week ago and said she had come down with the stomach bug.”

“Oh,” she pulls her house coat a little tighter. “I was wondering why I hadn’t seen her or Fallon.”

“Um…wait, she’s not here?”

Mrs. Stein shakes her head. “No, Layla picked up Fallon on Sunday and that was the last I’ve seen of them.”

My stomach bottoms out, if she isn’t here where is she? “Any idea where she could be?”

She grins. “Probably home, dear.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. I know I haven’t been sleeping but this isn’t making a bit of sense. “So this isn’t Layla’s house?”

Mrs. Stein leers. “No, she lives above Jax’s bar just down the road.”

Jax’s bar, it’s where she said she worked when I asked about her previous bartending experience. Why would she lie about where she lived? What is she hiding and why? None of this is adding up. “Well, I’m sorry to bother you.”

“It’s no problem. Please tell the girls I’m thinking of them.”

I walk back down the steps waving. I sit in my car for a second trying to figure shit out. So this whole time I’ve been dropping and picking her up here and she doesn’t even live here? And who the hell is Fallon? I feel like I just walked in during the middle of a movie or something.

I debate calling Jaylinn and seeing if she has any idea about this but instead just decide to head over to Jax’s and find out for myself.

When I pull up to the grimy building I park my car in a side lot and set my car alarm. In just a matter of a few blocks the neighborhood really changed. People hanging on street corners, a dingy looking store across the street with a police car parked in the lot, and this bar looks like it’s about to fall apart with the next gust of wind. There are shoes hanging from the telephone wires that cross the street and the smell of the air is putrid. Rotting food and vomit assaulting my nose as I try to see where I need to go to find Layla.

There is a brown door with a little mailbox next to it around the back of Jax’s so I walk over and knock.

“I told you to fucking quit, not call in sick.” I hear someone yell.

There is a little girl crying in the background, too. I walk around to the other side to make sure there isn’t another door that could possibly be Layla’s but there isn’t. I go back around and knock again but still no answer just more yelling that seems closer.

“Just leave.”

I stop mid-knock.

That is definitely Layla’s voice. “You don’t understand I need this job. I can’t just quit, Brian. I can’t live here for the rest of my life and I also have to get Fallon out of here. I have to make a living for the both of us.”

I put my ear a little closer so I can hear a little better.

“When are you ever going to realize you’re a piece of trash just like your mother? You’ll never get out of this hell hole.” I hear footsteps coming down the stairs so I back away from the door just as it swings open.

“Well, look who the fuck decided to show up.” Brian looks behind him. “I thought you said nothing was going on with him, Layla?”

Layla flies down the stairs and it is then that I notice the faint bruise on her face and a little cut on her lower lip.

“There isn’t.” She says softly without looking me in the eye.

Brian shakes his head. “Sure doesn’t look that way. Just remember what I said,” he gets this menacing expression on his face. “You might be laughing now but you’ll be crying later.”

Brian pushes past me on his way out. Layla still won’t look at me; her head is turned so I can’t see the other side of her face. I want to grip Brian up by his fucking neck and beat the ever loving shit out of him for what he’s done to Layla but I don’t. If I do I know that I’ll lose Layla for sure and that’s not happening. Not over my dead body. She’s keeping him around for a reason and I