“If you think it’s decrepit now, you should have seen it a year ago.” Leo shoved a handful of loose bolts into the pocket of her work pants. “Dom bought it at auction, and let me tell you, the last owner left the place inruins. From the sounds of it, it was growing sentient mold by the time Valemont repossessed it. She's been trying to make it livable again for years now, and she's almost done now. Mostly just some hold ups in the South Wing.”
“That’swhy she won’t let me in there? How stupid….” I rolled my eyes.
“I don’t know, Dom can be weird. Concerned with appearances. I wouldn’t take it personally if I were you. She hardly lets me or Spence back there, either.”
“You and Spence aren’t locked up in your rooms all day though.” I frowned. Leo’s response felt earnest, but something about the whole thing felt off. Whatever it was must not be something Leo knew about.
Instead of digging in my heels on the point, I cleared my throat. “That still doesn’t answer what she wants with the house…”
Leo shrugged. “I’m not a hundred percent sure. I imagine that if I had her kind of money, though, I’d take up some sort of project now and again to pass the time. It’s good to stay busy.”
“Fair enough,” I nodded.
“Okay, if it’s my turn, I still want to know what your mom did that makes you not want her advice.”
“What didn’t she do?” I scoffed. “She’s like, chronically dating these loser guys with deep pockets and always surprised when it ends in heartbreak. She keeps begging me to marry Gabe so that he can be our meal ticket. She’s possibly the world’s worst mother. Like officially, clinically, if there was a designation for that, I truly think she’d take the cake. She can barely hold a job and has been borrowing money from me as long as I can remember—” I winced as that last part left my mouth. It was a sensitive topic, one I didn’t like talking about, but Leo just had a way of making me feel like I could share anything with her.
I bit my cheek as I waited for the inevitable questions about it, but mercifully, Leo let it drop. “Your turn, darlin’.”
Before I could think of something, a thick bolt fell from the car and clattered to the ground. Looking down at it and then back up to her, I tilted my head. “You sure you know what you’re doing there?”
Leo grunted a laugh as she reached to stabilize a loose part. “Do you really want to burn a question on that?”
“Nope, nope.” I shook my head. “Okay, the tattoo: does Dom have it too?”
“Yep.” Leo nodded. “Everyone in Violence does.”
I nodded quietly. I’d never seen the tattoo on her. Ihadseen Dom’s bike around the property, but it was hard to imagine her being a part of a motorcycle club — mainly because that would require some sort of cooperation. In my experience, Dom wasn’t the kind who played nice with others.
“Where is it?” I furrowed my brows, causing Leo to lift hers.
“You’re not convincing me that you don’t have a crush on her.”
“Shut up! I’m straight!” I swatted a hand at her uselessly. “And even if I wasn’t, that brooding asshole issonot my type.”
“Oh please, Kiera, you’re a ‘straight girl.’” She put air quotes around the phrase. “Your whole schtick is being into assholes.”
“You’re pushing it, doc.” But even as my eyes rolled, I knew she was right. Gabe was as big an asshole as they made. “Seriously, are you going to tell me?”
“You’ll have to ask Dom if you want to know. Ask nicely, and I bet she’ll even show you.” Leo wiggled her eyebrows, laughing at the heat rising in my cheeks.
“You’re so barking up the wrong tree. Now ask a question, before I change my mind.”
Leo pursed her lips, looking up from her work to catch my green eyes. “When you walk up the stairs, how would you rate that pain?”
“What?” My brow furrowed, the question almost enough to give me whiplash.
“Do you find stairs to be painful?” The slight rephrasing of the question hardly helped at all.
Searching my mind, I tried to quantify what it felt like. Each step felt like a concentrated effort, something I needed to focus on to keep my balance and to not cause myself more pain.
I settled on, “the normal amount. Why?”
“That’s a question.” Before I could revoke it, Leo continued. “Because there is no normal amount.”
My mouth fell open slightly, and Leo was moving on too quickly for me to question it. “Ever kissed a girl?”
Of fucking course she’d ask this. I could have lied and saved some face, but somehow, I got the feeling that Leo was keeping things honest with me, and I didn’t want to sully that with a lie. “...Yes.”
