She nods after a few moments, selecting an everything bagel before grabbing the juice and pouring herself a glass.
“Thank you.” Her words are a whisper on the air and send my spine tingling. The part of me that’s more Leone than anything vibrates with power.
My grandmother used to say that we were descendants of lions, and that’s why the name was chosen at Ellis Island. She claimed that our grandfather’s grandfather killed so many and drank their blood that it was in our loins, passing from one generation to the next, making us part man, part beast. And it’s that beast’s blood that drove the Leone family to the top.
And Payton has just been claimed by me. I just haven’t decided in what capacity yet.
I give her a second to get a bite of food into her mouth before I begin—I’m not a savage, after all, even though I feel like one. Especially when the prey before me looks good enough to eat. Another thing in the Leone DNA. Sometimes the ones under our care look like something more, be it theenemy or the siren. I want to do something more than just protect Payton. I want to devour her.
“Who told you about the Kings?”
She stops chewing, her eyes wide, before she swallows her food. Her gaze darts around the room, though I’m not sure if she fears them being in the shadows or looking at me to answer. When her eyes finally settle on me, I feel an ounce of pride at seeing her face her demons. Or me, in this case. Before last night, it was them, the ones who held the reins. Now I’ve become her new fear.
“Someone outside a pawnshop told me.”
My eyebrows rise at her words.
“Who?”
She shrugs as her attention moves to her bagel. She might not be watching me, but I have my full focus on her.
“Some homeless person, I think. I saw them twice before when I went to pawn off some things.”
Doesn’t take a genius to work out what she was pawning, but I ask anyway.
“Family shit?”
She nods. “Didn’t know the house already had a second mortgage out on it before… before they died.”
Typical. Bet the banks didn’t even wait a week after their death before coming to collect on her.
“I’m assuming the banks weren’t willing to set up a payment plan or wait till the life insurance came in.”
She shakes her head. “There wasn’t any. Life insurance, that is. I found out they spent everything on me to go to that… that school.” Her voice wavers on the last word.
“What else?” I could guess, but I want her to tell me. I need to know how far she fell to understand how to build her back up. And despite what so many might think, I don’t want to break Payton. Not in a way that she can’t move on. I want to see her strong. Stronger than me one day.
We share so many similarities. Both grew up with loving parents. Where I lost one at a young age, she lost both at an older age. Yet we still had to grow into ourselves without knowing what that meant. What it would look like. Though unlike her, I had family to guide me. Not that it helped. One bullet to the throat, and my world was upended.
Which is where our similarities come into play again. Parental death was one fall. Meeting me was her second. But unlike the doctor who attempted to fix me, I’ll leave more than a scar in its place. I’ll build her back up, brick by brick, no matter how long it takes.
Another harsh swallow from her before she continues, not looking up at me as she picks off some seeds from the bagel. “Tuition was due. Scholarships were already given out, and unless there was a check in hand, there was no place for me.”
“So you hocked everything you owned, paid what you could, still not enough.” She shakes her head, and a tear falls down her cheek, which she brushes off forcefully. “Someone mentioned the Kings, and with no other options that you saw, you turned to them.”
She nods.
“Who told you about G-Spot?”
Her eyes flick to me before casting down once more. “They did. Said I needed to make them money to pay it off. That I was given a few weeks’ reprieve, and if I didn’t get a job,they would find me something. I thought they owned it or something.”
Interesting. The Kings have never sent someone to our places for work before. Not that I know of, anyway. Something to talk with Vinny about.
I would believe her to be a spy based on what she just told me, but one glance at her and it’s clear she’s desperate.
Justhowdesperate is the question.
“Strip.”
