Peyton ignored the comment, wiping the grease off his hands. “But when you’re rich, money and power can get in the way. At least it did in my family. It wasn’t lack of money that drove everyone nuts. It was the proximity to so much of it.” Peyton shook his head. “We never got along, my brother, my sister, and me. Not like our dad really gave a shit about any of us, either.” He let out a long sigh. “Mom cares, she does. I think she loves us, but she let it all happen, always making excuses.”
“Then why get so torn up about being separated from all of them? Even if I’m wrong, a low likelihood, you didn’t like each other anyway.” Shay frowned and realized she was out of pizza. “Family is a blessing and curse and all that shit.”
“I never… cared like my brother and sister did. About the money. The power. Any of that shit. I just wanted…”
“What?”
“I don’t know. Freedom? Control?”
“That is power.”
“That’s why I didn’t walk the path my parents wanted for me. Not sure how I was still in line to inherit anything. Well, I was before you killed me.”
“Or maybe dear old Dad was still fucking with you and wanted to make you a target to see which of your siblings could take you out first. A little test of ruthlessness.”
Peyton’s face scrunched up in disgust. “Sometimes I forget your old profession. Not everyone wants to settle something with a tidy death.”
Shay gave a shrug and eyed another slice of pizza. “Some people call it cold cynicism. A necessary part of my old profession. Somewhat in the new one too. I call it realism. In the end though, you walked away from the empire and showed them all you have some balls. Even I can respect that.”
Peyton gave a tired laugh. “I figured if I was doing my own thing I could seize my destiny. Crap like that. I guess you seized it for me.”
“I made sure you still had one. You regret not becoming an active part of the family dynasty?” Shay scanned the restaurant while listening to Peyton. It was habit as well as a practical function. Size up each person, determine their ability to fight back, consider their most likely moves.
“Leaving them? Becoming an information broker? Not becoming some wind-up doll for my father?” He ticked each one off on his fingers.
“Yeah, all of those.” Shay looked over Peyton’s shoulder. Mother with two small children and nice set of muscles on her. She’d be willing to kill if she had to, no problem. Group of teenage boys scarfing down pizza. They’d run at the first sign of trouble. Same with the overly-muscled man picking up a pie. Show muscles but not meant for anything practical except lifting a car.
“To be honest, I don’t know.” Peyton ran a hand through his hair, looking even younger than his 24 years. Shay swung her attention back just long enough to look him in the eyes, make him feel heard. Best way ever invented to draw someone in, get them to put down their guard.
Peyton looked down at his pizza and Shay went back to scanning the room, while still listening to his story.
“I think if I stayed in that environment, I would have died a different way. Even if my brother and sister aren’t behind what happened, it’s not like we got along, and the less time we spent together, the happier they all were.”
“Not gonna say I had a stunning relationship with my parents,” Shay said. “I can relate, a little. Not to the growing up wealthy and all that crap…” She shrugged, watching the middle aged man approach the counter, doing the same scan of the room. Short hair, straight back, not even trying to hide that he’s checking out the room. Off duty cop. “Look, I had to do the same thing, seize my destiny if that’s what you want to call it.”
“By…” Peyton glanced around. “By going into that profession?”
Shay snickered, glancing up at the man as he curtly thanked the cashier and picked up the pizza box. If anyone overheard Peyton’s coded conversation, they’d assume an attractive woman like her had become a call girl, not a brutal professional killer.
“That profession saved your ass. There was some other shit going on, but yeah, that was my destiny, for a while. When I started making my own money, I took control. I made my own decisions. I could live the life I wanted without having to rely on anyone.”
Shay’s face tightened as dark memories filtered into her mind. Don’t press further. That was about as deep as she wanted to go into her past.
Peyton picked up his glass of Mountain Dew. “Here’s a toast then. To all of us who got fucked over by our families, may we control our destinies from here on out.”
Shay picked up her orange Fanta. “Hear, hear.”
They clinked their glasses together.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, Shay sat at her oak desk in the office in her condo. She frowned as she scrolled through her financial records on the computer.
“Shit, shit, shit. Really? Shit.”
She let out a pained groan.
Shay should have been ecstatic. The recovery of the diamonds had further confirmed her skills, and she’d taken a step closer to moving Peyton from a spoiled rich boy playing at being a criminal to a useful potential team member, but the financial review sucked out her happiness.
Her new business was still barely profitable.
She rubbed her temples, still wondering if she’d done the right thing saving Man-Boy. She knew she would need the kind of backup Peyton could provide if she wanted to succeed in her new career. But she’d spent her previous career working alone – killing people made office help nervous — and even the thought of depending on another person made her stomach tighten. A man like Peyton was potentially unreliable, an unwarranted risk she would have
