Page 4 of Psycho

To the public, it was a place people went to train and work out.

But most weekends, it hosted illegal fights on the lower level late at night. The King’s Men received a percentage of the profits made from the bets of those fights. In exchange, we offered protection to Ozzy Reyes, the slimy little fucker who owned the place.

I paid closer attention to the kid and the girl, wondering who this girl was and what her connection to the Basement was.

I hadn’t caught sight of her face, just her back and slim figure.

Dark brown hair interspersed with auburn flowed all the way down to the small of her back.

Long shapely legs came out of a pair of white shorts and mismatched colorful socks peeking out of dark gray sneakers.

She was small.

I had her estimated to be about five-foot-five, a whole foot shorter than my six-foot-five height.

There was something fragile, awkward, andyoungabout her.

And perhaps beautiful. The kid’s eyes brightened with undisguised lust as he took in the girl.

I almost smiled.

The kid was a scrawny little thing, looking like he had barely hit his growth spurts and could probably use a lesson or two on hygiene practices—not that I could fucking talk now, considering I had been on the road for nearly two days, and only stopping to sleep and eat for a few hours at a time in between.

“It is what it is,” she said, her voice slightly pitched, showing her age.

She was probably around the same age as the kid at the cash register.

“I need a carton of cigarettes for my dad,” she said.

The kid nodded and moved to the back. I let an eyebrow raise at that. I doubt she was eighteen, and the kid barely batted an eye at that, which probably said this wasn’t the first time she had made this purchase for her dad… or herself, though I didn’t think that was the case.

I didn’t know why I thought that.

I assumed her dad was Ozzy.

I knew the fucker had a daughter, but I couldn’t remember how old she was, nor did I care, yet I was interested in the interaction between this girl and the kid…

No, just the girl.

And I didn’t fucking know why.

She dropped off a few bucks on the counter.

“Thanks, Jonah,” she said, grabbing the carton and turning, showing me her face for the first time.

I froze in place.

Everything inside me seemed to reach a standstill, and I could only stare at her.

Beautiful wasn’t what I would have used to describe the girl.

More… interesting looking.

And I was fucking interested, for reasons unknown to me.

There was nothing about the girl that should have held me in place, nothing to hold my attention, but it did—shedid.

Thick, dark brown hair framed a small face, a pert nose, and interestingly shaped lips I couldn’t exactly describe, along with high cheekbones, making her big green eyes stand out even more against her golden tan skin.

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