Page 15 of King's Claim
Chapter Five
Lena had rehearsedthe same numbers all morning in her head.Hospital bills, prescriptions, groceries.Each column of figures ended in red, and no matter how many times she added, subtracted, or begged the calculator to give her a miracle, the math didn’t change.
She’d been working herself ragged at the bar and now the clubhouse, and it still barely covered her mother’s treatment.
By the time she reached the hospital, her body ached with exhaustion, but her heart pounded harder.The bills came due today.She’d scraped together every tip, every paycheck, every dollar from skipping meals and sleepless nights.Her stomach was a knot of dread when she stepped up to the billing desk.
The administrator, a woman with kind eyes but a permanently stressed frown, pulled up her mother’s account.Lena braced herself.
But instead of rattling off the usual four-figure sum, the woman looked up and said, “You’re all set for this month, Miss Reed.Payment’s already been processed,” she said.
Lena blinked.“I’m sorry, what?”Lena had to ask.
“Paid,” the woman repeated.“Your mother’s file shows the balance cleared in full this morning.”
The world tilted.“That’s not possible.I—I didn’t...”Her words stumbled over the disbelief.
The administrator gave her a reassuring smile, the kind they probably reserved for families constantly on the edge of breaking.“It’s possible, honey.Someone took care of it,” the woman said.
Lena stepped back from the counter, clutching her worn leather wallet like it might anchor her.She tried to think of who it could be.Rick?No, Rick couldn’t even keep the bar lights on without panicking.A miracle from some charity?Doubtful.
That left one person.King.
Her pulse fluttered hard.Of course it was him.He had the means, the power, the ruthlessness to solve problems with the flick of his hand.He’d probably thought it was nothing, just another expense.But to her?It was everything.
The shock softened into something warmer, heavier.Gratitude tangled with irritation.King had no right to step into her life like that, to meddle.But damn it, he had, and her mother was breathing easier because of him.
By the time Lena left the hospital, her head spun.She didn’t go straight to her shift.Instead, she found herself walking the halls of the Devil’s Crown clubhouse, her fists tight at her sides.Each step echoed, carrying her closer to the one man she couldn’t stop thinking about.
King’s office door was closed, but the faint bass of music from the main room thudded through the walls.She lifted her hand and knocked once.
“Come in.”His voice was rough, commanding, as if he owned not just the room but the air around it.
She pushed the door open.King sat behind a heavy desk, papers spread out before him, a half-empty glass of whiskey at his elbow.The overhead light caught the scars carved along his jaw, the ones she sometimes caught herself staring at when she shouldn’t.
“Lena,” King said.
“Don’t ‘Lena’ me,” Lena began.
She stepped inside and closed the door behind her.Her pulse was loud in her ears, but she forced her voice to stay steady.
“You paid my mom’s bills,” Lena finally said.
