By the time we made it back to the apartment mom had already made a few calls and had an appointment set up with the school for later in the week, which was a load off my plate.

She left to go home leaving me with a dilemma. I was due at the club in a few hours and Annabelle was going to be there working which would leave the kid here alone. Although he was of age and swore up and down that he would be fine, I wasn’t too sure.

I tried talking Tony into staying with him but that ass just gave me a look that said that shit wasn’t going to happen. So in the end I had no choice but to leave the kid on his own with strict orders not to go outside.

To be fair I did warn him that I had my place wired and could check up on him without him knowing. To which he had something smart to say before warning me not to let his sister know or she’d freak.

It never crossed my mind that she would perceive the surveillance as anything more than security, but knowing her the kid was probably right.

That night there was a quiet buzz around the club because it was my first time back since I’d fired Arlene. Of course word had spread and the stories were coming out of the woodwork.

I ignored them all, but took the time to talk to the dancers. As I expected, some of them had some not so nice experiences to impart to which I told all of them that the next time some shit happens to them in my place they need to let me know.

All in all they seemed happy with the changes so no worries there. Since Ms. Thing was going home with me at the end of the night, I didn’t need to spend the whole night watching her through the screen and I actually got shit done.

When we left together that night right after her shift there was no longer any doubt that there was something going on between us for anyone watching.

I knew she was dead on her feet when she allowed me to wrap my arm around her shoulder as we walked out. And again when I pulled her head down on my shoulder in the car on the way home and she didn’t try to pull away once.

“Did you quit that job?”

“Of course not, why would I?” What the fuck, because I said so. Like I didn’t expect her to fight me on this.

“Any of those schools you going to give out degrees in stupidity?” Her head flew up and off my shoulder. Tony glared at me in the rearview mirror but as far as I can see, his idea of taking things easy hasn’t been working.

“What did you say?” It didn’t bear repeating.

“You’re smart enough to know that what you’re doing isn’t sustainable for any length of time, so why do it? Why push yourself until you break?”

I knew I was skating close to danger the same way I had this morning. Then it had been a mistake, but now I needed her to see the truth no matter how harsh my words may seem.

I’d barely got a first hand look at what she was doing to herself, but what little I’ve seen was more than enough to tell me that if I didn’t do something soon she was going to end up in serious trouble.

All evening in the office when I wasn’t working like I was supposed to, I’d spent the time worrying about her and trying to come up with the right solution. Everything Travis had told me and the things he’d said to mom and Tony played through my head.

Travis seemed stuck on one thing. The girl we now know isn’t the sister he’d grown up with. It was plain to see that he blamed himself in part for it. Another one that had had to grow up way too fast.

His guilt reminded me of my own where mom was concerned. He knew enough to know that his sister was doing all this in hopes of making up for the father and mother that he no longer had. But who was taking care of her?

“That is still none of your business. It’s not like I plan to do it forever, just until I save up enough to open the school full time. Then I can take a break and reorganize everything.”

“And how long is that gonna take?” If she thinks New York is Ohio she’s in for a rude surprise.

Shit around here cost three times as much as everywhere else.

“I don’t know, all the spaces I’ve looked at are very expensive, plus there’s supplies and minor renovations, insurance, things like that. I think another year maybe.”

I felt a headache coming on and another tussle. I wasn’t about to have it out with her in the damn car with nosy listening in, so I bit my lip and held my peace until we pulled up outside the building.

I said a hurried goodnight to Tony and all but dragged her inside where I allowed her to greet her brother before dragging her to her room. “Would you stop tugging me around?”

“We’ll be right back Travis, did you eat?”

“Yeah, your mom made stuff for the freezer before she left.” He hardly paid us any mind as he went off to bed. He’d only stayed up this late to make sure his sister made it home safe.

I pulled her into the room and closed the door so our voices didn’t carry down the hall to his room. “Now where were we? Oh yeah, you were trying to convince me of what a good idea it is for you to work yourself into an early grave.”

“Do you really think you can keep this shit up for a whole year?” As I spoke I was trying to navigate in my head what I was supposed to know and what I wasn’t. I know she’d told mom mostly everything, but she still had yet to share any of it with me.

I still didn’t want her to know that I knew any of it, because I wanted her to be the one to tell me. It was important to me that she did. So I questioned her as if I didn’t know much of anything.

“Why do you have to do everything anyway? Where are your parents? Why isn’t anyone taking care of your brother?” I saw the indecision in her eyes and felt for her.

As she walked around the room thinking, I held my breath hoping. She had a few stops and starts before turning back to me. “My parents aren’t in the picture. It’s just Travis and I.”

“Why? How did that happen?” Just tell me baby. Open up that one little crack and I’ll break that shit wide open. It was all I needed, all I was waiting for.

As soon as she opens up I’d know that I have her and nothing would stop me from doing what needs to be done. But I needed her to take that first step. To show even a little bit of trust in me.

“What’s so hard about that question? Are they in prison, on the FBI’s most wanted list what?” She sighed and plopped down on the bed, tugging her hair out of the ponytail it was in.

“No, nothing like that. My dad left us for someone else and my mom, my mom died.” There was a heavy load of pain in those last few words. She was close, but not close enough. I wanted the whole story from her. Only then will I be free to respond.

“Your brother is still considered a minor, are you saying your dad isn’t taking care of him?”

“That’s exactly right. He found something better and moved on okay.” Sore spot, check!

“Men leave their wives everyday and still take care of their kids.”

“How would you know? Didn’t yours leave you as well?”

Angry little girl! I could tell that she regretted her little outburst immediately, but there was no point. She wasn’t lying, so what was there to feel bad about?

“You have a point, that’s how I know that there are others who aren’t that weak. That there are good men and women who for whatever reason can’t live together, but they don’t desert their kids.”

“Well mine did. It’s obvious they didn’t care enough to stick around.” She cut herself off, but not before I heard the threat of tears in her voice. It was evident that she couldn’t bring herself to say the words on her own, that she needed a little push.

“I thought you said your mom died, how is she at fault?” She took a moment to answer but I saw the give in her at last before she finally gave me what I wanted.

“She didn’t die, she chose to leave. We weren’t enough for her, so she took the easy way out. Neither of us were worth anything to either of them.”

Her voice broke and I moved across the room to grab her. Her little body shook as she released the tears that she’d been holding in for way too long.

“I don’t want my brother living the rest of his life thinking he isn’t worth anything. So I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he has what he needs.” The rest of my heart, what little piece of myself I’d been holding back, fell in a puddle at her feet.

I wrapped my arms around her and brought her in close to comfort her the best I could. “Tell me what happened baby.” I lifted her in my arms and walked the short distance to the bed to sit with her on my lap.

Through tears and anguish she told me everything. I didn’t interrupt, just held her, dried her tears and kissed her temple reassuringly when I felt she needed it. I’d wanted this, wanted her to open up and tell me the truth. But now that she had I felt raw.

When she was done, when she’d got it all out, we just sat there in silence letting it all sink in. She’d trusted me with the truth and I had no words for what that made me feel.

“I’m sorry that happened to you, to both of you. It’s fucked. But you don’t have to do it all by yourself any more. What’s more I’m not going to let you.” She sat up and wiped her hands across her face.

“The fact that I told you changes nothing. My life is still what it was an hour ago and I still have things to do.” Stubborn little shit.

“You’re crazy if you think I’m going to let you keep going like this for another year.”

She jumped up off my lap and I let her go because I had a pretty good idea what was coming and I was right. We had our first real fight which I had no plans on losing.

Her little ass got all the way the hell in my face like she thought she was grown. The back and forth gave me great insight into her damn head. She’s right. She is smart and capable, but that doesn’t mean that she should push herself beyond the limit like that.

But trying to placate her didn’t work. Telling her that I understood but…was like waving a red flag in front of a bull. She had it stuck in her head that she was on her own. Like fuck!

I’ve given money time and opportunities to less deserving people. What the fuck does she take me for? As good as her arguments were, mine was better. She just wasn’t doing that shit period.

Things came to a head when I threatened to follow her ass to the coffee shop the next day and quit for her. She fumed, yelled and had a fit but I didn’t back down.

I learned something else about her during all that. She’d push hard and long to see how far she could go before giving in. She’s also a raging feminist.

Once she got it through her head that I wasn’t trying to walk all over her because of my dick and I pointed out just how unwise it was for her to burn the candle at both ends, she calmed the hell down.

All it took was reminding her that if anything happened to her, Travis would be all alone in the world. She reacted like she’d never given it a thought. Stuck in her damn head.

“I can’t just leave like that. I have to at least give them time to find a replacement.”

“That’s not my damn problem. I’ll give you until Thursday but that’s it. Get some sleep.”

I added that last when it looked like she was going to argue my ass to death. She was not in the least bit happy with me by the time the argument was over.

“Come here.” I pulled her stubborn ass into my arms and hugged her until she stopped being mad. I wanted to say so much with that hug. Most of all that I would never let her fall. “It’s going to be okay.”

I didn’t bring up using the space at the club again but had all intentions on going ahead and making preparations for it to happen within the next week. I left her after a hot kiss that left us both breathless and had my dick sniffing the air.