Heart of a Stripper by Cyndi Harris

fine!” she shouted , wobbling as her knees gave out.
    He caught her , and scooped her into his arms. He’d be damned if he left her alone. She was not fine, despite everything she was saying. Sure, she was strong, but she was still a woman. The only thing he could think of was the strip club. In his head, he was convinced that something must’ve happened there.
    Carrying her to the car, he put her in the passenger side and closed it before jetting over to his side. Getting in, he skid off out of the parking lot. The drive was quiet to say the least as he drove on what seemed like an endless road. He wanted badly to know who had done something like that to her, but he didn’t want to bombard her with questions, leaving her to be overly overwhelmed. After a few more minutes of silence and her sniffling, he folded. He just had to know.
    “Nevaeh tell me what happened. Please.” He pleaded sympathetically.
    “Nothing.” She replied wiping the tears from her eyes, as she looked out of her window. Wiping her tears seemed redundant because more had fallen faster right after.
    “Nevaeh , you can trust me. Do you want me to take you home?” he asked looking at her briefly.
    “No!” she shouted looking over t him and he saw fear dredge up in her eyes.
    “I’m sure your parents would want to know—”
    “No, they wouldn’t.” she replied shaking her head, as he glanced back at the road. “My mother left me behind.” She muttered, and his heart sank as he heard the despair in her voice.
    “ What about your father?” he pushed. “I’m sure he’d—”
    “He doesn’t care about me.” She bit.
    “I’m sure that’s not true. ” He responded.
    “You don’t even know him.” She grumbled still looking over at him as he stopped at a red light.
    “He’s your dad—”
    “He’s the one who did this to me!” she shouted, as her tears fell once again.
    Mitchell gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles went white. He let out a stifled breath as he glanced over at Nevaeh. Seeing the bruises on her face had sent shockwaves through him. There were things about her that he realized he would have never known had he not found her. On the surface, it just seemed like she was the girl next door that had it all. The looks, and brain, but decided to throw it away to make money. Granted, that had changed the night before when he dropped her off at the crumby apartment she called home, but he never thought it was this bad.
    Without saying another word, he drove off as the light turned green.
    “Where are you taking me?!” she asked nervously sitting up right.
    “ Relax, I’m taking you home with me.” He insisted.
    Letting out a sigh of relief, she relaxed in the leather seat she was sitting in.
    “I don’t want to be a burden.” She whispered, feeling pathetic.
    “You’re not a burden. You could never be a burden to me, so I don’t want to ever hear you say that to me again. I’m going to take you home with me to make sure you’re safe, and I don’t want to hear another word about it.” He responded.
            
    Pulling up to Mitchell’s home, Nevaeh was amazed. He lived in a penthouse about forty-five minutes from the school. The view was amazing to say the least. She could see the mountaintops as they stretched into the dark clouds. She was drenched from the rain, and so was he. They scurried into the house, and she removed her shoes at the door. He watched her and smiled. No one had ever done that, he always had to stress it to Kate, but she was always too bothered to listen. So he constantly had scuffs and scratched from her high heels on his floor.
    The walls of his place were black, and the moment you walked into the living room, there were huge windows that stretched from the ceiling to the floor on just about every side. He had white couches with black backs sitting perfectly around the room. In the center of the room, there was a block round fireplace. It was something she’d only seen