Page 118 of Broken Daddy

“So you are a Little?”

“Yes. Well, I think I am. Rohan thought I was. I haven’t had a chance to . . . to really explore that side of myself much. You’re a Daddy Dom?”

“Yeah. May was my Little.”

May had been one lucky woman. Devi didn’t know what else to say. She was a bit scared to say anything in case she begged him to look after her.

“Tell me what happened, Devi,” he said.

Right. Sure. That was safer territory than this conversation.

“I had fallen asleep,” she told him.

“You actually slept? You look like you haven’t been sleeping well lately.”

“No, Derick, my father, has been off on a binder the last few days. He does that pretty regularly. He used to drink before Mom died, but not as much. After she died, he started drinking more and more. It’s gotten worse over the years. When Rohan reached seventeen, he started looking for a way to get us out of that trailer. His friend Freddy’s dad was the leader of the Black Scorpions. Rohan did jobs for them, building his way up in the gang. I hated it but he said it wasn’t that bad and that he was working to get us out. Rohan isn’t a bad person,” she said desperately.

She didn’t want him to think badly of her brother.

“It’s all right, baby. I learned long ago that not everything is black and white,” he reassured her.

“Right. When he had enough money, he rented an apartment and told Derick I was coming to live with him. I was sixteen by then and Rohan was twenty. Derick said that was only happening if Rohan p-paid him. He wanted his own son to pay him! I told Rohan not to do it, but he did anyway. He paid him some money each week and I went to live with him. At first, it was a shitty apartment in a bad area of town. But it was the happiest I’d been since Mom died. I was free of him, you know? We lived there a couple of years and when I was eighteen, Rohan stopped the payments to Derick. He was spitting mad. Turned up at the apartment one day, raging and throwing his weight around. Rohan pinned him to the floor and told him to get the fuck out. It was amazing. I was studying art at the community college and working for Mac at night. Rohan was in deep with the Scorpions, but he kept me out of that. Eventually, he bought his own apartment and we moved in.”

“Did Derick leave you alone after that?” he asked.

She sighed. “He didn’t go near Rohan, but sometimes he’d try to come into the Tavern to see me and Mac would have to throw him out. He’d have some sob story about how he didn’t have money for groceries and stuff. And if he caught me alone, I’d give him money. I know it was dumb, but I always felt so guilty. When Mom . . . when she was in the hospital, she told me that Derick wouldn’t cope well with her death. She made me promise her that I would take care of him. I figured giving him some cash was the least I could do.”

“Your mom shouldn’t have made you promise her that. How old were you when she died?”

“Thirteen.”

“Jesus. It wasn’t your job to look after your father. It was his job to look after you.”

“Yeah, I know. But he’s never been good at that.”

“What happened when your brother was arrested?” he asked.

“I had no choice but to move back in with Derick after selling Rohan’s apartment to pay for Stein’s fees.”

“Did someone recommend Stein to you guys?” he asked.

“Yeah, Freddy did. I wish we hadn’t hired Stein. He cost a fortune. Even after selling everything, I still had to take a second job working for Aaron to help pay the fees. Even after the trial was over, I kept that job because I wanted the extra cash for my exhibition.”

“Your pottery,” he said. “I didn’t know you made pottery.”

“It’s my happy place. When I’m working with clay, on the wheel, I can just forget everything. I don’t get that any other way. Rohan . . . he told me that he thought I was a Little. He and Marcus used to go to this club in Denver and there was a Little room there. He was going to take me there one day. He’s really protective, though, so he wanted me to explore that side of myself, but he also didn’t want anyone taking advantage of me.”

“He’s a good brother.”

“The best. But I’ve never felt safe enough to explore that side of myself. I’ve never played or had a Daddy before.”

“I’ve got a lot of experience, but it’s been a while since I took care of a Little. I realize now how much I miss it.”

“Really?”Do not feel hope. It doesn’t mean he wants you.

“Really,” he confirmed. “I enjoy taking control, but more than that, I like taking care of someone else. Someone who needs me.”

Then he must like taking care of her a lot because she was very needy right now.