And yet, the portions of her set he’d seen… it held an undercurrent that only someone attuned to her would notice. His gut said it was desperation, but the way she racked up the tips that desperation didn’t make sense. Sure, she’d explained about her bills, but this felt like something more foreboding.
Maybe it was in his head.
That was too easy, though. He knew better than to ignore this. Savannah’s family had been crazy a decade ago… that didn’t just go away. Even if she claimed she and her sister were boring these days. After tonight, she had to have enough of a cushion to quit - unless something else was going on with her.
He tapped out a text to Alanis. It might annoy her to get a text so early, but if the notification of his text woke her up… tough shit.
That’s what big brothers did: they messed with their little sisters.
We need to talk. I’ll call after two o’clock.
He plugged his phone into a charger, stalked to his small ensuite bathroom, and got ready for bed.
His phone woke him at one-thirty that afternoon. He groaned when he realized it was his sister’s ring tone. Then again, he should have expected it since that’s what little sisters did. They annoyed their brothers.
“Alanis, I said after two—”
“Sorry, Ted, that doesn’t work for me since the kids will be up from naps after two. What’s this about? Seeing as you sent the text at o’dark-thirty, I’m guessing it has to do with Savannah.”
“Why would you guess that?”
“She danced last night at Platinum’s.”
He sat up in bed. “Surprised you know her schedule.”
“We’re best friends, those things come up. What do we need to talk about?”
“Is she in trouble? Something about her performance last night seemed, off.”
Alanis gave a rueful chuckle. “You get out there wearing a thong, twirl around a pole, and slink across the stage for strangers to shove money your way. It’s always going to seem ‘off.’ Especially since you’ve known her since we were kids.”
“Maybe.”
“Ask her your question. Anything I can tell you is speculation, Ted.”
Punc rolled into Platinum’s at three-thirty that afternoon. He went straight to the office and found Yak at the huge desk.
“How did we do last night? I never heard the final count before I left,” Punc said.
“Almost as good as two months ago when Ava debuted.”
“Really?”
Yak nodded. “Shy of that by four hundred dollars.”
“Cool,” Punc said. Belatedly, he noticed Yak’s grim expression. “Why aren’t you more jazzed?”
Yak’s eyes were wide and incredulous. “After what Ava shared, why aren’t you more concerned?”
He shook his head. “Ava didn’t share anything last night. She danced and went home.”
With a hard exhale, Yak tossed a pen on the desk. “Turk sent a text. She’s getting threats. Since you weren’t on the text thread, I assumed you were here for that chat.”
Anger boiled in his gut. “I fucking wasn’t. What kind of threats?”
Yak widened his eyes. “Does it matter? All threats are bad, Punc.”
He sighed. “Yeah, but some are empty while others are more serious.”
