Page 21 of Regards, Mia

“She left.”

“She has a ride?”

“She has a car.”

I point to the sofa pushed against the wall. “Take a seat.”

He sits and hangs his head, worrying his hands in his lap. When I slam the office door, he jumps. “Jesus.”

“Mind your fucking mouth.”

His head jerks up, brows raised, but he quickly swallows his protest and nods respectfully. “Yes, sir.”

I push aside some papers and lean my hip on the desk. “How the hell did you get in here?”

George lifts his gaze halfway up to my face, but can’t quite meet my eyes. “I broke in. I didn’t think you were here.”

I’d been at my desk most of the night. Besides a quick dinner break, I hadn’t moved. Sneaky bastard. How the hell did he get past me? “What about the alarm?”

He finally looks up at me. “It’s an outdated system. You might want to consider an upgrade.”

Anger mounts in my chest. Something tells me this isn’t the first time he’s snuck in here. “Have you done this before?”

His mouth clamps shut, but I wait him out. After a long silence, he finally cracks. “I sleep here sometimes when my dad puts me out.”

My jaw flexes. I’ve never actually met George’s dad. Unlike the other parents, he doesn’t come to competitions. And George has never mentioned his mom.

Call me a sucker, but my heart goes out to the kid. I may not have had a lot growing up, but I did have a mom who loved me. It made up for a lot of the other shit going on in my life.

“You’re this close to getting kicked out of Champion’s Corner,” I say.

The color drains from George’s face. “I’m sorry, I won’t do it again. I’ll do anything to stay. I need to stay.”

I hold up a hand to stop Georges groveling. I know what Champion’s corner means to these kids. For some of them, it’s the only stability they have in their lives. If they don’t do well in school, or have a good home to go to, they can come here.

I move around to my desk and sit down in the chair, leveling him with a stern gaze. “You can’t break in here anymore,” I say. “You want to go to jail? I can tell you, it’s not a fun place to be.”

“I won’t get caught.”

I stare him down. “Seems to me you just did.”

“I wasn’t stealing anything.”

“Shut up, George.” My voice is quiet, but deadly.

His gaze skitters away from mine, all pretense at bravery vanished. “Sorry, sir.”

“You and this girl are having sex?”

His face goes up in flames, and he looks like he wants to crawl under the desk. “Yeah.”

I hold back the urge to swear. “You’re sixteen years old.”

“So? I’m sure you were bonin’ some chick when you were sixteen.”

I stand up, looming over him. “Are you staying safe?”

“I know about all that. You don’t have to lecture me.”

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