AJ looked at Dawn in shock, not releasing his grip on Noah.

Dawn went over to him and pulled him off of Noah, who collapsed to the floor instantly. AJ stared at her in disbelief. He couldn’t understand why she had stopped him. He wasn’t near done with him yet.

"What’s wrong with you? Why did you stop me?"

"Look at him!!" She yelled, pointing down at Noah. "I think you’ve hurt him enough, Alex!!"

"You shut the hell up!" Dawn yelled.

She was still angry that D called AJ and told him about her drinking.

D stormed out of the room and Nick went after her.

"You don’t have to be so mean to her!" AJ scolded.

Dawn didn’t say anything. She bent down and looked Noah over. He didn’t seem to be too badly hurt. She felt bad that they had done this to him but she understood why. The situation between her and Noah looked bad…it looked like they had slept together. As much as she hoped that she would have had enough common sense, even drunk, to realize that sleeping with Noah was wrong, she honestly couldn’t really remember if they had. That scared her. She had never cheated on anyone in her life. She knew that if she didn’t stop AJ he would have practically killed him. She didn’t care how angry he got at her about it, Noah was her friend and she didn’t want him to get hurt.

After she had assessed that Noah was going to be fine, maybe more than a little sore later, she stood up. Without a word to AJ she left the room. She bumped into Marcus and Steve who were coming to see what was going on.

"You’re a little late," she said sarcastically as she made her way past them.

AJ just stood there staring after Dawn in shock. He looked down at Noah who was still in a fetal position on the floor. He wanted badly to pick up where he left off, but realized that Noah was hurt and it wouldn’t be fair for him to continue.

"You are so lucky," he snarled to Noah then turned and walked out of the room after Dawn.

"I can’t believe her!" D yelled, slamming her bedroom door. "How can she be that pissed
at me? I was just looking out for her. I didn’t know what else to do!"

"She knows that. Once she calms down she’ll realize that you were just trying to help her," Nick 
reasoned, sitting down on the bed.  

D paced the room, trying tomake sense out of everything. 
 
"And she stopped AJ from hurting Noah. The piece of shit deserved it!!" She continued. 
"I don’t understand it."

"I don’t understand it either," Nick said, shaking his head. D stopped and looked at him. 

"Why did he tell J that he didn’t sleep with Dawn?" She asked, confused.

"That’s what I was wondering. He admitted to us that he slept with her but he denied it to AJ."

"So did he or didn’t he?"

Nick ran his hand through his hair and sighed. 

"He probably told AJ that to get him to stop…so he wouldn’t kill him. I think he was telling us 
the truth. By the way Dawn acted when she walked in and saw AJ and Noah, it sure looks like 
something’s going on between them.  I just can’t believe it, she loves AJ so much…. Noah is slime."

"The guy is lower than slime," D said, sitting down next to Nick. "So what do we do with
this information?"

"I don’t think we should say anything to anyone." 

"More secrets," she groaned, putting her head on his shoulder. Nick put his arm around 
her and put his head on hers.

"If we tell AJ, he will kill him. Dawn doesn’t remember anything so there’s no harm done
there."

"What if Noah tells her?" D asked, closing her eyes. 

This mess was giving her a headache.

"If Noah tells her then he’ll look bad. He’ll look like he took advantage of her and she’ll be pissed.  
The last thing he wants is Dawn pissed off at him. He won’t risk that. And we can’t risk telling her 
or AJ.  We’ll just have to keep our mouths shut."

D lifted her head and looked at Nick. 

"God, she’s gonna hate all of us when all these secrets come out…and they will sooner or later." 

She smiled at him and put her hand on his cheek. He gave her a questioning look and smiled back 
at her.   She kissed him softly.

"What was that for?" 

"Because I love you and I’m glad you’re here."

He smiled and sat back so they were lying down. 

"I love you too baby," he said, kissing the top of her head.

D smiled and cuddled closer to his body. She let out a deep sigh and tried to fall asleep.  She kept 
thinking about Dawn and how mad she was at her. She hated to see her so angry. 

"Do you think Dawn will forgive me for calling AJ?"

"Of course she will, you had no other choice. It was for her own good, he’s the only one that she’ll 
listen to, he knows how to handle her, he always has. Like I said before, once she realizes that you 
were doing it for her own good she’ll forgive you. Stop worrying," Nick soothed, stroking her back.

"I hope so," D said, slowly falling asleep.


Dawn slammed the door and stomped into the living room.  AJ followed close behind her. 

"Would you mind telling me what the hell is wrong with you??"  

"What’s wrong with me??! I wasn’t the one that had a half conscious man pinned up against the 
wall beating the crap out of him!"

"That son if a bitch deserved it.  He’s had it coming for a long time now!" He yelled.

Dawn looked at him shocked.

"I can’t fucking believe you!  What has gotten into you??" She yelled back at him.

"You want to know what’s gotten into me??  I’ll tell you what’s gotten into me!!" 

He was about to tell her everything when D came out of her room, half asleep.

"What the hell is going on out here??"

Dawn and AJ just glared at each other, both of them too mad to say anything.

"Always interfering…" Dawn remarked as she turned to D.  

Something in D snapped.

"Interfering?  INTERFERING?? I’m trying to look out for you, lord knows someone needs to 
since you seem to be on this path to self-destruction!!"

"Oh please!  I wish you people would leave me the hell alone, I am not on any destructive path!  
Don’t you think I know that I have a daughter that needs me??"

"What about the rest of us that need you?" AJ yelled, "Do you give a shit about the rest of us?"

"You don’t need me, Alex.  You’re doing just fine without me.  My drinking is not hurting anyone, 
so I wish you’d all just stop nagging me!" 

She walked over to the wet bar and looked at the bottles, contemplating what she wanted.  She 
picked up the bottle of Brandy, turned around and glared at both of them.

"Don’t you dare," AJ warned through clenched teeth. 

Her eyes burned a hole right through him as she turned back around and grabbed a glass.  
She started to open the bottle when AJ stomped over and snatched it away from her.  

"Goddammit, will you stop??!"  

With one swift powerful movement, he threw the bottle against the wall.  It shattered into a million 
pieces, Brandy splashing all over the room.  Dawn screamed and slid down to the ground in tears.  
AJ looked down at her, sobbing at his feet.  He didn’t know what had gotten into him, but he knew 
he was out of line.  

He kneeled down and pulled Dawn’s trembling body into his arms.  She resisted at first, but finally 
collapsed in his arms. He held her for a couple minutes while she sobbed.   

D stood there watching them, not knowing what to do.  Nick was standing in the doorway, 
awakened by the breaking glass.  

AJ looked over at them and nodded is head as if to say, ‘we’ll be okay.’ D gave him a weak 
smile and slowly walked into her room.
         
"Where did all this anger and hostility come from, Alex??  You’re scaring me," she sobbed.

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair.  He almost wished he hadn’t kept everything about 
Noah from her.  He knew he did it for a reason, but it just made it that much harder to explain this 
to her now.  He also knew that he had to control her temper, even he didn’t realize he had that 
much hostility bottled up inside him.   

"Angel, I’m so sorry, please don’t cry.  This is just such a mess. There’s just something about him, 
the way he has always been with you, I don’t like him.  First the bracelet, now this.  I don’t trust 
him, what I saw when I walked into his room reinforced that.  I just….I just lost it." 

"Baby, I know it looked bad," Dawn looked up at him with tears streaming down her face.  
"But, I know that we didn’t do anything.  I wouldn’t do that to you, I love you too much," she looked 
up znd caressed his cheek. 

"I know," he smiled.  "I trust you, I know you wouldn’t do something like that.  This whole drinking 
issue scares me, though.  I love you, Angel and I don’t want anything to happen to you.  Neither 
does anyone else, we all care about you."

"I know, There’s just so much happening right now, I keep having these dreams and flashbacks of 
Anthony, it’s been happening more and more lately.  I don’t know what to do.." she started to cry 
again.

"Baby, I’m so sorry.  I wish you would have told me sooner."

"I wanted to handle it on my own."

"You’re never alone.  You’ve got to understand that.  I’m always here for you, but you have to talk 
to me," he stroked her hair.

He held her and closed his eyes.  He had never dealt with anything like this, he didn’t know what to 
do.  She calmed down and looked up at him

"I’ll cut down on my drinking."

"I want you to completely stop, not just cut down, at least for awhile.  At least until this tour is over,"
he said quietly.  

He knew asking her to not drink at all for the rest of the tour was extreme, but he had to do 
something and this was the only way he knew to assure that she wouldn’t overdue it.

"Baby, I miss you and Arianna.  I want to come home, this is too much for me." 

"No it’s not, you just have to better channel your stress.  Would it make you feel better if my mom 
came on tour with you when you tour in the states?  I would go, but I’ll be on tour, too."

Her face fell when he mentioned that.  She knew he would be going on tour, but with all 
the chaos she had almost forgotten.

"What’s wrong?" He asked lifting her chin.

"Nothing, I just forgot that you’d be going on tour soon after I got home.  We won’t have hardly 
any time to spend together."

He pulled her closer. 

"We’ll just have to make every moment we do spend together count."

Dawn looked up at him and gave him a sly smile.

"When are you going back home?"

"Later tonight, we have a big photo shoot tomorrow. Why do you ask?" 

She got to her feet, took his hand as he got up and led him to the bedroom.

Chapter 32
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