5. Chapter Three
CHAPTER THREE
ECHO
E cho moaned as she rolled to her side and snuggled into her pillow. She didn’t remember crawling into bed last night. That’s how out of it she must have been. Did she even brush her teeth?
She rolled onto her back and hissed as her bottom throbbed. What the heck had happened? Why was her bottom sore?
Her eyes flew open as she remembered everything. Gasping, she sat up and looked around.
Deccan.
Daddy.
She shook her head.
Deccan .
He spanked her last night. He held her close andcarried her to her house. Echo looked down and realized she was wearing a massive shirt.
He changed her?
Echo held her breath and waited for her skin to crawl. He touched her. He had to in order to change her clothes. Why wasn’t her skin crawling? It should be.
Wrapping her arms around her torso, she rocked herself back and forth as tears formed. What was going on with her? Why was her body reacting like this? Echo didn’t understand anything.
Torn between wanting to be with him because he cared and her skin didn’t crawl, but she knew she shouldn’t, she couldn’t. Deccan was dangerous, following her around and acting like she was already his. That should have waved red flags at her.
It didn’t.
Which scared her. She should have been running for the hills, especially after what happened to her, but she wasn’t. She felt safe with Deccan.
Echo turned and grabbed her stuffed koala, Jingles, and held him close. She wanted to talk to one of the girls and get their opinion, but she knew she couldn't. They were already worried about Deccan following her. She didn’t need them being even more worried or calling the cops.
She shook her head and held onto Jingles tighter. She definitely couldn’t talk to them if they were going to call the police. Would they think she was crazy for being attracted to him? Would they send her to get help?
“I can’t do this,” she whispered, closing her eyes and taking several deep breaths. “I can’t do this.”
Echo was going to go crazy. Who could she talk to that would understand?
No one.
She didn’t have anyone to talk to who wouldn’t think she was crazy or call the cops on Deccan. But she should call and tell them cops what Deccan did. Baxter would understand and take care of it.
No doubt, if Deccan got arrested, his men would come after her and the police department. Nope. She couldn’t do that to them.
But it’s their job. Jingles said.
“I know it’s their job, but Springfield, Missouri, is kind of peaceful. Sure, there is crime and drugs, but besides that, it’s peaceful. I don’t want to add to their load,” she whined.
Echo looked at Jingles and waited for his reply, but he didn’t give one.
“I don’t know what to do. I’m torn between wanting to be with him and knowing it's wrong. I can’t. I can’t get involved with him,” she whispered.
She took several deep breaths and tried to calm herself down.
“Jingles, I really don’t know what to do. Am I going to go crazy? Will they come after me if I turn him in? Will he even get arrested or will Baxter say Deccan’s too dangerous and he can’t do anything?”
Jingles still didn’t reply.
“I need you to tell me what to do!” she whined, shaking Jingles just a little. “Please.”
But he didn’t say a word.
Sighing, she closed her eyes right as her stomach grumbled. She needed food. Normally, when she came home, she ate supper so she didn’t wake up as hungry. Last night, or well, early this morning, she couldn’t.
“Come on, let’s get some food,” she grumbled.
Echo didn’t cook and only bought microwave meals. It was easy for her since she could burn water.
“What am I going to have?” she mumbled to herself. “I’m pretty sure I only have peanut butter.”
She desperately needed to go shopping, but she didn’t have it in her to do so.She was tired of the microwavable meals; she wanted real food.
Charlotte and her Daddy offered several times to cook for her, but Echo kept declining. They were already busy with work, and she didn’t want to add to it. But they kept asking.
Echo sat Jingles on the counter before opening the fridge, stopping in her place.
It was full .
Full of meals.
What the fuck?
She closed the door and turned toward her counter, counting to ten in her head. How had the food gotten in there? A note lay on the counter, and she picked it up.
Everything made sense now.
Daddy
Eat something and stay hydrated.
Deccan.
Daddy.
She groaned. Deccan .
He was Deccan and would always be to her. She couldn’t keep slipping up and calling him Daddy in her head.
Even though she really wanted to.
She longed to be able to call him that.
Echo had fantasized about it several times.
Placing the note on the counter, she turned around and opened the fridge again. Should she eat something? Was it poisoned?
She shook her head. It wasn’t poisoned, and she knew that, but she couldn’t help have the thought cross her mind. Deccan wouldn’t do that. He had done nothing but protect her.
Echo snorted.
Protect her. Was he protecting her last night when he spanked her? She still couldn’t believe he spanked her last night, especially out in the open. What was he thinking?
She couldn’t tell, but when she thought back to him spanking her in the empty street, she couldn’t help but get turned on. That had really happened. He spanked her out in the open, not caring if anyone walked by.
It excited her knowing someone could have seen. What would Deccan have done? Would he have continued like they weren’t there? Or would he have stopped and told them to get moving?
Groaning, she grabbed some a container of fruit. She really needed to stop thinking about him that way. She needed to stop getting turned on by his protectiveness, his caveman-like tendencies, and his gruffness.
It was the last thing she needed.
Echo scarfed down the fruit, placing the container in the sink and washing it. She needed to think logically about things before she walked outside. She just knew Deccan was going to be waiting for her.
When was he not?
Part of her was worried he wasn’t doing his job because he was stalking her. Would it be considered stalking? He was just following her around, not making her fearful.
Was that the determining factor? Fear, or was what he was doing actually stalking?
Placing the container on the drying rack, Echo grabbed her things and headed out. She hadn’t logically thought about anything, really. She knew he would be waiting for her, walking close to her and watching.
Echo couldn’t do anything about it.
In the beginning, she had told him to leave her alone andcursed at him a couple of times, but he just kept on following. That was all he did, follow her around until she went to The Little Farm.
That had changed everything.
Echo wondered if he would have touched her and talked to her if she had been paying attention to her surroundings. Had she unintentionally sped things up or even started them?
She sighed as she walked out of her house, seeing Deccanin the shadows to the side.
Did he know people could see him? She figured he did.
“Morning,” she mumbled.
Echo didn’t care if he could hear her.
“Afternoon, actually.”
She knew it was afternoon. Whenever she had a shift at the bar, she always got home late and slept well into the afternoon. That was one of the reasons she got ahead of work before a late shift. She knew she wouldn’t get any work done the next day.
She liked it better when he didn’t reply to her, when he didn’t touch her. Before she didn’t have such vivid dreams, fantasies, andlongings. She didn’t know any better, but since the incident at the farm, Echo’s mind had been focused on him and only him.
How was she going to be able to do her job?
How was he going to be able to do his job?
Echo knew he was the president of the Springfield Sinners. She asked around when he started following her, needing to know who he was and if she was in danger. Why was he following her? What was it about her that attracted him? Was it her hair?
She grabbed a strand of her hair. Maybe she should cut it. Then, no one would be able to grab hold of it and drag her around.
Quickly letting it go, she straightened her shoulders and continued to walk. She was not going to let them rule her life. It happened in middle school, and she was leaving it there. Nothing had happened since, and she was grateful, but that didn’t stop the memories andthe nightmares from plaguing.
Echo tried looking into them after she found out what club they were from. But there was nothing.
Nothing about them at all.
Were they new? Dominic made it seem like they weren’t a new club but had been established for a while. How did he know? Did he know where to look for information?
Maybe Echo needed to ask him more questions about them. But maybe she shouldn’t. She didn’t want to raise any suspicion about herself. What if someone had overheard her talk to the girls about Deccan? What if they had caught on that he was following her?
It wouldn’t be hard since, lately, it didn’t seem like Deccan cared if he was seen following her. Had things changed around town, and people didn’t care? Or did they not think him to be a threat?
Okay, Echo didn’t think he was a threat to her. He hadn’t done anything to harm her. That was a lie. He had spanked her; she asked him to stop, but she knew, deep down, that she wanted it, and Echo thought Deccan knew that as well.
Was he more in tune with her than herself?
She shook her head. That couldn’t possibly be. They had only talked a handful of times; he couldn’t possibly know that much about her.
Echo thought about asking around town to see if anyone knew any information about the Springfield Sinners, but she didn't want to get into trouble or bring attention to herself. What if they heard she was asking, kidnapped her, tortured her, and killed her?
Yeah, she wasn’t going to do that.
What she did know was where their clubhouse was. It was closer to the house she was renting than she thought it would be. Had he done that on purpose? What was his game?
Echo needed to either move or get Deccan to back off. All she knew was his club was dangerous and into some shady stuff. Did she really want that around her? She continued to walk, hearing his footsteps right behind her. He was getting bolder with how close he walked to her. Before she knew it, he would be walking next to her.
Unless she got him to back off.
But how was she going to do that? She had tried; he didn’t take the hint.
Echo took a deep breath and forced her shoulders to relax. She wanted today to be a good day, but it wasn’t looking like it would be. Her bottom was sore, and she had him following her again. Was this how her life was always going to be like? Was she going to have to use her emergency fund to change her name andappearance and move away?
She didn’t really want to do that, not when her friends were here, but it seemed like she was going to have to. Deccan wasn’t taking no for an answer.
Getting fed up, Echo stopped walking and pivoted to face him.
“What? What do you want? Why are you still following me? Why do you follow me every single day? Don’t you have anything better to do? Are you just going to stand there in silence?” she asked, waiting for his response. “What have I done to you? I don’t know you!”
“Did you eat?”
Echo scoffed and turned back around. Yeah, she wasn’t going to deal with that.
Arms wrapped around her, pulling her against his chest. “Daddy asked a question. You had better answer.”