Deccan (Springfield Sinners #1)

23. Chapter Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

ECHO

E cho had told Daddy she loved him last night as she fell asleep. She didn’t know if he’d heard it or not, so she was going to say anything. What if he didn’t feel the same way about her?

Yeah, she wasn’t going to bring it up, and Daddy hadn’t either. The whole day passed, and he hadn’t said anything. He stared at her with a different look on his face, and she couldn’t name what it meant.

“Can we go out and watch a movie?” Echo asked. “Go to the movie theater.”

Daddy shook his head.

“Why not? I really would like to do it. I think they have a new movie in the theater this week.”

She wanted to do something. Not that Echo minded snuggling with Daddy, she absolutely loved every second of it. It was like Echo was making up for lost time. When was the last time she’d had a good snuggle? Echo couldn’t remember.

“I think we should stay in tonight,” Daddy ran his hands through her hair.

“Why?” she whined .

“Because I thought we could have a pajama party.”

Her eyebrows rose. He wanted to have a pajama party?

“Are you sure?” she whispered. “Do you know what happens at pajama parties?”

“Of course I do. I looked it up.” He smiled.

He looked it up. He freaking looked up what happened at a pajama party for her. What happened to the hard-ass who got his way and wouldn’t take no for an answer?

“What’s wrong?” Daddy asked, cupping her face. “Tell Daddy what’s wrong so I can make it all better.”

“You looked it up for me,” she said in disbelief.

Daddy looked at her, puzzled. “Of course I did. Why wouldn’t I have?”

She shrugged.

“Echo,” he warned.

“I just didn’t think you would. It seems too…what’s the word…girly or Little?” Echo immediately shook her head. “I don’t know what the word is, but I just didn’t expect it. Not your realm?”

“When it comes to you, anything is in my realm,” he gently said before kissing her lips.

She melted into his embrace and smiled. How did Echo get so lucky with him? How was he the man of her dreams?

“Were you crafted just for me?” she blurted out, her eyes wide.

Echo pulled her face out of his hands and shook her head.

“I can’t believe I just said that. Oh, my goodness. Pretend like you didn’t hear that!”

“No.”

“No?” she shrieked. “You have to forget what I just said. You have to have to.”

“No.”

“Stop saying no! If I can’t say it, then you can’t say it.”

“Not how it works.” He raised an eyebrow.

“It’s how it should work,” she mumbled.

“Echo.”

“No, I need to hide for a while. I can’t believe I asked if you were crafted just for me. I mean, we’ve only known each other for a couple of months,” she said more to herself than him.

Daddy looked at her funny, but she didn't know why. He was probably looking at her weirdly for what she said.

“Little Bit,” he warned. “Here. Now.”

She glared. “You can’t just call me over like a dog.”

“Butt. Here. Now.”

Her legs started to move, and she sighed.

“Traitors,” she whispered.

“Not traitors. They know who to listen to. Me .”

She shook her head. “They are my legs. I am the owner. They should listen to me.”

“They do listen to you, but they know I am in charge and listen to me.”

Pouting, she stood right in front of him.

“No pouting. We have a pajama party to organize.” He tapped her lip. “Unless you want to go to bed early.”

Echo immediately stopped pouting and shook her head. “Nope! No way, Daddy. I want to have this pajama party.”

“I thought so. Now, I have nail polish, magic scratch bookmarks, snackies, candies, and Twister for tonight. Do you think you’ll need anything else?”

Her eyebrows scrunched together. “What do you mean?”

“We’re here!” Rainey yelled.

Echo gasped and looked at Daddy with wide eyes. She turned around to see Rainey, Charlotte, Monroe, Hedda, and Sofia. Turning to look back at Daddy, she didn’t know what to say.

“Sleepover with some of your friends. Well, Pajama party,” he gently said. “Is that okay?”

“Yes!” she yelled and turned back around.

Echo couldn’t believe they were all standing right in front of her. As much as she wanted to have a pajama party with Daddy, she didn’t know how it would turn out.

“Echo!” Charlotte yelled, running toward her.

Her whole body froze as she stared at Charlotte running in slow motion. The only thing running through her mind was how badly her skin was going to crawl after this. Would she be able to get away and fix it?

But before Charlotte could hug her, arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her away.

“No,” Daddy growled as he held her close.

Charlotte stopped and looked at Daddy with a pout.

“I just wanted to hug her,” she whispered.

“No,” Daddy said once again. “No touching Echo.”

“But—”

“I said no. No touching Echo tonight. Not unless I give permission.”

“That’s not fair!” Charlotte whined. “Echo should have a say in?—”

“Charlotte,” Finn warned.

“I said no touching Echo unless I said so. I’m her Daddy.”

Daddy was protecting her, helping her because he knew she didn’t like to be touched. Echo relaxed into his embrace, and tears pooled in her eyes. He was being really sweet taking the brunt of disapproval so no one knew about her quirk. She blinked several times, getting rid of the tears.

Echo looked around, waiting for the girls to get angry and not want to be friends anymore. The first person she locked eyes with was Marco, who had a knowing look on his face. He knew she didn’t like to be touched. All the other Daddies looked at her with curious eyes. They had all been around her, and she let them touch her. Did they know?

She knew she was going to have to say something sooner or later, but she didn’t want to. She wanted things to be normal for as long as possible. Was that wrong of her?

“What Deccan said goes,” Marco spoke. “He isn’t trying to be mean before you say anything; he just doesn’t want you to touch her right now. You will follow his rules, and if you don’t, you’ll find yourself getting punished. Understood?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Rainey replied.

“Yes, Sir,” all the other girls said.

Echo relaxed further into Daddy as Marco spoke. She pushed her face into Daddy’s arm.

“Thank you, Daddy,” she whispered.

“Anything for you, Little Bit.” He kissed her head. “But you need to tell them at some point.”

She shook her head. Nope. She wasn’t going to tell them anytime soon.

“Echo,” he warned.

“I don’t wanna,” she whispered.

“I didn’t say tonight, but soon.”

She sighed and nodded. “Otay.”

His arms gave her a little squeeze before letting her down.

“Now, everything is in Echo’s Little room. Us Daddies are going to stay down here while you have fun up there,” Daddy said. “I expect you all to follow the rules and no making a mess. Understand?”

Everyone nodded.

“Good, you can go have fun.” Daddy patted her bottom.

She glared at him, and he only smirked.

“Come on, Echo!” Rainey yelled.

“Girls, inside voices,” Marco reminded them.

“Sorry, Daddy.” Rainey looked down at her feet.

“You’re okay. Just a warning. Go have fun.”

They all walked to her Little room and looked around in amazement. Daddy had outdone himself. Snacks were on a table, all sorts of them.

“Wow,” Charlotte whispered.

“Look at this,” Hedda mumbled, taking a step closer to the table. “Can we eat this?”

Echo shrugged. “Daddy put it there, so I guess we can.”

Hedda started to grab several different snacks before sitting in the middle of the floor. Echo followed suit, making everyone else fall behind her.

“Your Daddy is scary but sweet,” Charlotte said, sitting beside Echo.

“I told Rainey he was like a marshmallow on the inside,” she chuckled. “But don’t tell him I said that.”

They all giggled and started munching their snacks.

“So, can I ask a question?” Charlotte asked.

Echo’s whole body froze, and she waited. Was she going to ask about being touched? Or was she going to ask about something unrelated?

“Umm, yes?” Echo sounded so unsure.

Charlotte smiled. “When did this happen? When did you get with him? I thought you were trying to stay away?”

Letting out a breath, Echo placed her snack down.

“Well, after we talked for the first time, it was like a barrier had lifted. He started talking to me more, demanding things, and the rest is history,” Echo explained. “Okay, I think me walking into his clubhouse after he told two people I couldn’t do something probably sped up a little more.”

“Oh, you have to explain,” Hedda said, grabbing a nail polish. “Does anyone want me to paint their toenails?”

Echo desperately wanted that, but it would require her to touch her feet, touch her. Daddy had made it a rule tonight that no one but him could touch her.

“Can you do mine?” Rainey asked. “I can’t do it on my own anymore, and I haven’t asked Daddy yet.”

“Of course!” Hedda exclaimed.

“Can I do your toenails?” Monroe asked. “Promise not to touch your skin. If something happens, I’ll let you do it.”

Echo blinked several times. “Oh, um, sure.”

“That means I get to do yours!” Sofia said to Charlotte.

They all picked colors.

“Okay, now tell us about him denying you things and you walking in,” Hedda said. “I want to hear this story soooo badly.”

Echo blushed and looked away. Just thinking about Daddy telling people she couldn’t do something turned her on. Sure, it was also infuriating because she did want those knives and the second cup of coffee, but he was looking out for her. When was the last time she had someone do that?

Just last week with the girls. Their Daddies also looked out for other Littles when they didn’t have a Daddy.

“Well, I took the knife-throwing class, and he wasn’t happy about that. So what did he do? Threatened the owner that if he sold anything to me, he would come for him. Then I went to your coffee shop, Rainey, and tried to order a second cup of coffee. Flemming told me I couldn’t because Deccan had told her not to,” she sighed. “Well, that got on my nerves, and then he just kept following me. Well, I got sick and tired of it, so I went to the clubhouse.”

A shiver made its way through her body as she thought about that night. She never wanted to experience someone grabbing her throat again. No way in hell.

“Then?” Hedda asked. “Come on, you can’t stop there.”

“It’s not that great after,” Echo mumbled.

“I still want to know.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. So I walked in and demanded to speak to Deccan. Mind you, I wasn’t calling him Daddy at this point. Anyway. Some big, burly man, Levi, came up and asked me why I wanted him. I said I needed to speak to him. He wrapped his hand around my throat; someone cursed and told him to let me go. Daddy was right in front of me. I slapped him to try and get away, and then he took me to his office and helped calm me down.”

The room was silent, and Echo looked up and around. They were all staring at her with their mouths wide open.

“Umm, are you guys okay?” Echo asked.

“Are we okay? Did she really ask if we were okay when she was the one who almost got choked to death?” Monroe whispered.

Echo blinked several times. “Uhh, yes.”

“Are you okay?” Hedda asked. “That’s what we should be asking. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Daddy took care of it all.” She shrugged. “The rest is history. Well, he did come to the club when Rainey and I were there. Demanded I see him that night. I did have a little meltdown and that’s when he told me I was moving into his house either by the end of the week or the end of the month.”

Everyone blinked at her.

“What?” Echo asked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You do know the end of the month is the end of this week, right?”

Her mouth fell open. “No, no, I did not.”

“Oh girl, you thought you had more time?” Charlotte asked.

“I thought I had a whole other week or two. Oh, my goodness. He knew. He knew and didn’t say anything,” she mumbled to herself.

“You’re okay,” Monroe calmly said. “Everything is going to be okay.”

“How is it going to be okay?” Echo screeched.

Heavy footsteps were heard, and the door opened.

“Is everything all right? We heard a noise?” Daddy asked, stepping into the room.

Echo didn’t look at him; anger filled her. How could he not tell her it was the same weekend?

“Uh oh,” Marco exclaimed. “Someone is mad.”

She glared at Marco for a brief second before turning around. Monroe had finished painting her toenails a while ago, and now she was painting her own.

“Little Bit, talk to Daddy.”

She didn’t make a move. He knew what he was doing and didn’t tell her. She was mad at him.

“Little Bit.” There was a warning tone to his voice.

She turned around and glared. “You don’t get to do use tone of voice on me.”

His eyes narrowed. “What happened? Did one of them make you upset? I’ll do something about it.”

“No, Daddy,” she growled. “It was all you .”

“How?”

“We’re going to leave you guys to have this discussion,” Finn said. “Come on, girls.”

Sadness went through her as she watched them all leave the room. She didn’t want them to go, but she needed to talk to Daddy about this.

“We’ll do this again, don’t worry,” Hedda whispered before she left.

“How, Echo?” Daddy asked once again.

“You said I was moving in at the end of the week or the end of the month.”

Realization filtered across his face.

“Yeah, Daddy. You forgot to mention that the end of the month is at the end of the week!”

“I thought you knew.”

She gave him an “are you serious” look. “Really, Daddy? Really? You know me and dates aren’t good. You know I wouldn’t have known, and you still didn’t tell me.”

“Little Bit–”

“Don’t Little Bit me,” she growled again. “I am mad at you.”

Before she could say anything, Daddy picked her up and landed a couple of swats on her bottom. She stilled, not expecting that.

“Echo.” He sat her in front of him.

“What? You lied to me.”

“How did Daddy lie to you?”

“You didn’t tell me the end of the month was at the end of the week . You didn’t tell me when you knew I wouldn’t remember.”

“I’m sorry, Little Bit. I honestly didn’t remember until the next time we talked about it.”

“And you still let me believe the end of the month was in a week or two,” she whispered.

Daddy cupped her face. “I’m sorry. How about this, you can stay in the house you rent until the end of the week?—”

“That’s the same deal!” She raised her voice.

“Let Daddy finish.”

She sighed and waited.

“Or you can move in next weekend,” he finished.

Echo rolled her eyes. “And where am I going to stay for a week?” she asked. “You do realize my lease ends at the end of the month. At the end of this week. After that, I am going to be living on the streets.”

Daddy growled. “You will not be living on the streets. We’ll figure something out.”

“Like what? It’s literally two days.”

“You can stay in a hotel for a week while your stuff is at our house.”

She shook her head. “I need to think about it. I just…I need to think about it.”

“That’s okay, Little Bit. Think about it. I’ll pay for the hotel room for the week if you want. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when I remembered.”

Echo sighed and leaned into his touch. “I’m still mad at you.”

“I know, Little Bit.”

“You owe me another pajama party.”

“I know.”

“Can we cuddle now?” Echo asked.

“Of course, Little Bit.”