Chapter 17
BEAU
I sat on the couch holding Rebekah until her tiny sniffles eased up. She did so well for her first spanking. I couldn’t be prouder of my sweet Little brat. She handled that spanking like a pro, at least she did after we got over the initial shock.
“Ready to go into the office now, Sweets?”
“Yes, Daddy. Let me make sure I don’t have snot everywhere and fix my hair, and then I’ll be ready to go.”
I let her slide off my lap, holding back a small grin at the hiss she made as her warm bottom slid across my jean-covered legs.
I might have been nice earlier, letting her panties stay on, but she had on a thin dress that didn’t save much.
So I know that she still felt every swat as if it were on her bare bottom.
After grabbing her cup from the table and her bag from the front door, I stood and waited for her to return. “Daddy, can you see anything from the bottom of my dress? I don’t want any of the guys to see my red bottom.”
She gave me a small spin, and I took in her beauty, forgetting that she had asked me a question. “No, Sweets, you can’t see anything. Even if you could, though, none of the guys would bat an eye. They know what it’s like to discipline bratty behavior.”
Rebekah gave me a small nod before heading out the door that I opened for her. She wasn’t going to be sitting comfortably today, but that would be a great reminder of this morning’s lesson. Hopefully, it was one that would stick.
The drive to the office was a short one. When we pulled into the parking lot, I noticed that all the guys were already here. After helping her from the passenger side, we made our way inside and toward the armory.
“Woooow!” Rebekah whispered, stepping into the room just before me.
We didn’t normally let civilians see this room, but she worked with us, and I would never let her in here without supervision. A Little girl could find all sorts of trouble if she wasn’t careful.
“Good morning, Pipsqueak!”
“It’s afternoon, Joshie.”
“You’re right, Little one. My bad.”
I walked over to where my equipment sat on the table, waiting for me to sort and repack it.
Every man was responsible for their own gear, and we each took that responsibility seriously.
I made sure to keep an eye on Rebekah from the corner of my eye as she wandered around the room, looking at things.
“Daddy?”
Glancing up from what I was working on, I turned my attention to her.
“Yes, Sweets?”
“I don’t see the glitter bombs.”
Huh? What did she just say? My face must have shown what my thoughts were. I flipped off Josh as he snickered from the corner of the room. If anyone knew my disdain for glitter, it was him.
“The what?”
“The glitter bombs, Daddy. You have all sorts of other stuff, but I don’t see the glitter bombs.”
“We don’t have glitter bombs, Sweets.”
“That’s a shame. Those are my second-favorite kind of bombs. The first one being the f-bomb, of course.”
Josh let out a belly laugh, causing Rebekah to give in to her giggles. I was horrified at the thought of a glitter bomb being anywhere near the armory.
“You should see your face right now, Daddy. If only I had a camera to capture it! That would make a great Christmas card.”
“Laugh away, Brat. We will never have glitter bombs in the armory, Sweets. Glitter is straight from the pits of hell.”
That, of course, sent her into a bigger fit of giggles. I had a feeling I had given my Little sneaky brat ammunition to use against me without even meaning to.
“Josh, if you are done, take Rebekah into the other room and find some trouble elsewhere. I’ll be out as soon as I am done in here.”
“You got it, Boss,” Josh replied between fits of laughter.
He took Rebekah’s hand and led her out the door, hopefully to go find Seth, maybe cause problems with him.
“Joshie, do you know where we can get glitter bombs?” I heard Rebekah ask as they made their way down toward the offices.
Shaking my head, I turned back to my gear and zipped it up. With that done, I stacked my things with the rest of the guys’ for the next time we went out on a mission. After turning off the light, I headed down to my office.
Technically, it was Rebekah’s job to handle filing, but I was going to let her hang out with the guys. It shouldn’t take me long at all to put things where they belong. Especially since she had done such a good job creating a system that was easy to follow.
I was not sure how much time had passed when Rebekah came and crawled into my lap. This time, she didn’t have her blanket to wrap up in. An oversight that I was going to have to fix immediately. She would need one for both the house and the office.
“Hi, Sweets. You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay, Daddy. Just a little sleepy is all. I got to spend a lot of time playing games with Seth and Josh, though. Did you know you have a whole big screen that we can play Fortnite on?”
I did know that because those nerds did it often. That wasn’t the intended purpose of that room, but sometimes it made for fun game nights. When we didn’t play poker, all of us would pile up in the briefing room, and Seth and Josh would hook up whatever gaming system was their current fixation.
I was sure Rebekah would love that kind of game night. I would have to talk to the guys about planning something again. I must have zoned out because I didn’t hear the next question that she asked me.
“What was that, babygirl?”
“Is there anything you need my help with?”
“Nope, I’ve taken care of it all. There were just a few files that needed to be put away and some that needed to be updated. So we are all good. I was just checking the emails I got over the past week, but that can wait till tomorrow if you are ready to go home.”
“Actually, I kind of had another idea. If we can get the guys to agree, that is.”
“I think for you they would agree to just about anything, but what are you cooking up in that devious brain of yours?”
I was not expecting Rebekah to decide tonight would be a perfect movie night. There was a showing of Moana two, and she thought that begging the guys to come and watch it was the best idea ever.
That was how I found myself sitting in the front row of the movie theater with Rebekah on my right and a big bowl of popcorn nestled between us. Surrounding us were Seth, Josh, Zack, and Patrick. None of them took a lot of convincing once Rebekah pulled out the puppy dog eyes and the pouty lip.
It seemed that not only did she have me wrapped around that pretty little finger of hers, but she had my men whipped as well. The guys who couldn’t come this time had to promise that they wouldn’t miss the next one. Apparently, they all pinky-promised, and you couldn’t break a pinky promise.
The past few weeks with Rebekah had been nothing short of amazing. Spending the time getting close to her and learning about her Middle had been great. It had been a learning curve, but I had always been a quick study.
“Sweets?”
Rebekah had wandered off a little bit ago, and the house was silent. Silent houses meant that there was a Little finding all sorts of trouble to get into.
“Sweets? Where are you, babygirl?”
After I made my way down the hallway, I walked into my room, finding Rebekah curled up on my side of the bed again, clutching her blanket from my house and the one she had from her sister, Alicia.
Tears rolled down her face, but she didn’t make a sound or move a muscle as I walked into the room and curled up with her. I could tell over the past few days that Rebekah was withdrawing more and more, and I couldn’t place why.
Seeing her lying here, everything made perfect sense. “Rebekah, can you talk to Daddy?”
“She would have been eighteen today, Daddy.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out who the “she” was in this conversation. Rebekah had told me about Alicia not long after that first night we watched movies at her house. I know that she was a big part of my sweet girl’s life, and she wasn’t the same after her murder.
I had never been more furious, knowing that someone brought harm to Rebekah, not only by killing her sister, but also by trying to kill her as well. Rebekah had told me about how she fought to stay alive long enough to make a call for someone to find her.
It was a long and hard road to recovery, not only physically, but mentally as well. Nothing was harder than trying to grieve the only family you had left when laid up in a hospital bed, fighting for your life.
That was a pain that I knew all too well and never wished on anyone, but especially not my girl. Rebekah was strong, though. She was a fighter, and that was apparent in the way she continued to wake up every morning.
It was mind-blowing that they had never found the killer.
Rebekah’s description didn’t lead me to believe that it was a coincidence, though.
Everything about the hit screamed that it was done by someone who was trained to tie up loose ends.
Which was why my girl was even stronger than she knew, because she fought not to be a loose end.
“She should be graduating in a few months, Daddy. Alicia should be looking at colleges to attend. She should be going to high school parties, finding love, stepping into this strange thing we call adulthood.”
I didn’t say anything. There was nothing I could say to make this situation easier for her. No words would take away the pain and anguish that Rebekah was feeling right now. Instead, I just lay down, wrapping her up in my arms, and let her feel all the emotions running through her mind.
“Daddy, why did she have to be taken so soon? Why her? Why couldn’t I have died that day, too? It would be so much easier than continuing to live in a world that will never get to know her sparkle.”
“I wish I had the answers for you, my sweet girl. I wish I could fix this for you and ease all the pain away. Sadly, my Daddy superpowers can’t fix this.
They can hold you while you cry, though, and they can help you process all the feelings you are experiencing.
Do I hate that you have had to face all this on your own for the last three years?
Absolutely, but if you had died that day, too, I wouldn’t know you.
That might make me a little selfish, but my life has color and light in the scary places because I have you. ”
Silence fell in the room as she processed the words I had laid out for her. If not knowing her meant that all her pain would be gone, I would take that in every lifetime. “What did you usually do to celebrate her life, before you moved here to Shadow Heights?”
Rebekah let out a sniffle, replying, “I would go and buy a cupcake and matching candles. Pack up her blanket and go sit at her side for a little while. I would tell her about everything she had missed since her last birthday. Once we were done talking, I would light her candles, and she never failed to send a breeze to blow them out. That’s how I knew that she was there, because she always blew out her candles. ”
I mentally ran through what I had to do in the office today; nothing was important enough that it couldn’t wait.
Rebekah’s hometown wasn’t far from here, about three or four hours depending on traffic.
I thought a day with her sister was exactly what she needed, and I was the one who was going to help her have that.
“Okay, this is what we are going to do. I want you to go and take a long, hot shower and get ready. Then we are going to load up in the truck and do exactly what you would normally do.”
“We don’t have to do that, Daddy. She would understand if we didn’t”
“That might be true, but I think this is something that will help you, and it’s within my Daddy superpowers. So that’s what we are going to do.”
“Okay, Daddy. Can we just lie here for a few more minutes, though?”
“Whatever you need, Sweets.”