Chapter 13
JOSIE
So far, my plan to trick Daddy into believing I’m happy being his baby and he doesn’t need to watch me like a hawk every second of the day is not having much success. But when I’d come up with that plan, I hadn’t anticipated being bombarded with embarrassing gifts the moment I woke up.
Now that the shock of the morning has worn off a bit, though, my mind is in overdrive. Oddly enough, being force-fed a bottle by my former best friend is almost soothing, and it gives me an opportunity to relax.
And plan.
The overall plan is straightforward, though not without pitfalls.
Once I’m in town, it should be easy enough to find someone willing to help me, assuming they aren’t all in cahoots with my new “family”.
But the odds that they’ve managed to convince an entire town to play along with their sick little games seems wildly low, so for now I’m going to assume I’ll be able to find someone to help.
My biggest obstacle, really, is getting into town in the first place.
Not only do I need to get Daddy to stop hovering and watching my every move, I have to figure out where they keep their vehicles—I’m assuming with seven of them, they have multiple—identify Eli’s vehicle, sneak out of the house without anyone noticing, hide in the backseat or trunk, and make it to town without Eli catching on.
Easy-peasy.
Ugh.
As I’m trying to work through the steps of my plan in my mind, Gray pulls the bottle free of my mouth and smiles down at me. “Someone was thirsty,” she says, in that high-pitched, sort of sing-song voice people use with actual babies. Irritation pricks at my skin but I force it back.
Just go along with it. Get them to let their guard down.
I nod, unable to form actual words to agree, but apparently my words aren’t necessary. The nod is enough, and Gray’s smile widens.
“I know this is hard, sweetheart,” she murmurs, bouncing me lightly in her arms. “But it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be so happy here, with us. You’ll see.”
Again, all I can do is nod because if I open my mouth I’m very certain the words that will spill free won’t help my cause in the least.
Luckily for me, I’m rescued from further interactions with my ex-best friend when a set of strong, familiar arms scoop me up. Daddy carries me back to his seat, where he proceeds to feed me breakfast while his family laughs and carries on around us.
The food is delicious, just as it was the night before, and I’m relieved to find myself actually eager for more despite the humiliating events of the morning. I’ll need my strength, after all, if I’m going to run.
After breakfast, everyone goes their separate ways, except for Daddy and Axel. Hoisting Lanie out of her highchair—thank god Daddy let me sit on his lap—Axel settles her on his hip. “All right, little ones. Why don’t we go find a game to play?”
“I wanna go outside!” Lanie whines, her bottom lip puffing out in an impressive pout.
Outside. Where the cars are.
Perfect.
“Me too!” I join in, giving Daddy the biggest, saddest puppy-dog eyes I can manage. “Please, Daddy, can we?”
Daddy hesitates, but I can sense he’s about to give in. As much as he’s changed in the time we’ve been apart, he still has some tells. Like the way his mouth twists when he’s seriously considering giving me whatever it is I’ve been begging for.
Then he sighs, and I know we’ve won. “All right. Let’s see if your Auntie Gray will let us borrow some of her snow gear.”
Fortunately, Gray is all too happy to let me borrow her clothes, another thing that hasn’t changed in twenty years, and I have to fight back tears as the memories crowd me.
Unfortunately, she insists on coming outside to play with us. Which means there’s one more person for me to try and evade as I map out the rest of my escape plan.
Dammit.
The one bright spot in all this is Lanie.
From the moment we all step outside, she demands the attention of all the adults, pulling them into a game of some sort as they all traipse through the snow.
Half a dozen snowmen dot the yard, some looking worse for wear than others as if they’ve melted and reformed a few times during Lanie’s stay.
While Lanie directs them in the building of yet another snowman, I edge toward the house, sneaking little furtive glances their way to make sure nobody is watching me.
I’m almost to the corner of the cabin where I’m convinced the driveway is hidden when I hear my name.
“Where’s Josie?”
Panic infuses Daddy’s tone, and I know from past experience that making him worry is a surefire path to a red-hot bottom. Better to get “caught” than to sneak away only to have him track me down and blister my ass later.
“Over here,” I call, waving my arms so he can see me better. “I was just exploring a bit.”
Frowning, he stalks toward me, hoisting me up into his arms. “Don’t wander away like that again, little girl. You stay within five feet of Daddy at all times. Am I understood?”
Double dammit. “But Daddy—”
His expression hardens. “You can either stay close or you can spend the day inside with a sore bottom.”
Well, that’s an easy choice. “I’ll stay close.”
“Good girl,” he says with a nod. “Why don’t you help Lanie with her snowman?”
“Why does it have to be a snowman?” When he puts me down, I run a critical eye over the giant ball of snow in front of me. “Why can’t we make, I dunno, a snow rabbit or something?”
Twirling around, Lanie gasps, her dark eyes bright with excitement. “That’s a fantastic idea! We can make a whole snow zoo!”
Axel groans and pins me with a glare. “You really had to make this more complicated, didn’t you, Josie?”
“Don’t you want us to have fun, Uncle Axel?” I shoot back, keeping my tone syrupy-sweet.
Laughter erupts behind me, and Gray trudges forward through the snow to clap Axel on the shoulder. “Yeah, Uncle Axel. Don’t you want our Little ones to have fun?”
“You know I want them to have fun, Grayson. I just want them to also have reasonable expectations for what we can accomplish with nothing but snow and some buckets.”
“So what you’re saying is, you don’t want to have to work to make your Little girl happy,” I tease.
It feels good, falling back into this familiar rhythm with Axel, even if that’s not how I knew him before. And when he glowers at me, I can’t help but dissolve into laughter alongside Grayson. Even Daddy joins in, telling his brother not to be such a stick in the mud.
And for a couple surprisingly fun hours, I’m a Little girl again, playing in the snow with my chosen family as we figure out how to turn our snow person into an animal.
Lanie decrees early on it’s far too large to be a rabbit and suggests an elephant instead, an idea her Daddy quickly replaces with a bear.
I’m not sure the bear is really that much simpler, but Axel and Lanie both seem satisfied as we shape the body, then paws, and finally the head with its way-too-long snout.
“All right, little ones. Time to head inside so we can warm up with some hot cocoa,” Axel declares when the alarm on his phone chimes.
“No!” Glaring up at her Daddy, Lanie does an admirable job of trying to stomp her foot. “We still have to give him eyes and ears and claws!”
Hands fisted on his hips, Axel returns her glare. “You can come out again this afternoon to finish, but right now you need to go back inside and warm up. And I suggest you don’t stomp your foot at me again unless you want to be drinking your hot chocolate with a hot bottom.”
To my utter surprise and admiration, Lanie does exactly that, crossing her arms and stomping her foot as best she can given the height of the snow and her own short stature. “I wanna stay and finish my bear!”
Sighing heavily, Axel bends down and scoops her up, tossing her over his shoulder and landing a heavy swat to her upturned ass. Lanie squeals, and her pleas for her Daddy to let her go fill the air as Axel carries her into the house.
“You too, Josie-Posie,” Daddy says with a chuckle. “Or do you also need help getting in the house?”
“No, Daddy. I can walk.” I am much more interested in hot chocolate than a hot bottom, thank you very much.
“Good girl.”
Taking me by the hand, he leads me inside, pausing just over the threshold to peel the snow gear from my body and hang it up alongside everyone else’s.
Lanie is standing in one corner of the living room, shifting from one foot to another, her pants and diaper both missing, leaving her bare bottom on display while Axel sits on the couch, watching his naughty babygirl dance in the corner.
He glances up when Daddy and I enter, a wide grin stretching across his face.
“You gonna go make us some hot chocolate?”
“Eli probably already has it warmed up,” Daddy says. “But we’ll get it dished out so it’s ready for you and Lanie when you’re finished here.”
“Appreciate that. Not too many marshmallows,” he calls after us as Daddy leads me into the kitchen.
Once we’re there, Daddy hooks his hands beneath my armpits and hoists me up onto the counter. “All right, bug. You have a very important job.”
“What’s that?”
Pulling a bag down from the cabinet, he hands it to me.
“You’re on marshmallow duty.” Daddy’s grin flashes, quick and boyish and so reminiscent of who he was twenty years ago it takes my breath away.
“And just ignore your Uncle Axel. He has some very weird opinions on what constitutes ‘too many marshmallows’.”
The familiarity of it, of running circles around the eldest Kincaid-turned-Thorne brother has tears stinging my eyes. And I realize then how much I’ve truly missed them. Not just the boy who became my everything, but all of them. How much I’ve missed having a family.
“Aw, what’s wrong, bug?”
My instinct is to just smile and brush it off. Tell him nothing’s wrong.
But why should I spare him the misery he caused?
If he wants to keep me here, then he should have to face the consequences of their actions.
“It’s just hitting me how much I’ve really missed you all.
I don’t think you understand what it did to me, losing my whole family all at once like that.
You had each other, but I had no one, especially after my parents died. ”
Regret fills his eyes. “There are no words I can say to tell you how fucking sorry I am, Josie. But you have to believe, if I could have brought you with me, I would have. It was just too dangerous. I missed you, every fucking day, but I could never have lived with myself if anything happened to you.”
I hate that his explanation makes sense. That I can understand how, in his mind, he was protecting me from the worst kind of danger.
And I hate even more that I can feel myself softening toward him, toward the others. That I can feel the righteous fury draining away with every second I spend in their presence.
I’m grappling with those feelings when Eli steps into the kitchen, his frown evident despite the beard obscuring most of his face. “Why is there a Little girl sitting on my clean counter?”
“Because her Daddy put her there, Elias,” Daddy shoots back as he pulls several mugs down from the cabinet. “She isn’t hurting anything.”
Eli grunts. “Just make sure she doesn’t hurt herself. Little girls shouldn’t be climbing on things.”
In the distance, the unmistakable sound of a palm cracking against a bare bottom echoes, followed by Lanie’s cries of distress. Glancing over at Daddy, Eli raises a brow. “What did she do now?”
“Refused to come inside when Axel said to and stomped her foot at him.”
Eli sighs and shakes his head. “Sometimes I think that girl likes having her bottom roasted on a regular basis.”
“She absolutely does,” Daddy agrees with a chuckle. He scoops brown liquid out of a slow cooker and pours it into one of the mugs before setting it beside me. “You're up, Marshmallow Queen.”
Despite the heavy conversation from earlier, a giggle bubbles in my chest as I scoop out as many marshmallows as I can fit in my hand and dump them in the mug.
“Perfect.” Daddy looks at the bag in my hand and frowns. “Eli, add mini marshmallows to your shopping list, we’re running low.”
“Will do.”
With a jolt, I remember that my whole reason for wanting to go out and play in the snow was so I could figure out where Eli’s car was and hitch a ride. How the hell did I forget my plan so quickly?
Determined to get back on track, I watch Eli move around the kitchen, preparing what looks to be sandwiches for lunch. “When are you going into town, Uncle Eli?”
“After lunch.” He looks over, another frown tugging at his lips, as if he can tell what I’m planning just from that one little question.
“Perfect,” Daddy says, surprising both me and Eli, if the raising of the latter’s brows is anything to judge by. “I need to pick some things up for Josie to hold her over until Maxwell’s package arrives, so we’ll just ride in with you.”
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Eli’s voice is rough and growly, making it clear that he does not think it’s a good idea at all. “What if she tries to run?”
I open my mouth to assure him I won’t do anything of the sort, but Daddy beats me to it.
“She won’t, will you, Josie?” Laying a hand on the back of my neck, he squeezes, and my body recognizes the gesture for the warning it is.
“Because not only is she my very good girl, she knows that if she tries to run, or tell anyone that we’re holding her hostage up here, that we’ll have no choice but to eliminate the threat.
And you don’t want to put anyone else in danger, do you, baby? ”
He’s bluffing. He has to be bluffing. The boy I fell in love with would never threaten innocent people like that.
But all it takes is one look in his dark eyes to realize he’s completely, terrifyingly serious.
The man in front of me is nothing like the boy I knew.
This man would have absolutely no problem taking out anyone or anything he views as a threat to his family.
And as desperate as I am to escape, I’m not willing to put anyone else in danger to do so.
So even though I can feel my hope withering in my chest, I force a bright smile. “Of course not, Daddy.”
An approving smile blooms on his face, chasing away those dark shadows in his eyes. “Good girl. Come on, let’s finish getting the hot chocolate ready for the others.”
Just like that, I’m back to dumping marshmallows in mugs, as if he hasn’t just threatened an entire town full of people with god only knows what kind of retribution if I dare step a toe out of line.
I’ll play his game for now, just like I’d planned. Play along, win his and his family’s trust. Wait until they let their guard down enough to stop watching every move I make.
And then I’ll run.