16. Chapter Fourteen
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
BETSY
B etsy still thought it was weird they had given everything to them for free. Was it necessary? They had gotten everything they needed to paint her playroom. She was pretty sure they got more than enough paint to paint the whole house.
She thought about asking Daddy if that was his goal, but if it wasn’t she didn’t want to make him feel like he had to.
“How come the younger guy didn’t know?” she asked.
They were currently in the apartment. She was sitting on the ground as Daddy brought everything out of the playroom. Betsy had tried to help, but Daddy told her to get her cute bottom on the ground while he did it.
She didn’t put up any arguments because she didn’t really like to pick up things. Back at her old apartment, her coloring books were all out on the floor in the living room so she could color at any point. What was the use of putting them away when she was going to use them again?
“The kid probably knew who the Ricci Crime Family was but he might not have known what the tattoo looked like. Or if he did, he wasn’t paying attention.”
Because his eyes were on her.
“But that doesn’t excuse him for what he said. Even if I wasn’t in the Ricci Crime Family, that wouldn’t have flown with me. It was disrespectful and he shouldn’t have said that or made you uncomfortable.”
“I know,” she sighed as he carried another piece of furniture out of the room.
Part of her did feel a little guilty he was doing all of the work. Was he okay? Was he getting tired?
“I want you to know that nothing he said was true. You aren’t just a piece of ass. You are so much more. You know that, right?”
She nodded.
“You are my world.”
“I can’t be,” she whispered.
They hadn’t known each other for long. How could she already be his world?
“You are and you can’t change my mind. I’m not just saying that to say that, I mean it. You are my world. We haven’t known each other long but I knew from the moment I set eyes on you.”
“You told me I was a naughty girl,” she scoffed.
“You were and you are. While you are my good girl, you do have naughty tendencies.”
She shook her head. “I do not.”
“Sorry to break it to you, but you do.”
She stuck her tongue out. “Meanie.”
“Stick that tongue out at me again and I’ll spank your bottom.”
Betsy pulled her tongue back in and watched him pick up another piece. She didn’t know how much more he had to go, but with each one he took out, the more excited she got.
They were going to paint her playroom. They were actually going to do it and not hire anyone.
“I’m almost done, baby. Just sit tight for a couple more minutes.”
How many more minutes, she didn’t know. Would she be able to contain her excitement as she waited for Daddy to finish?
“Was it really necessary for you to punch him that many times? I’m pretty sure he was dead or had severe brain injuries,” she mumbled the last part.
It seemed a little much in her opinion. Maybe a couple good punches would have been fine, but she had lost count of how many times he had punched Juan.
“Yes, baby it was. I needed to teach him a lesson and show other people they can’t say things and get away with it. Especially not when it is a woman who belongs to one of the members of the Ricci Crime Family. Not acceptable at all.”
Betsy sighed and leaned her head against the wall.
“Why don’t you go potty. Daddy is almost done taking everything out.”
Her face turned red as he said the word potty. She never thought she would have someone telling her to do that.
“Awww, is my little baby embarrassed I said the word potty?”
She shook her head and got up from the ground. She totally was and didn’t want to admit to it.
“Go on. I’ll be here when you’re done. And if you need any help, call out for Daddy.”
“I won’t.”
“You may some day. There is no shame in that.”
She scurried off to the bathroom and took several deep breaths once she was in there. She hoped she never had to have Daddy’s help.
“Don’t lie to yourself,” she whispered.
Now she was going crazy, talking to herself. But she was right. There was a very small part of her that wanted him to take control and do things for her, even if big Betsy didn’t want that.
Was it ever going to happen? Probably not. She didn’t know if Daddy liked to do that. It wasn’t only her in this dynamic.
Her phone buzzed, bringing her out of her thoughts. Who could be texting her now? She didn’t have many people on her contacts. She honestly had it just so she could make an emergency call if she needed to, which was never.
Pulling her phone out, she unlocked it and read the text.
Come forward or there will be consequences.
Her breath got caught in her throat. How did they get her number? She made sure to put it under a different name than her apartment was in. How was this person finding out every little detail about her?
“Betsy?” Daddy called out. “Are you okay?”
“Shit,” she whispered.
She quickly flushed the toilet, pushing her phone into her pockets, and washing her hands. She hadn’t even gone, but she needed Daddy to think she had.
“Betsy?”
“One second!” Her voice squeaked.
Closing her eyes, she took in a deep breath and turned around. She needed to get a grip on her before she walked out. One look from Daddy could have her crumbling and telling him everything. She couldn’t yet, not until she tried to figure out who this was.
Betsy opened the door right as Daddy raised his hand. He looked at her, searching her body and face. Did she come up with a lie to get him off of her track? No, she couldn’t lie anymore.
“Are you okay?”
She nodded her head and took a step out. “I’m okay.”
She was okay, slightly panicking inside, but she was fine and could survive. Betsy forced her eyes to stay open. She wanted to close them and take several deep breaths, trying to make her way through her guilt. It just kept growing and growing and soon she feared she wouldn’t be able to navigate through it.
“Before we get started, we’re going to go over some rules,” he said. “Let’s go inside the room and sit on the floor while we talk about it.”
She gulped and took Daddy’s hand. They had gone over a couple of rules, not many, but she was worried. What kind of rules was he going to give her? Were they rules she wouldn’t be able to follow? Would Daddy do that?
“You’re okay,” Daddy gently said. “Nothing bad is going to happen. Just some rules.”
That was easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one who had to follow the rules, he was the Daddy.
“Sit.”
She sat down on the ground, Daddy sitting right in front of her.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes, Daddy.”
She was ready to know what the new rules were going to be, but at the same time she didn’t want to know. Why did she need more rules? She didn’t.
“No lying,” he said and her whole body froze.
They had already gone over the no lying rule, but she had lied several times since then. Did he know? Is that why he was reiterating it?
“I know sometimes we think that lying is better for the other person, but most of the time it’s not. Daddy wants you to always tell the truth with me, no matter how big or small you think the lie is. I want you to always tell me the truth. I know it’s going to be hard, but it will be worth it in the end. Your bottom will thank you.”
Betsy could only imagine the spanking she was going to get when Daddy found out how many times she had lied to him in the past couple of days. Would he just get rid of her at that point? This lie was something Betsy was going to have to keep to herself, never telling Daddy.
“Health is very important. I want you to drink at least forty ounces of water a day, have three meals, and a snack. You will not put yourself in danger in any way. I want you to be safe at all times. If you can’t control the danger, like you being in a bank when it gets robbed, I don’t want you to put yourself in danger to save someone else. You get to safety and you wait for Daddy or one of the Ricci Crime Family members to come get you. You will get at least eight hours of sleep. So if you know you need to wake up at five in the morning, we’ll backtrack to see what time you need to go to bed,” Daddy explained. “Though, I don’t know why you would need to wake up that early for anything. But if you ever do, I’ll make sure you get enough sleep. And when I’m not here, I expect you to be honest to Daddy and go to bed at the appropriate time.”
“What if I forget?” she asked. “What if I’m in the middle of a show or eating a snack and forget about the time? I don’t wear a watch and don’t always have my phone on me to check the time.”
“Daddy will send you reminders if I am away, which won’t be a lot. And if I have to put a clock in every room that will go off on a time I set to remind you, then I will.”
“Won’t that get annoying for it to go off every night?”
“It wouldn’t be every night, just the nights that I am gone. So it won’t annoy me.”
“But it will annoy me,” she grumbled.
“It will remind you ten minutes before that you need to get ready for bed.”
“How nice of you to think of that,” she sarcastically said. “You could just call me instead of setting annoying alarms.”
“Daddy may not be able to call so this will work best.”
Betsy shook her head. She didn’t want that, but knew she wasn’t going to get out of it. Daddy was serious.
“Next rule. If you want to do your job, hacking, then whenever you get a call or an email, you’ll look into whoever is asking and whoever they want you to hack into before accepting or declining the job. Before you accept or decline the job, you are to come to Daddy with what you have found and show it to me. I don’t want anything to come back on you.”
“But–”
“No buts. Daddy wants you safe and I need you to look into both parties and tell Daddy before you do anything. What if the person was good at hiding information and you didn’t get all of it? Daddy may know who the person is. I also don’t want you hacking into any of the Ricci Crime Family members or the Montgomery Syndicate members. We have enemies, bad enemies, and you are to not get involved in that.”
She stared at him.
“Do you understand?”
“Yes, Daddy,” she sighed.
“Good. Next rule is to come to me for everything. If you are scared, bored, nervous, happy, sad, angry, anxious, need or want to talk about something, I want you to come to me so we can talk. I don’t care how big or small you may think it is, come to me so we can talk. I want to be here for you. I want to be your rock when you need something firm to hold onto.”
She cracked a smile. When she needed something firm to hold onto.
“Not that, brat,” Daddy poked her nose.
“Sorry!”
“I want you to feel like you can come to me for anything and everything. I’m not going to judge you.”
But would he be disappointed in her? She didn’t want to ask that question though, fear that he would say yes. And Daddy would know something was up if she asked that question.
“I know a couple of them we had already gone over, but I wanted to go over them again. That’s it for now. More rules will be added as time goes and some might be taken away. Things change.”
“Okay, Daddy.”
She had already broken two of them, lying and putting herself in danger. Well, technically three if she counted the not looking into people before she took a job. She had done that too many times, but she figured things before he set the rules didn’t count. Sadly, lying and putting herself in danger fell after he told the rules.
“Now, I want you to come up with a safeword.”
What did she want her safeword to be?
“It can be anything. Something that you will remember and you don’t use often.”
She blew out a breath of air. “Red? Can it be red?”
“Of course it can. Any time you say red, we’ll stop and talk about it. If it’s in the middle of a punishment, we’ll talk about it and if you still have some punishment left, we’ll finish it out with something different. I don’t want to trigger you.”
“Okay.”
“Good.”
They sat there for a couple of seconds, staring at each other. Betsy had a feeling Daddy just wanted to tell her the no lying rule again. He knew something was up, but he wasn’t asking about it. Did he want to or did he just want her to go to him?
Whatever it was, she still felt the guilt inside of her, eating at her slowly. Was she going to make it to the end of the tunnel to see what happened or was the guilt going to kill her? But she couldn't tell Daddy because it was her mess, not his. She got into this before he became her Daddy.
There was no need to drag him into this, not when his life could get put into danger as well. This was her mess and she needed to figure it out and deal with it. She was going to make it all better.
Daddy grabbed her hands, giving them a little squeeze. “I’m here to listen to whatever you want to tell me. When you’re ready to talk about whatever you are hiding, I’m here.”
Her eyes went wide as she tried to pull her hands out of his. He knew something was going on. He knew but he was being patient.
“But if it starts to affect your mental health or your physical health, I will look into it and figure it out. If it’s putting you in danger, I will figure it out. But until then, I’ll be patient and wait for you to come to me about it.”
Betsy looked away. It hadn’t started to affect her health or put her in danger, yet. Would it ever? She didn’t know that.
“If it does come down to your health and puts you in danger, the consequences won’t be pretty.”
Taking a shaky breath, she nodded. Hopefully it would never come to that, and if it did she hoped she would hide it well so he wouldn’t know. Just the thought of that made her feel bad. She didn’t like keeping things from him, especially when it came to the no lying rule but this was hers to deal with. Whatever she had done before she met him had consequences and she needed to deal with them by herself.
“I care for you,” he gently said. “I really care for you. I want you to thrive and live the best life. I want to protect you, cherish you, discipline you, and show that you can lean on other people. I want you to be comfortable coming to me to talk about anything and everything.”
Betsy wanted that as well. She really did. It had always been a dream of hers after she read a book that had it in it.
“Now, do you want to start putting tape around so we can paint?”
“Please.”