41. Chapter Thirty-Nine
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
BETSY
S everal days have passed since Anita put Betsy to sleep so Angelo could find the bullet and stitch her up. She was so glad she begged to be put to sleep. There was no way she would have been able to survive him looking for the bullet and stitching her up, even if he numbed her.
Betsy was complaining about the pain several days after the incident. She couldn’t move her arm without it hurting. She wasn’t supposed to move her arm much but that meant she couldn’t do anything.
“Betsy?” Daddy came into the room.
“Yes, Daddy?”
She had been sitting on the couch for several minutes, doing absolutely nothing. She was bored out of her mind.
“Can we talk?”
He looked nervous. Why was he nervous? What was he going to tell her?
“Of course, Daddy. Is everything okay?”
Her phone started to ring right as Daddy sat down next to her. She looked at the number and immediately recognized it.
Dimitri.
“Can,” she stopped herself. “Never mind. I can try to call him back.”
“No, baby. Answer the call. It won’t always happen like this, but Dimitri is probably calling for a reason. You also need to let him know you are safe,” Daddy smiled.
Rogan and several men had taken out Arden’s business partner and their men. It was a bloody mess. Not that she had seen anything, but Daddy had come home with blood all over him. How did people not ask questions was a mystery to her. He was caked in blood.
But she was safe now. Or safe from Arden and his men. There was always a risk with hacking into people’s stuff and being associated with the Ricci Crime Family.
“B? Are you there?” Dimitri asked.
“Hey, Dimitri. How are you?”
“Do not how are you to me. Betsy Joy. How dare you not tell me you were hurt. I had to fucking find out by hacking into your phone.”
She scrunched her shoulders and closed her eyes.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “But I didn’t know how to contact you. You told me you would contact me when you were safe and could.”
He sighed. “Okay. But still. You could have told Sabastian and he would have found a way to tell me.”
“Sorry. It’s been a weird couple of days.”
That was an understatement. She hadn’t been getting good sleep at all. Sleeping on her back was not comfortable along with getting nightmares. It has been hell and she was cranky half of the time. Okay, all of the time but it was hard when she wasn’t able to get good sleep.
“Sorry. I just wanted to check in on you. How are you and your Daddy holding up?”
Betsy still found it a little weird that he knew she had a Daddy and called him that. She hadn’t hid that part of her when he was here in person but they also hadn’t talked about it much.
“Good.”
“Betsy,” Daddy’s tone was one of warning.
“Okay, crap. I don’t want to sit on the couch all day not being able to do anything. It hurts all the time and I’m not able to sleep much. It sucks. Absolutely sucks.”
“Has your Daddy been putting you down for naps?”
“I don’t need naps!” she snapped and then sighed. “Sorry.”
“I have been putting her down for naps. She doesn’t like to sleep on her back so it is difficult for her to get sleep. But we’re getting there,” Daddy spoke. “She should be going down for a nap in a couple of hours.”
“Good. Good. Everyone has been taken care of?”
“Yes, she is safe from those people now. No backlash will come to her.”
“Good. Good.”
“I got to see Anita. I don’t know if you remember her or not–”
“The nurse who stitched me up,” Dimitri finished.
“Uh, yes. She works for–”
“Rogan’s men. Yes, I do know that.”
Betsy growled. “Can you stop interrupting me?”
“Sorry, B. How is she doing?”
“Don’t you already know?”
She figured he had kept up with her.
“B.”
“Figured you would keep tabs on her. I mean, you did give her a lot of money. Like a lot. Way more than stitching someone up and hush money would be. You knew she needed help.”
Dimitri sighed. “Yes, I did. Now will you stop asking questions?”
“I wasn’t asking questions. They were all statements.”
Betsy smiled at her Daddy and held back a laugh.
“Brat,” Dimitri growled. “How is she?”
“Well, since I know you will look into it after the call, I’ll leave that up to you. You can figure it out. She seemed interested to know how you were. Cheeks got all pink.”
“Shut up.”
“I’m just telling the truth. No questions there.”
Silence filled the room.
“Is there anything else you need, Dimitri?” Daddy asked. “I need to talk to Betsy about something.”
“Yes, that is all I needed. I’ll be in contact with you soon. Be good and if you can’t be good, be good at it!”
She giggled. “Bye Dimitri.”
“Bye B.”
Betsy placed her phone to the side and looked at Daddy. He looked at her with a concerned face.
“Is everything okay, Daddy?” she asked. “You’re scaring me a little.”
“I need to tell you something and I don’t know how you are going to react. I just need you to know that I did this for you. I did this so you could have some peace of mind but also to avenge you.”
She stared at him, not knowing exactly what he was talking about.
“I killed your dad. I made him suffer.”
She blinked several times, taking in what Daddy had told her. He killed her dad?
“You may be mad at me for a couple of days and I promise I’ll make it up to you, but I needed to do it. I needed to do something about him. He was just living there like nothing had happened and I couldn’t allow that. So I kidnapped him and tortured him for days and days so he got a feeling of what he did to you. I made him suffer and I finally killed him off.”
“Really?” she whispered, not believing what she was hearing.
He had killed her dad?
“Yes, really. There were several other people there as witnesses, not that I needed it. They took turns torturing him. Angelo even offered to keep him alive by fixing him up so it would last longer. But he is finally dead.”
“Thank you.”
“I know you might be. Wait. Did you just say thank you?”
She nodded.
“I wasn’t expecting you to say that. I was expecting you to be mad at me and not talk to me for a while.”
“Thank you. I wanted to do it but I couldn’t. I know what he did to me was bad, but I just couldn’t bring myself to kill him. He is, well was, my dad and I had some good memories with him. Any time I thought about getting someone else to kill him or me killing him, I just couldn’t. I would always remember those memories and I just couldn’t do it.”
Daddy kissed her forehead. “Now you don’t have to worry about it. It is all taken care of.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
Part of her was sad but she was relieved. She didn’t have to worry about her dad coming after her or doing it to someone else.
“You are welcome. If anyone, and I mean anyone, hurts you, threatens you, looks at you the wrong way they are going to deal with me. It’s not a threat towards them but a promise.”
“You mean that?” she asked, blinking several times.
“Yes, baby I do mean that. I mean it with my whole heart. Anyone who makes you uncomfortable will have to deal with me.”
“Maybe not that far. What if Angelo makes me uncomfortable or Rogan? Rogan always makes me uncomfortable.”
Betsy still wasn’t sure if Rogan liked her or not. He said he was fine with her, but she didn't trust that.
“Okay, not them because I can’t but I will talk to them about it. You just tell me when and I will.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
She snuggled up into his side and sighed. This was the life. Being with her Daddy and him taking care of her. She absolutely loved it. To feel loved and cared for.
“Now, on to your punishment,” Daddy pulled slightly away.
“Punishment!” she yelled. “No. I don’t have any punishments.”
“You snuck out and contacted Arden. You knew you weren’t supposed to do that. You put yourself in danger.”
She opened her mouth and quickly closed it. He was right, she had.
“Punishment time.”
“Can we talk about this?” she asked.
“Talk about what?”
“I know what I did was wrong, but I’m glad I did it. Did I get hurt? Yes, I did but I would do it again. Arden is dead. I’m already suffering from the nightmares and not being able to sleep well. I’ve learned my lesson, trust me. I don’t want to touch another gun in my life. I don’t want to go out alone anymore. If I could, I would stay in this apartment until I died, but I know it isn’t healthy. But I am not going out alone ever again.”
Betsy didn’t feel any guilt whatsoever about what she did. She would do it again in a heartbeat.
Daddy grabbed her chin with his fingers. “No punishment this time but if you do it again, there will be severe consequences. I don’t care if you are having nightmares and are hurting. You will get a punishment. Understand?”
“Understand, Daddy.”
“Good girl. Now, let’s go cuddle and fall asleep.”