Chapter 11
I was numb. Every part of me had lost feeling. I didn’t say another word until I was safe in Daddy’s penthouse again. And only when we were alone did I fully breakdown into a mess of tears and whatever else was coming out of my face.
“I’ll never let anything like that happen to you again,” Daddy said, kneeling on the ground to cradle me, as I was in the fetal position, broken inside with fear of what might’ve happened today.
The sensation of the gag around my mouth and pulling my arms tight behind my back.
“Just glad you kept this on.” He stroked a hand over the bracelet and I flinched.
“They—they tried to take it,” I said, sniffling now. I didn’t know what stopped them—maybe it was their leader, Locke. I didn’t think they were going to hurt me, they just wanted to use me as a bargaining chip in whatever they were doing—drugs, probably.
Eventually, I got to Daddy’s bathroom where he undressed me out of my soiled clothes and ran me a bath, adding all the expensive-smelling bubbles into it. I continued to sit on the tiled floor, naked, waiting for the bath to fill with just the right temperature.
“How did you find me?” I asked in a whisper.
“The bracelet,” he said, swishing a hand in the tub. “You’re mine, baby, and I like to keep track of my things.”
Suddenly, my dick was twitching. This wasn’t how I thought my body would react to what happened today, but here it was, becoming aroused, and I was doing my best to hide it. The last thing I wanted was for him to think I was a freak.
“It’s okay,” he said, removing my hand to see my cock getting harder. “You just need me. And I need you too. But more than that, I need you to get in the bath, get all cleaned up, and then you can exist in your little space for as long as you need.”
“Are you sure, Daddy?” I asked. “Because—” And I was pouting so much. “I still have to pack and bring all my things here.”
“I’m doing it,” he said. “You’re not leaving again, unless it’s with me. You hear?”
“Yes, Daddy.” My heart skipped with the arousal throbbing in my cock. “I promise I won’t ever leave without you.”
His face softened slightly, smiling. “You’ll never leave me, huh?”
“No way, never ever.”
He pulled my head in and kissed my forehead. “Good boy.” He looked at me in awe after the big smooch. “Are you okay to get into the tub yourself? Or do you need me to lower you in?”
A giggle told him everything. I wanted the hoist. He was so strong, lifting me then lowering me into the nice warm tub of bubbles and color-changing water.
He didn’t even seem to care that he was getting his sleeves drenched in the bath water either.
He gave me strict instructions to stay in the tub, clean all my bits, and make sure I didn’t jack off.
There were bath bombs in the water, which changed the color of it, and some of the undissolved parts were even fizzing near me.
It was fun to pluck them out, and let them clump and fizz between my fingers.
The ones with pigment were great for coloring on my skin too, but they dissolved once submerged.
I kept myself occupied with the bubbles, making large Santa beards on my chin, and covering my entire face, trying to see through the bubbles only to irritate my eyes with an annoying sting.
I just wanted to lie there, stare at the ceiling, and not think—but that wasn’t possible, I had too many thoughts, and I needed to scrub my body clean of all the shit that had happened today.
* * *
It had been a week since the kidnapping, and I hadn’t left the penthouse in that time.
Daddy had a cleaner and occasionally called in someone to make us adult foods, the fancy stuff with French names you’d find in a restaurant.
It was mostly for him. I was still surviving on my diet of boxed mac and cheese—had to be from the box, it just had a taste to it my little space craved.
In my bedroom, with all my things from the apartment unboxed and organized, I was able to play with them and make sure the dirty ones—sorry for all the times I’d accidentally spilled cereal milk on some of them—were now able to get the fanciest dry cleaning services. It was amazing.
A knock came at the door and I froze.
This was my safe space, I had no reason to be scared, but my entire body didn’t know the difference between Daddy’s knock and an intruder coming to take me away. Daddy’s usual rough voice was soft as he called out to me before opening the door.
“I’m home,” he said. “How’s your day been?” He walked over, unbuttoning his shirt and dropping to his knees in front of me as I was surrounded by teddies, reading through some of the spicy adult picture books.
I quickly flipped it shut. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” I said.
“What for, baby?” he asked, stroking a hand across the cover of the book.
“I was reading it without you.”
“As long as we have stories for bed time, you can read as many of them as you want,” he said, leaning in, and the smell of his cologne relaxed me. “Since Camille took over being my assistant, part time, she’s been really strict with appointments.” He laughed, shaking his head.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Forcing me to lock in on whatever people are saying.” He eventually pushed the book aside laid his head on my lap.
“She’s got some good ideas too. She thinks we could funnel additional cash through the community center we’re building.
Apparently, the land we’ve secured is on a plot of land we can dig deep through. ”
“What does that mean?” I asked, turning my head slightly as he was now looking at me upside down.
“It means we can extend operations underground.”
“Dangerous things?”
“Baby,” he said, stroking the side of my face with the back of his hand. “I’ll never put you in the line of danger ever again. And we’re not doing dangerous or illegal things there, it’s a business expansion, and it’ll easily bring millions into the family.”
My eyes might as well have bulged right out of my skull.
“And you’re part of the family,” he added. “I’ve already paid off your debts, you know that, right?”
I nodded, slowly. “And what about my mom?”
He rolled out of my lap, kneeling and becoming eye level with me.
This was bad news. I dipped my head, avoiding his glance.
This was going to be tough to hear, I knew it.
Since the kidnapping, I’d basically not touched my phone again.
I’d realized my life could be taken from me in a blink, and I’d already given so much of my life to my mom. I couldn’t give her any more now.
“Well, baby.” His voice was soft. “She took the money I offered her. I did what you asked me to do. She didn’t even ask anything. Just said she’d take the money and leave the state—or leave you alone, at least.”
I burst into tears. She’d left me now. Really left me. “So I’m alone, then.” The words came out in a blubbering mess. “I don’t have a mom now.”
Daddy Santo wrapped me in one of his big tight hugs, holding me for what felt like hours as I cried out every last tear on his nice clean shirt. He wiped every single tear away, and left behind forehead kisses, telling me I didn’t need her, that I had a new family now.
We took a warm shower together, where I cried a little more and Daddy made sure to wash the tears away with the shower head.
He lathered and rubbed my body clean with a loofah and a strawberry scrub, and I cleaned him too.
It was one of my privileges in this world to see him completely naked, exposed, find all the areas I could tickle with the loofah and make him twitch and wiggle.
Nobody else would ever see him like this, it was all I needed in life.
Him. Daddy Santo.
As we dried ourselves with the big, warm, expensive, hotel-type fluffy towels, Daddy turned to me. I watched in the mirror, his face turning slightly serious. My stomach was dropping. I didn’t want to cry any more today.
“I’ve got something for you, tomorrow,” he said and my heart raced. “Which means you’ll have to dress all nice for Daddy, and you’ll have to come outside.”
“Outside?” My voice was shaky.
“I’ll be with you the entire time,” he said. “I promise. Nothing bad is going to happen.”
I trusted him, believing every single word he said. And it would have to happen eventually, leaving this lavish penthouse and getting my phone back to see all the missed calls from people I’d called friends throughout the years—doing their once a month, “I remember you exist” texts.
“You’ve got your bracelet on,” he said. “That keeps track, and control. Nobody will ever dare touch you again. If they do, I promise you’ll see them die.” His eyes were wide, staring right into my soul, and I knew he was telling me the truth.
“What if I—”
“I’m going to protect you as much I think you’ll need, but if someone lays a hand on you, they lose that hand, and the right to ever touch anyone else,” he said, and his words were . . . scary, but they comforted me.
“Thank you,” I said, swinging my arms around him in a hug, my wet hair sprinkling him as I shook my head. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said, both hands on my face, centering me to look at him so he could kiss me on the lips. “And I’ll be there, every step of the way.”
I reached up to the cross he wore on a chain. It was a fancy design. “I always wondered what this meant,” I said. “It’s not religious, is it?”
He shook his head. “No, it’s a Bianchi dagger,” he said.
“When my great-grandfather came over, he brought with him a dagger that looked like this. It wasn’t functional.
It was made completely of gold. His entire net worth.
And on it, there were diamonds too. He melted the gold to sell it, and the diamonds are now on my mom’s finger. ”
“Wow.” I stared at it, rubbing the small gold dagger between my fingers. “I was always scared to ask in case you were religious.”