Chapter 21
VANESSA
Okay, I was wrong. Movie night isn’t kind of fun.
It’s the best.
Eli not only brought us dinosaur chicken nuggets—which Tabby went absolutely nuts for—but a whole assortment of sweet treats and snack foods as well. Brownies, popcorn, candy, and enough other junk to make four Little girls sick to their stomachs before the night was over.
Even the movies were a lot more fun than I’d expected. Or maybe it was the company. “Blanket Fort” Gray was a lot more fun than regular Auntie Gray, though she didn’t hesitate to spank Lanie’s bottom when she got a little too rowdy and knocked over a whole bowl of potato chips.
The only wrinkle in the night was when she insisted on giving us all a bottle and changing our diapers before tucking us into bed.
It’s embarrassing enough when Dane does that stuff, and I nearly got a spanking of my own for refusing.
But the other girls all did it, and my competitive side got the best of me in the end.
No way was I going to be seen as the scaredy-cat of the group.
That was nearly an hour ago, and we’re all meant to be asleep, but I’m too revved up to do more than lie in my little nest of pillows and blankets and stare up at the twinkling fairy lights above me.
Soft snores and the sound of deep breathing surround me, telling me my friends aren’t having the same problem.
Maybe this is my chance. Sneaking past a horde of sleeping Little girls and Gray is going to be tricky, but not nearly as difficult as trying to escape Dane’s arms. I’ve tried, every single night, but the man is inhumanly strong and even the smallest noise seems to wake him.
One night I did manage to get out of bed, but I only made it to the door before he caught me.
Luckily for me, I was able to convince him I just needed to potty, which was embarrassing and earned me a lecture about how Little girls don’t use the potty they use their diapers, but otherwise spared me the spanking I know for sure I would have gotten if he’d had any inkling that I was trying to sneak out.
Pushing slowly up in my “bed”, I look around, trying to find an opening I can sneak through. Gray is sleeping in front of the main “entrance” but it’s a fort made of blankets. Surely there’s another way in and out of this thing.
A hint of light peeks through between two carefully hung blankets just behind Josie and I inwardly cheer at the sight. Moving as quietly as I can, I twist until I’m on my hands and knees, and begin my crawl toward freedom.
“Nessie?”
The sleepy voice stops me in my tracks, and I crane my neck to find Tabby sitting up. Frowning slightly, she rubs at her eyes, looking for all the world like a sleepy child.
“It’s okay,” I whisper. “Go back to sleep.”
But luck is clearly not on my side tonight. Tabby’s wide awake now, and excitement lights her eyes. “Are you sneaking out? Where are we going?”
“We aren’t going anywhere. Go back to bed, Tabby.”
“But I wanna come too!”
I open my mouth to assure her she’s not missing out on anything, but another voice joins the fray and I have to bite back a groan.
“Wha’s goin’ on?” Lanie asks, sitting up and looking around with a yawn.
“Nothing’s going on. I just… wanted a drink of water.”
That was clearly the wrong thing to say, because Lanie’s entire face lights up. “Midnight snack run!” She whisper-cheers, and Tabby lets out a soft squeal of excitement.
Thankfully, the noise doesn’t wake Gray, but I don’t want to take any chances so I immediately shush her while my brain scrambles to think of a plan.
With both of them awake now, there’s no hope of me actually sneaking out.
But clearly they aren’t going to go back to sleep, either.
Lanie is already crawling around the fort, tugging at blankets and looking for an escape.
Guess we’re going on a midnight snack run after all.
“Over here, guys,” I say as loudly as I dare while still trying to keep my voice low enough to avoid waking Gray.
Tabby immediately moves to follow me, but Lanie detours by the two sleeping lumps to give one of them a shake. “Josie. Josie, wake up. You’re gonna miss all the fun!”
Fucking hell, she’s going to get us caught before we even have a chance to do anything fun.
Even if my escape plan has been ruined, I’d at least like to do something to earn the punishments we’re all definitely going to get.
If Gray wakes up and we all get spanked without so much as a cookie for our troubles, I’m gonna be pissed.
“Leave me ‘lone,” Josie whines, batting at Lanie’s hand.
But Lanie is not to be deterred. “You’re gonna miss out on midnight sna-acks,” she sing-songs.
That gets Josie’s attention. Bolting upright, she stares around the dim interior of the fort. “Snacks?”
“Yes,” I confirm, holding open the “exit” I’ve found. “Now hurry up before you wake Gray.”
“We better hope she doesn’t wake up before we get back.” Tabby’s voice is heavy with somber warning as she crawls past me. “We’re gonna be in so much trouble if she catches us.”
And yet, here they all are, following me headlong into that trouble. Sometimes I think they must like getting their butts spanked.
Then again, maybe they think the same about me, considering this is the longest I’ve managed to go without a spanking and here I am, leading the charge.
But even knowing we're definitely getting spanked at some point, excitement sparks in my chest as we all crawl out of the fort and tiptoe toward Gray’s bedroom door.
It squeaks a tiny bit as I pull it open, and we collectively freeze in place, nobody even daring to breathe as we wait to see if we’re about to be caught.
When nothing happens, we all let out a quiet sigh of relief and slip out of the door and into the hallway. I swear I can hear all our hearts pounding as we creep past the other bedrooms, all of which contain someone who could easily wake up and catch us if we aren’t careful.
The stairs are the trickiest, but we realize quickly that if we press ourselves against the walls, the steps don’t make nearly as much noise.
By the time we make it to the kitchen, I feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin, in the best possible way. This might be even more fun than watching a scary movie together.
“C’mon!” Practically vibrating with excitement, Lanie gestures for us to follow her. “I know where Uncle Eli keeps all the good snacks.”
She leads us over to a lower cabinet that is, sure enough, stocked with all the treats a Little girl could possibly ask for. Excited squeals pepper the air, followed by the sound of us shushing each other and giggling as we reach for our favorite snacks.
And in that moment, I really am a Little girl, high on the promise of illicit sugar. The threat of a punishment still lingers in the back of my mind, but it’s overridden by our shared victory. We pass around our snacks, trying each other’s favorites and either approving or rejecting each one.
“Oh my god.” Eyes watering, Tabby coughs and waves her hand in front of her face. She’s just tried Josie’s favorite snack, a spicy, cheesy thing that looks a bit like a rolled-up chip. “Water. Need water.”
“I can do better than that!” Josie hops up from her spot on the floor and carefully pries the door open. A moment later she holds up a half-empty bottle of wine. “Auntie Gray put this in here the other day.”
“My hero!” I cry as she hands Tabby the bottle.
“Oh… I don’t know if we should.” Holding the bottle of rose-colored liquid, Tabby nibbles at her bottom lip. “We’re gonna be in so much trouble as it is.”
“You are certainly right about that, little firecracker.”
Fuck.
Dane
“Oh, Dane, I meant to tell you” —plucking a card from his hand, Bram frowns before setting it face down on the table and pulling a new card— “I talked to Josie. She fessed up that Nessie lied about having a bunch of friends and family back in New York.”
“Really? Interesting.” Studying my own cards, I hum thoughtfully as I consider this new information. “I wonder why she’d lie about that.”
“Maybe to scare us.” When I look over at him, Colt shrugs. “It’s what I would do. Make it seem like keeping me is dangerous because people will be looking for me. Turn myself into a high-risk target.”
“That makes sense. She does love horror movies, so that could be something she’s picked up along the way.”
Axel makes his own trade as his turn comes around. “She seems like she’s gotten more settled in the past couple days.”
Glancing up from the abysmal set of cards in my hand, I glance over at my eldest brother and shrug. “Maybe. Either that or she’s just biding her time for another escape attempt.”
To my left, Eli chuckles. “That one gets my vote. Your girl is a spitfire, for sure.”
“She is. I’m actually a little disappointed she hasn’t given me another opportunity to chase her through the woods.”
Ford shakes his head. “I still don’t know how you can be so blasé about that. What if she gets hurt? Or lost?”
Lifting my phone, I waggle it at him. “Tracking device. Remember?”
“Right.” But instead of relieving his clear anxiety over Vanessa getting lost in the woods, his frown only deepens. “Still not sure how I feel about you chipping her like a dog.”
“Look, she’s going to try and escape anyway.
This lets me find her, no matter how sneaky she is.
” Shrugging, I set the phone down and fan my cards back out in front of me.
“Honestly, I’m surprised I’m the first one to think of it, considering how often we end up having to hunt down naughty Little girls who have snuck out of the house. ”
“He might have a point,” Axel says, leaning back in his chair with a thoughtful frown. “I know our family on the island puts theirs in lockets, but with how much our Littles enjoy playing outside an internal device really makes more sense.”
“Let me know and I’ll ask Gunther if he has more. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy chasing my Little one through the woods without worrying I might lose her.”
Eli shakes his head. “I don’t get the appeal of constantly chasing after your Little girl like that. My Little one is going to be a sweet, quiet babygirl. She’ll be perfectly happy to sit at the kitchen table while I cook, coloring or reading or whatever.”
I share a knowing look with my older brothers. While I have no doubt Eli truly believes what he’s saying, we all have our suspicions that he’d actually be bored to tears with the sweet, quiet Little girl he swears he wants.
But before any of us have a chance to tease him about it, a noise from the hall draws our attention to the closed door of the den.
Every one of us goes on instant alert, silence engulfing the room as we listen with the vigilance of men who have seen the worst of what can be done to another human. Another soft thump reaches my ears, followed by a loud giggle and the sound of shushing.
The tension that had gripped us a moment ago vanishes as we all grin at each other.
“Sounds like our naughty girls are up to something,” Colt says, his eyes glittering with the kind of delight only a true sadist can feel.
Nodding in agreement, Axel looks over at the door. “Where do you think they’re going?”
“Kitchen.” At Eli’s gruff response, we all look his way and he rolls his eyes. “What else are Little girls going to sneak out of bed at midnight for, if not snacks?”
“He makes a good point.” Reaching over, I clap my younger brother on the shoulder. “We might make a Daddy of you yet.”
Eli glares and Ford rolls his eyes, but our elder brothers all laugh.
“All right, all right.” Ever the leader, Axel pushes to his feet. “What do you say we go see what our naughty Little girls are up to?”
Murmurs of agreement echo around the table and we all join him, slinking one by one out of the den and into the hall. Unlike our Little ones, we all move in complete silence as we walk, a skill our father instilled in us and Axel has helped us perfect over the last twenty years.
A shadow on the stairs catches my eye, and I glance over to see Gray gliding down the steps. “I take it you heard them?” she asks as she reaches the bottom, amusement dancing on her lips.
“We did,” Bram confirms with a shake of his head. “Surprised they got passed you.”
“They didn’t. I heard them whispering and decided I’d let it play out, see what they got into.” Amusement gives way to wicked intent as her smile widens. “It’s been a couple days since I last had a naughty Little girl over my knee.”
And now she’s going to get her shot at four.
It’s a good day to be Auntie Gray.
With Gray in the mix, we move as one toward the kitchen just in time to see Josie pull an open bottle of wine from the fridge in triumph.
Beside me, Bram sighs. “Oh, bug. You aren’t going to sit comfortably for a very long time.”
From the kitchen comes Tabby’s worried voice. “I don’t know if we should. We’re going to be in so much trouble as it is.”
Seemingly taking that as his cue, Colt steps forward. “You are certainly right about that, little firecracker.”