Chapter 26
VANESSA
“Nessie, hurry! You’re gonna get stuck in the quicksand!”
Playing along with Lanie’s game, I scream and grab hold of the ladder that will guide me to the safety of the top of the playset. But halfway up, my foot “slips” and I let out another cry as I dangle precariously from a rung.
“Lanie, help! I’m gonna fall!”
Before Lanie can do more than poke her head over the side of the tower, a set of strong hands grip my diapered bottom and push me up toward safety.
“Careful, little one,” Uncle Axel lectures in all seriousness. “Your Daddy will have all our heads if you get hurt on my watch.”
“Daddy.” Drawing the word out into multiple syllables, Lanie rolls her eyes. “It’s just part of the game. Nobody was actually in danger.”
“Ah, my bad then.” Although I can tell he’s smiling beneath his bushy beard, he wags a finger at Lanie. “But if you roll your eyes at me again, little girl, your bottom is going to be in danger of a meeting with Daddy’s belt.”
Eyes widening, Lanie gulps loudly. “Sorry, Daddy.”
“Much better. You girls have about ten more minutes and then we’re going back inside for a nap.”
“Aw, but Daddy, we’re having so much fun!”
“And you can have plenty of fun after your nap, little runaway.”
“But—”
“Melanie.”
Her name is a warning, one she clearly hears judging by the way her bottom lip puffs out. “This house is a prison.”
Uncle Axel laughs, a loud, booming sound that has Lanie’s pout shifting to a grin. “I have a feeling you’re going to be feeling my belt on your bottom one way or another before bed tonight, brat.”
“Probably,” Lanie chirps with a shrug, as if the promise of a whipping with her Daddy’s thick leather belt doesn’t bother her in the least.
While Uncle Axel walks away shaking his head, I finish my climb up to the top of the tower.
Josie and Tabby are inside reading with Uncle Bram, so it’s just me and Lanie out here which is actually kind of nice.
Josie is my best friend and I love her, but I didn’t realize how different we actually were until we were forced to spend so much time together.
Collapsing onto the wooden platform beside Lanie, I let out a dramatic sigh. “Whew! That was close! The dragon almost got me!”
Giggles fill the air. “Dragon Daddy! Maybe we should ask Josie to write us a book about daddy dragon shifters.”
“She’d never go for it, sadly. She says she can’t write paranormal or fantasy stuff. Which is a shame because I’ve been begging her to write vampires for years.”
“Oooh, Daddy vampires. Sexy.”
“Right?” Clasping my hands behind my head, I sigh as I stare up at the clear blue sky. “Maybe someone else will write them for us.”
“A girl can dream,” Lanie agrees with a sigh of her own.
For a few blissful minutes, we simply lie there in a companionable silence, watching the clouds move above us.
“Hey, Nessie?”
Turning my head, I take in my friend’s suddenly serious expression. “Yeah?”
“Are you gonna try to run again?”
Her question freezes me in place.
Am I going to run again? I haven’t really given it much thought. Even last night, when I was planning to try and escape before everyone else woke up, I didn’t really want to. It felt more like something I needed to do.
“I don’t know,” I tell her honestly. “I feel like I should, you know? Like… Like I’m just giving up if I decide to stay here for good.”
“Yeah, I get that.”
Surprised, I twist around to face her more fully. “Really?”
“Yeah,” she says with a shrug. “I escaped an arranged marriage just to be forced to marry the first guy I ran into. Even after I was in love with Daddy, I still questioned my sanity.”
“What made you stay?”
“I don’t know, really.” Her eyes take on a far-away look. “I guess I just realized my family here loves me the way I always wanted to be loved, so even if the way I got here was a little… unorthodox, why would I go running away from something I’d always dreamed of?”
“I guess that makes sense. But I didn’t get here by accident. I came to save Josie. How am I supposed to just leave her to her fate?”
Pushing up on her elbows, Lanie sends me a withering stare. “Does Josie seem unhappy to you?”
“Well… no.”
“No, she doesn’t. If anything, she’s even happier now that you’re here with her. So you can’t keep using her as your scapegoat for wanting to leave.”
“I’m not—” Cutting myself off at Lanie’s amused smirk, I scowl. “Okay, fine, maybe I am doing that. It just doesn’t seem right to let them get away with what they’re doing.”
“Yeah, I get that. I wish I had more words of wisdom for you, but I don’t. All I can say is if you love Uncle Dane, does it really matter how you or I or any of us got here?”
Lanie’s words rattle around in my mind as Uncle Axel gathers us up to head inside. But every step closer to the house feels more and more final. As if stepping even one foot back in the Thorne’s home means accepting my fate.
And no matter what Lanie says, or how I feel about leaving Dane behind, I can’t simply roll over and play dead for him. I can’t.
We’re just a few feet from the house when I stop. Uncle Axel and Lanie pause and look over their shoulders, Uncle Axel’s mouth dipping down into a frown.
“Nessie? What’s wrong?”
“I’m sorry,” I whisper, tears clogging my throat as I stumble backward. “I can’t do this. I can’t stay.”
“Nessie, wait!”
Ignoring Lanie’s cry, I turn on my heel and do what I know in my heart I should have been doing all along.
I run.