Chapter 30
DANE
“But Daddy, Uncle Ford said I could ‘resume normal activities’ three days ago! You’re just being mean!”
Staring down at my mutinous Little girl, I bite back the urge to sigh. “If being extra careful with your health makes me a mean Daddy, then I guess I’m mean. Now, march yourself back up those stairs before I decide your naptime would be better spent in the corner.”
“Ugh.” Turning on her heel, she stomps up the steps, making her discontent known with every footstep. “This house is a prison!”
Great. Lanie’s favorite phrase is catching on. Ignoring it for now, I call up the stairs after her. “And keep that television off, little girl!”
“Whatever!”
Before I can take more than a single step toward our rooms, a hand lands on my arm and I turn to find Eli standing beside me, amusement twisting his usually grumpy features into something almost resembling a smile.
“What do you want?” I snarl, more out of a need to release some of the pent-up aggravation in my system than anything he’s done.
“Come with me.”
“Elias, I don’t have time for whatever this is. I have a cranky Little girl in obvious need of her Daddy’s attention.”
“And that’s exactly what we need to talk about.”
On that cryptic note, he turns and walks away. I glance up the stairs, torn between marching up there and putting the largest plug I can find in my naughty girl's bottom before sitting her in the corner to think about her behavior and following my brother into whatever he has planned.
In the end, I decide Vanessa and I could probably use a few minutes apart to calm down before I punish her, so I turn and follow Eli down the hall. Into… the den?
What is going on?
My confusion only grows when I step into the room behind him and find myself confronted with every single one of my siblings, save for Bram. Who is, I assume, somewhere off keeping the other Little ones busy so the rest of my family can ambush me with whatever this is.
“Hello, Dane.” From her seat in the center of the gathering—of course—Gray smiles at me, a too-serene gesture that has my hackles rising. “Have a seat.”
There’s an empty armchair just to Gray’s right, so I settle there, doing my best to look more nonchalant than I feel. “What’s up? Is this an intervention or something?”
“It is,” Axel says with a grunt, his arms folded and his brows drawn together in a glower. “You’re driving everyone crazy and it has to stop.”
“What are you talking about?”
Colt picks up where our eldest brother left off. “It’s been almost three weeks since Nessie’s accident and you’re still treating her like she’s made of glass. You can’t keep her locked in her nursery forever, Dane.”
Feeling a bit like a bug under a microscope, I resist the urge to squirm in my seat. “Not forever. Just until I’m sure she’s better.”
“She’s been better,” Ford says, his tone at least more understanding than Colt and Axel’s have been.
“Honestly, I held off on giving her the all-clear as long as I did mostly because I could see how worried you were. But you need to accept that it’s time to let her get back to being a normal Little girl, Dane. ”
“That’s easy for you to say. You weren’t the one who found your baby passed out and bleeding on the ground. You weren’t the one who had to sit and wait and worry if she was going to be okay.”
“You’re right.” It’s my sister now, leaning over to squeeze my arm. For once she doesn’t seem like she’s trying to intentionally aggravate or needle me. Sincerity pours off her in a way I’m not used to seeing that makes me feel both comforted and wary.
“We don’t know,” she continues quietly. “Not exactly. But you’re a dumbass if you think every fucking one of us wasn’t terrified of what you’d find in those woods.
If you think Eli didn’t pace a hole in the goddamn floor waiting for you to return from the hospital or that Axel wasn’t kicking his own ass for letting her get away from him.
She may not be our Little girl, but she’s still ours and we love her just as much as you do, Dane.
So when we tell you that you need to back off her a bit, it’s because we love her and want what’s best for her. ”
Gray’s words slowly sink in as I look around the room at my family. And I see her sentiment reflected on all their faces. Worry, concern.
And yeah. Love.
Blowing out a breath, I run my hand through my hair. “All right. What do you think I should do?”
Nessie
Stretched out on Daddy’s bed, I glare up at the ceiling as I wait for him to follow me up the stairs.
Not that it matters, really. The worst he’s going to do is sit me on my “naughty girl stool” in the corner for a few minutes while he lectures me about how I still need to heal and blah, blah, blah.
Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I’d ever miss spankings. But right now, I’d give just about anything for Daddy to take his belt to my bottom before he fucks me good and hard. My insides feel all twisted up and knotty and I just know that would make things all better.
What if he never spanks me again? What if this is just my life now, being held captive in this stupid house with nothing but board games to keep me occupied?
If that happens I’ll call Sheriff Donnelly myself and have her come rescue me. There’s no way I can live like this forever.
That thought sparks something in my mind. Maybe I should try to run away again. Then Daddy would have no choice but to chase me.
Slipping out of his bed, I creep over to his window and flip the locks at the top of the glass pane. But when I try to shove it open, it sticks. Annoyed, I move to my nursery—which is sadly no longer a giant blanket fort—and try all of those windows as well.
Stuck. All of them. Or, more likely, there’s another locking mechanism, one that’s hidden from naughty Little girls.
Dammit.
I’m in the process of carefully running my hands over the edges of the window, looking for some other lock when a voice from behind me makes me jump and spin around.
“What do you think you’re doing, little girl?”
Shoving my hands behind me, despite knowing I’m safe from a spanking, I glance around to see if there’s any possible escape route. But Daddy is blocking the door and I’ve already figured out the windows don’t open.
Leaving me trapped, with no way out.
Fuck yes.
My heartbeat kicks up as I force my gaze back to his handsome face. “Nothin’,” I lie, torn between hoping it sounds believable and praying he sees right through me.
“Nothin’, huh?” he asks as he steps into the room, slowly prowling toward me. “So you weren’t just checking the windows to see if you could sneak outside without Daddy’s permission?”
Another lie trembles on my tongue, but my stubbornness kicks in and I jerk my chin up instead. “What if I was? What are you gonna do about it?”
I’m playing with fire. It doesn’t matter that he hasn’t spanked me since my fall or that he’s been treating me like a freaking china doll who might break if you look at her too hard.
All of a sudden, I am intensely aware that I am trapped in a room with a very dangerous man who possesses a seemingly endless well of creativity when it comes to punishing his naughty girl.
But he doesn’t reach for me. Doesn’t scoop me up and carry me to the bathroom to wash the lies out of my mouth. No, he only continues his slow stalking across the nursery until he’s standing directly in front of me.
It feels as though my heart might actually leap out of my chest when he leans down and speaks in my ear, his voice a low, dangerous rumble.
“The question isn't what I am going to do, little fox.” He chuckles, and I have to roll my lips together against the whimper that threatens to escape. “It’s what you need to do that should concern you.”
“Wh-what do I need to do?”
When he speaks again, the single word he utters is little more than a growl.
“Run.”
Dane
A heartbeat of silence follows my command. But then Vanessa ducks under my arm and races for the door of the nursery. Turning, I watch her flee, listening to the sound of her frantic footsteps on the stairs.
My siblings were right. It’s well past time for me to let my little fox run free.
At least until I catch her.
Reaching into my pocket, I pull out the mask I’d purchased in town the day Vanessa had her fall and slip it over my head.
It mimics her favorite horror movie villain.
My knife is already strapped to my belt, along with a length of rope she may or may not have spotted when I was stalking her around her nursery.
Either way, I’m prepared for an afternoon of fun chasing my little fox through the woods.
Ready or not, here I come.