“Since when?” Lanie shoots back, her tone full of sass.
Gray blinks, but I catch the way her lips twitch before she manages to wrestle her stern expression back into place. “I swear your Daddy doesn’t spank you enough. Keep it up and I’ll send you up to my bedroom for my hairbrush.”
My bottom clenches at the memory of the heavy wooden brush cracking against my bare skin. But Lanie doesn’t even flinch. If anything, she only grins wider.
“Yeah, yeah. So what did you bring me?”
Snorting out a laugh, Gray shakes her head and turns to head toward the kitchen. “Axel! Your little runaway needs her bottom reddened!”
Lanie lets out a shocked gasp. “Auntie Gray!”
A moment later, Axel steps into the living room, seemingly filling the space with his bulk as he crosses his arms and glares down at his babygirl. “What have you gotten up to now, little girl?”
“Nothing! Auntie Gray is just a big meanie-head!”
Sighing, Axel scrubs a hand over his beard. “Why don’t you take Josie upstairs to your nursery and play for a bit? Maybe that way you’ll be able to go more than ten minutes without a spanking.”
Something tells me it would take an act of God to accomplish that, but Lanie is already grabbing my hand, dragging me toward the stairs.
“Stop right there.”
At the sound of my Daddy’s voice, we both stop and turn, though Lanie does so with such an exaggerated sigh I can’t help but giggle.
“What is itnow?” Lanie whines, glaring daggers at my Daddy who glares right back.
“You two are to go straight up to your nursery and stay there until a grownup comes to get you. And if you need to potty, just call for me or Uncle Axel. We’ll have the baby monitor so we’ll be able to hear if you need us.”
Heat floods my face. “We aren’tbabies.”
Daddy turns his glare on me. “You absolutely are. And if you can’t promise to be good and follow the rules on your own, then you can sit your butts right down here and play in the living room instead.”
Lanie tugs on my hand. “We’ll be good, Uncle Bram, promise!”
I want to argue. Stand my ground and insist I’m not a fucking child, despite their insistence on treating me like one.
But not only is Lanie all but dragging me toward the stairs, I have my own plans to consider. Convincing not just my Daddy, but the rest of the siblings that I’m perfectly content with my new life so they will, maybe, let their guard down enough for me to escape.
The promise of my eventual freedom is enough to give me the strength to nod in agreement. “Okay, Daddy.”
My deceit is rewarded with a wide smile. “Good girl. Go have fun with Lanie and Daddy will come check on you in a bit.”
I allow myself to be pulled up the stairs to where the bedrooms are. And for the first time, I reallynoticemy surroundings. There are basically two wings on either side of the stairs, where I assume everyone’s bedrooms are. If I’m actually going to plan an escape, it would be a good idea to get a layout of the house from top to bottom. To know who sleeps in which rooms, where any emergency exits are. Because surely a house this size had more than just two ways in and out in the event of a fire, right?
I don’t know, and not knowing is what gets people caught. So when Lanie pulls me into her nursery and asks “What do you want to play?” I know exactly what my answer is going to be.
“How about hide and seek?”
Lanie’s blue eyes light up so brightly, I almost feel bad for including her in my trickery. “Okay! Um, there’s not awholelot of places to hide in here, but we can still play.”
I have no intention of staying in her room, but she doesn’t need to know that. The longer it takes anyone to come looking for me, the better. “That’s okay, it will still be fun! Can I hide first?”
“Okay! I’ll count to twenty.”
“Better make it sixty, just to be sure.” A minute isn’t enough time to explore, but hopefully she’ll waste another ten minutes or so searching her room for me.
Giggling, Lanie nods and turns away to cover her eyes. “One… two…”
With her occupied, I hurry out of the nursery and through what I assume is Axel’s bedroom to the hallway. Peeking out of the bedroom door, I check to make sure the coast is clear before sneaking down to the next room. It’s set up much like Axel’s and Daddy’s, at least what I remember through the blur of the last forty-eight hours or so, including the attached nursery. A peek out the window proves it would be too dangerous of a drop to risk, even with the snow, so I immediately reject it as an option.
