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“Yes. We did everything together. I bet she misses me something awful.” She raised the pitch of her voice and pulled her lips down in a frown.
“Hmmm.” He plucked the juice box from her hands, then removed the stale cookie from her fingers, and placed them both down on the nightstand. “That’s interesting.”
“Yeah. I bet she’s super sad, Daddy. Really sad that I haven’t talked to her.” An idea popped into her head. “Do you think I could call her? Just to make sure she isn’t too sad?”
The left side of his mouth kicked up in a grin. “No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He shook his head. His eyes sparkled with amusement. “Ariana, do you know what happens to little girls who lie to their daddies?”
Her stomach dropped a few inches, and the confidence that had started to blossom faded back to the roots.
She looked up at him and stared into his dark eyes. “They get spankings,” she answered. “But I’m not lying,” she lied, shoving the turmoil further down. She needed to stay strong. Be bold.
“Okay then.” He slid open the drawer of the nightstand where a manila folder with her name written on the front stared up at her.
She swallowed back the whimper working its way up her throat.
Costello picked up the file and opened it, not letting her see what was inside. She didn’t need to. Obviously, these people did their homework before abducting their girls. They’d been able to drain her bank account and cut ties with her job. Of course, they would know where she lived and if she had a roommate.
“Daddy?” she whispered.
He looked up from the folder. “Yes?”
“I…was just being funny.” She tried to soften her voice even more than usual. To really hit home what a little girl the Lullaby made her, but his lips screwed up into a tense line. It didn’t work.
He snapped the folder closed and tossed it in the drawer, shoving it back in place.
“You were?”
Humiliation washed through her as she began to twirl her hair with her fingers and kicked her feet playfully over the side of the bed. “I was. Just a story.” She shrugged. “I think I should go back to the dayroom. Shelby might be worried about me,” she said and hopped off the bed.
His strong arm easily wrapped around her middle, catching her before she got two steps away from him.
“Not so fast, little girl.”
He hauled her up against his chest, hugging her tighter. She pushed at his arm, but he wouldn’t be budged.
“I think there’s more to your story than you’re telling me.” His hot breath washed across her ear.
“I…it was just make-believe,” she whispered, still shoving against his tree trunk of an arm.
“How much do you remember about before you became my little girl?” Costello’s voice dipped too low for her to misunderstand the danger she’d brought upon herself.
“Well.” She’d failed. She’d chosen the wrong path with her damn storytelling. “Nothing, Daddy. I…should I? Am I sick?” She didn’t have to force panic into her voice. If she failed, he’d know the drug wasn’t working; he’d take her to Uncle Frank. The panic was real.
“No, you’re not sick.” As easily as picking up a bag of apples, he lifted her from the ground and brought her back to the bed, depositing her in the middle. “But just to be safe, you should stay here and take a nap. Maybe I’ll have the doctor come in to check on you,” he said with his hands on his hips.
Her heart sank. How was she going to get out of that?
“I don’t wanna see the doctor,” she pouted.
“Whose call is it if you see the doctor or not? Yours or mine?” he asked, his left eyebrow arching higher.
“Yours.” She sighed and flung herself back against his pillows. Everything she tried backfired. Now she was going to pretend with a doctor that she wasn’t a full-aged woman.
“That’s right. Just sit tight. If you move from that bed, I’ll take my belt to your ass before the doctor examines you.” He pointed a finger at her, walking across the room to the door. “Not one toe on the floor.” The door closed on his instruction.
Well fuck.
Costello found Gianni and Marco outside the dayroom deep in conversation.
“What’s wrong?” Costello asked, glancing through the window of the door. The other girls were playing blissfully in the room with their nannies supervising. Everyone except Ariana, who was sitting in his room awaiting a visit from the House doctor.
Which they didn’t have.
If the girls needed medical care, they had a doctor they could call to come in to look them over, but Costello wasn’t going to call him for this matter. It would also raise suspicions about Ariana, and he wouldn’t risk that. He needed to know for sure whether or not the drug was actually working on her or not. She would have to confess it to him, but he suspected she wouldn’t until she felt completely safe that he wouldn’t turn her in.
