Page 199 of Daddy, Take Me Away
Tonight, after a bath and a meal, I’d do some digging and get her to confess as to what was going on. Whatever that man said to her, it scared her enough to make her think she had no choices and that just wouldn’t do.
When we arrived at the castle, I ran a bath for her with all the fixings: bubbles, flower petals, oils, candles and I even set a glass of red wine on the tub’s edge.
“You are so good to me, Artair. Thank you.”
“I’ll have dinner set up in the solar room in one hour. I’ll see you then.” I left her in peace and went to my office to see if I could find out anything about my errant Little lass. It didn’t take long to find a restraining order against a student on campus. Not long after the order was signed, a court-ordered weekend for evaluation had been ordered after a failed suicide attempt. Suicide? What had happened to my girl to have her try something so dark? I couldn’t access her medical files as they were encrypted, but a good hacker could probably access her case file. What was I saying? There was no way in hell I would break into her private records. But I would encourage her to share with me what was going on.
I looked into the guy she had a restraining order against. He had a criminal record brimming with misdemeanors. I began to piece together what had most likely happened and found myself wanting to find the asshole stalking her and beat his ass.
I glanced at the time and realized dinner had been served ten minutes ago. I pushed back from my desk and made my way to the suite, my mind busy sorting through all I’d learned.
“Sorry I’m late,” I said, entering the suite. “Luna?” The meal was set up, but she was missing. A frisson of fear moved through me. “Luna?” I called loudly, but the silence was deafening. I ran to the ensuite to see if she’d fallen asleep, but the tub was empty, so was the wine. I hurried through the main living quarters asking servants as I passed if they’d seen my guest, but no one had seen Luna leave the castle.
I’d given Graeme the day off so he wouldn’t have seen her leave. Is that why she’d insisted on him having the day off? Maybe she’d been planning to run this entire time. But with that monster lurking around, she was in danger and there was no way I’d let him have her.
I should have known when I closed the bathroom door she was a flight risk, but my need to understand what was happening absorbed all my attention, and now she was gone. She’d left everything I’d bought her behind, and only took what she’d been carrying on her back to Scotland.
I should have stayed with her and made her tell me what went down. There was no point in beating myself up as it wouldn’t help her. I called the local taxi company and asked if they’d had a pickup from my address, but no luck. Uber only operated in the city limits and wouldn’t have come here. The rail! She must have walked to the train station. If that were the case, I may be able to catch her.
Grabbing my keys, I hustled back out into the rain and pulled my Land Rover out. I kept my eye on the roads as I drove to make sure I didn’t miss her, but no one was walking along the shoulder. It was sleepy out, being the last train was about to pass through, and there wasn’t much to do in the outskirts of the city after dark.
When I pulled into the station, there were only a few cars parked. I hustled past the ticket booth to the sounds of the ticket agent yelling at me as I raced for platform B which headed toward Glasgow.
There she was, standing in the dim lighting, her head down, wearing a crestfallen expression on her beautiful face. She wasn’t under cover but stood directly in the drizzle and was already soaked through. I could see the train approaching from the opposite direction.
“Luna!”
Her head snapped up, her eyes rounding when she saw me. If I wanted to get to her, I would have to go back down the steps and use the overpass, all before the train arrived. Even from here I could see she surmised the same thing. We both took off running, me for the other side and arriving just in time to see her disappear down the ramp and into the bushes that ran between the tracks and the river.
“Luna. Stop running this instant!” I yelled into the darkened brush and listened for clues as to which direction she’d taken. Cracking ahead and to the right alerted me. She sounded awfully close to the water, and I feared she might fall in. I rushed deeper in and to the right and broke through a dense area in time to see her slide down the riverbank. Lunging, I was able to grab ahold of the collar of her jacket and haul her back up before she slipped into the freezing inky darkness.
She fought me as soon as she was on her feet. Despite the frigid air, I dropped to sit on a log and held her captive over my lap until she ran out of energy to fight me.
“Let me up, Artair!”
I brought my hand down on her damp pants, and hoped her ass stung as much as my palm.
“Ouch!”
That was what I was looking for. “What did he say to you?” I spanked her bottom several times to get her attention, but she was like a wildcat, kicking and clawing whatever she could reach.
I tugged her pants down and smacked my hand against her cool backside. Luna screeched and stopped fighting.
“I’m not telling!”
The little… I spanked her again with more force. My skin on hers reverberated through the air like a crack of thunder. I kept at it until she hung limply over my lap, sobbing. Then, I sat her up and tugged her cold body into mine for warmth. “Luna, tell Daddy what’s upsetting you.”
She sobbed louder and buried her face into my chest. She was really worked up about whatever had been said. I rubbed her back in soothing circles until her sobs became only the occasional hiccup and the river of tears stopped.
“I have a confession.” She gazed up with a fearful gaze. “That person is a stalker I thought I’d lost when I dropped out of school.” She gulped. “He is friends with another guy who used to be my best client.”
Client?
“What do you mean by ‘client’?”
She gulped and dropped her gaze. “I sell online pictures of my feet and do private videos to pay for my education,” she said, speaking so quietly her words were almost lost in the steady sounds of rushing water from the river. She dropped her face back to my chest and her arms, which had encircled me like bands of iron, dropped and hung loosely at her sides.
“If he shares my information publicly, which he is threatening to do, I can only imagine this would be really bad for you. I thought I should go as you don’t deserve to have your world fall apart because of me.”
