“Lieutenant Kresky was trying to bring you back inside,” he said. “He didn’t notice the snowmobile coming in because he wasn’t on his station. It all happened inside a minute, maybe two.”
I felt my face crumple. “I’m sorry, Daddy,” I said, just as Daddy John got the door open and Daddy Trevor put his arm around me to lead me inside.
We stepped across the threshold into the bunker and I had the same feeling of dislocation I remembered from the first time I had stepped foot into the old bunker, as if we had gone from the wilds of the Arctic circle to Hoboken in the blink of an eye.
The heavy door slammed shut behind us, and I shivered again in the parka, this time with the growing warmth in my bones. For the first time, whatever natural anesthetic my body had made to keep me going during the last adrenalin-soaked hour started to wear off. I bit my lip as I felt the soreness between my thighs and my ass-cheeks.
My warming shiver gave way to a thrill of fright as I thought about what might await me back with my Lumberjacks. I turned to Daddy Trevor, my kindest Lumberjack daddy.
“You’re not going to whip me, are you? Or… please, not now?”
Daddy Trevor shook his head and started to take off his parka. “No, sweetheart,” he said. “Kresky was out of line. You shouldn’t have run outside, but if our security hadn’t already been compromised, they wouldn’t have known where to grab you. You did us a favor.”
“Bullshit,” Daddy John said in his customary brief way. “If I’d won the vote, Briana, you’d be over my knee tomorrow.”
He had his own parka off, and I could see again for the first time his broad shoulders and his breathtakingly muscled chest in his fatigues. He looked down at me from his six foot four height and my heart quailed.
“Kresky’s mistake doesn’t excuse your behavior,” he said, lowering his chin and looking intently at me.
“No, Daddy,” I said meekly.
“But we agreed,” said Daddy Omar from behind me, “that you’d been through enough. Now let’s get you warmed up with a nice hot tub.”
Their kindness despite what I had done, how all this had begun, and the thought of a bath, made me think of the real reason I didn’t deserve it. I should definitely be punished, I knew. I couldn’t deny it. If not for the stupid thing that had gotten me kidnapped, then for what I had done to…
Papa Georg. For the first time since they had marched him away I thought of him, and I realized that my mind had avoided doing that for the past hour so that my heart wouldn’t have too much to bear when I had to remain strong. Back in my Lumberjacks’ bunker, though, the barrier broke, and I saw the look on Papa Georg’s face as I blew his cover.
“Georg…” I choked out, my knees giving way so that Daddy Omar had to put an arm around me very quickly to keep me from falling. Then, despite all the emotional conflict it brought, I felt the urgency of making it clear to my daddies exactly how I felt about the man who had saved me. I looked up at Daddy Trevor and said, “Papa Georg. What… what did I do to him?”
To my amazement, Daddy John smiled reassuringly.
“Oh, Georg’s going to be fine,” he said. “Sure, you ruined a pretty big operation, but from what I hear, things were getting precarious on the inside anyway. I’m sure he’s not thrilled to have his cover blown, but he got a nice escort out, didn’t he?”
Daddy Trevor laughed. “And he got to play with our bad girl, too.”
I felt my face crumple as I turned to my kind daddy. “He didn’t just play with me, Daddy,” I said, hearing my voice turn into a sob. “He… he protected me. And…”
“Hey,” said Daddy Trevor. “Briana, what’s wrong?”
“I… I just…”
I had stood back up when Daddy John had smiled, but now my knees gave way again and Daddy Omar only just managed to catch hold of me before I hit the concrete. I turned to him with pleading eyes.
“I just need to see him.”
Daddy Omar looked at Daddy John, his face puzzled. I turned to see Daddy John’s reaction. He had his own puzzled look on his face, and then abruptly his eyes moved to an upper corner of the room and I knew he had just received a transmission through his implanted comm. A second later he tapped his jaw to acknowledge it.
“Well, honey, it seems like Georg wants to see you, too. He called in a pretty big favor, I’m guessing, to make it happen, but he’s on his way here now.”