Crouching down, he gently cleaned her face with a wash cloth as she stared at him, her lip pouting slightly, making him want to tell her that he knew she wasn’t really six. But he knew better than to do that. Trying not to sigh, he focused on getting her clean and hoped that she wouldn’t do it again. Although he had a horrible feeling that she would, because it seemed to him as though playtime was getting harder for her. Everything was probably getting harder for her. If the Lullaby wasn’t working to keep her age regression, then she’d also pieced together what happens to girls it didn’t work on. If the boredom of pretending to be a little girl didn’t get to her, the fear of being put to sleep would.
“That’s better.” He tossed the makeup remover wipe into the trashcan and rose up to his feet.
She shook her head. “You spoil my fun all the time.” Pretending or not, her little pout got his cock hard.
“You don’t have to look like a clown to have fun,” he pointed out.
She crossed her arms and looked away. “You didn’t have to spank me.”
Costello placed a finger under her chin and forced her head to turn to look at him. Her blue eyes made contact, and she didn’t look away. “Yes, I did. We’ve dealt with this before. What happens to little girls who don’t behave for their daddy?”
“They get spanked.” She uncrossed her arms and placed her hands in front of her, letting go of her pouting behavior.
“You didn’t get spanked because of the make-up. I spanked your cute little ass because you didn’t listen to Daddy. I’ll always spank you for that. No matter how big you are.” He brushed a piece of blonde hair away from her eye. “Can you be a good girl now?”
She nodded, her shoulders dropping. “Yes, Daddy.”
“What’s wrong, Ariana?” he asked, moving back to his haunches. “Did something happen while I was away?” He’d been keeping tabs on her through Maria, but that didn’t mean Nancy didn’t get to her without being caught.
“Nothing.” She shook her head, but tears clung to the edges of her eyelids. Should he confess what he already knew to ease her burden?
The danger was too great. He’d never lost a girl before, and he wouldn’t this time.
“What happened to Shelby?” she surprised him by asking. She dragged the heels of her hands across her eyes to brush away tears and blinked away the rest.
“What do you mean?” He rested his hands on her knees.
“She said her daddy took her to the playroom. She has bruises on her legs, and I saw a big purple blotch on her neck.”
He’d seen the bruises, too. The girls were always to be trained to take some level of pain from their daddies, but the assholes who frequented the playroom weren’t careful with them. They left nasty marks without consideration. It’s what they were paying the Romeros for.
“What did she tell you happened?”
Ariana flicked her gaze away from him. “Just that she had to play with other Daddies.” She was forcing her tone to go higher. Costello saw right through her carefully concealed way of speaking and asking the questions she had been clearly wanting to ask for some time.
“She did. The playroom is where little girls play with lots of Daddies not just their own.”
“I thought that’s what the adoption party was for.” She tilted her head and started to twirl a lock of her golden hair in her fingers. He reached over to her and pulled her hand away from her hair. Watching her acting skills sharpen before him, made his mood darken.
“You weren’t supposed to know about the adoption party.” He tried to firm up his tone, but her ability to gather so much information without raising eyebrows impressed him. While the other girls who were going to be up for adoption soon were subjected to having to meet prospective buyers, Ariana was kept in her room away from the prying eyes. Until she was ready for purchase, only Costello would interact with her.
Unless Frank got involved.
He would be harder to protect her from.
“Oh”—she tapped her lips with her finger—“I heard the girls talking at breakfast.”
Costello chuckled and shook his head.
“Did you have snack time yet?” he asked.
“No.”
“We’ll have it in my room today.” He held out his hand for her to grab on to. Being away from her for two days had been enough.
“Do you think about what life is like outside?” Costello asked as Ariana stood at his bedroom window looking down at the yard below. She’d already checked his windows while he’d been in the bathroom.
She couldn’t get them open.
It wouldn’t matter anyway. They were too high up from the ground for her to jump without breaking something or killing herself. And she couldn’t tell how far the street was from the yard. For all she knew, they were on an estate somewhere with heavily guarded gates.