Chapter 13

We strolled down the mall and I told her I thought things were on a better track and we had a plan to move forward. We returned to her car and got in, pulling out of the mall parking lot. I watched the mirror on my side to see if I could spot anyone tailing us, but there was no one there. Maybe I WAS paranoid. Dad seemed to think Miranda was in the dark still.

I was surprised at how he’d become ‘Dad’ in my head again. I supposed that doing what was necessary to protect his kids had a lot to do with that.

When we got home, I called Lilly and Mom to the living room and told them that I’d let him know about Becky. Then I brought up the picture and told them that was his face when Lana had told him that I was her Master now.

“Whoa!” Lilly said, looking deeply uncomfortable. “When did this go all Fifty Shades of Weird?” she demanded and I realized that we hadn’t told her or Becky.

Fortunately Lana jumped in to explain enthusiastically and told her about the collar we’d ordered for her in detail. Becky had come in from the kitchen in time to hear the details.

“Do I get one too?” she asked curiously.

“Do you want me to get you one? Lana’s thrilled with the idea of being owned and controlled. I didn’t get the sense that you were interested in that sort of thing,” I pointed out.

She nodded. “I want to do all the same things you do with her. Maybe just some things more or less often. I guess it depends on whether I like them the first time.”

I nodded after a moment’s debate. “If you want one, we’ll measure your neck and get you one. Your hair isn’t long enough to cover the clasp at the back, so the lock might raise some questions, but they should still be easily deflected.”

I told Mom that I had money to take the girls out to dinner and asked if she was okay losing Becky for a couple of hours. “Go. Celebrate. Send her back to me when you get back.”

We took off in Lana’s car and decided to eat at Red Robins. The gourmet burgers are the best and the endless steak fries are worth the trip, but whenever we go there, I always look forward to the strawberry lemonade more than anything.

We chatted together without touching on my meeting today with my father. Becky asked a lot of questions about being collared and Lana answered some and I answered some. Between us, we had answers to enough questions to give Becky a lot to think about.

“Think of it like any other relationship. Someone leads and their partner goes with the flow most of the time. In some cases, it’s more obvious and in others it’s more subtle. Same with this. It can be as simple as holding your partner where you want them during sex, or as complex as having a whole room in your house devoted to equipment and complex rules of servitude and punishment.”

She shrugged. “I guess. What would that mean for us?” she asked.

“That depends on you. It could just be a pet name that you call me when we’re alone and an open-minded attitude to anything I ask you to do, or it could go as far as Lana’s comfortable with in having me set boundaries for her.”

“So you make her rules now, like a Dad?”

“Well, Daddy is a common title in these types of relationships. Fathers are the first male authority figure in our lives, after all.”

“It would be weird for me to call you Daddy,” Becky decided. “And Master is just too Aladdin. What else can we use?”

“There’s a lot of them depending on what you prefer. ‘Sir’ is a really common one.”

“Oooh!” Lana gushed. “I like that one. What do you think, Beck? Does ‘Sir’ work for you?”

She thought about it and nodded. “So the rule is no one knows outside the family?” she clarified.

Lana nodded. “Everyone outside should think we’re just dating. If you feel like you should tell someone, you need to ask specifically to tell them.”

“I think that’s a good rule of thumb. If you feel like they should know and that they can handle it, tell me and we’ll discuss it and decide.”

“Like when I told his dad today. I asked him if I could and he said yes so I told him.”

“You may also tell your best friend Marlene,” I said to Lana, “but only if you think she can handle it and only after you have your collar.”

“Yes, Sir!” she said brightly and grinned at us. We all laughed at that and settled in to eat, the conversation muted for the moment while we enjoyed the meal. The rest of the meal was uneventful and we returned home just in time for Becky to resume her post and help with supper dishes.

Lana and I chatted with Mom while the girls did dishes and then went next door to do the same there. I pointed out that we should put a gate in the fence at some point so that we didn’t have to go all the way around to the sidewalk to go next door.

She agreed that with us going back and forth so much, it was an inconvenience.

When Becky came home, the three of us said goodnight and went to bed. I warned the girls that I wasn’t really in the mood to fool around tonight after the meeting with my father. Lana knew how much that had me tied up in knots now that I’d explained it this morning and nodded, yawning tiredly as we got ready for bed. I had her lay face down and I rubbed her shoulders and back, gently trying to sooth out her muscles and relax her. I knew she’d kept herself awake last night and I wanted to make sure she got off to sleep and slept soundly.

It wasn’t long before she was breathing the long slow breaths of deep sleep and I told Becky to lay down so I could do the same. She obediently laid down and I ran my hands over her body, gently massaging out the tension. She’d been put to work all day and I suspected that the mothers had taken the opportunity to get some extra cleaning done.

I couldn’t say I blamed them, but I reminded myself to offer Lilly a massage before bed tomorrow night too in case she was as tense as Beck was. I’d never called her Beck before. That was always Lana’s thing, but the three of us were together so much that I was starting to pick it up too.

“Sir?” she said softly so as not to wake Lana.

“Yes Beck?” I answered, enjoying the feel of her taut muscles beneath my fingers.

“How much money is hidden in the closet? I went to put something in there and saw the bags. When I opened them, there was stacks of money inside. I wasn’t snooping. I was just curious why there was packed bags in the closet.”

“Over a hundred million,” I answered her quietly. “It’s important that you not tell ANYONE about it. Lana knows and so do the parents, but Lilly doesn’t. I didn’t want to trouble you with it and I didn’t want Lilly to decide part of it was her share and run off to the mall to buy clothes and shoes and a bunch of other stuff.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said. As devoted to submission as Lana was, Beck was a natural to the dynamic. “I didn’t tell anyone. I found it just after we moved in here and this was the first time I thought about it. That’s what you were talking about this morning while we were making breakfast, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I was filling in everyone else on it. Patty already knew. She was with me when I found the first part of it.”

“Where did it come from?” she asked curiously. There was none of the anxiety I’d felt about it coming from her.

I told her the whole story about how I’d found it, getting my dad to admit to the rest of it and how Miranda had manipulated him into hiding it here. That led to the explanation that he was deeply submissive and she had the control in their relationship and abused it to get him to do bad things.

“So why would she want to hide it here anyway, Sir? Wasn’t she worried you’d find it and spend it?”

“She stole it from the mob since she helped do the accounting work for them. She wanted to put it somewhere that she could access it reliably but also somewhere that would let her say that someone else was behind it in case they caught her and she needed to blame someone else.”

“That’s pretty despicable, Sir. Are you going to keep the money, Sir?”

“We’re going to keep the money, Beck. I’m working on a plan to get Miranda caught by the people she stole from. If they catch her, they’ll probably kill her. With any luck they’ll be looking for the money far away from here and we can spend it a little at a time. All four of us will be able to go to college for whatever we want and not worry about the cost and maybe we’ll move somewhere that doesn’t get quite as much winter like California or Florida. Maybe we’ll get a big house and all seven of us will be under one roof.”

“That would be nice, Sir,” she said, turning her head so she could look up at me. I lowered my head and kissed the corner of her mouth.

“I agree, Sweetness. That was one of the first things I thought about: getting a house for all of us. Right now we need to wait and see what happens this week. I may send you next door for a few nights if I get the wrong news in the next few days,” I told her softly.

“Because she stole it from the mob, Sir?” she asked, still sounding remarkably relaxed.

“That’s right. She always intended to tell them my dad had stolen the money and that it was hidden here if she got caught. My dad didn’t see it coming. He was in love with her and thought she was in love with him so he trusted her. Now if they come here looking for the money, they may kill us if we can’t give it to them. Or they may kill us anyway to make sure we can’t talk to the police. Now that my dad knows what she was doing, he’s going to turn her in by telling his boss about how she stole it all. He’s got a copy of all her records to give to them. He’ll tell them that she got the money out of the city so that they won’t look here.”

“Wow. So that’s why you’ve been having so much trouble sleeping lately, Sir?”

“Heh. Yeah, that’s right. You knew I was having trouble sleeping? Why didn’t you say anything.”

“I knew Lana was going to say something, Sir. She was taking care of it. I just stood back and let her. I wanted to help, but I knew that if you wanted to talk, she’d get you to.”

“Don’t take a back seat Beck,” I chided her gently. “If you notice something, don’t wait for someone else to take care of it. Mention it. I don’t want you to feel like you’re less important because you’re not. You’re still my best friend and I want you to tell me when you see something wrong. Okay?”

“Yes, Sir.” she said and then looked up at me. “There IS one thing that’s wrong, Sir.”

“What’s that?” I asked, my hands pausing as I paid full attention to her.

“You’re not fucking my ass, Sir,” she said with a giggle.

I laughed and gave her taut ass a squeeze, loving the feel of her developed physique. She was a Goddess in miniature, like she was carved from marble. “Another night,” I promised and crawled over her to get to the middle. “For now, let’s just get some sleep.”

“Yes, Sir,” she said and reached out to turn off the lamp. We chuckled a little at that, but I was still worried. The next day I knew I wouldn’t be able to concentrate until I heard the outcome of my father taking the evidence to his boss. As was becoming the case all too often, both girls were fast asleep before my eyes drifted shut finally.

Mercifully, I didn’t remember my dreams when the alarm went off. I knew I’d had them. I was exhausted and the headache I was sporting would leave me in short temper if I didn’t keep an eye on myself. I got up and went to the shower while the girls busied themselves with the rest of the bathroom. Then when I was out, they showered one after the other.

I could tell they were both aware of the night I’d had and my mood seemed to infect them. They talked quietly and when we were dressed and ready, we headed next door. To my surprise, Lilly joined us and the four of us walked over together, Lilly being the only one unaffected by my anxiety.

My second surprise of the day was that my mother was there, waiting for us at the table. “Patty said it was silly for me to stay home when she was cooking a big breakfast for everyone else,” she said simply.

I nodded and dropped heavily into a chair. Beck asked what I wanted and went to bring me a coffee, extra cream, extra sweet. I took a deep, bracing breath and took a long deliberate drink of it before the taste could make me put the cup down.

“Bad night?” Mom asked gently as she watched me put it down with a shudder.

I nodded and swallowed reflexively. “Today’s an important day. I think it would probably be best if everyone concentrated on spending the day over here so the house is empty just in case. The cordless should reach this far in case he calls.”

She nodded and already had the phone clipped to her belt. “We’ll be fine, but Lilly and Becky are going to have to be told today.”

I nodded. “Becky already asked. She saw the money just after they moved in and asked me about it after Lana went to sleep.”

We chatted some more about the day and they agreed to text me with updates. They’d call Dan if there was an emergency.