Page 35 of Butch

“Oh no, Niko,” she mumbled as she ran her hands down his fur. “Are you all right? I really didn’t mean to hurt you. I just got so nervous and so worried that I did it without thinking, but I promise, I really didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Niko said she’s all right,” Reaper spoke up.

“Niko is a he, not a she.” She gave him an unimpressed look.

“I know a Niko who is a girl.” Reaper raised his hands in the air. “Her nickname is Niko, but still, you can’t say that I was wrong for guessing that Niko was a girl.”

“Well, now you know. I think he’ll get along well with my other stuffed animal,” Rae said as she kissed Niko’s head.

“What other stuffed animal?” Daddy asked.

She looked down and shook her head. “I don’t have her anymore. I don’t know why I mentioned her.”

“Come here, Little Fairy,” Daddy said as he patted his knees.

Daisy walked over to him, and he picked her up.

“What other stuffed animal did you have? Where did she go?” Levi asked.

She shrugged her shoulders and looked down at Niko. Rae didn’t want to talk about this any longer. It brought up memories she wasn’t fond of.

“Come on, Little Fairy. It’s okay,” Daddy said. “Wait. Are you talking about Rosie?”

Tears sprang to her eyes, and she nodded.

“What happened to Rosie?” He demanded.

“I had to leave her behind!” she wailed.

CHAPTER 16

RAELYNN

Tears poured down her face as she looked at Daddy and everyone else in the room.

“I had to leave her behind because I didn’t have time to get her. I didn’t have time to get anything important to me because my escape wasn’t planned,” she explained. “I just saw an opportunity and didn’t think about anything else. I couldn’t think about anything else because I could have been caught. I could have died.”

She pulled out of Daddy’s grip and crawled out of his lap. He had given her Rosie, and she had to leave her behind in that horrible house.

“I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t mean to, but I was so worried that if I tried to go up the stairs and get her before he came back, that I wouldn’t be able to.” Raelynn’s breathing picked up as she took several steps back, her eyes wide as she went from looking at Daddy to the other two and back to Daddy, never focusing on one person too long. “I shouldn’t have left her by herself. I should have gone and gotten her so she wasn’t all alone there. Oh, to think of what he is doing to her or has already done to her.”

“Little Fairy,” Daddy gently said as he stood up.

“I know you gave her to me all those years ago, and I promise I took care of her. I hid her so many times so he wouldn’t do anything to her, but I left her there, all by herself. She was there to keep me company when I was in the closet for days. She was there with me when my stomach was grumbling and twisting in pain,” Rae rambled. “She was always there with me, and I just left her. Oh my goodness. I just left her there.”

Arms wrapped around Rae and held her tightly against a solid wall. “You’re okay. Everything is going to be okay. I’m not mad that you left her there. I’m glad you got out safely.”

“Your Daddy’s right. You needed to protect yourself first. Sometimes that means deciding not to go back for something,” Reaper said. “You did nothing wrong.”

“But I didn’t even think about her,” she whispered. “I saw the opportunity and took it. I didn’t grab anything.”

“That was your instincts telling you to run,” Levi pointed out. “Everyone has those. It’s what kept you alive. I know for a fact that everyone at the club is glad you took that opportunity and got out of there.”

“I know it’s hard to think about her being there, and I promise we’ll get her back one day,” Daddy gently said.

“Will we really?” she asked. “When he finds Rosie, then he, for sure, will do something to her.”

It wasn’t a matter of if but when. That was how most of her things had been destroyed. Edmund liked to take anything of hers and destroy it, especially if it came from Butch. He loathed him, especially because of how special he was to her.