The plan was innocent, really. We didn’t want to lie or manipulate any of the facts. We just wanted the world to see Daddy. Who he really was.
I knocked on his door, and he opened it and did his usual Daddy thing, held my cheek, turned my head left and then right, an inspection, an examination. “You’re still perfect, you know,” he told me.
“I know,” I said. He laughed, and his laugh—well, you can’t blame me for falling for Daddy back in the day. He did have something.
“When can I film you?” I said.
“Film me?”
“For your interview?”
“I’m going to be in the movie?”
“Sure,” I said. “You should say your part. Talk about how you keep your girls safe and how you abide by all regulations. Make sure everyone knows you’re running an aboveground place. Don’t you think?”
Daddy nodded. “That makes sense.”
“Do you want to change first?”
Daddy was wearing a Stetson and a flannel, his uniform. “Probably,” he said. “Should I put on a suit?”
“Unless you want the whole world seeing who you really are.”
He laughed. “You know I’ve got nothing to hide, Wills.”
“Oh, come on, Daddy,” I said. I put my hand on his leg and worked my way up his thigh. His eyes clouded over, and I loved that familiar buzz of power. “You have a few skeletons in your closet. It’s what makes you interesting.”
He swallowed hard. His Adam’s apple looked like it might choke him. I kissed his neck and said, “Leaking those photos was the best thing you could’ve done for me. You might bend the rules, Daddy, but you look after your girls.”
Daddy caught my chin in his hand and looked me dead in the eye. He said, “Damn right I do.”
And that was enough of a confession for me. We weren’t trying to prove anything to the cops—we just needed to prove it to everyone else. So I stood, dusted off my lap, and said, “Well, best be going.”
I left him sitting there with his chin on the floor. I didn’t like being a Bunny, because I had other dreams, but man did it feel good to render a man speechless.