Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“It’s… nice to meet you, Zio,” I greeted him, feeling a bit like my private suite had become Grand Central Station.
“I’m sorry to intrude. I just couldn’t wait a second longer to see our little new additions,” James’s uncle said excitedly.
James’s smile was slightly annoyed, but he stood to hold out the babies for his uncle to see just the same.
James’s uncle clasped his hands under his chin, looking from one to the other. “They’re absolutely perfect. So perfect. Well done, James.”
“Thank you, Uncle,” James replied.
“I’d like to hold Alessandro, if I may,” James’s uncle said, settling himself in a chair. It wasn’t really a request.
James eased Alessandro into his uncle’s waiting arms.
The corners of the older man’s eyes crinkled as he looked down at Alessandro. “I have such high hopes for you.”
High hopes? I frowned at James.
James was trying to give his uncle a significant look, glancing from him to me.
Don Valentino was absolutely unfazed.
“What hopes?” I asked James.
“He’ll inherit everything, of course,” James’s uncle said before James could answer.
James squeezed his eyes shut and pulled his hand over his face. Obviously, this wasn’t something he wanted me to know, or at least not know right now.
“So… let me get this straight. You’re expecting Alessandro to be a… Don?” I inquired.
“One day, yes,” James’s uncle responded, booping Alessandro’s nose.
My eye ticked. “James?”
“We’ll talk about it later,” James murmured, trying to shush me.
I didn’t like being shushed. Especially when it came to the future of one of my children. “Alessandro is going to find a nice, safe place to grow up. He’ll go to a good university, then maybe travel the world or find a job he loves to do. But I don’t want him mixed up in all this.”
James sighed and folded himself into another chair in the room. He didn’t want to have this conversation. Probably especially in front of the current Don Valentino.
Tough titties.
Jame’s uncle seemed to really notice me for the first time. “Becca,” he said with infinite patience, as though I were a spaniel that had just peed on the carpet, “Alessandro is in this. He always will be. So will you. There’s nothing to be done about it. Our enemies know about you, Neal’s enemies know about you. They know about the children. This is not a temporary move.”
My stomach plummeted into my feet. “E-Excuse me?”
“You’ve been brought here to live safely. Permanently,” James’s uncle restated.
I snapped my head in James’s direction. “That wasn’t the agreement.”
James rubbed his forehead as though he had the mother of all headaches. “I didn’t want to have to throw you over my shoulder and drag you here, Becca. I figured we’d talk about it later, after you’d had some time to adjust.”
“Time to adjust?! I won’t have Alessandro living a life of crime!” I yelled.
James’s uncle chuckled. “It’s adorable that you think you have a choice in the matter.” He said something in Italian to James.
Groaning, James responded in kind, then got to his feet and pressed the house intercom. “Giana? Would you mind getting Layla back from the nursery? Becca and I have some things we need to discuss.”
“At once, signore,” Giana replied.
Then James crossed to his uncle and took Alessandro back in his free arm.
If I weren’t afraid he’d accidentally drop them, I would have rushed over and snatched them both away right then and there.
When Layla appeared, looking a bit bewildered, I stabbed a finger in James’s direction. “Take the children to the nursery, please, Layla. I’m about to strangle their father/grandfather.”
Layla quickly gathered up the babies and trotted out of my suite.
James’s uncle rose, smoothing out his suit so that it was once again pristine. “I’ll leave you two to it. It seems you have much to talk about.”
“Oh, you have no idea,” I seethed.
James’s uncle chuckled and let himself out.
I faced down James then, my hands on my hips. “I had every intention of returning to New Zealand one day.”
“You can. For vacation,” James murmured, rubbing the back of his neck. “But I’d rather we bought a different vacation home there. Not that there’s anything wrong with the one you chose, it’s just that the Michaelson Brothers left it a bit of a mess, and I’m not sure you want to go back to it after what happened there.”
“Vacation?!” I shouted. “Vacation?! THIS is a vacation, James. Once you have things sorted with the Michaelson Brothers…”
“Once Neal has things sorted with the Michaelson brothers,” James corrected me.
“Fine. Whichever. When this all dies down, the children and I are going to live elsewhere. You can leave this life and come with us, or stay here and visit occasionally, but I won’t have Alessandro mixed up with the mafia!” I started to pace, fuming.
“And the rival families? And Sergei’s son? And our other enemies?” James asked, arching an eyebrow. “How many dragons do you think I can slay, Becca?”
“As many as it takes!” I stormed up to him, poking him in the chest. “This is YOUR fault and YOUR mess and YOU have to clean it up!”
James sighed. “It’s not that simple, Becca.”
“MAKE it that simple!” I argued.
James gripped my upper arms. “Do you even hear yourself right now? Becca, when I disappeared to Japan, that was exactly what I was trying to do. Keep all the dragons off your back. But it didn’t work. Now, that ship has sailed. This is it, Becca. This is reality. There is nothing else I can do.”
I was so angry that I couldn’t stop myself from letting out a frustrated sob. “This is not how it’s supposed to be, James.”
James wrapped his arms around me and held me to his chest. “I know. But it’s the way things are.” He kissed the top of my head. “Why don’t you lay down and get some rest? We’ve had a long couple of days of travel and quite a bit of excitement before that. Then, let me at least show you around this place and let you see what life is like here. It’s not so terrible, Becca. You might find this is just the right place to be.”
I pushed away from him, shaking my head.
“This will never be the right place to be.”
Chad.
Paul’s dad’s yacht was the best place we’d ever partied. Partly because it was large and luxurious with all the amenities we could think of. But mostly because Paul’s dad kept it stocked with high-end liquor, and Paul kept it stocked with babes and roofies. And cocaine.