Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I blushed, realizing the vehicle wasn’t exactly soundproofed.
“Thank you, Tommasso,” James responded with a smirk. “Guess we’d better get you dressed.”
“Do I get my underwear back?” I asked as James handed me my sundress.
James thought it over a moment. “Nope.”
“Pervert,” I grumbled, but with a smile so he knew I didn’t mean it. I pulled my sundress over my bare body as James did up his pants and made sure my bra and panties were subtly tucked away on his person.
Before the car stopped, James took out a handkerchief and swiped it gently between my legs.
“You know, if you gave me my underwear…” I said.
“Nope,” James replied.
I snorted and waited for James to get out of the sedan first. He held out his hand to help me out, smirking the whole time.
The way my body felt deliciously satisfied, he had every reason to be smug.
James slid an arm around my waist as we walked, and I sighed. It was getting harder and harder to be angry with him.
“Sleep with me tonight,” he said enticingly in my ear as we approached the main house. “We can let Layla know where you are.”
It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. “I’d like that,” I replied.
Then the woman in question came running out of the house. “Giana wouldn’t let me call you!” Layla cried, clutching Dahlia.
James frowned. “What do you mean, Giana wouldn’t let you call us? What’s wrong? What’s happened?”
“Don Valentino took Alessandro out to his restaurant, even though I know you told him he couldn’t without you,” Layla said tearfully. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t stop him…”
I looked up accusingly at James, but he was just as surprised as I was. He swore, then pulled out his phone. He swore more when whomever he was calling didn’t pick up.
“I’m going to have words with him,” James growled, punching another number.
“Words? I’m going to strangle him!” I said, putting an arm around Layla while the poor girl cried.
“I’d really rather you didn’t try that,” James responded. “Here we go. Enzo. No, don’t start making excuses. Put him on.”
When James began speaking angry Italian, I made a grab for his phone so I could give the old Don a piece of my mind. But James kept his phone out of my reach.
He put a finger over his lips, and I was forced to seethe in silence, hugging Layla.
“It really wasn’t your fault. What were you going to do? Face down an army?” I said, patting her on the back.
Layla looked miserable. “I still should have been able to do something. I couldn’t believe it when Giana took my phone. I was just… the Don came in with a couple of guys. I asked what they wanted. The Don said he was taking Alessandro to dinner. I… I just… I said what you said, that you didn’t want him going without you, but he didn’t listen. He just swept up Alessandro and left with his goons.”
“That must have been very upsetting,” I replied.
“Then, just when I was starting to dial James, Giana came in and took my phone.” Layla’s eyes welled with tears, and I vowed to knee Don Valentino in the balls on her behalf.
James’s angry Italian escalated, becoming more hurried and clipped.
“Tell him he’s an a**hole,” I told James. “And that I’m never letting him be around the kids again.”
James gave me a look that spoke volumes. My heart clenched. He was right. How were we going to stop Don Valentino from doing whatever he wanted?
I could just barely hear the old Don on the other end of the line, giving his unperturbed responses to James.
Whatever James was saying, it was becoming more heated, but there really was nothing to do at this point but wait for the Don to bring Alessandro home.
“I’m still going to kick him in the family jewels,” I informed James.
There was snickering on the other end of the line. He must have heard me.
I held out my hand for James’s phone, determined to make my feelings known. If he was going to snicker at me, I was going to give him a telling off that would make his berries shrivel up and fall off.
James was just shaking his head, when there was a strange popping noise on the other end of the phone.
“What was that?” I asked as James went pale.
“Zio?” James said. “Uncle?”
There were more pops and some kind of commotion.
“Sh*t,” James said. “Tommasso, I need you to get Tony and a whole army of the boys together, something’s happening at the restau—”
“Don’t bother,” came a clear voice on the line.
With the phone pulled away from James’s ear, I could hear clearly. It was Ronaldo.
“Ronaldo,” James barked into the phone. “What have you done?”
“What needed doing. Too bad you’re home now. I was going to send some guys to La Loggia, but I didn’t want to split my resources. I’ll get to you soon enough,” Ronaldo said.
“Ronaldo, what did you DO?!” James demanded again.
Ronaldo snorted. “The old king is dead. Long live the new king.”
I snatched the phone from James’s unresisting fingers. “Where is Alessandro?!” I cried.
“Safe. I don’t need the brat right now. You might as well send somebody to come get him. He’s getting cranky in his car seat, and I think he might have made some stinkies in his diaper. Yes, you did, didn’t you. Coochie coochie coo,” Ronaldo said.
“You get away from him!” I yelled.
“Fine. I’m sure he’ll be fine for the few minutes it takes for you all to come retrieve him. Gotta go, Becca. Places to go, people to see, empires to overthrow when I get there,” Ronaldo chuckled.
Then the line went dead.
Neal.
Andre punched me in the face again. I spat blood and a tooth onto the floor.
Allegra was sitting behind me, duct taped to a metal chair. Much as I was hoping she’d go all Black Widow on their asses, real life didn’t work that way.