Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I wished I knew what had changed between us since our trip. I couldn’t tell if she was upset because she knew I was hiding something from her or if there was another thing entirely that I just wasn’t picking up on. Either way, I hated the fact that it felt like the bridge I had built between us on our trip had been burned to a crisp. I just wanted her to be able to trust me.
“Natalia, I’m glad you picked up. I need to see you. We have a few things to discuss.” I decided to get right down to business.
“No, Tallon. I’m really busy today. I don’t have time to meet up with you.”
I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. I should have known she wouldn’t make this easy. “Please. It’s extremely important. I can come to your apartment and I’ll leave quickly. But I can’t discuss it over the phone.”
There was silence. I checked my phone to make sure she hadn’t hung up on me, but sure enough, the call was still going. She just wasn’t answering.
“Okay,” she finally said. “Come over in an hour.”
“I’ll be there.” I hung up, not wanting to waste any more of her time in case she truly was busy and wasn’t just avoiding me, although I suspected that her claims of busyness were totally fabricated.
I had my driver take me to Natalia’s apartment so that I could continue to communicate with Vinny and Alessandro. Both of them kept me updated and I made sure to give them my guidance. Before I knew it, I was walking up to Natalia’s door. I tried to clear my head to ensure that I could think through everything I needed to say to her. I wasn’t going to tell her that I was a mafia Don, not yet, but I needed her to understand that she was in real danger if anyone found out that I cared about her. I decided to make up a lie that was as close to the truth as possible.
She answered the door as I was thinking through my lie. She was as gorgeous as ever, and our time apart only made her even more beautiful to me. The weight of how much I had missed her hit my chest like a ton of bricks, and without thinking I reached out and gathered her against my chest, tucking her head under my chin. I breathed deeply, enjoying her perfume and the weight of her body against mine.
“I missed you,” I murmured before kissing the top of her head. “Please don’t avoid me anymore. I can’t take it.” So much for trying to play it cool. When it came to Natalia, it was impossible for me to keep my feelings under wraps.
She hesitantly wrapped her arms around my waist, meeting my embrace with one of her own. Finally, I felt her relax against me and take a deep breath.
“Let’s get inside,” she said after another moment.
I followed her into her cozy apartment. Although she had decorated the place well, it was obvious that much of her furniture was secondhand. There were a few rips in the sofa. I itched to replace it all for her, but I knew that would be going too far. Someday I would give her the princess treatment that she deserved, but for now, I just had to wait.
I settled on the couch, hoping that she would sit next to me so that I could hold her while we talked, but she sat in the armchair across from me instead. I tried to keep myself from frowning.
‘It’s good that I’m even here at all,’ I reminded myself.
“Okay, what is it that you need to tell me?” she asked.
“I’ve been having some serious trouble at work. I had to cut our trip short because of it, as you already know,” I started out, waiting to see her reaction to my mention of the trip being cut short. She kept her face blank.
“There are some seriously bad guys trying to get some information about my company. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it, but I have to tell you that they’ve actually hurt some of my employees in their efforts to get it.” I didn’t mention that by “hurt” I actually meant “killed.” Hopefully, she would understand the level of danger without me spelling it out for her.
Her face paled, and it was obvious that she was taking what I said seriously.
“How hurt?” she asked quietly, concern in her eyes.
“It’s really bad. I can’t give many details for their privacy, but let’s just say that I am concerned that this could be a matter of life and death. I’m telling you because I’m worried about what might happen if they were to realize that I–care about you,” I stopped myself just before saying that I loved her. I refused to let those be the circumstances under which I told her that for the first time.
She stared off into space and refused to meet my eyes. I worried that she was going into shock, but after a moment, she looked at me quickly and said, “Okay, I understand. But I have an early class tomorrow, so I really need you to leave.”
My heart felt like it was breaking. It was more than obvious that she didn’t want me around. I had no idea what had gone wrong between us, but I was desperate to fix it.
“Natalia, I–did I do something wrong?” I asked her, wanting to get up and pull her into my arms, but forcing myself to stay seated.
“No, Tallon. I just really need to focus on my studies right now,” she said vaguely.
I nodded to myself, wondering if this would be the last time she let me come over.
“Alright, well, I’ll call you tomorrow,” I said, standing up so that I could kiss her goodbye.
She stayed in her chair, so I leaned over to kiss her on the cheek.
“Be safe, okay?” I asked her.
She nodded slightly but still refused to meet my eyes. I let myself out of her apartment and walked to the car that was waiting for me. I wished I knew what I had done wrong.
I just couldn’t figure out why she was acting so strangely.
*Natalia*
I was stunned. I couldn’t even get up from the chair I was sitting in after Tallon left. I knew he wanted more from me, but I had nothing left to give. I couldn’t even pretend to be there for him, not when my own emotions were spiraling out of control. And the entire time he was with me, I had been terrified that the second I opened my mouth, I was going to confess everything to him. Just an hour ago, my uncle had called and warned me that they would be leaving a horrific gift on Tallon’s lawn.
“Your little boyfriend won’t like what we’re about to do,” my uncle had said ominously when I answered his call.
“What are you about to do?” I asked, terror rising in my throat and threatening to cut off my airway in a full-blown panic attack.
“Remember the men we took while you were on your holiday?” He paused, waiting for me to answer as though I could have possibly forgotten.
“Yes, I remember,” I said, trying to force my emotions away so he wouldn’t sense how much this conversation was scaring me.
“Let’s just say they are no longer with us, and your little boyfriend is about to find them in a rather… unpleasant way.”
“What?! What are you talking about?” I demanded. “You never told me that you were going to kill people!” I knew my voice was rising too much, but I couldn’t help it. I hadn’t agreed to take part in murder, and that’s what this was–murder. My uncles could pretend all they wanted, but there was no justifiable reason for why Tallon’s men should have been killed.
“We do not tell you everything for a reason, mishka.” His voice had softened in a way I rarely heard from him. “You must have plausible deniability in case you are found out. Those brutes would do anything to get information on us.”
My horror only increased as I realized what he was saying. They kept things from me so that Tallon’s men couldn’t torture me for information. I couldn’t imagine Tallon ever doing such a thing. My family? Yes, I could see them torturing a young woman for information. I could even see them torturing me if they thought they had a good enough reason, but Tallon? Never. He would never hurt a young woman, and he especially would never hurt me.
“You’re wrong,” I said bravely. “Tallon wouldn’t let his men hurt me. Even if…” I trailed off, unwilling to even voice the fact that he might discover what I had done. “Even if he did find out.”
“I would not trust him so easily. I know you think we are too brutal, but you were not there fifteen years ago. You did not see what they did to us, to our family. You must understand that the man you see has a dark side, far darker than you could imagine. Everything we have done, he has done to us ten-fold.”
I didn’t believe my uncle at all, but his words did give me pause. Maybe the only reason I was so trusting of Tallon was because I was fooling myself into believing that the side he showed me was all he had to him. I knew that he hid his mafia ties from me, so why was I so willing to believe that he wasn’t hiding anything else? Was it possible that he had a dangerous side that I couldn’t even imagine?
I decided to try to press my uncle for why they wanted to kill Tallon’s men.
“But why, dyadya?” I asked him, trying to win his favor by referring to him in Russian. “I thought you were just focused on gathering information. Why would you kill these men?”
“It is unimportant. Just know that they needed to die. It is all for a greater good, one that serves our family, and that is all you need to worry about.” He so easily dismissed the human lives that he had taken, it was unbelievable to me. I had known that my uncles were a cold bunch, but I had no idea just how cold until this moment.
“But surely we cannot kill others only for the sake of benefitting our family. Surely that crosses a line. Are we really willing to stoop so low?” I asked, knowing I needed to tread very carefully with my words.
“We are willing to do whatever it takes for our family. Don’t you care about your mother? Don’t you care about our family name? I cannot believe I am hearing such nonsense from you as this. Believe me when I say this. Your precious Tallon would not hesitate to do the exact same thing if he had the opportunity. The only reason why he has not killed any of us yet is because he cannot find us. You are an idiot if you think that he has a heart of gold.”
But that was the issue; I didn’t think I was an idiot at all for what I thought. Tallon had shown me that he was kind-hearted again and again. I couldn’t risk arguing any further, though, or else my uncle would truly begin to suspect that I was no longer working for my family, and I had enough sense to know that that would put me in danger.
“Okay. He will be here soon, so I need to go.”
My uncle told me to be ready for Tallon’s reaction, whatever it might be, then hung up after harshly warning me that I had to follow through with my family’s plan because it was too late to go back.
Not long after my uncle hung up, Tallon knocked on my door. I could never have prepared for the panic and heartbreak that I’d witnessed in his face, even though he’d bravely tried to shield me from the brunt of his emotions. The fact that he’d come here specifically to check on me and make sure I would keep myself safe only made it all worse.
