Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
I cursed myself inwardly for even letting Cat see that Alessandro was the one who was trying to reach me. Without a word, I switched the Bluetooth off from my car and answered the call on my phone.
“Alessandro,” I greeted him curtly.
“Elio. New intel on Antonio has just come in. We’ll be waiting for you to come to the house,” he told me.
My stomach lurched at the sound of hearing his name. I gritted my teeth and spoke hastily.
“See you in an hour.”
I ended the call and threw the gear shift into drive. My eyes focused solely on the road while Caterina’s gaze burned into my side profile.
“Elio, what’s going on?” she asked with a hint of worry in her voice.
I let out an honest sigh of disappointment. “I’m afraid I have to cut our day out together short,” I said.
“Oh.” Cat looked deflated and a bit saddened by this bit of news.
I nodded my head. “Yeah, Alessandro wants to discuss another property purchase. I’m not entirely sure how long he’s going to be around before heading back to Italy, so I want to lock in as much time as I can before then,” I explained.
Much to my surprise, Cat didn’t try to question anything about my false explanation. God, I hated lying to her. After everything that we’d spoken about in the past twenty-four hours, this was truly the last thing on my mind. But I couldn’t very well tell her the truth now.
I knew for fact that she’d demand to come with me when I’d go to meet Alessandro. Regardless of her feelings, she would insist on being a part of trying to bring Antonio down. At the end of the day, the reality of it all still stood. I needed to keep her safe.
After everything she’d found out, something as miniscule as this could certainly wait. If it was all just about a piece of information, then I was more than happy to keep this on the down low.
Unfortunately, I could feel the energy in the car shift between us from that point on. I knew she was just as disappointed as I was to not spend more time together.
As I pulled into her driveway, I turned to face her and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.
“I promise I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I said.
I leaned across the center console and placed a quick kiss on her head. The second Cat headed inside the house, I reconnected my phone to my car’s speaker and quickly dialed Leo’s number.
After two rings, his voice came through the other side of the line. “Hey, Elio. What’s up?”
“I got a call from Alessandro just now,” I told him. “I’m coming to pick you up. Are you at the club or your place?”
“My place. The club doesn’t open for another couple of hours,” he explained. “What’s the situation with Alessandro?”
“He says that they received some sort of information on Antonio,” I said.
Christ, I hoped it had something to do with a location. Maybe there was a particular place the man was caught hanging around. Maybe some of Alessandro’s men were close to having actually nailed down the literal place to where he’s been hiding. I hoped they were close to circling in.
I wanted this to be over. Whether I decided to truly be part of it was no longer part of the question. For the sake of Cat and her mother, I wanted Antonio to be taken down. Jail and possible imprisonment had proven to be useless. I wanted the ongoing threat of his existence to be gone.
Hearing Leo’s voice snapped me out of my deep thoughts.
“Interesting. Alright, I’ll meet you outside my place,” he said.
“Great. I’ll be right over.”
I ended the call and weaved in and out of the moving traffic. By the time I reached Leo’s apartment building, my head was sore from all the recurring thoughts and ideas that kept popping up.
As much as I wanted to know what Alessandro discovered, all I really wanted was to return home to Caterina. Had our day not been cut short so abruptly, I’d planned on taking us out to a nice restaurant, possibly a place that was quiet and private where we could just focus on each other. I wanted to clear away any potential doubts that she could have had about our relationship.
I needed her to understand just how important she was to me.
I turned my head to see Leo heading out of the main doors of his building. He looked as determined as I felt. But in the corner of my eye, I noticed another figure heading toward the car.
A man dressed in all black with a pair of sunglasses covering half his face approached Leo from behind. My stomach twisted in knots when my gaze suddenly fell to the handgun the man had pulled from behind his back. With his other hand, he snagged Leo by the back of his shirt and dug the head of the gun into his shoulder.
Leo’s eyes widened in unspoken fear, not even fully comprehending what was happening behind him. I instantly threw the door open and rushed out of the car without a single coherent thought.
I didn’t have a fucking clue as to how I was going to help him. It wasn’t as though I was armed myself. What the hell was going on?
Just as I stood a couple feet away from Leo and his unknown attacker, the picture started to clear up. I recognized some of the prominent details the man possessed.
“Antonio,” I gritted through my teeth.
“Stop helping Alessandro,” he spat out.
The older man tilted his head as though to intimidate me. The air caught in my chest in panic, but I wasn’t about to let him know that.
“We both know that you aren’t in this sort of life,” Antonio said tauntingly.
“Maybe not,” I snarled back. “But surely you know that this kind of life doesn’t just leave people so easily.”
The older man sneered in disdain.
“Don’t be ignorant. You’re way in over your head, boy. If you continue to work with Alessandro, I can promise that you’re as good as dead.”
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when instead of firing his weapon, Antonio chose to shove Leo toward me. My hands reached out to steady my friend.
I quickly glanced back to where Antonio was once standing, but I no longer saw him. I glanced around and spotted a dark colored van speeding away in the opposite direction. And just like that, he was gone.
Both Leo and I rushed into the car and locked the doors. I whipped the steering wheel and put us back onto the road. I tapped a few buttons on the screen on my dashboard, pulling up Alessandro’s number.
Soon his voice came through the speakers. “Elio? What is it?”
“It was Antonio,” I hissed angrily. “We saw him. He pulled a gun on Leo.”
“Shit. Is he alright? Are the two of you alright?”
“Yeah,” I grunted. “He didn’t fire it. He just spoke a few words and left. Some car picked him up. He’s gone.”
“What exactly did he say?”
I let out a long, exhausted breath. “I’ll tell you everything in a few minutes. We’re coming to you now.”
*Caterina*
I clutched my arms close to my chest and bit my lip in ongoing worry as I watched Elio back out of the driveway.
Today was perfect, I thought.