Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“We think,” I sighed. I kept my scope set on the house.
“We have used thermal imaging,” Mattia added. “We know we outnumber them.”
“Has your thermal imaging indicated where my sister might be?” I asked.
Mattia shook his head. “Only heat signatures. There are many people in the house, from top to basement. It would be difficult to say where they are holding Allegra.”
I swore under my breath. “We storm the place, and she’s going to be the first victim.”
“Then might I make a suggestion?” Mattia inquired.
I turned to look at him. “I’m all ears.”
“If you were to go down and turn yourself in, we would be able to track your heat signature with our equipment. I’m sure they will take you where they are holding Allegra,” Mattia said.
That was the riskiest, worst possible idea I ever heard of. And it was the best we had. “Alright,” I replied, setting my rifle down next to me. “But just remember, Greg doesn’t get the other half unless Allegra and I come out alive.”
Mattia nodded. “So Greg has impressed upon us many times.”
I stood slowly and picked my way through the woods, getting close to the Michaelson brothers’ perimeter. The crunch of snow behind me stopped me, and I held up my hands.
“Nikolai,” a man with a heavy Russian accent said.
I turned very carefully and came face to barrel with a very large automatic weapon. “That’s me. I’m here for my sister.”
“You are not very smart,” the Russian chuckled. “But you have come. This is something.” The Russian got on his walkie-talkie and explained, in Russian, that he had found me.
Andre, for it could only be Andre, responded in the same language, telling the Russian to bring me in.
The Russian whistled, and three of his companions jogged over. They patted me down, confiscating a knife, a phone, and my backup revolver at my ankle. Then they marched me ahead of them towards the ruins of my former home.
Xavier met us not far from the front door, grinning from ear to ear. “This is great,” he said. “I can’t believe you were so stupid as to come here alone, ‘Neal.'”
“Yeah, well, you said you’d kill my sister if I didn’t, so I figured I’d better not bring anyone with me,” I grumbled back.
Xavier chuckled. “Well, if Andre’s in a good mood, maybe we’ll let your sister go. Or maybe we’ll kill you both. We’ll see. I heard your friend James Valentino wouldn’t send you any support. That’s gotta sting.”
“Not as much as this.” I headbutted Xavier in the face and broke his nose.
That earned me the butt of a rifle to the back of the head.
Xavier held his nose, blood dripping between his fingers. “You’re going to regret that,” he coughed.
“Bring it on,” I responded.
***
Chad.
“… What do you mean, impotent?” I could hear my father saying in between the beeps of machines around me.
There was something down my throat, and I began choking.
Suddenly, there was a fleet of medical staff around me, pulling the tube out of my throat, checking my vitals.
I tried shoving them away, but for some reason, my arms wouldn’t move. H*ll, I couldn’t even feel them.
“It’s okay, son. Try to relax,” a doctor said, leaning over me as he shone a light in my eyes.
“I can’t feel my arms,” I told him, panic settling into my chest even though the doctor had told me to relax.
“No, no, I’m sure you can’t,” the doctor replied sadly. “We’ll just… have a talk about that, okay?”
I turned my head. “Mom? Dad?”
My dad just shook his head and stormed out of the room. My mom was holding a lacy handkerchief to her lips, tears streaming out of her eyes.
“Chad… may I call you Chad?” the doctor asked, drawing my attention back to him. “I’m afraid you were shot. The bullet damaged your spinal cord.”
“Damaged my… no.” I began to panic again. “No. NO!”
“Yes, I’m afraid so,” the doctor said. “For now, you’re a quadriplegic. However, there are many therapies and treatments that will allow you to…”
“Sh*t. F*ck. GODD*MN!!!” I howled, shaking my head vigorously.
“Why were you playing that game, Chad?” my mother whispered, coming beside me. I saw her put a hand on my wrist, but I couldn’t feel it. “What were you thinking?”
Tears streamed down my cheeks. “I-I don’t know. I…”
“Because he’s a stupid f*cker,” my father said, coming back into the room. “And now, we have a problem. We don’t have an heir. And we won’t have an heir.”
“Why…?” I felt the blood drain from my face. “I can’t—?”
The doctor winced. “I’m afraid not, Chad.”
I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the pillows. It was a lot to take in, and I just couldn’t process it. One minute I’d been snorting coke out of a big-boobed blonde’s belly button, the next…
“There… is an option,” my mother said softly, trying to mollify my father.
“What option?” my father grunted.
My mother took a deep, steadying breath.
“Alessandro.”
Becca.
The compound should have felt stifling, but that wasn’t the case. It was large, and airy, with beautiful gardens and many walking paths. Men with guns nodded to me politely as they did their perimeter patrols while I explored my gilded cage.
Layla was taking the children down other paths on the other side of the compound. I’d offered to go with her, but she’d insisted I get some alone time. Between James and the kids, I hadn’t gotten a lot of that since I’d been at the mansion.
Over the past week, James had been trying to reason with me every day. Every day. I saw his point, of course, but I was over men lying to me “for my own good.” OVER it.
Surely there must be some solution he wasn’t thinking of, something that could be done where Alessandro, Dahlia, Layla, and I could live somewhere quietly. Just a normal life. A life where Alessandro would go to school and make friends and perhaps play American football or international football and lead his team to victory. Join a debate team. Squish pizza in his friends’ faces.