Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
When I was sure I could speak calmly, I said, “Gabriele tells me your teams found something. Tell me what you know.”
Alessandro smirked. He loved that I didn’t have the time to respond to his dig about taking Olivia to dinner. It was just one more small way in which he could hurt me, one more way that he could throw me off balance, and I played into it every fucking time. I couldn’t help myself. When it came to Olivia, I didn’t know how to compartmentalize. She had become everything to me.
Gabriele looked between the two of us, then said, “We’re almost certain we’ve found Dmitri’s right hand man. Some guy named Enzo. He’s a real piece of work, but Alessandro has been working on a plan to bring him in.”
To his credit, Alessandro seemed willing to focus on the conversation at hand. Just as I had been thinking that it was a mistake to invite him and that I should have just received the intel from Gabriele, he nodded and a serious expression overtook the shitty smile he’d been wearing since he walked in.
“He’s overly confident in his location, and my team has located a few separate weak points. Along with Gabriele’s men, I think we can capture him and take him in alive. Once we get our hands on him, we’ll interrogate,” Alessandro said.
He wasn’t as smug about success as he had been when giving intel in the past. I could tell that Gabriele had been working to teach him that just because he made an assumption, didn’t mean it was correct. Intel was based in fact-finding. He couldn’t tell me anything unless he had one hundred percent verified it to be true, and we couldn’t just assume that our missions would be successful. We had to be realistic about what we could and could not do.
“Alright, I support this. I want to stay in the loop on all of it. As soon as your teams converge on the house, let me know.”
If we managed to capture Dmitri’s second alive, it could change everything for us. The amount of knowledge that he would have about Dmitri’s entire operation would be enough for us to take it all apart. I just hoped that he wasn’t skilled in dealing with interrogation. Most men buckled under the pressure of a few broken bones, but there were some who stubbornly kept their mouths shut. Those were the ones I hated dealing with the most. I had to get creative when it came to getting them to talk. It was an aspect of my job that I preferred to never think about.
“Thanks, boss,” Gabriele said and turned to depart.
I started to follow him, but I could feel Alessandro invading my space. I turned toward him, wondering what he wanted now. I was really starting to hate being alone with him. I hated how violent he made me feel. Every time I lashed out at him, I felt like I was betraying James. But every time I let him walk all over me, I felt like I was betraying Olivia. There was no winning when it came to Alessandro. He was a huge fucking thorn in my side.
“What do you want?” I asked him bluntly. I had been so tense for so long that the fight had started to go out of me. I just wanted him to leave me alone.
“I want you to start thinking with your head instead of with your dick,” he said.
My heart started pounding and I felt blood rushing to my head. I had thought the fight had gone out of me, but I had been wrong. My hands clenched into fists, and I knew the pulse point on my temple was probably visibly throbbing. I was so fucking angry I was worried I might actually black out from rage.
“I’d advise you to remember what happened the last time you spoke to me so crassly,” I said in as calm of a voice as I could muster, my muscles twitching.
“You know I’m telling the truth, Gio,” he said, a serious expression on his face, “You need to leave Olivia. She’ll never have a normal life with you, and it’s not just because you’re a Don.”
My face twisted into a sneer. “And who do you suggest would give her a normal life? You?”
“Well, yeah.”
I scoffed at the way he acted like he was doing something heroic. There was nothing fucking heroic about treating a woman like a prize to be won. She was a human being, not a trophy.
“I’ll let Olivia decide what’s best for her. She’s a grown woman. Or have you gotten so desperate to acquire her that you’ve forgotten that?”
“I’m telling you, just think about it. What do you think her life will really be like with a guy so much older? You think she wants to spend her forties changing your fucking diapers? What if she decides she wants kids? Do you really think it would make sense for you to have kids when you’ll just die before they even hit their twenties? Leave her so she can be with someone her own age. She’ll thank you for it later.”
His words hit me like a knife to the chest. It was everything I had been forcing myself not to think about when it came to my relationship with Olivia, and he was throwing it in my face. Of course, I had considered that being with an older man would change how her life would go, but I hadn’t let myself think too hard about it. I had been so focused on just ensuring that we had any type of future at all, I hadn’t allowed myself to picture what that future would actually look like.
“Just think about it,” Alessandro repeated before letting himself out of the warehouse.
I walked to my car and started to head back to the compound. I had never been an insecure person, but Alessandro’s words had me doubting everything. What if Olivia stayed with me and regretted it when I started getting truly old while she was only just hitting middle age? Would her life be better if she was with someone her own age? I replayed the beginning of our relationship over and over in my mind, wondering if there was a point where I had fucked up by letting us get so close. Being with Olivia was the best thing that had ever happened to me, but the idea that our relationship could become the worst thing that had ever happened to her was terrifying.
One thing I knew for sure, I had to see Olivia. She was probably still pissed at me, and I was certain the conversation that I wanted to have with her would only make it worse, but we needed to talk this through. And at the end of the day, if I decided that what was best for her was for me to let her go, I was determined to do that, no matter how much it would break my heart.
*Olivia*
In the stillness of the night, I groaned as I briefly awoke from the arms of sleep. I shifted onto my side, yawning into my palm as I blinked my eyes. It was dark, and the red lights of my alarm clock shone back at me–2:33 AM.
I shut my eyes again, hoping to drift off for some more sleep before I had to wake up, but I heard a soft creak. It was so quiet, I almost missed it.
It was easy to pass it off as me just hearing things, but the second creak was not. I glanced at the shut door, and that’s when I noticed a dark shadow creeping by the crack underneath it.
Was the hallway light on? And who was standing in front of my door?
My heart raced, and I shut my eyes, pretending to be asleep as the door handle turned slowly and softly. The door opened, casting a light across my face, and I tried not to stiffen up as I heard someone slipping inside, the door shutting soon after.
I heard them moving, shuffling across the floor toward my bed, and I was pretty sure I knew who it was by their footsteps.
They stood in front of my bed for a few moments of silence, just watching me, and it would be creepy if I hadn’t known who it was. I heard the clinking of shoes, a belt, and fabric rustling like they were pulling clothes off.
I felt the pull of the comforter as he sighed and gently, without much movement, laid down beside me. He grabbed one of the pillows I had left on that side of the bed, completely obscuring the hallway light from under the door.
He got comfortable, shifting only the slightest bit before warm, calloused hands wrapped around my waist and pulled me into the burning radiator of a strong body. It was familiar, so familiar that a sigh burst out of my lips as I snuggled into his chest on instinct.
He tucked his cold feet against mine, and I smiled, keeping my eyes shut even as I felt the broad chest shift with their chuckle.
“You’re awake?” Giovani asked softly.
“Yeah,” I nodded, knowing the jig was up. I sighed, regretfully, knowing that Giovani didn’t come here just for cuddles. This was about what had happened between us earlier.
I reluctantly pulled away from his embrace, ignoring the questioning look in his eyes as I sat up. The old T-shirt I had thrown on for pajamas had bundled up around my stomach, and I pulled it down to cover my bare thighs. I shifted the blanket onto my lap and finally looked at him.
Giovani gazed at me with sad eyes, like a puppy begging for forgiveness for something it didn’t know it did wrong but just knew you were mad, knew you were disappointed–except this ‘puppy’ most certainly knew why I was upset.
“I’m sorry,” Giovani said quietly, “for earlier.”
I clenched my fists together, my nails biting into the skin as I swallowed down my anger. It felt like a pipe bomb had slid down my throat–dangerous and one minute from exploding outward.
Giovani sat up, the phone in his hand lighting up and casting a peculiar glow on his face. I hated it.
The look in his eyes was familiar. I had seen it, experienced it many times before, and I was sure I would later. I’d seen it whenever I looked in the mirror, too.
Doubt.
I knew how well it could invade your mind like a parasite worming its way under your skin, invading the way you think, you act. It was impossible to get rid of, not completely, and it would always linger in the back of your mind.
“Gio–” I started, not even knowing what I was going to say but that I had to say something, anything to get that look out of his eyes.
But it was too late. The seed had nestled deep within his heart, and I couldn’t stop it anymore. There was a sad but determined look to him like a soldier heading off to war and knowing they might not come back.
Like he was saying goodbye.
He sat up against the headboard, curling his knee up and leaning his arm on it as he stared at the blankets.
“Maybe it would be best if we just forgot about everything,” he said slowly.
I stiffened, feeling my emotions climbing back up my throat, and this time, they had claws. “Forget about… everything?”
He nodded, not even looking at me. “Our relationship, I mean–I don’t to waste your time, Olivia. You’re so much younger than me and I’m… not exactly a spring chicken. You should be with someone of your own age. Maybe….”
He heaved a sigh, wincing like his next words hurt to say.
