Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
Gio pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I know, carina, but if you bludgeon him to death, we can’t learn what he knows.”
I sniffled, feeling suddenly young again, like I’d never done this before. I tried so hard to steel myself before I’d come out here, but still my emotions overwhelmed me.
Maybe I didn’t belong in this world. Maybe I never had, and that was why people kept being able to trick me.
I swiped at my tears and pulled back from Gio. Dahlia looked at me with tears welling in her own eyes and her fists clenched in rage. Alessandro still seemed furious. Only Tallon managed to maintain the cool detachment I’d seen so often in Gio and his men.
I needed to be like that if I wanted both of us to survive this interview. I straightened my shoulders and let my face fall under a blanket of neutrality.
Gio held me by the shoulders and looked into my eyes. Worry etched lines between his brows, but I nodded at him. I had control of myself now, or at least not enough to throw myself at Sal again. I needed the information he had so badly that I could keep my storm of emotions locked inside, at least for now.
I remained standing as Gio returned to his couch, not far away, but just far enough to make it clear to the room that I had the floor. I shot him a small smile, then retook Tallon’s detachment.
“What do you have to say for yourself?” I asked.
Sal had the decency to look down. “I never meant for this to happen.”
I paced back and forth. “For what to happen? For you to trade information to the Russian mob, long-time enemies of my family, or for you to kidnap my son?”
The words burned in my throat, but I spit them anyway.
Sal cringed. “About Elio. I was keeping you two safe, you and him.”
“You’re doing a great job at that.” I stopped in front of him. “Just the two of us?”
“There was no deal if I didn’t hand over Giovani.” He looked up at me with what seemed like honesty burning in his eyes. “They were never supposed to hurt you.”
Anger chased blood into my cheeks. Tears pressed at the backs of my eyes again, and I flexed my fists, looking for something to hit. How dare he say that in the house where he knew my son had been taken? How dare he offer any excuse, much less one as paltry as that?
I took a deep breath and tried to steady myself to limited avail.
“So I understand,” I said quietly, “that you thought you could kill my husband and that wouldn’t hurt me at all?”
Sal’s face fell. It looked like real disappointment, real crestfallenness, but I couldn’t let myself be lured in again. He had me on the hook for weeks with nothing more than a few expressions.
Fuck, I initially trusted him for the way he looked when he talked about my mother.
I took a step closer. Gio sat up, ready to stop me if I attacked him again, but I didn’t need that. I needed to pull the ice of the mafia over my heart.
“Sit,” I barked.
Sal glanced at the coffee table covered in food behind him and then sat on the floor.
“We know you have information.” I glanced at Gio, who nodded. “Give it to us, and we’ll see what sort of mercy the Valentino family might be able to muster.”
Sal nodded furiously. “Anything. Anything you want.”
“Who took Elio?” I asked, barely keeping my voice from shaking with rage.
“Lorenz,” he answered. “Well, I don’t know if he did it specifically. I wasn’t involved. I didn’t even know what was going to happen.”
I scowled. Sal blanched.
“He mentioned a name—Misha, I think—but Lorenz has him now, and I know where he was maybe an hour ago.” Sal rattled off an address.
Gio nodded at Alessandro, who turned and left the room, presumably to go check Sal’s information and see what they could dig up on Misha.
I hated Misha with a sudden and burning passion… more than Lorenz, perhaps even more than my father.
I looked down into his eyes. No, not more than him, not now.
“Are they going to kill him?” I circled Sal to keep him from seeing the way my face crumpled when I asked that. I had to know, but I couldn’t bear the thought. It called up images of Elio’s little body, still and slicked in blood, that churned my stomach and brought tears to my eyes.
Sal shook his head. “At least, that’s not the plan. They’ve just got him drugged right now, one of those antihistamines that makes you sleepy.”
My pulse thudded in my ears. Antihistamines like that weren’t safe for children under two. The lethal side-effects were rare, but they came on so aggressively that all parents were advised to avoid them.
Gio met my gaze. His eyes were full of calm certainty. I inhaled slowly and dug my thumb into the corner of the block in my hand. I couldn’t change what had already happened. I could only get what I needed to get Elio back as quickly as possible.
But I could feel my control beginning to slip. Everything Sal said called up a new wave of rage and fear and grief. I could only bear so many more.
“What is the plan?” I snarled.
“I’m supposed to contact Giovani in the morning, tell him to come to my house alone within twenty-four hours if he ever wants to see Elio again. Then,” Sal swallowed, “Lorenz springs his trap. I don’t know after that.”
“You don’t know?” I repeated incredulously.
He shook his head. “I really am the low man on the totem pole. He doesn’t tell me anything he doesn’t have to.”
My vision turned red. “You don’t even know what the plan is for returning my fucking son?”
He blanched and shook his head.
At that moment, I could’ve reached back in time and shaken eight-year-old Olivia for the sheer stupidity of wishing my dad would show up. He wouldn’t have changed anything. He couldn’t have, because he was exactly the sort of spineless worm who abandoned his young wife and daughter because he lacked the brains or the balls to come up with a better way to fix the mess he blundered himself into.
I squeezed the block so hard my palm began to ache and I realized, with crystalline clarity, that if I didn’t leave right now I was going to ask someone to kill my father.
Or I was going to take a gun and do it my goddamn self.
I turned on my heel and stormed out of the room without another word. Quick, light footsteps behind me told me Dahlia was following. I didn’t turn. I could only march through the compound, wondering how fucking stupid I could’ve been to trust him.
I should’ve known by now that I could never count on my father.
*Giovani*
I stared after Olivia as she stormed away. I’d married a strong woman, but being betrayed by a parent would crack anyone.
That left me to handle clean-up.
I stood, cracking my knuckles, and made eye contact with Tallon. Olivia had gotten some good information, but we needed details if we were going to get Elio back, and details usually came harder.
Sal began struggling to his feet, but I put my hand on his shoulder and shoved him back down.
“Stay,” I snapped. “I think my wife had the right idea.”
