Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
It didn’t make sense. How could someone just magically appear out of nowhere without any sort of record or background? Alessandro was quick to fill in the blanks that my mind so desperately needed.
“Well, before I go any further I have to ask… are you sitting down?”
I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling of the car and snarled venomously under my breath.
“Stop dicking me around and just tell me what the fuck you found!” I shouted. “Who is she?!”
Another long pause went by.
My nerves couldn’t take the suspense. I was about a second away from reaching through the phone and throttling my brother with my bare hands.
“Natalia’s real name is Natalia Zaytsev….”
My voice sounded too far away as I struggled to process the words that had just come through the speaker of my phone.
“She’s the granddaughter of Dmitri Zaytsev.”
And that, right there, was the final bullet that struck me in the chest, the final nail to be hammered into my self-made coffin.
A Zaytsev… a motherfucking Zaytsev.
Not only was the love of my life a goddamn Russian, but she just so happened to be a direct blood relative of the biggest enemy the Valentinos had ever fought against. The number of people my family and friends had lost because of that Russian snake was a list that was practically endless.
The whole family was heartless, a bloodthirsty group of conniving rats that had proven impossible to get rid of. That’s why my mind simply could not wrap around the truth that Natalia was one of them.
Unfortunately, there were too many factors stacking against her the more I began to consider it all.
Each and every time there was a raid or some kind of attack, Natalia was with me. I thought back to our trip to Positano. We were away from home, and that was when one of the biggest attacks took place.
“She was the one who’s been telling them of my whereabouts,” I thought blankly to myself. “That’s how they’ve been keeping one step ahead of us this whole time.”
Yes, well, that time was about to end.
The ache in my chest started to become laced with a burning sensation of pure, unbridled anger. The idea of marching up to her apartment and crashing her door down was far too appealing to ignore.
I wanted answers.
I deserved an explanation for how she could live, knowing that so many people had lost their lives because of her family.
Was it worth using me? Were all the lifeless bodies that lined my property worth it?
“Tallon.”
Alessandro’s voice broke my excessive train of thought. For a quick second, I had forgotten that we were still on the phone.
“Where are you now?” he asked.
A dangerous smirk curled my mouth. “I’m actually outside of my ex-girlfriend’s apartment right now.”
“Oh, shit. Tallon,” my brother hissed. “I can’t believe that I’m going to say this but… don’t do anything stupid.”
Of course, I didn’t have it in me to physically hurt a woman… enemy or traitor, regardless. But that still didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to storm up there and shake her for answers.
My voice grew calm, too calm to be considered normal given the circumstance. Alessandro had only witnessed me using such a tone a small handful of times to know that the results were never pretty.
“I’m not going to do anything besides talk to her,” I explained.
“Tallon, I think it would be a wise choice to simply come back to the house and think of our next course of action,” he suggested.
The corner of my mouth pulled back into a tight sneer. My anger continued to eat at me.
“Since when did you become the fucking voice of reason?” I snapped back. “Aren’t you the one who would march into the place with a gun in each hand and kill anyone who gets in your way?”
My seething words taunted my poisonous feelings even further. My hands curled into such tight fists that my knuckles were turning white.
“You’re not thinking clearly. Come home and give yourself a break–”
“I’m thinking for the sake of everyone whose life was stolen because of her and her involvement,” I growled into the phone.
Without so much as another word of reasoning, I ended the call and climbed out of the car. I easily adjust my clothing and leisurely make my way into the apartment building.
I got to her floor and I reached her door in record time. The back of my hand knocked heavily against the door. I could hear her moving on the other side.
Suddenly, the door swung open and I was standing face to face with a very distraught-looking Natalia. Her eyes were puffy, and she looked as though she’d been crying for the past thirty minutes.
“Tallon,” she said weakly.
I hated that my first initial instinct was to reach out and pull her into my embrace. But I managed to hold my ground.
“I can hardly imagine what’s left you in tears when it’s my family who have been slaughtered by you Russian parasites,” I grated through my teeth.
Natalia visually froze in front of me, and I was fairly certain that I’d made her heart stop beating.
*Natalia*
I felt my heart sink in my chest the second I heard Tallon speak.
I had originally opened my apartment door with the expectation of him rushing in to wrap his arms around me. After all, he was the one who knew how to comfort me when I needed it most. He was the one who made me feel safe.
But it was clear as day that ‘that’ version of Tallon was long gone.
Instead, I was left frozen to stare at a completely different side of him. This was the side of him that I was taught to hate–to fear. The Italian mafia Don, whose family had dissolved my own, was the man who was standing in front of me now. I should have always held more hatred and anger toward him like I was expected to. But, deep down, I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Somehow in the ongoing turbulence that was our relationship, I’d fallen for him. Every glance he’d stolen when he thought I wasn’t looking, to every glorious touch he’d placed on my body–I loved him.
His very voice had seeped under my skin and made me come to life. It was as though he already knew about the worries and fears that I carried and was able to brush them away with a simple caress of his hand.
Now he was looking at me as if I was no better than the dirt on his shoe. It made my insides curl and twist in shame. If looks could kill, Tallon would have had me nailed to the wall.
His eyes were filled with a mixture of fire and pain.
I don’t know how he’d found out about me. But it was going to take a serious miracle for me to get him to hear me out.
