Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
It would save our reputation if I made it look like this peace had been a ploy to lower the Russians’ defenses. It would show that the Valentinos weren’t easily swayed by a pretty face. As a bonus, I could get that sorry excuse for a Don out of power.
I had talented hackers that I could rely on. I was able to get around all Tallon’s security with their help. They even managed to remotely hack into Vinny’s phone so that I could send a message through his number. Tallon wouldn’t suspect that his right hand would lead him astray. No matter how off the message seemed, I knew that he would follow whatever instructions I sent if they seemed to come from Vinny.
The fact that it worked just proved me right about Tallon. He didn’t have the shrewd intellect needed to be the Don.
He walked right into my trap. It was almost too easy.
I was able to watch the entire thing go down through the remote access my hacker had given me to the security cameras. I watched as Tallon examined the body with obvious confusion. If he had half a brain, he would have left the second he saw it. It wouldn’t have saved him if he had, of course. I would have sent a copy of the security footage to the police, and they would have arrested him.
Part of me was disappointed to see him surrender peacefully. If he had drawn his weapon or tried to resist, the police would have killed him, and he would have spared the family the public scandal of a trial.
Not everything could go my way, though. I was more than content to see him rot in jail for the rest of his miserable life.
The rest of the family would see him for the traitor he really is eventually.
And outside of the family, the other organizations would believe that Tallon had been fooling the Russians all along. It would seem like he had lulled them into complacency, then picked off their men.
It was a win-win, really.
I was happy to know that Tallon was behind bars.
I knew that no one would be able to trace any of this back to me. I had been careful to cover my tracks. There was no one clever enough to figure out who got access to Vinny’s phone or the security cameras. Even the police hadn’t been able to tie me to any of the deaths, and I had taken pains to set up the last crime scene to make it look like Tallon had done it.
I put the body in a location that only Tallon and a handful of others had access to. I left one of his chosen weapons at the scene, and I planted a tarp and poncho that had Tallon’s fingerprints on them. That hadn’t been easy to accomplish, but I’d managed.
It was an airtight case, and no matter how smart his pretty lawyer was, she wouldn’t be able to get him out of this one.
It was for the best. The family needed a strong, capable leader. We deserved to be led by someone who wouldn’t turn his back on the values the family stood for just for a pretty woman.
With Tallon out of the way, a new Don would be chosen. Just about anyone would be better than him. I doubted that Alessandro would want the job, but I knew that we could trust him if he took it. He was always more observant and intelligent. He was more ruthless, too.
This wasn’t a role for someone soft-hearted. You had to be vicious to survive in this world.
We would finally have a Don who was capable of restoring the family to its full glory. We would be feared again, and no one would dare to cross us.
The deaths of my men would be avenged in full.
I looked down at the trash can and grinned. I could still see the blurry photo of Tallon on the cover. He got what he deserved.
A new era would start for the Valentinos, without him.
*Natalia*
I could feel my heart beating so hard that I momentarily worried I was actually having a heart attack. We had a name. We had a main suspect.
The person who had taken Tallon from me had been closer than we realized all along. He was a member of the family, probably one of the people that Vinny and Alessandro had been working so hard to comfort and reassure over the past week.
It filled me with rage to think about this man trying to act like he was upset and concerned when all the while this was his doing. So many days had passed now that whatever anxiety he felt about getting caught had probably started to fade. He was likely feeling confident in the success of his betrayal.
I would make sure that he regretted that confidence. He wasn’t going to get away with this for a second longer.
I hated that it was a member of the family, but I wasn’t surprised. My gut was telling me that the person responsible was closer than we thought. It only made sense that it was an inside job, considering the level of knowledge about the family that would be necessary to pull off the killings and the set up. It almost had to be an insider.
Our troubles were far from over, though. We had to find proof if we wanted to get Tallon out of police custody. They weren’t going to let him go just because I gave them a name. We needed something solid to prove that he was being held without reason. Getting that evidence was most likely going to mean confronting this Antonio person directly.
The thought of it sent a chill through me. This man had killed a lot of dangerous people and framed the Don himself. There was no telling what he would do when confronted. He would just lie and try to talk his way out of things. I knew I wouldn’t be surprised at all to find that he had some trump card up his sleeve to throw suspicion on someone else.
That wasn’t the worst-case scenario though, sadly. I couldn’t help but fear that he might get violent when confronted. He might try to go out in a blaze of glory. If that was the case, we may not be able to avoid bloodshed.
If we ended up killing Antonio, then we would be back to square one with no way to prove Tallon’s innocence.
The situation was so messy. I wasn’t sure what the right approach was. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the future of the family was at risk, not to mention Tallon’s freedom.
I wanted to be selfish about this. I wanted to demand that this bastard turn himself in and confess to everything. I wanted to make it very clear to him that if he didn’t, I would kill him myself.
I knew that wouldn’t work.
I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn’t notice Vinny had parked the car until the engine died. I jerked my head up in concern and found that we were outside of Alessandro’s house.
I breathed a sigh of relief. He’d never actually told me where we were going, and I wasn’t sure what I was going to see when the car stopped. It made perfect sense for us to meet with Alessandro first.
I wasn’t ready to confront anyone just yet, anyway. This was far too personal, and I needed to get my thoughts straight before I could act. I couldn’t afford to make a mistake.
I wasn’t the type of person to go in blind. I wanted to have a plan in place first. I hoped that Alessandro and Vinny could offer some insight that would help me to prepare.
I couldn’t rule out the possibility that we just didn’t have enough information to form a plan, though. It seemed like we had all been caught off guard by this, so trying to predict how things might play out could prove to be a futile effort.
Vinny and I walked quickly to the front door. The moment Vinny knocked on the door, it swung open, and Alessandro ushered us in. His shoulders were tense, and there was a carefully neutral expression on his face.
“Come in,” he said in a tight voice.
Vinny and I entered, and Alessandro locked the door behind us, then led us to the sitting room without speaking another word.
We all sat down and waited tensely for someone to speak. It felt like none of us were quite sure who should be taking the lead right now.
After a few seconds, I cleared my throat and adjusted my legs awkwardly.
“Vinny tells me he has a prime suspect,” I said. “What can you tell me about this Antonio guy?”
Alessandro leaned forward and put his elbows on his thighs. He supported his head with his hands and rubbed his temples. “I can’t believe this is happening,” he muttered.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I know that none of us wanted to believe it could be an inside job. Unfortunately, we don’t have the luxury of processing our emotions right now. We have to stop this from going any further. We can deal with the emotional fallout later.”
“You’re right,” Alessandro said. He sat back and looked at me. “Antonio has been with the family for decades. It’s just hard to believe that this is really happening.”
“It all feels like a nightmare,” I agreed. “But it’s almost over.”
“I know that his men were killed by the Russians,” Vinny said. “He’s the only survivor of his team.”
Alessandro nodded. “It makes sense,” he agreed. “Antonio isn’t good with technology himself, but he has contacts. One of his boys is the brother of a verifiable tech genius. Getting past the security system at the warehouse would be a piece of cake for him, and he would be more than willing to do Antonio a favor, especially if he thought it would avenge his brother in some way.”
“What about my phone?” Vinny asked. “Do you think this contact could hack my phone somehow?”
“Absolutely,” Alessandro said. “It wouldn’t even be a challenge for him.”
