Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
But a part of me couldn’t help but wonder why he was doing all this. I could see we had attracted the attention of a few onlookers at this point, who had noticed that something was wrong but hadn’t quite noticed the weapons.
The gun had been cleverly disguised by his sleeve, only the silver muzzle pointing out and from a long distance, the scene looked odd but not concerning, not yet.
“What’s your plan here, Antonio? Are you going to shoot me in broad daylight in front of all these people?” I shrugged, stepping forward full of bravado.
Vinny’s hand immediately grabbed my wrist to pull me back, but I sent him a sharp look, especially when Antonio’s gun moved from me to him.
“Even if you kill me, you’ll gain nothing from it,” I said, smirking with more confidence than I felt. “You think you can take on the Valentinos and the Russians together? You can’t and you know it.”
My smirk fell when Antonio burst into laughter, his whole body shaking with the effort. But he never took his eyes off of me and Vinny.
“You think this is about those Russian bastards?” Antonio sent me a grin, a glint of madness in his eyes now as he stepped forward, now holding the gun straight to my chest. “This is for Lain, for Mattia and Tommaso, for Nicola and Renato… for all the men who were brutally slaughtered.”
I eyed the pistol on my chest, then stared Antonio straight in the eye. “I know that you’re angry—”
“You know nothing!” Antonio screamed, a snarl on his lips like a rabid dog.
The bystanders had finally noticed something was going on, watching intently and unsurely. I noticed one of them had pulled out their phone, no doubt calling the police, and I felt a twinge of relief.
“They died fighting for us, for what they believed was right, because you and your family told us that it was the right thing to do!” Antonio had completely lost it at this point, eyes full of loathing like he couldn’t stand my entire being. “You take in these fucking kids, teach them to do your dirty work, and then throw them away like they’re garbage! Family? Don’t make me fucking laugh. You’re working with the very people who killed them in cold blood! You’ve spit on their graves, and you have the fucking nerve to stand here and say you know what I feel?”
“He only did it to keep more of our men from dying!” Vinny shouted back, anger burning in his face. “Don’t act like you’re some righteous hand of God!”
I watched as Antonio glanced at him with fury before it melted away like snow on a summer day.
Suddenly, he was very calm.
“Antonio—” A bad feeling welled up in my gut as Antonio smirked at me.
“No more, Tallon. You’re going to feel how I have for the past thirty years,” Antonio said.
The mad gleam in his eyes hit its peak, and I rushed forward to grab the gun right as Antonio leveled it at Vinny.
A shot rang out, and screams filled the area.
Antonio smirked, and I watched in horror as Vinny collapsed to the ground, a spray of red hitting both me and Antonio.
“Fucking bastard!” I snarled, grabbing my gun as Antonio simply holstered his gun and turned away.
I aimed at his back and fired, but he dodged around the corner. I cursed, starting to run after him, revenge filling every corner of my mind… until there was a soft groan from behind me.
I had barely made it five steps before I turned around, kneeling on the ground next to Vinny. I propped his head up, pulling his clothes away to see the wound. Dark red blood was bubbling up from the hole right in the middle of his chest.
From his labored breathing and the coughs that wracked him, I immediately knew that it had hit a lung.
“Fuck,” I swore, my eyes misting up as I put both my hands on the wound, intending to stop the bleeding with pressure.
Vinny groaned, a little dribble of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.
“Come on, don’t do this Vin—”
“Tallon.” Vinny struggled to get the word out, his face going pale as blood began to pool around my feet.
The exit wound was bleeding as well, and I fucking knew right then and there, there was nothing I could do.
“Don’t do this. You fucking asshole,” I sobbed, tears pouring out of my eyes as I watched my best friend begin to fade away.
“Tallon,” Vinny gasped, “I–I need you to take care of her. My… my Caterina… my daughter.”
This hit me like a brick, and I stared at him wide-eyed in disbelief. “You have a daughter?”
“I… I should’ve married her… should’ve… told you,” Vinny said with a shaky smile. “But… but… I was… scared. I wanted to… keep them safe from this life. But… their address is on… my phone. Call Matilde… take care of them… for me.”
“I will, I swear, just don’t leave—”
But before I could finish my words, Vinny let out a shaky, rattling gasp, and I was staring into his unseeing glassy eyes.
My best friend was dead.
*Natalia*
It was raining that day and Eterna was quiet.
There were no headstones within Eterna, only rows and rows of monuments, reaching back far longer than any of us who stepped inside had been alive. I could only imagine how many souls had been laid to rest there.
The cobblestone roads led through the endless maze of monuments, each holding the last burial places of the many men and women who had been lost to the family.
My husband led the pallbearers, his white gloves clutching the brass holders on the right side of the dark casket. The men carried the casket respectfully, each man looking like a stone monument as they made their way through Eterna.
The weight of the casket was nothing compared to the loss of the man who lay inside.
The rain fell coldly and quietly, like the hum of static as we all followed quietly and mournfully until the funeral procession stopped at a single mausoleum made of dark marble with four pillars and two simple steps. Flowers and shrubbery decorated the area around it, and there was a list of names inscribed on the double door that led inside.
At the very top, carved within the stone in immaculate cursive were the words, ‘In Aeterna Requiescium.’
I held the black umbrella above me tightly, closing my eyes softly as I heard the stone doors being moved open. Only Tallon, as the head, and the rest of the bearers were allowed inside, and I spared one last look at my husband before the stone doors were closed behind him.
This was where Vinny would be laid to rest.
We stood in silence while the rain poured a requiem on the pavement.
“Vin is dead.”
That was all Tallon had said when he first came home after it happened. Covered in blood and with a haunted look in his eyes, he mumbled those words again and again, even as I held him. Even in the days after, he was like a hollow shell.
Vinny’s death had affected us all, but Tallon had lost his best friend. His right hand was a man who had been with him for most of his life.
Losing Vinny was like losing a part of himself.
I hadn’t known Vinny for long, but despite the pain I had caused, the trouble I had made due to my family, he had still been willing to accept me… to joke with me and laugh with me. He was an old soul, one who could lighten up anyone’s day.
His uncanny ability to make anyone feel at ease was unparalleled, and it was hard to believe that he was gone, that his bright light could be snuffed out so easily… and suddenly.
But maybe this was the fate of all those who chose this kind of life, a life of danger at every turn, where death and pain were always lurking around every corner. To get your hands dirty like that, one couldn’t be afraid of the reaper hanging over their shoulders.
