Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
By eleven am, I was heading off to school, leaving Elio behind to finish his work. I wasn’t sure what he was doing as he wanted me to stay focused on my exam today. I made it there with plenty of time to spare, and the exam started at noon.
I actually felt pretty good about that one as I knew the material pretty well. It was a breeze to shoot through, and there were only a couple of questions I had to guess. Even then, I was about 80% sure I had the correct answer.
I finished within the hour and triple-checked my answers before leaving. Out of the hundreds taking the exam today, I was one of the first dozen to finish. I stretched as I usually did after I left, my body still feeling cramped from sitting in the same position for so long.
Elio had offered to give me a massage tonight to help, and I thought about taking him up on that offer as I headed out to the car. As I held my keys in my hand, there was a familiar feeling of deja vu when I opened the door and heard a soft voice call out.
“Hey.”
I stiffened, whirling around defensively and just like last time, that stupid asshat was standing there, his hands raised in defense, attempting to show me he meant no harm and with a sly smile on his lips as he stared at me intently.
“So much for disappearing,” I sneered, crossing my arms.
Alexi chuckled, his posture completely relaxed and open like I was no threat to him. I wasn’t, truthfully, and we both knew it.
“Did things work out like I said?” he asked casually… like we were friends and as if he hadn’t worked for the man who tried to kill me and my mom and had killed my father. Before I could answer him, he just smirked knowingly. “Trick question. I already know they did.”
He stepped forward, and there was a different vibe to him this time… a much less innocent one. Questions swirled in my mind. Was it because I knew his identity now? Or maybe it was that I knew what he was capable of? I didn’t know, but I didn’t like this situation one bit.
I kept the keys clenched in my fists, the door to the car wide open in case I needed to jump in.
“Why are you back here?” I demanded. “You gave us what we needed. Our transaction is done.”
He just smiled like he hadn’t a care in the world. “Let’s just say there are more loose ends than I first thought. So, you trust me now, right?”
“I don’t know about that, yet,” I said, glaring at him and keeping a careful distance. I thought about it and then decided to be honest. “But it’s promising.”
“That’s a bit hurtful.” He gave a short laugh, eyeing me intently. “I mean I did lead you to Junior. I know your boyfriend already found him.”
My head went blank.
I swallowed, trying to act unaffected by this piece of news, especially in front of a shady character like Alexi.
Elio had found Paul already?
But Elio said—
And with Alexi’s dark eyes focused on me, looking for any tiny changes in my expressions, I realized this was exactly what he wanted, why he had just told me this. I kept my expression neutral, swallowing down my building anger toward Elio as I pretended I already knew the bombshell he had thrown at me.
“I still don’t trust you,” I said plainly, “especially now that you’ve cornered me in a parking lot twice.”
He gave me an amused look, crossing his arms like I was a baby rabbit trying to fight a lion. I felt like it too, like I had been thrust into a world of carnivores, each just toying with me until they got bored and finally decided to devour me.
“That’s okay, Cat.” Alexi sighed then gave me a piercing look. “You will.”
And without another word, he turned on his foot and walked away leisurely like a lion who had decided the prey wasn’t worth killing… at least not yet.
A shiver ran down my spine and I breathed out, my hands trembling. Something about Alexi had changed. There was a danger to him that hadn’t been there before.
Maybe it had always been there, but now he just wasn’t hiding it anymore.
I jumped into my car, slammed the door, and locked it as I shakily grabbed my phone and dialed Elio’s number. The call clicked and before Elio could say a word, I rushed out with a hurried, “Where are you? We need to talk.”
I could tell he heard something in my voice, the urgency, the underlining anger, I didn’t know. But Elio quietly replied, “I’m at a showing. I’ll text you the address. What is this about, Cat?”
“I’ll talk to you when I see you,” I snapped, ending the call.
I waited in the car for a moment until I received the text and then took a few deep breaths to calm my racing heart and stop me from flipping out on Elio.
He had lied to me… again.
And as pissed as I was about that, I knew I had to handle this like the adult I was. I was not a child Elio needed to protect, and I thought we had finally got past this issue. But old habits die hard, apparently.
The car rumbled to life under my fingertips and I kept calm as I drove to the address, which wasn’t far from my school. And despite my promise to keep calm, my anger only rose at every stoplight, every crosswalk where I stared at people passing by and going about their lives.
My chest was burning with righteousness, a fury that couldn’t be contained as I parked at the sky-rise Elio was showing. When I arrived, he was already waiting at the entrance, arms crossed with his back to the wall.
I turned off the car, grabbing only the keys as I stormed from the car to the entrance. Elio’s eyes lit up once he spotted me and normally, this would’ve melted my heart but right then, all I wanted was to punch him in the goddamn face.
He’d fed me a morning of lies and he expected me to jump into his arms happily… not this time.
“Hey, are you okay?” he asked worriedly as I approached.
But then he hesitated, a wary look crossing his face as I stormed up.
I lashed out once I was at arm’s length, and he winced but my hand wrapped around his silk tie, pulling him down to my level until we were face-to-face and mere inches from one another. From afar, I was sure it looked like we were just a happy couple, but only Elio and I knew the truth.
I glared at him with poisonous anger as I whisper-yelled my grievances at his face.
“You found Junior?”
*Elio*
“You found Junior?”
Indignation reflected in the eyes of the woman I loved as she faced me with blazing wrath, her hand clenched around my tie hard enough that her skin had turned white. My back ached from being hunched over to be on her level, but I didn’t dare to move, simply gulped down any excuses that had been building on my tongue.
I knew like a sailor in the eye of a storm that it was already too late. I didn’t know how she had found out, but she knew I had lied to her.
Again.
A sense of guilt and shame washed over me as she waited patiently for my answer, a hot-tempered flame ready to consume me the moment I opened my mouth. There was no getting out of this, no sweet-talking or convincing her that I had noble intentions.
I knew that lying to her would have repercussions. We’d been through this before, and maybe I really was insane to keep doing something over and over and expecting a different outcome. I couldn’t keep lying and expecting her to forgive me again and again.
She was a caring person, but not to that extent.
And it was through the sheer fear that crawled up my throat at the thought of her walking away from me, at her being done and never having her in my arms again, that words immediately burst out of my throat.
“I’m sorry. I fucked up.” I confessed, staring into her unforgiving eyes and hoping she would give me one last chance to make things right. “Yes, we found Junior, and I shouldn’t have lied to you. I should have told you sooner.”
I had made the wrong decision by not telling her, and I knew that now.
Her brows furrowed and her lips pursed as she gazed into my eyes searchingly. I didn’t know what she found, but she removed her grip from my tie, and I inhaled deeply, not having realized how much pressure it had been putting on my throat until now. I rubbed my neck, the sore skin being a little tense as Cat took a few steps back, crossing her arms unhappily.