Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 141 -

Весса.

In absolute disbelief, my reaction time slowed considerably. The moment that I saw the gun. I froze in fear, and as he moved towards me, I panicked. I should have listened to Allegra and Neal. I should never have gone out on my own, but part of me didn't want to believe that there was actually somebody out there trying to come after me.

"What are you doing? Why are you doing this?" I breathed out as my back came in contact with the side of my car.

"Look, you seem like a nice lady, but I need something, and you're the collateral that's going to get it for me."

Collateral. How was I supposed to be collateral?

"I can't help you. I'm nobody. Please just let me go."

My begging was useless. Staring at the sinister grin upon his face, I knew there was no way in hell he was going to allow me to go. Whatever he needed me for, he was willing to have somebody else in this parking lot see him point a gun at me just to ensure that he could get it.

This situation between us, even though it seemed private, drew the attention of unwanted eyes. I heard the quiet speaking of a couple who were passing by, and they glanced at us, and they must have seen that something was going on even though the guy was concealing the gun because the next thing I knew, the gentleman came back and spoke up. "Hey, is everything okay here?"

The moment was just what I needed to distract the man in front of me so I could pull the mace from my purse that Allegra had given me.

Without a second thought, I held it up and quickly sprayed the man in the face. He screamed in agony, dropping the gun to the ground as he grabbed for his eyes. Not wasting a second. I opened the car door, quickly jumped inside, slamming and locking it just as he tried to pull on the handle to stop me from leaving.

His muffled yells of anger as he beat on my window brought me to tears.

Quickly putting the key into the ignition, I shifted gears and peeled out of the parking lot, barely missing the gentleman who had basically saved my life.

Tears streamed down my eyes at the realization that this situation could have gotten a lot worse than it did. Panicked, my breath came in rapid pants as my heart beat out of my chest. How could I have been so stupid? How could I have allowed myself to become the victim of some asshole's sick f*cking game?

I could have died, and then the children would have been left without a mother. Beating myself up over the entire situation, I made my way in the direction of the house, praying that the man wasn't following me. My eyes darted to the rearview mirrors every few seconds to make sure that I was safe.

Eventually, my driveway came into view, and as I turned down it I stopped the car needing a moment to get myself together. The last thing that I wanted was for Allegra or Neal to see me in the state that I was in.

Of course, I was going to have to tell them, but at the same time, I wanted to be able to tell them with a straight face and not while I was an emotional mess.

Taking deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart, I shifted the car into drive and continued down the driveway. The moment that the front door of the house came into view, it opened, and Neal stepped through. His eyes narrowed at me; his fists clenched at his sides. He was pissed, that was very obvious, and in a way, he had a right to be.

I had literally done what he told me not to do, and because of that, I put myself at risk. I ended up getting attacked, assaulted outside my vehicle by the man who I had thought just was a regular local, and the only reason why I managed to get away was because Allegra had stashed pepper spray in my car that I ended up taking with me.

That, and the nice gentleman who came back to make sure everything was okay.

The moment that I stepped out of the car, his eyes met mine and instantly narrowed eyebrows were relaxed. "What happened? What's wrong?"

He cleared the space between us and wrapped me in his arms, looking me over as if looking for the damage. I had managed to stop myself from crying before I pulled up, but the moment that he wrapped his arms around me, I broke down into tears.

"I was stupid, and I should have listened to you," I sobbed as I wiped the tears from my face, pulling away from him so that I could try to get a grip on myself.

"What are you talking about?" he said very hastily as he stared at me. "Did something happen? Did he replace you?"

Nodding my head ever so slowly, I held back the sob that tried to escape my throat. "I went to the grocery store to go grab these things that I needed, and everything was fine, and before I left, I thought I saw him, but then I just thought my mind was playing tricks on me because there was no telling if he was bad or he was just a local. I mean, he could have been anybody...."

I started to explain what had happened when I went to the store. The fact that I hadn't seen anybody initially, that my shopping trip went fine, that I checked out perfectly fine and even was able to load all the groceries in the car. But it was after I closed the hatch to the car that the man approached me.

"It was so weird. He seemed so nice at first. He even had a bag of what looked like groceries in his arm. We stood there and talked for a minute, and then I reached to get my keys, and he... well... the next thing I know, I turned around, and he had a gun."

Neal's face went from one of understanding to completely livid with what happened. However, when I explained to him that the man, who ended up passing by with his wife, came back to make sure everything was okay and that gave me the opportunity to mace the guy who would have attacked me, he slightly chuckled.

"I'll give it to you. I didn't think you'd have it in you to mace somebody, but that doesn't excuse the fact that you put yourself at risk after I explicitly told you not to leave the house."

He was turning this on me, and that pissed me off more than anything. "What do you expect me to do? Stay locked up in this house forever? I can't just stay here forever, not able to go out for the fear of somebody attacking me. This shit needs to end. I'm sick and tired of it."

Pushing past him, I made my way to the house. There were still groceries in the trunk, but the last thing I wanted to do right now was unload them. So as soon as I made my way inside, I looked at Layla and asked her to grab them, which she was more than happy to do, considering both children were down for a nap.

The moment that she left the area, I let my breathing come in slow and steady, my shoulders moving up and down as I tried to calm my racing mind. All of this was too much. I was so tired of living this continuous circle of bullshit. It was like my life had become my very own soap opera, and it was a soap opera that desperately needed to be canceled.

Taking a moment to collect my thoughts, I turned to the fridge and grabbed the brand new, unopened bottle of wine that I had had sitting in there for the past week. I had been previously waiting to save it for a special occasion, but after the day I had, I definitely needed it now.

Closing the fridge, I reached for the bottle opener and quickly popped the top. Not even bothering with a glass, I put the bottle to my lips and downed it. After a few big gulps, I held the bottle out in front of me and turned to look at Neal, who walked into the kitchen. "If you're coming here to continue lecturing me, please replace something else to do."

My remark was firm and steady. The last thing I wanted to do was to continue having this discussion with him. All he was going to do was sit there and tell me how I f*cked up, and I didn't need to hear him sound like a broken record. "Look, I'm not sitting here trying to tell you what you need to do. All I'm trying to do is protect you, Becca. I don't understand why you can't see that. I felt, when I came home only thirty minutes after you left, to tell you that we figured out who it was only to replace that you had disobeyed me and left regardless of what I had told you."

I suddenly felt foolish. Had I waited another 30 minutes, Neal would have come in and told me exactly what was going on. But instead, I was impatient, not wanting to wait for him to come back, and took it upon myself to venture out into town only to end up getting caught by the man who was out to get me.

"Look, I'm sorry I can't go back in time and change what happened, but I can promise you I don't plan on going out anytime soon until you get this figured out."

"Oh, so now you want me to figure things out?" He scoffed, shaking his head. "All I have been doing is trying to figure things out and protect you, but that never seems to be good enough. You still continue to want to do whatever it is you want when you want it, without consideration of anybody else."

He wasn't wrong. I was being a spoiled brat right now, and I was being unreasonable when all he was trying to do was help me, but can he honestly blame me for being frustrated with everything?

In the moment, we found ourselves at a bit of a standstill. He was staring at me while I was staring at him, the bottle sitting on the counter before me as I rested my arm against it, trying to alleviate the pain in my back. Ever since I had Dahlia, I'd had nothing but lower back pains, and it was something I was working on. But right now, with all the pent-up energy that I had from the situation that had happened, it radiated through my body more than usual.

Which in turn made me a little more bitchy than usual.

"Look, let's just put this behind us. Tell me who he is. What do they want?"

He sighed for a moment, shaking his head before meeting my gaze once more, with more of a sad expression than anything. "You have to promise not to freak out."

I wasn't sure why he would think that I would freak out, but the fact that he had to lead the conversation with that comment really did freak me out. "Just tell me."

Nodding his head, he licked his bottom lip as he ran his hand through his hair before rubbing the back of his neck. "They're Russians, but it doesn't have anything to do with what happened with James. This has to do with what's happened with me."

Disbelief radiated through me as I tried to understand what he meant.

They were Russians, but it didn't have anything to do with James.

It had to deal with Neal?

"F*ck my life..." I muttered, rolling my eyes.

If it wasn't one thing, it was another.