Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 159 -

Neal.

Andre punched me in the face again. I spat blood and a tooth onto the floor.

Allegra was sitting behind me, duct taped to a metal chair. Much as I was hoping she'd go all Black Widow on their asses, real life didn't work that way.

"I want to hear you beg," Andre said, grabbing me by my hair while Xavier chuckled in the background.

"Like your brother or your daddy?" I coughed back, spitting another tooth. "I heard your daddy screamed like a little girl-"

That got me another punch in the face.

"Neal, could you TRY not to antagonize him?" Allegra hissed. She herself was beat to f*ck, but I was the one they really wanted. For now.

And I wanted to keep it that way.

"I could try." I laughed maniacally.

"You're not too bright," Andre grunted, hitting me again, splitting open my cheek.

I was pretty sure, if I got out of this alive, that eye socket was going to need work. "Your brother pissed himself."

Xavier stopped chuckling. "Andre, why don't you just kill the motherf*cker?"

"I will." Andre wiped the sweat off his brow. "First, I'm going to make him suffer."

"You don't always need to play with your food," Xavier sighed, exasperated.

"Not always. But this time I intend to savor-" Andre frowned and touched his ear.

I imagined there was a Bluetooth device in there he was using to communicate with his men.

"Alpha Team, report!" Andre ordered.

By the look on his face, I assumed Alpha Team didn't report.

"Problems?" I asked innocently, blood and drool slipping out the side of my mouth.

Andre looked up at Xavier. "Go see what's going on."

"No thanks," Xavier said. "I wasn't planning on being cannon fodder today."

"Excuse me?!" Andre bellowed.

"You know those movies where the dumb blonde chick with the big boobs goes down to the basement because she hears a noise? This is kind of like that," Xavier responded.

Andre scowled at Xavier. "Listen here, you jumped up little sh*t..."

The door splintered off its hinges, and I went to knock Allegra to the floor, covering her with my own body, as gas canisters rolled in.

"F*ck!" Andre shouted, grabbing Xavier by the arm and pulling him out an already shattered window.

"Nice seeing you. Hope we can meet again for tea!" I called after them. Then Allegra and I both dissolved into a coughing fit.

Greg's men poured into the room, checking every nook and cranny.

Still coughing, I pointed to the window.

Mattia walked to it, looked outside, and shrugged. "Mission is to rescue Allegra. Killing the Michaelson Brothers is not on the agenda."

I groaned. "Pay... extra..." I wheezed.

"You'll have to discuss that with Greg, but I'll bet it'll cost more than you've got for him to risk making those kinds of enemies," Mattia said. "F*ck," I coughed.

One of Mattia's men brought over some oxygen for Allegra and me. I took deep gulps of air, silently kicking myself for not having worked out the death details earlier.

"We're going to have to disappear," Allegra told me, her voice muffled by the oxygen mask.

I sighed and hung my head. "I know."

"You're going to have to forget her," Allegra continued.

My head came up. "Like you're going to forget Layla?"

Allegra looked sad, and I regretted my words. "For now. We need to keep them safe."

"True." I reached out and took Allegra's hand as soon as they'd finished cutting her free of the chair. "I'm sorry."

"We can't change the past," Allegra said. "Right now, we've got to lay low so we can all have a future. Especially those we love."

I nodded, already beginning to make arrangements in my head. I'd liquidated most of my assets and put the money in an offshore account in the Cayman Islands. A good chunk of that money was going to Greg, but there was still plenty to disappear on, for both of us. Mattia got us both on our feet, then he and his men began escorting us out. We crossed through several dead bodies, and there were members of Mattia's crew who were simply policing all their brass.

"The weapons will, of course, replace their way into the Volga, but it never hurts to be tidy," Mattia explained of the scroungers.

"Of course," I said, still holding Allegra's hand. I wasn't going to let go until we were well away from this mess.

We walked back through the woods, past the perimeter Greg's men had set, and got into a black SUV.

Mattia sat down in the front seat and opened his glove compartment, holding up a manila envelope. "The other things have been arranged. You just have to make the second deposit." "Hand me a phone," I replied.

Mattia handed over his own personal phone, and I completed the transfer of the rest of the funds to Greg's account.

I gave the phone back to Mattia, who took a call, I assumed from Greg, nodded his head a few times, and handed me the envelope.

"Congratulations on your new lives, Nate and Ariana Samuelson," Mattia said. "Now, let's get you to the airport. The jet is fueled and ready to go to Hong Kong. From there, well, we really don't want to know where you go." "Thank you," I responded. "I'll drop your boss a line sometime if we have any more trouble."

Mattia grinned. "I'm sure he'd appreciate that."

****

James.

I stood in my uncle's favorite restaurant, looking at my dead uncle, surrounded by his dead men. Alessandro was fussing in his car seat, and I snatched him up the moment I saw him. He stank of dirty diaper, but I didn't care. Tony was currently paying the owners of the restaurant, as well as their frightened staff, piles and piles of money to keep this quiet. My men cleaned up, discreetly taking the bodies out the back and piling them into black SUVS with highly- tinted windows. My uncle was carried out last, still dignified in his three-piece suit.

I held Alessandro all the way back to the compound, where arrangements were quickly made with a few funeral homes and churches. My uncle, of course, would have his service at the Cathedral, but the others had families that frequented local churches of all shapes and sizes, so we left it to them to decide.

Tony made all the calls. I was too busy holding Alessandro and thanking God he was okay.

Becca ran out of the mansion, practically tripping down the stairs as she raced to get to Alessandro. I put out a hand to steady her, then handed him over. "I'll change his diaper, I just didn't want to waste any time at the restaurant-" "I don't care." Becca covered Alessandro with kisses. "I'm just glad he's okay."

"Let's go back inside," I said, cognizant of the activity happening in the courtyard. Bodies were being carried out and laid side-by-side in a cool outbuilding.

Becca looked directly at what I didn't want her to see and didn't even flinch. "I'm sorry about your uncle."

"He was a good man," I replied. I felt cold hatred for Ronaldo, both for taking my uncle from me too soon, and for doing all of this in front of Alessandro. He was only a little over a year old, so of course, he was too young to remember, but on the off chance he ever did, I wanted Ronaldo's head for it.

I put an arm around Becca and escorted this small part of my little family back into the mansion.

We went into her suite, and she laid Alessandro down on a Pack 'n Play that had been set up to one side. The thing had everything-changing table that could be taken out to make a deep crib, even a place where a car seat could fit. I nudged Becca out of the way to change Alessandro's diaper myself.

When I lifted his shirt, however, I saw blood.

"F*ck!" I tried to shield the sight from Becca, but she shrieked in alarm.

Layla and Tony both came pelting into the room. Tony leaned over the Pack 'n Play while Layla's hands flew over her mouth.

"It's okay," Tony said, lifting the shirt more. "It's not his. Kid's fine. Looks like they wanted to send a message."

It was just blood stained a stained napkin tucked beneath his shirt. The message itself was smudged, but I could still make out the text written in bold black letters.

"Enjoy it while it lasts,"" Becca and I read at the same time. "R.""

"I'll clean him up a bit, then we need to give him a bath," I stated calmly to Becca and Layla, throwing away the napkin. "Tony, you keep doing what you were doing. Thank you for the quick response time."

"I've set up a team to track Ronaldo's whereabouts," Tony said. "He's sure as hell not welcome here."

"Agreed." I cleaned up Alessandro with some wet wipes then handed him to Becca. Layla didn't seem to be in any condition to be carrying the poor, bloody child around.

Becca, Layla, and I went to the nursery, where Becca put Alessandro in a little basin of warm water and began washing him.

Layla got more control of herself and went to check on a sleeping Dahlia before getting a onesie out for Alessandro. She arranged it carefully on the bed, then brought a small towel with a teddy bear hood on one corner over to Becca so she could swaddle him up while she dried him off.

I disposed of the pinkish water myself, then scrubbed the basin clean. I just wasn't sure Layla was up to it.

By the time I got back to the two women, Alessandro was jabbering and kicking his feet on Becca's bed, happy as a clam.

Layla had gotten out a small board book, "Pat the Bunny," and was reading it to Alessandro and he kept bringing his little hands up to touch the different sensory elements inside the book.

"I... didn't know they still made that book," I said aloud.

Becca rounded on me. "Really? REALLY?! That's all you have to say?!"

"I'm sorry, Becca. Alessandro never should have been there" I began.

"No shit." Becca paced and raked a hand through her hair. "God, what if he'd been older and witnessed that, James?"

It was the same thought that had occurred to me. It made my stomach turn. "I don't know what you want me to say. I'm... angry. Hell, I'm about to tear someone's head off..."

"Good," Becca said, stopping in front of me and grabbing the lapels of my jacket. "I'm glad you're about to rip someone's head off, because I have a request."

A request? "What request?" I asked.

"Kill Ronaldo," she said.