Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 305 -

*Olivia*

When morning came, and the sun rose to greet the new day, I was not willing to get out of bed. I stared anxiously at my phone, still nude under my covers as I tried my best not to freak out. At first, I thought the voice I had heard last night when Giovani left was just a trick of my mind, but the moment I woke up with a text message on my phone, I knew it wasn't.

'Alessandro caught me leaving last night. I told him I was fixing the sink, but Hhe suspects the truth.' That was all Giovani wrote to me, but it was more than enough to send panic bells ringing in my head. He knew. Fuck.

I groaned, throwing my hands over my face as I buried myself into the blankets. I didn't want to get up today. I didn't want to have to face Alessandro and try to pretend he didn't know I was fucking his cousin. If I could be anyone but me just for today, that would be great.

"Livi!" I heard the loud voice of Tallon from somewhere downstairs. "Breakfast is ready!"

I groaned but slipped out of my covers. I got dressed, not bothering to do much else as I pulled on my slippers and gathered the clothes I'd thrown on the floor last night, and put them into the laundry basket by the door. I sighed to myself, not ready for this, but I plastered a smile on my face and left my room. I walked down to the kitchen like a man heading for the guillotine-as slowly as I could get away with it.

"Livi!" Dahlia screamed my name, and I winced at the sudden loudness. "Don't make me come up there!"

Dammit. I knew she'd do it, too.

I hurried around the corner, appearing at the top of the stairs. Right at the foot was Dahlia, tapping her foot impatiently on the floor as she waited for me.

"Finally," she scoffed. "It took you forever!"

"Sorry, Dolly," I said quietly, heading down the stairs one at a time. I clearly wasn't fast enough for Dahlia because, on the last few steps, she reached forward to grab my arm and practically pulled me down the stairs. "Come on," she whined as I tripped on my own feet.

I braced myself for the impact with the floor, but strong arms wrapped around my waist, and I only fell into a familiar embrace instead.

I rubbed my nose that collided with his pectoral muscle and I glanced up to see just who I'd expected. Giovani glared at Dahlia, who looked a bit ashamed as she stood to the side.

"Do you know how dangerous that could've been?" Giovani scolded her, releasing me from his arms.

"I know, that was dumb," Dalia sighed. "Must be those drugs I'm on. I was just excited for her to see the breakfast I made for her."

"You made me breakfast?"

The words popped out of my mouth at the same time that Giovani said, "You should be more careful."

We both looked at one another, suppressing a smile.

"That's your concern, really?" Giovani said, shaking his head fondly.

"It's a perfectly healthy concern considering Dahlia's cooking skill, or lack thereof," I shrugged in defense, grinning as Dahlia gasped.

"How dare you?" She narrowed her eyes at me, but then nodded in agreement. "That's true, though."

I laughed, my bad mood wiped away in an instant before I caught the eye of Alessandro. His gaze was narrowed on me and Giovani... and the hand he had on my waist that he hadn't let go of yet.

My smile dropped and guiltily, I coughed as I stepped away from Giovani. He frowned, glancing at me and then at Alessandro with an annoyed look.

"I promise I didn't make the actual food, I just rearranged it," Dahlia promised, seeing none of this as she grabbed my hand and pulled me into the kitchen.

I stiffened as we bypassed Alessandro, and I could feel his gaze on me like a warm hand on the back of my neck.

Tallon was sitting at the table, munching on what looked like pieces of bacon.

"Morning." He nodded his head at me, and I giggled at the grease smeared all over his face.

He really needed better table manners. If my mom was here to see this, she'd have his head.

Dahlia pulled me in front of her and grabbed my shoulders as she plopped me into one of the chairs.

"Here we go!" She gestured to the table in front of me.

On my plate were two sunny-side-up eggs with two sausage links over them like eyebrows, a huge bacon smile, and an orange slice for a nose.

My breakfast smiled back at me, a happy little face, and I grinned, struggling not to burst into laughter. Giovani and Alessandro both took their own seats, leaving only one to my right for Dahlia. There was an identical plate of breakfast smile on her spot.

"Thanks for having a movie night for me last night," Dahlia said, her voice choked up as she gripped my shoulders, "and for being my best friend for all these years. I know how troublesome I can be at times, and I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you being there for me."

I bit my bottom lip as my eyes began to well up with tears.

"Dolly," I murmured, turning around in my seat to face her, "you're not troublesome. Who said something like that?"

"Debatable," Tallon shrugged.

Dahlia took the seat next to me, a smile on her face as she shrugged. "Nobody, Olive. I guess after the whole kidnapping thing, I'm just rethinking a lot of things."

"Like what?" I asked worriedly.

She opened her mouth, glancing at me like she was going to say something, but she hesitated and shook her head, a soft smile on her lips. "It's nothing."

"Dolly-"

Before I could get to the bottom of her unusual behavior, Dahlia turned to Giovani with a firm look. "What happened to my kidnappers? Are they dead?" she asked seriously. "And did they ever replace either one of the boys?" I figured she was worried about the man she'd been dating.

The question would usually put a damper on a breakfast morning, completely ruining the mood... but this family was different, I was learning.

"No news on the guys, but one of your kidnappers is dead," Tallon said with a dark grin, "and he deserved it."

I was a bit taken aback by the malice in his gaze, the complete assurance, when we were talking about a human losing their life.

"Three actually," Giovani answered instead. "They were just low grunts."

"There was a man-Ivan," Dahlia told him, her lips thinned with anger. I grabbed her hand in support, but she only bullied forward without hesitating, "Is he dead?"

"No," Alessandro said before Giovani could reply. He raised his head confidently, taking the lead out from under his cousin. "Of the five men we know about, only one escaped-probably the man you're talking about. But you don't need to worry about him. I worked out a plan last night with Giovanni's help. Nobody's going to touch you again."

Dahlia sighed.

"I'm not worried about myself," she admitted. "But that man, Ivan... he knew more than the others. He said I was just a pawn, and that our family would pay the price they should have. He mentioned Mom and Dad like he actually knew them." "That would explain some things," a new voice said over my shoulder.

I whirled around. Standing at the entrance casually was Gabriele.

"What do you mean?" Alessandro crossed his arms, getting up from the table.

"I got some information from our prisoner. He was a tough nut, but I broke him in the end. Everybody loses it over the fingernails," Gabriele said casually like he wasn't talking about an imprisoned man being tortured by his own hand. I gaped at him, horrified at the thought of what they had done.

"Gabriele," Giovani said, sharply. "Breakfast."

"Sorry, sorry," Gabriele raised his hands in defense. "But I did get some good news. The one we captured was actually the son of one of the higher-ranked members during Mikhail's reign. Looks like they're recruiting from families with a grudge."

"We can track that," Giovani said, firmly, "Have a team-"

Alessandro glared at him before stepping forward, completely cutting off the line of sight between Giovani and Gabriele.

"I'll head one team to track down the few we know about, and you can lead the other to investigate, Gabriele," Alessandro commanded as if he had the authority to.

I exchanged a bewildered glance with Tallon and Dahlia, who looked just as out of touch as I was. I turned to Giovani, wondering why he was just sitting there, his jaw clenched as he let Alessandro take control.

But a pang of guilt hit me as I soon realized Alessandro's feud with Giovani. If he took advantage of what he saw last night and was blackmailing Giovani into getting more power in the organization, that would explain everything. Fuck.

I clenched my fists under the table, unable to even look at Giovani as I realized how badly I'd screwed up. If it hadn't been for me, none of this would be happening.

I bit my bottom lip, one ear open as I listened to the conversations.

"The Russians have gone underground again," Gabriele said, dispassionately. "It'll be difficult to get another lead on them seeing as they still have resources to hide."

"That isn't a problem," Alessandro said confidently. "We'll just flush them out again. Once we do, we'll destroy them once and for all."

Gabriele stiffened and then glanced around him to see Giovani. He nodded in agreement and Gabriele sighed before relenting, "Fine then."

He turned on his heel to walk out, and Alessandro looked victorious, smug even, as he glanced at Giovani.

I hated this. I hated that Alessandro knew something, even if he wasn't a hundred percent sure, and that Giovani was yielding anything to him, especially in the organization he was so proud of.

For the first time, I felt a little resentful toward Alessandro, even as he kept casting me weird glances. We were under surveillance, and I wasn't happy about it one bit.

I swallowed uncomfortably. Giovani avoided looking at me as he silently ate the rest of his breakfast. I had no choice but to do the same for now.

I wasn't hungry anymore, but I plastered a smile on my face as Dahlia turned to me to chat about movies. I forced coffee down into my stomach where the guilt had settled and made its home. The small bites of food I took off my meal unintentionally turned the smile on my plate upside down.

My smiling breakfast wasn't so happy anymore as he frowned up at me, looking exactly the way I felt right now.