Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 333 -

*Giovani*

I kept subconsciously flexing my hands into fists and then forcing myself to relax them. My jaw was sore from how much I had been clenching it. I was pretty sure that on the nights when I didn't sleep with Olivia, I was grinding my teeth from all the stress I had been under lately. Gabriele stared at me; he knew me well enough to know that I would talk when I was ready.

"He's killing me," I said in a low voice. "I know I need to let it go and focus on the organization, but it's fucking killing me to deal with him."

Gabriele nodded, sensing that I needed to talk this out more than I needed to hear his advice.

I kept talking. "I just don't know what to do with him. He's too inexperienced for me to give him the responsibilities that he wants. And he's willing to rip our organization apart if it means he gets some kind of glory. I don't think he has any idea just how serious all of this is. It's like some kind of sick fucking game to him. And to make it all worse, the way he talks about Olivia... it's disgusting, Gabriele, truly disgusting. He acts like she's not even a person. He treats her like a pawn on a chess board, just a piece for him to move around so he can get what he wants."

"He's not like us, Gio," Gabriele finally decided to say. "You've got to remember that. He was raised differently. He's not going to think about things the same way we do. We'd sacrifice everything for the family business because we've been trained to feel that way."

"I know," I sighed. "But does he have to be so goddamn selfish? I'm not asking anyone to get themselves killed for me, I just don't want him to get ME killed."

"You're going to have to figure out how to rein him in. This is part of being a good Don. There's a reason why you were chosen for this job. You'll figure it out. But you've got to keep a level head. Don't let him get you so worked up, especially over Olivia. You know a big part of that is just an act. They've known each other for years. He doesn't really think she's just a pawn in his game."

Gabriele was right, but it was easier to say I wouldn't let Alessandro bother me than it was to actually do it once the little shit was in my face. Right now was a great example. In theory, I wanted to let Alessandro take Olivia out to dinner and pretend like that didn't bother me at all, but in reality it was killing me to know that she was out having an amazing time with anyone other than me. The fact that she had looked fucking gorgeous and had been angry with me before leaving just made it worse.

As if our conversation had summoned him, Alessandro came sauntering into the warehouse looking like he owned the world. A huge grin was plastered on his face, and as he got closer, I could faintly smell Olivia's perfume clinging to him. I ground my teeth together, determined not to let him set me off.

"What are you so happy about?" I asked him, hating that I already knew his answer.

"I had a good night. Taking a beautiful woman to dinner can have that effect on a man," he said suggestively.

My entire body flexed instinctively. I wanted to grab him by the throat. I wanted to pummel his face. I wanted to hurt him so fucking badly he would never dare talk to me like that again. Gabriele looked at me sharply. He knew exactly what I was thinking. He shook his head slightly, and I swallowed my rage back down. I forced myself to compartmentalize and focus.

'This is about business. Just focus on business,' I thought to myself as I breathed in through my nostrils and out through my mouth.

When I was sure I could speak calmly, I said, "Gabriele tells me your teams found something. Tell me what you know."

Alessandro smirked. He loved that I didn't have the time to respond to his dig about taking Olivia to dinner. It was just one more small way in which he could hurt me, one more way that he could throw me off balance, and I played into it every fucking time. I couldn't help myself. When it came to Olivia, I didn't know how to compartmentalize. She had become everything to me.

Gabriele looked between the two of us, then said, "We're almost certain we've found Dmitri's right hand man. Some guy named Enzo. He's a real piece of work, but Alessandro has been working on a plan to bring him in."

To his credit, Alessandro seemed willing to focus on the conversation at hand. Just as I had been thinking that it was a mistake to invite him and that I should have just received the intel from Gabriele, he nodded and a serious expression overtook the shitty smile he'd been wearing since he walked in.

"He's overly confident in his location, and my team has located a few separate weak points. Along with Gabriele's men, I think we can capture him and take him in alive. Once we get our hands on him, we'll interrogate," Alessandro said.

He wasn't as smug about success as he had been when giving intel in the past. I could tell that Gabriele had been working to teach him that just because he made an assumption, didn't mean it was correct. Intel was based in fact-replaceing. He couldn't tell me anything unless he had one hundred percent verified it to be true, and we couldn't just assume that our missions would be successful. We had to be realistic about what we could and could not do.

"Alright, I support this. I want to stay in the loop on all of it. As soon as your teams converge on the house, let me know."

If we managed to capture Dmitri's second alive, it could change everything for us. The amount of knowledge that he would have about Dmitri's entire operation would be enough for us to take it all apart. I just hoped that he wasn't skilled in dealing with interrogation. Most men buckled under the pressure of a few broken bones, but there were some who stubbornly kept their mouths shut. Those were the ones I hated dealing with the most. I had to get creative when it came to getting them to talk. It was an aspect of my job that I preferred to never think about.

"Thanks, boss," Gabriele said and turned to depart.

I started to follow him, but I could feel Alessandro invading my space. I turned toward him, wondering what he wanted now. I was really starting to hate being alone with him. I hated how violent he made me feel. Every time I lashed out at him, I felt like I was betraying James. But every time I let him walk all over me, I felt like I was betraying Olivia. There was no winning when it came to Alessandro. He was a huge fucking thorn in my side.

"What do you want?" I asked him bluntly. I had been so tense for so long that the fight had started to go out of me. I just wanted him to leave me alone.

"I want you to start thinking with your head instead of with your dick," he said.

My heart started pounding and I felt blood rushing to my head. I had thought the fight had gone out of me, but I had been wrong. My hands clenched into fists, and I knew the pulse point on my temple was probably visibly throbbing. I was so fucking angry I was worried I might actually black out from rage.

"I'd advise you to remember what happened the last time you spoke to me so crassly," I said in as calm of a voice as I could muster, my muscles twitching.

"You know I'm telling the truth, Gio," he said, a serious expression on his face, "You need to leave Olivia. She'll never have a normal life with you, and it's not just because you're a Don." My face twisted into a sneer. "And who do you suggest would give her a normal life? You?"

"Well, yeah."

I scoffed at the way he acted like he was doing something heroic. There was nothing fucking heroic about treating a woman like a prize to be won. She was a human being, not a trophy.

"I'll let Olivia decide what's best for her. She's a grown woman. Or have you gotten so desperate to acquire her that you've forgotten that?"

"I'm telling you, just think about it. What do you think her life will really be like with a guy so much older? You think she wants to spend her forties changing your fucking diapers? What if she decides she wants kids? Do you really think it would make sense for you to have kids when you'll just die before they even hit their twenties? Leave her so she can be with someone her own age. She'll thank you for it later."

His words hit me like a knife to the chest. It was everything I had been forcing myself not to think about when it came to my relationship with Olivia, and he was throwing it in my face. Of course, I had considered that being with an older man would change how her life would go, but I hadn't let myself think too hard about it. I had been so focused on just ensuring that we had any type of future at all, I hadn't allowed myself to picture what that future would actually look like. "Just think about it," Alessandro repeated before letting himself out of the warehouse.

I walked to my car and started to head back to the compound. I had never been an insecure person, but Alessandro's words had me doubting everything. What if Olivia stayed with me and regretted it when I started getting truly old while she was only just hitting middle age? Would her life be better if she was with someone her own age? I replayed the beginning of our relationship over and over in my mind, wondering if there was a point where I had fucked up by letting us get so close. Being with Olivia was the best thing that had ever happened to me, but the idea that our relationship could become the worst thing that had ever happened to her was terrifying.

One thing I knew for sure, I had to see Olivia. She was probably still pissed at me, and I was certain the conversation that I wanted to have with her would only make it worse, but we needed to talk this through. And at the end of the day, if I decided that what was best for her was for me to let her go, I was determined to do that, no matter how much it would break my heart.