Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 338 -

*Olivia*

My head was swirling with emotions. I felt like too much was happening all at once, and I couldn't process any of it. Alessandro was missing. Dahlia knew about Gio and me and didn't even care at all. Gio was about to sacrifice himself to try and save Alessandro-that was the part that hurt the most to think about.

I forced myself to stop thinking about it and instead focus on Dahlia knowing. I couldn't believe I had spent so much time stressing myself out over trying to keep everything a secret. I felt like an idiot for letting Alessandro get away with blackmailing Gio.

Thinking about Alessandro made my stomach hurt. I was scared of what might be happening to him. Last night had been nice. It was the first time in a long time that I had been able to have a good time with him, and it reminded me who he really was underneath the person he had become in the past few weeks. He wasn't just a smarmy asshole; he was the same funny guy I had known since I was a kid. And now he was possibly being hurt for information. I balled up my fist and pressed it against my chest, trying to force my heart to stop racing.

I wandered downstairs for breakfast and was shocked to see Gio, Gabriele, Dahlia, and Tallon all sitting around the table talking and eating as if nothing was wrong. How could they eat at a time like this? Just the thought of even taking a sip of coffee was enough to make my stomach flip over on itself. I didn't think my anxiety would allow me to eat until both Alessandro and Giovani were back home safe.

I slipped into the chair in between Giovani and Tallon and tried to take comfort in Gio's closeness. He turned and gave me a small smile. I forced myself to smile back, even though looking at his face and thinking about what might happen to him just made me want to cry. I loved him. How could I sit back and let him walk directly into danger?

Dahlia seemed to sense how I was feeling. She set a mug of steaming coffee in front of me and laid a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"Drink this. You need to get something in your stomach, even if it's just coffee," she said.

I nodded, not wanting to interrupt the conversation flowing around me. I could tell that Gabriele and Giovani were deep in their strategy discussion. I didn't want to take even the smallest chance of distracting them.

"I think it's a foolproof plan," Gio said, turning to Tallon. "Gabriele will take me to the meeting location, and I'll let them take me. We'll act like we've been defeated, like we're just a bunch of clueless idiots who never even thought of lying to them."

"You won't have to do much acting to convince them of that," Tallon joked, nudging me with his elbow.

My mouth quirked up into a smile, but that was the best I could do. I appreciated the effort on Tallon's part, but I just couldn't do this like they could. I couldn't sit here and pretend like this was a totally normal conversation to be having over the breakfast table.

"Yeah, yeah," Gio said. "Anyways, there's no way they'd want to kill me right away. They'll be trying to get any bit of information out of me that they can. I'm way too valuable to just kill outright, and they know that. That's why they asked for me specifically. They're not looking for someone to just murder. They're looking for a way to permanently destabilize our organization. They know that if they just killed me, we'd have my replacement ready to go within a few days." My breath caught in my throat. His replacement? How could he talk about this as if it wasn't a big deal? It was a huge deal!

"Gabriele came up with the idea to put a tracking device in my shoe. That way, wherever they take me, you all will know. Then Gabriele's and Alessandro's teams will come in and rescue me, with the added bonus of destroying one of their safehouses. We're going to make them wish they'd never set foot in Italy."

"That's all well and good," Dahlia said, her eyes on me even though she was speaking to Gio, "But what happens if they panic when our men come crashing in and just decide to kill you right then and there? If they kill you, they could run, and nobody would even be able to identify them."

I gasped, then covered my mouth with my hand in embarrassment. I hated that I couldn't be as calm and collected as the rest of them were. But I also hated that it had to be Gio who was being put in the most danger.

Gio glanced toward me, then shrugged. "Our men will just have to work fast. Infiltrate, grab me, get the fuck out. It's simple, really."

"It's not simple at all, actually," I said, my voice shaking in terror. "One wrong move and you're dead. What exactly is simple about that? That's a huge amount of risk."

Giovani took one look at me and abruptly stood up out of his chair and whipped my chair around so that my back was to the table. He fell to his knees dramatically and knelt in between my legs before taking my hands in his. "Olivia, carino, my love, I swear to you on everything that is good to me that I will come back. I will come back safely and I will come back for you. I won't put myself in any unnecessary danger. I'm only going to do what it takes to save Alessandro, and then I'm going to come back to you."

My breath hitched as I stared deeply into his eyes, seeing how sincere he was. I knew he meant what he was saying, but it didn't change the fact that he couldn't control everything. There were so many unknown variables that would go into this rescue mission. The one guarantee was that Gio would be put in grave danger.

"Now wait just a minute, when the fuck did Dahlia replace out about you two?" Tallon's shocked voice interrupted my racing thoughts.

"What the fuck, Olivia, you told TALLON before telling me?!" Dahlia asked incredulously.

I knew I was in trouble with her since she had broken out my full name instead of calling me Olive. I turned my chair back around so I could face her.

The rest of the table burst into laughter.

"I'll be honest, Dahlia," Gabriele said in between fits of laughter, "you're literally the last person in the compound to know."

Dahlia looked outraged, but I could tell she was just trying to get my mind off of everything that had been bothering me. She stood up and stamped her foot.

"Olivia! You have some serious explaining to do! I didn't care about you keeping the secret from everyone, but now I replace out you were only keeping it from ME?! What in the world? What happened to being best friends? What happened to giving me whatever I want because I almost died at the hands of the evil Russians and you're just glad that I'm back?"

"Oh, now she admits it," Tallon chuckled. "We all suspected that you had been using your kidnapping to guilt us into doing what you wanted, and now we know for certain."

Dahlia stamped her foot again and crossed her arms over her chest. Her mouth was turned down, but she was clearly trying to hold back laughter. Her face was turning red with the effort. The combination of her ridiculous toddler-like stance and her face twisting in an unnatural frown was what finally forced away my anxious thoughts and allowed me to let out a few laughs of my own.

Gio laid his hand absentmindedly on my head and stroked my hair. I leaned into his touch, relishing the novelty of being able to casually touch each other in front of our friends. I hadn't realized how much we were missing out on by hiding our relationship from them.

Public displays of affection had never really been my thing before, but with Gio, it was different. The way he touched me didn't feel possessive or like he was trying to stake his claim. It felt like he just wanted to be comforted by my presence. And I supposed that's what we had become to each other over the past few weeks-comfort.

Although I tried to force the thoughts away, I couldn't help but wonder what would happen to me if my source of comfort was stolen away. I didn't care what everyone else said. The chances of them pulling this off without anything going wrong were slim to none. It was a real possibility that I would never see Gio again. These could be our last few moments together.

I reached up and clasped his hand in both of mine, then pulled it to my lips and brushed them against his knuckles. I tried to breathe in his scent. I appreciated my friends' company, but I suddenly found myself wishing that Gio and I could just be alone. If these were my last few minutes with him, I wanted to be able to do more than just subtly play with his hands.

But I forced that thought away. These weren't our last few moments. We had plenty of time left. I didn't want to jinx it by acting like this was the last time I would ever see him. I forced myself to take a deep breath and plastered a smile on my face. If everyone else could joke and laugh, then I could at least sit there quietly and smile.

It wasn't our last few moments. It couldn't be. We still had so much left to do together. We had just barely come clean to Dahlia.

But the Russians didn't care about that. They would hurt him. And if his men couldn't rescue him fast enough, they would kill him. A single tear escaped down my cheek in spite of my best efforts to keep it from falling. I felt Gio's fingers stiffen against me as he felt the tear run against them.

He didn't say anything. He just swiped it away and then placed both hands protectively on my shoulders. My stomach was in knots.

'Please don't let anything happen to him. Please, please, please,' I thought to myself. I wasn't sure who I was praying to, but I hoped if I left it vague enough, then maybe the universe would let it come true.