Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 340 -

*Giovani*

In spite of my meaningful looks at Alessandro to try to communicate to him to keep quiet, he couldn't keep his mouth shut. Not that I wished they had gagged him, but damn he would've been easier to handle if he couldn't talk.

"You're an idiot," he snarled at me, still on his knees. "Why the fuck are you trading yourself for me?"

Enzo smirked behind him, still pressing his gun into the back of Alessandro's head. I forced a blank expression on my face, but I wanted more than anything to get Alessandro away from that gun. It was horrifying to know that with one tiny pull of the trigger, Enzo could take Alessandro's life.

"You're family. I'd do anything for my family," I told Alessandro honestly. He had been an absolute pain in my ass for the past few weeks, but it didn't change the fact that I would willingly die for him. Family was everything to me. If I couldn't protect my family, I was worthless as a Don.

Alessandro paled slightly, and I wondered if he was regretting treating me like shit. It seemed that somewhere along the way, he had forgotten that we were supposed to be loyal to each other above all else, but I hoped that tonight he was learning an important lesson.

"Let him up, Enzo," I said gruffly. "We both know he's not the one you want to be holding a gun on right now."

Enzo smirked at me. I couldn't wait to see my team wipe that smug expression off his face later, but for now, I had to act downcast. He had to think he'd gotten the best of me.

Enzo roughly shoved Alessandro forward, forcing him to get on his hands and knees. Alessandro's muscles bulged in anger, but he had the good sense not to fight it. He didn't have any weapons on him. Trying to fight Enzo would just result in a bullet to his brain.

Just as I was walking toward Alessandro to help him to his feet, someone came from behind me and shoved a black bag over my head. My first instinct was to try to reach up and yank it off, but before I could, I felt two men come from behind me and cuff my hands tightly behind my back.

Of course, the fuckers had no regard for my comfort and cuffed my wrists so tightly I could feel the cold metal digging into my bone. I wanted to panic at the sudden loss of control, but I had to remain calm. I breathed slowly in through my nose and looked down, trying to see out the bottom of the bag.

I could hear Alessandro stand up somewhere near me. I kept silent, hoping Gabriele would take it from here. I knew that if I started barking out orders to Alessandro and Gabriele, it would alert Enzo that I had orchestrated this whole interaction more than he realized.

"Come on, Alessandro, get in the car," I heard Gabriele say from somewhere behind me.

"No! What the fuck! I'm not letting him do this!"

"Just let it go and it can all be over, Alessandro," Enzo said. "Surely your family is tired of being kidnapped."

"Fuck you!" Alessandro yelled.

I knew that if I could see his face, it would be turning red right about now.

I sighed internally at his theatrics. In all the scenarios that Gabriele and I had prepared for, Alessandro being reluctant to leave wasn't something that we had considered might happen.

"Do not disobey your Don," Gabriele growled. "Get in the fucking car."

At that, Alessandro stopped arguing, and it sounded like the two of them walked away.

I felt a gun press into the small of my back, and tried not to stumble as I started being led. I assumed we were walking toward the docks since we hadn't seen any other cars when we had parked. I heard Gabriele's car start and drive off and knew that I was officially alone. I had to trust that Gabriele and Tallon could pull this off. I was sure that they could do it. I just had to survive long enough for them to be able to replace me.

"Damn, you're awfully quiet now," Enzo said in a mocking voice somewhere to the right of me.

I made sure to keep note of who was where, just in case things went wrong, and I would need to try to fight them off. So far, there was one goon pushing his gun into my back, one standing on my back left, and it sounded like Enzo standing directly to my right.

We walked in a formation, and I imagined that they were all watching me closely, trying to figure out what my next move was going to be. I did my best to look like I didn't have a plan. I kept my head hanging down and walked slowly in the direction they wanted me to go.

After a few feet, I could tell that we were walking out onto one of the docks. Walking on the wooden planks while water moved them from side to side proved difficult with no way to see in front of me or put my arms out for balance. I thought, if I fell, they would probably just leave me there to drown, but I couldn't think about that.

Instead, I thought about Olivia. I pictured her beautiful face and thought about just how many times I would kiss her when I got back.

Without warning, one of Enzo's men pushed me from the side, and I toppled into a boat. I landed roughly on my shoulder and grunted in pain before scrambling to get to a seated position. They all laughed cruelly-fucking bastards. I would remember this once I got my hands on Enzo....

With a loud roar of the engine, we took off on the water. I hoped that my men would be able to easily access wherever it was that we were going. If we were going to be on some boat or something somewhere, it would be nearly impossible for them to get to me without alerting Dmitri's men.

The waves bounced the boat around a bit, and I had to focus to stay seated. I was glad I had never struggled with seasickness. I hoped that Enzo and his men did.

After we had ridden in silence for a while, Enzo yelled to me over the sound of the engine, "You know, I'll give you this. You're a good leader to sacrifice yourself for your guy. We've been doing a lot of intel on your organization, and I know that Alessandro isn't worth half of you. Of course, that also means that you're a stupid leader since you're destabilizing your entire organization to sacrifice yourself for someone who's basically worthless, but I gotta give it to you, you obviously want to be a hero."

I ignored him, refusing to let him bait me. Thinking that any man was worthless just because he didn't hold a leadership role was exactly why I couldn't fucking stand the way the Russians ran themselves. It was also that line of thinking that gave me an edge on them.

"Not in a talking mood, eh?" Enzo asked, obviously annoyed that he couldn't get me riled up. "Oh well, you'll be singing like a bird soon enough. I've got a guy who really loves interrogating. He's got a pretty unique talent for keeping his subjects conscious even while inflicting horrible pain. So far, he's gotten everyone to talk."

I continued to ignore him. Pain was pain. He could pretend all he wanted that they had come up with some new uniquely horrible way to torture me for information, but it wouldn't be anything I couldn't handle. And most likely, my men would show up before they even got the chance to lay a finger on me.

After what felt like a half hour, the boat slowed to a stop, and I heard the sounds of them tying it up. Their purpose in putting a bag over my head had definitely succeeded; I had no clue where we were. They could have taken us out, driven in a circle, and come right back to the same docks for all I knew.

One of Enzo's men wrenched my arm up, causing my injured shoulder to tweak. I had been expecting it, so I was able to suppress any sounds of pain. I didn't want them to know that my fall into the boat had left any lasting injuries. Otherwise, they would continue to exploit them.

I stepped awkwardly up out of the boat onto another dock and sure enough, I felt a gun get shoved into my back again. It felt like these assholes were damn near getting off on the fact that they could push their gun at me whenever they wanted.

We walked down the dock in silence before they pulled me to a sudden stop. I heard a car door open in front of me right before being pushed into the waiting car. I wanted to laugh to myself at the overkill of them taking me to yet another location. I knew they must be pretty damn intimidated by me if they thought they had to go to all this trouble. Little did they know, it didn't matter how many different places they took me. As long as I had my shoes, my men would replace me. The car ride was shorter than the boat trip, and nobody tried to talk to me this time. I heard them speaking quietly in Russian to each other, but I couldn't make out what they were saying. My Russian was so rusty, I doubted I would've understood them even if I could hear it anyway.

When the car came to a stop, the guy sitting next to me in the back seat prodded me with his gun, indicating that I should get out.

"I can't open the fucking door," I reminded him.

I was so sick of not being able to see or move my arms. A dull ache had settled into my shoulder, and not being able to move it around was making it worse.

Someone came around the other side and opened the door for me before grabbing my arm and yanking me out of the car. I stumbled but instead of falling, I shoulder-checked him hard enough that I heard him grunt. 'Take that, fucker,' I thought.

"This way," I heard Enzo say.

It sounded like he was a few feet ahead of the rest of us.

I started walking in his direction, ready to get this shit over with. I heard what sounded like a metal warehouse door open and felt them lead me to what was most likely the center of the room before they pushed me down onto a chair. Someone from behind ripped the bag off my head, and I blinked hard, trying to quickly adjust my eyes to the bright light that was shining in them.

After a few seconds, my eyes adjusted enough that I could make out Dmitri standing in front of me, holding a flashlight directly toward my face. My blood went cold at the sadistic fucking grin he had plastered on his face. I hoped my men would arrive soon, knowing that otherwise, I just might replace out what kind of torture Enzo had been talking about.