Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 342 -

*Giovani*

"It's such a pleasure to meet the Don of the Valentinos." Dmitri smiled as he watched me carefully. There was a coldness to his eyes, the black irises almost dead-looking as he stared at me, not even blinking. Fucking bastard.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't have met under better circumstances," Dmitri glanced around at the empty warehouse around us, a dozen men with their eyes and guns on me. "But you're quite a hard man to replace these days, Giovani." "Fuck off," I spat, in no mood for these games.

Dmitri laughed, a high cold sound that was more like a ghost than an actual human being. There was a dark glint in his eyes as he stepped forward into my space, only two steps away from me.

He didn't look angry or upset. He didn't even look happy or pleased to finally have me in his clutches. He just looked empty-like a hollow shell without any substance inside.

Dmitri glanced down at his hands, the black leather gloves he wore making an unpleasant squeaking sound as he testingly squeezed them together. Finally, he smirked, looking at me dead in the eye.

Then, faster than I could blink, his hand was around my throat, squeezing tightly as he grabbed me roughly and pulled me forward by the neck. I gasped at the sudden lack of oxygen, choking on my own tongue from how fast it had all happened.

Dmitri smiled pleasantly, like we were having a respectful conversation and he didn't have his hands around my throat and one of his men pointing a gun at the back of my head.

"Soon," Dmitri warned softly, "you'll be speaking with a different tone. You'll need to start talking... more respectfully."

Even with how tight his grip around my throat was, I glared furiously at the man who'd fucked with my family, my organization. The image of Dahlia's blood on my hands as we rushed her to the hospital flashed in my mind, and the way he smirked at the camera as he mercilessly killed a teenager.

Respectfully, my ass.

I spit in his face, smirking strainedly as the lob of spit hit him directly under the eye, and he looked at the ground, finally letting go of my neck.

I gasped for air, breathing in deeply and quickly. I hadn't realized how dizzy I had been from the lack of oxygen until it all came rushing back in.

Dmitri wiped my spit off his face, staring passively at me like I had done just what he had expected me to do, but there was a deeper emotion hidden just under the surface-the first time I noticed any kind of emotion from him. Disappointment.

The realization hit me like a brick, and for a moment, we stared at one another, enemies on either side of a crumbling foundation.

Dmitri smiled-a horrible, twisted kind of smile like a man who had seen nightmares and lavished in them. His eyes glinted with a dark kind of excitement, and I wasn't prepared in the slightest.

The first crack had been made and Dmitri lashed out, his fist colliding with my face. The strength was enough to push me back, but the chair I was wrapped in prevented me from moving.

Without my arms to defend myself, I was a sitting duck. I could only sit there and take it as his fist beat into my face repeatedly, each time getting stronger, more aggressive, and wilder as he cared less about technique and more about just hurting me as much as he possibly could.

I grunted from the attack, keeping my teeth clenched so I didn't bite my tongue before it was finally over. With the final punch, I heard a crunch, and I sucked in a breath from my mouth as my nose collapsed against my face, cutting off any air supply through it.

My whole face was burning in pain, and my right eye was swollen, half closed as I felt a bruise blooming around it. My nose was in an awkward shape, and it hurt to breathe through it. I tasted the blood pouring from my nose as I sucked in a breath through my mouth.

My nose was definitely broken, and I was nursing a black eye. I ran my tongue across my lip, feeling the split. Of course, he had gone for the face.

I lamented briefly for him ruining my face for Olivia. I knew how handsome she thought I was. Still, at least once I saw her again, I couldn't wait for her to nurse me back to health. Really, I should thank him. Olivia caring for me day and night until I was better was a good enough exchange for the destruction of my face.

Amusement burst to life in my chest. Despite the pain in my eye and nose and lip, I began to laugh. This was nothing to me. I'd been through hell and back to make it where I was and this... this was child's play. "Is that all you have?" I smirked up at him, even as I tasted blood in my mouth.

Dmitri narrowed his eyes at me, and finally, a hint of annoyance flickered across his face, and victory sang in my blood-a second crack in that emotionless demeanor.

Dmitri smiled, cold and unforgiving, as he reached for my face and wiped the blood from my cheeks.

"This isn't even the beginning," he said casually.

He could've been discussing the weather with how bored he looked. I was disgusted to have his hands anywhere near my face, but then Dmitri smirked, and I stiffened as his mask dropped just the slightest bit. If eyes were windows to the soul, then I had seen exactly what was contained within Dmitri.

Madness.

And he proved it as he pressed two fingers against my broken nose and pushed as hard as he could in the opposite direction it was facing. The pain was excruciating, and I heard a pop as I clenched my teeth to prevent a scream from falling out. "There," Dmitri grinned like a maniac, finally letting go of my injury. "Now it's facing the right way."

My eyes watered despite my best intentions-an instinctive response-but I refused to let any hint of tears fall. I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. He had only done it to cause me pain, not to help me out.

I settled my tongue onto the roof of my mouth, shutting my mouth and remaining silent. It had to have been at least thirty minutes since I'd gotten there.

My team should be there soon, I thought. Any minute now, and they'd burst through those doors and all of this would be over.

I could go home to Olivia, just like I'd promised.

And this bastard would be dead.

I just had to last long enough for them to show up.

"I wonder," Dmitri hummed as he circled around my chair. "How is that little cousin of yours? Dahlia, was it? I saw her personally. Quite a fiery one, isn't she?"

My good eye twitched at the sound of Dahlia's name. I couldn't stand having her name come out of his filthy mouth. But I kept my face impassive, emotionless, like a piece of stone.

I felt nothing right now as I counted down the minutes in my head, hoping my team would show up soon so I could mess his face up just as much as he'd messed up mine.

"She made quite a fuss with my men," Dmitri smirked. "I hope you don't mind how they had to rough her up a bit. Otherwise, how could you learn who you were dealing with?"

I clenched my fists, showcasing nothing on my face as I stared intently at the door across the way. I counted wooden planks, the men surrounding me, and anything I could do to keep from giving him the reaction he craved.

"You did leave quite a bloody mess behind. Not all hers." He continued on like he was having the time of his life. "I was very sad I couldn't kill another relative of James' to return the favor. His daughter would've been a perfect revenge considering what your family did to Mikhail."

"Mikhail got what he deserved," I said, calmly. "He was a lunatic."

Dmitri laughed, full-bodied and bright like he was reminiscing. "Oh, yes he was a complete lunatic. I'll agree with you there. Yet...."

His boots stopped in front of me, his lips curling into a snarl as he glared at me, revealing the deep loathing just under the surface. It was impressive how he'd kept it hidden for so long considering it was deeper than the pits of hell. "He was family," Dmitri said darkly, but then he returned to a smile, his emotions going back and forth quicker than a swing blowing in a heavy wind. "So I will do what I must to get justice for my family."

I glared at him through my half-closed eye, saying nothing as one of the many guards around us wheeled a steel tray around us. On it were a dozen sharp instruments and tools. Dmitri rounded the tray, picking up a sharped rusty screwdriver and twirling it in his hand.

A wide grin spread across his face as he stared at it under the shitty fluorescent lights that kept flickering. Finally, he turned to me, the madness almost gleaming as the sadistic bastard approached, step by step.

"I am going to enjoy every second of this, Giovani," Dmitri said happily as he ran the tip across my cheek, slicing into it slowly. "I will destroy you inch by inch until you are begging for the sweet release of death, and then, I will grant it to you, but not before I slaughter every member of your organization, of your family, so you know exactly how I felt all those years ago."

The psychopath in front of me was not delivering a threat; his matter-of-fact tone was too nonchalant. This was a promise.

He was never going to stop until one of us was dead.

"How long will it take for you to break, I wonder?" Dmitri grinned. "Let's replace out."

Unfortunately for him, I wasn't the one going down.

An explosion burst from behind him, the force flipping the chair I was tied to onto its side, and I grunted from the pain as my hearing vanished, leaving only a ringing in my ears.

I caught sight of Dmitri screaming out orders and pointing at the door, something I couldn't make out before I watched as the Russian bastards lit up alcohol filled bottles and threw them at the surrounding areas.

The fire was quick to catch on, spreading fast as it overtook the old warehouse, and the heat was unbearable.

My eyes caught Dmitri's form.

"Don't think you've won yet!" Dmitri screamed through the flames as it cut off him and a few of his men from mine charging inward. "I will destroy everything you love, Giovani! I will never stop!"

And then he grinned before he backed away into the growing smoke, and I lost sight of him.

A few of the men on his side were continuing to throw Molotov cocktails, burning the place to the ground in order to make a getaway.

All I could do was lay there and wait to see which would catch me first-my men, or the flames.