Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 458 -

*Giovani*

I stood behind my desk, staring out through the old, multi-paned window into the garden below, where I could see Dahlia and Olivia playing some sort of clapping game with Elio on a picnic blanket in the evening light. Olivia missed a step intentionally, and Elio toppled backward, clearly overcome by giggles. A slow smile crept over my face, but it was tinged with frustration. I knew I should be down there with them, enjoying the time after dinner with my family. Instead, I was waiting up here to speak to Alessandro, who'd requested a moment to gather his thoughts.

I crossed my arms and turned away from the window. I didn't know exactly what Alessandro wished to speak with me about, but the only reason he would have called a lunch meeting was if he wanted to keep it away from Olivia. We had a mostly open-door policy these days, but she rarely cared about my work this late in the evening.

A single, firm knock came on the door.

"Come in," I called, letting the mantle of the don settle over my shoulders as I sat in my chair.

Alessandro pushed the door open and closed it quickly behind him. His brow was furrowed, and the set of his shoulders looked secretive, but I couldn't tell anything else from his posture alone.

He strode to the middle of the room and stood with his hands folded behind his back. I smiled. Gabriele had gotten through to him about propriety, at least somewhat.

"I want to talk about Salvatore," he said..

I sighed. I probably should have guessed. Alessandro had finely honed people skills and an increasing tendency toward paranoia.

"What about him?" I asked.

He leaned forward. "You have people looking into him, right? It's weird that he just showed up out of the blue."

I nodded, trying to restrain my own frustration about the matter. Alessandro needed a firm hand to keep from rocketing off on his own, and if I admitted my own distrust in Olivia's father, it would only spur him on. "Gabriele has a team on it," I said. "But we haven't found much yet."

Alessandro huffed out a breath. "I feel like we're living in a Groundhog Day situation, but I don't have a good feeling about him."

I chuckled bitterly. "I understand the feeling, but this is Olivia's father. We can't go off half-cocked."

"I bet she could replace out more." He leaned forward, excitement lighting his eyes. "He's gotta let his guard down around her, right? So he'd probably let something slip if she asked the right questions."

I pulled a pen out of my desk and made a quick note to give myself a moment to compose an answer. Sometimes Alessandro reminded me too much of all my worst instincts. I'd had the exact same thought in the dead of night a few days ago, lying awake while Olivia slept beside me. Of course, she could get the information we needed. But I could never ask that of her.

I remembered the blend of tremulous hope and impotent rage in her eyes when she offered me the DNA test, the lightness in her voice after he swore her mother deserved a better man than him. My wonderful, optimistic wife wanted a relationship with her father, despite what he'd done. I couldn't let her in on my dark suspicions, the paranoia that curled in my heart, and I wouldn't let Alessandro do it either.

The note on the paper in front of me read, "Distract him."

I took a deep breath. "I think you're more on the nose with your Groundhog Day comparison than either of us would like. The Elena situation obviously got messy, but I think some of that should be attributed to everybody flinging suspicions this way and that without any proof."

"But-" he started.

I held up a hand and he stopped. I inclined my head graciously.

"I only mean to say I don't want Olivia brought into this until we have proof." I tried for a smile, but it felt hollow on my face. "It is her father, after all."

Alessandro furrowed his eyebrows but nodded. "So, what, are we just gonna let Gabriele research him until he comes up with nothing again?"

I stood, carefully keeping the reins on my temper and not betraying I'd felt the same worry when Gabriele's first report hadn't turned up anything of note.

"Alessandro Valentino, I know I don't need to remind you to watch your tongue. Gabriele is my right hand, my consigliere, and I will not allow disrespect on his name."

Alessandro dropped his gaze to the ground and took a step back. I hadn't realized how close he'd gotten in his excitement, several feet from where Gabriele would have told him to stand.

"I'm sorry, Don. I'm just worried about family," he muttered.

My heart twinged. He really was still just a kid, and Elio was more than a cousin's child, more like a nephew to him. He'd even started hanging out with my son, now that Elio knew a few words and games Alessandro could at least understand. I remained standing but leaned easily against the desk. Slights like that wouldn't be permitted, but he was forgiven.

"We need some proof before we approach Olivia," I said in a more genial tone.

His head shot back up, and he nodded. "I agree, but I don't know if a background check is going to do it."

I twisted the paper in front of me. Distract him.

"Why don't you take some of your men and tail him?" I offered. I did want to know what Sal was up to. He hadn't mentioned any form of gainful employment at our lunch the other day, only that he was new to the city and looking to set up shop if we were going to stay here.

I'd intended to be tactfully noncommittal, but Olivia had blazed ahead and told him she considered Florence her home and wouldn't leave unless something drastic changed. He'd nodded and said some nonsense about understanding how she could fall in love with a place this beautiful.

I gritted my teeth. I couldn't shake the feeling that Sal kept leaving our encounters with more new information than I got.

Alessandro grinned. "I have just the guys for it. Total blackout on this?"

"Yes and no," I sighed. "Don't tell any of the guys who regularly guard her. Dom, Tino-they're all on the outs. Anybody else can know."

He nodded. "Gotcha. Focus points?"

I ran back through the lunch in my head. He hadn't mentioned any friends, any hobbies. The car he'd gotten out of seemed like a regular junker, and I had no idea where he lived. Whenever we pressed for details on him, he told us about life in Florida before he went undercover or said that he was just starting to rebuild.

I rubbed the back of my neck. I wanted to know who he was running from, if anyone, and what he'd done to piss them off. I wanted to know if he actually wanted a relationship with my wife or if he was using her for some purpose I hadn't come up with. I wanted to know if I could trust him around my son. But I couldn't say any of that while seeming like a Don, and I certainly couldn't say it without Alessandro flying off the handle and doing something foolish.

"I want to know what he does for a living," I said finally, "and how he spends his days. Take particular note of anyone he talks to who doesn't seem like a regular Florentine-heavy tattoos, always wearing a hat, strange meeting places... the usual."

Alessandro nodded sharply, one step away from saluting. "We'll be his shadow until you call us off."

I circled the desk. I couldn't stand being in my office anymore, turning the Sal problem over uselessly. I wanted to see my wife and son. The paintings of the Dons around my desk glared down at me, accusing me of being more of a family man than Family man, but I ignored them and clapped Alessandro on the shoulder.

"I wouldn't have anyone else doing it," I said honestly. I'd made up the job to keep him from worrying Olivia more than necessary, but it would be nice to have a better sense of where Sal was when I wasn't looking at him. Even just knowing how he found the money to live in the city would settle my nerves a little.

Alessandro grinned up at me, and we left the office together. I locked the door behind me, a new habit I'd picked up to keep from wandering in on my way somewhere else to peruse a document or two, and strode off down the stairs to replace my wife in the garden.

On the way, I passed Dahlia, creeping back inside with her shoes in hand. She smiled at me.

"Done being the king of Italy?" she teased.

I smiled. Family always came first, but I couldn't say I'd initially been excited to host my third cousin for the summer. Now, seeing how much love she had in her heart for Olivia and Elio, my distant cousin had become a dear part of my life. "You know your brother." I shrugged.

"Well, you missed all the excitement." She gestured with her shoes, the wooden heels clacking together. "I'm coming back in because the other two just passed out at the swing."

A very different time I'd found Olivia in the swing suddenly rushed to the front of my memory, when she'd screamed at me for how unsafe my work made her feel. That she could nap in the yard with our son was just a sign of how far we had all come in the year since Dmitri. I didn't want to let anything take her back to that tense, nervous place.

And the truth was, however difficult the situation with Elena got, there had never really been life-or-death danger. Something about Sal made me unwilling to say the same thing about him just yet.

I caught Alessandro's eye as he passed the two of us in the hall, and he grinned.

Dahlia furrowed her eyebrows. "Everything good? I know his up-to-something smile."

I took a deep breath and considered my cousin. For all that she was Olivia's best friend, she'd also been in the life longer and understood the value of caution.

"I just asked him to double-check some elements of the background we're running on Salvatore," I answered. "Nothing troubling, but Alessandro worries, so he's pleased to be involved."

She nodded slowly. "You know how excited she is about this, right?"

She'd come home glowing from our lunch the other day. She couldn't stop talking about how good he was with Elio, and how she really thought there might be a future for them.

"I know," I said. "I'm keeping as much of the checking from her as possible."

Dahlia whacked me with her shoes. "Don't shut her out. Just be careful."

I rubbed my arm. "Noted."

With that, she moved on past me, heading for her room.

I exited into the garden. Just like Dahlia warned, Olivia and Elio were curled up on the swing in the corner of the yard, the picnic blanket folded up under Olivia's head. I snuck a little closer.

Protected from the moonlight, Elio sprawled across Olivia's chest with a sticky hand fisted in her hair. His mouth had fallen open, and a small puddle of drool collected on Olivia's white T-shirt. Oliva rested a hand protectively on his small back, her hair splayed out around her head, and their chests rose and fell in unison.

I smiled and sat on the ground nearby to simply watch them sleep. I would do anything to protect this hard-fought family of mine, I knew. And that included taking Salvatore out of the picture if he turned out to be lying.

I just hoped Olivia wouldn't hate me when the dust settled.