Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 472 -

*Salvatore*

They were watching me.

Like flies in the walls and whispers in the trees, I could feel their gazes every time I stepped outside of this goddamn house. You didn't get to be my age without learning to trust your instincts, and my instincts were all but screaming at me to run.

I didn't know who, didn't know where, but I knew they were watching.

I slowly walked up my driveway, keeping my eyes in front of me and not giving a single clue I could feel their eyes on me. The keys jingled in my hand and warily, I glanced around from the corner of my eye as I stopped on my doorstep. It could be the nosy neighbor across the street who was always staring outside her window, I thought, warning the neighborhood kids that being loud was a cardinal sin in her eyes. It could be the mailman whom I had caught shuffling through everyone's mail before he slid it under the doors.

Nobody over here could afford a mailbox or if they could, one too many joy rides by drunk teens with baseball bats had ruined them. My own had nothing but a stump at the end of the lawn where one used to be.

I picked up the mail from this morning, that wasn't even stuck all the way under the door, glancing through it half-heartedly. All of it was for the previous tenant anyway.

I hadn't spotted the tail yet, didn't even have a clue as to which motherfucker it could be, but I knew they were there, waiting for one slip-up, one little hint that I wasn't all I had told my daughter.

I slid the key into the lock, turning it and jingling the knob a few times before it finally opened up. It should've been replaced years ago, only hanging on by one screw at this point, but it worked and that was all I cared about.

I slipped inside, shutting the door and breathing a sigh of relief once I was safe. The feeling of being watched faded away, but I knew they were still out there.

I slid the deadbolt lock on, then replaced the small pieces of bright yellow tape I had kept on the door, a little trick to know if anyone had come inside. I did the same to the windows, relieved that none of them had been disturbed.

I kept the yellow tape on my own body, a specific shade that only I had. Even if someone slipped in and wanted to replace the tape, they couldn't.

It had long been a habit from my days on the run, but I wasn't happy having to use it constantly here as well.

Fucking Giovani, I thought angrily, peering out the window of my house. I was too paranoid to leave unnecessarily and tired of having to keep pretending I didn't know they had an extra body following me.

Giovani hadn't trusted me from the beginning, and I never expected him to. I only hoped my lies would work on the real target, Olivia.

So long as I could get my loving daughter to believe me, then Giovani would have no choice but to play along for now. I did not doubt that if she hadn't.... if she had refused to listen to me, I would've disappeared just like everyone else who dared to defy the almighty Don.

Fucking Italians, I snorted, grabbing a beer from the fridge.

When I first heard my daughter had married the Don of the Valentinos, I had been downright pissed. I left her and Amanda so neither of them would get caught up in all this bullshit, and she swan-dived straight into the lion's den. All Dons were the same, and soon Olivia would learn that the husband she loved so dearly wasn't a kitty cat for her to play with. No, he was a beast with claws and fangs ready to dig into her back the second she turned around. Even the fact that she'd brought a fucking kid into this, as well... all of my efforts had been wasted, it seemed.

Luckily she was as tenderhearted as her mother, and as easily manipulated. It was probably how that bastard had managed to drag her into all of this. She may need some time, but I knew she had believed my story and had been willing to overlook the inconsistencies due to her bleeding heart.

The father she had always craved come falling straight into her lap with a sob story-how could she not believe me?

Besides, the Costas were all dead by now. All the evidence they replace would only collaborate with my story, even if it wouldn't make them feel any better. No amount of evidence could hide their instincts. If they were half as good as I thought they were, they probably knew I was lying.

An experienced Don like Giovani-hell, he'd probably pegged me out from the moment I showed up on that first day.

I settled into the nice new couch I had bought, sipping my beer and enjoying not working for the first time in my fucking life. I'd spent so long going from job to job, desperate for money, that I had forgotten what this freedom felt like. Unfortunately, my relaxation was interrupted by the vibration of my phone in my pocket. I pulled out the burner phone, old and beat up but still working. It has served me well in this country. There were only two numbers saved to the phone, neither labeled. One was Olivia's and the other was my new benefactor, and this was the number who texted me.

'Did you fool the girl?' he asked. Lorenz.

I sighed. It had only been one night and he was still on my case. After the call last night, I had assumed he'd give me a few days before hounding me again. After all the information I'd given him, I figured he would need time for his 'Great plans.'

Olivia was far too trusting. Inviting me back to their home had caused the downfall of that family and she had no fucking clue. It had been all too easy to get an accurate count of the guards, the security cameras on every corner, and the blindspots they didn't cover.

I had to admit, that compound was heavily secured. It was no wonder Lorenz was having trouble getting an opening. But lucky for me, my daughter was willing to open her home to me just like that to get the intel I needed. Young, naive, and innocent-she was the perfect target, and though I felt the slightest guilt about tricking her like this, this opportunity was too good to give up.

'She suspects nothing,' I wrote back. And it was true. Olivia wasn't the problem here-her bastard husband was. If he was somehow still standing when all of this was over, I'd pay her to annul that fucking marriage or at the very least get divorced.

Of course, it was unlikely he'd still be standing.

A text came through quickly and I grit my teeth.

'Make sure she doesn't or she'll go down with that bastard.'

'Don't fucking touch her or our deal is off,' I wrote back, growling as I threw my phone to the side. I downed the rest of my beer, enjoying the familiar buzz in the back of my mind. I couldn't drink like I could when I was a younger man, the effects of everything I'd put my body through hitting me hard after I hit my forties.

My phone dinged with a text again and I groaned, glancing at it half-assedly.

'Then don't give me a reason, Salvatore.'

With those ominous words, I knew he wouldn't send anything else. The warning was more than enough to have my skin crawl. I threw my head back, sighing as I stared up at the patchy ceiling.

What I had told Olivia... what I had told my daughter-it was mostly true.

I had left to protect them, to keep them safe from my mistakes. I had never wanted Amanda or Olivia to get involved, but they had been. If I had stayed, we all would've been found. Olivia had only been a few months old at the time, too young to go on the run with me and Amanda... well, she had always been better off without me.

I was truly glad she had done well in my absence. I knew she would've been strong enough to do so, and that was why even after the destruction of the Costas, of Vincente, I had stayed gone.

I never could've been the husband Amanda wanted, the father Olivia needed. I was a deadbeat, an asshole with nothing to my name. They didn't need me.

So I ran.

And I never stopped.

So when Lorenz came to me, offering riches, security, power... how could I say no?

I didn't want to hurt Olivia and I held no grudge against the Valentinos. Lorenz wanted revenge, and so long as he promised to keep Olivia and Elio away from the damage, he could do whatever he wanted with the compound and everyone else in it.

Why the fuck would I care for a man I didn't even know? Giovani's death meant nothing to me, and if I could arrange for his death, I'd be set for life.

Olivia would get over it eventually and replace a new husband, and I could be the doting father she wanted, with no clue of what I had done to her husband. I would give her the money to raise her son and make sure they were fed and clothed in only the best, exactly what I'd wanted to do when she was a child.

I could be a part of their life this time.

But most importantly, I would be second in command. Lorenz's promise echoed in my ears and haunted my every waking moment. This was my second chance to have the life I should have had all those years ago.

So long as Giovani died.

Besides, it was nothing he didn't deserve. I'd heard all about what he and his cousin did to the former Russians. They'd destroyed them in the most brutal way possible. He should've known that as long as one of them was still alive, they'd be after his head.

Lorenz gets his revenge and I get the position I truly deserve-that was a win-win scenario in my opinion. I knew how to be a good tool for men smarter and more powerful than me. And so long as I played my part, Olivia and my grandson would be safe.

All I had to do was keep up this facade and make sure nothing came unraveling until her husband played his part. He'd done everything I expected him to so far.

Now all he had to do was to die at the right time.

I told Livi I wanted to get along with him and that wasn't a lie. He'd done everything I expected him to so far and for the sake of our future, I truly did want to get along with him.

Until the moment he had to die.

A half-lie was a technicality.

All the best lies were, after all.