Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 474 -

*Giovani*

I knew telling Olivia I believed Salvatore was going to bite me in the ass someday. I just didn't expect it to be so soon.

I'd gotten up from that talk with her and walked right into my office. I locked the door, flipped the switch I'd had installed to prevent listening devices from overhearing my calls, and dialed Gabriele. "Boss," he answered. "Anything?" I demanded.

"Don't you think I'd have called you if I had something? Sal's a ghost. If there's one thing I can tell you for sure about the man, it's that there's a good reason he survived twenty years on the run. The Costas imploding was a stroke of luck, but he was gone well before that."

"Start calling in favors," I spat. "I need him out of my life as soon as possible."

I hung up, poured myself a glass of brandy, and dialed Alessandro.

"What's up?" he asked.

I scrubbed a hand over my face. "Tell me you've got something."

Alessandro sighed. "Yes and no. Tal's in on the tailing, keeping an eye on that Russian Sal met with, and he thinks he might have something but it's not solid yet. I can have him call you when he knows."

I knocked back half the glass. "Good. Do that."

I hung up and swallowed down a yell. My temper surged under my skin. If I was the man I'd been at twenty, I would've grabbed the nearest blunt-edged weapon and handled Salvatore myself. He'd be gone before Olivia could think to call him with her "good news."

I took another sip. My promise to drink less had dissolved like wet tissue paper when that first dinner with Sal went tits-up, and I hadn't reconstituted it yet. How could I, when my wife loved her father, and I knew deep in my bones that he wanted at least me dead, if not both of us?

I set the glass down and leaned back in my chair. I wasn't the man I'd been at twenty anymore, and that was a good thing. I still dreamed about the heft of a baseball bat in my hands and the taste of copper on my lips, but I didn't miss it like I used to when I first became Don. Stepping out of the field, putting that down, gave me the greatest joys of my life. There was no doubt in my mind that I would never have met Olivia if I hadn't stepped back, or at least that she couldn't have loved me as she did.

No, it was my job to handle things like an adult now, to chase the trouble, replace the proof, and discover the way to solve the problem with the least damage, collateral or otherwise.

My phone rang, and I snatched it up to see Tallon's name on the display.

"What do you have?" I answered.

"Gio." The normally comical and confident young man sounded breathless. "Something big."

I leaned forward. "Tell me."

"I followed Alexei for a couple of days. For a supplier, he's not slick. They might have the law on their payroll, but I got enough to start chasing down his network."

I grabbed a pen. "Names we recognize?"

Tallon snorted. "You can say that. I was expecting Russo drop-shipping, maybe a distant Zaytsev cousin or two. But I hit the motherlode."

I scribbled the name on a piece of paper before I said it. "Lorenz."

"Yep," Tallon agreed grimly.

The pen cracked in my grip..

"The connection is distant," he continued. "I had to chase a lot of branches before I got there. They might not be working directly together, but it's closer than I'd like." "Any connection is closer than I'd fucking like," I growled.

I took a deep breath. Sal and Lorenz deserved my anger, not Tallon.

"Good work. Keep on it. Tell Gabriele. Report if you replace anything closer."

"Consider it done, boss!" he chirped, already regathering his usual good humor.

"And Tallon?" I said.

"Yeah?" he answered warily.

"I want perfect reports on everything you see." I gritted my teeth. "Apparently there are still some nooks for rats in this city. I'm not making that mistake again." "Gotcha, boss."

I hung up and ran the paper I'd written his name on through the shredder. I needed something far more concrete before going to Olivia. But now I had more than a feeling.

I was fucking right. Sal was in bed with our worst enemies, and nothing good could come of that.

I stood abruptly, suddenly needing to see Elio and Olivia. In the wake of this revelation, I needed to know they were safe.

I crept down the hall to our suite and found Olivia on the couch in our sitting room with a sleeping Elio in her arms.

I exhaled in relief, and a bit of tension dropped out of my shoulders.

She looked up at me. "I invited Sal to lunch today."

The tension sprang back to my muscles, and I gripped our doorknob so tightly in my fist I worried it would go the way of the pen. A Zaytsev agent in our house, with our son?

I gritted my teeth. I wanted her mostly alone in the house of a Zaytsev agent with our son even less.

"Okay,” I said.

Olivia's eyes went flat, and she spoke in the calm tone I knew meant she was telling me something she thought I would hate, something about Sal, and how she trusted him, I would bet.

Fear raced through my veins.

I forced my expression neutral and shut the door behind me before crossing to the couch and sitting next to her. Carefully, so as not to wake Elio, I wrapped an arm around her shoulders. I had to tuck her into me, feel her next to me, to believe she would be safe.

She leaned her head on my chest, and I hoped she wouldn't hear my racing heartbeat.

"Okay," I murmured. "But for my peace of mind, don't go to his house again. Just in case. You might be spotted by one of his neighbors, or one of his bosses. Okay?"

"Deal," she replied.

I held her until she had to get ready, then made myself scarce. I couldn't see the man without reacting now, I knew.

I stepped out into our private garden and summoned one of the men watching it. As he approached, I recognized his red hair-Dario, a recently made man just promoted to our guard. Good, he'd be anxious to please.

"Boss?"

I leaned in as if sharing a secret. "Get the word out, but not on anything electronic. Olivia's father is coming, and he is to be treated as an enemy from here on out. Do not approach. Do not allow Olivia to notice a difference. But vary patrols and locations as much as possible, and keep weapons at hand."

Dario nodded. "Your missus won't know a thing. Any weapons we can expect from Sal?"

I shook my head. "I don't know that he's going to attack when he's by himself. I just want him off guard and well-watched."

Dario bobbed halfway into a bow and marched away to talk to the next guard he saw.

I stepped back inside and closed the French doors behind me, feeling a bit steadier on my feet.

I paced back and forth in the bedroom. If I had a contact like Salvatore connected to another Don, I knew wouldn't use him for the hit in a million years. It was far too obvious. Even the cops would know where to look.

No, however bad he had the ability to hurt my wife, I didn't think I needed to worry about him killing either of us. That meant any sort of weapons check at the door would only arouse Olivia's ire.

Thank god she agreed not to go to his house. I had to assume he'd report whatever he saw to the Zaytsevs, but here, I could control what that was. I could probably increase the compound guard a little without her noticing as well, for the next time he came over. This whole compound ran at my say-so. I'd send the whole thing spinning backward if I thought it gave my family a modicum of safety.

If I assumed Sal was a spy, my best move was to limit his access to me and my people, or at least accurate versions thereof. Any forced contact between he and I had to be predicated on Olivia's belief that I trusted him. If he thought me weak, any strike would be sloppy enough to counter easily.

I needed to get some kind of message to my men in the field he couldn't catch, tell them to seem less competent while functioning at the same level. The signal protector in my office would let me call Gabriele instead of just pacing my bedroom like a madman.

I smoothed a hand over my hair, straightened my jacket, and stepped out of my bedroom, only to see Salvatore, halfway into the open door of Elio's bedroom.

White-hot, molten rage seared through my veins, and I glanced at the hidden gun cabinet in the wall of the sitting room.

I was not twenty anymore. I needed him to think I trusted him.

I clenched my fists and crept up behind him as he stepped further in and began peering around. He didn't go so far as to begin taking pictures, but the way he swept the room with his gaze made me distinctly nervous.

It looked like he was memorizing it.

I stepped into the doorway, silent as a ghost, and asked at full volume, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

With the unflappable confidence of a long-time operator, Sal turned and smiled sheepishly. "I was looking for the bathroom while Olivia got Elio cleaned up. She even gave me directions, but this place is such a maze...."

I took a step closer, boxing the man into the room. "The bathroom is the first door to the left off the dining room. This is upstairs, through two other rooms, and down several hallways."

His smile remained stable as he put up his hands. The iron control that let me sneak up behind him began to slip through my fingers.

"Must've taken the wrong door out. I only came in here proper because I could tell it's my grandson's room, and I wanted to get him a little surprise, so I figured I'd peek through his toys for what he likes."

Sal stood in the middle of the room, nowhere near the overflowing wicker basket of toys in the corner.

"If you need to get my son a surprise," I said lowly, "ask my wife, or me. I'm sure you can get it just about anything for him. He's not even one and a half yet."

Sal chuckled. "Fair enough. Just figured it would be nice to surprise you as well."

The easy set of his shoulders, the way his calm made me seem unreasonable, and his answer to my every question made my blood boil.

"Oh yeah?" I said. "What sort of surprise were you thinking for us?"

A flicker of something else, something darker, crossed his face. "Aw, nothing particular. What would you want?"

I saw red.

"See, I think you're a fucking liar." I stepped into his space, raising my voice. "I think you're a bullshit fucking liar, and I think you were doing a damn sight more than planning a surprise for my fucking son!"

That dark look returned and stayed. "I don't know what you're talking about, Giovani, and I don't much like the implication. Olivia wants me to be part of her life. I'm starting to worry you don't trust your wife." "Don't trust my-how dare you?" I bellowed. "I know her better than you ever will, and if you say shit to her about me, I will make you regret it."

"I've shown both of you nothing but kindness," Sal growled. "You can't treat me like this."

I scoffed. "If this is kindness, I'll start making charitable donations of broken glass and spiked candy."

"You don't deserve my-" Sal started.

"I don't care what you're trying" I interrupted.

The door to our room hit the wall behind me.

"What the...?" Olivia asked, her voice steely.