Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 487 -

*Giovani*

I shut the door to the empty nursery, dimming the twin sounds of Olivia and Dahlia's tears. Gabriele stared at me with hard eyes, but I was too distracted to try to guess what he was thinking.

Part of me wanted nothing more than to wave him away to solve the problem and collapse on the floor with my wife. Looking at that empty crib, there didn't seem to be any solution other than to scream. My son-he took my son. I let that bastard get within striking distance, and he took my fucking son.

I swallowed and pulled my shoulders back. I was more than just a father with a missing son. I was Don Valentino, head of the most formidable crime family in Florence.

Soon to be the only crime family in Florence.

"Walk with me," I said.

Gabriele and I strode out of my bedroom and through the nearest door to the outside. I leaned into the guard there, barely seeing him.

"Tell Tallon and Alessandro to meet us here when they arrive."

The man nodded.

I marched into the night air. It felt cool, a balm for the rage heating my skin.

"I'm sorry," Gabriele said quietly.

I whirled on him. "I don't need apologies. I need you operating at your absolute best. I need everyone operating at their best." I stared at the lit window of the nursery. "Clearly, they weren't before."

He frowned. "I'll forgive that because I know you're having a difficult time, but don't you dare say that in front of the men. This is the fault of that snake Salvatore, no one else."

I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him close to my face. "You presume to tell me what I can't say to my men? I'll have their goddamn fingers chopped off if I think they need a fucking object lesson. You can't tell me shit." Talon and Alessandro stepped outside and took in the two of us, wide-eyed.

I gritted my teeth and released Gabriele's shirt.

"Four of your men are dead." He smoothed his shirt back out. "You may want to consider that before you treat them like you treated me." He bowed mockingly. "Sir."

My stomach flipped. Gabriele was right. Of course, he was. I'd let Salvatore stay long after I knew he was trouble to keep Olivia from getting mad at me. I'd let this happen, and I owed my men the respect of behaving like that.

I turned to Tallon and Alessandro. "The strategy meeting is off. I need both of you to turn this city upside-down until you replace Salvatore Montgomery." I took a step closer to them. "I don't care what you have to do. I just want him brought to me."

Alessandro's eyes kept darting back and forth between Gabriele and me, but Tallon nodded sharply.

"It'll be done before you think to call us for an update," he said.

Then, he grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him back inside.

I swallowed and turned to Gabriele. "Take me to them."

He nodded and led me forward. We didn't have to walk long. There was a stretch of the wall around the compound that abutted the back of a children's theatre. The roof on the place was so corniced and ancient that it would take a team and several pounds of equipment to cross it with any degree of speed or quiet. I'd always assigned the fewest men there.

I didn't realize until this moment that, if someone managed to cross the wall, the only thing that lay between them and Elio's window was fifty feet of grass.

And now, four bodies.

I approached slowly. The bodies had been gathered on a blanket, laid out as respectfully as possible. Dom stood next to them with his arms folded behind his back.

Tomaso. Niccolò. Paolina. Giustina.

I knelt at the edge of the blanket and muttered a prayer. Gabriele hovered at my back.

When I stood, he said, "Sal must've told them our weak spots."

I grimaced. "And then some. I'd like to do a full walk, make sure we're not missing anything."

Gabriele nodded. I patted Dom on the shoulder as we stepped away.

As much as I knew Lorenz probably gathered some high-caliber team, I couldn't help imagining Salvatore creeping over my walls, stealing into my son's room, absconding with the light in my life. I would destroy Lorenz so badly the Russian mafia might never step foot in Florence again, but Salvatore-I wanted to watch him bleed.

He'd used Olivia and the connection they shared to kidnap Elio. A man like that could never be allowed to rest easily again.

If he thought he'd been on the run before, he was about to learn what running really felt like.

Gabriele and I swept the yard with flashlights and careful eyes, paying particular attention to spots I knew were weak. We didn't replace anything else until we'd circled all the way around to the front of the house.

My flashlight played over the crumpled body of Dario, the man who'd just been promoted to compound guard last week.

A scream of frustration tore out of my throat. These were my men. I was supposed to protect them, like they were supposed to protect me. Each of them had families, loved ones I'd have to tell they were dead. "Eterna," I spat. "All of them. Full honors."

"Already in motion," Gabriele replied.

We dropped our flashlights and carried Dario over to join the others ourselves. Somebody had broken his neck, and his head flopped unnaturally as we walked.

I gritted my teeth. Whoever did this would pay. Salvatore, Lorenz, whatever motherfucker laid his hands on my men. I'd ruin them.

I murmured another prayer over Dario, then stood abruptly and turned on my heel. "Security footage?"

"Cut out at a certain point." Gabriele hurried to catch up. "The rest hasn't been reviewed yet, but we're not optimistic. Elio's not so big they couldn't have taken him back over the roof."

"I'm reviewing it," I said. "Now."

Together, we marched inside and up into my office. I navigated to the front camera and rewound it back nearly twelve before we knew Elio was gone.

They'd only cut the cameras if they got out some other way. I didn't intend to miss anything.

I stood, arms crossed, as hours flickered by on the screen in nothing more than a change of light. The three of us arrived home from Naples, so happy. Guards wandered back and forth in predictable patterns. I left for my meeting.

A car pulled down the street, a dark SUV with tinted windows. It stopped a couple dozen feet away, just far enough that I couldn't make out the front plate number.

I gritted my teeth and slowed down the tape.

Someone exited the driver's side. A man, if I had to guess by build, wearing an unseasonably thick coat and a baseball cap pulled down low.

I paused the tape and leaned closer. The pixels fuzzed into total nonsense.

"What do you think?" I asked Gabriele.

He leaned in like I had, as though that would make any difference. "Next to that model of SUV, he's at least six feet tall. I imagine someone would don a bulkier coat to disguise slimness. The baseball cap has a symbol on it, but I can't tell what at this resolution." He leaned back, and met my gaze. "And no, I don't recognize him."

I smashed the play button. The man tilted his head up to look at the camera, still fuzzily grayscale and unidentifiable. I couldn't even make out a facial expression. Then, the picture dissolved into static.

I slammed my hand down on my desk. "Fuck!"

Gabriele inhaled slowly. "Should we call the police?"

"And say what? My son was kidnapped as part of an ongoing mafia war, and the casualties are five people with unregistered weapons?" I shook my head, glaring at the screen. "We don't need them anyway. Their justice means little to me." He nodded. "It seemed worth asking at this stage."

I turned to face him. "If I can't rescue my son on my own, I should be shot."

He wavered for a moment, torn between my right hand and my best friend. My friend, I knew, wanted to tell me to take a back seat on this one, that it had gotten too close, and I'd be safer on the sidelines.

My right hand knew I was right. I had to handle this myself. There was no one else better.

I saved him the agony. "Go help Dom with the bodies. I want them handled with the utmost care, and that means you."

He wavered for a moment longer, then stepped out the door without another word.

I needed to face this problem head-on, to wring the life out of whoever thought my son was a pawn in this game. But as I stood in the silence of my office, staring at a staticky TV screen, my resolve drained away.

I didn't want to be the avenging mafia boss. I wanted to be a husband and father.

I fled my office, back to the nursery where I left Olivia.

Where I'd left Elio.

The thought tore at me. I could've held the meeting here, could've done it all on the phone if I goddamn pleased, but I needed to do things the old-fashioned way. I needed to go out to the fancy restaurant and talk strategy over hundred- year-old wine.

I'd chosen the trappings of power over my son. I hadn't known it at the time, but I should have. In this life, every choice could be my last. I had to weigh them more carefully with Olivia and Elio in the balance.

I raced into the nursery and found Olivia alone, smoothing Elio's blanket back into place like he'd be back to take a nap any minute. She tucked his sharkie in with shaking hands.

Tears welled up in my eyes. I could picture nothing but Elio, in the hands of our faceless enemy, screaming and squirming because he couldn't sleep without sharkie.

One of the dark, faceless enemies pulled back a hand to smack him, and I scrubbed my eyes.

Olivia turned to me. Her face still bore signs of her flood of tears in redness and puffiness, but no sign of them threatened now. She crossed her arms with a face like stone. "What's the plan?" she asked.

I crossed the room in a few massive steps and gathered her in my arms, overcome with gratitude for the beautiful, strong woman I married. She bore the kisses I dropped on her head, but she didn't melt into my arms. She needed answers. I wished I had better ones.

"The plan, carina," I said, "is that we replace who did this and make them pay."

She nodded slowly. When she looked up at me again, hurt and rage warred in her eyes.

"I want to be there when you talk to my dad."