Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 564 -

*Natalia*

The phone call from Vinny and the sobering revelation about Tallon's arrest left me a sobbing mess for a long time, but at some point I did lose consciousness. I woke up with a start not long after, which was a pattern that repeated for the rest of the night.

I managed to doze off for short periods of time, but each time that I did, I woke in a panic thinking that I had missed a call from Tallon. I was so worried about missing his call that I turned the volume on my ringer all the way up and placed the phone on the pillow beside my head. If he called, it was going to blare directly in my ear, and there would be no possible way for me to miss it.

Even with that reassurance, it took what felt like hours for me to finally fall asleep.

Hazy light was coming through the window when the phone ringing startled me awake again. I answered it without looking and my heart thudded erratically as an automated message played, informing me that I was receiving a call from an inmate. The halting feminine voice paused and for a moment Tallon's recorded voice cut in, "It's me, darling."

I accepted the call as I tried to choke back tears.

"Hello, darling," Tallon said softly.

I choked back a sob at the sound of his voice. We had only been apart for a few hours, but I couldn't shake the fear that I wasn't going to see him again. It filled me with such dread that for a moment the sobbing fit I had last night threatened to take over again. I took a deep breath to gather myself before responding.

"Hi," I said shakily. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Natalia," he assured me. He sounded tired, but other than that he didn't seem to be in distress, which relieved me a little. "Don't worry."

"How can you say that?" I asked in disbelief. "You've been arrested for murder!"

"Darling," he said gently, "I didn't do anything wrong. This is a mess, but I'm innocent and my lawyer is working hard to prove that. We just have to be patient."

Hearing Tallon assert his innocence eased my mind a lot. I knew that he might not be telling the truth because these phone calls are recorded, but he sounded sincere. If he really was innocent, then surely we could prove it, and the police would have no choice but to drop the charges against him.

"I just want you home," I said. I sniffled and pulled his pillow into my lap.

"I want to be home," he said. "But it's going to take a while, unless someone figures out who actually did this."

There was frustration in his voice that he couldn't hide, even though he seemed to be trying. I was sure that Tallon was on high alert. While he was in custody, everything he did and said was being watched and recorded. Even a slight slip-up could mean big trouble.

"There has to be some evidence to show you didn't do it," I said. I was scared, but I was also angry. Whoever did this was going to pay dearly for messing with my Tallon. I would make sure of it. "What can I do to help?"

"Nothing," he said firmly. The immediate rejection of my offer put me on edge. "Don't get involved in this mess. Someone is dead. Whoever did this is dangerous."

I bit my lip. I had to choose my words carefully so that this phone call couldn't be used against Tallon. I wanted to remind him that I'm not some wilting flower that needs to be coddled, but I wasn't sure how to do that without reminding him of how we met. That wasn't a story we needed anyone digging into.

"I love you," I said. "I'm going to marry you, and we aren't doing it in a prison chapel." I sounded a little spoiled, but I didn't care. I wasn't going to marry him in prison. Come hell or high water, I was going to get him home in time for the wedding.

"Natalia."

I could hear the fondness in his voice as he said my name, and it made me even more determined to help end this ordeal as soon as possible.

"I will work with Vinny, and we will keep the business running smoothly, but I am not going to sit around hoping that you're eventually released. I can't be passive like that, and you should know that about me by now." I kept my voice strong and no nonsense, despite how upset I was.

"I know," he said fondly. "But I want you to stay safe."

The love in his voice cooled my anger, but not my resolve. "And I want you safe," I replied immediately.

There was a long pause before Tallon sighed in defeat. "You be careful and stay in touch with Mrs. Morton," he instructed. "She's the best defense lawyer around, and she'll tell you how you can help. Listen to her," he ordered.

He was using his Don voice on me, which was not something that I would normally tolerate. Given the situation, I understood why he felt it was necessary.

"I'll talk to her," I agreed.

"You'll stay in contact with her," he insisted. I should have known that he knew me too well to accept a vague answer like that. "She'll be contacting you later today."

I grimaced. Talking to lawyers, even when they were on my side, was an experience that always upset me. I was already emotionally compromised, and I didn't want to cry in front of a stranger.

"I promise," I said reluctantly. I hoped that it wasn't a lie, but I wasn't going to let the law stop me from helping Tallon. If there was something that I could do to bring this situation to an end, I would do it.

I heard a muffled voice on the other line, then Tallon said, "I love you. I'm out of time, but I'll call you again tomorrow."

"I love you too," I said. "You stay safe in there and I'm going to see you very soon."

"I hope you're right, darling," he replied. The line went dead a second later. I stared down at the screen of my phone until it went dark. I wanted to cry again, but I wasn't sure that I had any tears left right now. I had a headache from the crying I had already done in the past few hours.

My mind was racing as I tried to figure out what I could do next. There was no obvious answer. Someone had taken Tallon from me intentionally, and I wanted to replace them and make them pay for daring to mess with us.

Who could have done this to Tallon? Who would be motivated to do something like this? Why set him up for murder of all things? If someone just wanted to embroil the family in legal issues, there would be a lot of ways to do that without taking such big risks.

It just didn't make any sense.

I didn't have enough information, and I didn't know where I could even start trying to help. I needed to replace out more about what exactly had happened last night. There might be something that had been overlooked that could help, I thought. Everything had happened so fast that I was sure that there were details that hadn't been noticed yet. I knew exactly who I could ask to fill me in on the situation.

I opened my contacts and called Vinny. Hopefully he knew more than he had when I spoke to him earlier. I needed someone to fill me in on what the hell was going on, and no one else would be as informed as he was.

He would have had time to inform the rest of the family about what was happening by now, so hopefully he was available. I could order him to drop everything, but that would be foolish of me. Vinny was doing important work that I couldn't do right now.

He answered on the second ring. "Hello?"

I felt bad for calling the second I heard his voice. Vinny sounded completely exhausted. He obviously hadn't taken a break or gotten any sleep since this mess started.

"I just talked to Tallon," I said. I wasn't sure where else to start.

"How did he sound?" he asked. He sounded almost hopeful.

"Fine," I said. "Tired and frustrated, but he seemed okay. He wasn't optimistic about getting out anytime soon."

Tallon had sounded almost resigned to his fate. I hated it. I wasn't going to let him spend one more second in that cell than was absolutely necessary.

"No, he wouldn't be," Vinny said with a sigh. "This is a disaster. I pulled the security footage for his lawyer just now, and it's all blacked out. You can still hear some movement once in a while, but it's completely impossible to know what's happening. Whoever did this disabled the cameras without setting off the security alarm. I don't know how that's even possible unless they figured out some way to remotely hack the feed, and if that's the case, it does not bode well for our chances of catching the bastards."

"We need to figure this out," I said in frustration. "What can we do, Vinny? We have to get him out of that damned jail." My voice was choked with emotion, and I had to take a second to regain control of myself.

"Our hands are tied," he said. "We have to play this by the rules, or we'll only make things worse. If Tallon gets a lengthy sentence, then the entire family is going to fall into chaos." "That's not an option," I said firmly.

I wasn't going to allow Tallon to remain in prison, and I was not going to allow the family to fall apart in his absence. It would break his heart. "You know as well as I do that the police are going to drag their feet on this just to hold him for as long as they can. They may very well try to deny him pretrial release by claiming that he has the resources to flee. What can we do if that happens?"

"Hell, I don't know," he said in distress.

"I need you to come over," I said. "We need to talk about this face to face or we aren't going to get anywhere."

"Yeah," Vinny said in a distracted tone. There was shuffling as he moved around for a moment. "Give me half an hour?" he asked hopefully. "I have to take care of a couple of things, then I'll be there." "Half an hour," I agreed. "Then we're getting to work and getting Tallon home."