Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 571 -

*Natalia*

I could feel my heart beating so hard that I momentarily worried I was actually having a heart attack. We had a name. We had a main suspect.

The person who had taken Tallon from me had been closer than we realized all along. He was a member of the family, probably one of the people that Vinny and Alessandro had been working so hard to comfort and reassure over the past week.

It filled me with rage to think about this man trying to act like he was upset and concerned when all the while this was his doing. So many days had passed now that whatever anxiety he felt about getting caught had probably started to fade. He was likely feeling confident in the success of his betrayal.

I would make sure that he regretted that confidence. He wasn't going to get away with this for a second longer.

I hated that it was a member of the family, but I wasn't surprised. My gut was telling me that the person responsible was closer than we thought. It only made sense that it was an inside job, considering the level of knowledge about the family that would be necessary to pull off the killings and the set up. It almost had to be an insider.

Our troubles were far from over, though. We had to replace proof if we wanted to get Tallon out of police custody. They weren't going to let him go just because I gave them a name. We needed something solid to prove that he was being held without reason. Getting that evidence was most likely going to mean confronting this Antonio person directly.

The thought of it sent a chill through me. This man had killed a lot of dangerous people and framed the Don himself. There was no telling what he would do when confronted. He would just lie and try to talk his way out of things. I knew I wouldn't be surprised at all to replace that he had some trump card up his sleeve to throw suspicion on someone else.

That wasn't the worst-case scenario though, sadly. I couldn't help but fear that he might get violent when confronted. He might try to go out in a blaze of glory. If that was the case, we may not be able to avoid bloodshed.

If we ended up killing Antonio, then we would be back to square one with no way to prove Tallon's innocence.

The situation was so messy. I wasn't sure what the right approach was. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the future of the family was at risk, not to mention Tallon's freedom.

I wanted to be selfish about this. I wanted to demand that this bastard turn himself in and confess to everything. I wanted to make it very clear to him that if he didn't, I would kill him myself.

I knew that wouldn't work.

I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice Vinny had parked the car until the engine died. I jerked my head up in concern and found that we were outside of Alessandro's house.

I breathed a sigh of relief. He'd never actually told me where we were going, and I wasn't sure what I was going to see when the car stopped. It made perfect sense for us to meet with Alessandro first.

I wasn't ready to confront anyone just yet, anyway. This was far too personal, and I needed to get my thoughts straight before I could act. I couldn't afford to make a mistake.

I wasn't the type of person to go in blind. I wanted to have a plan in place first. I hoped that Alessandro and Vinny could offer some insight that would help me to prepare.

I couldn't rule out the possibility that we just didn't have enough information to form a plan, though. It seemed like we had all been caught off guard by this, so trying to predict how things might play out could prove to be a futile effort. Vinny and I walked quickly to the front door. The moment Vinny knocked on the door, it swung open, and Alessandro ushered us in. His shoulders were tense, and there was a carefully neutral expression on his face. "Come in," he said in a tight voice.

Vinny and I entered, and Alessandro locked the door behind us, then led us to the sitting room without speaking another word.

We all sat down and waited tensely for someone to speak. It felt like none of us were quite sure who should be taking the lead right now.

After a few seconds, I cleared my throat and adjusted my legs awkwardly.

"Vinny tells me he has a prime suspect," I said. "What can you tell me about this Antonio guy?"

Alessandro leaned forward and put his elbows on his thighs. He supported his head with his hands and rubbed his temples. "I can't believe this is happening," he muttered.

"I'm sorry," I said softly. "I know that none of us wanted to believe it could be an inside job. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of processing our emotions right now. We have to stop this from going any further. We can deal with the emotional fallout later."

"You're right," Alessandro said. He sat back and looked at me. "Antonio has been with the family for decades. It's just hard to believe that this is really happening."

"It all feels like a nightmare," I agreed. "But it's almost over."

"I know that his men were killed by the Russians," Vinny said. "He's the only survivor of his team."

Alessandro nodded. "It makes sense," he agreed. "Antonio isn't good with technology himself, but he has contacts. One of his boys is the brother of a verifiable tech genius. Getting past the security system at the warehouse would be a piece of cake for him, and he would be more than willing to do Antonio a favor, especially if he thought it would avenge his brother in some way."

"What about my phone?" Vinny asked. "Do you think this contact could hack my phone somehow?"

"Absolutely," Alessandro said. "It wouldn't even be a challenge for him."

"So, he could have pulled off all of the hacking," I said. "And he would have knowledge on the Russians that had been involved in the killings of his men, that makes sense. Would he be capable of pulling off the killings?" Alessandro and Vinny exchanged a look that I couldn't quite read. I waited as patiently as I could for one of them to answer me.

"He could do it," Vinny said finally. "He's getting on in years, but he has the experience and the strength to manage it."

"He might have other accomplices too," Alessandro pointed out. "Either way, this is something he could easily do."

"It seems like we have our answer then," I said. "The only question remaining is, why?"

"I spoke to a few people close to him," Vinny said. "They agreed that something has been eating at him recently. None of them seemed to know why, but he has been distracted and unhappy for a while now."

I nodded thoughtfully. It made perfect sense to me. In a way, this was my fault, as I feared.

Antonio must have done this because he was angry about the end of the war with the Russians. If that was the case, he probably wasn't thrilled with Tallon for marrying a Russian. He targeted Tallon because of me. I inhaled slowly and held my breath for a moment before I exhaled.

"What is he likely to do if we confront him?" I asked.

"It's hard to say," Vinny said. "If he's capable of all of this, then I don't know if we can predict how he'll behave."

"No," Alessandro agreed. "He may accept that he's been caught, he may try to fight us off. It's hard to say. That's why Vinny and I need to go deal with this ourselves."

Alessandro stood and Vinny hurried to stand with him. Without another word, they turned toward the door.

"Hold it," I ordered.

Vinny stopped right away, and Alessandro turned to face me after a few more steps.

"This isn't up for debate," he said. "This is a dangerous situation. Tallon would never forgive me if I let you get hurt."

"You're right about one thing," I agreed. "We aren't debating this. "I'm coming with you. Tallon is to be my husband. In his absence, it is my responsibility to take care of the family. We have a traitor that is putting the entire family at risk, and I will not sit idly by and wait for the problem to be dealt with." I wanted to cross my arms, but I worried it would look too childish. Instead, I stood with my shoulders back and looked Alessandro directly in the eye.

If he thought for one second that I was actually going to let them go alone, he was insane.

"Think this through," Vinny said. "All three of us can't put ourselves at risk. Tallon is locked up, if the three of us were taken out, what would happen to the family?"

Silence fell over us again. Vinny had a good point. Alesandro was the next in line to be Don, and Vinny was the Don's right hand. If all three of us were to die, the family would descend into absolute chaos.

But what were the odds that he could kill all of us before we took him out?

"You make a good point," I said. "But I'm not staying behind. That bastard put Tallon's life at risk and took his freedom. He risked the entire family by doing so. The police could have found any number of things when they arrested Tallon. If he wasn't so careful about his communications and what he does on his phone, there's no telling what could have happened."

The police could have destroyed the Valentino family if they had gotten the wrong information from Tallon. Antonio had risked more than he realized in his search for revenge. It was reckless and hateful what he had done, and it would not stand.

"She has a right to be there," Alessandro said softly.

"I don't like this," Vinny muttered.

"Neither do I," Alessandro agreed. "But what can we do?"

"We're outranked," Vinny sighed.

"Hilarious," I said with a roll of my eyes.

They were teasing me. Despite my annoyance, I felt myself smiling.

"Let's get going," Alessandro said. "Antonio will probably still be in his office. It's not far from here."

"Lead the way, then," I said. "Antonio forfeited his freedom the second he acted against the family. Whether he knows it or not, he's been living on borrowed time and that time is up. Let's go get him."