Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 586 -

*Tallon*

"What do you think, Vin? Should we put a few of Alessandro's men here, just to beef up the security for a few weeks?" I turned around to see Vinny shuffling nervously from one foot to the other. "Um, what was that?" he asked, refusing to meet my gaze.

We were examining one of our warehouses by the docks, but it was obvious that his head was not in the right space to be making important decisions. I waved my fingers in front of him. "Come on, man, pay attention," I snapped.

I tried hard not to pull rank with Vinny, but our life was too important to let anyone start slacking. If he couldn't pay attention, he needed to tell me. In our line of work, our heads always had to be in the game. "I'm sorry, I just have a lot on my mind," he muttered. "What were you saying?"

"I'm worried that the new ferry they've got is going to bring a few too many tourists into the area. Should we beef up security for a few weeks and go from there? I don't want anybody accidentally wandering in here and seeing something they shouldn't see."

Most of the locals vaguely knew to stay away from the docks for this exact reason, but we couldn't expect tourists to extend us the same courtesy. I was terrified that some brash Americans would stumble their way into our warehouse and blow up our whole operation.

"Yeah, sure, that sounds good," Vinny responded, already sounding as if he had tuned me out.

I stopped walking and stared him down, my arms crossed over my chest. I loved Vinny like a brother, but he was seriously starting to piss me off. The last thing I wanted was to have to be here for twice as long just because he couldn't seem to keep his thoughts straight.

"Seriously, what's going on with you?" I asked, making it clear that I wouldn't accept anything less than the truth.

To my surprise, he sighed and hung his head. My irritation quickly turned into worry as I waited for him to tell me what was bothering him.

"It's Natalia," he said, his eyes on the floor.

My heart was in my throat. What about Natalia could possibly have him so distracted? As far as I knew, they barely even interacted outside of family dinners.

"What about her? Am I seriously going to have to drag this out of you like I'm pulling teeth? Come on, Vinny."

It was childish and stupid, but I felt a flash of jealousy that he knew something about my fiance that I didn't know. I didn't like being left in the dark, especially when it came to the woman I loved.

"She told me she wanted Bianca's address and I gave it to her. I think Natalia went over there to confront her. I know it was fucking idiotic of me to give Natalia the address, but I thought maybe it would help her realize that she had nothing to worry about. I didn't know that she was going to confront Bianca, or at least, I didn't think she would actually go through with it. I just thought if I showed her that she had my loyalty, then it might help settle her down a bit." His words came out in a rush. I saw red as I realized what he had done.

"So you're telling me that Natalia went behind my back? And you helped her do this?" I asked, my voice dangerously quiet. I was embarrassed that Vinny was involved in this; it was a petty argument between Natalia and me that never should have involved him.

"I'm sorry, man. I really thought it would help. It wasn't until after that I realized I should have just told her to talk to you about it."

Vinny looked miserable, but I didn't have it in me to reassure him. I was pissed that my supposed best friend would allow my fiance to go behind my back.

"I need to leave," I said tersely, then I walked out without another word. I needed to get home to Natalia and assess the damage that she had done.

I was fuming the entire ride home, my mind circling what had happened over and over again. I vowed to try to approach the situation calmly with Natalia, but it was difficult to calm myself down enough to know that we would have a productive conversation. I just hoped that she would somehow have a valid reason for what she had done, beyond simple jealousy.

I got home before she did and went to sit at the kitchen table, waiting for her. I didn't have to wait long. She waltzed into the kitchen, acting as if nothing had happened. I wondered if she had even planned on telling me what she had done, or if she was going to try and keep it a secret. I kept my back turned to her and tried to take a deep breath, reminding myself to at least give her a chance to come clean.

Instead of saying anything, she came up behind me and wrapped her arms around me. Although I normally would replace immense comfort in her touch, I couldn't relax into her embrace. Instead, I took it as proof that she was already planning on lying to me about what she had done that day. I stood up to face her, trying to collect my thoughts.

"What's wrong?" she asked in a small voice.

The fact that she had the audacity to act like she didn't know what I was pissed off about only made me angrier. Her innocent act would not get her far with me. I knew exactly how smart she was, and thanks to how we'd met, I knew how sneaky she could be. I just didn't think she would ever try to trick me again after everything we'd been through.

"You went after Bianca?" I finally just came out and said it. I didn't want to give her the opportunity to lie to me. I wanted it to be clear that I knew exactly what she had done.

She straightened slightly and I could tell by the set of her jaw that she was done with the innocent act.

"Yes I did. And I was right!" She damn near yelled in my face.

I shook my head and brought my hand up to smooth my forehead, trying with all my might to keep this from turning into a full blown argument but knowing it was a losing battle. "It doesn't matter if you were right, Natalia," I said tersely.

"So you don't care at all that your ex-girlfriend has been trying to sabotage our wedding?" she demanded, her eyes stormy.

"I never thought you would stoop so low, to be honest. I thought you were better than this. Surely you know that I chose you! Nothing Bianca does even matters. Don't you get that?" My words came out pleading. I was desperate to keep this from turning into something worse, but I could tell that she had settled in and wouldn't budge on her thinking.

"It does matter, Tallon," she said indignantly. "She's doing this shit because she thinks she still has a chance with you. If she didn't, she wouldn't be trying to stop you from getting married. How can you not see why this bothers me? How would you feel if I had an ex-boyfriend who was actively trying to get in the way of us getting married? Are you seriously going to tell me that you wouldn't do exactly what I just did, or worse?"

I had to admit, she had a point, but it didn't change the fact that she had lied to me.

"It's not really about that. It's about the fact that you went behind my back with my best friend. Did you really not think that Vinny would tell me? It is not okay for you to ask him to keep secrets from me." I managed to calm my voice slightly, hoping that she could hear the logic in my words if I could keep my emotions in check.

"Fine, I'm sorry about involving Vinny and I'm sorry I went behind your back. But surely you see where I'm coming from."

I had hoped that her apology would end the argument, but it was obvious that she wouldn't be happy until I admitted that she was right to confront Bianca, and I just couldn't do that.

"Bianca is meaningless. There's a reason why I'm not with her anymore. You're so much better than her and you need to let this go." I started to walk away, heading in the direction of my office. I would replace something to work on until late in the night so that she could go to sleep before I got back to our room.

"Don't you dare walk away from me, Tallon!" she spat, following behind me and grabbing my hand until I turned around.

"I'm sick of having this argument. I don't know what more I can tell you to make you stop being so fucking insecure about Bianca. It's not my fault I have exes, and I'm tired of being treated like some sort of villain just because of Bianca's idiotic behavior."

I tried to pull my hand away, but she clung to it, clearly not ready to let this go. I took a deep breath, steeling myself for whatever she was going to say next.

"You think you're sick of this? Imagine how I feel, knowing that my own fiance doesn't care about my feelings. You're acting like you care more about what Bianca thinks. Is that why you're so worried about the fact that I confronted her?"

"No, of course not, Natalia! I don't give a flying fuck what Bianca thinks. But I care a lot about what you think, and the fact that you didn't trust me enough to just fucking talk to me about this makes me feel like shit. In case you weren't aware, I have a bit of a complex about you keeping shit from me."

I worked hard to keep from yelling at her, but I could hear the way my voice was rising. I hated myself for trying to cover up my hurt with anger, but I couldn't help it.

Her face softened slightly. "Is that why you're upset, Tallon? Because you think I'm lying to you again?"

"It's not just that," I grunted.

"Alright, if you say so. Look, I already said I was sorry for going behind your back, and I meant it. But we can't keep having this argument over and over. What's done is done." My heart squeezed at her words. It was easy for her to say, "What's done is done," when I had been the one who had suffered the consequences of her lies when we first met. "Yeah, I guess so. I don't know why we're getting so worked up over this anyway, it's just a wedding. It's not like it's that big of a deal," I mumbled.

Her mouth fell open and I immediately regretted my words as her face paled slightly and tears sprang to her eyes. She ran out of the kitchen before I could say another word. I felt like such a fucking idiot.