Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 635 -

*Elio*

'Why is Alessandro calling me?' I asked myself.

I was so happy Cat had agreed to spend the day out with me. Having driven through L.A. nearly on a daily basis and seeing all the incredible artwork on display, I just knew that it would be right up her alley.

There were multiple points throughout yesterday's disaster that truly had me thinking that things were over between us.

That conversation I'd been having with Matilde was not meant to be heard beyond those four walls. And the look that Caterina gave us haunted me for hours. It was a mixture of pure disbelief laced with shattered betrayal.

When her eyes filled with tears and her brows knitted together in anguished confusion, I knew right then and there that there was no way of getting out of the truth. I'd spent so many years strategically keeping Cat hidden from the unsightly business that had clouded my family history, including that of her father's.

There were numerous reasons why I'd never chosen to tell her about it. It was never my place, nor my business, to tell her. That, and I was strictly put in charge of watching over her. God only knew what could have happened had Cat found out any sooner.

Every nerve in my body was screaming out for me to follow her when she left the house. But I knew that would have done more harm than good in the end. Granted, I'd tried calling her to at least know where she'd ended up. When she refused to answer any of my calls, my anxiety practically hit the ceiling. I knew in the back of my mind that Cat went to see her friend Anna, but I was raised never to make loose assumptions.

Cat needed space. And I'd been in no position to deny her that.

Although, when she finally returned home, at least half of my anxiety had disappeared. All that really remained was exhaustion and a heavy dose of guilt.

I knew she was hurt. Hell, I'd anticipated her arrival to be filled with anger and fury. I expected to be yelled at and cursed out, regardless of her mother's presence.

But no.

She returned to the house calm and collected. She confronted the two of us with a firm, almost grim, behavior that left me shocked and severely displaced. I didn't know how to handle such a version of her. But Cat was direct and straight to the point in her argument.

My heart slammed in my chest when she forced me to step back in her living room. She'd spoken her peace and was looking to retreat to her room. I should've let her be at that moment, but my body had other plans.

I didn't want her to leave the room on such a solemn note. I wanted to comfort her-to pull her into my arms and promise that nothing would ever hurt her again.

As if I had the power to make such a promise... but I was still willing to try.

I let her go, nonetheless. But still a large part of me was too nervous that she'd wake up the next day and rethink our entire relationship. So, I'd waited for her mother to leave her room in order for a real chance to talk with her. Of course, any plans of talking were immediately altered when I saw just how distraught she looked. Her eyes were puffy and red from all the tears she'd been crying. 'It's my fault,' I thought bitterly to myself. 'I made her feel this way.'

I hadn't initially intended to tell Cat about how deep my feelings ran for her. One moment we were talking about the shadows of my past, and the next thing I knew I was divulging how much I loved her. I didn't want it to sound like some cheap plea to get her to listen to me. I meant every word of it.

Before my eyes even fully closed, I planned this whole day out and centered it specifically around Cat. I knew she'd love the art district and I wanted to make her feel happy after such a horrible day prior. But now my time with her was being rudely interrupted.

I cursed myself inwardly for even letting Cat see that Alessandro was the one who was trying to reach me. Without a word, I switched the Bluetooth off from my car and answered the call on my phone.

"Alessandro," I greeted him curtly.

"Elio. New intel on Antonio has just come in. We'll be waiting for you to come to the house," he told me.

My stomach lurched at the sound of hearing his name. I gritted my teeth and spoke hastily.

"See you in an hour."

I ended the call and threw the gear shift into drive. My eyes focused solely on the road while Caterina's gaze burned into my side profile.

"Elio, what's going on?" she asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

I let out an honest sigh of disappointment. "I'm afraid I have to cut our day out together short," I said.

"Oh." Cat looked deflated and a bit saddened by this bit of news.

I nodded my head. "Yeah, Alessandro wants to discuss another property purchase. I'm not entirely sure how long he's going to be around before heading back to Italy, so I want to lock in as much time as I can before then," I explained. Much to my surprise, Cat didn't try to question anything about my false explanation. God, I hated lying to her. After everything that we'd spoken about in the past twenty-four hours, this was truly the last thing on my mind. But I couldn't very well tell her the truth now.

I knew for fact that she'd demand to come with me when I'd go to meet Alessandro. Regardless of her feelings, she would insist on being a part of trying to bring Antonio down. At the end of the day, the reality of it all still stood. I needed to keep her safe.

After everything she'd found out, something as miniscule as this could certainly wait. If it was all just about a piece of information, then I was more than happy to keep this on the down low. Unfortunately, I could feel the energy in the car shift between us from that point on. I knew she was just as disappointed as I was to not spend more time together.

As I pulled into her driveway, I turned to face her and tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear.

"I promise I'll be back as soon as I can," I said.

I leaned across the center console and placed a quick kiss on her head. The second Cat headed inside the house, I reconnected my phone to my car's speaker and quickly dialed Leo's number.

After two rings, his voice came through the other side of the line. "Hey, Elio. What's up?"

"I got a call from Alessandro just now," I told him. "I'm coming to pick you up. Are you at the club or your place?"

"My place. The club doesn't open for another couple of hours," he explained. "What's the situation with Alessandro?"

"He says that they received some sort of information on Antonio," I said.

Christ, I hoped it had something to do with a location. Maybe there was a particular place the man was caught hanging around. Maybe some of Alessandro's men were close to having actually nailed down the literal place to where he's been hiding. I hoped they were close to circling in.

I wanted this to be over. Whether I decided to truly be part of it was no longer part of the question. For the sake of Cat and her mother, I wanted Antonio to be taken down. Jail and possible imprisonment had proven to be useless. I wanted the ongoing threat of his existence to be gone.

Hearing Leo's voice snapped me out of my deep thoughts.

"Interesting. Alright, I'll meet you outside my place," he said.

"Great. I'll be right over."

I ended the call and weaved in and out of the moving traffic. By the time I reached Leo's apartment building, my head was sore from all the recurring thoughts and ideas that kept popping up.

As much as I wanted to know what Alessandro discovered, all I really wanted was to return home to Caterina. Had our day not been cut short so abruptly, I'd planned on taking us out to a nice restaurant, possibly a place that was quiet and private where we could just focus on each other. I wanted to clear away any potential doubts that she could have had about our relationship.

I needed her to understand just how important she was to me.

I turned my head to see Leo heading out of the main doors of his building. He looked as determined as I felt. But in the corner of my eye, I noticed another figure heading toward the car.

A man dressed in all black with a pair of sunglasses covering half his face approached Leo from behind. My stomach twisted in knots when my gaze suddenly fell to the handgun the man had pulled from behind his back. With his other hand, he snagged Leo by the back of his shirt and dug the head of the gun into his shoulder.

Leo's eyes widened in unspoken fear, not even fully comprehending what was happening behind him. I instantly threw the door open and rushed out of the car without a single coherent thought.

I didn't have a fucking clue as to how I was going to help him. It wasn't as though I was armed myself. What the hell was going on?

Just as I stood a couple feet away from Leo and his unknown attacker, the picture started to clear up. I recognized some of the prominent details the man possessed.

"Antonio," I gritted through my teeth.

"Stop helping Alessandro," he spat out.

The older man tilted his head as though to intimidate me. The air caught in my chest in panic, but I wasn't about to let him know that.

"We both know that you aren't in this sort of life," Antonio said tauntingly.

"Maybe not," I snarled back. "But surely you know that this kind of life doesn't just leave people so easily."

The older man sneered in disdain.

"Don't be ignorant. You're way in over your head, boy. If you continue to work with Alessandro, I can promise that you're as good as dead."

My heart nearly jumped out of my chest when instead of firing his weapon, Antonio chose to shove Leo toward me. My hands reached out to steady my friend.

I quickly glanced back to where Antonio was once standing, but I no longer saw him. I glanced around and spotted a dark colored van speeding away in the opposite direction. And just like that, he was gone. Both Leo and I rushed into the car and locked the doors. I whipped the steering wheel and put us back onto the road. I tapped a few buttons on the screen on my dashboard, pulling up Alessandro's number. Soon his voice came through the speakers. "Elio? What is it?"

"It was Antonio," I hissed angrily. "We saw him. He pulled a gun on Leo."

"Shit. Is he alright? Are the two of you alright?"

"Yeah," I grunted. "He didn't fire it. He just spoke a few words and left. Some car picked him up. He's gone."

"What exactly did he say?"

I let out a long, exhausted breath. "I'll tell you everything in a few minutes. We're coming to you now." *Caterina*

I clutched my arms close to my chest and bit my lip in ongoing worry as I watched Elio back out of the driveway. Today was perfect, I thought.

Well, at least it 'was' perfect until Elio received that strange call from Alessandro. I could tell from the faraway look in his eyes that it was something unexpected, but it still needed to be dealt with.

I'd seen some of the most incredible pieces of art today with him. No one has ever gone out of their way like that to make a whole day geared around my interests. And from the looks of things, I was fairly certain that Elio had enjoyed the day

too.

Then again, I had just watched his leisurely expression change to something resembling hardened bitterness. His mood had taken a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn around the moment Alessandro's name popped up on the screen of his car dash.

Honestly, I was a bit peeved by the fact that he hadn't just answered the call through the touch system on his car. Instead, Elio chose to take the call privately. It almost felt as though he was trying to keep something hidden from me. Of course, he was entitled to his privacy, but after last night, I thought we'd reached a breakthrough with each other. Now that I knew about certain things regarding his family's past, I was almost sure that Elio wouldn't choose to keep me in the dark now.

He claimed the call was business related....

I knew a little about Elio wanting to expand his business over to Italy based on what he'd told me in the past. I loved the idea of him wanting to reach back to his family's original roots this way. I had no doubt that his work would thrive over there the way it did here.

But this wasn't the feeling that this private call from Alessandro gave me. It didn't seem energetic and opportunistic. It seemed rather cold and filled with an icy venom.

He and I had barely spoken a word after that. We spent nearly the entire ride home in complete silence. And that was what made things even more troubling for me.

Our fun day out together was snatched away because of some unknown news.

'For God's sake, relax," I scolded myself. 'Elio said that it was just business. Give him a damn chance, will you?'

My inner voice was right. I stepped away from the window to try to replace something to occupy my time while Elio was off handling his own affairs. Meanwhile, my mind fought endlessly with the unruly sensation that swelled inside of me. An uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.

I wanted to believe him. I needed to trust him. After the horrific and mentally draining day I'd had yesterday, I refused to think that Elio would proceed to lie to me yet again.

All that time I spent in his arms-a feeling I didn't know that I desperately needed-made me realize that I didn't want to be alone. I didn't want to end the relationship that we'd started together.

Had it been anyone else's name that appeared on the screen, I didn't think it would have bothered me as much. But no. It was Alessandro's.

What little I knew, and barely understood, was that he was not a man to mess with. His stern demeanor, although softened around his family, gave me chills down my spine.

I dropped the thought of Alessandro from my mind for the time being. I wandered into the living room and sagged back into the cushions of the couch. Reaching out for the remote, I clicked on the TV and scrolled through the various channels to replace something.

I was desperate for a distraction.

***

I wasn't sure what time it was at first. The sun had seeped well below the tree line outside, and the room grew dark. I'd send a few messages to Elio in hopes of replaceing out when he'd be on his way back. Nothing.

My stomach flipped with the same anxiety I'd managed to dodge from earlier when I glanced down to replace that all my messages remained unread. Something wasn't right.

It wasn't like Elio to not respond to any of my texts. If he was still in a business meeting with Alessandro, the least he could do was open one of them to show me that he at least got it.

Still nothing.

It was then that I made the mistake of glancing at the time under the TV. My eyes widened in disbelief. Holy shit... five hours had passed since Elio last dropped me off, and I hadn't gotten a single word back. What if something was going on? What if something happened on his way back here?

My nerves coiled and twisted in havoc as my mind continued to replace imaginary scenarios. It wasn't until I heard a sudden screeching sound of a tire outside that I allowed my emotions to stop spiraling in distress.

I quickly shot up from the couch and rushed over to the window.

Seeing Elio's car pull into the driveway offered my nerves a much-needed reprieve. But it also ended up filling me with a severe bout of annoyance. Just as my feet were getting ready to pull me toward the front door, I stopped dead in my tracks.

Elio was back... but he wasn't alone.

My heart skipped a beat as I watched Elio step out of the driver's seat and leisurely toss his keys at Alessandro.

'Elio, what the hell are you doing?' I asked myself.

My brows pulled together in question as the two of them parted ways. Alessandro came around the back to slide behind the wheel. Elio waved the man off and turned to head inside.

My feet remained planted where I was standing as I heard Elio walk into the house. His deep voice echoed off the walls.

"Cat?"

"In here," I called back.

A worn expression crossed his features. "I thought I told you to always keep that door locked," he said.

I raised a single brow and crossed my arms over my chest. "Yeah, well, I thought that you'd be gone for all of an hour, maybe two at the very most," I challenged back.

Elio closed his mouth and dropped his gaze to the floor. He rubbed the back of his neck and tried to replace the right words to respond.

I let out a long breath and gently shook my head. I didn't want some random excuse. What I wanted were answers-an explanation for why he'd proceeded to spend over five hours with Alessandro and not have the decency to simply send me a text, letting me know what was going on. "Can I ask why you gave Alessandro the keys to your car?"

He raised his brows, as though surprised that I would even bring up such a topic. He quickly glanced between me and the window I stood next to and pieced the situation together.

"Oh, Jesus, no, Elio. I was not stalking you from the window," I told him dryly.

A humorous smile touched his lips, which caused my cheeks to blush.

"I merely heard a car pull up to the house and was wondering who it was."

Elio chuckled and walked up to envelop me in his arms. "Alessandro doesn't have a rental and since I have another car, I'm letting him borrow it for the time being," he said.

The straining ache in my muscles gradually relaxed as I melted into his touch. I let my head rest against his chest and take the moment in.

"I was really worried," I muttered under my breath.

He dragged his hands along the planes of my back, rubbing in small, calming circles.

"I know," he said.

I tilted my head back to look at him. "Why couldn't you just let me know that you were okay?"

"You're right. I should have and I'm sorry. We got caught up in talking about possible expansions in the European market. I hadn't realized how much had gone by until I checked the time myself," he told me.

Even with his explanation for his lateness, I felt a strange twinge inside my gut. His voice wasn't at all wavering in any way that would've signified that he was lying, yet... something seemed off.

'There's probably nothing wrong and you're overthinking again, as usual,' I told myself.

Again, I wanted to believe my inner voice on this. I wanted to believe that Elio really was discussing the European market with Alessandro for nearly six goddamn hours and that nothing else was going on. Even though the nerves in my body were telling me that there was something else at play here, I fought the urge to continue to question him.

I wanted so badly to believe that Elio wasn't keeping things from me again. I also wanted to believe that any business that was going on between him and Alessandro was nothing more than literal 'business.' There was no doubt in my mind that Alessandro was a force not to be trifled with. And Elio was not foolish enough to get himself involved in something so heinous... so dangerous.

'I'm going to believe what he's telling me,' I concluded.

Wanting to push Alessandro and the rest of my wavering thoughts out of my head, I took a sudden step back from Elio. His eyes curiously followed me while I gestured my head toward the kitchen.

"Come on. Let's see if we can replace something in the kitchen that I can make for dinner."

Elio smiled and graciously followed me.

A short while after we were through making a mess, I gingerly placed our fettuccine on three separate plates. I heard my mom come in. She looked exhausted from work as usual, but she was happy to see Elio and me moving about the place together. "Hello, you two," she greeted us.

"Hi, Mom. You're just in time. I just finished up with dinner. Come sit down."

The three of us took our seats at the table and fell into a comfortable silence. We were all about halfway through when my mother lifted her head.

"So, New Year's Eve in two days," she began. "Do you two have any special plans?"

My face instantly flushed. It was crazy to think that now my mom knew the truth about Elio and me being together.

"Um, I was just sort of thinking about staying in that night," I said. "We could all hang out and watch the big countdown on TV."

My mom smiled. "Sorry, Cat. As relaxing as that sounds, I actually have a date for that night."

My brows raised. "Really?"

She sheepishly nodded her head.

"Oh, well, that's okay. I'm glad that you're seeing other people. What's he like?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "His name is Robert. He's nice, I suppose. It's nothing too serious as of right now."

I had half a mind to press for a little more information, but I could tell that the woman was exhausted. My mom finished what was left of her pasta and offered to help clean up. I shook my head and softly pushed her off to her room to rest.

I carried the dirty dishes over to the sink. Not a moment later, I felt Elio snake his arm around my waist and pull me back into his chest. My breathing grew hitched when his lips brushed the side of my ear.

"Since your mom won't be here, let me plan a trip for us," he suggested.