Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 644 -

*Elio*

The second my call ended with Cat, my stomach felt like it instantly filled with lead. A vicious, mind-bending anger speared through the back of my head and nearly caused me to see fucking red. Paul-motherfucking-Bryant.

"Why was this guy continuously trying to get at Caterina?' I asked myself bitterly.

I rubbed a rough hand over my face and tried to stay focused on the issue at hand. But the horrible, broken sound of hearing Cat's trembling voice still echoed through my head. There was nothing I hated more than feeling her distress through a speaker when I couldn't do a single thing in that very moment to comfort her.

She sounded terrified. I wanted to make her feel safe. The issue with Paul needed to end just as much as the ongoing problem with Antonio. Hell, I thought for sure that the guy would've disappeared for good after our personal confrontation with one another during the holidays, but it was clear that I'd misjudged his IQ.

Big mistake for him.

I knew that the moment Alessandro placed that gun in my hands that everything had ultimately changed. It had permanently placed me in a different frame of mind, one that set me apart from the average man. Granted, I wasn't about to jump in my car and hunt Paul down like some rabid dog. No.

I'd decided a long time ago that if I was going to ever have someone's blood on my hands, it was going to be Antonio's. But in the meantime, Paul still needed to be dealt with.

I wasn't going to know peace as long as the man had open access to Cat whenever it caught his interest. What the hell possessed the asshole to show up on her new campus? Would Cat become afraid to start her new classes all because the guy couldn't take a damn hint and leave her alone?

Campus security would only do so much to help. And to go about the issue in a legal way seemed useless and too time-consuming.

What we needed was a different kind of approach.

I quickly took my phone back out and pulled up Alessandro's number. After two rings, I heard the man's voice come through. "Elio? What is it?"

"I need you to come to the safe house," I told him.

"Has something happened?"

I took a deep breath in and struggled to keep my calm composure. "Yes. Cat was out with her friend today, checking out her new campus. They were approached by a guy who's been harassing her for weeks."

"Is she there with you now?" Alessandro asked.

"Not yet, but she told me that she's on her way back here as we speak."

"Alright, good. I want to talk to her about this situation in further depth," he said. "You said this has been going on for weeks?"

"At least for as long as Cat's been back here. Ever since before the holidays, he's shown up and wrecked fucking havoc on her life. She's told me that the two of them used to date back at her old school. She's tried breaking things off with him and now he won't leave her alone."

"I see," he said. "I'll be there in five."

The call ended. I was thankful that Alessandro was taking the situation as seriously as I was. Something about Paul consistently showing up, always needing to speak to Cat, was getting to be far too suspicious to be ignored.

I was fairly certain that after the altercation at Christmas, the guy would have called it quits. But Paul just kept sticking around.

'Far too longer than expected, that's for sure,' I thought.

"Elio!" a female voice called out and I knew the familiar tone who it belonged to.

I quickly got up from my chair in the den and rushed toward the front entrance where I saw Cat. The second she saw me, she took off like a rocket and slew into my arms and squeezed me tightly.

She looked exhausted and utterly drained. I could tell her emotions had gotten the better of her as her makeup appeared slightly smeared from possible tears.

But Christ, none of that mattered to me. Even at her worst, this woman looked absolutely perfect to me. All that truly mattered was that she was physically safe and back home where nothing could get to her.

I loved the way her body melted into mine as I wrapped my arms around her back. Her head rested perfectly right under the curve of my chin. There was a slight tremor to her hands that I felt through my shirt. My chest ached, knowing I didn't have enough time to properly calm her down and ease her nerves.

Nonetheless, I was glad she was letting me support her like this.

Unfortunately, our moment came to an abrupt halt when we heard the front door open once more. Cat went stiff in my arms as she tried to angle her head to see who it was.

"I called Alessandro over here so that we might assist with your situation," I told her.

Cat took a step back and quickly wiped her face of any remaining tears. Alessandro eyed her softly.

"It's alright, Cat. I'm glad Elio reached out to me about this," he said. "Sounds like you've been dealing with a bit of a stalking issue."

She nodded her head and brought her arms up to cross over her chest. I draped an arm over her shoulders, guiding us all into the living room.

Once we were all seated, I turned to face Cat and instructed her to tell Alessandro everything.

"Tell him everything about your relationship with Paul before you came back home for the holidays."

She slowly nodded her head and let out a long breath. "Okay. It started back in my other school. Paul and I were seeing each other. At first, everything seemed normal. I mean we did what normal college students did. We'd study together, hang out with our friends, and occasionally go to a party on the weekends."

Alessandro nodded his head. "But?"

Cat fiddled with her fingers in her lap. "But, somewhere along the line of being together... Paul changed. He used to be so calm and easy-going, then all of a sudden, it was as if his entire personality flipped around. He became controlling." "Controlling in what way?"

She shrugged her shoulders back. "He kept trying to tell me how to do things, told me how I should dress, how I should talk, how I should deal with classes. Then he tried to tell me which people I could talk to. But we quickly reached the point when he didn't want me talking to anybody at all."

She blinked back the saddened tears in her eyes.

"At first, I didn't want to think too much of it. I thought it was purely looking out for me and wanted what was best. But it reached a point where I felt completely isolated. I was trapped at my own school. And whenever I tried to question his behavior, he'd either deny it or...."

"Or what?" Alessandro pressed.

"He'd turn violent. He'd grab me tightly to the point of leaving these ugly bruises all over my arms and skin."

I felt the anger rising in my chest at the thought of someone putting their hands on Cat, but I tried to keep it to myself so she could continue talking to Alessandro. I watched him let out a controlled breath, but I could tell from the look in his eyes that he was as disgusted by this guy's behavior as I was.

"Okay," he said. "One more question and then we can stop. What's this guy's full name?"

Cat dapped the corners of her eyes with her sleeve. "Paul Bryant."

We both watched Alessandro take out his phone and make a call.

"Hey, it's me. I need you to run a name through the system for me... yeah, Paul Bryant." He turned back to glance at Cat. "Caterina, did you say that he attended your school as well?"

Cat shook her head. "No, Paul went to another school close by."

He turned back to his phone call and gave the receiver a bit more info before hanging up.

For a moment, we all fell back into silent resolution with ourselves. I found it strange that someone would go through all that trouble to control someone else when they didn't even attend the same college. How did this creep even replace Cat in the first place, I wondered... to think of the lengths he'd gone through just to get a hold of her.

Part of me wished that Paul was standing right in front of me so I could let my fist fly through the air again and knock him on his ass. What gave him the right to treat Cat, or any woman, that way?

Caterina sunk further back into the couch while her eyes wandered off in thought. I hated the fact that I hadn't gone with her today. But what good would that have done?

I didn't want to coddle her. What Cat needed was support, not someone to stand around and dictate how she should go about her life. After all, that was what Paul had done. I didn't want her to be afraid of the world around her. But if this issue with Paul didn't get resolved, I didn't know how things were going to go down.

A little less than an hour went by before Alessandro's phone went off. The sound nearly caused Cat to jump out of her seat. I reached out to rest a hand on her knee while he took the call. "What have you found?"

Ever so slowly, I watched as his eyes started to widen. Oh, my God. I didn't think I'd ever seen Alessandro look so shocked. It was beyond unsettling, and quite frankly, disturbing.

He nodded his head. "Alright. I'll be in touch. Yeah, that's all for now."

The call was dropped, and he turned his head back to face the two of us.

"Alright, you two. Caterina, I'm going to need you to be as calm as possible."

Her breathing hitched in her chest, yet she nodded in response.

"Paul Bryant is not who he says he is."

My brows drew together in question. "Then who the fuck is he then?"

"Antonio Jr. He's Antonio's son."

I felt as though a piece of my brain had literally imploded on itself. What the actual hell? No. No, it wasn't true....

"This can't possibly be right," I challenged. "I don't believe it."

Alessandro nodded his head. "Our guys have found a lot of this guy's fake IDs, so it was easy to crack. According to his real identity, he was born and still lives here in California. Chances are very likely that Antonio Jr. was sent to get close to Cat."

A burning rage scoured through me like a wildfire. Who the fuck did this guy think he was to come into Cat's life just to tear apart my family?

Well, I wasn't going to stand by and let it happen. I was going to replace a way to bring down Antonio. I was going to pay him back for taking away Cat's father, even if it meant evening the score by taking away his son from him. I refused to remain powerless in this situation any further.