Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 665 -

*Caterina*

'I did say I wanted to be involved,' I told myself.

This was a part of that, and just being out here meant that Elio trusted me, and he truly wanted to respect my wishes. That was what I wanted. But the eerie-looking warehouse gave me a chill up my spine, and it took everything in me not to throw the car in reverse and get the hell out of there.

But Elio was there, so I knew I was safe. There was no way that man would let me anywhere near a place that was dangerous, no matter how involved I'd told him I wanted to be. I couldn't help feeling for a few seconds that inclusion wasn't something I wanted at all.

Those feelings warred with each other inside me as I slid out of the car and grabbed my bag. Elio casually slipped his hand into my own and pulled me forward. The feel of his touch was comforting, and I was back to being certain that I was safe with Elio here.

But then the closer we got, the lower my heart started to sink into my stomach. Yet, I kept quiet. As Elio opened the doors, I ducked in behind him and felt my nerves spiral as the doors slammed closed loudly behind us.

I took a deep breath and looked around. The place seemed to be made up of mainly one large room and appeared poorly lit. Unlike the previous warehouse I was in, this one held less cargo and a lot less high-tech equipment. For a moment, I wasn't entirely sure what Elio wanted me to see, and I was starting to feel like I didn't want to see it, whatever it was. But I walked forward, my hand still firmly in Elio's as we weaved through the stacks of pallets and shrink- wrapped boxes.

When we turned one last corner, a sharp shiver of discomfort raced down my spine as my eyes fell upon a strange, unfamiliar man who was tied to a chair. He was placed in the far center of the room. His face was covered mostly by shadows and, to my surprise, didn't even appear to be all that injured.

My stomach turned over with slight nausea. Right then and there, the thought dawned on me.

I gently lifted my hand to point at the man. "Is that the guy who escaped?" I asked.

Elio merely nodded his head as he took hold of my hand once more and led me through a side door and down another narrow hallway. I followed him up a long flight of stairs and into another large room that was significantly more put together than the one downstairs.

The floor was carpeted and at the far end of the room was a large desk and a few leather-bound chairs. A large glass window overlooked the main room below. I'd been just about to feel comfortable when I felt my stomach instantly sink when my gaze caught sight of the man restrained in the chair yet again.

A strange sound of rustling made me turn my head to see Elio picking up a white delivery bag and placing it on the desk.

I'd forgotten all about lunch.

My appetite felt vastly diminished, given my current surroundings as well as seeing the unknown man tied to a chair. It felt wrong even to just stand where I was.

Then again, I was the one who had told Elio that I needed to be kept in the loop. I insisted on knowing what was going on, but it hardly ever occurred to me that he would want to physically bring me into his business like this. "Come here, Cat," he spoke softly.

By the looks of it, it appeared that Elio had sandwiches delivered. They looked great, but my stomach was still swirling with uncertainty.

"Has he still not said anything?" I dared to ask.

I picked up one of the sandwiches and diligently unwrapped it. Elio took a long sip of his drink before turning his head toward the window. He shook his head while his expression grew grim.

"Nothing of any use lately," he said. "I told you that he somehow managed to escape, and we found him and brought him back here. Bastard put up a decent fight but ultimately gave in when he realized how outnumbered he was." I plopped down into one of the chairs and forced myself to take a bite of my sandwich.

"And still nothing," I muttered under my breath.

I felt a mixture of dejection and growing impatience toward the situation at hand.

'All that pain and he still refused to give up anything pertaining to either Antonio or Junior,' I thought bitterly.

That particular kind of loyalty had to have been founded by fear. Whatever Elio and his men tried to use against this nameless guy was clearly not worthy of the consequences that he would potentially face if he were to let something slip. The mere thought of Antonio's thought process about punishment made my skin crawl with uneasiness. For once, I wanted to believe that we had the upper hand in the situation, yet the outcome was not as productive as it should have been. From what I could quickly gather, Elio and I appeared to be alone. Granted, there were a few men roaming about, patrolling the grounds, but the two of us were able to speak freely.

I quickly turned my thoughts to another apparent figure.

"Well, any news on the safe houses that Alexi gave us?" I asked.

Elio's expression only seemed to darken from there. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Elio wasn't fond of the stranger. To say that he was skeptical of Alexi's true intentions was truly an understatement. Why, out of complete nowhere, was a random man from Antonio's side so willingly come forward when there were terrible consequences to be faced from either side?

Regardless of the real reasons, I could tell that it infuriated Elio beyond comprehension. To think that the only real link we had to Antonio and his band of misfits was through a man that was free as a bird, whereas the captive they've been holding has remained silent.

"According to the locations he's given us, I've gotten word back about a few sightings of Junior's men, but none of him specifically," he said.

I nodded my head and bit the inside of my cheek as my bout of impatience grew even deeper. My body unconsciously tensed at the thought of Junior still roaming about wherever. Finding a way to cope with what happened to my mom was one thing, let alone having that creep out there free. I realized that not many people knew about the mental and emotional issues I'd been dealing with for the past few months.

Ever since I was told the honest truth about "Paul" and his true identity, my willingness to trust and believe new people had become near to impossible. I dealt with constant moments of anger and partial self-hatred for allowing myself to be controlled by someone like Junior for so long.

All that time, I'd believed that he cared for me. I shuddered at all the sad ass excuses I had made for him and myself, only to make the painful discovery that I was nothing more than a pawn in father's game.

I was a firm believer that no one wanted to see Antonio taken down more than Alessandro and Elio. But what I wanted, was for Junior to be taken down and face the consequences of his actions. The thought of him inflicting that same pain on some other woman was revolting.

God, I hoped that Elio and his men would replace a way to get the man they have downstairs to talk soon. Anything at this point would be useful to work with as opposed to nothing at all.

I finished the last few bites of my sandwich and grabbed one of the sodas off the desk.

"Well, although this was not entirely what I was expecting when you said you wanted to do lunch together... still, I'm happy that you called me," I told him.

Some of the tension around Elio's features started to lessen. The corners of his mouth pulled up into a heart-warming smile that made me shiver in a glorious, needy way. "But, while we're on the topic, why did you ask me to come here?" I asked.

It wasn't as though Elio couldn't have just simply told me all this while at home. It probably would have spared me the anxiety I felt when I first pulled up to the warehouse.

Elio swept what trash was left over from our lunch and tossed it back into the bag it first came in. He leaned against the desk and eyed me carefully.

"I thought you'd want to be here if our little guest finally decides to start talking," he said. "We're about to interrogate him again."

I physically felt myself go pale.

'Oh, God. Am I seriously ready for something as big as being a part of this?' I asked. 'No, probably not. But I was the one who made it a point to tell Elio that I needed to be included in things from now on.'

As easy as it would have been for me to make up some sort of excuse that would allow me to skip out on this unsettling activity, I needed to stick by my own word.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and slowly got up from my chair, hardening my resolve.

"Alright," I mumbled.

The sooner this happened, the quicker I would be able to return to the apartment and continue to study.

I tried to convince myself that I needed to do this. For the sake of my father and my mother, I needed to take a firm stance against all the madness that had done nothing but wreak havoc on my life.

Silently, I followed close behind Elio as we both descended the stairs down to the main room. He gave an unspoken look to some of the men who continued to circle the area, and they immediately joined us from a few feet away.

He led me over to the man, giving me a better chance to look at him. Elio broke away from my side to lean down into the man's personal space. My earlier calculations were correct. The guy didn't seem to be injured at all, just severely uncomfortable.

The air around us filled with a terrible, spine-chilling tension. The moment Elio opened his mouth to speak, I knew that something was different. The Elio I knew disappeared and a harsher, darker version has taken his place. "Last chance," he snarled to the man in front of him. "Where is Antonio?"