Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 681 -

*Elio*

"Sorry to interrupt," Alessandro said as he took in the fact that I was wearing suit pants with no shirt.

I was glad that we were in my parents' suite where the bedroom was separate, though I suspected Cat was getting up to see what was going on for herself.

I threw a look over my shoulder and saw her through the half-open bedroom doorway, leaning forward as much as she could while still keeping herself covered. I tried and failed to keep a smile off my face as I turned back toward Alessandro and put an arm up on the doorframe, blocking his view into the room. To his credit, Alessandro avoided looking in her direction. "What's the news?" I asked, knowing Caterina was probably even more curious than I was.

"I finally had one of my men get eyes on Antonio. He's trailing him as we speak."

"Shit, that's great news. Let me get dressed and I'll go to wherever they're at," I said, quickly turning around and gathering up the clothes that I had carelessly thrown to the floor earlier.

"Fuck no," Alessandro said. "I can't have you drawing any attention. If Antonio gets one look at you, he's going to be gone to the wind. If he disappears on us again, we might never replace him. This is way too important to let you get in there and potentially mess it all up."

I turned to face him again, my search for clothes forgotten. "I need to do this, Alessandro. This is my fight. Antonio has been threatening Caterina and her mother for far too long. I don't want to go back to the States without at least laying eyes on the bastard."

"And what are you going to do when he sees you and runs away... or worse, sees you and starts shooting? We know the man doesn't give a shit when it comes to opening fire in public places. I can't risk it. My guy is good. He won't lose him." Alessandro crossed his arms, clearly trying to indicate that the discussion was over. But he wasn't used to dealing with me at least not as much as his other men. I wasn't used to blindly obeying orders.

"I'm not an idiot," I said. "I know how to go unnoticed. I might not have as much experience as you, but I know what I'm doing."

"I never said you were an idiot. But Antonio knows what you look like. He has no idea what my guy looks like. My guy could go up and talk to him and he'd be none the wiser. Don't you get that? You could ruin this entire operation!" "I understand the risks involved. I just want to be able to see him, that's all. I won't do anything stupid. I'll stay out of it, I promise. Your guy will call all the shots."

Before Alessandro could open his mouth to argue back, Caterina slipped beside me, wrapped in a thick duvet. I instinctively wrapped my arm around her waist, presenting a united front. I was sure that she would back me on this. If anyone wanted to lay eyes on Antonio before we left Italy, it was her. Of all of us, her life had been the one most fucked up by Antonio.

"Alessandro's right," Cat said, looking up at me confidently.

My jaw dropped. How could she betray me like that... and right in front of Alessandro? I had no problem with her disagreeing with me privately, but in front of others, I hated it. I didn't want people to think that we weren't on the same page. "You seriously don't want me to go replace Antonio myself?" I asked her incredulously.

"No, I really don't. It's way too dangerous. Everything Alessandro said is true. I can't lose another man to Antonio. I just can't."

The grief in her voice was palpable as she remembered the loss of her father. My stomach twisted as I realized again how difficult this entire trip must have been for her. Coming back to the place where she'd lost him had brought up a lot of hard memories. I squeezed her waist gently, reminding her that I was here, and that I would never leave her side.

"I know why you're afraid," I said, working to keep my voice measured. "But I've been searching for Antonio for so long. I hate the idea of leaving without seeing him for myself. We're so close to finally ending this."

"I know," she said. "And I agree, we do need to see him. Trust me, I want to see just as much as you do, probably more."

"What's your plan?" Alessandro asked, now knowing as well as I did that she always had something spinning in her mind.

I had begun to suspect that Caterina was far more calculating and intelligent than all the rest of us combined.

"We need your man to send a video," she said, "something that will prove that he really saw Antonio and that can give Elio and me a bit of relief. And we need the exact details of how they're going to keep an eye on him. I don't want to go back to the States only to have your guys fuck up and lose track of Antonio. I won't be able to stand it if he gets away again."

Alessandro nodded, his respect for Cat's commanding nature visible on his face. I knew how he felt. She might be young, but she spoke and behaved like someone with years of experience. It was hard for me to believe that she had known about this life for far less than I had.

She was a natural.

"Alright, I'm going to go get dressed. You ask your guy for a video and his game plan," Cat said before turning on her heel and heading to the bathroom.

The duvet trailed behind her like a wedding dress. I couldn't lie to myself... it was nice to imagine her walking down the aisle....

Before I could get lost in the fantasy, I turned back to Alessandro and invited him to come into our room and sit down. We sat in the armchairs that had been arranged to loosely face each other. He was furiously texting his men, attempting to meet Caterina's demands.

I knew he had a reputation for being a hard ass, but seeing the way Cat easily wrapped him around her finger showed a different side of him that I appreciated. It was obvious how much he cared about making her happy.

I suspected his relationship with her dad played a part in that. I had never known Vinny that well, but I remembered from the few times I was around him that he had often been a buffer between Tallon and Alessandro, keeping the two brothers from chafing too hard at each other. It was obvious that losing him had been a horrible blow to the entire family.

Alessandro received a phone call right as Caterina walked out of the bathroom, dressed in jeans and a simple T-shirt. She had run her fingers through her hair, but I could still see the places where it had been tangled by our lovemaking. It made me smile to see the reminder. She was so beautiful, it damn near made my heart hurt just to look at her.

"Yeah, just send the video over. It's encrypted on my end. It'll be fine," Alessandro was saying to whoever had called him. They must have agreed quickly because he hung up without another word.

"Well?" Caterina asked, "Do you have the video?"

Alessandro nodded. "My guy's sending it now. He took it earlier tonight. He said it's shitty quality, but you can tell who's in it."

"And they're sure it's Antonio?" Caterina demanded.

I was so goddamn proud of the way she carried herself.

"Yeah, they know it was him. I promise, my men are good. They wouldn't work for me if they weren't the best."

Cat nodded and sat down in my lap, wrapping her arm around the back of my neck for balance. I rubbed her back as we waited for the video to come in on Alessandro's phone. The tension in the room was thick. It felt like any moment something could go terribly wrong.

I knew it was just our desire to see this through that had all of us on edge. We were desperate for success.

Finally, Alessandro's phone buzzed with the arrival of the video. I could feel Caterina holding her breath. I poked her side slightly to get her to relax.

She jumped and leaned away from me as she shot me a dirty look, but she had started to breathe normally again. My distraction worked perfectly. Alessandro held his phone out to me, and I grabbed it, hitting play on the video and holding it so Cat could see as well.

As Alessandro had said it would be, the video was horribly grainy. It had been taken inside a restaurant, and it was obvious that whoever had taken the video had been working hard not to be seen. They zoomed in on a man sitting on the other side of the room.

It was obvious that it must be Antonio, although it was difficult to really make out his face in the video. We'd have to take their word for it. It did look like him, though, and I trusted Alessandro when he said his men were the best. Antonio was seated across from another person. They were laughing and talking, clearly oblivious to the fact that they were being watched. Good. Antonio had no idea what was coming his way. It was going to be horrible for him very soon. The video soon ended, but Caterina and I were both satisfied to finally have laid eyes upon Antonio.

"So, what's the plan?" Cat asked as I handed the phone back. "Because I don't want your men to lose him."

Alessandro nodded. "My tail put a tracker under his car. It's real state-of-the-art stuff. He'll never notice it, and it's so accurate that we'll always know exactly where his car is. As long as he stays with his car, which we believe that he will, we will know where he is."

I looked at Caterina to see if she had any more questions. She glanced back at me and kept her mouth closed.

I nodded to Alessandro. "Thanks for all of the information."

Alessandro nodded. "It's the least I can do. Trust me, I want this fucker dead just as much as you two do. Whenever we get the opportunity, he will be taken care of."

A shiver ran down my spine at the words. I was grateful that I wasn't the man being tracked down. I knew that it was only a matter of time before Antonio met a horrible fate, and I knew that he would deserve every bit of it.