Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 682 -

*Caterina*

After Alessandro left, Elio helped me undress and tucked me back into bed before doing the same for himself. We fell asleep in each other's arms, both lost in thought as we considered what it meant for Alessandro's men to be tracking Antonio. It felt like our biggest goal was going to finally be realized, and it made me wonder what we would do next.

I woke up the next morning to Elio kissing my cheek softly. I smiled and rolled over lazily, stretching so that my breasts arched out of the covers. Although we had just made love the night before, it was difficult to ever feel truly sated when I was with Elio.

The more I had him, the more I wanted him. He was like a terribly addictive drug.

"Well, good morning," Elio murmured in my ear before kissing the soft spot behind my ear lobe and sending goosebumps down the back of my neck.

His hand trailed over my waist, clutching me closer to him.

"Good morning."

I smiled as I rolled over so that I was on top of him, my legs straddling his thighs. He was already hard beneath me, and I rocked slightly back and forth.

He groaned and closed his eyes. "Why do you torture me like this? We have to meet with Alessandro before we leave."

I giggled at the genuine concern on his face. I loved how much he loved my body. I felt the same way about his. But we would have plenty of time to enjoy each other's bodies later. For now, we needed to get downstairs.

I leaned in for a quick kiss and then got out of the bed, swaying my hips dramatically on my way to the bathroom. Elio groaned again, and I knew he'd be counting the seconds until we were alone next.

Downstairs, Alessandro had catered in an incredible spread of handcrafted pastries. I stood in front of the counter, paralyzed with indecision, and thought to myself that Elio and I needed to start planning our next trip to Italy. The food alone was worth the trip..

Finally settling on a croissant that had been loaded with berries, I sat at the table with Alessandro, Elio, and Francesco from the dinner. I had been surprised to see Francesco, but I assumed Alessandro must have had a reason for wanting him there.

I had noticed that Alessandro was extremely particular about information. He didn't let just anybody know whatever they wanted. He ensured that only certain men knew certain things, and always it was because they needed to know so they could help out.

"Cat, Elio, I want you to get comfortable with Francesco. He's going to be heading to the States so that he can work closely with you and head the operation there for now. Of course, the eventual goal will be for you to be able to run things yourselves, but I'm not comfortable with setting you loose just yet."

Elio nodded, but I could see the tension in his back at Alessandro's words. I thought that Alessandro was making the right call, but I knew Elio felt ready to take over. I had no problem with waiting though. This was too important to mess up. "I'm looking forward to working with you," Francesco said between sips of coffee. He held up his mug in a semblance of a toast. "From what I've seen so far, you both make a great team. I know you'll learn quickly."

Elio straightened up a bit at his praise. I smiled. I liked seeing him feel proud of himself. It wasn't easy for him to make the transition into the mafia lifestyle, there were a lot of sacrifices that had to be made. But Elio had done it all and made it seem simple. He was hard-working and smart, the two best qualities a person could have in my opinion.

I was surprised at Francesco's change of demeanor compared with the dinner. But I supposed that a big 'family' meeting was a place where he needed to show that he was tough. I decided to encourage the newfound warmth. "We look forward to working with you," I told Francesco.

Elio nodded his agreement.

I took a bite out of my croissant and fought back the urge to moan at the flavor. I couldn't spend all my time in Italy exclaiming over the delicious food, no matter how badly I wanted to. I just couldn't believe how phenomenal every meal had been. It was truly a revelation.

"What's the plan for you guys here?" Elio asked Alessandro.

"We'll keep up normal operations, but now that we have Paul and Antonio fully under our supervision, we'll be closing in on them."

"Why are you waiting?" I asked. "Why not just capture them both now and put an end to this?"

Francesco chuckled. "Bloodthirsty little thing, aren't you?"

Alessandro smiled at me. "As much as we'd all love to do that, we've got to trail them both for a while longer so we can figure out who their main contacts are. We don't want to take them out only to have some unknown threat start coming after us. We need to know exactly who they work with so we can take down the whole thing.

I nodded. His explanation made sense. The fact that it hadn't occurred to me just reinforced the reason why Francesco would be joining us in the States. At this point, any decisions Elio and I made would be more based on instinct than experience. And although I believed we both had strong instincts that served us well, there were also times when it was important to let logic win out.

"I'm glad we're finally getting somewhere after searching for so long," I told Alessandro. "I feel like this all can finally come to an end, and we can have at least a little bit of peace."

Alessandro nodded. "I know this has been hard on you, knowing that your father's murderer is still out there. I promise you, nobody wants to get justice for your father as much as I do. Vinny was a great man. He didn't deserve to have his life cut short like that, and you didn't deserve to have your father stolen from you."

I nodded, afraid that if I spoke, it would only result in tears. The last thing I wanted to do was cry in front of these men. They had only just begun to respect me as one of them, I didn't want them to start thinking I was too soft to be a part of everything. But to my surprise, when I looked at Alessandro, his eyes were shiny with unfallen tears.

"You remind me so much of your father, Caterina," Alessandro said, his voice thick with emotion.

Seeing that I was on the verge of falling apart, Elio reached over and put his hand on my thigh, squeezing gently to reassure me that he was here with me. I took a deep breath and attempted to tamp down the emotions that were threatening to overcome me.

"Thank you so much. That means more than you can know," I said once I was sure I wasn't going to burst into tears.

I didn't know how I really felt about being compared to my father like that. What would my father think of what I was doing now? Would he be proud of me? Would he even want me to be a part of the mafia life? I wished he was around so I could talk to him about it.

I had no idea whatsoever how he would really feel about me doing this. I was sure that he would want to keep me safe like Elio had, but I didn't know if that meant that he wouldn't let me be a part of it, or if it meant that he would encourage me to be informed and take an active interest in being able to protect myself.

The fact that Antonio had taken that away from me, the simple ability to ask my father what he thought about my choices in life, made me so angry it was difficult to think straight. I was glad that Elio and I would be heading back to the US so that I wouldn't have to sit around in Italy knowing that Antonio was a free man.

I knew the urge to track him down and get revenge would be difficult to ignore.

We all finished up our breakfast, and Elio and I excused ourselves to go finish packing our things. In the room, he pulled me into a tight hug.

"I love you, Cat," he said in a tone that told me he was worried about how I was doing.

"I love you," I responded. "And I'm doing okay."

He brushed my cheek with his knuckles. "Are you sure? It's okay if you aren't, you know. You are so incredibly strong. And you'd still be strong even if you felt sad about your dad from time to time."

I nodded and tucked my head against his chest so I wouldn't have to look up at him. I knew he was right. I was still strong even if I felt sad, but it didn't mean that I was ready to face my emotions head-on.

I hadn't realized how many feelings coming to Italy would dredge up for me. Now that they were all bubbling to the surface, it made me feel fragile in a way that I never had before. The only thing that kept me together was knowing I had Elio by my side.

He rubbed my back and then let me go. "Alright, let's get packing."

We brought our luggage downstairs to the car that was waiting to take us to the airport. Francesco was in the middle of putting a large suitcase into the trunk of the car. I came up short, staring at him and wanting to talk to Elio privately. "Wait, is he flying with us?" I asked quietly.

"Yeah, I assume so," Elio said, "It makes more sense than having him fly on his own. Although I am surprised that he was able to get ready so quickly. Alessandro must have prepped him with his plan a while ago." "Damn," I muttered.

"What's wrong? Do you have a problem with him? You know we can always talk to Alessandro if we need to."

"No, it's not that, it's just that... I was hoping to fly alone with you," I said, looking up at him suggestively.

"Oh!" Elio seemed almost surprised that I had wanted to get a little more one-on-one time before we had to go back to reality. His shock was so funny to me that it almost made me forget about Francesco's intrusion. "Well, yeah, I would've liked that too."

"I guess we'll just have to replace some other time to fly internationally," I teased, taking his hand in mine and pulling him toward the car.

"We can fly internationally any time you want, baby."