Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 690 -

*Elio*

"No, it's not," I answered Caterina. "But it might have been. I'm glad I hadn't gone there yet."

Caterina nodded, relief visible on her face. We were safe... this time. But that had been far too close of a call. If they'd managed to plant any incriminating evidence or somehow get the body into my house, it would've been impossible to keep the police off me.

I wouldn't be any use to our family if I got locked up for murder. I couldn't wait to get my hands on Junior. That bastard had been slinking around for far too long.

"I hate that Junior is still out there," Caterina said, as though she had read my mind.

She shivered with disgust, no doubt imagining the things that had gone on when the two of them had been together. It made me feel disgusted as well, knowing that he had been with such a wonderful woman just to use her. The fact that it was Cat that he had taken advantage of made me even angrier.

I clenched my fists, trying to dispel some of the rage that was building within me. I needed to stop thinking about Junior. It wasn't doing me any good to sit and stew in my own anger.

I pulled out my phone and called Leo. I was going to need his assistance with this.

“What's up?" Leo asked as if he'd been waiting for my call.

"I need you to call Franky and tell him to meet us at the warehouse. We've got to discuss the next steps, and I need to tell him about the body. It's time we retaliate. This has gone on long enough." "You got it," Leo said simply before hanging up.

Cat looked at me expectantly, her sweet eyes wide in her face. I knew exactly what she wanted, and I knew she would never ask for it. She wanted to come to this meeting, but more than that, she wanted me to want her there. And I found that despite all my reservations about letting her get involved in such dangerous work, I did want her there.

Her skills were invaluable to us, she was great at reading people and even better at getting them to open up to her. Although things with Alexi had gone south, she had gotten some great information from him.

"You're going to get your chance to come to a meeting now," I said.

Her eyes lit up even as her face retained its grim expression. This shit was stressful, but my love wanted to be a part of it. She was so happy when I included her, and it made me feel like an idiot for not including her a long time ago. All I wanted in life was to make Caterina happy. I just wished there was a way to do that without involving her in life-and-death situations. "Really?" she asked. "Thank you."

She wrapped her arms around my neck, practically strangling me in her excitement. There couldn't be very many people in this world who would be happy at the idea of joining the type of meeting that we were about to be a part of. But then again, Cat wasn't like most people.

She was remarkable.

Caterina was the strongest person I'd ever met, and I knew that she was more than capable of handling herself, but that didn't change the fact that I worried about her. It was quickly becoming clear to me that worrying about Cat was just going to be a permanent state for me. I had spent such a large portion of my life keeping her safe, and I didn't think that feeling would ever go away.

"Do you have any idea how much you amaze me?" I asked her, taking a moment to lean forward and give her a lingering kiss.

When I pulled away, she was smiling at me. I silently felt triumphant at my ability to wipe that stressed frown off her face.

"Hm, maybe you can show me later," she flirted.

I chuckled, quickly regretting the fact that we had to rush to the meeting at the warehouse and wishing instead that I could take her to our penthouse.

Unfortunately for me, we made it to the warehouse in no time. Leo was outside waiting for us. I wondered if he wanted to speak to me privately before we met with Franky.

I got out of the car and rushed around to the other side to open Caterina's door before she had the chance to open it for herself. She might be strong, but that didn't mean I couldn't be chivalrous.

As I opened Cat's door, Leo caught my eye. Yep, he definitely wanted to speak with me. After I helped Caterina out, I walked over to him. She stayed back, waiting to see what would happen.

"Just so you know, Franky was complaining to me again about her involvement." He motioned with his chin in Cat's direction.

She was standing by the car, her arms crossed over her chest. She had gotten the hint that Leo wanted to speak with me in private. As usual, her ability to read the situation impressed the hell out of me. "What do you mean?" I asked.

"He's old-school. He still doesn't get why you want her to be a part of all this."

"Well, that's bullshit," I said. "I thought we put this to rest already."

Leo shrugged.

"She gets to be a part of this because she wants to be a part of this," I continued. "Who the fuck am I to tell a grown adult what she can and can't do?"

Leo shrugged again, obviously not wanting me to shoot the messenger.

"Sorry, man," I said. "It just pisses me off. She has as much a right as anyone."

"I know, trust me. I just wanted to give you a heads-up before we went in. He might not be respectful of her, even though she hasn't done anything wrong. I know how much of an asset she can be," Leo said. "Everything all right?" Caterina asked, raising her voice to be heard from where she was standing so that she didn't interrupt our conversation.

"Yeah, come on," I told her, unwilling to continue the conversation with Leo.

He didn't believe the same bullshit that Franky did, so it was stupid to even keep talking to him about it, although I could rant for days about how unfair it was to expect Cat to stay out of this when it was her own father who had been killed by Antonio.

She had more of a right than any of us to want revenge.

The three of us waltzed into the warehouse, where Franky was already waiting for us. I had my arm wrapped around Caterina's waist, intent on showing a united front. Franky didn't bother to hide his irritation at Cat's presence. His eyes slid over to her and narrowed as he turned back to me. I felt my jaw clench at his open disrespect. It was one thing to not want her there, it was another thing entirely to be an asshole.

“Hey, Franky," I said, deciding to head off the conversation before he had the chance to criticize Cat. "We've got a lot to fill you in on."

Franky nodded, his arms over his chest. He sent another sideways glance toward Cat but waited for me to start talking before he said anything. I felt Caterina shifting on her feet next to me. I knew Franky wasn't making her nervous. He was pissing her off. It would only be a matter of time before she exploded at him.

"For a short time, we had an informant working for us. His name was Alexi. He primarily communicated via Caterina, but we think he tried to switch sides back. His body was found in one of our properties. He'd been beat to hell, shot in the chest, and brought there. He wasn't shot in the building, so I don't know where they killed him, but the fact that they wanted to leave him where we would replace him makes it obvious that it's a message directly from Antonio and Junior." Franky nodded. "Yeah, those fucks-excuse me." He interrupted himself with a glance toward Caterina. "Those jerks couldn't make it any clearer that they want to come after us."

Cat muffled a laugh with her hand when she realized that Franky was trying to avoid cursing in her presence. Franky scowled at her.

"We need to go on the offensive," Franky added. "No more of this wait and see bullshi-bullcrap."

At that, Caterina laughed out loud. "I won't break at the sound of a curse word, you know," she said.

"Does she really need to be here?" Franky asked me, completely ignoring her.

Apparently, despite his supposed unwillingness to curse in front of a woman, he had no problem with treating her like she wasn't even there. His rudeness pissed me off. I could understand him wanting to keep her out of things for her own protection, but to treat her like dirt was unacceptable.

Cat opened her mouth, and I knew whatever she was about to say wouldn't be kind and would definitely be filled with curse words, but I held up my hand to stop her. She'd done enough to defend herself and her right to be here. It was time for me to step up.

"She is equal to me. If you can't work with her, then you can't work with me. Are you really going to call up Alessandro and tell him that you're incapable of doing the job he sent you to do?"

Franky rolled his eyes. "It will take a lot more than a little threat like that to get me to back down. But fine, I'll stop bringing it up. I was just worried about her safety. In case you were unaware, the people who come after us don't tend to be kind to women. And I don't like seeing women be put in danger. Call me old fashioned, but that's how I was raised."

Caterina rolled her eyes, calling his bullshit just as well as I did. He might claim that he was just worried about her safety, but if that was the case, he would've been kinder to her. No, he just didn't like the idea of a woman being there at all. But now wasn't the time to start challenging Franky's sexist beliefs. We needed his help with what I was planning to do. I would worry about correcting his bullshit beliefs later.

"I plan on a total ambush, multiple angles," I said, ignoring Franky's misogynistic problem. "Leo's been working on coordinating so that we can take them completely by surprise."

"They won't expect us to attack multiple locations," Cat added. "It's the perfect way to end this once and for all. We could even get Italy involved."

Franky nodded. Even he had to admit it was a good plan.

"Are your men ready to make a move?" I asked Franky. "It's time to take out Antonio."