Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad by Scarlett Rossi
Chapter 707 -

*Elio* "What's wrong?"

Even with her voice riddled with nervousness, she still somehow managed to sound like a boss being told his workers fucked up. I couldn't help the pull of my lips at the image of her in a suit, dwarfed by a huge black swivel chair, trying to be serious all while looking more adorable than a kitten.

"Elio?" Cat asked, worry bleeding into her tone.

I coughed into my hand, throwing away the brief fantasy as I focused on the task at hand.

"Nothing wrong," I told her calmly. "It's good news, actually."

I heard her breath of relief over the phone. "That's good. So, what's going on?"

I smiled to myself as she switched from stern and worried to excitement all with one breath. She was so goddamn adorable sometimes that I felt like screaming into the void.

"I actually wanted to take you to New York as soon as you're done with classes for the week, just for the weekend," I said cooly.

"New York?" She sounded dubious, and my heart skipped a beat as I swallowed uncomfortably. If she said no, I had more chances, but it would no doubt raise some flags in her head. The last thing I needed was to raise her suspicions. "Why do you suddenly want to go to New York?"

"Just because," I lied smoothly. "You've always wanted to see New York, right? And it's been a while since we had a trip with just the two of us. Italy doesn't count since I was working, and it wasn't really our choice to go there. I figured, why not New York."

"I do want to go to New York but...."

She hesitated. I could feel that she knew something was odd about this request, and I could only hope my lying skills came in handy.

"It's okay if you don't want to. We can stay home this weekend if that's what you want. I just figured it'd be a nice surprise." I let a little bit of disappointment leak out through my tone, not even faking it because if she didn't go, I would truly be disappointed.

"No, no! I want to go!" she hurriedly responded.

I gave a faint smile, a little sad to know how well I was able to manipulate the woman I loved.

"New York would be lovely," she said. "Thank you so much for doing this for me. I love you so much. I'll have to get ready-oh, we have to see the Statue of Liberty and the Metropolitan, oh and the Aquarium! Jeez, there's so much to do!" "We'll do our best to see it all." I laughed at her enthusiasm. "But if not, we can always plan another trip later down the road, so don't worry about it too much."

"I'm just excited," Cat said happily, and I could almost see the grin on her face as it stretched from one cheek to the other, beaming with happiness.

There was the tiniest twinge of guilt in my stomach, but nothing more.

"Oh, I have to go," she said. "I'll see you when I get home. Love you."

"I love you too." I had barely finished speaking when she hung up, the phone falling silent.

In that silence, I could have sworn that I could hear Alessandro's words repeating in my mind.

'Slowly move her out of the active role. The less you tell her, the less likely she is to end up in jail.'

And that thought, that persistent worry that was slowly becoming a deep-rooted fear, came back to me, of Cat and her tear-streaked face, wrists rubbed raw from the metal around her arms, dragged off with no mercy because in the eyes of everyone around her, she was a criminal... because of me.

I was realizing now exactly why my father had never wanted to discuss his life as the Don with me, and why Mom and he had kept tight lips around me, even after I got older.

And I was realizing now, why he had left the life-to protect me, to protect my mom.

There was a deep guilt growing like a hungry carnivorous plant in the back of my mind, devouring up every seed of truth that I dyed with a lie. This was how things had to go now.

But despite that guilt of bringing Cat into this world, whether she was willing or not, I knew Alessandro was right. This was the best decision.

Cat needed to have plausible deniability in case the worst happened. If she was ever to be dragged into the illegality of everything, then her hands needed to be clean. I was willing to dirty every part of my body so long as she stayed safe. But to do that, I had to cut her away from the front lines.

I sighed, straightening myself in my chair as I set my phone on the long mahogany table in front of me. It was only a minute or two later when I heard a firm knock on the door-three in succession.

"Come in."

Franky appeared first with Leo ducking in from behind him.

"Heya, boss!" Leo waved, taking his seat to my right while Franky took the one to my left. "Did Cat agree to New York?" "Yes," I responded a bit too quickly.

Leo raised an eyebrow, clearly having caught onto my rushed answer, and I cursed myself for giving him the opportunity.

"And yet, why do you seem so discontent about that?" Franky smirked, leaning back in his chair with a goading look on his stupid face.

I pinned him with the coldest glare I could muster, clenching my fists under the table to stop myself from decking him.

"Never mind," I shot back harshly. "We're here to work, so let's work."

"Touchy," Franky said, tilting his head amusedly.

"Alright, alright, let's chill out for a minute, okay?" Leo asked. "I've got the folder you requested, Boss," He glanced between me and Franky warily and patted the manila folder on the desk in front of him, sliding it toward me with another copy to Franky.

I flipped open the folder, a portfolio and list of restaurants-first with locations in Los Angeles and after I flipped to the back, several for New York.

"There are a couple good contenders for LA, but nothing too exciting. All the main ones we want are in New York, so I've made up a list. Our math guy made up some predictions based on revenue and some other IT bullcrap. I failed math in high school, so I don't pretend to understand any of it." Leo shrugged.

"You failed math? Shocker," Franky said sarcastically.

"I'll have you know I got straight A's in every other class, thank you very much." Leo glared at him. "But once they started adding letters and shapes to math, they lost me pretty quickly. It's a bunch of nonsense to me." "Stay on task," I reminded them once Franky opened his mouth, no doubt to give some biting sarcastic comment that would've sent either me or Leo on a rage.

I glanced at the restaurants, looking through the reports. "Take off D and E. They're too conspicuous. There is way more money flowing in than their revenue reports. Most likely they're getting help from outside resources." "So? We do the same thing," Leo snorted. "It's not a crime."

"It very much is a crime," I stared at him blankly. "Money laundering is taken seriously in the US, especially in places like LA or New York. If I can guess dirty money from just a glance, no doubt the police can too. I'm not doing twenty years because some dumbasses can't cover up their tracks."

"Not to mention the fines," Franky said with a smirk at Leo. "They're twice whatever funds are involved."

Leo reeled back, a look of horror on his face. "Fuck that shit."

"Exactly," I told him with a sigh, brushing through the places.

Most of it was just projections and graphs, numbers that even I could barely follow.

"Besides, that would defeat the purpose," I added. "We want to buy these restaurants to help clean up our flow of money and give us some legitimate businesses so that we don't get investigated. Taking on a business that already has dirty money would just be stupid."

"Fine, fine, I get it," Leo shrugged, "I'll take them off. But which ones do you like then?"

"A and H seem the best candidates," Franky said definitely, sliding the folder away from himself. "They're similar enough that we won't waste too much money with providing resources but different enough to stand out in their locations. Their revenue varies per season, so if the feds do come sniffing, we'll have an excuse for the fluctuating reports. Low-cost with high revenue is exactly what we need."

"I have to agree," I said with an annoyed look at Franky. "Get the team ready for this weekend so we can make the purchases quick and efficiently. And keep it quiet."

"Yes, Boss," Franky said as he got to his feet, taking the folder with him as he left.

As much as I disliked him as a person, he got things done. I'd keep him on for now, I thought, but the minute he made a mistake, he'd be the first to be cut off.

"I'm guessing that Cat doesn't know about the restaurants?" Leo asked once we were alone.

"No," I admitted. "Not yet, and I don't want to tell her for now. If she knows then she'll want to be involved, and I need her to not be. As long as she doesn't' know, then if something does go wrong and our tail gets caught, she'll be able to escape the accusations. If she doesn't know, then she won't get dragged down with the rest of us."

"True," Leo nodded sagely. "We'll need someone to bail us out."

"That's not what I meant," I snapped.

"Hey!" He raised his hands in defense, getting to his feet with a playful grin. "We both know Al won't do it. Plus, I'm ninety percent sure your dad will let us both rot in jail to teach you a lesson."

I had no response to that. Leo chuckled to himself, heading to the door before he paused, one foot outside. He looked over his shoulder.

"I understand where you're coming from, Elio, but I think you're underestimating Cat too much. She's too smart to buy your lies for long. She'll figure it out."

I clenched my jaw.

"That's why I'm going to surprise her today. It'll keep her off our trail, at least for a while."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "You know, I wonder if you actually believe that."

Then he stepped out, leaving me alone in the empty room. I stared at my phone as the monster named Guilt came back to whisper in my ears. 'You don't,' it said.