Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 794 : The Deal Is Off

*Elio*

I paced the hallway, impatient, anxiety-like claws crawling up my throat. I felt sick to my stomach like I was on a never-ending loop on a roller-coaster but all I could do was hold on and pray for it all to stop.

I prayed that the love of my life walked through those doors unharmed.

“You’re going to wear a hole through the floor,” Matilde remarked as I walked past the living room doorway.

“I’ll pay to have it fixed,” I snapped back, not in the mood for such jokes ever since Cat had called me telling me that Ignacio had walked right up to her–had threatened her to her face.

My blood boiled and with no outlet to properly direct my anger, I could only stomp around the house waiting for her to get home. I’d assigned two teams to call her, just in case, even though my rational mind told me he wouldn’t do anything.

This was just a warning.

It was something I’d dealt with dozens of times before. I knew I should be calm and rational, not the mess of nerves and anxiety I was, more like how Matilde had only asked if she was okay and then calmly took care of Emilia the whole time, no more questions once I told her she was unharmed.

“How can you be so calm?” I asked, my irritation bleeding into my voice and she raised an eyebrow at me, pursing her lips unhappily. “Sorry. I’m just worried for her.”

“That’s rather obvious,” Matilde scoffed, then she smiled at Emilia as she struggled to flip on her back from her tummy.

She didn’t quite have it yet but she was working on it. She gave me a softer glance, patting the couch beside her and though I felt like a bundle of nerves working overtime and didn’t want to sit down and relax until the woman I loved was in my arms, Matilde was my mother-in-law.

I knew better than to piss her off.

I sat beside her and she smiled, patting my knee affectionately.

“You’ve always been protecting Cat, ever since she was little and you two first met. It’s probably ingrained into your DNA at this point, but you need to learn to step back. Cat is all grown now. She doesn’t need you hovering around and kicking the asses of high school boys who spread rumors about her.”

I flushed at the shame of my past being brought up, “You knew that?”

“Of course I did.” Matilde rolled her eyes. “I’m not blind. Anytime Cat had a teacher being rude, or a guy in class teasing harass her, she’d complain to me or you, and the very next day, like magic, the issue would be dealt with. You’re forgetting I married your father’s best friend. I know how guys like you tick.”

“I only meant well,” I tried to explain. “All I ever wanted was the best for her–”

“I know that. She knows that." Matilde cut me off with a firm look. “Nobody can doubt how much you love my daughter, but Cat isn’t a child anymore. She doesn’t need that kind of protection. You have to stop treating yourself like a child who needs to be protected and more like your partner, your equal. Cat is strong-willed just like her father, and I’m willing to bet this little incident didn’t phase her one bit. I’m more worried about what she’d do to him if Anna hadn’t been there to keep her head straight. I love her but she can be ruthless at times.”

I smirked, agreeing to that and knowing that everything she’d said was right. I had to trust Cat and that she’d be okay, even when facing a dangerous asshole like Ignacio. I’d probably always be worried for her, but I knew when it was time to take a step back.

“Baa-baa!” I broke out of my thoughts, turning to Emilia, who was cradled in her grandmother’s arms. She reached her arms out for me, a huge smile on her face as she babbled over and over.

Matilde willingly dumped her in my lap, forcing me to scramble to get a hold of her, and smirked as I cradled Emilia preciously in my arms. She was still so small and fragile, I couldn’t bear it if she got hurt.

“Now you have something new to focus your protective instincts on.” Matilde gestured to the baby in my arms, and I smiled, giving her an appreciative look as she stood up and got her things together. “Now, I believe Cat is home so I’m going to head out. I’ve got a date tonight.”

She winked at me and I lurched to my feet, torn between rushing to the front door to greet Cat and keeping Emilia content as she pulled my hair into her drooly mouth. Emilia won as I heard the front door open and Matilde’s loud voice call out, “Your husband’s freaking out. Better go calm him before he ships you to Europe in bubble wrap.”

Cat rushed into the living room, a confused look on her face. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I saw she was unharmed. I cradled Emilia in one arm, rushing over to pull Cat in tightly.

“What’s this about bubble wrap?” Cat asked cluelessly, letting me hug her as long as I wanted as she traced her nails down my back absent-mindedly.

“Nothing, your mom’s just teasing me,” I told her with a small smile, pulling away to look her over. Sure enough, besides a light sunburn on her chest and arms, not a hair was out of place. I happily passed over Emilia, who clung tightly to her mom like a little koala, and my anger returned now that I knew everyone was safe.

“I’m so sorry he got that close to you. Obviously, my warnings didn’t work,” I growled as I whipped out my phone, already dialing Franky’s number. “It won’t happen again.”

Cat didn’t have any objections, just waiting by my side as Franky answered.

“Find Ignacio and give me his location in two hours,” I demanded.

“What? Why?” Franky sounded bewildered, exhausted too, but I didn’t have any empathy in me at the moment.

“He went after Cat,” I snapped. “So get it done in two hours.”

There was a deep pause on the other end of the phone, and I swore I could feel a chill in the air as Franky’s cold voice came back with a chilling threat.

“It’ll be done. Are they harmed?”

“No,” I said, a little surprised by how angry he sounded, almost as much as I was.

“I sent the location to your phone. Leo and I will be there in ten minutes tops,” Franky reported efficiently as always.

I opened my mouth, about to question his fast results until I remembered it was Franky. Even with the truce, he’d probably still been tracking Ignacio’s location this entire time. Two hours seemed laughable now.

“See you there,” was all I said as I shut off the call, turning to Cat with a serious look. “I’m heading to meet Ignacio. I’ll call when I’m done. This shouldn’t take long.”

“Okay, I’m coming with you,” Cat said, giving me a stubborn look like she wouldn’t take no for an answer.

I sighed, leaning forward to pull her and Emilia into my arms. I kissed the top of her head, loving how fierce and determined she was. It made me remember how Matilde had referred to her as ‘ruthless.’

Cat could be kind but she was also made of an unbreakable steel. I’d been foolish to think a threat from someone like Ignacio could break her. She was much tougher than that.

“I need you to stay home and protect Emilia,” I told her, pulling back with a firm look. “I don’t want anything happening to her, and you’re the only one I trust to take care of her right now. It’ll only take a minute to take care of this, and I don’t know what’s going to happen when I see his ugly face but it won’t be good. Just in case... I need your hands to be clean. For Emilia.”

She stiffened and I could see the war in her eyes waging back and forth between her duty to Emilia and wanting to come and be by my side, but I could tell she had also gotten my hint. In case this went south, Emilia needed at least one parent by her side right now.

“You know I don’t care about that,” Cat said quietly.

“But I do,” I leaned over to brush Emilia’s hair away, leaving a kiss on her forehead. It was getting late and she yawned sleepily in Cat’s arms, ready for a good night’s sleep.

“Okay.” She sighed, her motherly instincts winning as she held Emilia tightly. “Be safe.”

“I will,” I told her and with one last longing glance at my fiancee and child, I left.

As soon as I stepped out of the warmth and comfort of the house, the chill of the evening air hitting my skin, all pretenses fell away. I moved like a shadow, a cold expression on my face as I took one look at the address Franky sent me and drove like a maniac down the streets.

I didn’t give one shit about the police stopping me–I owned them. I didn’t give a shit about the harsh traffic of downtown LA. I bypassed it all.

All that mattered to me was getting to Ignacio.

His hide-out this time didn’t amount to anything more than a run-down shack in the red-light district between a strip club and a backyard gambler’s paradise. I pulled up with hellfire in my eyes and my fists clenched at my side.

Leo and Franky were already waiting at the entrance, our guys in a standoff with theirs, but I didn’t care about how many guns were pointed at my chest. I was more concerned with how quickly I could get a bullet into Ignacio’s fucking skull.

I burst down the door with a kick, the wood easily splintering and there he fucking was, sitting at a poker table, his goons each holding a hand as we stormed in.

“Ah, Elio,” Ignacio grinned like a cat proudly showing off his newest kill. Like he hadn’t just crossed a major line. “I take it you got my message then? Lovely she is, your fiance.”

If there was anything he could’ve said to piss me off any more than he already had, that was it.

There was a sickening crunch as my fist broke his fucking nose. Ignacio went flying back, chair breaking in two as he hit the floor. I could barely feel the pain in my knuckles from the hit before I wrapped my other hand around his throat, slamming him into the back wall.

“One fucking rule,” I snarled at him. “Don’t touch my fucking wife, and you break it. Don’t even think about even breathing in her direction ever again or I will put a fucking bullet in your skull faster than you can say, ‘Mercy.’”

Ignacio coughed, splurting up blood, and as much as I wanted to pull a gun on him at the moment, I could see a dozen barrels aimed at me from the corner of my eyes, trigger-happy goons just waiting for the slightest movement tto pull the trigger but behind them were Leo and Franky and my own men, all guns drawn in a tense silent war.

I tightened my grip around Ignacio’s throat, glaring at him like the piece of scum he was. “I knew your fucking deal was bullshit the moment I heard it, but I wanted to give you a chance to save the pathetic lives of yourself and the men who follow you. My mistake. You weren’t worth my mercy.”

“Is that so, Elio?” Ignacio gave a tense laugh. “Sounds like you’re calling off the truce, is that it?”

I stiffened, realizing by the cunning look in his eye that this was what he had planned the entire time. I could kill him, I thought seriously, but the click of the safety on the few guns turning off behind me had me rethinking it.

I’d only end up dead too. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

“Fine,” I dropped him to the ground, deciding it wasn’t worth it when Cat was waiting for me back home. I wiped his blood on my jacket, sneering down at him as I declared for both teams to hear.

“The deal is off. We are enemies again.”