Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 822 : The Protector

*Elio*

Last night had been amazing. Cat and I had loved each other from nearly one end of the body to the other. After the first time we came, I couldn’t help taking it slow. It was important to me that she knew how much I loved her.

Lately, she had been preoccupied and standoffish. It seemed like something was on her mind, and her mood was off. I missed the woman she used to be. Even today, I noticed that she was off in some way. I couldn’t put my finger on it other than to say that she was preoccupied.

She wasn’t sleeping, either. She thought I didn’t notice it, but I noticed everything about her. Cat did a good job at hiding it, but the smudges under her eyes that she couldn’t quite cover with concealer were obvious to me. The strain around her eyes and lips when I looked at her were there. She was stressing over something.

When she was younger, if Cat was stressed out over something, she’d stay awake. She would toss and turn and never get a lick of sleep.

Sometimes she would walk the hallways and end up in the kitchen. She would sometimes even leave the house and go sit in the gardens to be around the flowers and nature. On the nights when I was in charge of her, it was terrifying when I’d go check in on her and not find her there in her bed.

The next morning, the same smudges under her eyes would be there, and the same strain around her eyes and lips would show her distress.

It was the same thing now. I didn’t know how to confront her about it because I didn’t want to make her feel like I didn’t trust her to tell me in her own time. But the smudges under her eyes were getting darker and the strain around her eyes and lips getting more prominent.

It hadn’t started affecting Emilia yet that I could notice, but I knew it would eventually. Cat had to sleep. She had to take care of herself so that she could take care of Emilia.

Cat didn’t ask much about the business anymore, and that concerned me as well. She had always wanted to know what was going on. It made me wonder whether it was the business that was stressing her out. I didn’t know. All I knew was that it needed to be taken care of so that she could sleep again.

Of course, there was also the wedding. There was so much to do. All these little details I never thought mattered were so important to her.

The flowers had to be just right. The dresses had to be the right color and the right style. The decorations and the color schemes had to be perfect, and the cake and the menu had to be just right. There were also the logistics of changing from the wedding to the reception. There were so many guests coming from Italy, and quite a few were coming from around the States.

Yes, the wedding was stressful, but was there a problem I didn’t know about? Was there something I wasn’t paying attention to that needed my attention?

Leo and I had already gotten our tuxes fitted and ready for the wedding. I thought everything was under control. But I could never tell. I wasn’t sure what to do about her sleep deprivation or the fact that she was worrying so much over something I had no idea how to fix. If I knew exactly what it was, maybe I could help her.

I went ahead and got dressed for the morning. I noticed that Cat had already taken out a suit and tie for me to wear. I smiled to myself, thinking of her waking up and putting my clothes together before she went to Emilia to check on her and then go downstairs.

I liked what she picked out. It was a navy suit with a red tie and a light gray shirt. They all complemented each other.

I walked to the nursery to see if my girls were in there together. But no, they weren’t there, so I went to the kitchen to see if they were in there.

I found them in the kitchen. Cat had food in her hair and was trying to wipe up food from herself and the highchair tray. Emilia sat clapping her hands and giggling at her mother’s disarray.

“Are you causing trouble already?“ I asked, lifting my baby girl from her highchair and kissing her messy cheek. I took another cloth and wiped off Emilia’s face and hands.

“I guess she’s finished, huh?” I asked.

“If she isn’t, I am,“ Cat said, continuing to wipe food off her shirt.

“There’s a little right here,“ I said, taking the cloth back and wiping food out of her hair and off her forehead.

“Stop laughing,” she said.

“I didn’t make a sound,” I said, lifting my free hand in surrender.

“Your eyes are laughing at me,” Cat said, pointing her finger at me.

“Sorry, I can’t help it,” I said, kissing her cheek.

Emilia giggled at her mother’s scowl.

“You little troublemaker,“ I said, pulling both my girls in my arms and kissing them.

I felt so much love at that moment, with so much hope for our future. I was so excited about the upcoming wedding I didn’t know what to do. But I was still worried about Cat. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

I rubbed my chin against her temple and whispered near her ear. “What’s the matter?“ I asked, rubbing her back.

“Nothing,“ she said, pulling a little away and looking up at me.

I rubbed my thumb under her eye and kissed her lips. “Honey, you’re not sleeping. You’re worried about something.“

She looked away, putting her head back down on my shoulder. I waited for her to tell me what was wrong so I could fix it.

“It’s just that the family is coming,” she said. “There are going to so many people here that I don’t know at all, as well as some that I don’t know very well.”

“They are all going to love you.”

“You’re biased. You don’t get a vote,” she said.

“They’ll love you because I love you”

She looked at me and smiled, lifting onto her tiptoes to kiss my jaw. Emilia pushed her mama’s face away and hugged me close.

“Jealous thing,“ Cat said, poking our baby in the tummy and making her giggle.

“Yeah, it’s still kind of stressful, though. I’ll try to sleep better tonight,” she promised.

I kissed the top of her head and kissed my baby girl on her lips.

“Papa loves you,” I said to my beaming baby.

“Oh, she knows who spoils her best,“ Cat said, holding out her hands to our baby. “Come here, little girl. It’s time for your bath, and Papa has to go.”

Emilia wiggled, but she finally went to her mother.

“I’ll see you later,” Cat said, lifting her lips to mine for one last kiss.

“Have a good day, dear,” I said.

I left the house hoping I’d reassured her about the family coming. Everyone would love her. How could they not? She was so lovable. Everything about her was wonderful. Maybe she was right, I thought. I was biased.

When I got to the warehouse, Leo drove up at the same time. He stood by his car waiting for me to meet up with him.

“We have got to do something about Junior, and quick,” I said as we started walking toward the warehouse.

“Yes, we need to take him down,” he agreed. “I don’t want him ruining things for you and Cat right now.”

“Do you think that’s why he’s come out of the woodwork all of a sudden? He heard about the wedding?”

“Who gives a fuck?” he said. “The little bastard needs to be taken down and put out of his misery.”

I couldn’t help but agree with Leo on that. We entered the warehouse together, where Franky was standing by a map on the wall where he had an X marked in certain locations.

“What do you have here?“ I asked, my arms crossed over my chest.

“The Xs are the spots where he has houses, which are under the company’s name, not his.”

“What company?” I asked.

“His father’s mafia business,” Leo answered.

“These are where we found the different cars. There are eight other cars under the same business name.” Franky pointed out the different places on the map where he’d marked cars, and then I noticed the cluster of Xs with the houses.

“So, where’s Junior?“ I asked, knowing and fearing the answer.

“We haven’t found him yet, but we’re keeping surveillance on the vehicles and the houses twenty-four-seven. Our men don’t move the cars. They just leave and the next set comes and sits in the vehicles. That way there’s no sound and no change in the vehicles, color size, shape, or tag number,” Franky explained.

“Smart, but I want Junior,” I said, sounding like a petulant child.

“We know. We want him to. We can’t let him ruin the wedding or possibly snatch Cat. No one wants that,” Franky said.

I shuddered at the thought. These days, Cat was usually with Emilia. If Junior grabbed Cat, he’d grab Emilia too.

“How close do you think we are to getting him?”

“To be honest, we don’t know. Because of his network of tunnels, there’s no way to tell whether or not he’s there or even in the city right now. The only thing we can do is watch and wait. We’ve stationed men around the city, trying to see if he’s coming and going from any of his old haunts and some of the more affluent places that are under the business name,“ Franky said, pointing out other places on the map that the men were searching for Junior.

Junior had been a busy boy since he’d been in hiding. I looked at the map seeing the different places Franky mapped out. They were spread throughout the city. There were no central areas, the way it had been before. I was frustrated and angry. What was this game? What did it take to get rid of him for good?

“Junior has to die.” Leo’s voice was emphatic. His tone was cold and deadly. “No matter what happens, Junior’s last breath is all I want. Enough is enough. This time he’s gone too far, and he’s only going to get worse.”

Leo’s voice was like an icepick. The blade of it was sharp and deadly. He meant what he said, and I knew it. It was surprising. Franky was usually the deadly one. Leo usually had a joke and a smile for everybody but this time, he was pissed and ready to kill.

It was odd seeing him like that. He was so jovial and friendly. It was nice to have someone like him on my side along with Franky–two businessmen, one more sophisticated and savvy, the other one more cutthroat and deadly, both capable.

“Okay, Franky, I have faith in you and our men,” I said, patting him on the back. “I know you don’t need it, but thanks for keeping an eye out and helping with the situation.”

“Just doing my job,” Franky said. “Now, the two of you need to get back to your fancy job,” Franky teased, pulling at the lapels of our jackets.

He knew we had to get to the real office, Leo because it was his daily work now, and me because I was still in the middle of helping my friend out with his development.

“Shut up,” Leo teased back, pushing at Franky’s shoulder.

I knew the two of them were picking at each other to ease the tension in the room. All of us were angry and pissed.

Leo and I left, walking toward our cars. We didn’t talk this time. Everything that needed to be said had been said in the warehouse. We weren’t going to talk about killing a man in broad daylight walking to our cars where anyone could hear us.

Not that it was easy to hear anything out here–the warehouse was isolated and in a place where we could tell if someone tried to sneak up on us. There were no ears to hear, no listening devices that we hadn’t checked for. Still, caution ran deep, and so we walked back to our cars in silence.

I drove back to the office, thinking of Cat’s preoccupation this morning. I thought about the bruises under her eyes from not sleeping. I thought about our baby girl giving her mother a hard time and smiled.

I loved my girls. I went back to the firm’s office to deal with my friend’s project, but I couldn’t get my mind off Junior or the worry that was in Cat’s eyes.

I was the Don, the protector of my people and my family, and I had to find a way to protect her.