Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 832 : The Chase

*Elio*

Cat stood for only a moment in the driveway, watching me drive away before she bolted to the front door of our home. When I took my eyes off of the rearview mirror, I couldn’t help but get an off feeling about something.

Cat always wanted to go to the warehouse with me. Tonight was the first time she had wanted to go home.

I could understand her being worried about Emilia and wanting to get home to her, but would I be so naive to believe there wasn’t something more to it? With all her talk of wanting to leave the mafia life, it would make sense for her to slowly remove herself from the meetings and activities.

Except I didn’t agree to leave this life, at least, not anytime soon. I specifically told her we’d only do it if it got too dangerous. So, why would she begin to back out of things now?

I knew she would only get upset if I brought this up to her. I still felt guilty for how I had acted when we had gotten into our huge fight. I couldn’t imagine having a repeat of that night over her not wanting to go to the warehouse with me.

Maybe I was overthinking it. Maybe she really did just want to get home to our daughter, to hold her in her arms and know that she was safe.

And maybe Leo was right. Having a baby did change Cat. Emilia came first in Cat’s eyes. How could I be upset with that? She would protect our daughter at any cost, as would I.

Maybe deep down, I was worried that if she got too caught up in being a mother she would forget who she was as her own person, as my soon-to-be wife. How could I stop her newfound fear of this life without having to leave it all behind?

I shook my head, not wanting to think about that whole situation with her right now. I had more pressing things to worry about at the moment. Why the hell did Junior choose my office to hit? And how the absolute fuck did he get past my security guards? They’d better have one hell of an excuse.

My anger began to build as I thought about Junior inside my office. I didn’t get the details about exactly what he did yet, leaving my mind to wonder about all the possibilities.

My knuckles were turning white against the steering wheel, gripping out of anger. When I got my hands on Junior, he was going to wish he’d never spoken a single word to Cat.

And to think, if that son of a bitch hadn’t felt the need to hit up my office, Cat and I would still be back at the beach house, her soft mouth only centimeters from wrapping around my length. It was such a teasing thought, all the things we would have been doing to each other right now.

Anger welled up inside me once again, knowing Junior was the reason our night had come to a crashing halt. I had just gotten the feeling of us finally getting back to ourselves again, and he went and fucked it all up, having her run scared, distancing herself from me again.

I knew I could guarantee she would still be awake when I got home. She probably wouldn’t sleep again tonight. It only made me feel guilty seeing those dark shades of purple under her eyes, guilty and angry that I hadn’t been able to kill Junior yet.

When I pulled up to the warehouse, I saw Leo leaning against the building. I parked the Corvette and took a couple of deep breaths before exiting. Leo walked over to me, his eyes appearing dark. He was pissed.

“Can you fucking believe this shit?” Leo spat out.

“Give me details,” I demanded as I slammed the car door.

“All I know is that Junior set off a pipe bomb in your office. No one was hurt and the damage is minimal. Franky knows the rest. I was too pissed to sit still and listen while the asshole is still out there thinking he got away with something!” Leo ranted as we walked to the entrance of the warehouse.

It wasn’t like Leo to walk out while Franky was explaining important information to him. This whole situation had us all on edge more than usual. I couldn’t say that I blamed him.

“So, he used a small bomb, meaning he didn’t want to do a lot of damage. He just wanted to scare us, send us a message,” I thought aloud.

But what message, exactly? We already knew he wanted Cat. I knew the threats he had made to her. What message was he trying to send by throwing a little baby bomb in my office?

He couldn’t possibly think something like that would scare someone like me. Could he? Did he lack that much of a brain?

“Scare us? That shithead clearly underestimates us!” Leo exclaimed.

“Yeah, well, he’ll learn once I get my hands on him,” I promised. “His little stunt doesn’t scare me in the slightest, just pisses me the fuck off.”

“I’m right there with you man,” Leo agreed. “I’m livid.”

We walked through the door of the warehouse to find Franky and a few of our other guys waiting for us. Franky turned toward Leo and I as we closed the door behind us.

He better have something on Junior, I thought, because he needed to be dealt with immediately–no more waiting. Junior needed to take his last breath before morning.

“Start talking, Franky,” I said, my arms crossed over my chest.

“All right, calm down and listen,” Franky spoke. “I talked to the security guard, and he seemed really shaken up, said he didn’t see Paul, just heard the bang from the bomb. He was far enough away that he didn’t get hurt, but he was a giant ball of nerves. So, I went ahead and told him to take two weeks off, paid in full.”

I nodded, feeling pleased with Franky’s decision. “I’ll throw more on top of that.”

“Good, he’ll appreciate that,” Franky nodded. “Now, from what I could find out, it would appear the bomb was placed by a crew claiming to have been working on the wiring.”

“Alright, then that means we don’t have a mole,” I replied, relieved. “Do you have anything else?”

“Yeah, of course we do, Elio. I told you, we aren’t going to let you down or let this asshole get away with this shit,” Franky said. “Junior was sighted by one of our men riding in one of those cars he’s been traveling around in.”

“Which car?” I asked quickly.

“Don’t get too excited,” Franky said. “We can’t be sure if he uses this car more than the other cars. He could switch at any time to throw us off.”

“That’s true, but it’s a start. We could at least go check it out,” I replied, not wanting to waste any more time.

If Junior was still in that car, I knew I would find him, no doubt–find him and end him. I wanted to end this entire shit show for good. He had gone too far and if we didn’t stop him now, we’d be cutting it too close to the wedding. I didn’t want Cat stressing over this any longer than she already had been.

It might have been wishful thinking, but I believed if I killed Junior and ended this whole mess, Cat would calm down a bit. Maybe she would change her mind about wanting to leave the life we worked so hard to build.

Her nightmares would go away. She would finally be getting more sleep like she used to. She would go back to being how she used to be. I loved her entirely, but I missed how we used to be together.

This whole situation had put a strain on our relationship, and I blamed Junior, not the mafia. Although, I was getting the feeling Cat would blame the mafia in its entirety, not just Junior.

I struggled to focus on one problem at a time. Being the Don was my top priority, but so was protecting Cat and my daughter. Juggling those two priorities had been giving me a migraine.

Between feeling rage toward Junior and feeling like something was off with Cat, I wanted to go on a punching spree, preferably on Junior’s face.

I had to get to that car. Now.

“Give me the coordinates of that car,” I demanded in Franky’s direction.

“Elio, we can’t be sure Junior is going to be there,” Franky replied. “We could be wasting our time.”

“Listen, Franky, if there is even a slight chance that asshole is in that car right now, I must take it. I have to go for my own sanity,” I argued. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Franky shook his head. “Yeah, alright. I’ll text you the location.”

Junior wasn’t about to get away from me if I could help it. And if he wasn’t in that car, then I supposed we would have wasted our time. It was better to have wasted time than had missed opportunity.

“We’re coming with you,” Leo chimed in.

“I can go alone, Leo,” I told him, as I was already walking toward the door. “I want my face to be the last one Junior sees before everything bleeds black for him.”

“Like hell we’d actually let you go alone, Elio,” Leo scoffed. “Don’t worry. We’ll let you have the kill.”

I heard Leo let out a small chuckle. It was the first time I’d heard him trying to lighten the mood in a long time. If I hadn’t been seeing red, I would have felt a bit of relief from all the tension.

I turned toward Leo, Franky, and the other guys, knowing they’d be right behind me. Sure enough, Leo was in front, leading the way toward the door.

I stormed out, coming to a halt when I got sight of my car. Seeing as I had my Corvette, I figured I should go with Leo and Franky unless I wanted to give myself away. Not only that but if Junior or one of his guys saw me driving it, they would track it for sure.

As I climbed into the car with Leo and Franky, I pulled out my phone. There were no texts or missed calls from Cat. I hoped she was doing okay. I pulled up her name in the messages, wanting to send her a quick text.

“Is that Cat?” I heard Leo ask.

“No, I haven’t heard from her since I dropped her off back at home,” I told him.

“Oh. I was wondering why she didn’t come with you,” he added.

I knew I might be willing to talk about this whole thing with Leo later, but now was not the time to get into why she didn’t come. Not that I was even aware of why exactly she didn’t come. Though, Leo usually, and surprisingly, had some good advice or input.

“She wanted to get home to Emilia,” was all I said back to him.

Leo nodded his head and I retuned my focus down to my phone. I typed her out a message.

‘Hey, Cat. Just checking in to make sure you and our beautiful daughter were doing okay. Not sure when I’ll be home yet. Don’t wait up. Get some sleep. I love you.’

I waited a few moments, hoping she would send a message back quickly. My fingers had begun tapping anxiously against my kneecap when my phone buzzed.

‘I’m happy to be home with Emilia,’ her text said. ‘She just fell back asleep in my arms. My mom is still here. She said she wanted to stay here with me until you got back. Be safe, Elio, please. I love you.’

I exhaled a small sigh of relief. I was glad to hear from her, glad to know both of my girls were safe, as they should be, and always would be.

“We’re almost there,” Franky said, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Good,” I growled.