Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 857 : Plan Set

*Leo*

When I entered the warehouse, the guys flocked around me like baby ducklings finding their mother.

“Leo! Are you up for a poker night tonight? Big Teo brought that famous cannoli cake his mom makes?” One grinned widely, flipping a deck of cards between his hands masterfully.

“Oi, Leo, need a vacation to help my mom move, two days this weekend. Thanks!” Another burly guy said more than asked. A few other guys crowded around me, still only halfway through the doorway as they blocked my path up to the surveillance room.

I sighed, giving them an annoyed look as I surveyed their expectant grins. I had always been more easy-going than Elio or Alessandro and more approachable than Franky and even after becoming the Don, this had followed me.

“I have something else to do. Franky here?” I asked casually, brushing them off as best I could. I had to keep more of a distance now that I was in charge, something that both Al and Elio had repeatedly told me.

Still, I had to admit, it hurt to see their disappointed looks, grumbling as they stepped away.

“Yeah, he’s been up there shouting orders all day,” One of the guys rolled his eyes, stepping back from me. Once the path was clear, I nodded to them in silent thanks, even as they sent me odd looks.

I ignored it, jogging up the staircase up to the surveillance room where Franky practically lived these days. Sure enough, as soon as I opened up the door, the excruciatingly hot stuffy air hit me like a sock full of bricks.

I grimaced, already beginning to sweat even though a few fans were going already. No lights were on besides the eerie blue glow of the computers and technology, casting a weird look over the silhouette standing in the middle of the room ominously.

“You know, there is such a thing as going home,” I sniffed, gagging at the horrid scent that hit my nose.

Franky turned to look at me with dead eyes ringed with large black shadows, standing there in only a rumpled white button-down and a table full of electronics and overflowing trash cans. It was a bit shocking considering Franky was one of the most put-together people I’d met but ever since Elio had left and handed over the position of Don to me, he’d been working triple as hard.

The transition from control-freak Elio to the more nonchalant relaxed me had only gone so smoothly because Franky had been working behind the scenes to smooth things over. I’d have fucked things up by this point if it had just been me.

I grimaced in sympathy and guilt, immediately flicking on the lights as Franky stared at me tiredly, not even registering me as I swept the piles of trash into the bags, leaving them just outside the door as I cleaned up what little I could. Once it was picked up and somewhat more presentable, I grabbed Franky by his sweaty arms, pushing him into the comfy roller chair.

I took one of the old metal ones that squeaked unpleasantly, not really minding as I offered Franky a water bottle - fresh and cold from downstairs. It wasn’t until he downed the entire thing in one go that he finally came back to life, looking much more awake and aware.

“So, how’s tracking Marco been going? Considering how bad your face looks, Imma said not good,” I sent him a cheeky grin, and sure enough, he had enough energy to give me a rather harsh glare.

“Tracking him isn’t hard. It’s making sure he doesn’t notice,” Franky said quietly, grabbing one of the open laptops and quickly typing something fast before shoving it over to me. “This is what I called about.”

I squinted my eyes to adjust to the bright light of the screen, quickly seeing the surveillance footage Franky had called about.

Even with the hood up over his face, I recognized him instantly. It was Marco, one of our higher-up men, a trusted confidant sneaking down by the docks. Even just by his shady appearance, I could tell he was up to no good.

This was only proved as a few men slipped out of the shadows, in only tank tops, I couldn’t tell much other than they had detailed tattoos on their shoulders and dark hair and skin. With no audio, it was impossible to know what they were talking about but they exchanged something and then split ways. But luckily, Franky was better than that.

Franky slid over a close-up still of the footage, blown up to highlight the tattoos on the unknown man’s shoulders and I stilled as I recognized it.

“LA Mafia?” I snarled, my gaze darkening as I glared over at Marco’s figure in the video. “What the fuck was he doing with them?”

“Nothing good,” Franky said darkly. “They don’t have as much power as they used to since we took over most of the LA area but they aren’t someone to ignore. They have had a death grip on that last bit of area and connections they’d kept. This wouldn’t be their first time trying to undermine us to take it back.” 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“Dammit,” I sighed, glaring at the still of Marco. I had honestly trusted him and had even considered pulling him into our inner circle but now...

I wouldn’t trust him to eat a salad with a spork without trying to use it to stab me in my back.

“So, what have we done about it?” I asked, turning to Franky, knowing he was always the first to jump on problems like this.

“So far?” Franky shrugged, “Nothing.”

I gave him an incredulous look. “What do you mean nothing? Usually, you’d have found every family member in his tree back through six generations, put him and everyone he’s close to on surveillance, and have enough evidence piled up to get him life three times over. Yet you expect me to believe you’ve done nothing?”

Franky sent me a cool look, crossing his arms over his chest. “Do you really believe that’s the best course of action in this case?”

I stiffened at the calculating glint in his eye, like he was sizing me up and it had been a while since I’d felt him judging me so harshly. I sighed, running my hand through my hair as I thought. This was a test and Franky was expecting an answer.

As I thought more about the situation, I realized how truly little we have to go off of. There were a million reasons he could’ve been down by the docks exchanging information with them, and since we had no audio, there was no evidence of any actual betrayal or wrongdoing.

Which meant...

“No,” I frowned, staring at the picture. “We don’t crack down on him yet. Wire, track, and surveil him to gather more evidence of what he’s doing. If we take him down, he has to go down hard which means we need more.”

I glanced over at Franky, whose expression finally melted into slight approval.

“If we’re lucky, we can also find evidence against the LA guys and take them down with him,” Franky added and I grinned at the thought. They hadn’t been too much trouble but enough to be a bit of a thorn in my side ever since we first got here when Elio was in charge.

“I’ll get Andrea on the surveillance and Dan to put a tracker and wire in his car, meanwhile at least for now, we’re gonna ice out Marco from any important meetings or information that could be used against us. I’ll make an excuse for why, something lame so he’ll be frustrated enough to make some more mistakes.”

Franky smirked, nodding in agreement. “I’ll have someone on the wiretap and tracker at all times. We don’t want to miss anything for his downfall.”

I grinned, knowing that Franky hated betrayers just as much as I did, maybe even more. Loyalty was more important to the Family than anything, especially back in Italy where Franky grew up.

“Well, now that that’s settled,” I glanced over at Franky, sobering up as my thoughts fell on the other issue I couldn’t help worrying about. “Did you get the files I sent you?”

“Yes,” Franky nodded, shuffling through his messy table before sliding it over to me. “Matteo Bellini. Here’s everything that Alessandro had faxed over. From what I understand, he was dating Mia’s cousin, who is now living with you?”

“Yeah and According to Al, after the beating they gave him for being such a piece of shit, he skipped town. No sign of him in Italy or Europe as a whole,” I grit my teeth as I flip through the file. Misdemeanors, stealing, and pick-pocketing galore but I was more interested in the ten different arrests he’d slipped out of relating to violence, assault, and weapon charges. Al was right- he was definitely part of a gang or mafia. One with quite a lot of power considering they got him out of rather obvious arrests multiple times.

“He’s that obsessed with her?” Franky snorted, shaking his head. “And stupid, considering he didn’t even bother to get an alias when he left Italy. According to what we found so far, he entered New York City but we lost his trail soon after.”

“You think he’s had help from whoever he’s working for?” I asked grimly, not wanting to consider it but knowing it had to be said.

“Hard to say, if even Al has no clue who he works for then I doubt we’ll find any traces,” Franky frowned, crossing his arms.

I sighed. “Then let me know as soon as you find something. Al wants this to be a priority and I think so as well.”

“And why would you think of this as a priority?” He raised an eyebrow intrigued.

“None ya business,” I stuck my tongue out at him childishly, ignoring the roll of his eyes in return as I got to my feet. As I headed to the door, I lingered, turning around to see Franky back on the computers, tired eyes scanning the screens.

“Franky,” I called out. He turned to me with a frown. “Go home and get some sleep. We have enough people to watch over this and frankly,” I grinned at his wince at the pun, “It stinks in here. Take a shower, eat some real food, and go to bed. That’s an order.”

Franky glared at me for half a minute but then sighed, relenting as he looked around at the room full of trash. “Fine,” He grumbled unhappily. “Give me five minutes to assign some men to take over.”

“Deal!” I grinned, happily escaping the way-too-hot room. Even just heading down the stairs felt like stepping into an igloo from a desert. I sighed in relief, wiping the sweat from my head and neck.

Reminder to stop for ice cream or something, I thought as I headed out of the warehouse without much resistance this time. As soon as I settled into my car, starting the air conditioning as high as I could, my phone buzzed with a text.

To my surprise, it was Bianca.

‘Thank you, Leo, for bringing Amara here. You have no idea how much I appreciate it. If there’s anything I can do to repay you, let me know.’

I grinned, staring at the emojis she sent in after. I chuckled as I reread her message, surprised with how happy I was just to receive a tiny little text from her. Or maybe it was because I knew I had made her so happy with my gesture.

I was just glad she wasn’t sitting at the compound all alone anymore. I’d noticed how rare she smiled which was natural considering all she’d been through but...I swear every smile of hers made my heart skip a beat.

I wanted nothing more than to keep making her smile - to be the reason for her happiness for as long as I could. For a lifetime, even, and make that gorgeous smile mine.

The happiness in my chest burst like a balloon as I realized what I’d just thought.

“Fuck,” I slammed my forehead into the leather of the steering wheel, shutting my eyes as I tried to force those thoughts out of my brain.

She’d made herself clear on where she stood. And it was wrong of me to keep crossing that line. I had to stop thinking about her like this.

I just didn’t know if I could.