Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 895 : Under My Skin

*Leo*

My fucking phone kept ringing. I was trying to concentrate on getting to Franky. I didn’t have time for phone calls and arguments. I wasn’t really angry with Bianca so much as I was just pissed in general. Right now, the whole fucking world held my enmity. I got it. I didn’t like being lied to either even though I lived a life bound to lies.

My entire life was based on two personas. In the so-called “real world,” I played the cocky real estate mogul. Nearly everyone from the staff there to the cops thought I was legit. In some ways, I was. I worked at the office most of the time when Elio was Don.

In the family, I had been an enforcer and right-hand man. Now, I was the Don. I had to be harder than I’d ever been before. I had to send the right message to my men. Let our rivals and enemies know that they couldn’t fuck with us, and make sure I didn’t cross my own moral lines, which were murky at best as it was.

I couldn’t be seen as a patsy or push over. The only person who seemed to be able to get under my skin enough to turn me into one was Bianca. She got me every time, and regardless of my feelings at present, I answered the damn phone after she’d called me at least five times.

“Hello,” I’d answered.

“Um, Leo,” she started, then she squealed and stopped making sounds altogether as if something had happened to her.

“Bianca!” I shouted as I heard her breathing accelerate. “What happened?” I asked,

“Cristo! I heard a gunshot and saw someone running across the yard!” she was practically screaming in my ear.

She was beginning to panic. I could hear it in her voice. Her breathing was near to panting now, and her voice trembled.

”Bianca, baby,” I called her name and added the endearment for emphasis. “Calm down for me. Come on, now, breathe.” Hell, my tone was urgent now, as I envisioned her in that big ass house alone for the most part and me too far away to save her right now.

She struggled to breathe normally.

“Again, in and out, breathe, baby,” I soothed, going through the breathing cycles with her a few times. she was starting to sound better. Her breathing was smoothing out, and I only heard a shakiness in its tempo every few breaths instead of every single one.

“I’m okay,” she breathed.

“Good, now, let me tell you what you need to do for me.”

“Okay.”

“I need you to follow my exact instructions. No deviations,” I said, my own tone urgent, and my pulse pounding in my own ears. I was terrified for her. But I had to stay calm for her. Getting nervous and letting her know it would only intensify her fear and anxiety, and we’d be right back to where we were before.

“Okay, I can do that,” she said, her accent thickening.

I wondered if she’d start losing her English in a few minutes, but maybe not. Hell, I hoped not. I only knew so many words in Italian. I was no Elio or Franky. I only knew enough to get me through and of course the curse words. Even though her accent had thickened and she seemed to be on the verge of making him try out his grade school rudimentary Italian, she seemed calmer and not to be on the edge of panic anymore.

“Now, go to my room,” I instructed as I found a place to swing the SUV around, wishing fervently that I’d chosen to drive the car today, but I’d had shit to transport I couldn’t easily conceal in the car. I had to start working on my own breathing as everybody in the city of LA conspired against me to keep me from getting back to my woman.

“I’m in the room, I’ve locked the door.”

“Good girl,” I praised. I couldn’t easily get to her, but neither could an intruder with a gun. I could override the key lock on the door or simply kick the fucker in if I needed to get to her really quick.

“All right, go to my closet. There’s a door at the back of the closet. Find it.”

Her breathing grew heavy again.

“It’s all right,” I soothed, still trying to stay calm as I slammed on breaks, turned the wheel, and slammed my other palm against the horn, as some dumb sonofabitch decided to not only cut me off but slow down as soon as he got in front of me. fuck, I understood why some people just pulled their gun out and started shooting at dumb asses on the highway. I made sure to keep myself from slamming into another vehicle and maintain my soothing tone for Bianca.

Let me know when you find the door. Look behind the jackets in the far-left corner and move the golf clubs,” I instructed as calmly as possible, while continuing to aggressively maneuver through traffic.

“Got it,” she whispered.

“Now, key in this code into the little box hidden in the seam of the wall.” I recited the code.

I heard her gasp, as the sound of the door’s locks clicked open. That gasp let me know she’d found her way into the secret room that had been created for this exact purpose. If our women and children were alone in our compounds or homes, the men had created panic rooms.

The one at the house was probably the size of a bedroom. It had a bed, side table, and a recliner in it. There was a refrigerator and microwave, dishes, and a pantry filled with everything from MREs and canned goods to snacks and extra drinks.

“Baby, you need to go in as quickly as possible. Whatever you do, don’t get locked on the wrong side of that door,” I said, thinking that the door would close and lock without her inside if she didn’t hurry to walk in.

The warning was real. If the door locked after being accessed with the code I gave her, which was the panic code, she wouldn’t be able to enter again until me, Franky, or Elio came and put one of our palms on the reader to get us out. If all of us and our women were in there together, God help us, we’d have to wait for Al to come and get us out.

It was a good precaution to have, so no one without the palm print could get in and kill all our asses. There was another way to get in and out, but it was more complicated and I didn’t have time to explain it to her right then.

“Okay,” she said, her breath speeding up again and her voice shakey with what I assumed was fear.

As I waited to hear more from Bianca’s end of the phone, another asshole cut me off in traffic. Fuck my life. I continued moving in and out of cars, racing as fast as I could to get home to her. A part of me breathed a slight sigh of relief when I heard the latch of the automatic locks click close again.

“Are you in?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said, her voice still nearly as quiet as a whisper.

I nearly closed my eyes, then, and probably would have if I wasn’t going as fast as I was and trying to maneuver through traffic as if I were Mario Andretti or somebody. I was feeling out of sync.

I had to get my shit together. Now that my girl was safe, I could concentrate better and start making better judgment calls, so I could handle this shit the best way possible, so she wouldn’t get hurt or worse, killed.

“Leo, what’s going on? Why do I feel like I’m trapped here?” she asked. She sounded so much better than she had before. She still sounded a little unstable, but at least we weren’t headed toward full panic mode.

“I promise to tell you later, but I can’t go into it right this minute,” I said, blasting my horn at the fool who must have thought I was trying to race him because he got in my way as soon as I flicked my blinker on to get into the next lane to take a turn.

I was so pissed, I would have screamed, but I kept it together, just barely, as I’d missed my fucking exit to get home. That exit would have shaved at least another ten minutes off the drive through the city to the outskirts of LA where we lived. I swear, if I could , I’d have established another compound directly in the center of fucking LA and to hell with who knew I was mafia.

But it was not to be, so I concentrated on looking for the next exit that would get me home.

“Are you all right now?” I asked.

“Yes, I’ll be alright.”

“Do you know how to use a gun?” I asked, thinking I already knew the answer, but she could surprise me.

“Yes, Uncle Al taught me,” she said, surprising the hell out of me.

Good on you, Al. “There’s a weapon in the pantry behind the canned goods. If you feel threatened, locate it, load it, and when you shoot. Shoot to kill.”

She made a sound of acknowledgment.

“I have to go now. I’ll be there as soon as humanly possible.”

“Be safe, Leo,” she said and disconnected.

I hit the speed dial for Frankie and took the next exit that would take me a longer route home but would get me there.

When I finally got to the house, the gate was off its hinges. I saw all kinds of evidence of people forcing their way into the compound. Who was I kidding? I knew the fuckers who were doing this. Pity I hadn’t found them sooner and already put them out of their misery. I grimaced and ducked down just enough to see out of the windshield and low enough not to get my fucking head shot off. God, I was so pissed.

I pushed the gas pedal to the floor and flew by gunfire. Bullets pinged off the metal of the car. The windshield finally webbed from the barrage of bullets. I’d had this SUV fit out to be as gun proof without actually being federally issued as possible.

I pulled up in front of the house, let the door of the car fall open, ducked behind it for a moment, readied my weapon, and ran my ass off to the door. The bastards hadn’t even tried to close it, and that was to my advantage. I slid into the door like a batter running for first, making sure he’d make it there safe. I slid right through the foyer and damn near brained myself on the nearest sofa.

And thank God for that couch because bullets followed my path as if I were spotlit the whole way. I stayed down for a few minutes to get my bearings. Once I realized the quickest route to Bianca, I left cover to run to the stairwell. I swear I felt like I had wings on my shoes. I raced up the stairs, taking them two at a time. I had to get to Bianca before one of them did anything else. It had to be Elijah, but I wouldn’t put it past Michael to be here too.

They had to know this was way past war. There was no letting them live after this. First, I had to get to Bianca and get her out of this mess. This was mine and the family’s mess. She didn’t ask for this. She hadn’t knowingly signed up for this. I had to make sure she was okay. I had to believe she was until I saw otherwise. Either way, those bastards were dead!