Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 752 : Lazy Mornings

*Elio*

The itch of something brushing across my nose woke me up in the morning. My hand brushed across my nose on instinct and I yawned, eyes slowly opening. I was met with a familiar head of dark hair tucked just underneath my head.

A smile curled around my lips. Cat was curled up on her side, pillows supporting her growing pregnant belly with her back flush to my chest. I sighed in contentment, shutting my eyes again as I wrapped my arms around my beautiful fiance, our legs tangled together.

I relished these lazy mornings where neither of us had anywhere to be for a few hours. We’d both decided that Cat wasn’t going to go back to school just yet. The pregnancy was taxing on her body and, once born, so would the baby.

Secretly, I hoped that she wouldn’t go back at all, though I knew that it was selfish of me. I adored taking care of her, pushing back my work so I could spend my days and nights giving her everything she wanted and more.

Even just cuddling her in my arms, I wished the real world could stop. We had enough money and with the baby coming, I would have both of my girls to take care of. Cat was already getting on me for trying to spoil them both, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to stop me.

I already loved our little girl and I would spoil the hell out of her.

I gently brushed my hand over her belly, grinning as I felt my little girl respond with a kick.

Cat frowned in her sleep, shifting uncomfortably, but I knew the routine by now. I rubbed her belly, going in slow smooth circles until the kicks stopped and our baby rested once more. Cat’s breath evened out again, falling back into a deep sleep.

I pressed a kiss to her neck, wishing I could stay like this forever, but I also knew that Cat and the baby would get cranky without their breakfast, and today was the cook’s day off. I gently pulled myself away from her, replacing my spot with a heated body pillow I’d gotten for her that she loved so much.

I made sure she was still asleep, content, and comfortable before heading for a shower and getting dressed. My hair was still damp when I stepped into the kitchen, rolling up the sleeves of my button-up as I put on the apron Cat had gotten me as a joke after I’d made her breakfast before.

I wouldn’t be caught dead in the frilly pink abomination anywhere outside of the house, but it made Cat laugh every time she saw me wearing it, so it was worth it, so long as she didn’t share any of the photos she took of me in it.

I did have a reputation to protect.

I started on breakfast, the heat from the stove hitting me as I cooked up Cat’s favorites. I knew it by heart at this point–chocolate crepes with a strawberry sauce on top with cinnamon whipped cream, two eggs over-easy, and a side of freshly cooked bacon.

Once everything else was done, I got out the smoked bacon Cat could never resist. The sizzle and pop of it hitting the pan was music to my ears.

I smirked, the scent of the cooked breakfast meat spreading throughout the kitchen the longer it cooked, and I knew it would only be a minute or two until it swept into the bedroom.

Sure enough, it didn’t take long before I heard her waddling down the hallway, giving a big yawn as she walked into the kitchen.

“Good morning,” I smirked as she blearily glanced over at the pan of freshly sizzling bacon, a little drool slipping out of her mouth.

“Smoked maple?” she asked, ignoring me entirely.

“Of course,” I chuckled. “Only the best for my honey.”

“Good.” She nodded, walking straight out of the room to the living room.

I rolled my eyes, smiling at how used to my pampering she had gotten. In the early stages of her pregnancy, she would’ve complained if I doted on her, but as she got heavier and it got harder to move around like before, she had gradually given up and accepted my overbearing love.

All the better for me–I adored spoiling her to my heart’s content.

Once breakfast was done, I made up our plates, heading to the living room where I knew she would be curled up in her nest already.

Right by the window, on the couch with the blinds pulled away so the sunshine was just pouring through was Cat with a mountain of pillows and blankets arranged just the ways she liked. I put her plate on the coffee table along with her cup of coffee, with plenty of sugar in it like always.

“Thank you,” she purred happily, taking a slice of bacon and popping it into her mouth with a satisfying crunch.

We chatted as I ate breakfast and she turned on the TV to see what was on, putting on cartoons and explaining each and every little thing that happened to the baby.

As much as I wanted to stay with her, I couldn’t. I kissed her forehead goodbye and then kissed her belly for the baby, heading out to work.

The office for our real estate development business was busy as usual. Though we only kept the legitimate business as a cover for the money we made in the mafia, Leo put in just as much effort into it as he did the illegal side of things.

He was waiting for me in the office, a stack of papers and files piled on my desk, and I groaned as soon as I saw it. He finger-gunned me as I approached, feet propped up on my desk as he lounged in the chair I had for visitors.

“Mornin’,” he called out in a chipper voice

I shot him a sour look as I took my seat, beginning to look over the top documents.

“Real estate’s going well,” Leo reported aimlessly, throwing a stress ball into the air and catching it. “Nothing really to report besides how much our profits are through the roof. Our top architect is asking for a raise so I put that in there. I highly suggest you do that, by the way. He’s amazing at his job.”

“You’re not getting a raise,” I said coldly, finding the document and shredding it immediately.

“Cruel!” He gasped.

“Not from here anyway,” I add. “You already make double what anyone else in the office makes. Any more and you’ll be in suspicious territory.”

He pursed his lips, falling silent as I signed and dealt with the rest of the documents. An hour went by before I finally made it through them all, but then Leo grinned at my cleared desk and got up, taking up a whole new stack of files from the floor and putting them on top of the desk.

“This is what you get for running two businesses.” Leo grinned, taking pleasure in my unhappiness.

My wrist already ached but I sighed, taking the first document.

“Hour left before the first meeting, so I suggest we work quickly. Meetings at nine, eleven, two, and four today,” Leo said calmly, “so we better get this done early.”

“Fine,” I grabbed the first report, frowning as I read some of the basic finances. I double-checked it before putting it in the pile for the finance department. The next file I pulled out was looking much newer than the other, the printer ink still smelling fresh as I opened it up.

“Ah, that one,” Leo nodded. “Just came in this morning. We got some more threats from MS13.”

I glanced through the reports, the threats detailed out, and I scowled. Despite what I had told Cat, not everything was quiet. The rising amount of hits from the so-called MS13 section was worrying, but not enough that I felt it pertinent to tell Cat.

I already told her to stay out of this side of the business for the time being, especially since she was carrying our baby. She was vulnerable and I didn’t want to put them in danger. Luckily she had agreed, but I still felt guilty for lying to her.

“Most recent?” I asked, searching for the document.

“Ah. One of our guys was hit last night, actually,” Leo reported, crossing his arms. “It was more serious than the usual threats. They jumped him right outside his house and demanded that he tell you to leave the city. He refused, of course, loyal through and through. Told five guys straight to their face that it would never happen.”

I grimaced as I opened the report, seeing the extent of damage they had done to the guy for his loyalty to me. I appreciated his confidence in us, but not when it landed him in the ICU of the hospital with broken bones and fractures, stab wounds, and a gunshot to the back of the spine. It was a miracle he wasn’t completely paralyzed and had managed to get away.

“He’s a trooper alright.” Leo shook his head, impressed. “Took two of them down before our guys arrived and saved his life. They took the bodies, so there wasn’t anything we could use to track them, though.”

I leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling as I thought. They probably knew they didn’t have much of a hold on us seeing as they jumped one of our guys but didn’t kill him right away. This was about sending a message more than the actual kill.

But that wouldn’t last forever.

Having two of their guys killed in retaliation, they would start upping their game now, going from warnings to straight lethal hits.

“Give a call to Franky,” I said, forming a plan in my head. “Set up a lunch or something to meet up and we’ll discuss our next move with him. They’re targeting us even after knowing we’re spread across two continents, so they’re either confident in their abilities or they’re stupid.”

“I’m hoping for stupid,” Leo said bluntly. “But things are never seen to go our way for that, Katz being the prime example.”

I gripped my pen at the name. Even after his death, the damage he had done to us hadn’t gone away. Too many good men had been put in the grave because of that asshole, and Junior was still on the run somewhere as well.

We had another threat on the horizon and with Cat being pregnant this time, I was even more paranoid than before.

“Double the guards, place them on the buddy system, and make sure no one goes anywhere alone. They tracked one of our men to their house and they’ll do it again, so make sure all men our reporting to our safehouses, not their own homes.”

“Isn’t that a little extreme?” Leo frowned.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m not going to let a repeat of Katz happen. It’s time to a put a stop to all of this.”

Before anyone else got hurt.