Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 777 : Dangers in My World

*Elio*

I had plenty to do, but this had to be taken care of. As the head of the family in the US, I couldn’t just let shit go. I had to make sure the families of my men in lock-up were taken care of. The women and children would be provided for, no matter what. The older boys would be taken under the uncles’ wings and the girls would be married to good men. We took care of our own.

So, the warehouse meetings had to keep going whether I liked being away from my small immediate family or not. I thought about my woman sleeping in our bed as I left her and my daughter in that big house alone. They were as safe as I could make them until I got home and could ensure their safety myself, but a part of my heart was there with them.

I drove up to the warehouse, having made sure I didn’t have a tail, and parked the car out of sight of any passers-by.

I was working less and less at my legit job.

My men in lock-up were alright. They were happy to know their families were being taken care of, and I made sure they had whatever they wanted or needed while they were in there. Our mafia family had people on the inside that would look the other way when any contraband was slipped in and our boys had something they weren’t supposed to have. All our men had phones so they could contact their wives and children. They had tablets, and some of them even ran cons and games from their cells.

These were the men I could most trust either not to get caught or to do whatever they needed to do to keep themselves out of trouble. They didn’t do stupid shit like running their traps and getting noticed by the wrong guards. We knew our men on the inside, and they still kept their heads down and ran whatever operations they could from the inside. They got paid for their work and their families were in compounds much like mine and Cat’s.

I didn’t play my men and I made sure they were taken care of whether they were on the inside or not. Yeah, what we did was dangerous, but I tried to make sure everybody in my organization was safe. If they were stupid and caused fire to rain down on us, then we did what we had to do with them as well. Either way, I took care of business and made sure things remained as calm as they could.

The shit that went down with MS13 was out of my control, and it pissed me off. I wanted to kill all of them for the way they’d threatened Cat and our baby, but I couldn’t without getting more of my men either killed or behind bars, and there were enough of us in the ground or jailed. I wouldn’t take that chance right now when shit was so hot.

The Feds were already sniffing around too much. I wasn’t going to do anything to increase the heat and make Cat worry more than she already did.

“What’s up with MS13?” I asked.

“Nothing right now,” Frankie said.

“Nothing going down at all?”

“No, but we should take them out of the game while we got the chance,” Frankie said.

I contemplated Frankie’s suggestion. I’d just had the same thought myself, but I knew now wasn’t the time.

“Things are too hot right now,” I said. “Besides, we’d need some of our own guys inside to take care of the ones in prison. We can’t use the ones we have in there because they’d be the first one suspected.”

Frankie sighed at my reasoning but answered the initial question I asked instead of arguing his point. We all knew what the price was if we stirred the pot right now.

“Those bastards are laying low. About half of their men that were arrested are out now. The rest are still inside. They ain’t taking any chances right now either.”

I nodded. “That’s good. I’d hate to have to break my own rules and kill those assholes if they make a move against us.”

“Their not our biggest problem right now,” Frankie said with a scowl.

I nodded with a grimace of my own. “The Feds,” I stated simply.

“We need to do something about them,” Frankie said, his tone damn near an order.

While I gave the orders, I wasn’t above listening to my men, especially Frankie or Leo. I didn’t like paying people off or having Feds in my pocket. I hated the Feds on principle. Why in hell would I pay them to keep their mouths shut or to look the other way? But I had to admit that Frankie was right this time.

“What do you suggest we do?

Frankie rattled off a few familiar names and some I didn’t know. I remembered one of the names and thought Frankie was on to something when he mentioned Mark Welton. I’d heard about him from murmurs throughout the organization, and even other families had talked about his shady dealings.

“I’ve been watching them for a while now, and I think we should move on our plan to try to put one or two of them on our payroll.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, hoping he’d say something like no, I’m not sure, but he nodded his agreement. I fucking hated the Feds, and now I had to depend on them to keep me and my family safe. I wasn’t happy about that at all.

“Give me a minute, and we’ll leave after I make this call.”

Frankie nodded, knowing I was calling home.

I stepped outside, lit a cigarette to make it look like I was just another bro hanging on the block with a cigarette and a drink in my hand on the phone talking to my girl. I leaned my shoulders against the dingy wall of the warehouse, lifted one foot, and settled in to talk to Cat while keeping a watch and smoking.

“What’s going on?” she asked without preamble.

“Nothing, I just wanted to check in and tell you I won’t be home for a while.” I winced at the palpable anger in her loaded silence. Sometimes, silence could be louder than the thumping of loudspeakers with the base sending vibrations through the air and your body.

“Why are you going to be late?” she asked.

“I can’t tell you right now. I’ll fill you in when I get home,” I said, hearing her taking a calming breath.

“Fine, I’ll see you when you get home. Just be careful, okay?”

I nodded, forgetting she couldn’t see me. I knew she was pissed–it was in her tone and in those loaded silences. “Yeah, I’ll see you then,” I said, hitting the end call button on the screen and crushing the cigarette that I hadn’t even smoked.

She was upset, even though she knew I couldn’t always talk on the phone, even when I wanted to tell her everything. Though the warehouse was in a secluded location, there could be people around that I couldn’t see.

Yeah, it sounded paranoid, but it wasn’t when everyone around me could be a potential rat or law enforcement officer. I’d have to deal with Cat’s anger later. I couldn’t let it follow me into what I had to do tonight. If I did, I’d make mistakes that could be detrimental to me and my men.

“Everything all right?” Leo asked.

“Sure, at least it will be, but it has to be done.”

“Sorry, ‘bout this,” Frankie said.

“Not your fault, Frankie,” I said, locking and loading with my men and following them to the less conspicuous sedan we kept on hand for surveillance.

“You know where he’s gonna be tonight?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, he’s at the bar he always goes to in the French Quarter,” Frankie explained.

“Isn’t that a bit noticeable?” I asked, thinking Frankie was out of his mind.

“Not really. It’s a hole in the wall. It’s a real drinking hole, none of that touristy shit that the other Feds hang out in.”

“Why couldn’t it have been one of the diners Clarise owns?”

Leo groused.

"Because that would be too much like easy,” Frankie responded.

I chuckled at their back-and-forth banter. They were blowing off steam. This could go really bad if the Fed was above board and caught us watching him.

“Oh, I don’t know, Frankie. Why didn’t you just seduce the pretty little blonde Fed?” Leo asked, switching his ever-present toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other.

“She’s a she-cat in bed, but I couldn’t stand her giggle.”

“Did you really fuck her?” I asked, curious.

Frankie looked in the rearview mirror and flashed his sexiest grin at me.

I shook my head at him. “Living dangerously these days?” I asked, while Leo scoffed.

“You didn’t?” Leo accused.

“Sure, I did,” Frankie said. “She was a sexy little thing, and I couldn’t have turned her if both our lives depended on it, so I left her alone.”

“You’re nuts. You know that?” Leo asked.

“I wanted a piece of that hot little ass, and what a way to do surveillance.”

“I have to say, I’m agreeing with Leo on this one,” I said. “You’re fucking nuts. There’s no way I’d get in bed with a Fed, no matter what the reason or how hot they are.”

“Cat would cut your dick off, so you’d better not be getting in bed with anyone other than her,” Frankie said, making me burst into laughter. He was right. Cat would kill me if I even thought about another woman like that.

She had nothing to worry about. She was the sexiest woman on the planet, and she was the only woman I could even imagine being with.

“Point made, my friend,” I said anyway, as we parked outside the seedy-looking bar Frankie had driven us to.

We went in, sitting at one of the back tables, nursing a beer each, as we watched the federal agent. We all had to drive, so we didn’t order more than two beers. We ordered food because in truth I was starving. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and my lovemaking with Cat had worn me out, but I’d had to get up and leave.

It had taken everything in me to slide out of bed and leave her alone in our bed. She didn’t know how leaving her affected me, and I probably would never tell her.

The entire time we sat at the far table watching the Fed, he didn’t make any deals or do anything shady. We had to be sure what we were getting ourselves into, so we decided not to approach him tonight. We’d have to keep a watch on him to decide whether we could trust him enough.

We needed to know what the Feds were up to, and having someone on the inside was the only way to do that. As we watched Welton leave the bar, we sat in silence for a few moments. Leo left first to keep a bead on him, while Frankie and I stayed to pay the bill and decide our next steps.

“I think you should go on home,” Frankie said. “Me and Leo can handle it from here.”

“Okay, keep me up to speed on what’s going down.”

“Yeah, I will,” he said. “We can meet in a couple of days at the warehouse to give you the details and make a final decision about Welton.”

I nodded. “Take me back to my car.”

Frankie took me back to the SUV I’d driven to the warehouse.

When I got home, she was already in bed. I came in a bit loudly though I didn’t mean to, and heard her stirring in bed.

“Cat?”