Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 792 : A Win

*Elio*

That night, I slept better than I had in months. Placing my trust in Franky to get our guys out safely and handing over the reins of the legit business to Leo, had freed up so much of my time and thoughts to focus on my family, which was just what I needed for a good night’s rest.

It was weird to wake up feeling so refreshed and light like all of my burdens have been brushed away and left me feeling like the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders. I hummed, stretching my stiff limbs above my head.

It was only once I opened my eyes fully, blinking away the blurriness, that I realized the other side of the bed was empty. I placed my palm where my fiancee usually would be, legs clung around me like a koala but it was cold.

She’d been gone for some time.

I frowned, rolling over to grab my phone on the nightstand when I saw two missed texts waiting on the screen to be read. The first was from Franky.

It was just a straightforward, ‘Call me when you get up.’

I knew his tepid responses at this point though. There wasn’t an emergency even if the text sounded vague. It was probably just an update for what happened last night and seeing as he used punctuation, an odd tell of Franky’s than Leo and I had figured out, it meant good news.

Things had gone well last night. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad to finally have my men out of prison and heading back to Italy with their families.

Hopefully, they weren’t too injured from the plan, but I had already planned to compensate them for what they’d been through, especially for their continued loyalty to us, not saying a word even under the eye of the Feds and higher government officials. I knew prison wouldn’t have been easy for them, especially with the MS13 guys in the block.

I’d received quite numerous reports of fights and jumps that had failed or been broken up with minor injuries.

They deserved a long vacation and a re-evaluation if they wanted to continue under Al or take the cash and get out. Al would take care of them once they were in Italy, so all we needed to do was smuggle them out properly.

Luckily nobody could rival the micro-management of Franky.

The second text I received was from Cat.

‘Went to get breakfast. Be back soon.’

It was marked fifteen minutes ago, and I was just about to call her when I heard footsteps heading upstairs. I sat up in bed, giving a yawn as I put down my phone, and grinned as the bedroom door opened.

Sure enough, there was my fiancee, holding a familiar pink box and two bags from a local bakery that I knew well, and curled up in the baby wrap around her torso was Emilia, while she carried a drink carrier in the other hand.

In her mouth was a pink frosted donut just hanging there, sprinkles dropping as she munched on it slowly without dropping it onto the floor. I blinked, surprised at my fiancee’s hidden talent as she quickly came over, waddling a bit with how heavier one side of her was than the other before she dropped the box and bags onto the bed with a sigh.

She was more careful with the drink carrier, handing it to me. I took it, glancing at the two paper cups inside. One was a pink lemonade quite obviously though there was another fruit smell coming from it that I couldn’t identify and the other was a macchiato with caramel–my particular favorite order.

I chuckled. “Is this what you meant by breakfast? Sugary donuts and coffee?”

She grabbed the half-eaten donut still hanging from her mouth, chewing before she answered with a raised eyebrow. “I was hungry and you weren’t waking up. Food is food. Why do you care how much sugar there is in it? I’ll still love you when you’re fat.”

I laughed, shaking my head as she fully swallowed the rest of her donut, giving me a standoffish look before I handed her the pink lemonade drink.

“It’s dragonfruit lemonade actually,” she said at my curious look as she sat down. “I wanted to try it.”

Emilia looked over at me with her curious green eyes, reaching for my drink like she wanted to take a sip, and if it weren’t going to keep her and us up all night and be bad for her immune system, I might’ve caved at the adorable pout she gave me.

I took a sip as Cat proudly showed off her haul of unhealthy food–a whole box of assorted donuts, some sandwiches and bagels, and two large cups of golden round hash browns. Cat wasted no time digging in, humming happily as her dragonfruit lemonade was a big hit apparently.

I decided to just go with the flow, choosing a donut at random as I slowly woke up with the caffeine being pumped into my system. The caramel was a nice shot of sweetness to the bitterness of the coffee, one that I absolutely stood by though when Cat wanted to try and take a sip, she gave me a look like I had just forced her to drink poison. I tried her lemonade at her insistence but found it too sweet for my taste.

After we somehow devoured all the food, Cat and Emilia started their day. It was interesting to watch considering I was almost always at work by this time. I was grateful not to have to rush off to the office or to the warehouse to deal with things and finally have time to sort things out at home.

I only realized I’d forgotten to call Franky when Cat turned on the TV and the news station popped on.

“We’re now getting reports that a total of eight prisoners have been broken out,” the serious news reporter said, showing a picture of the prison next to her head. “It was reported they were being transferred to a hospital late last night, a medical team arriving just before midnight for the injured prisoners, yet it was only hours later that the eight prisoners and team who claimed to be medical professionals vanished.”

I was right. Things did go smoothly. Cat watched with me curiously as the news report flashed up the mugshots of the eight men who had been in jail all this time, not detailing their crimes, which didn’t surprise me but instead focusing on the medical team, which had no good descriptions except that they’d been in classic blue scrubs and had on medical masks and hats.

“I’ll have to give Franky a raise because that was a smooth operation,” I said, impressed by how well it had worked out–no witnesses, in and out in a few minutes, with no information to actually give to the public for identification.

The prison hadn’t even taken down the ambulance license plate, nor had it been caught on surveillance due to the camera shortage they attributed to the storm last night. It had barely even rained... but a storm?

I snorted. They were already trying to cover their tracks and pin the blame on the weather phenomenon. The move had grubby politicians all over it.

As soon as the report ended and Cat switched to Emilia’s favorite cartoon, I grabbed my phone to call Franky.

“Hello?”

“Hey, just saw the news, nice work,” I said as a greeting. “They don’t know what to think of it.”

“That was the plan,” Franky said gruffly, a full night of sleep having taken its toll. “We screwed up the times on the cameras so they got it wrong. We’re heading back to Italy on one of our jets, with doctors on board to make sure they’re medically cleared. No life-threatening issues, but a lot of them are black and blue. Some of them are trying to claim workman’s comp.”

“Oi! Told you that just was a joke. Don’t bring the big boss man into it!”

“Joke, I was serious! My ass hurts from all this jostling around and I got a bad back from those beds in there–cots with a blanket and brick for a pillow!”

“You got a pillow?”

I smiled, shaking my head as I heard the men joking in the background. I knew Franky wanted to make sure they were transported all the way there before heading back, just to be cautious of any stops, but it didn’t surprise me in the least the guys were as rowdy as they normally were, even after being beaten to a bloody pulp and then rushed around all night to escape jail.

Still, it was a relief to hear them being so lively after all they’d gone through the past few months. Freedom and doing so under the noses of the oppressive American government had to be a hell of a drug.

“Let me know when you guys land,” I said calmly. “And tell them there’s no workman comp in the mafia. I’ll double-check with Al though.”

And then I hung up with a grin, knowing that Franky was going to be pissed. Al was not as nice of a boss as I was.

“So what’s going on?” Cat asked curiously as she took a seat next to me, propping up her feet and putting them in my lap like it was the most natural thing to do.

I didn’t mind though, simply leaning my hand over her cold feet to warm them up as I told her all about Franky and the guys being free.

Cat was patient, asking only the necessary questions before letting me continue. It felt great to be here with her like this, all of her attention on me as I unloaded the stress and worries of the job. I missed this, working with her as a team instead of carrying around lies and secrets all the time.

“What about the MS13 guys?” Cat asked after I finished delivering the news. “Are they going to get broken out as well?”

“There are only a couple left in custody,” I told her with a smirk. “But no. Now that our guys are missing, the investigation is going to be halted until our guys are found and back in prison. That won’t happen so most likely, the case is going to be dropped to low priority. The few guys still in there are going to rot now. Even if they confessed everything they knew, they still wouldn’t get out. They’re screwed. Besides, it’s more efficient for Ignacio to cut his losses than try to win back some low-level guys. He won’t bother.”

“So we win,” Cat smiled.

I chuckled, giving her a nod.

“We win.”