Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 816 : Let the Chips Fall

*Elio*

When I stopped in the kitchen for my breakfast and coffee mug, Cat was there. We kissed good morning before I left for the day. Something was off with her. She woke before me and had an excuse ready on her lips when I asked why she’d been up early.

I worried she wasn’t sleeping. Maybe the stress of having Junior out there somewhere was getting to her. She assured me that she was fine, that she had just woken early and decided to stay up.

It was a good excuse, but I didn’t buy it. There just wasn’t enough time to pin her down.

Was I being paranoid? There was an itch under my skin, telling me there was something going on with Cat that she hadn’t shared with me.

I thought about all the times I kept things from her to protect her. Was she trying to protect me? I didn’t need protection, and I wanted her to be honest.

Shit, here I was thinking about her not telling me things, and I was always doing the same to her. I knew I deserved a dose of my own medicine to understand how it felt. She and I would be talking soon about hiding things from me because I knew my woman, and I knew she was hiding something.

I headed to the office, intent on this meeting and doing my best. It was one of those instances where I had to make an appearance in the legit business office because I was doing a favor for a friend of mine who wanted to expand.

I played the game well. I could work out what to say and how to write the contracts.

I didn’t like office work. I hated being pinned down to a desk. But as a favor to my friend, I’d go into the office and pretend to know what I was doing.

When I arrived, I put together a team of the most capable men and women in the office to assist with the research and contracts for this meeting. When we walked in as a team, we were impressive. I could tell by the looks on the clients’ faces.

“Good afternoon, gentlemen,“ I said, shaking hands and nodding.

“Thank you, Elio, for setting this up for us,“ my friend said, and I nodded to him, happy to be of help.

“The presentation today will be done by our executive officer, Leo,“ I said, handing off the reins.

We sat through the presentation, and I thought it was a damn good one to have been put together on such short notice.

“Thank you, gentlemen, for such a great presentation,“ one of the men on the other team said.

“Do you have any questions, gentlemen?“ I asked, hoping they didn’t.

“Yes,” my friend said, raising his hand as if we were still in grade school.

I smiled at him and knotted.

“What is this going to cost in the long run?”

“Here are the trajectories,“ I said, opening the contract to the numbers and pointing them out to him and his team.

“This is a damn good bid,“ another one of the men on his team said.

“Yes, I think it is. Here are some of the clauses we put in just in case anything goes wrong with the building of the development you’re proposing to the city,” I said, flipping through the contracts and showing them the different insurance clauses we placed within the document.

The men looked over the documents and asked questions. I answered the questions I knew the answers to and offered suggestions just in case they wanted to make changes.

“Here are a couple of places I’d like to change the wording a bit,“ my friend said, pointing out the different items in the insurance clauses we placed in the document.

I read through the clauses and listened to his suggested rewriting of the wording, then looked at Leo to see if he agreed to it as well. We agreed to the changes and continued to go through the document.

After a few more changes, I gave the document to my assistant to make the changes. The young man I’d hired for the role swiftly left the conference room and went to his desk. While the assistant was gone, the gentleman and I drink coffee and talked about our families.

“I heard you had a little girl,” my friend said.

It had been a while since we’d last seen each other.

“Yes, she’s a beauty,“ I said, smiling, thinking of Emilia’s smile and her clapping hands. She was such a happy baby.

“Yeah, I think my wife is hinting at babies,“ my friend said.

“Then I think you should give her some,“ I said, grinning at him. “You won’t be sorry.”

We smiled at each other, as the conversations the other men were having around us clashed with our voices.

The assistant came back in, having made all the changes we documented for him. We went over the documents one last time and agreed to the terms in the contract.

Now, all we had to do was wait for the city to agree to the permits, and we’d be building and new development together.

We all agreed to get together for lunch in the next few weeks to go over more items for the development. The plans were already made and drawn up by my friend’s architect. All we had to do was get the funds together and start building.

We shook hands all around, and a couple of us who knew each other personally patted each other’s shoulders and agreed to golf or spend time with our families together.

When everyone left, I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I faked my way through the meeting pretty well, I thought,” I said to Leo as we walked out of the conference room.

“You’re a natural,“ Leo said, grinning at me.

“So are you,“ I replied. “I just hate this shit,“ I said, walking out to the car with Leo.

It was true. I didn’t like the firm’s work. It wasn’t my thing. I preferred being out and about in the world and doing what I had to do as the families Don, so I was glad that Leo had taken over a lot of the grunt work for me. I was grateful to him because it allowed me to spend more time with my girls.

But I still had to come in and pretend sometimes, and I didn’t like it. I preferred being who I was. The thing was, I still couldn’t just be the Don.

Just as I was getting into the car, my phone vibrated. It reminded me to turn the ringer back on. I looked at the caller ID and sighed. As usual, it was Franky.

“What’s up?” I didn’t even try to temper my tone.

“It’s bad news. I’m sorry, but Junior is in the wind.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Though I knew, I just wanted it confirmed.

“Junior slipped away. We can’t find him anymore.” Franky stated the news as if it were a death sentence for somebody.

“Shit,“ I grumbled. “Give me a few minutes. I’ll be at the warehouse in about ten.”

“Sure,“ Franky agreed.

When I got to the warehouse, about ten of my men were standing around in a circle. Everyone had scowls on their faces. The surveillance hadn’t worked, and Junior was missing.

“Listen, I think Junior just got a little smarter this time”, Franky said.

“Yeah, I think I would be a little smarter if I had about ten people on my ass too,” one of the men said.

I glared at him. “He wasn’t supposed to know you were there, idiot,“ I said, my temper getting the better of me.

I knew Junior and exactly how he was. He was cunning and shifty. He probably didn’t even know they were there. He just got paranoid and decided to go off the rails for a minute to trip my guys up. It didn’t matter whether it was their fault or not. I was still pissed.

The door to the warehouse flew open, and everybody turned around, guns drawn, including me.

“Shit, don’t shoot!“

It was one of our runners. He had his hands in the air and looked as if he was about to shit his drawers.

“Come through the door, stupid, and close it!“ Franky shouted.

“He does have a point,“ Leo said, pushing the door closed behind the runner.

“Sorry, sorry, I just was trying to hurry up and tell you that we found Junior’s car,” the runner said, still shaken from being drawn on by at least thirteen men.

“Where?” I asked, my voice strong and full of menace.

The runner told us where he found the car and described all the landmarks around the place where he found it.

“Good job,” Franky said, pilling off a couple of hundred-dollar bills to give to the kid. “Next time, don’t run in here like an idiot and nearly get your head shot off.”

The boy nodded and left before us. We suited up and got in the cars, and I rode with Franky and Leo. The other men rode together in their own SUVs.

We found the car and the guy in it wasn’t Junior.

“Is that the right car?” I asked Franky.

Franky stared at the car for a moment and nodded. “That’s it. It has the same plates.”

“Anybody knows who’s in the car?” I asked my men.

“No, I’ve never seen him before,“ Leo said.

“Can’t say I know him,” Franky said.

“Call the men and ask them.”

Franky Facetimed the men and asked them. No one knew the occupant in the car.

We checked to make sure no one else was in the car with the person. None of us knew. We sat for a while, watching the car, making sure no one else came to talk to him or exchange cars with him. Nothing happened. I couldn’t sit here all night, staring at a stranger, waiting for Junior to show up. Besides, I knew he could be long gone by now. There was no telling where that little creep was.

I was livid. I wanted to find the little bastard and strangle him to death.

“How the fuck did Junior get away?” I asked, slamming my fist on the dashboard, my anger barely leashed.

“Don’t worry about it. We’re on it,“ Franky assured me.

“I know you’re on it. I understand you’re doing everything you can to help me find him and get rid of him before the wedding. Knowing he’s out there able to get to my kid and my woman is driving me fucking nuts,” I ground out. I was so pissed.

“I think you need to go home to your fiancée and child,” Leo said, patting me on the shoulder.

“I guess I should,” I agreed.

“Leave this to us for right now. When we find him, we will call you,” Franky said. “Even though I’d like to take him out myself, will wait for you to get there and decide what you want done with the little bastard.”

“Okay, I’ll let you handle this part. I know the two of you are competent. I just wish there was more I could do.”

“Go home and take care of your family,“ Leo said. “We’ll see to this and let you know what’s going on as things change.”

I nodded and they took me back to my car.

On the drive home, all I could think about was having to tell Cat about this. I didn’t want to tell her we’d lost Junior and had no clue where he was. I couldn’t keep this from her, though.

She was right. She needed to know the danger. If she knew to be on the lookout for Junior, she could protect herself and Emilia far more efficiently.

If I didn’t tell her, I’d take the ability to protect and care for our child and herself away from her. I knew I’d hate for her to do that to me. I’d tell her the news and let the chips fall where they may.

I just had a bad feeling they wouldn’t fall in my favor.