Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 728 : Worry and Attitude

*Caterina*

“God, where is he?” I muttered timidly under my breath.

Ever since I got home from my lunch with Anna, my mind had been firmly fixated on Elio. Although it was decent enough for him to call me in the middle of his workday, it ended up leaving a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach.

I was still very much relieved to know that Elijah was no major threat that needed to be dealt with. Just knowing that he was just a basic, average guy took a huge weight off my mind, especially when it came to his budding relationship with Anna.

Part of me still couldn’t fathom how well she took the news about my family.

I felt truly lucky to have someone like her as my best friend, and now I knew I wouldn’t have to concern myself with her wellbeing when it came to Elijah going forward.

But Elio, on the other hand....

Something was going on behind the scenes. I could feel it in my gut as he spoke to me earlier. While the conversation didn’t stray too far off the topic of Elijah, I sensed there was a strained hesitation in his voice.

I didn’t want to push. I knew that when the time was right, Elio would tell me all that was happening with him and the rest of the team. So, I let it go.

Upon my return home, I tried to bury myself in my schoolwork as a means of distraction. It worked for a good few hours. I’d managed to get pretty far ahead in most of my classes, but that feeling of accomplishment dwindled instantly when I turned my head to steal a glance at the time on my phone.

It felt like a heavy weight of lead settled into my chest. The sun had already sunken well beneath the tree line, and still I hadn’t heard a word from Elio.

I’d gone ahead to check my phone for any messages or calls I may have missed while I was working before. But there was nothing.

Part of me knew better than to think that Elio would ever text me about what was going on. He much preferred to talk in-person or call at the very least. I knew he wouldn’t tell me exactly what was going on at work, but why couldn’t he at least give me some detail regarding his whereabouts?

‘Where the hell is he?’ I thought frantically.

I had an early day the next day, and I wasn’t too keen about going to bed without knowing just where the hell he was. It was surely a mental tick I’d developed over the past few months. I needed to see him. I needed to see that Elio was safe and out of harm’s way.

There have been times when I’d go almost the entire day without seeing him, and my anxiety would be on the verge of spiraling. Seeing him, or even receiving a mere call from him was always enough to ease my nerves.

It wasn’t uncommon for him to work late, but not like this. Dinner had already come and gone without a word from him.

I picked up my phone and sent him a quick message, inquiring about his situation. I fought viciously with myself to not let my mind go to a darker place.

‘He’s fine,’ I told myself. ‘He’s probably still with Leo and Francesco dealing with how to track down the people who took one of their guys.’

Unfortunately, this sort of mental train of thought wasn’t much help to me either. I didn’t like knowing that there was some person, or group of people, that was snatching up Elio’s men like it was nothing—with no trace nor a single indication as to who was truly behind it all.

I shook myself from the unpleasant, grizzly thought and glanced down at my phone.

Still nothing.

“Damnit,” I hissed.

My patience was growing as thin as my ability to remain calm. I hastily pulled up Elio’s number and called him. The line went through several rings before sending me to voicemail.

I dialed him again... and then again... and again.

With each missed call, my anxiety rose higher and higher with no chance of stopping. I couldn’t understand why Elio wasn’t answering any of my calls when I knew he kept his phone close to him at all times.

Yes, I knew I was probably acting paranoid, but it became more and more impossible to believe that everything was, in fact, okay.

I should have put my phone down. I should have packed up all my books and classwork back into my bag and gone up to my room to take a shower. I needed to calm myself down and have a little bit of faith that there was a logical explanation for Elio’s lateness.

I hit the call button one last time.

It rang twice before I heard the gruff tone of Elio’s voice break through the speaker of my phone. I finally released the long breath I didn’t realize I was withholding.

“Elio?”

“What is it?” he asked sternly.

My brows pinched together. “It’s already past nine-thirty,” I told him briskly.

“Yeah, so I’ve noticed,” he muttered dryly. “Time has gotten away from me. We’ve been busy here, as you can imagine.” 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

I bit the inside of my cheek and refrained from unleashing my pent-up anger on him.

“Well, are you planning on coming home at all?”

“I don’t know, Cat,” he fired back. “I have absolutely no idea when I’ll be back home, alright? Look, I’m dealing with a lot right now and would really appreciate it if you could cut me some damn slack.”

My mouth fell open in complete shock. What was worse was that my chest went from aching with worry to now aching with anger and vexation.

This man had just put me through several rings of hell just to make sure that he was okay, and now he proceeded to come back at me with a snapping attitude.

‘Well, fine,’ I decided. ‘Although my reason for calling was to hopefully find out when he would be home, Elio at the very least let me know that he still had a pulse and was with the others. Screw him.’

I ended the call without so much as another word.

Now that I knew he was technically okay, I could try to dissolve my anxiety that I’d allowed to build up for no reason. Apart from feeling stupid for letting myself overreact, I was beginning to feel suffocated.

The phone buzzed and I glanced down to see that Elio was trying to call me back. I swallowed back a scoff and set my phone to ‘do not disturb.’

Was I acting immature? I honestly didn’t care at this point. Among everything that had happened as well as the crazy shit that was currently going on, Elio should’ve already known that my intentions were coming from an honest place.

And I truly didn’t have it in me to answer his call and listen to his sad-ass excuse for acting like a total prick.

“If he wants to apologize, then he can very well do it to my face,” I said mildly.

I grabbed my bag and headed toward my mom’s cottage. I knew that the best thing to do was to talk about my feelings out with someone and not try to keep them bottled up because chances were that if Elio came home within the next hour or so, I was going to go off on him.

Once I made it to my mom’s house, I reached out my arm to knock. A few moments flew by before the front door opened, revealing my mother, who looked as lively and happy as ever. Her smile grew when she saw it was me on the other side of the door.

She pulled me into a tight hug and kissed my cheek. “Cat? Hey, how are you?”

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, I was interrupted by the sound of someone else calling out for my mother’s attention.

“Matilde? Is everything alright?”

My brows lifted into my hair in surprise. My mom had a guest....

The idea felt almost foreign to me, but I was so glad that she found it in herself to bask in this type of normalcy.

“Oh, shit,” I whispered. “I’m sorry, I had no idea that you had company.”

My mom waved it off like it was no big deal. But I knew that it was. The woman had gone through hell and back with her recovery and physical therapy, and she deserved a bit of happiness.

And I had absolutely no business barging in on it just for the sake of dealing with my own problems.

“Well, in that case, I’ll let you get back,” I said.

I felt her gaze on me intensify. She narrowed her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.

“Cat, something’s going on, isn’t it? Why don’t you come in and we can talk about it?” she asked.

My heart swelled with love, knowing that this woman would literally put her plans aside just to check in on how I was doing. But again, I wasn’t going to let that happen. I could see that my mom was just starting to live her life again.

I gently shook my head and even offered a smile to reassure her.

“No. No, everything’s okay,” I told her. “It’s no big deal, really.”

My mother’s expression remained ever skeptical as I tried to weasel my way out of being dragged into her house, where I knew she’d drill me for answers. I instead told her that we would catch up tomorrow and that she should enjoy the rest of her night.

I headed back to my place with the same number of thoughts in my mind as when I first left. When I got up to my room, I spotted Elio waiting for me. My feet stuck to the floor as I stood frozen, staring at him in surprise. He sat on the corner of the bed with his head tilted downward.

I hadn’t expected to see him for the remainder of the night.

For a brief moment, I wondered how long he’d been back and sure enough, I went to check my phone to see that he’d left over seven missed calls on my phone during that time.

“I shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you,” he admitted softly.

I slowly moved about the room, setting my bag and phone aside so that he had my complete attention.

“I’m listening.”

He ran a rough hand through his hair and let out a long-defeated sigh. “Franky’s uncovered some video footage of the scene where the car was abandoned. We’ve also managed to locate a van that just so happens to be linked to one of Junior’s men. He’s concluded that whatever the plan is on their end, that they seem to be working from the bottom up,” he explained. “So, they’re after lower guys first and working their way to the top. And if that wasn’t enough, Franky seems to believe that we could very likely have a mole within our group.”

A sharp gasp slipped through my lips before I could stop it. I couldn’t believe that we already had to worry about there being potential rats within the organization.

Right as I was about to speak, Elio reached out to lace his arms around the back of my legs and pull me into him. He pressed his face into the curve of my neck while my hands lifted to wrap around his shoulders.

He placed a soft kiss to my skin and the two of us fell swiftly into a much-needed sleep. I embraced the strong feel of his arms around me and tried to forget about the pending threats that were surely getting closer to us.

I welcomed sleep with open arms, but all that awaited me once I closed my eyes were grizzly nightmares.