Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“I don’t…” I whisper now, glancing over my shoulder as if afraid Daniel will hear me. “I don’t want Daniel to go to…jail. Not like…his father. So…is there a part of your business? That would be…safer?”
My father nods, considering, perhaps running through the rolodex of industries that he has under his name. The greatest share of his profits come from running in the drug trade, I know but I want Daniel nowhere near that.
“I could…perhaps put him somewhere in waste management,” my father says, considering, but I screw up my face in distaste, making my father laugh. “Ah, the little bride does not want her husband coming home smelling of trash?”
“I don’t think he’d like it very much either,” I say, shaking my head. “Daniel is picky, and I don’t want him to hate it. Do you have anything…nicer?”
“Well, you would not have him in the clubs, would you,” my father sighs, speaking of the dozens of bars and strip joints that he owns around the city. Again, I shake my head. That’s not it. Come on, dad…
“Or,” he says, his eyebrows suddenly going up. “We do have the investments in shipping…”
I gasp a little in pretend inspiration and my father looks at me, a smile starting.
“Daniel really likes boats,” I say, nodding eagerly, pretending as much as I can to be a stupid little girl. My father laughs and wraps his arm around me, pleased.
“So, the boy likes boats does he? Well, they aren’t sailing ships they’re shipping vessels, the kind with big metal containers and lots of goods.”
“What kind of goods?” I ask, curious, and my father begins to rattle them off. I listen with half an ear, my mind already moving on to the next parts of my plan.
Because with Daniel as a shipping magnate? Or, at least with his fingers in the game?
Well. From there, I can get started.
“Do you think that would please you, Fay?” My father asks, giving my shoulders a little squeeze.
And I look up at him with a big, beaming smile. “Yes, father,” I say, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “More than you know.”
“Than it shall be done,” he says, heaving himself up from the couch and then offering a hand to me, which I take. “Come, let’s go offer your new husband a job.”
“I can’t believe you got me a job,” Daniel grumbles from the passenger seat, his arms crossed over his chest as he stares out the window.
“‘Bout time,” Jerome murmurs as he drives, smirking as he keeps his eyes on the road.
Daniel makes a squeak of protest as he turns to glare at his boyfriend, but Jerome just laughs. “Seriously, Danny,” he says, shaking his head, “you’ve never had a job in your life. Pay your dues! Especially as it doesn’t sound like Donna Lippert back there,” he says, pointing at me with a thumb over his shoulder, “intends for you to do it forever.”
“Just for a little bit, Daniel,” I say, looking up from my phone for just a second to see him glaring at me, “until we get the information we need.”
“And what information,” Daniel snaps, “do we need? So I can get it and get out of there as fast as possible.”
“I don’t know yet,” I sigh, content. “I’ll know it when I hear it.”
Daniel grumbles more and Jerome laughs at him.
“You know this is your fault, Jerome,” I call to him, tucking my phone back into my purse and smiling as I stir the pot.
“What!?” he gasps, glaring at me in the rearview mirror. “What the hell did I do?”
“You pamper Daniel,” I say, grinning and settling back against the leather of my own seat. “You take him to the beach all day, and carry his bag, and make it so he never wants to do a day of work in his whole life, because he just wants to hang out with you ”
“Um, I did not start this pattern, Fay,” Jerome corrects, “it’s your baby daddy that let him go to college for eternity, majoring in end-of-the-road degrees like English and Philosophy and Archaeology.”
“True,” I say with a sigh. “Though I’d like to see you accuse Kent of it to his face.”
“I would,” Jerome says, assured. “As long as he was…still behind bars.”
We all laugh at that, Daniel shaking his head and not really denying that he’s been a bit of a spoiled rich boy his whole life. But neither Jerome nor I really hold it against him though we are willing to tease him about it. We like Daniel just the way he is, and I know Jerome in particular likes to dote on him. It’s part of why they work.
Daniel, I suspect, pays Jerome back in his own way.
But before I can decide whether I even want to consider what those methods of payback are he is my husband, after all I sit up straight when we turn the corner onto our street and I see a familiar car in the driveway.
“No way,” Jerome murmurs, slowing down and shaking his head.
“They let him keep the Ferrari?” Daniel whispers, completely shocked.
My heart begins to pound as I realize that, while I thought today’s work was over and I could just relax…
Apparently, it’s just begun. Because Ivan has come for a visit. And I have to be very, very careful with how I handle this.
“Did you know about this?” Daniel snaps, turning to me suddenly.
“I did not,” I answer, firm, my voice low with my instant anger at the accusation behind his question.
“Well you didn’t tell me about lunch today ”
“This is different,” I snap. “And you know it.”
Daniel takes a deep breath, staring at me, and then he nods, understanding.
“All right, boys,” I say, leaning forward to look out the windshield, trying to see if Ivan is anywhere in sight. But I don’t see him yet. “Follow my lead.”
___________________________
“Hey, Fay!” Janeen calls to me from the kitchen in the sing-song way she always used to do when we were kids. Then her head peeks around the corner of the second-floor landing, an eager grin on her face. “Your cop friend came to visit.”
I roll my eyes at her as I make my way up the stairs, Daniel and Jerome coming along behind me.
“Thanks, Janeen,” I murmur. “But we kind of figured it out, considering the flashy car in the driveway.”
“You know me,” Ivan says as we come into the kitchen. I immediately turn to face him. “I always like to make an impression.”
I look Ivan up and down, considering that his look has completely changed since he’s come out from being under-cover. Whereas he was always bad-boy chic before, now he’s…well, he’s clean cut in black pants and a button-up shirt. But somehow he’s still got that air of bad boy around him. The tattoos, after all, are all real.
Ivan smiles as he sees me taking him in, slowly lifting a glass of lemonade to his lips and taking a sip.
“Seriously?” I ask, turning to Janeen and frowning at her. “You gave him refreshments?”
“Well, I will not be rude, Fay,” Janeen says, giving me a mock frown that secretly tells me how delighted she is at all the drama occurring in the house right now. “Not in my own home.”
“My home,” I correct, walking to the fridge and pulling it open, grabbing a water bottle and then walking past Ivan, heading for the back deck. “Come on,” I say, waving to him.