Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
Because even if he was just trying to rattle me?
Well, it worked. I am rattled.
Should I be trusting Jerome as much as I have been?
I turn when I hear the house door creaking open behind me.
“You coming inside?” Daniel asks. “It’s cold out here.”
I blink at him for a second and then slowly walk over to where he’s waiting with a blanket. He wraps it warmly around my shoulders and I smile up at him, touched that he’s so thoughtful.
“Thanks, Danny,” I murmur, stepping closer and letting him wrap his arms around me.
“He shook you up, didn’t he,” Daniel murmurs.
“Yeah,” I reply, sighing deeply. “He’s good at that, isn’t he?”
“The best,” Daniel replies. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“Nope,” I reply, knowing that it’s true. Because even if he did sow a seed of doubt in my mind…it doesn’t matter. Jerome’s so thoroughly a part of my plan now that even if I did decide not to trust him…well, everything would fall apart. I need him, and if he decides to betray me?
Well, then I guess I’m going down.
My only option now at all is to trust the guy who bought me my pregnancy test, who has always been kind to me. And not the one who put my baby daddy in jail.
“Come on,” I say, pulling away from Daniel and smiling up at him. “Let’s go inside. I’ve got a lot to tell you.”
“What?” he says, his eyes going wide. “You’re you’re actually going to fill me in on part of the plan?”
“On the whole plan,” I say, grinning up at him. “And then tomorrow? We’re going to a bar.”
“Wait, what?” he says as I take his hand and pull him into the house, kicking the door shut behind me. “We’re…which bar? Why?”
“Patience, Lippert,” I laugh, pulling him up the stairs. “All will be revealed in due time. But I think you’re going to like it.”
Jerome, Daniel, and I are all pretty much exhausted as we pull up to the bar the next day around noon, when it opens. Jerome and I stayed up pretty late explaining the details of the plan to Daniel, and then telling him what we need him to do next…
…and then a couple more hours patting his back when he hyperventilated, convincing him not to runs away from us screaming.
Because…yeah, it’s a little crazy. But it’s going to work!
“I can’t believe this is how I’m spending my Saturday,” Daniel murmurs as Jerome turns the car off in the nearly-empty parking lot of a very, very crappy bar. “You know that we could just go have brunch, right? Somewhere nice?”
“I bet they can rustle up some brunch here,” I say from the back seat, leaning forward to pat Daniel on the shoulder.
“At least some peanuts,” Jerome adds, glancing at me and laughing a little.
“Seriously, why are we here?” Daniel asks, frowning at us. Because while we told him pretty much everything else…we kept this one a secret.
“It’s a surprise, Danny,” I say, opening the car door and hopping out, smoothing down my black dress as I smile towards the door. I’m actually excited for this one too. I haven’t seen her in a long time, and I miss her.
Daniel sighs as he stands by my side and we wait for Jerome to come around the car. “I don’t like this Danny thing, by the way,” he says, frowning down at me.
“Yes, that’s my nickname for him,” Jerome says, grinning at me as we start for the door. “You can’t get it on it now it’s very personal.”
“I can do as I please,” I say, flicking my hair back over my shoulder and lifting my chin. “I am a very powerful mafiosa, after all.”
“That remains to be seen,” Daniel murmurs, a little smirk on his face.
But as soon as he ducks into the bar, and sees who is standing by the counter?
That smirk falls away, completely replaced by shock.
“Hey, sugar,” Fiona says, laughing as she comes out from behind the bar and walking over to Daniel with open arms. “I missed you too, kid.”
“Oh my god,” Daniel murmurs, wrapping Fiona tight against him and lowering his dark head to press against hers. “Oh my god Fiona I…I honestly thought you were dead ”
“Dead!?” she laughs, pulling away. “Honestly, he was mad at me, Daniel and rightly, I betrayed him big time. But he likes me too much to kill me ”
“I didn’t think he liked anyone too much to kill them,” Daniel replies, staring down at Fiona in awe, “not even me ”
“Yeah well,” she laughs, giving him a wink, “I did some really weird shit in bed. I earned some respect.”
Daniel blushes scarlet as Fiona pats him on the cheek and gives Jerome a hug and a quick greeting before she turns her attention to me.
“Well well well, baby Fay,” she says, wrinkling her nose and giving me a grin as she takes my hands and looks down at my stomach. “Looks like someone got you into some trouble.”
And then, before I can respond, she steps forward and wraps me in a warm hug as well. “I missed you, little cousin,” she murmurs in my ear. “I’m so glad you came. I’ve been worried about you.”
“I’ve been worried about you too,” I murmur, holding her close and closing my eyes. Fiona she was so, so good to me, the entire time that we were in that house together. And while she, too, betrayed Kent…I just can’t bring myself to be mad about it. Because she never betrayed me.
After a long moment Fiona pulls away from me. “Looks like Kent has been busy,” she says, and I go a little pale as she looks down at my stomach with a wink. Anxious, my hands instantly go to my belly.
But then I scowl when she laughs at me, because I should have guessed that she would know immediately. I mean, she for sure knows that it wasn’t Daniel.
“Oh, come on, Fay,” she says, laughing again. “I saw how he looked at you the minute you came into that house. I wasn’t even jealous! I couldn’t compete,” she shrugs, “didn’t even want to.”
“So, you’re not…mad?” I ask, hesitant.
“It’s not like you stole my boyfriend, Fay,” she says, patting my cheek. “Kent and I we liked each other a lot, but it was more transactional than that. Nothing close to what I saw between you two.”
“I can’t believe you caught it before the rest of us,” Daniel says, shaking his head. Jerome just smirks and I consider him, wondering how long he knew.
“It wasn’t hard,” Fiona replies, “if you were looking for it. But what the hell happened to that vasectomy I heard so much about?” she asks, frowning and looking down at my stomach again. “Was that a lie?”
“No,” I sigh, “it was real. It just…got patched up, or something.”
“Wow,” she says, her eyes going wide. “Sounds like I got out of there right in time!”
And then we’re both laughing as she warps her arm around my waist and leads me over to the bar, Daniel coming along. Jerome, as planned, quietly steps aside and works his way around the room with a little device that’s supposed to detect any places in which the room has been bugged.