Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“No problem,” Jerome says, raising his hands innocently. “I will… refrain.”
Kent opens his mouth to say something else, but before he can, they both hear a car or, is that two? crunching in the gravel in front of the barn.
“They’re here,” Jerome says, turning towards the front of the barn. “Ready?”
“Sure,” Kent says, standing up straight and sinking his hands into his pockets. “Surprise number…six today. Let’s do it.”
And then Kent follows the kid out of the barn, where a car waits, parked next to a truck with a horse trailer attached.
Kent blinks in the light of the setting sun, looking around, but his face bursts into a smile the moment he hears his name called.
“Kenny!”
Kent laughs, turning towards his favorite uncle, who climbs down from the passenger side of the truck hauling the trailer. Kent opens his arms, welcoming the shrunken old man into a hug. “Uncle Gino,” he says, shaking his head in a little bit of wonder as the old man holds him tight for a brief moment before letting him go. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Your girl sent me,” Gino says, smiling up at his favorite nephew. “She knew I’d take care of the horses better than anyone else. I’m going to take them back, give you the car so you can get to the port.”
“Port?” Kent asks, confused.
Gino just waves a dismissive hand. “I don’t know much about it she said she’d tell me what I needed to know when I needed to know it.” Then he laughs, looking at Kent slyly. “Sounds like someone else I know.”
Kent laughs too, slipping his hands into his pockets, a little amazed at how…easy this is. How with every passing moment he feels further and further from prison and captivity and more like his old self. “Yeah,” he replies, “I think she picked up a thing or two from her time with me.”
“Don’t let this one go,” Gino commands, lifting a gnarled finger to point in Kent’s face. “She’s a good one.”
Kent, to his own surprise, blushes a little. He hadn’t been aware that Gino…figured it out that anyone had. Damn, and he thought he’d been so closed down about it. Who else knew
“Don’t overthink it, kid,” Gino says, laughing and patting Kent’s cheek with an open palm. “I’ve known you since you were born. I can read you. I saw the way you watched her.”
Kent smiles, just a wry twist of his mouth. “Yeah well. Can you blame me?”
“I cannot,” Gino says, laughing and moving away to the door of the stables. He waves a hand over his shoulder. “Good luck, Kenny! I’m glad I got to see you before you left. Come see me again when you can.”
Kent stands still a moment, watching his uncle disappear, thanking Fay silently in his mind for giving him a chance to say goodbye to the one person he’d actually regret leaving behind. Because as much as his final destination is a mystery, Kent knows that they’re leaving that their only choice now is to go somewhere far away for a long, long time.
“Ready?” Jerome says, already at the driver’s side of the sedan, accepting the keys from a man that Kent doesn’t recognize. One of Fay or Fiona’s guys now, he assumed. Not his.
Laughing a little at the bizarre changes the world has taken on in the past two months, Kent nods and makes his own way to the passenger side of the sedan. “I’m ready,” he says, opening the car door and climbing in. “Where are we headed?”
“Coast,” Jerome says, giving him a wide smile as he sits and pulls his door shut. “We’re close, though she didn’t want us on the road too long. Just pray we don’t hit any police check points on the way.”
Kent nods, fastening his seatbelt and lowering the back of his seat so that his head can’t be seen above the window. And then he closes his eyes and puts his trust in Jerome as the kid begins to drive.
Kent can tell when things get a little dicey on the thirty-minute drive to the coast because Jerome’s whole body goes tense.
“Shit, shit,” Jerome murmurs once, his eyes darting to the side towards what Kent assumes is a police vehicle.
“Do we have any weapons?” Kent asks, keeping his voice low.
“Glove box,” Jerome replies, working hard not to move his lips. “But…not yet, all right? I don’t know what they’re…”
Kent watches Jerome’s head move as whatever vehicle it was moves past their sedan, which is studiously driving the speed limit. Jerome lets out a deep breath.
“Okay,” Jerome says, nodding. “I think it’s just…a normal highway patrol.”
Kent nods, tense but…well, he’s done this sort of thing before. He knows that there’s no benefit to panicking before there’s a reason to panic. They drive a few minutes in silence before Kent speaks again.
“Jerome,” he starts, and Jerome glances down at him, letting him know that he’s listening. “Why haven’t we met more cops on this trip? We were on those horses for two hours the highways should be crawling with cops looking for me.”
Jerome smirks a little and shakes his head. “I feel like you know the answer to this one too, Kent,” he says.
“Is it because the answer is the same as all your other ones?” Kent asks.
“Yup,” Jerome says, laughing a little. “She set up a diversion. Had Ivan and every spare cop he could muster chasing Daniel’s car across the state. They’ve probably figured it out by now but,” he shrugs, “we have enough of a lead that Ivan and all of his buddies are at least an hour away. We’ve only got highway patrols out looking on this side of the state. And we’re gambling that they don’t know, specifically, to look for me in the driver’s seat.”
“One hell of a gamble,” Kent murmurs.
“Yeah, well,” Jerome says, slowing the car as he pulls up to a gate at their apparent destination. Then he grins down at Kent. “Looks like it worked, didn’t it?”
“Shit,” Kent says, starting to sit up as Jerome rolls down his window and leans out, punching a code into a keypad and opening a gate. As they drive through, Kent looks around the shipping port, not truly surprised at the location but a little more impressed than he expected to be. “What is all this?”
“It’s our ride,” Jerome says, lifting his chin towards a gigantic cargo ship looming above them, blocking out the sky above. “And if everything went according to plan…we should be the last to arrive.”
Jerome pulls into an empty parking spot as Kent looks around the completely dead lot. It was…god, the whole thing had just been so smooth. Even though it had started with a crash, every piece fell into place so neatly after that. It was…gorgeously done, but…
Is it too easy?
Kent feels a wariness curl inside of him. It should be harder than this, more complicated. Something in him is waiting for someone to burst out, to grab him, to drag him back to the prison.
Kent looks over the roof at Jerome after they climb out. “This is…too easy.”
Jerome just shrugs. “That’s because you’re not seeing the months of prep that went into it. She gave it everything she had, planning this, Kent. She wanted it to be smooth. And it’s not done yet.” Jerome nods towards the ship. “We still have to get on board. And not get attacked by international customs or pirates or something.”
“Well,” Kent says, shaking his head and shutting the sedan’s door. “I guess…it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Jerome nods, heading towards the set of metal stairs that leads towards the ship. But he stops, and turns when he realizes that Kent isn’t following. “What?” Jerome asks, confused.
“They’re on there already?” Kent asks, nodding towards the ship as he stands at the bottom of the stairs. “Daniel? Fay?”
Jerome just laughs a little, shaking his head. “They’re supposed to be! But there’s only one way to find out. Come on!”
Kent shakes his head, sighing and following Jerome, his stomach turning with anxiety in a way that it absolutely never does. Not even when he was arrested, months ago, did he feel like this.
And Daniel Daniel he’s not worried about
But Fay…having to face her, after how he treated her the last time he saw her…
God, he owes her everything now. And it’s not that he minds the debt but…how could he ever repay it? And why would she ever forgive him?
Kent hangs his head a little, worried as he climbs the long series of winding steps and ramps that lead to the lowest open deck. He only raises his head when he finally reaches the gate, seeing an unfamiliar man a sailor, he realizes standing waiting for him.