Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
“I didn’t. He’s just a good boy,” I say, smiling down at the pup who prances along eagerly at my side, staring up at me. “Plus, I’m the only one who had fed him and let him outside.”
“Clever pup,” Kent says, leading the puppy and I into the room and closing the door behind us.
Kent and I shower and change into our pajamas before the three of us bundle up in the bed then Kent groaning at my insistence on keeping the puppy by my side
“Just until he falls asleep!” I insist
Kent sighs, giving in as the puppy grows heavy in my arms, his sleepy snout stretched out over my wrist. And Kent and I settle against the pillows, getting comfortable for what we both know is going to be a long, long talk. Because as busy as we’ve been, my mind has been turning and turning, coming up with what I want to do. And frankly, the anger and pain and shock that I’ve been denying it’s been simmering low within me.
And I have absolutely no intention of letting my mother walk away from this with the upper hand.
But before I can even get to that…there is something that I desperately need to address.
“All right, little viper,” Kent murmurs, looking me over. “What do you have turning over in your mind? I can tell it’s something.”
“I’m going to ask you a question, Kent,” I say, my voice quiet and serious. “And I want you to answer me with perfect honesty.”
Kent blinks at the seriousness of my tone but gives me a single nod, telling me to ask.
“Have you ever,” I say, studying his face very closely, “made out with my mom?”
His face falls in complete shock, his mouth falling open.
I gasp, slapping a hand over my mouth, disturbing the puppy just a little so that he raises his head in concern. “Oh, ew!”
“Wh-what!? Fay!”
“Kent!” I hiss his name behind my hand, “that is so gross!”
“Fay!” he shouts, grabbing my hand away from my face, “you didn’t even give me a chance to answer before you leapt to conclusions ”
“You had plenty of time!” I protest, shaking my head, “you had time to say ‘what’ and ‘Fay,’ twice! That’s plenty of time to say no!”
“Oh my god,” he groans, his hand tightening on my wrist. “Fay, you’re being ridiculous no, of course I’ve never made out with your mother ”
“But did you want to?” I press, leaning forward again to study him.
“What!?” he gasps again, his brows knitting together in anger. “No! Fay! What even gave you this idea!?”
“Things she said,” I reply, working to keep my cool but narrowing my eyes, “about you two knowing each other more than you’ve implied.”
“And what is it that I’ve implied?” he growls, dropping my wrist.
“Don’t you play this game with me, sir,” I say, pointing a finger in his face that he swats away. “You know very well that when we first met you said that you met my mother at a party once, and she was very beautiful, and that she was not afraid to dance ”
“What?” he breathes, clearly not remembering the moment like I do.
“You said it, Kent!” I protest, reaching out to smack him on the arm.
“All right,” he growls, not even flinching at my smack and holding my eyes instead. “And it was not a lie.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “And I don’t think that what my mother said today about knowing you more than just a random person she saw at a party once was her just taunting me. So?” I sit back, demanding my explanation. “What’s the truth, Kent?”
He sighs sharply through his nose. “Fine,” he says, glaring at me. “I knew her.”
My mouth pops open with a betrayed squeak.
“Not like that,” Kent growls, leaning closer to me, “we just…she was around, when I was coming up in the ranks. Alden was more established than me he was one of the people for whom I did jobs. Daniel was just a kid I was married, and so was she! It had nothing to do with anything like what you’re implying, Fay, and if she lead you to think that then she’s manipulating you ”
I sigh, leaning back a little, believing him now. Still, I narrow my eyes again. “Well?” I say, careful. “Then what was it? Where did your paths cross?”
“Those jobs I did for Alden, Fay? To build my cred in the community, to make some serious cash?” he says, turning his head to the side a little. “Your mom, she was on some of them. One hell of a shot with a pistol, your mother.”
The breath all leaves me in a woosh as Kent sighs and begins to lay the truth for me a very particular story about a very particular job they were on together, the night before she took me from my father’s home and ran away.
And as he continues my jaw drops lower, and lower.
Kent and I we stay up for hours as he spins out the story of my mother’s past. I get quite mad at him, of course, for taking so long to tell me about it.
“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?” I ask, resting my head on the pillows, ignoring the cramping low in my stomach for now too tired to worry about it. Hell, I’m even too tired to glare at Kent, even though he deserves it.
“Because it didn’t matter,” he sighs. “She was dead you never talk about her, or seem nostalgic about her. And I never think about those strange times twenty years ago when I was squeezed into a van and then into a gunfight with the woman. It just honestly, it doesn’t cross my mind.”
“Well, I still would have wanted to know,” I grumble. “And Ivan would have wanted to know too. It could have given us significant leverage over him.”
“You’re right,” he says, reaching out to stroke my face. “In retrospect, it should have been part of full disclosure. But honestly, Fay, I didn’t remember that I’d said anything to you about her before, let alone what I wasn’t trying to keep it from you. And Ivan -” he waves a vague hand, “I thought I had bigger fish to fry than Ivan. It was a mistake.”
“I believe you,” I sigh, turning my face and kissing his hand. And then I look back at him. “And, as long as you never made out with her, or worse,” I manage a little glare then even at the thought of it, “then…I guess it doesn’t change anything.”
“What do you mean?” he murmurs, stroking my face.
“It means that we need a plan, Kent. For what we’re going to say to her tomorrow. What we’re going to do.”
“All right,” he says, nodding to me. “What’s the plan?”
“Don’t you want to take lead on this?” I ask, my eyebrows going up
Kent shakes his head back and forth, keeping his eyes on me. “This is yours, Fay. Your mother, your vengeance if you want it. Or your peace, your triumph. Whatever you want, I’m on board.”
I stare at him for a long moment. “And if I asked you to take lead?” I ask quietly.
“I’d do what I thought was right. But…” he hesitates now, narrowing his eyes at me. “I don’t think that’s what you really want.”
I shake my head then. “No, but it’s nice to know you would take it, if I asked you to.”
He nods, steady. “So?”
I nod too. “I know precisely what I want, Kent. I just…don’t know if it’s going to make you hate me, if I ask for it.”
And then, as Kent clicks his tongue and sits up, pressing a hand to my cheek, I spill everything all of my thoughts, my ideas, my plans. I tell him everything I want and how I want to do it. It takes a long time to spell it all out.