Filed to story: Falling for My Ex's Mafia Dad Novel Free PDF (Fay Alden & Kent Lippert)
Kent smile deepens a bit as she hesitates when Alden asks if she and Daniel have been intimate. Alden was pleased by her silence, suggesting a negation, and Kent can’t help feeling the same.
The smug happiness inside him is checked, though, by the sudden wonder of why Daniel and Fay haven’t been intimate. Of course, selfishly, because he knows he wants her, Kent doesn’t want Daniel to touch her.
But they’re young people who claim to be in love, their bedrooms basically next door to each other. If Kent had been in Daniel’s place in his early 20s, he’d be sneaking over to his girlfriend’s room every night.
So why wasn’t Daniel?
Kent sighs, putting the consideration away for another day, and moves to press stop on the tape recorder just as the conversation is ending. He pauses, though, when he hears Fay hesitate.
“Um no. I don’t have anything to give you.” Fay had said, but her voice is oddly strained here. Kent takes his hand off the stop button, listening closely. “Not…right now. At least.”
Kent frowns deeply at this, listening with only half an ear as the tape continues to roll, turning mostly to footsteps and silence.
Not right now? What the hell did that mean? Did Fay expect to have something to give Alden in the near future?
Narrowing his eyes, Kent gets to his feet.
Perhaps little Fay was starting to play the game. And not on his side.
Without hesitation, Kent steps out of his room, snapping his fingers at the guard who is standing there. “Get two more guys,” he says. “We’re going upstairs.”
The guard nods, heading off to collect who he can, and Kent heads up the stairs.
He opens the door to Fay’s room, looking around carefully. She keeps her space neat, but not obsessively so. The bed is nicely made, but there are books and writing tools placed casually around the room as if she left them there unthinkingly, distracted.
When his guys pull up behind him, Kent gives his command without looking at them.
“Toss it,” he says. “The whole place. Anything strange, I want to see it. I don’t want a single corner untouched.”
The guys nod, moving into the room and starting to tear it apart.
I smile down into my cup of tea, enjoying the fresh herbal scent. My belly is full of scone, and I’m listening passively as Daniel explains the ins and outs of some new philosophical theory that he’s learning about for his class.
I don’t really care about it, but it’s nice to hear him think through something about which he’s passionate. It’s really a gorgeous day the sun is shining in little pieces through the grape leaves that wrap around the pergola, and I lean my face back to enjoy the warmth on the soft skin on my cheeks.
Next to me, I hear Daniel laugh a little. “Are you even listening to me anymore?” he says.
“No,” I reply, smiling. “But that’s okay, it’s good to hear you talk.”
He laughs again, a soft thing, and then takes my hand.
“It’s nice, Fay,” he says, and I open my eyes to look at him, seeing him smile at me. “That you enjoy listening to me, even when you’re not hearing my words.”
I squeeze his hand and return his smile, considering him.
It’s funny I was so in love with him for the few months that we were dating. Or, at least, I thought I was. Maybe “obsessed” was a more appropriate term, but either way, I couldn’t stop thinking about how handsome he was or how much I wanted to kiss him. Just to kiss him, small, chaste things. But I had wanted so badly for him to treat me gently, love me, be kind to me. To treat me like his treasure.
But now? After everything I’ve learned about his life our life? It’s all just… gone. All of those feelings have disappeared.
Instead, I view him now completely as my best friend, my ally in this crazy world. I want the absolute best for him and know that he feels the same about me, but the romance has been totally wiped away.
It’s a bit sad, really the end of a love. I wonder, passively, when the next time I’ll have a crush again, feel that delicious buzzing of emotion in my stomach.
I push back against the first thought that comes to my mind, ignoring it. Ridiculous.
Luckily, Daniel helps to disrupt my thoughts.
“Are you all right, Fay?” he asks.
“Daniel,” I say, running my thumb lightly over his fingers, thinking about what my father said to me earlier. “Are you happy here?”
He frowns at me, slightly curious. “What prompted this?”
I shrug a little. “Curiosity, mostly, I guess. You just seem… such a mismatch for this world, most of the time. I guess I wonder why you’ve never left. Never just… bailed on it.”
He shrugs, a little uncomfortable. “It’s my home, Fay. My family, my world. I guess I don’t really have anywhere to go.”
“But you’ve got all the resources in the world,” I say, leaning forward. “Honestly, aren’t you ever tempted to just steal, like, one of his cars, sell it on the black market for whatever you can get, and take the money and just run?”
His mouth falls open at the idea.
“Or,” I continue quickly, “you offered me millions to keep my mouth shut the day we broke up if you have access to that kind of cash, why not just take it for yourself? We could go! We could run away to the French Riviera, change our names, spend the rest of our days just drinking wine and writing books! About whatever we want!”
He laughs softly and gives my hand a squeeze before pulling his back to reach for his teacup.
“It’s a beautiful dream, Fay,” he says softly. “But it’s impossible.”
“I think we could do it,” I say, my face eager. “I think we could go.”
He looks at me seriously then. “You mean that, don’t you?”
“Daniel,” I say, pleading. “We could do it.”
His face is still hesitant, but I can tell that he wants to say yes.
“Daniel, if we don’t do this,” I say quietly. “We’ll end up like Fiona.”
His eyes go wide as he looks at me then. “You you know about Fiona?”
I nod quietly, not explaining any further. He wonders how I knew what I knew but he doesn’t ask me now. I can tell him more when we’re lying on a beach in San Tropez.
His eyes dart around the patio, as if he’s looking for someone who is listening.
“If I agreed to even think about this,” he says, “what would the plan look like?”
I bite my lip eagerly. “We could keep it simple, start small. Figure out how to get our passports, or get convincing passports made. Then, the next thing we need is cash. I have nothing,” I say, but then my eyes catch on the million-dollar diamond I’m wearing on my hand. “Or, well, I have some of this jewelry his dad gave me.”
He frowns at the ring on my finger, remembering of course that it was his mother’s. I quickly put my hand over it.
“Not this one,” I say gently. “This one, we keep. But there are sapphires, other jewels. Just like… sitting in my room.”