Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 144

I cover my mouth with my hand, my fingers brushing against Kent's bare knee pressed against my face, desperate to hush the sound of my panting breath.

A string of obscenities flies through my head as I press my eyes shut, praying frantically that Alessi didn't see me - that he doesn't peek around the side of Kent's desk and see him sitting in his desk chair with no pants on. Next to me, Kent's leg begins to shake and tremble. And I know he has precisely the same fear.

"Not so late, Alessi," Kent sighs, and I'm shocked to hear how composed he sounds, especially as I'm almost gasping with fear down here.

"Eh, perhaps I just remember you from our youth in Italy," Alessi says fondly, "always early to bed for Kent. But yes." A pause here, and I imagine him giving a casual shrug, "perhaps things have changed."

"What can I help you with, Alessi?" Kent says, snapping a little. I go even more still now, hoping that he doesn't piss Alessi off. He needs to get him out of here - as fast as he can not to start a fight.

"Just coming to speak with my brother-in-law," Alessi murmurs, his voice a bit more sly than I'm used to. "Natalia is very...eager. To have things settled with you. Have you considered her offer?"

I hear movement and open my eyes, shifting my gaze to the line of light that comes in between the floor and barrier of the desk against which I am currently pressed. I see a shadow darken the line and then the creaking of a chair. I again curse inwardly. Alessi has sat down.

Which means he's staying awhile.

Shit.

Well, at least he didn't move around the desk...yet.

My eyes dart towards Kent when he speaks again, but I close my eyelids them rather than staring at the long length of his leg that presses against me. "No, Alessi," Kent sighs. "I've already told her - marriage is not something I'm thinking about anytime in the near future. It's just not on the table for me."

"But Natalia -"

"Is a wonderful woman," Kent interrupts smoothly before pausing and, I assume, giving Alessi a dark glare. "But even if she was the most wonderful woman, it's simply...not in the cards."

He sighs. "It would make my father very happy," he says slowly, "to renew the ties between our families."

"Is Daniel not enough of a tie?" Kent asks, his voice sharp.

"Daniel is a wonderful boy, we love him very much," Alessi says smoothly. "But he is...not as involved in the business as we would like. And if he continues to be unattached to the Lippert business, then it would be better for us to...renew the ties in another way." There's a long pause. "I'm not going to marry her," Kent says, his voice quiet and blunt. "So, if we need to make a tie, then we have to do it another way."

"Well," Alessi says on a deep intake of breath. "I understand. But perhaps...we need to make some changes, then."

"Is it not enough?" Kent asks, and I can tell that he's starting to lose his temper now. "Everything else that we've done? The money flows into Italy - I know how much we've brought in for you -"

"It is not about the money," Alessi snaps. "It is about the trust."

"I have never done anything to defy your trust," Kent growls.

"You kept the Alden girl," Alessi points out. "When we told you to let her go."

Kent just sighs now and I feel him shift in his seat, leaning back in exasperation. "It's the right call," he says, his voice clipped. "You should trust me on that."

"Well, time will tell," Alessi says conversationally, and my eyes widen when I see the shadows at the edge of the desk shift and hear the creak of his chair. He's getting up. I hear the sound of his footsteps moving away and start to exhale a deep breath. "Ah, Kent," Alessi says, apparently turning back. "The shipment that you arranged. Of the goods. It will be delivered? Shortly?"

"Yes," Kent says, his whole body going tense suddenly. "The shipment is arranged. I got word tonight that it should arrive in Sicily in two days' time."

"Ah!" Alessi says, laughing a little, apparently pleased. "This is wonderful, Kent. We will be...very pleased, to be able to bring this new business to Italy. It will be quite lucrative, for us to be able to get a foot in this different game."

"Yes," Kent snaps, clearly eager for him to go.

"Although, messy, yes?" Alessi continues, and I curse again mentally when I hear his footsteps turn back towards us. "We will have to have some discussions about the fallout, and how you Americans handle this trade. In fact, it might be better if you were to send some men home with us so that they can teach us some methods for distribution and...well, clean up. From the inevitable cost to human life."

My eyes go wide as I listen to his words. What? What the hell were they getting into?

"You'll have them," Kent says quickly, apparently willing to promise anything to get Alessi out of here. "I'll arrange it tonight and dedicate the men this morning. All right?"

"Of course, of course!" Alessi says, and I hear his footsteps move leisurely towards the door. "You will let me know, eh?"

Kent doesn't say anything, but I presume he nods, because Alessi says his goodnights and then, apparently, passes through the door. When I hear the door creak closed and then click shut, I let out a huge sigh of relief, echoed by Kent's own.

He pushes back in his chair, making a little more space for me, but to my surprise he doesn't get up.

"You can come out now, Fay," Kent murmurs, and I crawl out from beneath the desk, looking up at him from the floor on my hands and knees.

"Are you all right?" I ask, a little breathless. "Did he did he know?"

"I don't know," Kent replies, sighing. "I don't think he did - but - then why did he speak in English the whole time...?"

I awkwardly stand up, not knowing what to say, my mind whirring over everything that I heard. "Kent..." I say quietly as I lean down and grab my pants off the floor, leaning back against the desk as I start to pull them back on. The mood's dead, anyway - I might as well be warm. "What was Alessi saying? About a deal?"

Kent sighs again, harder this time, and pushes himself to his feet, pulling up his own pants and hastily buckling his belt. "Don't worry about it, Fay."

"What?" I ask, a little shocked. Honestly - after everything we just said to each other about trusting each other - and how he doesn't want me to just sit back and look pretty -

"Seriously, Kent?" I ask, standing up straight and fastening the button at the top of my jeans. "You're just...not going to tell me?"

"You don't need to know, Fay," he growls, turning to glare at me.

"It sounded serious!"

"It is serious!" he counters, taking a step closer, trying to intimidate me into shutting up.

I clench my jaw, glaring up at him, slowly shaking my head back and forth. "What's going on, Kent?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest. "Methods of distribution? The inevitable cost to human life? What the hell are you getting into?" Kent stands close to me now, glowering fiercely down into my eyes. But I don't budge.

"Is it heroin, Kent?" I ask quietly. "Are you trying to get in on Ivan's game? Take it from him?"

"Seriously?" Kent hisses. "This is about Ivan now? You're worried I'm going to take his livelihood from him?"

"No, Kent!" I almost shout, and he grabs my arm, glancing towards the door and hissing at me to lower my voice. I do lower it, but I keep going. "No, this is about you being involved in a business that kills people!"

Kent snaps his gaze back to me then and drops my arm, laughing a little as he takes a step back, giving me a nasty little smirk. "Fay...how, precisely, do you think I afforded all of this? The clothes you wear, the horse you ride? Your sister's beach house? What do you think I do?"