Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 148

I stare too long at Kent in surprise and he rolls his eyes at me before shifting to reach over me toward "Hey!" I snap, smacking at him and making him flinch back.

ght, his body brushing against mine.

the light!"

"What?" he asks, glaring at me again.

"No touching!" I say, pushing him back to the other side of the bed that now feels much too small. "I

"Well, you weren't getting it, Fay," Kent points out, but I flap my hand at him dismissively and turn to fuck off the light. The room instantly plunges into an inky blue darkness and when I turn back to Kent I can only see his shadowy outlines on my bed. "Better?" I ask. "Yes," he sighs, starting to lay down.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Getting comfortable, Fay," he replies, and then I see his head turn towards me as he holds open an an "No. Touching." I say through my teeth.

Kent sighs in exasperation in response. "Damn it, Fay," he says, shaking his head and covering his face lay it out for you. Now would you please, please just let me fucking hold you while I talk, instead of gl A little angry about being put in my place like that, I scowl and rip away the pillow between us, tossin "Touching privileges will be revoked," I murmur, "if you are a d**k to me."

"Okay," he sighs, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me a little closer. Then, quite sof But I flinch away. "No funny business," I murmur, wanting quite desperately to hold my ground but kno "No funny business," Kent agrees, sighing again and turning his face up to the ceiling so that I can see I know my answer immediately. "I want to know what you're sending to Italy. Is it...drugs?" "No," he replies without hesitation, apparently wanting to make it clear that he's not holding anything "What is it?" I ask.

ting me to come closer.

s hands. "I have given in to everything you've wanted tonight. You didn't want to come downstairs? I came up here. You wanted to hear the truth? I'm here to me like an angry cat?"

o the floor and angrily tucking myself in against Kent's side, my cute flannel pajamas pressed up against the clean white starch of his dress shirt.

urmurs "thank you" before turning his head to bring his nose closer to me, sniffing my freshly-washed hair.

hat I will lose my head immediately if this goes any further.

ar outline of his profile against the dark of the room. "What do you want to know, Fay?" nymore. "It's not heroin. It's not any kind of drugs."

Kent sighs, lifting a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose again. "It's...guns, Fay. Alessi asked me to senseat deal of guns to Italy so that they can...better conduct their business there. As you might presume, guns are harder to get in Europe than they are in America."

"Oh," I say, my eyes going wide as my body relaxes against his, my mind whirling. Because I feel, somehow, instantly better.

I don't know why and I feel a little guilty that I do - it's not like guns don't hurt as many people as drugs do. But there's just...something horrible to me about the idea of building a multi-million-dollar business on an industry that gets people hooked on a drug, drains them of everything they own in their further pursuit of that drug, and then leaves them to die when they've got nothing else to give.

Kent gives me a moment to process this, laying silent with his arm wrapped warm around me. "Kent," I continue when I'm ready, my voice very soft. "Why didn't you just tell me that? It doesn't seem like that big of a deal."

I see him shake his head a little. "Because, Fay. Like I said downstairs, you don't need to know it."

"But I do need to know it -"

"You don't!"

"Kent!" I interrupt, frustrated again, smacking my hand against his stomach to make him listen to me. "Something is going down! Someone is trying to kill you, to kill us! And I want to help -"

"Fay," Kent sighs. "There's nothing you can do to help - I've got it handled. And even if you could help, I don't want you to help."

"Why not?" I ask, a little appalled.

"Because" he says, turning his face towards me. "I don't want you involved in any of this - you or Daniel. I want all of this gone, dead, dusted. I don't want you to know any of this because the more you get caught up in it, the dirtier you're going to get, and the larger chance there is of you getting hurt. Or...kidnapped. Or f*****g arrested, Fay."

I blink in surprise. I never, ever considered that any of my connections to this could be...illegal. I mean. I haven't done anything wrong.

Have I?

"Kent, I'm already involved in this," I remind him softly. "I was born into this."

"You were free of it," he grumbles. "Your mom made sure of that. I'm the a*****e who roped you back in."

I bite my lip, realizing that's true, but I shake my head anyway. "I don't want out, Kent," I say softly. "Not if it means...leaving."

Leaving you, I finish in my head. But I'm not ready to say it yet.

"And I don't want you to go," he sighs, turning fully to me now so that we're face-to-face, just inches apart on the mattress. "So, would you please just let me keep you out of it, Fay? It's not - it's not at all that I don't trust you. I'm just trying to end this, and it's easier to do that if you and Daniel aren't involved."

"What do you mean?" I ask, unable to stop myself from reaching out a hand and laying it against his cheek. Kent turns his face into my touch, pressing into my palm. "What are you trying to end?"

"All of this, Fay," he sighs, his body relaxing into the mattress now, almost as if his secrets were a weight on him. "I want...out of the world of crime. Completely. I want to go legit."

"Really?" I ask, shocked. "Wh-why?"

"Are you so disappointed, Fay?" he murmurs, and I can hear the smirk in his voice. "Are you only attracted to me if there's a hint of danger to it?"

"No," I reply, laughing a little. "I just...never thought of you outside of it. Why do you want this?"

"I've wanted it since I was old enough to want," he replies, his words distanced and thoughtful now. "Ever since I saw my father being murdered."

I go cold as I remember Kent telling me that story, about watching his father bleed to death before him in a brutal mob hit. He had only been a child, and then was almost immediately sent away to Italy.

"I owed - we owed - the Bianci's everything in exchange for what they did for me," he continues. "And I gave it all to them - I gave them the business and the connections that they wanted when I came back to America, made them more money than they've ever had, gave them a grandson to inherit it all, gave them my god damn heart when I married Lenai -"

I go still a little when I hear him mention her, when he finishes his words angrily through clenched teeth.

Because I have to admit - on a night when I think Kent might be leaving me, the last person I want to think about is the woman I can never live up to. Lenai.