Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 50

"Fay!" Kent yells the moment he walks into his house, storming down the hall.

His household staff freeze and then scatter when they sense that something is wrong. Kent is passively pleased by this - they, at least, know their place.

Still, Fay doesn't answer him. Kent calls for her again, heading up the steps at a brisk pace. When he arrives at her room he pushes open her door, not bothering to knock, ready to tell her to learn to come when she's called. But when he enters the room, she's not there.

The bed is mussed and scattered with books, pens, and paper - as if she had just been sitting there a moment ago. But where the hell is she?

Angry, he turns, ready to search the rest of the house. Unfortunately for her, a housekeeper is skittering past at just that moment.

"Where is she," Kent says, grabbing the woman by the arm, his voice harsh.

"Um," she says, looking up at him with fear in her eyes. "She left. A few hours ago."

Kent takes a step forward, glaring down at the woman. "Where did she go?"

The woman shakes her head frantically. "I don't know," she says, her voice going soft. "but she was wearing...those boots."

Kent lets the woman go, realizing belatedly that his anger here is misplaced. He doesn't say another word to her, just heads back down the stairs as the woman hurries down the hall towards the spare bedrooms. Kent bangs through the door to the kitchen, striding over to the table of older gentlemen.

"Who let her go," he demands, seeking answers.

The three men look up at Kent, their faces blank.

"What's going on here," one of the men says, leaning back in his chair, not frightened of Kent or the anger building within him. "Why are you taking this out on us?"

Kent just glares at him, not willing to tolerate this small talk. He just wants answers.

"She went to the barn," another one says, equally casual. "She loves that horse. You know she does."

"Who took her," Kent says, running low on patience. "She did not have permission to go."

"Well, no one told her that," the same man says, shrugging and turning back to his coffee. "The kid took her the young one. Jerome. They headed out a few hours ago."

Kent strides out of the kitchen then and through the door to the garage, grabbing a set of keys off the wall and heading for the last car in the row. He hardly ever takes the Bugatti, but - well. He wants to get there fast.

Twenty minutes later, Kent pulls into the drive of the stables. He's running mostly on rage right now, hardly thinking through his actions, instead concentrating his energies on figuring out his next steps.

He has so much he has to sort through. He has to organize reconnaissance to figure out where the other families stand in regards to Alden and Ivan, he has to figure out just how far Ivan has actually gone within the drug trade - whether he's taken down other bosses, or made alliances with them. Then, Kent has to take stock of his own position, his own forces - this could come to war, if he's not careful with it -

But at the heart of it all, the beating pulse that echoes through every problem is Fay, Fay, Fay.

He has to secure her, now. Physically, so that no one can take her from him - god, if someone took her, held her hostage...

Kent shakes his head, unwilling to think of it. But beyond that, he needs to secure Fay mentally and emotionally as well, securing her loyalties so that she doesn't betray him -

Because, god damnit, so much now depends on this girl -

Kent throws the car into park, stepping out and striding towards the stables.

The stable workers react in much the same way as his home staff did - getting out of his way as fast as they can and making themselves scarce, so that when Kent strides through the stable it looks like a ghost town. Only the horses are curious enough to peer at him over their stall doors.

When he gets to Heathcliff's stall, though, it's empty.

Which means only one thing.

Kent keeps going, passing quickly through the barn and heading for the training ring out back.

He sees her almost immediately, her flame-red hair flowing over her shoulders, seated on the beautiful red horse that he chose specifically because they were a match, a pair. Even as Kent strides forward, eager to interrupt, needing to talk to lock her down, he can't help but admire her progress.

Fay is going in slow circles around the ring, her horse trotting neatly as she raises and lowers herself in the saddle to match the horse's gait. Kent can see the smile and the joy on her face as she does it - a natural horsewoman, yes, but also someone who is seeing the results of her hard work.

As he nears, though, Kent frowns. He sees that her smiles seem to be continually directed to the center of the ring. Kent shifts his gaze, then, and is suddenly furious when he sees someone standing there in the middle of the ring, giving her directions. Not her trainer, but, instead, Jerome.

Kent increases his pace, fueled by his anger at that boy. What the hell is he doing in the ring with her - he isn't trained -

As Kent continues forward, he sees Jerome call to Fay. She slows the horse and, smiling, walks him to the center of the ring, where Jerome waits.

The smile on her face - coy, sweet, as she laughs and jokes with that kid - the f*****g kid he picked up to cover the most menial of the family's tasks - completely expendable -

And yet she's smiling at him, laughing down into his face, and he's -

Kent goes red when he sees it.

The boy first grasps the horse's reins, and then puts a hand out to rest on Fay's knee-

To slowly, leisurely stroke his fingers across her thigh, working his way upwards -

Fay glances at the touch, blushes, but doesn't push it away -

Kent rips open the gate to the riding arena, bursting through it.

Fay sees him first, her eyes going wide with shock and then her face going white when she sees the expression on his face, the fury in his eyes.

Jerome spins, reacting both to the sound of Kent's approach and to Fay's shock. He gasps, tearing his hand from its place on Fay's thigh and tucking it guiltily behind his back, his own eyes trained on Kent's raised fist -

Which, a second later, slams directly into Jerome's face, cracking across his jaw.

-

Fay screams, unable to stop her own fear and surprise, as Jerome stumbles and then falls back into the dry dirt of the arena -

Kent sneers down at the boy but then snaps his head up as he hears the horse screech, shying away in fear, his haunches bunching below him as he rears and then bolts, heading away from this violence, eager to get to the other side of the arena - or anywhere else Kent sees her face, then, and feels the horror within himself as she clings, first, to the horse's mane and then looses her balance, flying free of the saddle and through the air as the horse bolts -

She slams into the ground, face down, her heaped form laying still as Kent rushes forward.