Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Dad
Chapter 60

I almost spill my milk everywhere as I spin to look up at Kent.

"Shut up!" I whisper angrily, glancing back at the door. "They'll hear you -" "They?" Kent asks, raising an eyebrow and looking at Daniel's door.

"Come on!" I hiss, throwing my shoulder against his side, trying to herd him towards my room, to get him away from Daniel's door before it opens and Daniel sees us both standing here.

Kent laughs a little at my wasted effort to get him to move - we both know I couldn't budge him an inch if he didn't want to go - but after a moment he allows himself to be shepherded out of the hall and through my open door, which I press my back against to close. I flinch as my lock clicks shut, desperately hoping that Daniel and Jerome didn't hear us.

"Well, Fay," Kent's voice says, and I look up to see him standing in the darkness of my room, hands in his pockets, smirking at me. "I didn't think you'd be so eager to get me alone in here -"

"Would you shut up," I murmur, turning my head back to the door to listen, my milk and box of cookies still clutched in my hands. "I don't want Daniel to know I was listening."

"Listening, is it?" Kent says, not bothering to lower his voice. "Looked like you were peeking -"

I give him a dirty glare, promising murder and torture and every horrible thing he can imagine if he doesn't shut his mouth right now. I can see the laugher cross his face but he puts his hands up, complying with my demand for silence.

I hear Daniel's movements, then. Hear him open his door, take a few steps outside. Silence, for a moment, and then murmured voices. Then, someone passes by my door, and someone goes back into Daniel's room, shutting the door behind him. When the hall goes quiet again, I release my breath.

"Okay," I murmur. "I think...I think we're safe."

"You know, Fay," Kent says evenly. "I don't like it when there are people in my home whom I'm unaware of. If Daniel is having midnight visitors..." He pauses here, looking at me curiously, allowing me to finish the sentence for myself.

I hold his gaze and slowly shake my head. "You're getting nothing from me, Kent," I say slowly. "So don't even ask."

He purses his lips then, cocking his head to the side, clearly curious. "And you're not mad about it?" he asks. "That Daniel is entertaining...someone? In his room? At night? While you..." he looks at the contents of my hands for a moment, "...eat cookies alone?" "Well, I'm not alone, am I," I toss back at him, speaking before I think about the implications of my words because I'm angry at him for his stupid pressing questions. "After all, you're here, aren't you?"

I push myself up from my spot against the door and walk to my bedside table, placing my snack down there and turning back towards Kent, my arms crossed.

"Am I your midnight visitor, Fay?" Kent asks, his voice taking on a sensual note I'm not sure I've heard before. "Is that what you want?"

Suddenly, I'm just...exhausted by it all.

I put my hand to my forehead, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath. Honestly, it's past midnight, and I'm hiding in my room from my fiancé with his dad who I made out with earlier tonight - and he's asking if I want him to be my midnight visitor - whatever that is and Jerome is gay, when I thought he liked me -

It's all just...too much.

"Sure, Kent," I sigh. Then I look up at him blandly. "Visit all you want. Do you want a cookie?" I grab the box off the table and shove it towards him. "We can have a real sleepover, just like I did in Girl Scouts."

Kent grabs the cookies from my hand and tosses them on the bed, taking a step closer to me. "Trust me, Fay," he murmurs, his eyes on my mouth again. "This will be nothing like Girl Scouts."

I groan then, tossing my head back, letting him see that none of this is sexy. It's all just so draining.

"Whatever, Kent," I murmur, looking up at the ceiling. "Can you just go away? I'm tired. I want to go to bed."

He surprises me by backing off. I watch him as he moves away from me, heading towards the door.

"Seriously?" I ask, watching him as he twists the handle. "That's it? No fight? No repartee? It's that simple?"

Slowly, Kent turns to me. "You're tired, Fay," he says. "Go to bed. You need your rest." He takes a moment to consider me, though. To run his eyes over my tired face, my rumpled hair, my lips still swollen from the force of his own pressed against them not so long ago. "But simple? No, Fay. If you think this is over..." He just slowly shakes his head.

With that, he pulls my door open and steps out into the hall, closing it behind him.

I stand still for a moment, staring at the door. Then I slump down onto my bed, pulling the box of cookies into my lap.

Without a word, I eat the whole thing.

The next morning I push through the door to the kitchen rubbing my eyes, still bleary from lack of sleep. Unfortunately, no matter how late you go to bed, the Lippert house is buzzing with activity as soon as 6 am. A knock came to the door at 6:30 - a housekeeper delivering my fresh clothes for the day. There was no getting back to sleep after that. So here I am, at 7 in the morning, needing coffee. Badly.

I make a beeline for the espresso machine and am surprised to meet Daniel there.

"Hey Fay," he says, handing me the cup of espresso he just made. I accept it gratefully. "How did you sleep?"

I shoot the shot of coffee down in one and hand the porcelain cup back to Daniel.

"Not great," I say back to him, and then I lower my voice. "Daniel," I say. "We have to talk."

He frowns at me, curious and a little concerned. "Is everything all right?"

"For me?" I ask, pointing at my chest. "Sure. Weirdly fine at the moment. But for you?" I raise my eyebrows, switching the direction of my finger so that it points at him. "You are oddly in hot water today."

"What?!" Daniel exclaims, looking around at the others in the kitchen, checking to make sure we aren't overhead. Then, he puts a hand on my elbow, drawing me closer to him. "What's going on?"

"Last night," I say, leaning closer to him. "Whatever was going on in your room...your dad..." I bite my lip. Damn, I didn't really plan how I wanted to say this.

Daniel's face goes pale though. He slowly looks around the room and then back at me with a level gaze, looking so much like his dad in this moment that chills run up my spine. "What?" he asks, glaring at me a little. "What does he know?"

I freeze, then, realizing something very suddenly that I hadn't thought of before.

That what I'm about to say to Daniel...it's leverage. That this is precisely the sort of information that these families trade on, that they hold over each other's heads, that they use to keep each other in check.

And if I wanted to, I could use it against Daniel to get something that I want. That I could enter this game of chess that they're all playing around me. Stop being a pawn, and become a real player. But the real question is, do I enter the game at Daniel's expense?