Fall For My Ex’s Mafia Father

Gifts

Chapter 20 – Danger makes me

want to…-1

My heart pounding, I press the stop button on the remote as fast as I can and return my wide eyes to Kent, who is still looking at

1. me.

Please, please, please. By all that is holy, let him not have seen me watching his sex tape.

“What are you doing in here,” he asks, angry.

“Um,” I say, terrified, hoping he doesn’t pick up on the tremor in my voice. “Fiona brought me here? Said I could look through some…” my eyes dart around the room for an answer that is not porn. “Some family photo albums? And home videos?”

He narrows his eyes at me, his eyes flicking to the pile of vintage Playboys on the floor. “She shouldn’t have brought you down here,” he says, moving aside so that I can leave the room. I quickly get to my feet, flicking the power button on the remote so that the TV goes blank.

Then, dropping the remote, I scurry out of the room, praying with all my might that Kent does not go back in to see what tape

is in the VCR.

He closes the door behind me as I head for the steps. “Go upstairs,” he says. “Don’t come down here.”

Glad to obey, I hurry out into the kitchen, heaving a sigh of

phone.

My hand slides over smooth denim. I stop dead in my tracks, panicked, and pat all over my body looking for it. Then, slowly, I turn back towards the little door. I definitely felt it in my back pocket when we left the patio…

God damnit. My phone must have fallen out in the weird porn

room.

Steeling myself, I know I have to go back. If my dad or Janeen ever called I didn’t have it – I’d just die with guilt.

I walk back to the little door in the kitchen, pulling it open a crack to listen. I don’t hear a sound. Tentatively, I put a foot on the step,

good measure, I pop the VHS out of the VCR and put it back in its black

room and, quiet as a mouse, shut the door behind me. I begin to creep back along the hallway when I

terrified that

no one comes out to scold

left, a kind of snap, and then a muffled groan. Unable to stop myself, I consider the door from which the sound is coming. It’s thick, made of iron, with no

20 – Danger makes

want to…-2

see that the bolt is

a mistake.

know these things, though, I stare at the door,

handle and then, my inner voice still screaming at me to stop, I pull it open just

noise from inside is suddenly louder without the

as they look at something just out of my sight, terror in their eyes. As

sight. My eyes take in the strong muscles of his back, the rage that I can see pulsing through

wrapped his belt around his hand, a long piece of it hanging down from his fist, the buckle dangling. As I watch, Kent

this is apparently not the answer that Kent wants. He drops the belt, moving to the man on the left and pulling a knife from

scream as Kent stands behind him, pressing the sharp edge of the knife to the man’s pinky finger. The scream turns to a

horrified. Though I can feel myself trembling, I can’t move, can’t stop watching. The man not being cut begins to scream in

and then –

god

He begins to scream in my direction and I think I

shift to the other man and

and push the door shut and then

faster than I thought I could go as I scramble up the stairs, sprint across the kitchen, pull open the kitchen door and then use the banister to propel

I think, he’s a monster,

truth feels like it has hit

towards my room, my fingers inches from my doorknob, when something

B

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Gifts

makes me

me fast. He grabs me by the hair at the back of my neck, forcing my head back, my face turned up towards his. I pant, in his arms, pinned against him, finally still.

my rationale for being there. “I forgot my phone!”