Exploding: A Mafia Romance (The O'Keefe Family Collection #1)

by Tuesday Embers

  Fallyn turned the card over in her hand, confused. “You want me to hold this for you? What’s this for?”

  “For you to buy things with. It’s linked to my accounts, so use it as often as you like.”

  Fallyn’s face soured as she pressed the card back into his palm. “Um, no. Thank you, but no. Did I give you the impression I was hurting for money?”

  “No, but you’re my girlfriend now. This is how I do things.”

  Fallyn tried not to take offense. “Well, it’s not how I do things. I own my own business, and it’s doing well. My family has their own deep pockets, and I don’t need to give you a reason to question why I’m in this. You really think Tony would be okay with me tapping into the D’Amato family fortune?”

  “It’s yours, Fally.”

  She slid the card into his back pocket. “No. Keep your money. Expand the vineyard, like you’ve always wanted. Buy a unicorn. I can handle myself just fine.”

  Vince was confused, reluctant to have no stamp on providing for her at all. “It doesn’t sit right with me that I’m not paying for anything at all.”

  “Tell you what, you can pay for dinner at that hole in the wall diner by our lake next Sunday.”

  “That’s like, twenty bucks! Come on, Fal. Take the card.”

  “Not a chance.” She hopped down from the hospital bed and offered her hand to help him stand. “Let’s go fill your prescription and then I’ll take you home.” She rolled her eyes. “Or I’ll take you to your car and follow you to the border.”

  “I checked into a hotel in neutral territory last night. Lots of unpleasantness prowling around the house, so that’s where Angelo, Tony and Joey are now.”

  “Good thinking. I’m driving.” Fallyn tucked him into her car, got his prescription filled and drove him to his hotel, grateful he’d not chosen a flea-ridden crap hole. She helped him out of the car and up to his third-floor room where Angelo and Tony were watching TV.

  Angelo stood when she entered, but Tony did not. “Did you… Did you go to a doctor?” Angelo asked Vince, a note of teasing in his tone.

  “She made me. Shut up about it.” He rolled his eyes as Tony and Angelo made cooing noises to show their feigned sympathy.

  Fallyn reared on the men. “That’s right, and I’m not above making the two of you go in and get checked out, too. Out with it. Where are you hurt?”

  Angelo and Tony looked at each other and chuckled, waving off her concern. “We’re fine. Vince took the worst of it because he went in the door first,” Tony explained.

  “Show me,” she demanded. “Show me exactly how ‘fine’ you are. I mean it. If Vince is going back out tonight, I don’t want his backup hobbling along after him.” The men softened as they permitted her to press on their ribs, investigate their bruises and clean out their cuts. They hadn’t been nearly as injured as Vince, but she fretted about them all the same. Even Tony started to soften around her, addressing her by name every now and again and keeping his snide comments to a minimum. “Vince needs to rest. Can you make sure that happens?” she inquired of Angelo.

  “I’ll even sing him a lullaby, if that helps you.”

  Vince’s eyes were already closed, his hand over his toned stomach. “Shut it.”

  “It does. Thanks.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “I’m going to bring you all lunch. Any requests?”

  Angelo smiled down at her, endeared to her Mama Bear attitude. Somehow by falling for Vince, she had decided to take care of all of them. They hadn’t had a warm presence in their family in ages. “We’ve got room service, kiddo. You don’t have to bring us food. Plus, we had a late breakfast. We won’t be hungry for lunch for a couple hours.” He called over his shoulder. “Vince, did you give her the credit card?”

  “I tried,” Vince said, murmuring sleepily, his head on his pillow. “But she wouldn’t take it.”

  Tony’s head whipped in her direction. “Our money not good enough for you, Little Keefer?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly it. How big of a gold digger do you think I am? I don’t want Vince for his money. Jeez! Make sure you let him rest.” She softened when she saw Vince’s breathing level off as he lay atop the thick maroon comforter. She unlaced his shoes and removed them, giving his feet a decent rub just to hear him moan contentedly.

  Tony watched Fallyn, seeking out any traces of a false move. He noticed her taking care of Vince with gentle fingers, anticipating his needs by placing a glass of water by his bedside and making sure she went over Vince’s medication specifications three times with Angelo. “This is my number,” she told Angelo, scribbling on a notepad with the hotel’s logo as the watermark. “If you three need anything, let me know. You should all be resting up if you’re going back out tonight.” She pointed to Tony, making him sit up straighter. “You need to ice your knee.”

  Tony rolled his eyes. “My knee’s fine. We’re not your children.”

  “Do you want a fat lip to go with your limp? Don’t argue with me, Tony.” She picked up the ice bucket and returned a few minutes later with a hand towel and ice for him. Tony did not thank her, nor did she expect or need him to. She kissed Vince’s cheek one more time before leaving to go back to her shop, worrying that Vince would try to go back out before his body could handle it.

  36

  The New Plan

  Fallyn finished up her custom cakes on autopilot since it was the third baker’s day off, barely greeting Rina as the second shift began. When it neared noon, she started in on making the men some lunch she could take to the hotel. It was a feat finding things among her ingredients in the bakery to construct a meal with, but she managed with only a quick trip to the grocery store for a few items.

  Carrigan stopped into the store’s café area, expecting his sister to come out to greet him when Jen sent back word he was there. Perplexed at his lack of a warm welcome, he moved back to the kitchen without invitation. He saw the usual pleasant amount of chaos Fallyn created as she baked, but her eyebrows were pushed together and her usually smiling lips were weighted down with a heavy frown that mirrored itself on his face when he saw it. “Hey, Fal. What’s got you down?”

  Fallyn did not bother to look at her brother. “Just busy. What’s up, Carri?”

  “Killian called a meeting. I came to pick you up to take you to his restaurant. Didn’t you get my message?”

  Fallyn kept her attention on the lunch she had been concocting. “No. I’m working, so I try not to be on my phone while I’m on the job.”

  “Kill invited the D’Amatos to come into the territory to talk about a plan for tonight.”

  “Fine. I can drive myself. Thanks anyway.”

  “Are you pissed at me or something?”

  “Are you serious?” Fallyn banged her tongs on the pan, casting off the extra drops of water and accentuating her anger all in one go. “I’ll pack this up and see you there in a few.” Fallyn ignored any other attempts her brother made to break the tension and set to work tripling the lunch she’d been making. She ignored Rina when she waved Carrigan away with a “Fallyn’s in a mood” expression of warning.

  Fallyn finished up and drove to her brother’s restaurant, spending the whole ride trying to calm herself so she didn’t rip her brothers a new one. When she walked into the gentle green hue of the restaurant, childhood and adulthood converged in her senses. The familiar scent of lamb and rosemary teased her into relaxing, while the gold-framed pictures of her youth smiled out at her in welcome.

  Killian greeted her at the door, arresting the takeout dishes she carried. “You know we serve food here, right?” he teased, hoping to get a smile from her.

  “It’s a peace offering for the D’Amatos. You’re welcome.”

  Killian took the large aluminum dishes past the customers and down into the basement, where family meetings during business hours usually happened. The basement had a lower ceiling than the restaurant above, and was decidedly less decorated. The white walls were broken up by several cou
ches lining the perimeter of the west side of the room. The long banquet tables were pushed together so the whole family could eat with their new guests.

  To his credit, Vince did not look like he was in pain. Other than his split lip, black eye and his stiffer movements, he kept his cool demeanor, leaning back in his chair and observing with his ice blue eyes as he calculated the exits and possible threats with a bland non-expression on his face.

  Killian and Declan brought down a small feast and laid it on the table, but the D’Amatos came to life and discarded their on-guard demeanors when Fallyn peeled the foil off her deep tray. “Is that what I think it is?” Joey asked, his eyes wide. “Where did you get that?”

  “I made it,” Fallyn replied, affronted. “It’s Papa D’s recipe.”

  “How’d you get Papa D’s recipe for handmade pasta with red wine? He never wrote anything down.”

  “I pay attention. He taught me how to make it with the reduction when I was a little girl. Thought you guys could use a little comfort food after the night you’ve had.”

  Angelo met her eyes to convey the appreciation for the attention to detail. “Thank you. This is… This is a gesture, and I see it.”

  Killian threw up his hands. “I’ve been trying to show you guys that we want to extend the olive branch for months! All it took was for Fally to make a little spaghetti?”

  Vince remained in his chair, both unable to move properly and unwilling to get up and risk kissing Fallyn in front of her brothers. He hadn’t had the heart to make handmade pasta since his father had passed, and the luxury of the pampering Fallyn provided without being asked was too much for him to process.

  Her brothers noticed her stalwart expression and inability to hold eye contact with them, so they tried various ways to draw her into conversation, failing each time. Seamus grew frustrated and slammed his fork down on the table three minutes into lunch. “You’re being a pill, Fal. So we picked on James a little. If he can’t handle the hazing, better ditch now than later.”

  “Well, he did ditch, so thanks for that.” Fallyn huffed at having to have this conversation in front of the D’Amatos, but she guessed she would get little peace until it was all laid out on the table. “Thanks to all your performances this weekend, James and I aren’t seeing each other anymore.”

  This was met by high-fives and applause at having vanquished the evildoer, all of which entertained the D’Amatos to witness the inner-workings of the odd family’s dynamic.

  Fallyn was livid, standing to smack her hand to the table to rein them all in. “However, that was the last time you get a say in who I date, and it’s the last time I put my life on hold because you all think I need eight dads. I just need the one, and I can’t even get him half the time.” She started talking with her hands animatedly. “So, new regime. I recently got myself a boyfriend, who none of you are going to meet. He’s a new guy I’ve been seeing for a few weeks now.” Her brothers erupted in angry rants, but she held up her hands and spoke over them. “You’ll know nothing about him, and you’ll never meet him. Thanks to you all, I’ll have a whole life you can’t be involved in.”

  “What’s his name?” Finn demanded, ready for a new challenge.

  “Ted Bundy,” Fallyn retorted, her tone acerbic. “It’s serious, and the next thing you’ll hear about him is when I tell you all that Teddy and I eloped.” Her cheeks flushed at saying all of this in front of Vince, who hid his amusement and borderline fear behind a mouthful of the best pasta he’d had in ages.

  Danny was red with anger. “Don’t talk like that. Who is he?”

  “Charles Manson. He’s one heck of a lover. Sexy beard. He tells me what to do, and I can’t help myself. I’m so mindless when I’m around him with none of you lot telling me what to do. I just follow him around like a sweet little dummy, hoping he’ll make an honest woman of me.”

  Seamus glared at Fallyn. “Who is he?”

  “Jeffery Dahmer. Explosive personality, that one. It’s only love if you put out on the first date, right? That’s what he told me, anyways. He’s so dreamy.”

  Killian, who rarely raised his voice to her, yelled across the table. “You’ll stop it right now and tell us who’s messing with your head like this!”

  Fallyn turned to Killian as if in slow motion, her face composed. “Am I allowed to be happy?”

  “You don’t know enough about it all to know what’s going to make you happy. What happens if you pick a guy who wastes everything that’s good about you?” Killian glowered at his sister.

  Fallyn pounded her hand flat on the table, jerking the men to attention. “I’m tired of making pasta for my brothers! I want to be happy for once, so let me! Dammit, let me be happy! Love me enough for that! You all raised me. Trust that you did a good enough job that I won’t ruin my life on the first gamble I make on my own.”

  Carrigan stood next to his sister, proving himself to be the only brother capable of rational thought. His arm went around her shoulders in solidarity. “Okay, Fal. We’ll back off for a while. We just want what’s best for you.”

  “What’s best for me is to decide for myself on this.” She caught Carrigan mouthing to Declan that he’d keep watch to see if he could catch the guy. Fallyn shrugged out of his hug, picked up her steak knife and pointed it at Carrigan without remorse or hesitation. “I see your patrol car on my street, and you don’t want to know what, Carri.”

  Seamus stood from his seat on the other side of the table. “You know? I think I do want to know what. What are you going to do if we watch out for you like Dad asked us to?”

  “If you follow me like a crazy stalker, I’ll put sugar in your gas tanks, and you can kiss your tires goodbye. I’ll mess you up, Carri. Don’t test me on this! Ted Bundy’s mine! I vouch for him, so hands off.”

  “What’s his real name?” Carrigan demanded. “We should know who’s messing with you.”

  “Enough!” Killian roared. “Fallyn, we’ll have words about this later. For now, let’s deal with the west side problems.” Everyone sat back down, but Killian was on edge, which did not bode well for an amicable discussion on how best to be helpful.

  “I still think we have every right to…”

  “I said enough!” Killian shouted at Seamus, slamming his hand down on the table. “Not another word on this, any of you. Vince? Do your thing. That’s why we’re all here, right?”

  Vince laid out a map on the table, drawing red Xs on the problem streets to indicate the dealers, and green Xs on the map to show where the crack dens were. The teams were divided into four, with a D’Amato leading each group. When the O’Keefe men were split up among the groups, Fallyn spoke up. “Which one am I with?”

  The response from her brothers was predictable, but unintelligible due to them all protesting at the same time with varying degrees of indignation. Vince held up his hand, not needing to shout to be heard. The men fell silent as Vince gave his ruling. “You’ll be home base. We need somewhere to land and one person to communicate with to send us out to the next stop, or to head over for backup if one team needs it.” Before anyone could give their opinion on this, Vince pointed to his house on the map. “She’ll set up at my place. After every sting, call Fallyn and she’ll send you on to the house that needs cleaning out next. It won’t do to have us all calling each other in the heat of things. This way, the communication’s all centralized.” He locked eyes on Killian, who nodded his gratitude. “Fallyn will be safe. My windows are bulletproof on the house, and it locks down like a fortress. If you’re injured, make it back to home base. We’ll start off and end up at my house. You good with that, Little Keefer?” he asked without looking up at her.

  Fallyn nodded, knowing falling in line was more important than her pride. She was grateful he at least gave her a job to do. “Sounds good, boss. I’ve got a couple suggestions, though.”

  “Now’s the time for that. Soon as the sun sets, we’re going out.”

  She pointed to Carrigan. “Vince is injured
, so he should go out with Carri, who’s a better shot than Finn.”

  “Hey!” Finn protested, but then gave in when Carrigan raised his eyebrow at him. “Okay, fine.”

  “Anything else?” Vince asked, leaning over the map.

  “Kevlar,” Fallyn suggested. “Tonight they die, not us.”

  Carrigan shook his head. “You know we only have enough vests for our family. I don’t think yours’ll fit any of them, Fally.”

  “No, but you can get Daddy’s vest. He won’t be needing it. And Mama’s old one might fit Jo-Jo.” She motioned to Joey’s thinner frame.

  Joey rolled his eyes at Fallyn. “I’m not wearing a woman’s bulletproof vest.”

  Vince was grateful she found a way to protect his baby brother. “You’ll wear it and be grateful, Joey. Thanks, Fal.”

  Fallyn met Vince’s gaze with a nod of solidarity. “I got you.”

  37

  The Dark of Night

  Fallyn was a ball of nerves as she sat in the backseat of Killian’s SUV, crammed between Declan and Seamus, who took up too much space in their bulky Kevlar. Killian pulled straight into Vince’s spacious garage, quickly followed by Carrigan’s car that transported the rest of the O’Keefe clan.

  They walked with tensed shoulders into the home they’d spent many a weekend playing at growing up. The scent of oak and butter reached Fallyn’s nose, invoking a thousand memories of making a mess in the kitchen, playing in their in-ground oval-shaped pool in the backyard, and slurping popsicles on the wraparound porch on hot summer days clad in dripping swimsuits. Fallyn had been so much younger, so they’d all treated her with care, wiping her face when the heat got too zealous and melted the popsicles prematurely. They’d carried her in the swimming pool until she learned to swim. They’d rode their bicycles slower so she could go with them on their adventures while she still had her training wheels on. For the first six years of her life, the D’Amatos had been her big brothers every bit as much as her own had.