PUSH: Ultra Alpha MMA Badboy Mafia Romance (Southside Brotherhood Book 2) (54 page)

***

“I canceled everything but two rows of chairs, the archway, and the priest,” Flynn said, talking about the charade of a wedding planned for his Lilly and Colin. “We’ll keep enough of the little, fancy appetizers to cover the few people we’ve got coming. No bar, no big meal. I want to marry you, then take you to the room. End of story. Oh, what do you want to do about a dress? You want to wear the one you already have ready with Gina’s? Or, we can skip the dress all together.”

“No
. I know what I want to wear. It’s a secret, Mr. Dunleavy. You’ll have to wait to see.”

“Patience is not my virtue.”

“I know.” Lilly smacked his arm as he reached around her naked body and began to slip downward.

They were supposed to be getting dressed to go to the mansion. Flynn had spoken with Gideon last night, and they'd struck a tentative truce. But, there were details to consider, and they planned to sit down and hammer out something that worked for everyone.

From the mansion, the driver would take Lilly to work. She'd managed to figure out in just one night how to re-work months of code to eliminate the skimming program that Colin had forced her to include in the software.

Her face had lit up when it all came together, and she'd realized she would be able to put her name on something for which she was truly proud.

“I mean, it’s not like I’m saving lives, but this has been a lot of work. I’m happy with how it’s turning out. That’s not to say there won’t be years of more work needed to really blow it up and make it successful, but I’m happy knowing it is what it should have been — not what Colin had wanted. SPIN will be the first online gambling slash social network around. It will connect all the other gambling sites around the world along with all the industry people and the players. It’s really very cool when I think about it. Like Facebook but with betting and cards and Fantasy Football. You name it! It’s really very impressive, isn’t it?”

Flynn tried to focus but seeing her naked could not go unpunished.

“You’re not even listening, are you?”

He pushed her backwards, his lips on her neck, his hands trying to be everywhere until she toppled onto the mattress with its rumpled quilts from when he’d taken her just an hour ago.

“Uhhhhh…” Lilly gave in quickly as Flynn worked her until he heard her sweet sounds.

His tongue found its home, his hands spreading her knees wide as he tasted the first drops of her sweet peaches & cream juice flow over his tongue.

“Thank you, Daddy.”

His babygirl had taken to his new title like a natural. She understood now what it meant for them to be this — she was his cherished. Everything about her included him, and he couldn’t imagine them being unwound from the intricate knots binding every part of them together into something greater than the sum of their parts.

He feasted on her until she wrapped her thighs around his head and jerked — pushing herself high off the mattress, Flynn holding her onto his mouth, sucking and swallowing every precious drop as she came.

The feeling of her hands tangled in his hair, pulling him onto her as she shook, brought him more happiness than all the other years combined.

When she finally came to rest, he moved up her body and kissed her. He loved when they were able to taste her together as he lifted both her legs to his shoulders and sank slow and full, feeling her still crazy-tightness grasp him like a custom-made glove.

“Oh god, babe...”

He loved her slow for as long as he could. When Lilly’s fingers dug into the quilts below and she looked right into his eyes and smiled, he knew slow and easy were done.

“Fuck me — harder.”

He never dreamed his little Irish fire doll would utter something so perfect. His brain snapped to attention, his dick did a damn handspring, and with a roar, he gave her what she asked for in spades.

***

With a flushed face and a nice, sore pussy, Lilly sat grinning down at the emerald ring on her finger the entire way from the lake house to the mansion, snuggled next to Flynn who in turn couldn’t stop staring down at his most prized possession.

They pulled up to the front entry. The tall granite pillars framing the steep steps where Flynn first took her hand all those months ago.

“Be careful, okay?” Lilly said, looking up at him with eyes that held his heart.

Flynn got out of the back of the limo, nodded to Topher’s driver and leaned back inside.

“Make me proud, babe.” Flynn gave her a kiss before the driver shut the door and the black Lincoln slowly hummed down the driveway.

“Okay brother, let’s duke this out,” Flynn muttered as the limo turned out of sight, his focus shifting to the task ahead.

Inside the house, Flynn felt his heart swell when the little girl that helped save his ass stood in the front entry with a smile.

“Molly.”

“Mr. Flynn.” She gave him a playful curtsy.

“Did my brother tell you?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Don’t call me that, you know my name.”

She smiled again, pulling her lips to one side and then the other before crossing her arms.

“He told me I can stay and work. Just work or he’d get me another job, pay for me to go to school and live here, or I could go back home and he pay me enough to take care of my family too.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“I think I’ll stay here. See what Mr. Gideon is like as a boss. He seem like he wants to do right by us. Told me he called back for a bunch of the other girls — the ones he could find. He gonna get them in jobs too, or same — let them go back home with enough money to have a better life and pay for their school.”

“Good. Well, I’ll be around to help you anyway I can. I owe you big, you know that, right?”

“Yes, Sir. I mean yes, I know.”

“Here, I got you this.”

Flynn handed her an unmarked white box, the little gray Apple logo on top.

“It’s all set up, my number is already programmed in. The bill will be paid; you can call whoever you want. And, you call me whenever you need me. Okay?”

She broke into a rare smile, her gleaming teeth set off beautifully with her flawless skin and warm brown eyes.

Flynn almost fell back when she threw her arms around his waist, her head only hitting him just below his chest. As he hugged her back, he could feel every bone in her body, her slight frame so much smaller than he ever realized.

A sense of just how sick his father must have been to prey on the weakest of the weak in such a brutal and humiliating way turned his stomach.

“Okay, kid. I gotta go see my brother.”

Flynn unwound himself from the unexpectedly firm grasp of the girl.

When he turned to go down the hall, her face lit up as she stood with the box open and her new phone in hand, finally losing that look of the poor mouse cornered by the hungry cat.

Inside his father’s old sanctuary, the office looked the same, but it felt different.

Gideon stared at Flynn as he plopped down in one of the tufted leather sofa’s in front of the fireplace.

The two brothers stared at each other for a long moment, the twenty-year-old oil painting of their family hanging over the mantle of the crackling fire.

“So.” Gideon started, leaning back in the chair, clasping his hands over his stomach.

“So. What? Where do we go from here?” Flynn didn’t feel like playing around, but he didn't get the sense that Gideon harbored anything but a need to work out the practical details of what needed to happen next.

“I don’t really know what you need to do, but I’ll tell you what I think needs to happen with SPIN,” Gideon said before he cleared his throat and pushed around some papers across the large, expansive desk with something like a smile on his face.

“Okay. Shoot.” Flynn said.

“She’s the real deal man. Without her, there is no SPIN. Is Lilly still down with running the show?”

“Yeah, she wouldn’t have it any other way. As long as it’s legit. She was up late, but she figured out how to take out the bullshit Dad had her put in there, and she can implement the corrections without pushing back the go live. The skimming code coming out is non-negotiable. The operation has to be clean from here on out.”

“Fine. What else?”

“Not sure. What else is there? Are we cool?”

“Yep. We’re cool. And, here.”
Gideon held up an envelope before laying it on the desk and sliding it to the desk’s far edge. On its front were the letters “F.R.D.” and “In the Event” typed on the front.

“What's this about?”

“Dad left it,” Gideon shrugged. “He had some things set up… ‘In the Event,’ and all that.”

Flynn rose from the sofa in one fluid motion and crossed to the desk to retrieve the wax-stamped, sealed letter. “You got one, too?”

“Yup.”

“What is it?”

“Open it, dumbass.”

Flynn scowled but returned to the sofa to do just that. With the wax seal broken and the envelope’s contents unfolded, Flynn’s hand shook as he read. It was everything, everything Colin had put in his name — assets equaling $4.7 million.

“What the fuck,” Flynn breathed.

Gideon’s lips pulled in a smile that lacked ire or malevolence and returned his attention to his paperwork.

It was several days later before a meeting could be arranged between Topher and Gideon. Flynn and Mac stood in as referees as the two family leaders came to an agreement about SPIN Corporation and how things would proceed without Colin.

But, even after the business details were done, Topher had a morality clause to add.

“You boys ever touch that shit that sent your father away, I’ll not waste a second of sleep showing you the door, too. You understand? My daughter will not be part of that shit — or my grandkids.” Topher pointed at Flynn for the last part.

“That’s all done. Gideon took care of all the girls he could find. He's doing what he can to make things right,” Flynn assured his soon-to-be father-in-law.

“Okay.” It was a single word but it carried the weight of the world. It said that their two families were in the good again.

Flynn knew he shouldn’t ask, but he couldn’t stop the words from slipping out.

“You call for it?” Flynn asked.

“I didn’t call for nothin’ I just sent some information ta some friends of mine. Last I heard, your dad was on a plane to Senegal, meet some of the locals. From there, I’m not sure and I don’t ask. You don’t either. Some things just take care of themselves. Now, I don’t ever want to hear that subject again, you got it?” Topher pointed his finger at both the boys.

Flynn raised his eyebrows as Gideon sat stoic behind the desk. Then, they both gave the other a nod. Some unspoken agreement that they would not follow in their father’s footsteps.

***

Lilly half twirled in front of the mirror. The bedroom in the main estate’s guesthouse had become her own little bridal boutique.

“Oh my god, it’s more beautiful than I remember.” Lilly said.

“It’s because it’s on you.”

Lilly smiled, but her Mom looked so frail. Her hands were almost all bones as she grinned weakly, coughing into her white handkerchief as Lilly turned for her in a circle.

“I wish I would have known.”

“No one knew dear. It was our secret. We were young and in love. Planning a wedding we both knew would never happen. But, I kept this all these years. Now, you get to have what I never did. I was almost your exact size back then.

Now I’m nothing but bones and skin. Lilly took a step toward her mom, seeing her eyes fill with a mixture of melancholy and joy. Leaning down, she kissed her mother's cheek and then knelt at her side.

Abigail played with the lace that ran down the front of the handmade, antique Irish linen and lace wedding dress, thankful the garment had stood the test of time.

Watching her mother, Lilly’s memories took on new meaning as she weaved together what she knew now with what she had known then. She remembered the dress from when she was little, hidden away in a pristine, white box on the floor of her mother’s closet. The beautiful dress, more beautiful than anything she'd ever seen as a child, had always made her wonder what it would be like to be a princess.

Little had she known it had been made for her mother’s intended marriage to Topher, her mother’s chosen prince — and Lilly’s real father. Abigail and Topher had made secret plans for him to divorce and marry her instead, to make their own family.

But the world made other plans for them, for us.

Lilly ran a hand over the fine, delicate detail of the dress. It fit as though it had been made for her, and it felt like their world was coming full circle, somehow righting a past wrong.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?” Abigail’s breath was shallow, the oxygen tube fixed under her nose.

“Yes. Very ready.”

“You are the most beautiful bride. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, Mom. And we’re going to be sure you get well so that you’ll be around for a long time with us, you understand?”