Page 45 of Alfie: Part Two

Alfie humored her but wasn’t a huge fan. Although, I’d caught Poppy purring and napping on his shoulder once on the couch, and Alfie had looked quite content then.

“I’ll think about it,” Ellie finished.

I nodded once and returned to the roof deck, where my pasta was waiting for me. I’d already finished Ellie’s leftovers, and Alfie had polished off Trip’s.

“Parents,” I heard Liam say. “They bring nothing but trouble, in my experience.”

“Same here,” Colby agreed.

Alfie chuckled. “In this case, it’s me bringing my mom trouble.”

I sat down next to him and gave his hand a squeeze. “I’ll talk to her until she can’t stay mad any longer. No matter how many cannoli it takes.”

“My hero,” Alfie laughed.

I tried my best.

“But, uh…to circle back.” Liam cleared his throat and reached for the garlic bread. “Word’s gotten around, and John knows you’re part of the family now.”

“What the fuck?” Alfie sat back, shocked.

It was bound to happen, though, wasn’t it? Despite that John Murray was retired and lived on the fringes of the family, he still saw Nessa regularly, from what I’d been told. And he visited Alec in prison.

Liam shrugged. “You wanna meet him? He’s interested.”

“Uh.” Alfie ran a hand through his hair. “Do I have to?”

“Fuck no.” With Liam’s accent, a mix of Chicago, Philly, but mostly Irish, some of his words sounded funny. “It’s up to you. I wouldn’t recommend it. He’ll feed you some bullshit about staying away being the best move and…whatever.”

While technically true, we all knew how that generation treated mistresses and their bastard offspring.

“Yeah, I think I’ll pass. I have a dad.” Alfie snorted softly and went back to eating. “As long as this doesn’t turn out to be one of those things where we swear off a meeting and then I get blindsided at a family shindig when he shows up.”

“Nah.” Liam shook his head. “If there’s one thing Finn and I have taught him the past several years, it’s boundaries. He doesn’t show up anywhere unless he’s invited.”

“Good.” Alfie stole a piece of roasted broccoli from my plate. It was his stipulation when I ordered my favorite dish—half theplate with something else, because anything with a cream base upset my stomach if I had too much of it. “To be honest, I never once felt the need to meet him. It was you and Finn and the other guys our age I was curious about.”

“I’ll drink to that, little brother.” Liam raised his beer and smirked a little. “On that note, Alec wants to meet you too.”

That made Alfie smile. “That can be arranged.” He tilted his head at me. “What do you say about visiting them in Chicago soon? We could fly out for a weekend.”

I smiled back. “Just say when. I assume it takes a minute to arrange visitation to see someone in prison…?”

Liam inclined his head. “I’ll talk to Alec and get that sorted.” He tipped his beer bottle at Alfie. “Can you do me a solid and talk to Finn? I’m just as pissed at Alec for what he did, but it’d do him good if Finn flew out too. They haven’t seen each other since before the arrest, and me brother was essentially Finn’s shadow.”

Alfie shrugged and spoke with his mouth full. “I don’t know it’ll do any good, but sure. The boss is kinda bitter about the whole thing, ain’t he?”

The boss.

See, I grew up with Bruce Springsteen being the Boss.

“You can say that,” Liam replied. “But we can fuck him up after the state of Illinois has had its turn. The lad needs family.”

Alfie nodded and was about to respond, but then he was more concerned with digging out his phone. Must’ve been on silent?—

“Oi, Dad. Two calls in one day?” he answered. “I feel special— What?” He went rigid in his seat and flicked his stare to me. “What the fuck happened? What do you mean, she’s?—”

I frowned, and the instant worry in his eyes put me on edge. Had something happened?

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