Illicit Temptations (Tempted Series Book 1) (25 page)

I was leaning against Victor’s black Escalade when the door opened, forcing me to glance up as Victor and Jimmy emerged from the cabin. I groaned when I saw them walking towards me realizing that I couldn’t escape them anymore and now I had to actually deal with the pile of shit he unloaded on me.

“You should be getting a move on soon,” Victor said, shoving both his hands into his pockets. “Try not to make too many stops the risk of you being found won’t be so bad once you are at Gina’s,” he tilted his chin towards the cabin. “Just have patience with Nikki she’s going to be difficult.”

“Great,” I said sarcastically, looking back at Victor. My nerves were shot the pressure of all this was just too much for a guy like me. “Vic I think you’re making a mistake,” I admitted taking a deep breath. I had been mulling it over out here while they had been inside and the thought of being Nikki’s pretend husband the man responsible for her well-being until the storm passed well it was fucking insane.

“How so?” He asked, but something in his eyes told me he wasn’t really paying attention to my nervous rant and was more likely just appeasing me by listening to my concerns or at least pretending to listen.

“I don’t know you and your sidekick…,” I said, pointing my thumb over my shoulder at Jimmy who was smoking a cigarette behind me. “… are making me and Nikki disappear for a while because there are fucking mad men with guns out to get us because of our association with you. You are entrusting me to get Nikki down to Florida safe and sound and make sure that she stays safe. Am I right?”

“Yes,” he said evenly.

“That’s a big fucking responsibility Vic! You’re putting her life in my hands!” I yelled realizing how desperate my voice must’ve sounded. I watched, as he looked at me expressionless. I didn’t get it, didn’t he understand that I wasn’t capable of this shit that making me responsible for Nikki was a serious miscalculation on his behalf.

“You don’t give yourself enough credit,” he said sincerely as he reached out and placed a hand on my shoulder. He placed his free hand on my cheek forcing my eyes to meet his. “You managed to get Nikki out of that club last night. You kept her safe. You did more for her than I did so if there is a question of who is best fit to protect my daughter the answer is you,” he dropped his hand from my shoulder and poked my chest with his finger to emphasize his words. “I trust you to take care of her.”

I gazed at him warily, but it was hard not to believe his words when he was saying them with such conviction. The corners of his mouth lifted in a tired smile.

“You remind me so much of your father,” he said releasing his hold on me.

“I’m nothing like my dad. He had much bigger balls than I do,” I said rolling my shoulders. I was sure my father didn’t have a meltdown every time Victor gave him an order. Suddenly I didn’t feel like busting his balls anymore and I didn’t have the energy to do so either. Victor and all the bullshit his lifestyle came with was fucking exhausting. I was whipped from last night and now I had to drive down to Florida, which would take at least twenty hours if we didn’t stop. I hated my life. Fuck that I hated Victor. He was responsible for every fucked up thing that ever went wrong in my life.

Victor laughed slightly. “Not always.”

“Clock’s ticking Vic,” Jimmy said impatiently as he walked around the SUV to climb into the driver’s seat.

“Give me a minute,” he ordered, adding to Jimmy’s fury. I smirked at the asshole behind the wheel before looking back at Victor. “You and I are overdue for a talk wouldn’t you say?” He asked me his voice sounding full of regret. It was almost as if he needed to speak his mind because he wasn’t sure if he’d ever have another chance.

I tried to think of what Victor could possibly have to say to me that I would even want to hear, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be. Many unanswered questions ran through my mind. I suppose I was just preoccupied with everything that had been piled on my plate since my mother’s death to dwell on my questions. Now that he mentioned it, they all came flooding back along with the resentment of not having the answers for ten years.

“Your father wasn’t always behind this life of ours. There was a time when we were first starting out that he was apprehensive over everything we did. I was thirsty for power and to own the streets of Brooklyn and because of my greediness, I didn’t always make the right choices and I never thought about the consequences. Your father was the opposite. He knew that we were taking on a dangerous lifestyle. He knew that every single move we made would follow us for the rest of our lives. I was wild and reckless and he was calculating and determined and when you put us together we were a lethal alliance because of how well we balanced one another.”

The anger faded away and was replaced by inquisition. Victor had my undivided attention as he brought me along for his stroll down memory lane.

“I was a cowboy leaving a trail of destruction behind me that your father wound up cleaning up. He would warn me against half of my decisions and try to sway me to go another route. His way wasn’t wrong, it was just a patient way that could still be affective but would take longer. I didn’t have patience, so of course, I never listened to him, but eventually he applied his own patience to his part of the job. Yes, he took orders from me, but he didn’t execute the orders in any other fashion but his own. He did things his way, and I did things my way and together we ruled a very powerful organization.”

“How do I remind you of him?” I asked curiously. “I mean I’m not at all patient.”

He laughed. “No you’re not, but you have the same fierce determination in your eyes as your dad did. Your father would try to talk sense into me just like you did with Nikki. Your father felt he wasn’t good enough to protect someone’s life when he was able to take one so easily.” He cocked his head to the side. “You aren’t similar in that regard, but Val would take a life without hesitation, especially if it was to save someone he cared for,” he pointed to my chest. “That son, that right there is where you are, your father’s son,” he smiled. “You don’t even realize it yet, but you will and when you do, you’ll remember we had this conversation. You will remember me telling you how passionate you are and you inherited that from your father.” Emotion clogged his throat, and he fought against it to continue.

“I love my daughter with every fiber of my being and it’s killing me to know that she is in danger, that my enemies would use her to get to me. If I had my choice, I would pick your father to protect her. That is not an option but I am confident that you will do the job, maybe even better than your old man after all you are cut from the same cloth.”

“You really cared about him, huh?” I said, looking away from him. I wanted to hate Victor for many reasons, but hearing him talk about my father it was evident that the man missed my father how could I hate him for that?

“He was my best friend,” he swallowed. “My brother,” he blew out a deep breath. “I never asked him to take those bullets for me. I never made him believe that my life was worth any more than his,” he said hoarsely his voice crackling as he spoke. “I hated that he died protecting me.”

“So did I,” I admitted swallowing against the lump that was wedged in my throat. “I hated that he chose his loyalty to you over his love for his family.” I ran my fingers through my hair taking a deep breath. I was beginning to realize that I may have misplaced my anger, putting the blame on Vic but the reality was my father made the choice that took him away from us and that was becoming too much for me to handle.

“I needed my father Vic so did my mother, but his ties to you robbed us of him,” I shook my head disgustedly. “I want so badly to tell you to go fuck yourself. I want to turn my back on you like you turned your back on me all those years ago. My father died for you and you just wrote me and my mother off— “

“I did nothing of the sort!” He said cutting me off desperate to set the record straight once and for all. “How do you think I knew about Maryann’s accident Michael? Did you even wonder or were you too intoxicated to care how we just showed up at your house that night?”

I squinted at him, studying his expression. As intoxicated as I was the night of my mother’s accident, I distinctly remembered wondering how they had gotten word of her condition.

“Your mother picked up and left with you after I begged her to stay. I pleaded with her to let me take care of the two of you. It was the least I could do for your father, but she wanted no part of me not that I blamed her,” he took a deep breath. “She was bitter and rightfully so fearing you would follow in your father’s footsteps if she kept you in Brooklyn. If she kept you around me, there was a good chance she would have been right. When she moved with you to Pennsylvania, she made me promise not to contact you or her. She cried to me that I had already taken her husband away from her that she would never let me take her son,” he shrugged his shoulders. “I couldn’t dispute facts. I had been the reason she was a widow, so I respected her wishes. I stayed away even though I knew that in my heart I was betraying your father. He would hate me knowing that I didn’t take you under my wing and be a father figure to you.”

“I don’t know why I chose to honor Maryann’s wishes and not Val’s maybe it was guilt. Maybe deep down inside I knew that she was right, I
wasn’t good enough to be around you. I should’ve stayed
away, but I had always kept a watchful eye on the two of you and when I found out about Maryann’s accident, I just couldn’t stay away. For Christ’s sake I’ve ruined my own children’s lives I had no business ruining yours too.”

My mind was reeling from Victor’s confession over the last ten years I have harbored so much resentment for this man thinking that he had given up on me. It had never crossed my mind that he was wracked with guilt over my father’s death or that my mother had asked him to stay away. I always assumed since he was still sending her the rent from our old house that they had been in touch.

I stared at Victor watching his eyes become glassy as he looked back at me. I probably shouldn’t have felt bad for him, but for some reason I pitied him. He wasn’t a bad guy I mean he did some pretty fucked up shit and he was a criminal, but deep down that man had a heart. He was a man who made many mistakes a man who lived with regrets a man too far gone to ever right his wrongs. He was a tortured soul.

“I never meant for any of this to touch you Michael.”

Jimmy sounded the horn on the Escalade impatiently causing Victor to sigh and hold up his hand to him.

“I have to get out of here before I compromise the two of you anymore than I already have,” he said and then he shocked me by wiping away a tear that had escaped him. Victor Pastore was crying actually crying. That did something to me making my own emotions surface. “It was never my intention for you to be anything but a legit businessman,” he shook his head. “I’m sorry son.”

I felt raw the wounds from my father’s passing were re-opened and my mother’s death was the salt on those wounds. Victor’s words sliced through me tearing at anything that was left of me.

“I’ll take care of Nikki.” I said hoarsely.

“I know you will,” he said, pausing for a moment before he pulled me by my shoulder towards him wrapping his arms tightly around me. I fought to hold back the tears that stung my eyes as he patted me on the back reassuringly. We stood like that for a few moments before he pulled away.

“I’ll be in touch,” he said turning around towards the car, pausing once he opened the passenger door. “I almost forgot,” he reached into his suit pocket and pulled out a worn envelope yellowed from its age handing it to me.

“What’s this?” I asked, clearing my throat and taking the envelope.

“It’s a letter your father wrote me years ago when we were just soldiers,” he said, climbing into the truck reaching for the door. He looked at me one more time before closing the door. He rolled the window down as Jimmy started the car.

“Don’t be a cowboy,” Victor said his parting words of advice.

I watched as Jimmy left tire marks along the muddy earth driving away from me.

I glanced down at the envelope folded it in half and shoved it in my pocket. I took a deep breath, my head was pounding, and I was dreading the drive down to Florida. I turned around and headed towards the cabin.

Nikki was in the shower when I walked back inside so I decided to get our shit together while I waited for her that way we could hit the road as soon as she was done. I knew we would have to stop for clothes and shit, but I was planning on driving straight through, no overnight stops. I wanted to get to Aunt Gina’s and lie low. My fucking nerves were beyond shot.

I took our new I.D. Cards the credit cards and the knot of cash that Victor had left us and shoved it into my suit jacket. I couldn’t wait to get this fucking thing off. I glanced down at the coffee table to make sure I had everything when I noticed the newspaper. I grabbed it and my eyebrows shot up in shock as I read the headline. Get the fuck out of here the little shit was dead?

I diverted my eyes towards the bathroom door picturing Nikki inside upset over Rico’s death. I didn’t like the idea of her crying or feeling the loss of that prick, but I couldn’t control her feelings. I understood grief I was the poster child for it and knowing that Nikki was suffering from it tugged at something inside of me.

“For fuck’s sake Victor,” I hissed to the empty room. Just when I was starting to feel sorry for the guy, he goes and whacks Nikki’s boyfriend. It wasn’t enough that she was coming down from the shootout and being told that she had to drop everything and hide out in Florida now she had to mourn the death of the guy she was with. I may not have liked Rico may have actually despised him and pegged him all wrong for my Nikki but still I knew that there was something there at one point something that made her fall for him. Nikki wasn’t the naïve type she wasn’t the girl who believed in fairy tales and certainly didn’t think Rico was Prince Charming. She had the ability to see the flaws in people and I believed that she knew Rico’s that they were coming to light to her over the last few weeks. Still, it didn’t lessen the blow that the man she once had a solid relationship with was now dead. I was man enough to respect her grief for him whether I liked it or not was a different story.