Page 719 of The Tempted

Chapter Seventeen

I swipe my hand along my face, scratching at the scruff that lines my jaw as I try to think of what to say to the man sitting across from me. I came here with every intention of ripping Victor a new asshole for springing the whole Rocco thing on me and pulling the wool over my eyes. But before I could give him the lashing he deserved the son of a bitch told me he had lung cancer.

“How long have you known?”

He folds his hands neatly on top of the table as he holds my gaze.

“A while,” he admits vaguely.

My eyes work him over, trying to find the signs I likely ignored but aside from the occasional coughing fit and the few pounds he’d shed, I had nothing. He still looked as dapper as ever. Even in his white canvas sneakers and prison jumpsuit.

Fucker.

“I can’t imagine they send the doctors from Sloan Kettering to this joint,” I seethe, shaking my head as I lean back in my chair.

He smiles faintly.

“It wouldn’t matter if they did. I’ve refused all treatment,” he reveals. I open my mouth to criticize his decision, but I stop myself. I don’t know that I wouldn’t have made the same decision given the circumstances.

“When I found out it was already stage four. There is no use in putting myself through that, putting my family through that, only to prolong the inevitable,” he says as he shrugs his shoulders. “I’m behind bars, Jack, it’s not like I’d have more time to spend with Grace and the girls. They gave me a year tops, it’s been two,” he grins cockily, a trademark just like the suits he used to wear. “It’s like God knows I have a plan I need to see through.”

“Or the devil knows,” I mutter.

All the same,” he agrees.

“Your family know?”

The smile disappears from his face at the mention of his loved ones and he averts his eyes to the other inmates visiting with their families and not their biker buddies.

“I told Gracie her last visit up,” he says, turning back to me. “The woman I thought would love me until my death is starting to hate me.”

“Brother, I’ve been in that woman’s presence quite a few times, even after they locked your ass up, she’s got nothing but love for you. The kind that doesn’t die when you do but finds you long after your ass is buried. That woman will be loving you even as the flames climb your limbs and drag you to hell.”

His face remains still as stone as he digests my words, giving them, some thought before he finally speaks.

“You’d know first-hand how easily those flames can climb,” he quipped.

That I do.

There are still times I close my eyes and zone out to the memory of Jimmy Gold’s body helplessly hanging as the flames danced up his body. The image is so vivid and so real I can almost smell the flesh burning, and fuck me, it excites me.

“My lawyer came here yesterday; the transfer is set for the Friday after next.”

“Two weeks,” I reply, blowing out a ragged breath. They were transferring him to a maximum-security prison down south where our number one enemy was caged. Victor would make that motherfucker meet his maker. The G-Man was going down and Victor Pastore was the one making it happen. One last hit for the mobster everyone knew and loved.

“You’ll get word once the job is done,” he assured. “Retribution will finally be served.”

Retribution for the sins my club committed under our previous president’s reign. Retribution for those kids that died on Blackie’s product, for the stash his wife ingested when she killed herself. Retribution for my brother, Danny’s death, and the scars on Reina’s body. Retribution for Vic’s underboss, Val.

But retribution came with a price and that price was Vic’s life. Sure, he was living on borrowed time but once he ripped the life from our enemy he’d be thrown in solitary, spending the rest of his days by himself with nothing but the past to haunt him and the devil waiting to greet him.

My eyes lock with his as I realize this is goodbye, the last time Vic and I will be face to face. What started off as an alliance between outlaws to keep New York clean of drugs became a brotherhood of sorts. We were different and yet the same, both of us ruled different aspects of our city and our partnership allowed us to maintain control over our interests. When I first met Vic, I knew nothing about the man other than what the newspapers printed but then he shook my hand and from that very first handshake I knew he’d have my back and my club’s.

“I came here looking to raise hell on your ass for springing this shit with Rocco on me,” I start.

“He’ll do for you and your club what I no longer can,” he interrupts. “He’s young and he’ll probably make a ton of mistakes, just like you and I did when we were first starting out but he’ll always back your club.”

I shake my head as I continue to stare at him.

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