Page 13 of The Tempted

“You drank half the bar,” she said again through her tight smile. Those braces paid off, she had a gorgeous smile.

“Hi, Daddy.”

Victor walked over wearing a big smile. He placed one arm around my shoulders and the other around his daughter. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one feeling no pain.

“You don’t know how happy it makes me to see you two hanging out again. Just like the old days when you two were kids,” he said, patting me on the back. “I’m glad you decided to take me up on my offer.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, turning around to try to get the bartender's attention. No fucking way was I cozying up to Victor without a drink. Wouldn’t it be a sight if I threw up on his fancy loafers? It was a very possible scenario.

“Mikey and I were just about to get out of here,” Nikki said sweetly. “It’s been a long day.”

I turned around and looked at her. Maybe she was more of the actions speak louder than words kinda chick and she wanted to show me her intentions. I was game. I winked at her to the best of my ability, but I’m pretty sure it wound up just being a blink.

“That’s a good idea. You didn’t have anything to drink, did you? Because if you did Jimmy could drive you home.”

“God no. Please, I don’t think I could handle Jimmy right now,” I said, looking past Nikki to Jimmy Gold who was standing at the other end of the bar wearing a mink coat and oh I don’t know twelve chains around his neck.

“I didn’t drink dad,” she said leaning up to press a kiss to his cheek. “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.”

“All right,” Victor said before his gaze found mine. “I have big plans for you Michael. Anthony is going to be working tonight, but tomorrow he’s going to bring you by Temptations and we will discuss your role in all of this,” he paused before turning back to his daughter. “Oh, that reminds me tell your boyfriend, he’s hired.”

Nikki’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Really?” she shrugged her shoulders. “I was sure you weren’t going to give it to him.”

“I wasn’t,” Victor said, his lips widened into a smile and his eyes were back on me. “Tomorrow around noon?”

“Yeah,” I said, knowing there was a pretty good chance I would be sleeping past noon tomorrow. I started to chuckle to myself thinking of standing up the Don in front of me. I covered my mouth with the back of my hand trying not to laugh in his face. Nikki looped her arm through mine.

“Okay, let’s get out of here buddy,” she said, dragging me away from Victor.

“See you later Daddy.”

“Be careful,” he said, kissing her forehead before he patted me on the back. “I’ll see you tomorrow son.” I rolled my eyes and let Nikki drag me out of the restaurant. Literally, she dragged me by my hand and didn’t let go even once we were in the parking lot. I didn’t have much fight in me and it wasn’t like I minded tagging behind her it allowed me a prime view of her ass. She had a perfect ass one you just wanted to sink your teeth into.

She came to a stop, holding the remote to her car up as she unlocked it.

“Stop staring at my ass,” she said looking over her shoulder, forcing me to lift my eyes from said ass.

“It’s a great ass,” I said honestly. I wasn’t going to hide the fact that I was ogling her ass. What was the point? It was like she had eyes behind her head or some shit. She treated me to an eye roll, and I wondered if she did that a lot or just towards me. It seemed like every time I opened my mouth, she rolled her eyes. She looked at me expectantly, then back towards the candy apple red Mustang that we were standing in front of. I balanced myself and looked back at her.

“You’re kidding me, right? This is your car?” I ran the palm of my hand over the backside of the car in awe of the piece of machinery in front of me. I looked back at Nikki who looked completely unfazed.

“It’s just a car,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders.

I looked at her as if she had lost her ever loving mind. It was a beauty that was making me regret all the drinking I had done because I wouldn’t mind ripping the key out of her hand and taking both beauties for a ride. I watched Nikki walk around the car climbing into the driver’s seat, turning the ignition. The car roared to life as Nikki looked at me expectantly reaching for the door.

“You coming or what?” she asked before pulling the door closed. There were a lot of ways I wanted to answer her question, but she hadn’t given me the opportunity. I stumbled around to the passenger door, pulling it open I climbed inside and slid into the seat. Some song from Flo Rida blasted through the speakers. Nikki barely waited for me to shut the door before she cranked the shifter into reverse and peeled out of the parking lot.

I clicked my seatbelt into place as she sang along with the radio, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. I took every inch of her in as she danced in her seat.

“Hey, I heard you were a wild one, if I took you home it would be a home run…,” she sang off key and louder than the actual radio. She threw one hand up in the air holding the steering wheel with the other and shook her head from side to side getting all into it. She was a sight, and a welcomed one at that. I heard a foreign sound my own laughter. She glanced at me smiling and then turned down the volume on the radio. “That’s my jam.”

I stared at her for a few moments before leaning my head back against the seat. Even in the state of mind that I was currently in it was apparent that Nikki was a handful. The thing was I didn’t mind it not even one bit. In my otherwise fucked up world, she was a breath of fresh air.

We were silent as she drove allowing me to get caught up in the streets that I once called my home. She put her signal on to make a right turn onto 86thstreet. I swallowed hard against the lump that had emerged in my throat. Just a few blocks ahead stood the bakery where my father was murdered in front. I wonder if it looked the same as I remembered it. The universe apparently wanted to fuck a little more with my emotions and as we approached Rosalie’s Bakery, the light changed to red causing us to come to a standstill right in front of where my father’s bloody body had stained the concrete.

There was no more caution tape. Why would there be? People walked in and out of the bakery carrying their baked goods. Pedestrians walked along the pavement seemingly without a care in the world. No one was thinking how a man had died in front of that bakery. No one was thinking how his blood pooled out around his lifeless body. No one thought about Michael Valente no one but me.

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