Page 651 of The Tempted

“Yes, you have,” I heard my own voice say as I wrapped my arm around his neck and pinned him against me with my forearm as I reared the hand that held the weapon and drew it down, aiming for the same spot he stabbed my neck with the needle.

My hand never came down as Victor grabbed my hand from behind and twisted it behind my back before he pressed his knee into my back and forced me down onto the floor. Jimmy stumbled out of my arms and fell onto the floor.

“What’re you doing?” I hollered as Victor stepped over me, dropping the bible onto the floor beside me.

He never answered my question as he kneeled over Jimmy.

“Father forgive me,” he hissed as he took the blade to Jimmy’s throat and sliced him from ear to ear, blood poured out, leaving Jimmy in a sea of crimson.

Vic dropped the blade, turning his palms over to stare at Jimmy’s blood that covered his hands before he wiped down the front of his prison blues.

Victor Pastore was a man of his word.

Deal done.

He glanced over his shoulder at me.

“Tell my wife I love her and tell my girls their dad will always watch over them,” he said hoarsely before he stood on his feet, carefully stepping over the body, making sure he didn’t get another speck of blood on his fresh white kicks. He walked over to the door and pounded his fist against it until the guard opened the door.

“Take him to the morgue,” Vic muttered, looking at me one final time. “And takehimback to his cell.”

I turned back to Jimmy’s body.

“Tomorrow when you get yourself released, remember you’ve got a little life left and make it count,” Vic said before walked out the door.

I didn’t see Vic after that.

He was never brought back to our cell.

And the next morning I was released.

Just as he promised.

Victor Pastore was a man of his word.

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