“Victor Pastore you are under arrest for the murder of Rico Sanchez. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney if you can’t afford one, one will be appointed to you. Do you understand these rights as they have been given to you?”
“I do,” my father said eyes fixed on me.
“What? No! Dad, what did you do?” I asked frantically.
“I love you,” he whispered as they cuffed him. I dropped Mikey’s hands and hurried to my father before the police could take him away.
“Daddy, please! Don’t do this!” I begged. I stared at him for a beat waiting for him to react, but he never did and when I looked in his eyes, I realized that I had really lost him. My father was ready to pay for his sins. There was nothing I could do or say to change his mind. Nobody would stand in the way of his penance.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and cried into his chest.
“I love you, daddy,” I cried against him. “I’ll always love you.”
My father pulled back, giving me one final look before nodding towards the police. I sobbed as the police escorted my father out of the room.
“Come here Princess,” Mikey pleaded from the confines of his hospital bed. It took everything in me not to follow my father, but in the end, I went to Mikey. He made me push down the bar so that I could lie beside him and he carefully draped one arm around my shoulder.
“I’ve got you,” he said softly against my hair as I cried on his shoulder.
My father was the first man I ever loved and tonight I lost him when he turned himself into the authorities, but I found solace in the man I was meant to love for the rest of my life. The Valente’s and the Pastore’s never had it easy in this life we were given our father’s both fell victims to the mob, but in the end, it was mine and Mikey’s love that prevailed.
The End
Epilogue
3 months later
I walked into the kitchen of Anthony’s apartment dressed in one of the tailored suits that were collecting dust in my closet. I glanced up at Anthony, who was dressed in a suit as well, of course, it was all black the man always looked like he was going to a funeral. Sadly, I believe he lived each day of his life as if he was attending his own funeral.
He handed me a cup of coffee and nodded towards the newspaper that sat on the counter. I took the first sip of coffee reaching for the newspaper and shook my head sadly when I read the headline.
“The Day The Mob Died"
Mark your calendars New York today is the day the jury decides the fate of one of the most notorious gangsters of our time. Victor Pastore turned himself in three months ago after confessing to a slew of crimes including the murder of his youngest daughter Nicole’s ex-boyfriend Rico Sanchez. If convicted Pastore can face up to life in prison.
I stared at the picture the paper had plastered on the front page of Victor leaving the courthouse yesterday for quite some time before Anthony took the paper from my hands.
“We better get a move on or else we’ll be late,” Anthony said, grabbing a pair of miniature boxing gloves off the kitchen table.
“C’mon bro really?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re not fucking funny my pinky wouldn’t fit in these things,” I said, flicking the gloves that dangled from his fingers mocking me.
He stared at me expressionless for a moment before shaking his head as if I was some kind of fucking moron or something.
“They’re not for you,” his voice sounded as if it pained him to have this conversation with me.
“Oh yeah? Then who are they for smart ass? I doubt Victor’s going to need them where he’s going,” I said pointedly.
“Actually, the can is where I took up boxing so do us both a favor and don’t speak unless you know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“You know you’re going to miss me when I move out of here,” I told him wondering who he was going to tease, be grumpy with, and order around once I wasn’t his houseguest anymore.
“Don’t count on it Mike,” he said as we walked towards the door.
“And the gloves are for Luca,” he paused, looking down at the gloves and I swore my eyes were playing tricks on me because he had the slightest smile playing on his lips but as quick, as it appeared it was gone. I followed him out the door, wondering just how close he was getting to A’s kid. I knew that the three of them had been holed up together in a safe house close to Canada when Nikki and I were in Florida, but like everything else, Anthony didn’t elaborate on how that had played out for them. I noticed he had grown closer to the kid there was even a few times I caught him asking Nikki how Luca was. I suspect much didn’t get resolved with Adrianna though since he was still pining away for her.
Nikki and Adrianna insisted that they escort their mom alone to the courthouse. Grace was having a hard time with the fact Victor was facing jail time and I completely understood her concerns. The only life she had ever known was crashing down on her, she was about to embark on a life without her husband of thirty years. I watched my mother deal with life without my father and knew that the next few months would be the hardest for the Pastore girls. I had vowed to take care of Nikki and if that included caring for her mom and sister too then I’d do my very best.
Almost dying can change a man and so can falling in love. The last three months have been both the most difficult and the most rewarding. I put my all into recovering from my gunshot wound so that I could be there for Nikki as her dad stood trial. It was a pretty cut and dry case due to the fact that Victor cooperated with the feds. He didn’t take down anyone else in the organization and Jimmy was running things now.
When I was able to come back, home Jimmy offered me a job, but I turned him down. I felt that life had given me a second chance to make something of myself. I was determined to make a life for myself, one that I could share wholeheartedly with Nikki. I’d make my parents proud of me finally and so I got a job with the Department of Transit. On the weekends, I coach a youth football league and do construction jobs here and there when my schedule permits. I’m an honest, hardworking guy just like my mother always wanted, only I didn’t do it for her I did it for me.
Nikki is still working at the salon, but talks about opening her own someday she’s even asked me to build it for her. We spend nearly every night together, but it’s getting a little ridiculous shuffling from her mom’s house to Anthony’s apartment. I’m hoping to convince her to live with me, but I’ve been waiting for after the trial.
We pulled up to the courthouse and immediately were bombarded with reporters and cameramen asking us questions about Victor. We brush past them and head into the courtroom. Nikki, Grace, and Adrianna are already there waiting in the row right behind where the defense sits. We make our way into the row and I take Nikki into my arms and kiss her softly.
“Hi Princess,” I whisper against her soft lips.
“I’m glad you’re here,” she says, taking my hand in hers and we sit down. Moments later the courtroom fills and the warden brings Victor in. He looks at his family and mouths that it’s going to be okay. Grace sobs quietly between her two daughters, her hands are balled into fists on her lap because she’s not allowed to touch him. We all rise as the judge enters.
“Will the defendant please rise,” the judge says before turning around to face the jury. “Has the jury reached a verdict?”
“We have your honor.”
There is a pause and I swear it’s the longest pause in history. Nikki clutches my hand so tightly I think she’s broke my fingers, but I don’t say a word as I let her crush my hand.
“In the people versus Victor Pastore we find the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree,” the head juror reads and gasps are heard throughout the courtroom. Grace lets out an anguished sob and Anthony had to practically hold Adrianna up as she cried. Nikki stares at the jury in shock and I take her in my arms turning her face into my chest muffling her
cries. Victor turns around and his eyes meet mine as they continue to read the verdict finding him guilty on all counts.
I don’t know why he made the decision to turn himself in but he doesn’t look like he regrets it, in fact, he looks as if a load has been lifted from his shoulders. I’m sure he’s dying inside the thought of being in prison for the rest of my life is terrifying, especially if I had a wife and children to leave behind. The warden allows Victor to say goodbye to us before they take him back to jail as we wait now for the judge to decide his sentence. It could be days I guess not really sure, no one close to me has ever gone to jail before. All I know is that it’s my job to be there for Nikki.
After we leave the courthouse, we go back to Victor and Grace’s, and it’s like a repast after someone dies. Everyone is gathered together food is brought in and we temporarily forget that Victor is most likely going to spend the rest of his life in prison. Nikki comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my waist, leaning her chin on my shoulder.
“Can you do me a favor?” she says as her hand trails over my abdomen slowly.
Anything for you,” I say placing my hand over hers.
“Can you take me away from here for a little while?” She asks kissing the back of my neck.
I laced her fingers with mine and brought her around me so that she was standing in front of me.
“I thought you’d never ask,” I say, snatching the keys to her mustang out of her hand as I lead her towards the door. “Where do you want to go?” I ask even though I already know where I’m going to take her.
“Anywhere but here,” she says as she climbs into the passenger seat. I lean down and kiss her quickly. I will kiss her properly eventually, but not until we get to where we’re going. If I’m lucky, everything will go the way I’ve planned and I’ll even get to taste that sweet pussy of hers. I’ll ride her all the way to oblivion and make her forget all her troubles. After all, I did vow to take care of her and I planned to take good care of her tonight.
The drive is quick and when I slowly roll up to our destination Nikki looks confused. She stares out the window at my childhood home in wonderment before looking back at me.
“What are we doing here?” she asks curiously.
“Do you trust me?” I ask reaching for my door handle.
“Of course I trust you.” She says with a smile. “But that doesn’t mean you get away without answering my question,” she said slyly causing me to laugh.
I walked around the car as she slammed the door closed and I took her hand pulling her towards the house I grew up in. We climbed the stairs together before I reached into my pocket and pulled out the keys.
“How did you get the keys?” she asked as I unlocked the door.
“Jimmy gave them to me when we got back from Florida,” I pushed open the door and flicked the lights on stepping aside for her to enter the house first.
“So why are you still living with Anthony if this house is yours. I mean it’s yours, right? There’s no one else’s it could be,” she rambles on forcing me to take her by the shoulders and turn her around so she actually walks inside the house.
After Jimmy gave me the keys to the house I took a stroll down memory lane and walked through the house, it was funny how it looked just as I remembered it even though Aunt Gina and Nana had lived there for a few years. It was outdated and needed some work so I busied myself over the last few months taking out the old features and replacing it with the ones that Nikki had described to me that she’d one day want in her dream house.
I had promised her one day I’d build her the house of her dreams I may have taken the easy way out by not building it from the ground up but every detail in this house was one out of her dreams. I had stripped the place and made it look like something brand new. I’d always look at the front of this house and think of my parents, but when I walked inside, I’d welcome the new memories this home would hold the memories Nikki and I would make together. Well, that’s if she said yes.
“Oh my God, Mikey!” she exclaimed, walking through the house in awe of my work.
“Did you do all of this?”
I stuck my hands in my pockets and shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, do you like it?” I asked, hoping that it was everything she ever dreamed of.
We walked into the open kitchen and I watched as she ran her fingers over the granite countertop.
“It’s beautiful,” she whispered lifting her head as her eyes met mine. “It’s just like the house I pictured in my head.”
“Yeah?” I walked around the counter caging her against it with both my arms. I leaned down and nuzzled her neck for a moment before leaning my forehead to hers. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked, wrapping her arms around my neck. “Why is that?”
“Because I want this to be home, but it can’t be unless you share it with me,” I say huskily my eyes darting down to her mouth briefly before lifting to meet her eyes again.
“Move in with me Princess,” my words don’t come out like a question but more like a demand as my hands moved to her hips. In one swift move, I lift her onto the counter top and position myself between her legs.
“What do you say? You and me forever?”
“Forever and ever,” she says, wrapping her legs around my waist. I don’t give her a chance to say anything else as my mouth slams onto hers sealing our promise to share forever with one another.
Dear Vic,
I don’t know why I’m writing this letter to you, it's probably because this shit with Rogers scares the living daylights out of me. It was different when we were first starting out, less responsibility I suppose. We were just two guys from Brooklyn who wanted to be successful, we wanted to rise above what people thought we were. People in the neighborhood didn't think we’d amount to much hell our own folks didn't either. Maybe we should've listened to our mothers when they said take all the city tests at least we would’ve been able to retire with a pension. There is no retirement plan for us. We’re in too deep the only way out is in a box or in cuffs and I'm really not sure which is worse.
We are in the middle of a war and it would be a goddamn miracle if we both came out of this shit alive. When honest soldiers that defend, our country go to war, they get medals and all sorts of honors when they become a casualty. Not us, we get a headline in the newspaper calling us thugs. So why did we do it? Why did we choose this lifestyle over all the honorable ones we could’ve had?
We were greedy that's why and, in some circumstances, lazy too. It was always easy to turn a quick hundred bucks into a thousand without having to punch a clock. It was no sweat off our backs to throw on a ski mask and rob a truck full of electronics to sell on the streets. Those were the days. The days when we would blow up the whole neighborhood on the Fourth of July and the cops would help us instead of looking to arrest us. The days our kids looked up to us as if we were heroes and not the criminals we are.
Even though we took the illegal path, we tried our best to stay true to our families and ourselves. We didn’t want our shit to touch them so we tried our best to give them the finer things in life, telling ourselves all the while what we did was okay because we still were honorable when it mattered most. I think that’s why this situation with Rogers is keeping me up at night. I wouldn’t want the drugs he’s trying to push onto our streets to touch my son. I lay awake thinking if we fail at this and Rogers gets the upper hand who is to say ten years from now I don’t bury my son because he overdosed on Rogers’ product. I don’t want that and if I can do something to change that, I am going to do it. If our organization can accomplish one good thing by keeping the kids in this neighborhood safe then all the bad shit we have done may just be worth it.
I want you to know that even though I’m having mixed feelings about this situation I wouldn’t change a thing about our partnership. The loyalty we have for one another is unheard of, especially in our world. I would jump in front of a gun for you because I know you�
��d do the same and not because we’re abiding by some code of honor but because we’re brothers. Maybe not by blood but by everything else and that shit runs deeper than blood that doesn’t leave you when you die it stays with you and goes wherever the fuck you go when you check out.
I know that without any doubt in my mind that if only one of us comes out of this thing the one left standing will do right by the people we love. I know that if I don’t make it out of this you will give my boy a chance at a good life, you’ll be there for him and teach him how to be a man and not the kind of man you and I are but the kind that we had hoped we would’ve been. I know that you’ll teach my son the right way, that you’ll show him a different path. One that he can hold his head proudly and say he took. I also am sure that you would take care of my Maryann. I hope you know that I’d do the same. I think you do, I like to believe that you do anyway.
Let’s shut this motherfucker down Vic. Let’s do it for our kids so that they never know how ugly life can be. Let’s do it for the two kids we once were and if the temptation wasn’t there maybe those kids would’ve had a chance at something better.
I’ve got your back and I know you’ve got mine,
Val
© Copyright
Forbidden Temptations
By
Janine Infante Bosco
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Published by Janine Infante Bosco
Edited/formatted by: Jennifer Bosco
Cover Design by: Hang Le
The Tempted Series: Collectors Edition Page 29