Page 50 of The Tempted
“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 any more 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 on 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.
I looked around the room mindlessly trying to decide how to console her. My eyes zeroed in on the wedding bands that were on the coffee table. I blew out a frustrated breath and placed the paper next to the bands of gold. I stared at them for a moment before picking them up dropping them in one hand and then the other. I heard the water shut, forcing me to look back at the closed door and close my hand around the rings.
I wrapped a towel tightly around me holding it against my chest with one hand and used my other to wipe the steam off the mirror. I stared at my reflection in the mirror, realizing I looked much older than mere twenty-one years old. A knock sounded on the door causing me to divert my eyes to the wooden door reflected in the mirror. Mikey opened the door peeking his head inside before he opened it entirely and stepped in.
“Hey…,” he said his eyes did a quick sweep of me. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“Yeah… I… I don’t know what the hell I am,” I said honestly. I looked at Mikey, his eyes looking just as lost as I’m sure mine did.
“Well, maybe I can help with that,” he said taking my hand and pulling me closer to him. “You’re my Nikki,” he bent his knees, making himself eye level with me. “Hey…,”
Mikey’s tender voice unraveled me and I had to look away so that I wouldn’t succumb to the tears that threatened. He tilted my chin up, and I looked at him through my blurred vision.
“I’m sorry about Rico,” he said softly, his thumb caressing my cheek as he did. “Nikki, I know you’re hurting and I know you're scared,” he paused, leaning his forehead against mine as he cupped my face in hands. “I promise I’ll keep you safe.”
I blinked, letting go of the tears I was holding on to as he dropped his hands from my face and wrapped them tightly around my body pulling me towards him. He pressed his lips to my hair as I wept. I cried for what we had been through last night. I cried for Rico mourning both the man I thought he was and the death of the man he truly was. I cried for my father and his crimes that I was sure caused many other families the pain it was not causing mine. I cried for my mother thinking of her alone in that house worried about her children. I cried for my sister picturing her in some placed locked away, holding onto her son as she tried to make things normal for him.
Mikey slowly pulled away from me placing a soft kiss to my forehead before reaching into his pocket. He opened his palm and centered in it was the wedding bands that would tie us to our fake identities. He sighed heavily, taking the larger band and hastily sliding it onto his left ring finger. I went to take the band meant for me out of his hand, but he jerked my left hand towards him before I could snatch the ring from him. His eyes locked with mine as he slid the ring onto my finger. There was a certain intensity between us in that single moment as we said goodbye to Nikki and Mikey becoming James and Sara Trunzo.
