I placed the cold cup of coffee in the cup holder and reclined my seat a little, trying to make myself more comfortable. I don’t even know why I’m here. Victor has ordered me to check in on Val’s wife and son and I always come back with nothing to report. It’s been going on for years and frankly, this shit is getting old. I didn’t like sitting there and spying on Maryanne or Mike; it made me feel like an asshole. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen Mike acting like a belligerent drunk and wanted to get out of the car and smack some sense into him. The guy needs a friend. I used to be his friend. But Victor doesn’t want them to catch on that I’ve been peeking in from time to time on them, keeping Victor in the loop.
Maryanne had the sense to banish Victor from their lives after Val was murdered and shockingly Vic has obeyed her wishes. Well, except for my little visits, but other than that he doesn’t show up and try to sway her to his side. Some people might say Victor should’ve taken care of Val’s family after he died but he took care of them by letting them go.
I had to give credit where credit was due and Maryanne deserved it; she escaped the mob, it’s a shame she had to lose her husband to be free. I’ve sat here many nights and watched as she struggled to reign Mike in, hoping that he would turn a corner and straighten out his life and found myself comparing her to Adrianna. It would’ve been so easy to come home and take back my girl. So easy to make a future with her and Luca but then I’d come here, and I’d see how lonely Maryanne looked and how lost Mike was. I knew that I didn’t want that for Adrianna and Luca. There were no guarantees in this world and I’d likely succumb to the same fate as Val, leaving behind a wife and kid probably even a few more kids.
After spending Christmas Eve with Adrianna and Luca, it became even clearer that pairing up with Jack to take down Victor was the right way to go. That little taste of what life could’ve been like with her fucked me up. I couldn’t go on pretending I didn’t want her or Luca in my life. I wanted them to be mine. I never thought I’d love another man’s child but what I felt for that little boy was real and something I craved more of. It was amazing how one night could make me want so much more than I ever thought I’d have or I deserved.
I had to square things away so I knew undoubtedly that I could be what Adrianna and her son needed. I wanted to be the man in her life that provided her with stability and security. A man she didn’t have to worry wouldn’t come home to her because he was shot at or because he was caught up in some bad shit that would put him away. I wanted to be a father to Luca, teach him all the shit my old man never taught me, the things I had to teach myself because he wasn’t around. And I wanted to give him a brother or a sister, maybe both, who knows. I never got to see Adrianna through her pregnancies, neither one of them, and they both weren’t anywhere near as memorable and joyous as they should’ve been. I wanted to change that for her, to take the ugly memories away and replace them with beautiful ones.
I sighed heavily, tapping my hand against the steering wheel. If I didn’t get to the bottom of this and find out who killed Danny I had no shot of any of those things happening. It all could be a pipe dream especially if Victor wasn’t responsible. It was a stretch to believe that a forensic report had been tampered with. It was more likely the case Jack was just so distraught that he was looking for someone, anyone to blame. However, just like he couldn’t shake the feeling that his brother’s death was foul play I had a gut feeling the fire wasn’t just a coincidence.
I played the facts over and over in my head, desperate to find something linking Victor or someone in the organization to Danny’s death but it felt like I was chasing something that didn’t exist. The report said the fire was caused by a faulty attic fan and cited that there had been no evidence of foul play. However, just because Danny died didn’t necessarily mean that the investigation he was working on against Victor died with him. If things had gone the way Vic had planned for them to go, Danny’s evidence against Victor would’ve been destroyed. That was assuming the FBI probably didn’t have hard copies of everything they had on him.