Jimmy was so badly scarred the only thing that made him recognizable to the people who knew him was the gold tooth he flashed when he opened his mouth to gasp. His eyes moved back and forth between me and Vic, finally deciding to stay glued to the man he once called his boss.
I forced myself to keep my eyes on him, ingraining his appearance to my memory, then I remembered what my brother’s said Jack did to his finger and I looked down.
The Bulldog took a saw to his pinky finger and sliced through the bone just as Jimmy had done to his blood brother Danny.
Five fingers on one hand.
Nine on the other.
I realized why Jack didn’t kill him that day.
Suffering is worse than dying.
And this motherfucker suffered.
Now it was time for him to die.
It was time to put him down like the fucking dog he was.
“We meet again, Jimmy,” Victor crooned, as he ran his fingers over the leather cover of his bible.
“Guard!” Jimmy shouted.
“They won’t save you,” Victor said, calmly as he took a step toward Jimmy. “No one can.”
Jimmy opened his mouth to speak but really, what could he say? He was sorry? Cry for help? There was no one there to hear his pleas. And God was before him, ready to bring him into the land of eternal temptations.
But before God had the chance to take him I was going to. I slid my hand into my pocket as Victor circled Jimmy.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this reunion, to see your face, to look you in the eye and tell you who the boss is,” he seethed. “Always wanted the title didn’t you? You didn’t give a damn what you did or who you killed to get to the top. That was your first mistake…wanting what was never yours. The second was killing Val, that man was my brother, someone you never could hold a candle to. The third was fucking with my children, bringing that guy around Nikki, using her to get me out of your way. I won’t even start about the heartache your hand caused Adrianna. If you hadn’t killed Val, I never would’ve sent Anthony to prison. But I’ll take the blame for that one.” He paused, as he opened the bible.
It’s now or never.
I closed my hand over the screw and took three steps closer to Jimmy.
“You kept going, leaving a path of destruction behind you. You’ve drawn blood and left scars, you’ve killed and you’ve stolen…now it’s time for you to ask God for forgiveness,” he said.
I closed my eyes, and I was back in that basement, standing in front of Reina, pleading for her to hang on to Jack as she reminded me of the girl with the sad eyes waiting for me.
Leather and lace.
“Forgive me father for I have sinned,” Jimmy cried.
“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 take him back 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.
Chapter Forty-one
I strode pass the barbed wire fences; the sun beating down on the worn leather jacket on my back and I spotted Riggs leaning against his truck. He pulled his sunglasses off and smirked at me, spreading his jacket wide and revealing a t-shirt that read Free Blackie.
“How fucking great is that? Wolf had them made,” he said, pushing off the car and taking a step toward me.
I glanced down at the writing on his shirt and then back at his face.
“They sent the pretty boy to pick me up?” I said, reaching for him to pat him on the back and do the manly hug thing.