“Love you too, Kitten,” I say pressing a kiss to the top of her head. “Call your mother, see if she’ll watch Eric tonight.”
She lifts her head from my chest and frowns.
“She’s watching Tori and Luca today there is no way she will watch Eric tonight too,” she says, trailing her finger down my cheek. “Grace called Anthony and Adrianna over to discuss Victor’s transfer.”
“These mob folk are so greedy. Jack is off the grid too because Victor summoned him up to the can,” I inform her, shaking my head. “Fucking Victor, always messing with me.”
Lauren giggles before she bends her head and kisses my lips quickly. I trail my hands down her sides and hold onto her hips.
“See…now if you were talking to your parents we could’ve asked them to watch Eric,” she says.
I raise an eyebrow at her.
“You sure about that? You’d let those clowns watch Eric?”
She bit her lip, wincing as she shook her head.
“Maybe not. I mean not for a while and maybe the first time we’d supervise. Oh, fine. I don’t think I’d let them watch Eric either.”
“Now look who’s being honest.” I wink at her.
She smacks my shoulder playfully.
“Still think you should consider calling your dad.”
“I think it’s time to shut you up again, Kitten.”
“What did you have in mind?” She asks with a hint of mischief playing in those blue eyes.
Honesty was knowing my Kitten was down to play. Honesty was finding all sorts of ways to keep her quiet, well maybe not completely quiet. I like hearing her scream my name.
Chapter Sixteen
The first time Victor was shot the girls were young. Nikki was still in diapers and Adrianna was in pre-school. In those days, Vic worked nights, he’d leave right after the girls were tucked in for the night and return in the morning just in time for breakfast. It was a Tuesday; I had overslept and was frazzled, trying to get the girls dressed so Adrianna wouldn’t be late for school. I was used to doing things for the kids on my own and instead of wondering why Vic hadn’t returned I went about my day feeding and dressing both girls. I didn’t bother dressing myself and hurried out the door with mismatched pajamas only to find Val’s car blocking mine in the driveway. He and Maryann got out of the car and started for me.
He didn’t need to say the words, I knew something was wrong the minute my eyes met Val’s. Maryann took Nikki from my arms and bent down to talk to Adrianna
“Come on, sweetheart, Mikey is in the car. Aunt Maryann will take you guys to school,” she said before peering up at me. “Give your mommy a kiss,” she added.
I snapped out of my trance, smiled when I felt like dying because I was a mother and my job was to shield my daughters from the world Victor and I brought them into. I kissed Adrianna’s head and watched Maryann lead her away.
“How bad is it?” I questioned, keeping my eyes trained on Maryann as she peeled out of the driveway with our kids.
“He’s okay. He took a shot to the stomach, but he’s going to be fine,” Val said as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
“This time,” I muttered numbly as I finally lifted my eyes to his. “Until one day you knock on my door and tell me it’s not okay.”
“Not on my watch, Grace. You won’t hear those words from me,” he promised.
It would’ve been easy to believe his words, after all, they were exactly what I wanted to hear but I knew better. Even then I knew one day this would all catch up to us. Val was true to his word, he never delivered the words he promised he wouldn’t. I wish Victor made the same promise to me but he was too busy making other promises he wouldn’t keep.
That was the first time Victor cheated his fate. He’s been shot a total of six times, arrested over twenty-three times and has beaten sixteen cases. Each time I got a visit or a phone call from one of his guys and each time I wondered if that would be the time I had to sit my girls down and tell them their daddy wasn’t coming home.
Now the time has finally come and all the preparing I’ve done throughout the years is lost. I have no idea how to do this. They’re going to have questions, ones I don’t have the answers to. I wonder if I knew thirty years ago this was how it was going to end, if I would’ve married him and vowed to stand by him until death do we part.
“Ma, how many times do we have to tell you to lock the door?”
Adrianna’s voice startles me and I jump before spinning around to face her and Anthony.
“She’s right, Grace,” my son-in-law adds before bending down to kiss my cheek.
“I could’ve sworn I did,” I mumble, forcing a smile as I wrap my arms around my daughter. “Thank you both for coming. I hope Maria didn’t mind watching the kids?” I turn to Anthony and question him with my eyes.
“Watching the kids keeps her out of trouble,” Anthony replies with a shake of the head. “Or at least it stops her from breaking Riggs’ balls.”