The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(45)

“You were singing a different tune the other day,” Adrianna accuses, her tone more subdued, the fight in her diminishing.

“I didn’t know he was dying, Reese’s. That changes everything, I understand why he made the choice he made. Think about it, since the day they locked your father up he’s always had his hand in something, think back to the visits in the jail and the respect he gets from the COs. Look what he did for Jack, how he helped to get Blackie released, he’s always had some sort of control. The only way he’d ever lose control is if he lost his life.”

My head was spinning trying to make sense of everything Anthony was saying but as much as I wanted to see the silver lining in Victor’s decision I harbored too much resentment. Anthony knew Vic’s business like the back of his hand, he understood the life and its consequences and even knowing that what he was saying was probably true I didn’t want to hear it.

I was so sick of the mob and everything it stood for.

I was always second to the mob, decisions that should’ve been between me and him never were, they were decided between him and his associates, him and his underboss, him and his lawyer.

Just once in thirty years I would like to be asked my opinion.

Just once I would like to come first.

I turn around and spot Nikki sitting on the couch crying staring off into space. Walking over to her, I wrap my arms around her and cradle her to my chest, consoling her as she breaks down and cries.

The front door opens and Michael walks in stopping in his tracks as he glances around the room at us. His eyes zeroing in on Nikki as she pulls out of my embrace and stares back at him.

“You told them?” He asks, stepping toward her but again he freezes causing me to curiously study Nikki’s face.

“Told us what?” I ask, my eyes darting back and forth between the two of them.

“Shit,” Michael hisses.

“Nikki?” I coax, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“I got bad news from my doctor.”

I instantly felt the air leave my lungs as the words left her mouth and I asked myself, how much can one family possibly endure?





Chapter Seventeen




I swipe my hand along my face, scratching at the scruff that lines my jaw as I try to think of what to say to the man sitting across from me. I came here with every intention of ripping Victor a new asshole for springing the whole Rocco thing on me and pulling the wool over my eyes. But before I could give him the lashing he deserved the son of a bitch told me he had lung cancer.

“How long have you known?”

He folds his hands neatly on top of the table as he holds my gaze.

“A while,” he admits vaguely.

My eyes work him over, trying to find the signs I likely ignored but aside from the occasional coughing fit and the few pounds he’d shed, I had nothing. He still looked as dapper as ever. Even in his white canvas sneakers and prison jumpsuit.

Fucker.

“I can’t imagine they send the doctors from Sloan Kettering to this joint,” I seethe, shaking my head as I lean back in my chair.

He smiles faintly.

“It wouldn’t matter if they did. I’ve refused all treatment,” he reveals. I open my mouth to criticize his decision, but I stop myself. I don’t know that I wouldn’t have made the same decision given the circumstances.

“When I found out it was already stage four. There is no use in putting myself through that, putting my family through that, only to prolong the inevitable,” he says as he shrugs his shoulders. “I’m behind bars, Jack, it’s not like I’d have more time to spend with Grace and the girls. They gave me a year tops, it’s been two,” he grins cockily, a trademark just like the suits he used to wear. “It’s like God knows I have a plan I need to see through.”

“Or the devil knows,” I mutter.

All the same,” he agrees.

“Your family know?”

The smile disappears from his face at the mention of his loved ones and he averts his eyes to the other inmates visiting with their families and not their biker buddies.

“I told Gracie her last visit up,” he says, turning back to me. “The woman I thought would love me until my death is starting to hate me.”

“Brother, I’ve been in that woman’s presence quite a few times, even after they locked your ass up, she’s got nothing but love for you. The kind that doesn’t die when you do but finds you long after your ass is buried. That woman will be loving you even as the flames climb your limbs and drag you to hell.”

His face remains still as stone as he digests my words, giving them some thought before he finally speaks.

“You’d know first-hand how easily those flames can climb,” he quipped.

That I do.

There are still times I close my eyes and zone out to the memory of Jimmy Gold’s body helplessly hanging as the flames danced up his body. The image is so vivid and so real I can almost smell the flesh burning, and fuck me, it excites me.

“My lawyer came here yesterday, the transfer is set for the Friday after next.”

“Two weeks,” I reply, blowing out a ragged breath. They were transferring him to a maximum security prison down south where our number one enemy was caged. Victor would make that motherfucker meet his maker. The G-Man was going down and Victor Pastore was the one making it happen. One last hit for the mobster everyone knew and loved.