The Wild Wolf Pup (Zoe's Rescue Zoo #9)(62)
I lift my hands, spread them wide to match the way my legs are parted and stare at my sister as the officer pats me down, checking for any weapons or contraband. I roll my eyes, chewing on my bottom lip as the bitch pats down my ass.
“These people don’t know Daddy, huh?” I question my sister, averting my eyes to the guard with lingering hands. Bitch, I don’t roll that way. “Newsflash, Officer Feel Me Up, if I was going to sneak anything to my dad it would be a Soppressata and you wouldn’t be able to find it unless you had an x-ray machine handy,” I sneer, dropping my hands before I smugly walk through the metal detector.
“Be sure to tell your dad that,” Anthony says, tugging my ponytail. “He’ll get a kick out of that,” he teases, winking his crystal blue eyes.
I grab my sister’s hand as Mikey makes his way through the metal detector, snatching his father’s watch they made him remove from the basket and fastening it back on his wrist.
Adrianna squeezes my hand reassuringly as we are ushered through a series of fire safe doors, handed off to one guard after another before a big burly man dressed in a suit that was clearly three sizes too small in the waist, greets us at the end of long narrow hallway.
“Where the fuck are they taking us?” I whisper to my sister as I stare at the man who is locking eyes with Anthony.
“Bianci,” he mutters.
“Warden,” Anthony replies, holding his gaze. The two men stare off for what seems like forever before the warden glances over his shoulder at the metal door. He turns around, rapping his knuckles three times against the small pane of glass. Another correction officer opens the door and steps to the side allowing us room to walk inside.
My stomach rolls as Mikey presses his hand against the small of my back and together we follow Anthony and Adrianna inside the private room. I breathe a sigh of relief when I glance around the empty room, not ready for the moment I’ll see my dad. There’s a table centered in the room and six chairs, two on one side of the table and four on the other. I don’t question the other chair, figuring it was for a guard or something.
“Why didn’t they bring us to the visitor’s room?” Adrianna asks, turning around to face Anthony with worried eyes. “Did something happen?”
“Relax, Reese’s,” Anthony soothes, placing his hands on her shoulders as he bends his knees, making himself eye level with her. “It’s all good, baby.”
The door opens as I spin around to face Mikey and my eyes glance over his shoulder to the guard stepping out of the way for my father. I watch with trepidation as my father strides through the door. His head is down, shielding his face from my view but I notice his hair is grayer than the last time, even thinner but still immaculate, not a strand out of place.
“Enjoy your visit, Pastore,” the guard says before closing the door behind him.
Slowly, like a scene in a movie, my dad lifts his head and whatever response he was about to give the guard becomes lost on his tongue as his eyes find mine and my sister’s.
“Well, I’ll be damned,” he whispers hoarsely.
Tears blur my vision as I smile widely and run to him, wrapping my arms tightly around him. He’s thin and another man may have been knocked down by the gusto behind my embrace but not my dad. Standing his ground, he wraps his brittle arms around me and hugs me back with everything he has left inside his worn body.
“My, girl,” he whispers against my hair. His voice is different, gone was the deep lethal voice that only warmed around his family and all that cancer has left behind is a raspy voice full of strangled breaths.
I was being selfish, holding on for dear life not willing to give my sister a chance at embracing our father but I couldn’t bring myself to unlock my arms from around him. He smelt like Old Spice cologne, the generic crap they let inmates buy with their commissary not the Yves St. Laurent he usually wore.
His aging face comes into my view as he slowly pulls back. His complexion is awful, his olive skin was now gray and the whiskers he had along his jaw blended into his skin. Aside from the dark circles shadowing them, his eyes are the only feature that still resembles traces of him. Eyes that are full of pride, love and smile at me just as his mouth does.
“You’re beautiful,” he rasps, taking my hand in both of his and bringing it to his pale lips. “How’d the doctor’s visit go?”
“I’ll be okay,” I choke out.
“I want all the details,” he demands in between breaths, releasing my hands and looking across the room at my sister. Reluctantly, I step out of the way and grant my sister her time with our dad.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Adrianna, she always had a bumpy relationship with our dad. I knew she loved him as much as I did but this wasn’t only goodbye for her, this was the last chance she had at forgiving our father for all the mistakes he made.
“There’s my other beauty,” Dad says, shuffling his feet closer to Adrianna.
She didn’t try to meet him half way instead, she bowed her head and her body writhed with sobs. Anthony wrapped an arm around her waist and bent his head to whisper something only she could hear.
Dad’s pace quickened as he continued toward Adrianna. Her husband continued to whisper words into her ear and she nodded in understanding. She lifted her head just as our dad reached her and Anthony took a step back, giving him room to take his daughter into his arms and comfort her just as he used to when we were kids.