Forbidden Temptations (Tempted Series Book 2) (18 page)

The offensive banging on my front door woke me from the best night’s sleep I had in well, probably years. I groggily looked beside me for Adrianna to find my bed empty. I sat up quickly, saw the closed bathroom door, and let out a sigh of relief. I hadn’t put too much thought into the morning after but I was sure I wanted to talk to her. I wouldn’t dismiss her like I had before. I also wasn’t foolish enough to believe this was anything more than one night with the woman I love.

The banging persisted forcing me to climb out of bed and reach for a pair of sweats in my drawer. The last thing I needed right now was someone intruding in my time with A. Especially when I had no idea where to even begin with this whole thing between us. I raked my fingers through my hair and padded into the living room. I pulled open the door, ready to clip whoever the fuck was ruining my morning and came face to face with Victor.

Fucking man was a hemorrhoid I couldn’t get rid of.

“What the fuck do you want Victor? Do you know what fucking time it is?” I said, agitated. My body tense and alert knowing that Adrianna was somewhere in my apartment, the last thing she fucking needed was daddy dearest getting involved in what had transpired between us.

“Yeah well if you fucking answered your phone I wouldn’t have had to drag my ass all the way over here before the sun came up,” He said, pushing on my door and barging into my apartment.

“Why don’t you come in?” I said, sarcastically slamming the door closed before turning around and leaning against it. I didn’t give two fucks what Victor’s opinion of me happened to be, but Adrianna was a different story. She wouldn’t want another altercation with her dad. Things were messy between us, there was a lot of shit to discuss, things to figure without adding Victor and his poison to the mix.

“Jimmy’s parking the car,” he said, walking into the living room and glancing around.

“Yeah, well tell him to wait in the car and make this shit quick.” I said glancing at the closed door to the bathroom and then back to Victor.

He raised an eyebrow at me, taking a seat on my couch, sporting a pretty amused look on his tired face.

“Ah, I see,” he said, leaning back against the cushions of the couch making himself right at home as his arms stretched across the back of the couch. “You’ve got company.”

He glanced over his shoulder towards the bedroom.
“Did I wake her?”

“No, she’s long gone,” I lied, hoping my voice traveled loud enough for Adrianna to hear me and that she stay put. “Victor, just get to the fucking point of your visit and then get the fuck out, yeah?” I ground out, my patience wearing thin as I crossed my arms against my bare chest.

He frowned before leaning forward, reaching for something on top of my coffee table. Whatever he took from the table captivated his attention, dropping it from one palm into the other before lifting his eyes and smiling mischievously at me.

“She left behind a parting gift,” he said, holding a diamond hoop earring between his fingers.

I stalked over to him and plucked the earring from his fingers, shoving it into the pocket of my sweats.

“Get out.”

“Where are your manners Anthony?” He asked tauntingly.

“Bend over and I’ll show you where they are.”

“Fine… I’ll lay off of you,” he said, chuckling for a moment before his face grew serious. “It’s good to see you getting back in the saddle, son,” he leaned forward placing his hands on his knees as he looked up at me with an expression of sincerity. If I wasn’t used to Vic’s shit or didn’t know for a fact he was a bullshit artist I might’ve believed him. The truth was, he spewed this shit because of his ulterior motive. “I’m glad you’re moving on from Adrianna, I know it’s not easy but you could agree with me when I say you’re both better off.”

“Let me clear something up for you Vic,” I respond, taking a seat on top of my coffee table so that I sat directly in front of him. “If I turned around tomorrow and decided I wanted your daughter back, there wouldn’t be a goddamn thing you could do about it. I stay away from her and the kid because that is my choice. I choose not to fuck with their lives because I’m associated with the likes of you. I know what I am. I live with the man reflected in my mirror and unlike you, I care about them enough not to load the shit I am onto their lives. Don’t for one second think you and your warnings have anything to do with my decision. If I want her, I’ll take her.”

He stared at me for a moment. “I didn’t come here to discuss the torrid relationship you share with my daughter.”

“Good, then you shouldn’t have a problem getting to the fucking point,” I said evenly.

“We have a situation that needs to be handled immediately.”

I swiped my hands roughly down my face hating that Adrianna was in the next room with her ear pressed up against the door. I didn’t discuss my business with A for a number of reasons. I didn’t want her to realize the animal I was or the shit that I’m capable of but mainly because she was already at risk by being Vic’s daughter. She was already deemed a weakness in the eyes of the enemy as the daughter of the mob boss. Add her being my girl, she’s a prime target for anyone who wanted to fuck with Vic or me. The less aware she is the better off she was, the safer she could be. If an opposing family wanted to bring us to our knees, she’d be the way to do it. I’
d sing like a fucking canary if her life depended on it. That being said, discussing business with her in the next room didn
’t sit well with me. I pushed the grim thoughts of someone capturing her, torturing her until she gave up what she knew out of my mind and set my eyes on Vic.

“A body has surfaced,” he said slowly. “It’s bad, real bad.” He sighed.

“I take care of my shit, Vic. So if you’re here to point fingers I’m telling you flat out it’s not one of mine,” I’m on point with my marks. The ground could settle, the earth may part and you wouldn’t find my shit.

“I know,” he said. “It’s one of Jimmy’s.” He lifted his eyes to mine. “It’s the hitman that murdered Val.”

“Fuck,” I growled. After Val died, Vic lost his mind, to say he became crazy with guilt would be an understatement. The entire organization devoted itself to avenge Val’s death and Vic wouldn’t stop until every man that played a part in his underbosses death paid. He ordered the hit on the man that riddled Val with bullets, tortured the son of a bitch and he deserved it. Vic didn’t care about the repercussions, he should’ve waited until the dust settled on Val’s death, but there was no talking to him. It didn’t matter that the police were sniffing around, waiting for Vic to make his move, they stalked the fuck out of him. After Jimmy did the job, they brought all of us in for questioning on the disappearance. They knew Vic was responsible but without a body, there was no case.

“I’ve had an unmarked car tailing my ass since yesterday morning. “I’m not sure what they have, if they even have anything. My guys say it’s out of their hands and has become a RICO case.”

“Fuck,” I said. RICO charges were no fucking joke, Racketeer Influenced and Organized Crime was federal and provided a loophole for extended criminal penalties. Vic didn’t just have the cops breathing down his back he had the feds. He was fucked. We all were. Because if they were investigating him for a murder that took place years ago that meant they were sticking their noses in a lot of other shit. My guess was they were going to be building a case against him and this body surfacing was just the beginning of what they were going to uncover. We’d all go down with Vic, myself included, and this time I’d go down for shit I actually had been ordered to do.

All the Feds needed to do was prove, within a ten year period, two crimes under RICO activity on a list of thirty-five crimes, twenty-seven of them being Federal and eight being State. Two crimes. Vic’s list was a hell of a lot longer than thirty-five crimes – shit was going to get ugly for us.

“I called in a favor to Jack Parrish, he’s got a guy on his bank roll that can get us the intel we need.”

“We’re taking this to Satan’s Knights?” I asked, trying to shut down the million fucking scenarios running through my head. “You sure that’s wise?” It’s not that I didn’t trust Jack or his brothers. They’ve helped us out of a lot of fucked up situations. I don’t know why they’d get in deep with the Feds when it had nothing to do with the MC.

“It’s our only option. He’s willing to help in exchange for the warehouse in Jersey, seems like a fair enough trade. You know what we have to do, don’t you?”

I stared at him knowingly but I didn’t say a word.

“We take out the pig investigating the case and wipe out whatever shit he has on me.”

He wanted to kill a fucking cop, possibly a fucking Federal Agent, and there was no “we” in the equation. He was sitting in front of me for no other reason than to order me to be the one who commits the crime.

“There’s a meeting going down, Jack will clue you in. He’s expecting you at the dog pound in an hour, he’s prepared to do the job himself, I need you there as a watchful eye.”

I stared at him for a moment digesting the bits and pieces of the plan he divulged. I didn’t like not knowing what the endgame was and leaving Adrianna to meet Parish at his compound wasn’t how I planned to spend my morning. I cupped the back of my neck, shaking my head at how fucked my life was. The quicker this shit was buried the sooner we’d be able to move on… hopefully.

I rose to my feet staring down at Vic. “Just to be clear, I’m not taking orders from Parish.”

“No one asked you to. Jack’s guy will lead you to the guy in charge of my case and Jack will be the one who handles the matter. You, you’re my eyes and my ears, making sure Jack does what he has agreed to do” Vic said, as he stood up. “And if things get messy well, then you’re there.”

“You’re relying on Jack to do the hit?” I asked puzzled, trying to figure out why he was sparing me of the gruesome duty.

“You got a problem with that?” He asked raising an eyebrow at me. I didn’t answer immediately, so he continued. “You have one hour to get to the compound,” He glanced around the apartment a faint smirk playing on his lips. We didn’t speak another word to one another. He gave me one last look before seeing himself out knowing he had the final word. In one hour, I’d be sitting down with Jack “Bulldog” Parish at his dog pound.

I watched as he walked out the door, closing it with a soft click behind him, before turning to stare at the bathroom door.

“You can come out now he’s gone,” I said softly, dreading the inevitable. She didn’t open the door, so I walked over figuring she was probably shaken up over what she had overheard and knocked on the door. “Adrianna? Baby open the door.”

Silence.

I sighed, turned the handle on the door, and pushed it open to find the bathroom empty. I leaned against the doorframe looking around the bathroom before turning and looking over my shoulder into my bedroom at my empty bed.

I clenched my fists at my sides, realizing that Adrianna had left me, ran the fuck out on me the first chance she got. It was for the best but even knowing that didn’t ease the brunt of that blow. I didn’t know what I had expected or even what I would’ve said to her this morning but still, I’d like to have had the chance. After last night, after waiting to have her for so long, I didn’t like she had left without a trace, making it like last night meant nothing or worse making like it had never even happened at all.

I reached into my pocket, pulled out the delicate diamond earring she had left behind and stared at it for a moment. Instead of having her, all I had was her earring.

I told myself that I had turned my car around and was driving back to Anthony’s because I had left behind my earring. I rationalized that they weren’t just any pair of earrings but the ones my dad have given me on my sweet sixteen – when my dad was the first man I ever loved and I was just his little girl before our relationship turned to shit. Those earrings were all I had left to remind me that my father wasn’t always my enemy, he used to be the number one guy in my world.

It sounded good in my head, dare I say even sweet, but I wasn’t the little girl holding on to what was left of her daddy and none of the fancy little scenarios I drummed up in my head would change the truth. I turned the fucking car around because I didn’t want to walk away from Anthony. The earring was an excuse to crawl back into his bed and force him to give me what I wanted.

Him.

All of him.

Not just physically but emotionally too. I wanted him in every way it mattered and I was tired of running in circles. Life is too short to not go after what you want. Why have one night when we could have forever?

I pulled into the parking spot and got out of the car knowing I had already wasted too much time. By now Anthony would be awake already letting his head get the best of him. I half walked, half jogged towards the front door of his apartment complex, reaching to pull open the glass door only for it to fly open before my hand reached the handle. I looked up and froze in my tracks as I stared into my father’s eyes.

“Adrianna?” He spoke my name sounding shocked and confused then paused for a beat repeating my name in a more controlled voice. “Adrianna.” I had heard that tone a lot growing up, it’s the tone he used whenever he was suspicious of me. His perceptive gaze perused me and nervously I shifted from one foot to another, tucking my hair behind my ears as I normally did under my father’s uncomfortable scrutiny.