Sal and Reno looked at each other. Because they knew it too.
Big Daddy was worried as well, but more about Monk’s role in all of this. “When you found out it was Frankie’s guys,” said Tommy, “what did you do?”
“What do you think I did? I tracked down every last one of those motherfuckers.”
“And?” asked Teddy.
“And we sat down and talked about cupcakes.” Mick frowned. “What the fuck you think?”
“So you believe it was Monk behind that explosion out front?” asked Big Daddy.
“Absolutely,” said Mick.
“But if Frankie’s guys started that shit,” asked Teddy, “why would Frankie retaliate if his guys were at fault? He wouldn’t do that, Pop.”
“He has no choice.”
“Why you keep saying that?!” Teddy yelled at him. He was beyond baffled.
“And why wouldn’t you go to Monk and tell him what happened when his guys took out your guys?” asked Big Daddy. “You’ve known Frankie since he was a kid. They don’t call himThe Monkfor nothing. He doesn’t play games with people. He’s a man of morals and principles and honor. That’s why they made him boss over his own old man. He’s a straight-up guy. He would have handled it himself.”
Mick didn’t respond to that. Which Roz knew meant there was far more to that story. “What aren’t you telling us?” she asked him.
When he still didn’t respond, she cut to the chase. “Was a woman involved?” she asked him point blank.
Everybody looked at her.A woman? That didn’t even cross their minds. Did she know something they didn’t know?
Then they seemed to realize all at once that Bella Caine was reportedly in Rome with Mick. At least that was the rumor.Then they looked at Mick. And it was obvious to all of them, by the look on Mick’s face, that Roz had hit that nail right on the head.
But Big Daddy, who was sometimes astounded by his younger brother’s constant involvement with these various women, took a seat in front of his desk. “Why would you have so many men in Rome? Start there,” he ordered him as only Big Daddy Sinatra could.
Roz went and took a seat in front of the desk too. The Gabrinis and Amelia and Teddy and Nikki grabbed chairs from around the conference table and took seats around Mick’s desk too.
“Answer my question, Mick,” Big Daddy said. “Why did you have that many men in Rome?”
Mick didn’t want to relive it, but he knew he had to. “It’s a security force.”
“Security?” asked Teddy. “Security for what?”
Roz was staring at Mick with a chilling look. “Was a woman involved?” she asked him again. “Was this security force in Rome to protect a woman?”
“No,” Mick said. “They weren’t there to protect any woman. They were there to protect a man.”
They all looked at each other. “A man?” asked Reno. “What you doing chasing around the world to help some greasy man?” Then he looked sidelong at Mick. “You got something else to tell us, Uncle Mick?”
Sal looked at Reno with disdain in his eyes. “He’s not his boyfriend, you moron!” he said angrily.
“Then what the fuck is he to him?” asked Reno.
And everybody looked at Mick again. It was a reasonable question.
And Mick finally came clean. “He’s my son,” he said. Then Mick said it again, as if he was finally resigning himself to that truth too. “He’s my son.”
The room went still. It felt as if they were suddenly on a different planet that they didn’t know how to navigate. And then, after they realized what they thought they heard was what they actually heard, they all looked at Roz.
But Roz, who had rose from her seat in pure shock, was staring daggers at Mick.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
