“What?” asked Teddy. “I’m going to see Frankie.”
“Like hell you are,” said Sal. “He just sent your ass a warning. This is no test of your friendship, Teddy. Fuck your friendship! We need a plan.”
But Jenay was worried about her adopted daughter. She Amelia looked at Big Daddy. “What about Ashley, Charlie?” she asked him.
But Big Daddy could be a hard, ruthless man when it came to people, including his own children, suffering the consequences of their actions. Mick got a lot of his ways from his big brother. “She made her bed,” Big Daddy said. “She went against my wishes and married herself a mobster. That’s the life she chose, and wars are a part of that life. That’s on her. That’s her responsibility.”
But Jenay wasn’t trying to hear that. “What are we going to do about it, Charlie?” she asked her husband. “Those bullets don’t care who they hit. But if one touches our daughter’s black ass, then I’m coming for your white ass. I’m holding you and you alone responsible for making certain Ashley is safe. How’s that for responsibility?”
Big Daddy could see how much this news was affecting Jenay. Inwardly, it was tearing him apart too. But before Jenay allowed him or anybody else see her crying, she turned and went back into the house.
Everybody else followed suit, with Reno and Sal making certain Teddy went inside with them.
But Big Daddy and Amelia remained outside.
“Jenay’s right you know,” Amelia said.
“What do you suppose I do about it?”
“Frankie will listen to you, Charles. He’ll at least listen. Maybe we should go see him.”
Big Daddy looked at his biracial half-sister as if she had a few screws loose. She always loved being in on the action. It was the greatest bone of contention between her and Hammer Reese. And that nature of hers to be gangster like them always drove him and Mick nuts. “If he’ll listen to me,” Big Daddy said, “what I need you for?”
“I’ll be the muscle,” she said, “in case he doesn’t listen.”
Although she smiled, Big Daddy shook his head. “I thought Hammer Reese ordered you to stop that gangster shit, Millie.”
“You can take the woman out of that gangster world, but you can’t take that world out of the woman. What can I say? We have different fathers from different races. Which literally makes us as different as black and white. But we come from the same gangster mother.” She hunched her shoulders. “It is what it is. We’ve got to go and make sure that Monk understands therisk of Ashley getting harmed. Jenay won’t object, I’ll bet you that.”
Big Daddy knew it too.
“Now are we going to do this,” asked Amelia, “or are we going to talk about what Hammer doesn’t want me to do?”
Big Daddy looked around. He knew Mick would have a fit if he knew they were involving themselves in his mess, but somebody had to intercede or Mick might take them to a place of no return. And Big Daddy knew better than anyone else that when bullets flew, they could hit anybody. Including his child despite the choice she made.
“Let’s go,” he said. And they didn’t delay. They hopped into Amelia’s Maserati and took off.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The GPS took Mick and Nikki to an empty shopping center parking lot in west Philadelphia. When they saw Roz’s Mercedes parked alone in one of the spaces, Mick stopped on the side of the building to stay out of Roz’s sight. It was late night. The shopping center had long since shut down and everybody had gone home. Why she chose that particular location was a mystery to Nikki.
She looked at Mick as he was just sitting there, staring at Roz’s car as if he torn about being there. As if he was watching something he wasn’t sure he should have subjected himself to watching. It was a weird vibe.
Nikki wasn’t usually bold around Mick. Nobody, except for maybe Roz and Big Daddy, were. But that news of this son hit her hard too. She knew how she felt when she found out that Teddy had a grown son too. She could only imagine how Roz felt.
She decided to start there. “I spoke with Marco earlier,” she said.
Mick continued to stare at that car. “Did you?”
“He’s in Barcelona breaking in a new port of call before we commit to any shipments. He says he likes it there.”
“His ass is on assignment too much,” said Mick. “He needs to pick a spot and settle down.”
“That’s what Teddy told him. He’s hardly ever at any family functions when the family is still trying to get to know him better.” Then she decided to try it. “It hasn’t been all that long since Teddy told me he had a grown son.”
Mick had already known where she was going with that sudden conversation about Marco, so he continued to stare at Roz’s car. Until Nikki stopped being so cagey.
“I’m going to ask you what I asked Teddy when Marco came on the scene,” she said to Mick. “Are you certain he’s your son?”
