“It never does. Does it, Nikki? Your ass makes too many fuck-ups.”
“That’s not fair,” Nikki said. “I do my job.”
“Like hell you do! I want you off the line. Teddy, you let senior capos handle the field. I want you to stay in this office and get my shit back online. It’s these kind of fuck-ups that have the Feds breathing down my neck!”
“She’s got this, Pop. Did she mess up? Yes. She admits that. But she got them back online as soon as she figured out the mistake. It was an innocent mistake.”
“There’s no such thing as innocent mistakes in this line of work! We missed deadlines. We missed supplies going out. That’s a sign of weakness to my enemies. They feed on that shit. I will not allow my name to be dragged in the mud because of her continued mistakes!” Mick settled back down. “You heard my order.”
Teddy couldn’t argue with his old man because he was telling nothing but the truth. Nikki messed up. She had to take the noise just like he had to take it whenever he messed up. It was the only way she was going to learn. “Yes sir,” he said to Mick.
A part of Nikki felt betrayed by Teddy. She would have hoped he had fought harder for her. But the bigger part of her knew Mick was absolutely right. She fucked up. There was no two ways about it. She didn’t object.
“Are all the trucks back on time now?” Mick asked her.
“Every single one,” said Nikki.
“Why were two of them pulled out of rotation this morning?”
Teddy’s heart dropped. But Nikki didn’t flinch. “No trucks were pulled out of rotation this morning,” she said. “I checked up and down the line. Every truck is on time and on schedule.”
But why did Mick bring it up? Teddy quickly leaned up, pulled up the schedule on the laptop in front of him, and checked the schedule. Then he looked at Mick. “Nikki’s right. None of our trucks were pulled this morning.”
“I’m glad you knew immediately,” Mick said to Nikki. “That means you’re back on top of things. You’d better keep it that way.”
Nikki hated to be the subject to one of Mick’s tests, but it came with the territory of being the underboss of his organization. “Yes sir,” she said.
“How many have been pulled?”
Another test? Or the same test? “How many, sir?”
“Yes, Nikki, how many?”
“None.”
Mick stared at her. “We’re in a war with Monk Paletti. He’s already blown up one of our tankers. And with that knowledge you’re telling me that you didn’t pull a single tanker out of rotation? Or at the very least change the rotations? I can understand the flatbeds. They have to move. But the tankers too?”
Nikki didn’t know what to say to that. But Teddy did. “If we started pulling our tankers just because Monk blew up one, then we’ll be showing weakness, Pop. It’ll be as if he can take us off our game. We can never show weakness or it’ll be open season on the family.”
“You don’t think I know that?” Mick asked. “Your ass don’t have to tell me that.”
“Well I’m telling you, Pop, because that’s the way it is. I gave the order to keep them in line because we won’t give Frankie the satisfaction. That calls on me.”
Mick stared at Teddy. He was whose abilities Mick greatly respected or he would have never put him in charge.“You sound like a man who has accepted the fact that Frankie ain’t shit right now. Did you try to talk to him?”
“I tried. But he won’t take my calls,” said Teddy. “I even went to Jersey to talk to him, but his guards trained their guns on me.On me!” There was bitterness in Teddy’s voice. “And he refused to let me through the gate. I’m trying to stop this shit from escalating any further, and he don’t wanna hear it.”
“He’s in a bad spot, Teddy,” said Roz. “He’ll lose control of his syndicate if he allow Mick to get the best of him.”
“I understand that.”
“Mick took out nearly half of his syndicate. It’ll be open season on him and his family, including your cousin Ashley, if he shows weakness toward Mick. What would you do if it was you and your organization?”
“Ma, I know all that. Okay? I get it. But me and Frankie, we’re best friends. I understand he’s got to respond. He’s got to. But we could have figured out a response that would have been just enough to send a message, but not enough to keep the escalation going. That’s what I was trying to do. But he won’t even talk to me.”
“Big Daddy called Ashley,” said Nikki.
This interested Mick and Roz. “What did she say?” asked Roz. “Don’t you tell me she wouldn’t take Charles’s call.”
