When they looked across the shipyards and saw that one of their cargo vessels was on fire, Nikki and Teddy took off running. Roz was about to run, too, but Mick grabbed her and put her in his Escalade. “You wait here,” he said as he locked the doors. It was a bullet-proof, tricked-out vehicle. She would be safe there.
But as soon as Mick took off running toward the docks, Roz slid onto the driver seat, pressed the Start button, and drove to the docks. But Mick, Teddy, and Nikki still got there before she did.
But she was nobody’s fool. Although she was there, she didn’t get out. Mick would kick her ass if she took it that far.
Jason Russo, the dock supervisor, hurried to them.
“How many men?”
“At least forty were in the area,” Jason said as the men from the other cargo ships came over with long, thick hoses and attempted to put out the fire. “But nobody was onboard. There are a few minor injuries,” Jason added, looking around at the few men being attended to, “but nobody was badly hurt.”
“Thank God,” said Nikki.
But Teddy looked at his father. Because both of them knew what that meant: Monk went easy on them.
After a few moments, Teddy said the quiet part out loud. “This is definitely Monk’s retaliation.”
“More like an olive branch than a full-blown retaliation,” said Nikki.
“I agree,” said Teddy. “But the question is,” Teddy said to Mick, “do we let this stand? Or do we escalate anyway?”
Mick just stood there. He was not the kind of man who allowed a hit on anything pertaining to his family or work without annihilation. Fuck retaliation. But he’d already proven his point. And besides, this wasn’t a normal hit. This was a hitby a man he greatly respected. A man, he also realized, wanted to end the beef.
“Let’s clean this shit up,” Mick said, and then made his way to his Escalade.
Teddy and Nikki both exhaled. It was the end of a war that could have gotten so ugly that it might have taken all of them out.
“You heard the man,” Teddy said. “Clean this shit up.” And then he left too.
And Nikki, although second-in-command but far below Teddy in terms of real power, happily did as she was ordered.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
FOUR DAYS LATER
“I don’t like being late.”
“We aren’t late, Duke, for crying out loud.” Teddy couldn’t believe his kid brother. “Why do you keep going on about being late? What are you talking?”
“Let’s just do this.”
Teddy, who appeared irritated himself, looked at Jackie. “What’s with your twin tonight?”
“He’s nervous for Mommy,” Jackie said. “This is supposed to be her big comeback performance and he wants everything to go right.”
“How many times do I have to tell you people that Roz never left? You have to leave to have a comeback. She’s been doing shows all along.”
“But not as the lead,” said Jackie. “This is her biggest show in years. It’s a big deal, Teddy.”
Teddy leaned back and exhaled, tired of his kid brother and sister going on about a comeback, as the driver of their SUV pulled over to the curb. Their bodyguard, one of the capos in the Sinatra syndicate, got out from the front passenger seat and stood at the back passenger door. Truth was, Teddy had jitters too. Because he knew better than his younger siblings how much this performance meant to his father’s wife. Roz and Teddy were extremely close. Roz was close to Nikki too, but she told her deepest, darkest secrets to Ted.
Nikki, who was also in the SUV and texting on her phone, looked up.
“Who were you texting so vigorously?” Jackie asked her.
“My baby girl is in Florida with Gloria. I wanted to see what she was up to.”
“Is she up to no good?” Jackie asked with a grin on her pretty face.
