Nikki was inwardly relieved. “Don’t argue with him,” she warned her husband. “You can’t make him do anything.”
“You think I don’t know that?” There was bite in Teddy’s voice. He was tired of playing referee between his father and stepmother. He and Nikki had their own issues. He wasn’t trying to be all up in somebody else’s issues too.
He settled back down. “I’ll be back,” he said, Nikki got out, and the capo closed the door.
Nikki and the twins watched as the SUV whisked Teddy away. Then Jackie looked at Nikki. “Don’t let my brother talk to you any kind of way. You’ll end up crying yourself to sleep at night like Ma does too many times.”
Nikki looked at Jackie.
“You deserve better than that,” Jackie added, and then began hurrying to the entrance to catch up with her brother and their bodyguard.
Nikki knew she and Teddy had some reckoning of their own to do, but was it showing? She started to hurry over to Jackie to ask her, but her phone rang and it was Gloria, Teddy’s other half-sister. Since Gloria was babysitting Nikki and Ted’s daughter Kimmie, she answered quickly.
But all was well. Glo just wanted to say hey to Roz and to wish her good luck. “I’m on my way inside now,” Nikki said as she hurried behind Duke and Jackie. “I’ll give Roz the phone when I get to her dressing room.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The penthouse apartment on the top floor of the luxurious Carson-Benning hotel was eerily quiet as Mick Sinatra, the longtime owner of the hotel, stared at his reflection in the tall, built-in mirror inside his huge foyer. With his hands in his pockets and his hair neatly combed, and his intense stare with his one sleepy eye appearing even sleepier to him, he looked more like the billionaire business mogul he actually was than the boss of all bosses crime lord the world ascribed to him in seemingly romantic, mythical terms.
Not that it was a myth. He was in fact the boss of all bosses and the most vicious mobster the world had ever known. But he had worked, especially in recent years, to portray just the opposite image to the world. That was why he handed over the day-to-day running of his syndicate to Ted and Nikki. It wasn’t working like a charm. He still had to clean up Teddy and Nikki’s messes more times than was reasonable. And he had to constantly stay on their asses to make certain no motherfucker alive had anything over on the Sinatra crime syndicate ever. But Teddy was the best of the best. He knew, even though he’d never say it out loud, Teddy was man enough to handle it.
But was Mick man enough to handle it anymore?
That was the question that had been plaguing him all year. It never bothered him ever that he was doing shit that could land him in prison for the rest of his life, or even on death row. He just knew that would never happen to him. But his way of thinking had shifted from thenever going to happento thewhat if it happenedstage of his life.
What if it actually happened? What if the Feds finally dropped RICO on his ass and put him away for the rest of his life? What would become of his twins? They were just beginning their grownup lives, and were beginning them as Mick the Tick’s children. They were going to need their old man unlike they ever had before.
What would become of Teddy and Nikki? Teddy would man-up and become the boss of all bosses too, Mick was convinced of that, but he always had his old man to fall back on when his sometimes questionable decisions came back to bite him. And although he knew Nikki still feared him, she always ran to him when it was getting to be too much. She relied on him too.
And Roz.
What would become of Roz?
She could be the bitch of all bitches if you crossed her. She got on his last damn nerve with that take no prisoners attitude of hers. And all of her requirements for him, especially concerning their twin teenagers and his sometimes weeks away from home, was exhausting. The twins needed to see his face and spend time with their father every single week, let Roz tell it. And that, she said, was non-negotiable. Although he was a financially-present but emotionally-absent father for all of his older children, Roz made it clear from day one that he wasn’t going to be an absent dad from the lives of the babies he put inside of her. No way, no how, was how she put it.
She’d never know how many times he contemplated divorcing her ass and all of herrequirementsand be done with her for good, only to realize within seconds of that contemplation that no way was he living without Roz. She was the bane of his existence on far too many occasions. She grated on his nerves more than anybody on earth. But she was still his heartbeat. She was his queen. Nobody was dethroning her.
But he also knew how vulnerable she could be too. That was the hidden Roz that hardly anybody but Mick got to see. He knew how devastated she would be if anything ever happened to him. She could go into freefall, and who would be there to catch her? To put her back together again if she fell? His big brother Charles was about the only one with the balls to do it, and maybe his nephews Sal, Reno, and Tommy could try to help her too. But would Roz’s stubborn ass let them? The answer, he knew, was a resounding hell no. What would become of Roz?
He took a deep breath. Nothing was going to become of Roz because he had to live his life to ensure that nothing became of him. Besides, he thought to himself as he continued to stare into that mirror, it was all a distraction talk anyway. Because, in truth, he didn’t want to do to that theater. He hated Broadway shows with a passion. That shit just seemed so fake and phony and the way it went on and on like it was some masterpiece they were performing just got to him. But he always enjoyed seeing Roz onstage. She shined up there. She was the only reason he bothered at all.
But he still hated sitting through what felt like three or four hours of all that bullshit. Especially when she wasn’t the lead actress, which was most of the time lately. But this was supposed to be her breakout performance after a lot of supporting-cast performances. She was the lead in a revival of Edward Albee’sWho’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe. And with Roz, as Martha, playing the lead. Which meant he couldn’t excuse his way out of this opening night. He had to be there.
He took another deep breath. Because he knew he was in a funk. Because attempting to run his ever-expanding business empire and to maintain his syndicate as the best in the world too, was beginning to take its toll. He had circles forming under his eyes. His handsome face wasn’t as sharp and clever as it used to look to him. In his eyes, he looked beat down.
But if any of his worldwide enemies viewed him that way, it would spell the end of his life and, more importantly, his family’s life too. That was why there was no getting out of the game for Mick the Tick. That was why he shook off any thought of being in funks and looking beat down and took on that furiously fierce look he was known for. He cut out all of those inward recitations and got on with it.
He grabbed his white shawl and his hat, made his way to his front door, and then opened it just as Bella Caine, standing on the other side of the door with her fist balled and ready to knock.
And although she was still one of the most beautiful sights to behold to Mick, she was the last person on earth he wanted to behold in that moment. “Didn’t I tell you to cut this shit out, Bella?”
But he could tell immediately this was not one of her schemes to win him back. Her face looked seriously worried. Was it their child? “What’s happened?”
“It’s not Gloria. And it’s not Dory either. Everybody’s fine.”
“Then what is it? And why aren’t you still in Rome with Dory?”
A different distressed look appeared on her face. “I’m in danger, Mick. For real.”
