Nikki leaned against him. “He just got here a few minutes ago. I text you.”
“I know.” Then he leaned against Nikki and whispered: “Bella’s at his penthouse.”
Nikki looked at Ted with surprise in her eyes. Then she shook her head. She’d never figure those two out. But that was their business anyway. She was there to support Roz. That was all that mattered that night.
And when Roz finally appeared on stage to thunderous applause, not just from the twins and Nikki and Teddy, but from the entire audience, Teddy looked over at his father. He was expecting him to be happy to see her back in top form again too. But Mick wasn’t clapping at all. He wasn’t even smiling. He was, instead, staring unblinkingly at Roz.
Roz.
He saw no one else on that stage but her. They’d been together a long time and he still got butterflies whenever she entered a room. All those younger, beautiful ladies that threw themselves at him practically every single day, as if Roz was just another somebody in his life that didn’t mean shit to him, were clueless. She meant the world to him.
But he also knew her better than anybody else alive. And on that stage she seemed unsure of herself to him. As if shewasn’t certain she could pull off such a hefty role after years of all those supportive, okay roles. Hard as she worked. Devoted as she was. But Broadway never fully embraced her. Not the way they embraced other actresses of her caliber. But she kept on striving. She kept on putting the work in. She kept on hustling. She would fail, and get right back up.
But all of that rejection was taking a toll. If nobody else in that theater saw it, Mick saw it.
Roz was scared.
She was reciting her lines and making all the appropriate gestures and trying with all she had not to seem as if she was just going through the motions. Because she wasn’t. She never phoned it in.
That was why he was shocked when the booing started.
Everybody looked to the middle of the theater. That just wasn’t done on Broadway. At least not like that faction of young people were booing and hissing. It was getting so loud that the performers couldn’t continue the performance. It got so loud that Mick considered dragging their asses out of that theater himself.
But just as Security was hurrying toward the group to do just that, those same hissing young people jumped from their seats as if they were a flash mob and began running toward the front to storm the stage.
The audience members upfront began screaming and running for cover as those agitators began jumping over their chairs and knocking them over to get to that stage.
Because Roz was on that stage, Mick was already on his feet and running for the front as soon as he realized what was happening. His clandestine bodyguard, that was also in that theater seated behind him, took off running to protect the boss.
The other capo, who was there to protect the twins, rushed to their side. “Stay with the family!” Teddy ordered theircapo. “Get the twins out of here!” he then ordered Nikki as he ran behind his father.
But Duke, scared for his mother, attempted to rush the stage too. “Forget this,” he said angrily. But Nikki pulled him back. “Let me go!” he yelled as he wrestled to break free from her. “I gotta get my mama!”
Nikki angrily grabbed him and slung him against her. “You listen to me, Duke Sinatra, and you listen good. Teddy and your father is handling that. They’ll take care of her. Your ass will do exactly what I tell you to do. Now let’s go!” she said, dragging him along.
Duke had forgotten, just that quickly, that his father would have never allowed Nikki to be the underboss of his syndicate if she didn’t have what it took. He also remembered how his father felt about Nikki and how he would kick his ass if he disrespected her. That was why he stopped resisting and allowed her and their bodyguard to usher him and his sister out of that now-chaotic theater.
But as Nikki was hurrying them out of that theater, Mick and Teddy and Mick’s bodyguard were on stage searching frantically for Roz.
It was madness times ten as that loud faction from the audience had turned into what appeared to be hundreds of people on that stage. People were fighting the disruptors in defense of the performers. The disruptors were brutalizing the performers. Others were just up there because that was where the action was. And theater security was trying with all their might to break it all up.
But where was Roz???
Mick and Teddy had to knock people aside as they searched frantically for Roz. But she was nowhere on that stage.
Then Mick and his bodyguard ran offstage left, while Teddy ran offstage right as they searched backstage for Roz.
Mick ran down a long, winding corridor, kicking open doors, but there was no sign of Roz. He ran and ran, and kicked and kicked. His heart was racing with so much fear that it felt as if it was going to drive out of his chest. But he couldn’t stop running and searching and searching and running until he turned another corner and Teddy was running toward him. They had effectively run into a circle.
“Where could she be?!” Teddy asked anxiously.
But Mick wasn’t answering questions. He began running down another small corridor. Teddy and Mick’s bodyguard hurried behind him. But when they turned yet another corner, that was when they finally saw Roz.
She was fighting with all her might against a man who was attempting to get her out of that back door. When Mick and Teddy saw her, she was scratching her abductor’s face with her long nails, and he slapped her so hard that she fell on her butt.
The bodyguard was stunned. Did that idiot just slap Mick Sinatra’s wife,and right in front of Mick Sinatra??? He couldn’t believe it!
Mick couldn’t believe it either as his already hammering heart plunged when he saw it with his own two eyes. He raced up to Roz as the attacker attempted to grab her again.
