Mick grabbed that attacker and snatched him away from her. He began punching that man so hard that the man was bleeding after the second punch.
Mick had run to that man so fast that by the time Teddy and the bodyguard made it by Roz’s side, he had beaten that man until the man was already unconscious.
“Kick his ass, Mick,” Roz was saying angrily even as she still sat on the floor. “Kick his ass!”
But as Teddy was helping Roz to her feet and making sure she was okay despite her bravado, Mick had thrown the unconscious man to the floor and was stomping him like adog. He was stomping on his stomach, on his penis, and then repeatedly stomping him in his face. The bottom of his expensive shoe was covered in the man’s blood he was stomping him so hard.
It became so bad that it took Teddy and the bodyguard fighting hard to pull Mick off of the man before he killed him in that public space.
“We’ll take care of him later, Pop,” Teddy had to bear hug his father and whisper in his ear. “But we can’t do it here!”
And that fact was the only reason that caused Mick the Tick-ing time bomb to come back to himself and stop his assault.
Mick snatched away from Teddy’s grasp and hurried over to Roz. “Are you okay?” he asked her as he was looking all over her body.
She was nodding her head “He didn’t hurt me,” Roz said.
“You know him?” Teddy asked her.
“Never seen him before in my life. That bastard! He ruined our play!” Then she kicked him too.
“Guys, there are cameras around this place,” Teddy said. “Let’s get out of here.”
But Mick knelt down to Roz’s attacker. “Who hired you?”
“Nobody.”
“Why were you trying to snatch my wife?”
“I’m a fan. I was trying to take her to safety.”
“Bullshit!”
“I’m a fan. I liked Miss Graham since she played Bess inPorgy and Bess. I was trying to help her until she got nasty and slapped me.”
Mick looked at Roz. “Ever been in that play?”
“That was one of my earliest plays, yes,” she said.
It gave credence to what the creep was saying. That was the only reason Mick left that guy where he laid and stood up.
Then he looked at Roz again. And when their eyes met, and Roz could tell that Mick saw the pain behind her toughness, tears began to appear in her eyes. It was opening night. She was already terrified. Now this disaster! She leaned against him.
It was strange to Teddy whenever he saw his stepmother vulnerable like that even though he knew she had a lot of vulnerability. But the way his father wrapped her into his arms and held her was still mind-blowing to Teddy. The idea of his father, the harshest man in the world, showing affection toward anybody always caught him off-guard. And it always reminded him just how much he loved Roz. He didn’t treat her right. But he loved her.
“Let’s get out of here before the cops want answers,” Mick said to Roz softly as he stopped embracing her and began escorting her toward the back door.
“What was that all about, Boss?” the puzzled bodyguard asked Mick. “Why they storm the stage like that?”
“Either they didn’t like the play,” Teddy responded for Mick, “or they didn’t like Roz.”
Mick gave Teddy a hard look. He didn’t like any of his children calling his wife by her first name. Although Roz had no problem with it, they all knew Mick did. It was disrespectful to him.
“They didn’t like Mrs. Sinatra,” Teddy said in correction.
But when they walked out of that stage door and into that alleyway, and began to head toward the front where Mick’s Escalade and Teddy’s SUV were waiting, a terrified voice suddenly came over Teddy’s radio on his wristwatch. “Help! Teddy, help!”
It was Nikki’s distressed voice. And then they heard what sounded like Jackie screaming.
