“What’s wrong with Duke?” Bella asked as she stood up too.
“Yes, ma’am,” said the capo. “They’re escorting him up now.”
Everybody was confused. “Who’s escorting him up?”
“Our guys. He just ran into the lobby like it was just another ordinary day. It was so shocking they almost didn’t even realize it was him. But it’s Duke. We’ve got Duke back!”
Roz took off running out of that penthouse faster than anybody else. Mick and Teddy hurried behind her. Nikki ran to the bedroom to let a distraught Jackie know what was happening, and both of them took off running out of the penthouse too. But Bella, confused, just stood there.
When Jackie ran into the corridor, her parents and Teddy were already waiting at the elevator door. She ran so fast to that elevator that she slid up to them because of her momentum. She had to grab her father by his arm to stop her slide.
And then the elevator doors slid open and they all saw that it was true: Duke was on that elevator. Unharmed.
Before he could take one step off, his mother, Jackie, and Nikki ran onto that elevator and grabbed him into their arms. All of them were sobbing uncontrollably.
The security chief that was on the elevator with Duke walked off and Teddy pulled him aside to find out what he knew about the situation. Mick was listening in, but he was also staring at his son with nothing but relief in his heart.
“Duke said the van stopped, there was a commotion, and then they dropped him off a couple blocks away,” the chief said. “He ran into the lobby and we couldn’t believe it was real.”
“Get our guys to find every available video camera in a four-block radius around The Carson,” Teddy ordered. “I want pictures of the faces of everybody that was in that van tonight if we can get them on camera. I want names too.”
“Did we get a plate on the van yet?” asked the chief.
“It was stolen,” Teddy said. “Belonged on somebody’s Hyundai. We got nothing there.”
“Damn,” said the chief.
“Just get those videos,” Teddy ordered.
“Yes sir,” the chief said as Duke was taken off of the elevator. The chief got back on it and left.
Jackie and Nikki had Duke surrounded as they kept their arms around him and walked him to the penthouse.
But Roz looked at Mick and Teddy. Because she was baffled. “Why would Frankie do this to us? He had to know taking Duke away like that would devastate us. Why would he take our child like that, and then five hours later just give him right back?”
But Duke’s fast return gave Mick a completely different perspective. Because he knew Monk too well. “He wouldn’t,” Mick said to Roz.
They looked at him. And for the first time since their ordeal began, Teddy and Roz could see that Mick was completely baffled too.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Roz walked gingerly down the hall inside the penthouse and peeped into the family room. Duke and Jackie were seated on the sofa, with Jackie’s head laying on her brother’s shoulders, as Duke ate a big bowl of cereal and they watched a movie.
“You can tell me the ending if you want,” Jackie said to him.
Even Roz was shocked. Duke was too. He glanced at his twin. “But you hate when I do that.”
Jackie didn’t respond. She was so relieved to have her brother back that she’d give him the world if she could.
Duke was touched. He felt the same way about her. “Thanks, but no thanks,” he said. “I won’t spoil it for you. I don’t do that anymore.”
Jackie smiled. Roz did too, and then left them feeling as if she was on top of the world herself. She went back up front.
But she could hear tense conversations coming from Mick’s office as she walked up the hall toward the front. When she entered the office, she saw Teddy, Nikki, and Big Daddy, along with Reno and Sal as they all stood around Mick trying with all they had to get Mick to stand down.
But Mick was already suited up in his long, tricked-out white coat, his black trousers, and his black turtleneck. And he had his arms case open and was packing his person with various weapons of war.
Roz’s heart dropped. “What are you doing?” She hurried over to Mick.
