“He’s fine. And he is in Africa. He said he had properties over there he was checking on. I asked how did he hear about it, but he wouldn’t tell me his source.”
“Always Teddy,” Mick said. “They’re thick as thieves.”
And he and Roz looked at Ted, Ted smiled. “Guilty as charged.”
“I told him he needn’t come back yet,” Roz said. “I told him to wait until you’re back at home.”
Mick gave her a thumbs up.
“Do you need anything, Daddy?” Jackie asked him.
“To know that your mother is okay, and your brother, and the rest of the family are all okay too, is all I need, sweetheart. You guys are all I need.”
Jackie smiled. “I wanted to make sure it was you,” she said. “That’s why I came to your room. But it sure don’t sound like you,” she added, and everybody laughed.
“What he absolutely needs,” the lead surgeon said, “is rest. I’m going to have to ask you guys to leave and let him get his rest.”
And although most of the family, satisfied that Mick was going to pull through, left the room, Roz, Duke, Jackie, Teddy, Gloria, Nikki, Marco, and Big Daddy and Jenay remained. They were spending the night and every night thereafter until Mick was given the green light to leave that hospital. It was a given.
It was apparently a give to the lead surgeon as well because he escorted his colleagues out of the room and closed the family inside. Yes, he would tell them later that it was highly unusual. Yes, he needed his rest. But that lead surgeon wasnobody’s fool. That family was going to pay him a million dollars for one operation. They earned the right to stay.
And although Mick was still sedated and would doze off constantly, he was always happy when he opened his eyes and saw Roz and Charles and Duke and Jackie and Teddy and Nikki and Gloria all around him. It made it all worth it.
But before the night was through, he also called in Reno, Sal, Tommy, and Monk Paletti. He made it clear that he wanted no action until he was back on his feet. “Let them think they got away with it,” he said. “I want no retaliation until I’m the one retaliating.”
It was an undisputed order that all of them disagreed with, but who were they to question it? It was Mick’s life that had been on the line, not theirs. But regardless, they still would have had no choice but to agree.
Little did they know that night that just two weeks later and Mick would be up and walking with a cane.
Three weeks later and he would have discarded the cane.
And by week number four, he would declare himself completely recovered and ready to get on the battlefield.
And the entire underworld took notice. Being an enemy of Mick Sinatra was not the side any of them wanted to be on. They offered to help.
But Mick didn’t need their help on the battlefield. He needed their knowledge. Who was behind the attack? What was the motive? Why would they be so extra that they would involve an entire police department? What point was they trying to prove? Mick was convinced that once he knew the who, he would automatically know the what and why.
But he still didn’t know the who.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
ONE MONTH LATER
Nikki was on her stomach and Teddy was laying on top of her pumping so much of himself into her that she thought she couldn’t take it. Her entire body was pulsating from the feeling she always felt when Teddy was inside of her. He was so big and made her feel so full that by the time their orgasms began to wane, she didn’t have the strength to move a muscle.
Teddy didn’t either. That was why he remained collapsed on top of her.
They could have stayed there all morning. But they had a job to do: It was Mick’s first day back on the pitch. And they were going to be his personal bodyguards.
Teddy rolled off of Nikki, but still laid there. “It was fun while it lasted.”
But Nikki had something more than fun on her mind. “Your father is in the news.”
“So what else is new?”
“Did you see the article?” As she asked him, she was grabbing her iPad from the nightstand and turning it on.
Teddy looked at Nikki. “Can I at least have my breakfast first, Nikki?”
