“Nobody else. Just Ricardo and Spank.”
“Who’s their money man?” Mick asked her.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Mick, and don’t hurt me because I’m not lying. I just know Spank’s working for Ricky and Ricky is the man that answers to the big boss man. That’s why you can’t kill Ricky. He knows who the money man is.”
That gave Mick another idea. “What part did he play in that ambush in Fangen?”
“He was the middle man like I told you. He hired that police chief and gave him money to pay all those cops that were involved.”
“You came back from the dead right around that attack. Was that a part of it too?”
She nodded. “I was there to distract you while they kidnapped either your wife or one of your children or Teddy or Nikki. But Mick promise me you won’t hurt Ricardo. He’s the middle man. He can give you the name of the mastermind.”
Mick and Teddy looked at each other. “Spank working for somebody other than the big boss? That’s news, Pop. I never heard of that before. Spank’s always the middle man.”
Mick had never heard of it either. Spanky was always the second-in-command of any operation Mick had ever known him to be involved with too. But Mick believed Cleo. For once, he believed her.
Then he looked at his daughter-in-law. “Nikki, you’re in charge. Keep my wife safe and don’t fall for any of Cleo’s bullshit.”
“Yes sir,” Nikki said.
“Let’s go, Teddy.”
But Roz stood up. “I’m going too, Mick.”
Teddy and Nikki thought she was insane. Mick knew she was. “There’s no way.”
“But Mick--”
“You will stay here and do whatever Nikki tells you to do. Nikki’s in charge. Not you. And that’s final.” He stared at Roz a moment longer, daring her to resist, but she didn’t. She, like Cleo, knew she had no cards to play when it came to safety. The last time she defied him she ended up in that jail in Fangen. And he ended up almost dead. She sat back down.
Mick and Teddy left the cabin and walked to the first Escalade. “Follow us,” Teddy said to his capos as Mick hopped behind the wheel and Teddy got in on the front passenger seat. Their capos scrambled to get into the other two Escalades as they took off behind Mick.
Teddy looked at his father. “Think it’s time to bring the Gabrinis back in?”
But Mick knew there was still too many unanswered questions. “Not yet,” he said, as he drove onto the highway and did as he always did whenever he was behind the wheel: He floored it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Mick’s plan was for he and Teddy and all of the capos traveling in the additional two SUVs with them to park three streets over and walk to the house. They would enter it from beneath the house where that trap space had been installed.
But just as they were turning one corner that would lead to the house, a Maserati sped right pass them. Which prompted Teddy to take a good look at the driver. He nearly jumped in his seat. “There’s that motherfucker, Pop!” he yelled out. “Spank’s driving that Maserati and there’s a black guy on the passenger seat!”
Mick flipped a U-turn so hard that his Escalade was on two wheels for a second. But they landed back down to the ground with a hard thump and Mick took off after that Maserati. His capos in the other two SUVs hooked a U-turn as well and took off behind their bosses.
And the chase was on.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
But back at the cabin, Cleo was in a state of panic. But Roz and Nikki didn’t understand why.
“What’s wrong with you?” Nikki frustratingly asked her.
But she was leaned forward, crying and wringing her hands. “He can’t kill Ricky,” she said.
Nikki frowned. “Why are you so obsessed with that man? You said yourself he was trafficking you after he kidnapped you.”
“But that’s not . . .”
