Mick took that shit about Sal possibly having something to do with what happened at that cabin off the table.
But that didn’t ease his distress. He opened his suit coat, and leaned his head back. Although Mick usually presented himself very well, these last few days were different. He needed a shave. His thick hair needed a comb. His clothes looked slept in. It was all taking a toll, and they all saw it.
So much so that Nikki’s heart went out to him. “We’re going to figure it out, Dad,” she said to him.
“But when, Nikki?” Mick was frustrated. “It’s been over a month and nobody knows a damn thing. Not one thing. My children are still on lockdown. Jackie has to take her college courses remotely. Duke is going stir crazy. Gloria wants to get back to Florida and Marco wants to go to clubs again. They want their lives back. And my wife wants to leave me.”
That last complaint was the thrust of his frustration and all of them knew it. He needed to just say so. He’d feel better if he just called a thing a thing.
But Mick wasn’t going there. He had to deal with his personal life later. “I’ve got armies in the streets looking foranswers and nobody can tell me agotdamn thing. And now the only person that at least gave us some intel has been snatched right from under my nose? And they killed my men like I’m some fucking new kid on the block? I’m Mick Sinatra and they’re toying withmelike this? Who the fuck are they????”
“I know that’s right,” said Reno. It was a truth that all of them were wondering.
“Ricardo said he was the guy,” Teddy said. “You don’t buy it, Pop?”
“I don’t know what to buy. I don’t know him like that. I don’t know his ass at all. But it feels different. Like something I’m missing.” Then he exhaled. He ran his hand across his face. “Find Cleo. We find her, we’ll find DeSouza.”
“There’s no blood,” Tommy said, looking around the cabin. “There’s no forced entry.”
“And there’s no Sal either,” Mick said again and dared anybody to dispute that fact. “Get a cleanup crew over here,” he ordered Nikki, and then he left the cabin.
They were all flustered.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
When they arrived at Mick’s heavily-fortified mansion, and Mick went to open his front door, the door was locked. He put in the code, but he got a denial. As if somebody had changed the code.
They all knew who that somebody was, but nobody said a word. Mick didn’t even say a word. He banged on the door angrily, but nobody opened it. That was when he initiated code override, something nobody else could do but him, and the door unlocked. Which made Reno nod his head in agreement for Mick having that ultimate control over his own front door. Nobody was ever going to have the upper hand over Uncle Mick. Not even Roz.
Mick opened the door, and they all walked in.
Duke and Jackie were on the sofa, seated side by side like the close twins that they were, buried in their phones. But when Mick walked in they stopped what they were doing and looked at their father as if he was a stranger.
But Mick was pissed. “Didn’t you hear me banging on thatgotdamn door?” he asked his two youngest children.
“Yes sir,” Duke said.
“Then why your ass didn’t open it?”
Duke didn’t want to give the reason. But Jackie was always direct. “Ma said don’t open the door for you.”
Mick’s jaw tightened. Reno and Tommy glanced at each other. They both knew Roz was out of line if that was true. But she was a woman fed up. “Hell hath no fury, Reno said.
“Is Sal here?” Tommy asked the twins.
“No sir,” Duke said.
“Has he been here?” Tommy asked.
“No sir.”
They tried to reach Sal and his underboss on the drive over, but his phone continued to go to voice mail. Now Tommy was getting worried. That was why he called Sal’s wife. When Gemma said the words he wanted to hear, he looked at Reno. “She heard from him.”
Everybody looked at Tommy. “Put it on Speaker,” Reno said.
Tommy placed the call on Speaker. “Where is he, Gem?”
“He said he was taking care of some business and that he’d be home later tonight.”
