But she shook her head. “I have no idea. He’s not going to confide in me anymore.”
Mick stood there. Then he looked at Teddy. “I want security inside this house. Nobody outside. That makes them an easy target for DeSouza and we aren’t going to lose any more men.”
“Yes sir.”
“And I want you and Frankie to stay here tonight. If he shows back up detain him and call me right away. I need answers before that asshole might be able to give me. Err on the side of keeping him alive for right now.”
“And after you get those answers?” Cleo asked him.
Mick looked at her. “What do you think?” he said, and then he left. Tommy and Reno left too.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Later that night, Mick was in his bathrobe as he sat at the pool just outside of Teddy and Nikki’s guesthouse. He’d taken up temporary residence there after Roz kicked him out of their home. But now that she’d made her decision crystal clear, he knew he had to find more permanent living arrangements. He knew he’d have to leave a home he had for decades, and that he built up with his imprimatur all over it, because of his own stupid ass.
He took another sip of his wine. What he most feared in his life had come to past. He was going to grow old alone. Even his beloved Rosalind couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore.
But that didn’t mean he was ready to give her up. He wasn’t. He was certain he’d never be ready.
Oh God, bring her back to me.Please bring her back to me.
What was he going to do without Rosalind? How could he have thrown away the best thing that ever happened to him? She’d warned him year after year after year that she was going to get fed up with his drama and leave him. But year after year after year he continued to bring on the drama anyway. He continued to run her away.
Was it on purpose?
Did he love her so much that he knew she was better off without him, and that his actions down through the years was giving her the permission structure she needed to leave him?
He knew better than that. His ass had never been that unselfish in his life. But then why didn’t he heed her warnings? Why did he let it come to this???
His heart was aching for Roz. He was anguishing for her. He wanted to lay beside her again and hold her again and . . . And what? And tell her that he loved her again when he rarely ever told her any such thing? He brought this on himself. Period full stop. He lost the love of his life and he lost her on his own terms. It was something he was just going to have to accept. He caused this. He did this. It was out of his hands now.
He drained the last of his drink and sat the glass on the side table. He could sit up here all night and point the finger in only one direction. But what good would it do? He got up, went into the guesthouse, and took his ass to bed.
Although he was tired to exhaustion, sleep still wouldn’t come. He tossed and turned. He laid on his back staring at the ceiling. He compared his grand guesthouses to this little shithole Teddy and Nikki had. Knowing they didn’t have any luxurious accommodations, at least not poolside, they insisted that he stay in the main house. But he said no. He needed to be alone. As if he wasn’t already.
But when sleep finally looked as if it was going to overtake him, knocks were heard on the guesthouse door. Which spooked Mick. They found that bastardalready?
He leaned up on his elbows. “Come in!”
There was a hesitation, and he was about to yell it out again, when the door finally opened and to his utter shock Roz walked in.
It was so unexpected that Mick, at first, was vintage Mick. He just stared at her with that look that bordered betweenyou’re heretowhy are you bothering me?
But Roz knew Mick so well that she didn’t take that look on his face personally. He was always a man who had to size upsituations before he embraced them. But when she closed and locked the door and slowly walked up to his bedside, that guard that he had up came tumbling down and she could see his facial tension ease. But he was still staring at her suspiciously as if he just knew she had the divorce papers in her hand and wanted to serve that revenge up nice and warm and rub it in his face.
But Roz had no such thing in her hands nor her mind. Because, like Mick, she’d been thinking long and hard too. And she’d reached a conclusion.
She sat on the edge of his bed. He laid back down and continued to look at her. Just seeing her gorgeous face, including those high cheekbones he adored, was enough to make a grown man cry. How could he have blown it so spectacularly? How could he have not seen this day coming when Big Daddy, when Amelia, when Tommy, when Teddy, when even Duke warned him time and time again that it was going to happen? That Roz was one day going to be once and for all done with him?
But his arrogance wouldn’t let him believe it. Women were breaking down doors to be next to him, but Roz was breaking down doors to get away from him? His slick ass just couldn’t believe it.
Now it was upon him.
He had no choice.
He noticed that Roz was dressed in a pair of shorts and one of his white, long-sleeved dress shirts, and she wore no bra, as if she threw something on and came on over. But she just sat there. She still hadn’t said a mumbling word.
So Mick relieved that responsibility from her. That was the least he could do. “Everybody okay at the house?” he asked her.
