CHAPTER TEN
“Charlie!” Roz hugged his neck. Then she hugged Deuce. “Hey Deuce!”
“How are you, Roz?”
“Tired. We’ve been at it all day. Now it’s almost midnight.”
“Long work hours.”
“And getting longer. But what’s up with you? Charles comes to see me rehearse whenever he’s in New York on business, and he drives me back to Philly. He’s a regular. What brings you to these neck of the woods?”
“I didn’t think you saw us in here,” Deuce responded.
“I didn’t. The production assistant recognized Charles and told me that man was watching me rehearse again.
I keep telling her he’s my brother-in-law, but she doesn’t believe me.
But they recognize Charles. You, on the other hand, has never seen me rehearse before.
Which makes me think this isn’t a casual drop by. ”
Deuce smiled. “It’s almost midnight. You guys put in some long-behind hours.”
“Anything for our craft,” Roz said, although she knew it was all just small talk. Deuce was there for a reason. Deuce was trying to stall telling that reason.
“You’re doing a great job, Mrs. Sinatra,” Deuce said, “from what I saw on that stage. You’re a natural.”
“Ah thanks, Deuce. But you know you can call me Roz.”
“And get my head knocked off by that husband of yours? No thanks. I was with him this morning, and he wasn’t having it.”
Just as she suspected, Mick was involved. “You saw Mick this morning?”
There was a slight hesitation in Deuce’s voice. “I did.”
“Where?”
“At his office.”
“Why? What’s up?”
Deuce looked to Big Daddy.
“Sit down, Roz,” Big Daddy said, and Roz sat down between the two men.
“What is it?” Roz asked.
“Did you know Mick was in Rome?” Big Daddy asked her.
Roz was shocked. “In Rome? I thought Deuce just said he was at his office.”
“That was this morning. He left for Rome this afternoon.”
“For what?”
“Business,” was all Deuce was going to say about it.
“What kind of business, Deuce?” Roz asked him. “And don’t you lie to me.”
“I don’t tell lies.”
But Roz knew Deuce would not have tracked her down to New York just to tell her Mick was going to Rome on business.
She knew him better than that. And she also knew Deuce, from the moment she first met Mick, always looked out for her best interest. “Who went to Rome with him, Deuce?” she decided to ask him.
Deuce looked to Big Daddy again. He’d already told Charles. Coming from him, Deuce felt, might make it easier for Roz.
“Bella went with him,” Big Daddy admitted.
Roz’s heart dropped.
“He hasn’t phoned you?” Deuce asked her.
Roz shook her head. “No.” Then she looked at Big Daddy. “You didn’t know he was in Rome either?”
“Not until Deuce just told me.” Big Daddy was inwardly angry with his younger brother. “You can take my plane, Roz. I can fly you there.”
Roz looked at Big Daddy as if he’d lost his mind. “For what? I’m not chasing that man down.” Then a tear tried to escape her big, clear eyes. “He wants her, he can have her,” she said, and got up to leave.
“Ah Roz,” Big Daddy said as he attempted to pull her into his arms. But she broke free. “I’ve got to review the notes session before we wrap up,” she said, and headed back for the stage.
Deuce looked over as Big Daddy clenched his teeth. “Sometimes I can just kill my brother,” he said as he pulled out his phone and called Mick. But it went to Voice Mail.
Charles left a particularly nasty message.
But it would be nearly an hour later, when Deuce had already left the theater and Big Daddy was driving Roz the hour-and-a-half-long ride back to Philly, before Mick bothered to return his call.
When they both saw Mick’s name on Big Daddy’s car screen, Big Daddy exhaled and answered quickly. “Where your ass at?”
“And hello to you, too, Charles.”
“Where your ass at?” Big Daddy asked him again.
“Rome.”
“What reason?”
“I’m taking care of a situation.”
“What situation?”
“What do you want, Charles?”
“You called Roz?”
There was a pause. “No.”
“Does she know you’re in Rome?”
“No.”
“Does she know you’re in Rome with Bella Caine?”
Yet another pause. “No,” Mick finally said.
Big Daddy was angry. “You’re gonna lose that good woman if you keep this shit up, Mick!” And then he added: “You don’t even try anymore,” and then he ended the call. “Bastard!”
Then he looked at Roz. But Roz didn’t want to hear it either. She continued to stare out the window.
Then her cell phone began ringing. When she saw it was Mick, she refused to answer.
It rang again. Again it was Mick.
It rang again. Again it was Mick.
By the fourth time, Big Daddy had had it. “Roz, answer that gotdamn thing!” he ordered her.
Roz didn’t want to, but she knew Mick would just keep bugging her. She answered. “What?”
“Hello to you too.”
“What do you want?”
“Given your tone of voice, I’m assuming Charles told you I’m in Rome on business.”
“What business? You said you unrigged the game.”
“Something else came up.”
“And what’s that?”
“A situation I have to take care of.”
“You can’t even tell me what it is?”
“It’s none of your business. That’s what it is. Now you know I don’t discuss that with you.”
Roz was getting so over this man’s bullshit it wasn’t even funny. “For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
“A day? A week?”
“Maybe. Maybe two weeks,” said Mick.
Two weeks? Big Daddy was shocked. But the sad thing, he thought, was that Roz wasn’t.
“I’ll call you later,” Mick said.
“Don’t bother,” said Roz, and ended the call.
Big Daddy looked at Roz. He wanted to talk about it. But Roz put up her hand. “I can’t,” she said with disgust in her voice. “I just can’t.” And Big Daddy respected that.
They drove the rest of the way to Philly in deafening silence.