CHAPTER FOURTEEN
After the police and the fire department had come and gone, and after they all had given an account of exactly what happened, Mick, Teddy, and the Gabrinis made their way back inside the house.
All of the ladies that were ordered by Big Daddy to remain inside, hurried to meet them.
Nikki hurried over to Ted. “What happened?” she asked him.
“One of our tankers exploded.”
“But what was it doing here?”
“I have no idea,” Teddy said as a phone began ringing. “Did you get everybody in from out back?”
“Everybody’s inside and safe, yes,” said Nikki. “Big Daddy, Jenay, and Gloria are with the others in the family room.”
Roz, who realized it was Mick’s phone ringing and that she had it in her hand, answered it. And then pointed it at Mick. “It’s for you,” she said.
Mick found it odd that she would have his phone. And then he realized he had left it on the table in the courtyard and she apparently grabbed it. “Who is it?” he asked as he went over to take possession of his phone.
“She said she’s your doctor,” said Roz.
Everybody looked at Mick. What doctor? But Mick took his phone from Roz’s grasp and then made his way to his office down the hall beyond the foyer.
Reno tried to follow him to his office, but when Mick walked into the office he closed and locked the door behind him.
He had effectively slammed the door in Reno’s face. Sal started laughing out loud.
“Teddy?”
Ted looked and saw that Nikki had separated herself from the group and was motioning for him to come to her. He hurried to her side. “Yeah?”
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit, Teddy. What’s happening?”
Teddy exhaled. “Pop says we’re at war.”
Nikki frowned. “War? What war? With who?”
“He hasn’t said yet.”
“Damn Teddy.”
Teddy nodded. “Damn is right. I’m the boss of the most powerful syndicate in the world and I feel like I’m groping in the dark when it comes to Pop.
He won’t tell me anything anymore. But something’s up.
I felt it before this explosion. Now I know it’s true.
We’re under warning, we’re in a war, and me, the head of Pop’s organization, don’t know shit about it.
He’s got you and me flying blind over here. And that ain’t right.”
“We need to confront him,” Nikki said. “This has got to stop.”
Teddy agreed. “Go get Big Daddy. We may need him,” Teddy said as he began heading up the hall that led to Mick’s office.
Nikki, delighted, did as she was told.
But when the others saw Teddy heading for Mick’s office, they wanted in. Roz, and then the Gabrinis, and then their wives and Amelia were all hurrying behind Teddy as he made his way to Mick’s office.
But when they got to the door and the door was locked, Roz moved up, pulled out her keycard, swiped it, and entered Mick’s home office unannounced.
Teddy and the Gabrini men went in behind her.
But after Amelia went inside too, Tommy stopped Trina, Gemma, and his wife Grace. “Wait up front,” he ordered them.
“We wanna know what’s going on too, Tommy,” said Gemma.
“Why can Roz and Amelia be up in there but we can’t?” asked Trina.
“You’ll find out what’s going on when we find out,” Tommy said in answer to Gemma.
“The reason Roz is in there,” he said, answering Trina, “is because she’ll stand up to Uncle Mick.
And nobody’s stopping Amelia from doing whatever Amelia wants to do.
Not even Hammer Reese can stop her. Unless you figure you can? ”
None of the ladies said a word.
“Wait up front,” Tommy ordered again in that understated, but unequivocal tone.
The ladies didn’t like it, especially Trina, but they did as Tommy ordered and went back up front just as Nikki and Big Daddy were hurrying to the office. Tommy waited for them, and then they entered the office together. Tommy closed the door behind them.
Mick was just ending his phone call when Big Daddy, Tommy, and Nikki walked in. And he wasn’t all too happy to see all those faces staring back at him either. He frowned. “What’s all of this?”
Roz, standing in front of his desk, folded her arms. “You’re going to tell us what’s going on, and you’re going to tell us now.”
But Mick was still Mick. “Oh yeah?” he asked Roz. “And who the fuck is going to make me? You?” Then his look turned cold. “You don’t come in here and demand shit from me. And don’t you forget that.”
But Roz wouldn’t back down. “What’s going on, Mick? Now you tell us what’s happening so we’ll know what kind of danger we’re in. A tanker just blew up in front of our house. We have children,” she said with emotion in her voice.
And it worked. Because as soon as she mentioned the children, Mick placed his hands on his hips and blew out a harsh exhale. He knew he had to come clean. He was standing behind his desk looking drained, they all thought, when he finally told what he knew.
“There’s a war going on,” he said.
Big Daddy frowned. “A war?”
“What are you talking?” asked a puzzled Sal Gabrini.
“You remember Danny Cerva?” Mick asked.
“Danny Cee? Everybody knows him.”
“Danny Cee works for Monk,” said Teddy. Frankie “The Monk” Paletti” was Teddy’s best friend. That was why he was confused when his father hesitated before answering him. “Pop? Danny Cerva works for Frankie, right?”
There was another slight hesitation from Mick. “Yes.”
Everybody was stunned. Especially Teddy. “Are you telling me we’re at war with Frankie?” Teddy’s voice was filled with disbelief.
Mick hated it too. “That’s what I’m telling you, yes.”
Everybody was astounded. But Teddy was shaking his head. “No way, Pop. No way!”
“How could that be, Uncle Mick?” Even Reno was baffled. “Monk Paletti wouldn’t double cross the family like that. He is family.”
“He has no choice.”
“What does that mean, Pop?” Teddy was getting distressed. “You got to tell me what that means because that don’t make no sense to me. Frankie wouldn’t do that.”
“Didn’t I tell your ass he has no choice?” Mick fired back. “As the head of the Bonaducci Crime Family, he had to pick a side. Us or them. He couldn’t go against his own syndicate.”
“But he’s our ally,” said Teddy. “We’re on the same fucking side!”
“Not anymore,” said Mick firmly.
That momentarily silenced the room. Even Big Daddy was troubled. He knew how far Mick could go. He also knew there was no turning back when Mick crossed that line. “What happened, Michello?” he asked his younger brother.
It was still disturbing to Mick. So disturbing that he sat down in the high-backed chair behind his desk.
When Mick still didn’t respond, Big Daddy lost it and slammed his fist on the top of Mick’s desk, causing everybody in that room to jump in shock.
“Monk Paletti is married to my daughter,” Big Daddy said angrily.
“Which means my child is involved in this shit. Now your ass better tell me what happened, and you’d better tell me now! ”
It was as if everybody had forgotten that Big Daddy’s adopted daughter Ashley was married to Monk Paletti.
Including Mick. That was why Mick ran both of his big, scarred hands down his face.
Then he leaned back in his chair. He looked between Teddy and Big Daddy, both of whom had the most skin in the game. “I got a distress call.”
“From whom?” Tommy asked him.
“From somebody I know. So I flew to Rome to see what was going on.”
“Now wait a minute,” said Sal Gabrini. As the second most powerful mob boss in the world, second only to Mick himself, he knew neither one of them had time to drop everything the way it was just described.
“This math ain’t math-ing, Uncle Mick. Since it wasn’t family, who the fuck was so important that you’d drop everything and fly all the way to Rome just because they needed help? ”
It was a great question to everybody, but Mick didn’t answer it.
“When I got to Rome,” he said, “there was chaos. I had to handle some business, but it didn’t start out on the right foot.
We were taking casualties. On the first round, twelve of my men that were stationed there were already down, and six others were badly injured and heading for their graves too.
And those responsible were made men from the Bonaducci syndicate.
There is no question about that. They were from Monk’s organization. ”
But Teddy was frowning. “What are you talking, Pop? Twelve men and six more? That’s eighteen men. We don’t have any men stationed in Rome, let alone eighteen of them.”
“That’s what I was thinking too,” said a confused Nikki. “Where did all of these men come from? We don’t have any capos in Rome.”
“We don’t,” Mick responded. “But I do.”
Teddy looked at Nikki and shook his head. How in hell were they expected to run a syndicate when the so-called former head of that syndicate had cells all over the world that he never bothered to tell them about? Yet they were supposedly the boss and the underboss of the Sinatra Crime Family?
No wonder nobody believed it. Mick was not the titular head of head of the SCF the way it was designed when he stepped back, but he was the actual head of the SCF and always would be in their eyes.
Teddy would always be seen as the underboss he used to be, and Nikki would always be seen as Teddy’s assistant and nothing more.
Despite their best efforts, they knew now unlike they’d ever known before that it was never going to change.
Perception was reality in the mob world and with all of those cells around the world Mick was doing everything in his power, if you asked Teddy and Nikki, to keep that perception alive.
Sal and Reno looked at each other. Because they knew it too.
Big Daddy was worried as well, but more about Monk’s role in all of this. “When you found out it was Frankie’s guys,” said Tommy, “what did you do?”
“What do you think I did? I tracked down every last one of those motherfuckers.”
“And?” asked Teddy.
“And we sat down and talked about cupcakes.” Mick frowned. “What the fuck you think?”
“So you believe it was Monk behind that explosion out front?” asked Big Daddy.
“Absolutely,” said Mick.
“But if Frankie’s guys started that shit,” asked Teddy, “why would Frankie retaliate if his guys were at fault? He wouldn’t do that, Pop.”
“He has no choice.”
“Why you keep saying that?!” Teddy yelled at him. He was beyond baffled.
“And why wouldn’t you go to Monk and tell him what happened when his guys took out your guys?
” asked Big Daddy. “You’ve known Frankie since he was a kid.
They don’t call him The Monk for nothing.
He doesn’t play games with people. He’s a man of morals and principles and honor.
That’s why they made him boss over his own old man.
He’s a straight-up guy. He would have handled it himself. ”
Mick didn’t respond to that. Which Roz knew meant there was far more to that story. “What aren’t you telling us?” she asked him.
When he still didn’t respond, she cut to the chase. “Was a woman involved?” she asked him point blank.
Everybody looked at her. A woman? That didn’t even cross their minds. Did she know something they didn’t know?
Then they seemed to realize all at once that Bella Caine was reportedly in Rome with Mick. At least that was the rumor. Then they looked at Mick. And it was obvious to all of them, by the look on Mick’s face, that Roz had hit that nail right on the head.
But Big Daddy, who was sometimes astounded by his younger brother’s constant involvement with these various women, took a seat in front of his desk. “Why would you have so many men in Rome? Start there,” he ordered him as only Big Daddy Sinatra could.
Roz went and took a seat in front of the desk too. The Gabrinis and Amelia and Teddy and Nikki grabbed chairs from around the conference table and took seats around Mick’s desk too.
“Answer my question, Mick,” Big Daddy said. “Why did you have that many men in Rome?”
Mick didn’t want to relive it, but he knew he had to. “It’s a security force.”
“Security?” asked Teddy. “Security for what?”
Roz was staring at Mick with a chilling look. “Was a woman involved?” she asked him again. “Was this security force in Rome to protect a woman?”
“No,” Mick said. “They weren’t there to protect any woman. They were there to protect a man.”
They all looked at each other. “A man?” asked Reno. “What you doing chasing around the world to help some greasy man?” Then he looked sidelong at Mick. “You got something else to tell us, Uncle Mick?”
Sal looked at Reno with disdain in his eyes. “He’s not his boyfriend, you moron!” he said angrily.
“Then what the fuck is he to him?” asked Reno.
And everybody looked at Mick again. It was a reasonable question.
And Mick finally came clean. “He’s my son,” he said. Then Mick said it again, as if he was finally resigning himself to that truth too. “He’s my son.”
The room went still. It felt as if they were suddenly on a different planet that they didn’t know how to navigate. And then, after they realized what they thought they heard was what they actually heard, they all looked at Roz.
But Roz, who had rose from her seat in pure shock, was staring daggers at Mick.