CHAPTER FIFTEEN
She stood there in that dignified pose of hers they often saw whenever she was appearing in a Broadway show.
With her smooth, dark skin and her high cheekbones, and with those eyes that knew how to cut any man down to size, she always came across as a woman you would be wise to never cross.
That was why the eyes of everybody in that room were riveted on her. But her eyes were riveted on Mick.
And then finally, without batting an eye, she spoke. “You have another son, another child, that you never bothered to tell me about?”
Everybody noticed that Mick couldn’t even look at her.
He was tight in his chair, with his elbows on the arms of the chair, and his long fingers in the air and pressed together as if he was forming a tent around his intentions.
It was as if he was in deep contemplation of his next move, not the bombshell he’d just dropped on his own wife. “Yes,” he said to her.
But before Roz could say another word, the door of the office flung open and Jackie, followed by her twin Duke, ran in.
“Daddy, he did it again!” Jackie yelled as they hurried up to his desk.
“No I didn’t!”
“Yes you did!”
“No I didn’t!”
The room plunged into confusion again. “What the fuck is this about?” asked Reno.
“What did he do again, Jackie?” asked an agitated Big Daddy. “You know better than to bust into your father’s office like this!”
But Mick seemed to appreciate the reprieve from that firing squad called Roz. “What did he do again?” he asked his daughter.
“We were watching this movie about somebody killing college freshmen. But Duke had already seen it before so he told us who done it. He told us who the killer was like he’s stupid. He ruined the whole movie for the rest of us. He’s stupid like that, Daddy.”
“I was just horsing around.”
“No you weren’t. You’re just evil like that. You’re stupid like that.”
“Stop saying that,” Duke said.
“I’ll say whatever I want,” Jackie shot back.
Their distraction worked for Mick. He needed it. But it was so unexpected to Roz that it unhinged her. There she was in the middle of a slow-burning meltdown, and her children had just rushed in over foolishness!
But Mick was all into it. “That’s not stupidity,” he said, looking angrily at his son. “That’s selfishness. That’s a total disregard for the feelings of others. And I told you, Duke, no Sinatra will behave that way.”
“I know that’s right,” said Big Daddy.
But Roz would have none of it. “Get out!” she yelled at Duke and Jackie.
“But Ma, it’s so unfair. Make him stop.”
“I said get out!” Roz yelled again.
Before Roz did something harsh like slap the shit out of them, Nikki jumped up and ushered Duke and Jackie out of the office. “Let’s go,” he said, and the twins, knowing they could push their mother just so far, followed her lead.
And even though Mick appreciated the distraction, Roz’s full attention was still on him. As soon as their twins walked out of that office, she picked right back up where she left off. “Are you saying to me that you have another son?” she asked him again. “Is that what you’re saying to me?”
Mick finally looked at her. He hated to see the pain on her face. “Yes, Roz, I have another son.”
Everybody could see how that response alone did something to Roz. A sudden flash of rage crossed her elegant face. But she still had to ask the crucial question. “Was he born after you met me?”
Everybody looked at Mick. Mick hesitated, but he answered her. “No,” he said. “He’s in his twenties. No.”
“Did you know you had this son before you met me?”
Another hesitation. That wasn’t good. “I was told somebody else was the father. I found out a couple weeks ago that I’m the father.”
“You knew two weeks ago, but you’re just telling us?” asked Teddy. “You’re just telling Ma?”
“Why would you tell Roz something like this in front of all of us anyway?” asked a flustered Big Daddy.
He was a man that believed fervently that everything should be done decently and in order.
Mick, he felt, was out of order. “This was something you should have told her privately, before anybody else, and you should have told her when you first found out.”
“I was still checking it out for myself, Charles. I wasn’t going to tell her or anybody else anything until I had a chance to see test results.”
“The boy is in his twenties and you never bothered to take a DNA test?” asked Big Daddy.
“A DNA test was taken when he was first born. It supposedly showed that Ron Toscano was his father. When I got to Rome, I clandestinely got my son’s DNA and had it tested. I did that when I got to Rome. I got the results back a few days later, but I already knew.”
“I thought you said you didn’t know.”
“I knew it was a possibility for years,” Mick admitted. “But I . . .”
“But you what?” asked Roz. She was still staring at him as if she didn’t know this person anymore.
“I didn’t pursue it,” Mick said.
That sounded weird to everybody in that office. “Why the fuck not, Uncle Mick?” asked Reno. The idea that he would have a son in this world and decided to ignore that child was mindboggling to him.
But he wasn’t Mick. “That’s my business,” Mick said.
“Was he the reason why you had so many men in Rome?” asked Teddy.
Mick nodded. “I had men in Rome, but most of them weren’t stationed there. They flew over with me.”
“So they were our men?” asked Teddy.
“Yes.”
“And eighteen of our men are dead or dying?”
Another hesitation. “Yes.”
“Because you unilaterally decided to go to war with Frankie Paletti?”
“Wrong question,” Sal said to Teddy. He knew the dress-down was coming.
And Mick didn’t hesitate. He frowned at Teddy. “What the fuck do you mean I unilaterally did it as if I need permission? Who the fuck was I getting permission from? You? Nikki? You better get the fuck out of my face!”
But Nikki didn’t flinch. This was past feelings now. “Is your son the reason we’re in a war with Frankie?” she asked Mick point blank. “Answer that question!”
The Gabrinis began glancing at each other. Nobody had ever seen mild-mannered Nikki so animated. And at Mick of all people. They expected another dressing down. But they also knew Mick favored Nikki in inexplicable ways and always seemed to cut her some slack.
And they were right. Mick answered her question with no prevaricating. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“He was badly injured. He’d been shot just before I arrived in Rome. He’s still recovering even as we speak. That was my doctor on the phone. She’s overseeing his recovery.”
“How is he?” asked Big Daddy.
“He’s doing well. He was shot several times. But he’s expected to fully recover. He’s on the mend.”
“What happened?” Sal asked.
“He got into it with Danny Cerva. Danny, along with some of his men, was killed. So Monk ordered a hit on my son and his crew. He took out most of my son’s crew.
When I hit town and my guys hit the streets, we took on casualties too.
Monk’s men were better prepared than my guys were.
So I hit the streets. And I tracked down every single one of his men and took them out.
Every one of them. I took a bullet in my knee during that track down. ”
They were shocked. “You were shot too, Pop?” asked Teddy.
“I’m okay, but yes.”
Roz couldn’t believe it. “So all that bullshit about that miracle knee replacement surgery was actual bullshit?”
“No. The bullet tore up the cartilage. It had to be repaired, and they did it with a procedure that hasn’t been approved here in the States yet. All of that is true.”
But Teddy and Nikki shook their heads. They didn’t know what to make of this news. They were the two leaders of Mick’s syndicate and they had no idea about any of this! Neither did anybody else in that room.
But Mick remained focused on Roz. “What I told you was true.”
“You just failed to mention the fact that you’d been shot.”
Mick exhaled. “Yes.”
Roz didn’t even want to deal. “What’s his name?” she decided to ask him.
Mick hesitated again. “Dorian. Everybody calls him Dory.”
“Does he carry your last name?”
Mick shook his head. “No. And he doesn’t want to.”
“Why not?”
“He despises me.”
“Sorry to hear that, Uncle Mick,” said Tommy.
“Nothing to be sorry about. I’m not crazy about him either.”
Big Daddy frowned. “Mick, stop it!” yelled Big Daddy. “What’s wrong with you? That’s your son. What do you mean you’re not crazy about your own son?”
“Just what I said. Did I fail him when he was a kid? Yes, I did. I should have stepped up when I knew his old man was blowing smoke up my ass. But does that mean I’m supposed to take his bullshit forevermore? I’m not doing that. I don’t like his ass. That’s a fact. Am I supposed to lie?”
Big Daddy shook his head. That brother of his was too much. Too much!
“Where’s his mother?” Amelia asked.
“At his bedside.”
Roz shook her head. Another baby mama she had to contend with! She knew marrying Mick Sinatra was going to be one headache after another one. She knew that going in. But lately it seemed to be one heartache after another one. And Roz wasn’t sure if her heart could take much more of this.
But Teddy needed to know the stakes. “How many of Monk’s guys did you take out, Pop?”
“I took out every last one of those bastards that hit Dory in Rome. The rest I took out here.”
Teddy frowned. “Here? In America? You hit Monk in America?” Teddy and Nikki couldn’t believe it.
Sal couldn’t either. “How many of his men are we talking, Uncle Mick?”
“I stopped counting at fifty,” Mick said.
“Fifty?
“Damn, Uncle Mick!” said Reno.
“But we could have called Frankie. We could have talked this out.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind? Time for talk ended when he tried to take out my son.”
“But fifty men, Uncle Mick? You decimated his syndicate,” said Sal.
“Fuck him and his syndicate!” Mick yelled. “I would have taken out more had I found more.”
“So what are we gonna do now?” Teddy asked. “Because I’m not going to war with Frankie.”
Mick looked angrily at Teddy. “Then your ass won’t be working for me! Didn’t you hear what I said? He ordered a hit on my son. They tried to take out my son.”
“Did they know he was your son?” Tommy asked him.
“Yes, their asses knew. Monk knew too. That’s why they ambushed him!”
“How could Frankie know for certain when you claim you just found out for certain yourself?” asked Teddy.
“It was obvious if you looked at him that he was mine. Monk had men stationed in Rome and everybody in Rome knew. They all knew.”
“They all knew you had a son,” said Teddy, “but Ma and none of us knew?”
Mick stared at his son. “Monk’s supposedly your best friend. Why didn’t he tell you I had a son in Rome?”
“Because that’s your personal business and he knew to keep his ass out of it.”
“Well his ass is in it now,” Reno said. “Monk was out of line.”
“Big time,” agreed Sal.
“But it’s Monk!” Teddy said angrily. “This is Frankie we’re talking about.”
“So what if it’s Frankie,” said Mick. “What’s that supposed to mean to me?”
“It means what are you thinking, Pop?!” Teddy was shaking he was so upset. “We never heard of this so-called son until just now and you expect me to turn on Frankie over his ass? Somebody I don’t even know? Somebody you just said you don’t even like? Fuck him!”
But Mick was enraged, too, and he jumped over his desk, grabbed Teddy by his shirt, and punched him so hard that Teddy fell on his ass.
Although he had the wind knocked out of him, Teddy, being Teddy, jumped right back up and got in his old man’s face. It took every man in that room to keep them from tearing each other apart.
“Stop it!” Big Daddy was yelling as he, too, was trying to separate both men. “Stop this shit right now!”
But Teddy broke free and both men got hands on each other again and began wrestling all over that office.
They were knocking over chairs. They were destroying expensive vases.
It was so chaotic that Mick slammed Teddy against the wall, knocking every picture to the floor and shattering the glass of the frames, as they wrestled for control.
Big Daddy and the Gabrinis were all trying to pull them apart again, but it was a herculean task.
When they finally succeeded, and Mick was pushed back and away from Teddy, who now had a bloody nose, the violence suddenly ceased.
Mick looked at Teddy. “I don’t have to give a shit about him.
He doesn’t give a shit about me either. But nobody, and I mean nobody, puts a finger on a child of mine but me!
Frankie knew he was my son and he attempted to assassinate him anyway.
What the fuck did you think I was going to do? I can’t let that stand!”
“Damn right,” agreed Sal.
In fact, everybody in that room understood what Mick did was necessary.
But that didn’t make it easy to digest because they all loved and respected Monk Paletti.
Everybody was breathing heavily, and everybody was upset.
That was why nobody noticed that Roz had already walked out. That Roz was no longer in that office.
And she didn’t just walk out of that office.
She walked out of that house too. She got in her Mercedes-Maybach and took off.
The girl was gone.