CHAPTER SIXTEEN
First, she opened Mick’s office door gingerly without being noticed, saw the one she was looking for, and then whispered. “Reno?”
Then a little louder. “Reno?”
When he still didn’t notice her, she got louder still. “Reno!”
Everybody jumped and looked at the door. They saw Trina standing there beckoning for her husband’s attention. But Reno frowned. “What you bothering us for, Tree? Don’t you see we’re having a conversation here?”
“I was trying not to interrupt your conversation but your big head wouldn’t look my way.”
“What’s wrong, Trina?” Big Daddy asked her. He could see the concern on her face.
“What’s wrong with Roz is what I wanna know,” Trina responded.
“She got some disturbing news,” Big Daddy said.
“Is that why she left?”
Mick looked at Trina. “Left? What do you mean she left?”
“She left. She hopped in her Mercedes and left.”
Mick jumped up. “And you let her go?”
“Let her? How the hell was I supposed to stop Roz from going anywhere, Mick?”
Mick hurried from around his desk and began rushing toward the exit. Everybody in that room hurried behind him.
“Call gate security,” Teddy ordered Nikki and Nikki got on the phone as they were hurrying out of the office, into the foyer, and toward the front door. Jenay, Grace, and Gemma, who were playing cards in the dining hall, saw them hurrying out so they followed them too.
“Did she say where she was going?” Nikki was asking gate security as they all hurried out of the house.
Teddy looked at Nikki, waiting for a response. But Nikki shook her head. “She didn’t tell security anything,” she said to Ted. “She just left.”
Mick glanced back at Nikki. “Did a detail follow her?”
“Did a security detail follow her?” Nikki asked over the phone.
She shook her head again. “No sir,” she said to Mick.
“Motherfuck!” said an angry Mick as he pulled out his phone and hurried toward his big Cadillac Escalade. Grounds security was on alert, watching to see if they were needed.
“You got a read on her, Pop?” Teddy asked his father.
Mick didn’t respond as he checked the GPS he had on Roz’s car. When he got to his SUV, he barked out orders. “Nikki, you come with me. Everybody else stay here. I don’t want any surprises.”
Then he hopped behind the wheel of his Escalade. Nikki’s heart always began hammering when she was forced to go anywhere with Mick. Mainly because she knew, if she made one wrong move, he’d be down her throat. And everybody in the family insisted she was Mick’s favorite. Yeah right!
But as Nikki hopped in on the passenger seat and they sped away, the Gabrinis looked at Teddy. “Better watch out,” said Reno. “One day he’s gonna make her the boss over your ass.”
Although they laughed, Big Daddy could see the distress on Teddy’s face.
But Teddy had Monk on his mind. “Let Pop handle Roz,” Teddy said. “We’ve got to resolve this war with Monk before anybody else gets hurt.”
“Can it be resolved?” Sal asked. “Because Uncle Mick is right. After he took out that many of Monk’s men, Monk has no choice but to retaliate against us.”
“Retaliate?” asked Big Daddy’s wife Jenay. It was shocking to her. “What are you talking about?”
“We’re at war with Monk, ‘Nay,” said Amelia. “We’re at war.”
But Teddy was shaking his head. “Frankie wouldn’t do that to us.
That ain’t Frankie. That’s why this is so crazy.
I’m going to go see him and talk this shit out,” Teddy said as he began to walk toward Nikki’s car.
He was still waiting for his insurance company to replace his totaled Porsche.
But he had to see Monk face to face. He believed in his soul that nothing was so far gone that he couldn’t talk it over with his closest friend.
But both Reno and Sal pulled him back. “Nope,” said Reno.
“What?” asked Teddy. “I’m going to see Frankie.”
“Like hell you are,” said Sal. “He just sent your ass a warning. This is no test of your friendship, Teddy. Fuck your friendship! We need a plan.”
But Jenay was worried about her adopted daughter. She Amelia looked at Big Daddy. “What about Ashley, Charlie?” she asked him.
But Big Daddy could be a hard, ruthless man when it came to people, including his own children, suffering the consequences of their actions.
Mick got a lot of his ways from his big brother.
“She made her bed,” Big Daddy said. “She went against my wishes and married herself a mobster. That’s the life she chose, and wars are a part of that life.
That’s on her. That’s her responsibility. ”
But Jenay wasn’t trying to hear that. “What are we going to do about it, Charlie?” she asked her husband.
“Those bullets don’t care who they hit. But if one touches our daughter’s black ass, then I’m coming for your white ass.
I’m holding you and you alone responsible for making certain Ashley is safe. How’s that for responsibility?”
Big Daddy could see how much this news was affecting Jenay. Inwardly, it was tearing him apart too. But before Jenay allowed him or anybody else see her crying, she turned and went back into the house.
Everybody else followed suit, with Reno and Sal making certain Teddy went inside with them.
But Big Daddy and Amelia remained outside.
“Jenay’s right you know,” Amelia said.
“What do you suppose I do about it?”
“Frankie will listen to you, Charles. He’ll at least listen. Maybe we should go see him.”
Big Daddy looked at his biracial half-sister as if she had a few screws loose.
She always loved being in on the action.
It was the greatest bone of contention between her and Hammer Reese.
And that nature of hers to be gangster like them always drove him and Mick nuts.
“If he’ll listen to me,” Big Daddy said, “what I need you for?”
“I’ll be the muscle,” she said, “in case he doesn’t listen.”
Although she smiled, Big Daddy shook his head. “I thought Hammer Reese ordered you to stop that gangster shit, Millie.”
“You can take the woman out of that gangster world, but you can’t take that world out of the woman.
What can I say? We have different fathers from different races.
Which literally makes us as different as black and white.
But we come from the same gangster mother.
” She hunched her shoulders. “It is what it is. We’ve got to go and make sure that Monk understands the risk of Ashley getting harmed. Jenay won’t object, I’ll bet you that.”
Big Daddy knew it too.
“Now are we going to do this,” asked Amelia, “or are we going to talk about what Hammer doesn’t want me to do?”
Big Daddy looked around. He knew Mick would have a fit if he knew they were involving themselves in his mess, but somebody had to intercede or Mick might take them to a place of no return.
And Big Daddy knew better than anyone else that when bullets flew, they could hit anybody.
Including his child despite the choice she made.
“Let’s go,” he said. And they didn’t delay. They hopped into Amelia’s Maserati and took off.