CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NEARLY TWO WEEK LATER and Mick drove one of the big SUVs in his fleet of tricked-out Cadillac Escalades and parked in front of the office at the shipyards.
Just behind Teddy’s brand-new Porsche. When Nikki, who was standing at the office window, saw Mick drive up, she headed back to the conference table. “The Boss is here,” she said to Teddy.
“Oh great! Like we need that headache right now.”
Nikki sat down at the table beside him. “Since it was on my watch, I’ll tell him.”
“Tell him? Get out of here, Nikki. He already knows.”
Nikki was shocked. “You told him?”
“No, I didn’t tell him. What you take me for, Nikki? Pop’s got spies all over these docks. They told him. Why else would he be here? He never just drops by anymore.”
Nikki had to admit that was true. But when the office door opened and not only did Mick step inside, but Roz too, they both were surprised.
Especially Teddy. “Ma? What are you doing here?”
“Ask your father,” said Roz as she made her way to the conference table. “After Robby Yale had that accident in Vegas two weeks ago, Mick takes me to rehearsal in New York and stays in the audience the entire time I’m there. Then he drives me back home. I can’t shit without him right beside me.”
“Are you serious?” Teddy looked at Mick as he made his way behind the office desk and sat down. “Pop, Frankie would never allow his guys to hurt Ma.”
“Never,” said Nikki.
“What I do with my wife is my business. Don’t worry about my business. Worry about the fuck-up you and Nikki can’t seem to stop doing in my syndicate!”
Nikki looked at Teddy. She had planned to take the blame, since she was to blame, but just seeing the fierceness of Mick gave her second thoughts. Teddy knew how to stand up to him better than she did. He had decades more practice. She was willing to let Teddy fall on that sword.
Teddy sat back in his chair and folded his leg across his lap. But instead of getting directly into it with his old man, he took a different approach. “Where’s Kimmie?” he asked.
“She’s at the house with the twins. I was going to take her to New York and let Mick babysit her while I rehearsed, but Jackie refused to let her go. I declare if that child doesn’t think that’s her baby.”
Nikki laughed. “I know, right?”
“I told her ass not to get comfortable with no gotdamn baby,” said Roz. “She’s going to college, getting her a career, and then and only after then can she worry about getting herself a husband and a baby. But not before then.”
Teddy stared at Roz. “I wish my mother was strict like you, Roz. Maybe I would have chosen a different path.”
Mick looked at Teddy. Nikki could tell it struck a chord with him.
But it struck a different chord with Roz. “It wasn’t just your mother’s fault,” she said. “Mick could have steered you differently. He could have forbid you from going into his line of work just like I ordered him to forbid the twins.”
Why did she put it that way, Nikki thought, because as soon as she said it, Mick spoke up. “You ordered me?”
But Roz didn’t back down. “Yes, I ordered your ass. You better never let Duke or Jackie go anywhere near you and Teddy’s line of work.
And I mean never!” She said it as she turned his way, causing her thick, gorgeously bouncy hair to bounce side to side by the sheer emphasis she placed on never.
It was as if she was daring him to dispute her.
But Mick just stared at her. The way her hair fell down across her face when it bounced, and the way her face showed that I dare you look, made him love her more.
Who else but Roz would he be taking all this shit from?
Who else but Roz would he take time away from his busy-as-hell schedule to drive her to Broadway and back every day for the past two weeks?
He needed to be in Rome, to check on Dory’s progress and security, but who else but Roz would keep him stateside until he figured out what Monk’s next move was going to be?
He’d never loved anybody like this before.
It terrified him in many ways. But it soothed him more.
That was why Mick didn’t mix it up with her when he easily could have. He moved on from his weakness called Roz. “What happened, Nikki?” he asked.
“It was an oversight, Pop,” Teddy started saying, in defense of Nikki, but Mick stopped him.
“Is your name Nikki?” That effectively silenced Teddy. Then Mick looked at his daughter-in-law. “What happened?” he asked her again.
“I forgot to delete the tanker that Frankie’s men blew up from the roster. It was on the port-of-call for Chicago. But when the logistics guys saw that one tanker was missing, they entered the dragnet protocol that forced other tankers off schedule.”
“For how long?”
Nikki swallowed hard. “A couple days,” she said.
Even Roz was alarmed by that length of time. Mick was livid. “A couple days, Nikki?” he yelled out. “Your ass didn’t realize you had made an error for forty-eight hours?”
“I was working day and night trying to figure out the error. It never occurred to me--”
“It never does. Does it, Nikki? Your ass makes too many fuck-ups.”
“That’s not fair,” Nikki said. “I do my job.”
“Like hell you do! I want you off the line. Teddy, you let senior capos handle the field. I want you to stay in this office and get my shit back online. It’s these kind of fuck-ups that have the Feds breathing down my neck!”
“She’s got this, Pop. Did she mess up? Yes. She admits that. But she got them back online as soon as she figured out the mistake. It was an innocent mistake.”
“There’s no such thing as innocent mistakes in this line of work!
We missed deadlines. We missed supplies going out.
That’s a sign of weakness to my enemies.
They feed on that shit. I will not allow my name to be dragged in the mud because of her continued mistakes!
” Mick settled back down. “You heard my order.”
Teddy couldn’t argue with his old man because he was telling nothing but the truth. Nikki messed up. She had to take the noise just like he had to take it whenever he messed up. It was the only way she was going to learn. “Yes sir,” he said to Mick.
A part of Nikki felt betrayed by Teddy. She would have hoped he had fought harder for her. But the bigger part of her knew Mick was absolutely right. She fucked up. There was no two ways about it. She didn’t object.
“Are all the trucks back on time now?” Mick asked her.
“Every single one,” said Nikki.
“Why were two of them pulled out of rotation this morning?”
Teddy’s heart dropped. But Nikki didn’t flinch. “No trucks were pulled out of rotation this morning,” she said. “I checked up and down the line. Every truck is on time and on schedule.”
But why did Mick bring it up? Teddy quickly leaned up, pulled up the schedule on the laptop in front of him, and checked the schedule. Then he looked at Mick. “Nikki’s right. None of our trucks were pulled this morning.”
“I’m glad you knew immediately,” Mick said to Nikki. “That means you’re back on top of things. You’d better keep it that way.”
Nikki hated to be the subject to one of Mick’s tests, but it came with the territory of being the underboss of his organization. “Yes sir,” she said.
“How many have been pulled?”
Another test? Or the same test? “How many, sir?”
“Yes, Nikki, how many?”
“None.”
Mick stared at her. “We’re in a war with Monk Paletti.
He’s already blown up one of our tankers.
And with that knowledge you’re telling me that you didn’t pull a single tanker out of rotation?
Or at the very least change the rotations?
I can understand the flatbeds. They have to move. But the tankers too?”
Nikki didn’t know what to say to that. But Teddy did. “If we started pulling our tankers just because Monk blew up one, then we’ll be showing weakness, Pop. It’ll be as if he can take us off our game. We can never show weakness or it’ll be open season on the family.”
“You don’t think I know that?” Mick asked. “Your ass don’t have to tell me that.”
“Well I’m telling you, Pop, because that’s the way it is. I gave the order to keep them in line because we won’t give Frankie the satisfaction. That calls on me.”
Mick stared at Teddy. He was whose abilities Mick greatly respected or he would have never put him in charge. “You sound like a man who has accepted the fact that Frankie ain’t shit right now. Did you try to talk to him?”
“I tried. But he won’t take my calls,” said Teddy.
“I even went to Jersey to talk to him, but his guards trained their guns on me. On me!” There was bitterness in Teddy’s voice.
“And he refused to let me through the gate. I’m trying to stop this shit from escalating any further, and he don’t wanna hear it. ”
“He’s in a bad spot, Teddy,” said Roz. “He’ll lose control of his syndicate if he allow Mick to get the best of him.”
“I understand that.”
“Mick took out nearly half of his syndicate. It’ll be open season on him and his family, including your cousin Ashley, if he shows weakness toward Mick. What would you do if it was you and your organization?”
“Ma, I know all that. Okay? I get it. But me and Frankie, we’re best friends.
I understand he’s got to respond. He’s got to.
But we could have figured out a response that would have been just enough to send a message, but not enough to keep the escalation going.
That’s what I was trying to do. But he won’t even talk to me. ”
“Big Daddy called Ashley,” said Nikki.
This interested Mick and Roz. “What did she say?” asked Roz. “Don’t you tell me she wouldn’t take Charles’s call.”
“She took it,” said Nikki. “But according to her sister Carly, she told Big Daddy that she stood by her husband. Dory started it, Mick escalated it, what did they expect Frankie to do? Her words.”
“And that’s why I knew we couldn’t give an inch to Monk,” said Teddy. “Not right now.”