CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE #2
“He must be planning something awfully big,” said Roz, “for it to take this long. It’s been weeks since he gave his warning.”
A silence fell over the room, because they all knew it too.
Ted looked at his father. Would he neglect Dory, now that he knew he was the father, the way he neglected all of his other children except for his twins with Roz? “How’s Dory?” he asked Mick.
Mick nodded his head. “Better. The doctors feel he’s turned the corner. I’m going to go see him once I get a read on Monk’s next move.”
“Damn, Pop. If I knew I had a son in Rome, and he was fighting for his life, that’s where I’d be.”
“He’s under tight security.”
“So is your family here. Especially when the Gabrinis were in town. You could have gone then. We would have held it down Stateside.”
Mick stared at Teddy. Was he attempting to expose Mick’s weakness for Roz? Was he attempting to get Mick to admit the only reason he didn’t go, even though he knew he needed to be at his newfound son’s bedside, was because of Roz?
“He’s under tight security,” said Mick.
Nikki, knowing how much Mick never wanted his weakness for Roz revealed, decided to change the subject. “You know Frankie well,” she said to Mick. “You know how strategic he thinks. What’s your read on what he might do next?”
“He’ll try to hit Rome again,” said Mick, “but he won’t get to Dory if that’s his goal. I have an impenetrable wall around Dory. But that’s my best guess.”
“And yet you still remain here,” said Teddy. “That don’t make no sense, Pop.”
Mick and Teddy exchanged a hard look. Teddy knew how to push Mick’s buttons, and Mick knew how to push Teddy’s.
“How was rehearsal, Ma?” Nikki asked Roz.
“Grueling,” said Roz, happy to move on too. “We open in four days and Kelly’s insisting on so many changes that it’s ridiculous.”
“Kelly? Who’s Kelly?”
Mick looked at Roz.
“He’s our director. He’s the one that advocated for me to get the lead role. It’s my first lead in a minute.”
“But you’ve had hits before,” said Nikki.
“It’s always what have you done for me lately. Broadway is brutal.”
But Teddy wasn’t done with Mick just yet. “How do you feel about Gloria’s mom being Dory’s mom too? I was pissed when I heard the news. It’s like when will the two of them ever disentangle themselves from one another?”
“My thoughts exactly,” Roz said. “But what can you do? It’s not that boy’s fault who his parents are.” She said it and looked at Mick. “Big Daddy wanted to strangle you when I told him about Bella being Dory’s mother. That was a shocker to him.”
“It’s my business,” Mick said.
“You and Bella’s. Which is the problem. You and that witch always have too much business together. And I get that she saved your life once. I’m not minimizing that. But damn, Mick. When will it ever end?”
“With children?” asked Mick. “Never.”
It was a sobering truth they all knew. And Mick, to his credit Nikki thought, never tried to sugar coat it. Bella Caine was going to be in his life forever whether they liked it or not. They didn’t like it. Nobody did. But Mick wasn’t going to deny it.
“I like Bella,” said Teddy. “She’s a great mom to Gloria. But it’s just that she depends on Pop too much. That’s the part I don’t,” Teddy began saying when all of them heard a sudden and deafening explosion.
It was so loud that the office shook and everybody jumped to their feet. Mick was first out that door and then Teddy and Nikki and then Roz.
When they looked across the shipyards and saw that one of their cargo vessels was on fire, Nikki and Teddy took off running.
Roz was about to run, too, but Mick grabbed her and put her in his Escalade.
“You wait here,” he said as he locked the doors.
It was a bullet-proof, tricked-out vehicle. She would be safe there.
But as soon as Mick took off running toward the docks, Roz slid onto the driver seat, pressed the Start button, and drove to the docks. But Mick, Teddy, and Nikki still got there before she did.
But she was nobody’s fool. Although she was there, she didn’t get out. Mick would kick her ass if she took it that far.
Jason Russo, the dock supervisor, hurried to them.
“How many men?”
“At least forty were in the area,” Jason said as the men from the other cargo ships came over with long, thick hoses and attempted to put out the fire.
“But nobody was onboard. There are a few minor injuries,” Jason added, looking around at the few men being attended to, “but nobody was badly hurt.”
“Thank God,” said Nikki.
But Teddy looked at his father. Because both of them knew what that meant: Monk went easy on them.
After a few moments, Teddy said the quiet part out loud. “This is definitely Monk’s retaliation.”
“More like an olive branch than a full-blown retaliation,” said Nikki.
“I agree,” said Teddy. “But the question is,” Teddy said to Mick, “do we let this stand? Or do we escalate anyway?”
Mick just stood there. He was not the kind of man who allowed a hit on anything pertaining to his family or work without annihilation.
Fuck retaliation. But he’d already proven his point.
And besides, this wasn’t a normal hit. This was a hit by a man he greatly respected.
A man, he also realized, wanted to end the beef.
“Let’s clean this shit up,” Mick said, and then made his way to his Escalade.
Teddy and Nikki both exhaled. It was the end of a war that could have gotten so ugly that it might have taken all of them out.
“You heard the man,” Teddy said. “Clean this shit up.” And then he left too.
And Nikki, although second-in-command but far below Teddy in terms of real power, happily did as she was ordered.