CHAPTER TWO
Later that night Teddy flew his Hellcat into one of the Senior VP parking spaces of his father’s corporate headquarters building, hopped out, and entered the lobby.
Then he hopped onto the elevator of the massive building, where SINATRA INDUSTRIES was embossed on the back wall, and made his way to the top floor.
When the elevator doors opened, the guard at the desk knew who he was and allowed him passage through. He made his way to his father’s office.
His secretary was just standing from her desk. “Hello sir.”
“Is he back in town?” Teddy asked without breaking his stride.
“Yes sir, he’s back.”
Teddy knocked once on the double doors and then invited himself inside, closing the doors behind him.
Mick was seated behind his desk, in his suit and tie, with his reading glasses on as he typed into his desk computer.
Teddy always found his father the businessman as an odd look for a man as vicious as he could be.
But unlike the rest of the family, like his cousins mob boss Sal Gabrini or even casino mogul Reno Gabrini, he somehow pulled it off.
The world at large knew him best as Fortune 500 corporate titan Mick Sinatra, the founder and CEO of Sinatra Industries. The underworld knew better than that.
Mick didn’t look up until his son had made his way to his desk and plopped down, slouching down, in the chair in front of the desk. Then he looked up and leaned back. “How many times I got to tell your ass I don’t mix this shit? You could have called me.”
“What I got to tell you can’t be told over the phone.”
When Teddy said those words, Mick took notice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“There’s been a sighting, Pop.”
If Mick was in a mob war, he’d immediately know what his son was talking about. But there was no war. “Who?”
Teddy still couldn’t believe it. “Cleopatra Burgess.”
Mick just sat there. His eyes were riveted on Teddy. “What are you talking about?”
“Cleo Burgess, Pop. She’s supposedly alive.”
Mick’s heart skipped a beat. And he removed his glasses. “What did you just say to me?”
“She’s alive, Pop. No joke. She’s alive.”
Mick was now so frowned that his face looked distressed. “How the fuck is she alive? What are you talking about? They lit up her ass two years ago behind that shoe factory near the Badlands. What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“I’m telling you the truth.”
“You saw her?”
“Not me, no. But Robby Yale saw her with his own two eyes.”
“Robby? Where?”
“In Vegas.”
Another weird response. “Vegas? Her ass wouldn’t step foot in Vegas after what she did to Sal’s men. What was she doing in Vegas?”
“How should I know any of that, Pop? He just laid eyes on her.”
Mick had to settle back down. “Did you call Sal?”
“Yeah I called him. He’s out personally looking for her as we speak. Which is crazy in and of itself. Sal Gabrini on the chase? That don’t make no sense to me, Pop. Nothing about that girl ever made sense to me.”
But Mick was more concerned about logistics. “If Robby saw her,” he asked, “why didn’t he detain her?”
“He tried to. He saw her going into the mall in Vegas, so he ran in behind her. But she was gone. He tore that place up, but he never found her.”
“His ass should have kept looking. He knew the backstory.”
“Oh yeah? Why don’t you fill me in on it? What’s the back story, Pop? Robby said all he knew was that she had a beef with Sal. But that’s all he knew.”
“I want you to get to Vegas and help them find her.”
“Me? Pop, we got container issues from Barcelona to Greece and you want me in Vegas?”
“Yes. And I want you to get there now. If she’s alive, we’ve got to find her.”
Teddy frowned. “But why, Pop? Why is still my question! I didn’t understand why you were still fooling with her two years ago, and I sure as hell don’t know why she’s still so important to you now.
And to Sal too. Behind you he’s the most powerful boss in this entire world, but he’s out personally searching for Cleo?
For Cleo? What’s this lady got on y’all? ”
Mick gave him an icy look. “Fly your ass to Vegas and join the search. Take Marco with you if you want to, but you go now. Sal’s got a lot of back channels, but so do you. And my preference is that you find her.”
“I find her? Over Sal?”
Mick didn’t answer that.
And that angered Teddy. “Okay, Pop.” He sat upright and was moving around in his chair.
“You wanna play hardball? How about this ball?” He pointed at his father.
“I’m not going to Vegas and I’m not finding shit until you tell me what’s going on.
” He hit his open hand on the desk. “How’s that for balls? ”
Mick stared at Teddy. He had guts alright. He and Duke were two of the gutsiest people he knew. But their guts were bullshit compared to Mick’s. Because unlike them, Mick had no limits. At least none he would ever reveal to anybody. “Get to Vegas now. And find her.”
Teddy sometimes hated that he loved his father so much.
He still couldn’t understand it. He was a totally absent father who only came around to fuck his mother and to give her cash to support him.
But spending time with him, or with any of his other siblings from his other baby mamas back then? Never.
But yet they all loved him anyway. But why was Teddy still trying to help and impress his old man? What did he see in this impossible, cruel, vicious man that kept him by his side? Did his ass have daddy issues too like his half-sister Gloria? Was he that far gone?
But it didn’t matter. Teddy learned long ago that defying his father was a fool’s errand. All their knock-down, drag-out fights proved that. He stood up. “Anything else?”
“Don’t try to bring her back here. If you find her in Vegas, safe house her in Vegas and call me. We don’t want another ambush.”
This was insanity to Teddy. But he knew his father. There was always a method to his madness. “Anything else?”
“Just one more thing.”
“What’s that?”
Mick looked his son dead in his eyes. “Don’t drop your guard around her. Stay heavily armed.”
Teddy didn’t expect to hear that. And he knew it wasn’t idle talk. Which made that shit suddenly real to him. His father was telling him that Cleo Burgess was dangerous. And he was determined to find out why. “I never drop my guard,” he said.
But then he placed his hands in his pockets. “But this thing about her being alive. It can’t be true, can it, Pop? We saw when they shot her. We even doubled back.”
“Know what we didn’t see?” Mick asked.
Teddy was curious. “What?”
“Blood. We didn’t see blood.”
And as soon as he said it, Teddy remembered. There was no blood at the scene. Was that why his old man had stood there staring at the spot where she dropped two years ago? “But damn, Pop. If she’s alive, where has she been for two years?”
“Find her,” Mick said.
Now Teddy was as determined as ever. “I’ll find her,” he said, and left the office
As soon as the door closed, Mick couldn’t hold in his emotions any longer.
He leaned his head back as his heart hammered as if it was going to explode.
He even pressed his fist against his chest to try to slow it down.
Because he still couldn’t believe it. Cleo was alive?
Two years ago she didn’t die? He felt at the time that she might have been involved in that whole scene.
But after all those men he had searching for her, and they found no clues whatsoever that led them to her or to those gunmen, he marked her for dead.
But she was alive all that time? And never once got in touch with him? Why? What happened to her?
But before he could even digest the news about Cleo, not an hour later he got a call from another woman that tried men’s souls: Bella Caine.
Somebody broke into her Philadelphia condo while she was asleep, she claimed. And they left her a note.
But the ominous note, she said, was addressed to Mick.
He already had a headache. He didn’t need another one. But she was afraid. And the note had his name on it. He grabbed his suitcoat from the back of his chair, put it on, and headed to Bella’s place.