CHAPTER NINE
Roz drove her big, black Mercedes-Maybach into the gate at the docks and parked in front of the small office building.
Stepping out in her heels, her skinny slacks, and her sleeveless halter top tucked-in and highlighting her perfect figure, she was casually dressed on purpose.
Although she’d already told Nikki last night that she wasn’t able to make the trip, her attitude changed this morning when she woke up to that heifer calling Mick’s phone.
And then Mick suddenly had to leave. And all he could say was that she was the one he wanted as if that shit was going to ease her troubled mind.
He didn’t tell her that he loved her and would never dream of allowing any other woman to come between them.
He didn’t change his mind and tell her she could go to Essence the way she wanted to go, and go free of his goons.
He didn’t do any of that. Typical Mick, he said all he was going to say and left.
Well Roz was about to be what used to be Typical Roz and just leave too. She was going to New Orleans with Nikki and she was going on her own terms.
But when she walked into the office expecting to find Nikki hard at work before she hit the road that afternoon, which she’d said was her plan, Gomez, the dock supervisor, was at the desk working away instead.
Gomez had worked there long enough to know that Mick Sinatra would fire you on the spot if you disrespected his wife in any way, shape, or form, and he wasn’t about to lose his good job. That was why he quickly jumped to his feet as soon as he saw her. “Good morning, Mrs. Sinatra.”
“Hey Gomez. How are you?”
“I can’t complain, ma’am. Just trying to check the roll this morning. We got the flu going around. We need to call in some guys that thought they were gonna be off today.”
“Is Nikki around?”
“Oh no ma’am. She’s out of town. And Teddy hasn’t come in yet.”
But Roz was confused. “Nikki’s out of town?”
“Yes ma’am. She’s going to that festival in New Orleans. I forgot the name of it.”
“But she wasn’t supposed to leave until this afternoon.”
Gomez didn’t know what to say to that. He hunched his shoulders. He didn’t know what to tell her. Nikki was his boss, not his confidant. She didn’t tell him her business like that.
And Roz’s sudden defiance of Mick was quickly deflated. With Nikki gone, how was she going to get there without Mick’s guys alerting him? “Thanks Gomez,” she said, and made her way out of the office. When she got back into her Maybach, she called Nikki.
But the call went straight to Voice Mail as if Nikki already was in vacation mode and had turned it off.
But as Roz drove out of that gate and pulled out into the highway, she knew Mick would blow a gasket if she even thought about driving all the way to New Orleans by herself.
Nikki was her cover, and even she wasn’t enough to get Mick to yes.
Driving alone to New Orleans would be loads of fun to Roz.
It would be her very definition of the kind of freedom she needed in her life right now.
But Mick would go apoplectic on her ass if he ever found out.
But as she drove away from the docks, she began to wonder why was she always so concerned about his feelings when he didn’t give a damn about hers?
Because she knew, despite the fact that he had comforted her last night, he was the reason why she had to be comforted!
Him and his women. It always had something to do with him and some woman.
And she was worried about him getting all upset because she decided to do what she wanted to do for a change?
Why did she have to have his buy-in and permission like she was some damn child?
She was a whole adult in every way. She didn’t need anybody’s permission to do shit.
Like the old Roz before she married Mick all those years ago.
She wanted the old Roz back and she was going to get her back.
That was why she quickly hung a U-turn at the light, and took off. She was going to treat herself to a cross-country drive to New Orleans even if it angered Mick no end. She needed it. She was taking it. Mick would just have to deal with it.