CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The SUV pulled to a stop in front of the New Orleans hotel where Nikki had her reservation. But as soon as they walked in and were heading for the reservation desk, Marco placed his hand on Teddy’s arm and stopped his progression. “Pop look.”
Teddy looked where his son was looking and saw Nikki sitting at a table inside the hotel’s bar. But she wasn’t alone. Teddy looked intensely when he realized she was having a drink with a man.
“Who is that, Pop?”
“I have no idea.”
“Let’s go find out,” Marco said.
But as soon as they began to head in that direction, Teddy saw, beneath the table, that the man sitting with Nikki was pulling a gun out of his pocket. “He’s got a gun,” Teddy said to Marco as he pulled out his own weapon and began running toward the table.
He was about to yell it loud enough for Nikki to hear it, but he and Marco stopped in their tracks when Nikki apparently already had a gun in her hand, too, and she pressed it against the man’s balls.
She said something to him, presumably along the lines of drop it or I’ll make you a soprano, because he released his gun and dropped it.
Marco smiled. “Now I see why she’s underboss,” he said admirably.
But Teddy was looking beyond Nikki and the man she now had under control.
And that was when he saw another man rise to his feet and began hurrying toward the back of Nikki.
When Teddy saw that he was also pulling out his gun as if to shoot as soon as he pulled it out, his heart dropped.
“Nikki duck!” he yelled, Nikki immediately ducked down, and Teddy held his gun with both hands and shot the man through his forehead.
The crowd in the bar began screaming and running toward the exit as Teddy and Marco were running against the tide toward Nikki’s table.
But when the man sitting beside her went to pick up his gun in the melee, she shot him in the foot as Teddy saw yet another man rise from his table, but instead of running for the exit he pulled out a gun, too, and aimed it at Nikki.
That was when Teddy shot him before he could get a shot off, as he and Marco made it to the table.
“Get him and go!” Teddy ordered Nikki and Marco as they grabbed the man at Nikki’s table while Teddy kept looking around, his gun still aimed in every corner of that bar, as he followed them out onto Burbon Street where crowds were still running out of that hotel.
They threw their capture into the SUV, hopped in themselves, and took off.
The streets were so crowded and the police were rushing toward the hotel, that the chaos allowed them to escape unnoticed.
The second SUV, with a group of Teddy’s men inside, knew what to do. Their job was to retrieve all of the hotel’s video recordings and destroy them.
But Teddy, who was seated on the middle row with Nikki and the gunman they had in their custody, was still rattled as he and Marco continued to look to make certain there were no ambush awaiting them beyond that hotel. And Nikki continued to keep her gun trained on their prisoner.
When they got far away from Burbon Street and was able to turn down a side road, Teddy ordered their driver to pull over.
“What’s happening, Teddy?” a confused Nikki asked. “Why did you and Marco come to New Orleans?”
But Teddy had questions of his own. “Who’s this guy? And why were you having drinks with him?”
“I have no idea who he is. He just came and sat beside me and drummed up a conversation about one of the performances he wanted to attend. But I was already suspicious of him, so I pulled out my small pistol as a just in case. Then the next thing I know, I could see his hand reaching into his pocket. So I put my guns to his balls. I had no idea if he even had a gun.”
“He had one,” Marco said.
“It was an ambush,” Teddy said. “All three men had you surrounded.”
Nikki realized it too. “But why?”
Teddy looked at their prisoner. “Who are you?”
“She shot me in my foot. I need a doctor.”
“You’re gonna get an undertaker if you don’t tell me who are you and why were you attempting a hit on my wife.” Then Teddy put his gun to the man’s skull. “Now answer my questions.”
“I was hired to take her out.”
“Hired by who?”
“By Spanky.”
Marco frowned. “Who the fuck is Spanky?” He turned around from the front seat and looked at his father. “You know him Pop?”
“I know him,” Teddy said.
Nikki knew him too. “Why would Spanky order a hit on me?”
“He said it was payback time.”
“Payback for what?” asked Nikki. “I never had any beef with Spank.”
“Not you.”
“Then who?”
“Mick the Tick. It’s payback time on him.”
Nikki and Marco looked at Teddy.
“Payback for what?” Teddy asked their prisoner.
“He didn’t tell me what for. He just ordered me to get a team together, follow her to New Orleans, and take her out.”
“How would he know I was coming to New Orleans?” Nikki asked.
“I don’t know none of that. But he knew. That’s why I got two guys together and we came here.”
“Where’s Spanky stationed these days?” Teddy asked.
“He’s still in Philly.”
“Still in Philly? I thought he left Philly years ago.”
“He did. But he came back.”
Teddy glanced at Nikki. Did he come back just to do this hit? “How much was your fee?”
“That was the incredible part,” the prisoner said. “He was gonna pay me six million.”
Even Teddy knew that was an exorbitant price for an underboss hit. That was more the fee a hitman would get for a major mob boss hit. “And he never told you why?”
“He told me it was payback on Mick the Tick. That was all he told me.”
Nikki was staring at Teddy. “Is there something you aren’t telling me? Don’t get me wrong. I thank God you showed up when you did. But why did you come?”
Teddy hesitated. “Pop’s been hit.”
When Nikki heard those words, her heart sank. “How is he?”
When Teddy didn’t respond but just stared at her, she couldn’t believe it. “He’s dead?”
“No. But . . .”
“But what Teddy?”
“Nikki, it’s bad.”
Marco glanced back at his father. He had tears before. He knew he could shed tears again.
But it was Nikki’s time to tear-up. “Lord have mercy,” she said.
But as soon as she said it, their prisoner, knowing his fate, decided to take advantage of the distracting news and grab for Nikki’s gun that had been aimed at him.
But Nikki quickly recovered and Teddy joined in on the scuffle to make certain her would-be assassin didn’t get control of her gun.
Teddy leaned all the way over and was grabbing for it, Nikki continued to hold onto it, and even Marco got out of the vehicle to run on the opposite side where their perp was seated.
But Teddy knew he had to take a chance that Nikki could hold on just long enough. Because he removed his hands from the struggle and pulled out his own gun.
But by the time he aimed it at their prisoner, the prisoner had already turned the barrel of that gun onto Nikki and was just about to pull that trigger.
But Teddy fired his weapon first, taking out the bad guy.
Marco opened the back passenger door, ready to take out the gunman himself, just after the shot was fired.
“Are you okay?” Teddy anxiously asked Nikki.
And although she nodded her head as if she was, he could see that she was not okay at all.
After all she’d endured and what she’d just heard about her father-in-law, a man Nikki was extremely close to, she was nowhere near alright. Teddy pulled her into his arms.
“Get him out of here,” he ordered Marco, “and get us to the airfield.”
Marco grabbed their now-deceased prisoner, threw him out of their SUV, got back in on the front passenger seat, and ordered the driver to take off. Which he did.
But as Teddy sat back during that ride to the airfield, his head was spinning. Nikki came that close to certain death, and she came close thrice. And all three times right under his nose. He could have lost her just like that. All because he gave her too much freedom. Too much rope.
It was too close. It was far too close for any kind of comfort.