CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
By the time Teddy, Nikki, and Marco arrived at the hospital, it was five hours later. But when they walked into the waiting room and saw just how devastated Roz appeared, they hurried to her.
Roz stood up when she saw them, too, and they all hugged together. Gloria and Jackie joined in the group hug too. They all had tears in their eyes when they stopped embracing.
“How are you, Ma?” Teddy asked her. Just the look on her face distressed him.
“He’s got to pull through, Teddy,” Roz responded. “Pray to God Almighty he pulls through.”
“He will, Ma, you know that. He has to.”
But that only set Roz off. “I’m tired of people telling me what he has to do!” Big Daddy looked up at her. “My husband in on that operating table dying, and everybody keeps telling me what he has to do? Fuck y’all. Fuck all y’all!” Then Roz broke down. She fell to her knees and broke down.
Even Bella Caine had tears in her eyes as Teddy and Gloria and Jackie tried to get their mother up, but Big Daddy stepped up. “Leave her alone,” he said to them.
They all stopped, stood up, and looked at him. Then Big Daddy went over to Roz, squatted down, and exhaled. “I’m worried too, Roz.”
Roz looked at him. She was sobbing. “I saw his eyes, Charles. He was so scared. He knew he wasn’t gonna make it. Oh dear God, what if he doesn’t make it, Charles? What if he doesn’t pull through? What are we gonna do?”
Everybody were in tears by now. But Big Daddy was back. There wasn’t a tear in his eye. “If Mick doesn’t pull through,” he said, “Then we’re going to carry on. You hear me, Roz?” He took her chin and lifted it up. “You and his children and me and mine are going to carry on.”
“But it’s my fault,” Roz cried. “He told me I couldn’t go to Essence. But I went anyway. If I wouldn’t have got on that road to New Orleans--”
“No, Ma, no,” Teddy said as he squatted down beside Big Daddy. “That’s not true. They were coming for you no matter where you were. They came for Nikki in New Orleans.”
This was news to all of them. “What?” Roz said as they all looked at Nikki. Roz began getting up then, as Big Daddy helped her up and got up too. Teddy stood back up too.
“What happened?” Roz asked Ted and Nikki.
“Some guys tried to take me out,” Nikki said. “And they would have if Teddy and Marco didn’t show up.”
“Oh dear God!” She grabbed Nikki’s hands. “Are you okay?”
“I’m absolutely fine, Ma,” Nikki said with more cheer in her voice than she was actually feeling. “I’m good.”
“But you can’t blame yourself, Ma,” Teddy said. “They’re were going after Dad and everybody he loves apparently. This is not your fault.”
When Teddy said those words, a burden seemed to lift off of Roz. It was a small burden, but it was better than nothing. She pulled Teddy, her stepson, her confidant, into her arms. Then she pulled Nikki in her arms too.
And then the door to the waiting room opened, and three surgeons walked in, and they were followed by Duke and all of the principals.
Duke hurried to his mother. “They’ve got news about Daddy,” he said excitedly. “Uncle Reno told them to come and tell you first.”
Duke placed his arm around his mother’s waist as she looked nervously at the three doctors. It was rumored that each one of them would receive a million dollars for their work. They were considered among the best of the best.
Everybody gathered around Roz. It felt as if they were collectively holding their breaths. As if their collective hearts had stopped beating. “How is he, Doctor?” Roz asked with so much agony in her voice that it devastated them all.
The lead surgeon, a tall black man, removed his surgical cap. “Mr. Sinatra suffered a catastrophic assassination attempt,” he made clear. “He was shot a total of six times.”
An audible gasp could be heard. But Roz remained silent and unmoved. She was in that SUV with him. She knew how catastrophic it was.
The doctor continued. “Many of the bullets were within centimeters or even closer to his vital organs. One bullet actually did perforate his liver.”
“Oh no,” Bella Caine bellowed out.
“He had intense internal bleeding,” the doctor continued, “but we were able to stop the bleeding and repair the organ.”
“You’re killing us here, Doc,” a distressed Big Daddy said. “What’s the bottom line? Tell us the bottom line! Is my baby brother going to live, or is he going to die?”
The idea of Mick Sinatra as anybody’s baby anything was laughable, but the lead surgeon kept it professional. “Barring any setbacks,” he said, “he most definitely is going to live.”
When the surgeon said those words, it was music to everybody’s ears. They were cheering and high-fiving and hugging and crying.
But Roz’s look went unchanged. She was still staring at those doctors. It was as if she couldn’t believe a word they said. “I need to see him for myself,” she said. “I’m not buying what you or anybody is trying to sell to me until I see my husband for myself.”
Big Daddy was a believer. He had a smile on his face. But he understood why Roz needed more. “Take her to him,” he ordered those doctors.
It was highly irregular, and the other two doctors wanted the lead doctor to say so. But he had other ideas. “Of course,” the lead surgeon responded. “It must be brief however. He’s still recovering. But please follow me.”
Roz, and everybody in that room, began to follow his lead. The other two surgeons, both older and white, knew it was too soon for Mick to have visitors. And they were still looking to their leader to make that clear.
But the lead surgeon knew such a display would be an exercise in futility. People that got their medical care from this unique hospital didn’t take no for an answer. Why make it worst by arguing with them? Let everybody see him for themselves, and then disperse the room.
That was his plan anyway.
But when they all followed Roz into Mick’s hospital suite, and Mick, to their shock was awake, they were too happy.
Roz dropped to her knees, lifted her hands, and was praising God right in the middle of that room.
She didn’t care who saw her or how crazy they thought she was.
Mick was alive. He was awake. She knew, in that moment, her prayers had been answered and he was going to be alright.
Everybody were so happy it felt like delirium.
Mick had to fight back tears himself when he saw his children again, and his brother and sister and nephews.
But especially when he saw his beloved wife on her knees.
Because to see that she was okay, and that Duke was okay, was all he needed to see.
“Help your mother up,” he ordered and Teddy and Duke, who were beside her. And they did just that.
Mick’s voice was weak, and he still looked as if he was in considerable pain, but nobody could have sounded nor looked better to Roz.
She made her way to the side of his bed with slow, deliberate steps.
Because to her, and to everybody in that room beyond the doctors, it was jarring to see the great man holed up in that hospital bed.
No shirt on. Tubes everywhere. It was still a scary sight to behold.
But Roz was too happy to be filled with fear anymore. Tears streamed down her face as she made it to his bedside and placed her hand on the side of his face. “Welcome back,” she said to him.
“Was I gone?”
Roz nodded. “Oh yeah.” She rubbed his hair. “But you’re back now, and that’s all that matters.”
“I still have your ass to kick for defying me.”
Roz smiled. “I want you to try.”
“Back it up here. I’ll show you better than I can tell you.”
Roz laughed. Mick did too. And everybody in the room laughed at a joke that ordinarily wouldn’t be funny at all.
But Jackie couldn’t wait for her mother and father to have their moment. They were taking too long. She had to touch him. She had to smell his cologne. Then she’d know it was her daddy. Then she’d know it was all real.
She hurried to his side too, as the tears rolled down her beautiful face. “Are you really okay, Daddy?” she asked him as he placed her hand on the side of his face. “Are you in a lot of pain?”
Mick smiled. “I’m good, Jacqueline. Thank you for asking.”
It was odd to hear Mick thanking somebody.
“Before I forget,” Roz said, “Deuce McCalister called.”
Mick looked at her. Deuce was his former driver now retired and Mick’s longtime best friend. “Is he okay? I thought he was in Ghana.”
“He’s fine. And he is in Africa. He said he had properties over there he was checking on. I asked how did he hear about it, but he wouldn’t tell me his source.”
“Always Teddy,” Mick said. “They’re thick as thieves.”
And he and Roz looked at Ted, Ted smiled. “Guilty as charged.”
“I told him he needn’t come back yet,” Roz said. “I told him to wait until you’re back at home.”
Mick gave her a thumbs up.
“Do you need anything, Daddy?” Jackie asked him.
“To know that your mother is okay, and your brother, and the rest of the family are all okay too, is all I need, sweetheart. You guys are all I need.”
Jackie smiled. “I wanted to make sure it was you,” she said. “That’s why I came to your room. But it sure don’t sound like you,” she added, and everybody laughed.
“What he absolutely needs,” the lead surgeon said, “is rest. I’m going to have to ask you guys to leave and let him get his rest.”
And although most of the family, satisfied that Mick was going to pull through, left the room, Roz, Duke, Jackie, Teddy, Gloria, Nikki, Marco, and Big Daddy and Jenay remained.
They were spending the night and every night thereafter until Mick was given the green light to leave that hospital. It was a given.
It was apparently a give to the lead surgeon as well because he escorted his colleagues out of the room and closed the family inside.
Yes, he would tell them later that it was highly unusual.
Yes, he needed his rest. But that lead surgeon was nobody’s fool.
That family was going to pay him a million dollars for one operation. They earned the right to stay.
And although Mick was still sedated and would doze off constantly, he was always happy when he opened his eyes and saw Roz and Charles and Duke and Jackie and Teddy and Nikki and Gloria all around him. It made it all worth it.
But before the night was through, he also called in Reno, Sal, Tommy, and Monk Paletti. He made it clear that he wanted no action until he was back on his feet. “Let them think they got away with it,” he said. “I want no retaliation until I’m the one retaliating.”
It was an undisputed order that all of them disagreed with, but who were they to question it? It was Mick’s life that had been on the line, not theirs. But regardless, they still would have had no choice but to agree.
Little did they know that night that just two weeks later and Mick would be up and walking with a cane.
Three weeks later and he would have discarded the cane.
And by week number four, he would declare himself completely recovered and ready to get on the battlefield.
And the entire underworld took notice. Being an enemy of Mick Sinatra was not the side any of them wanted to be on. They offered to help.
But Mick didn’t need their help on the battlefield.
He needed their knowledge. Who was behind the attack?
What was the motive? Why would they be so extra that they would involve an entire police department?
What point was they trying to prove? Mick was convinced that once he knew the who, he would automatically know the what and why.
But he still didn’t know the who.