CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Three Cadillac Escalades in Mick’s fleet of tricked-out Escalades lined the driveway at the Sinatra family home when Nikki, seated behind the steering wheel of the middle SUV, saw the front door open and Mick stepped out. But her jaw dropped. “What in the world?” she said out loud.
Because her voice sounded so shocked, Teddy quickly looked toward the front door, too, and saw his father step out.
He was suited up in his long, white coat and black trousers and turtleneck, which was nothing unusual.
He was in fight-back mode and was wearing his fight-back suit.
But then he saw that Roz was also coming out of the house decked down in a pair of straight leg, button-front jeans and her usual pristinely tucked-in blouse and accompanying blazer and heels.
“I didn’t know he was bringing Roz along too,” Nikki said.
Teddy, who sat on the front passenger seat beside his wife and second-in-command, was confused too. “Neither did I,” he said as he continued to watch his father and stepmother as one of their capos from the third SUV hurried over and opened the back passenger door. Roz and then Mick got inside.
Teddy turned around to face his parents as the door closed. “Ma’s coming too?”
He could tell his father didn’t like being questioned about a decision he’d made, but he answered him. “That’s correct.”
Teddy wanted to ask why and if it was a smart move and a host of other questions, but he saw that how dare you question me look on his father’s face. Since he didn’t want to mix it up with him on his first day back on the scene, he turned back around.
But Roz decided to take it further. Teddy knew the woman before Mick did. She was certain he had some insight on her. “I’m coming along so I can meet the infamous Cleopatra.”
Nikki looked at Mick through the rearview mirror as she, along with the drivers of the Escalades in front and behind them, began driving off. He was actually going to introduce them???
Teddy almost turned back around, he was so shocked. But what was that his business? He didn’t say a word. Which, for Roz, only elevated her concern. Who was this woman, really, to Mick?
But as Nikki drove out of the gate along with the two additional Escalades, both housing some of the highest-ranking capos in the entire Sinatra crime syndicate, Mick, being Mick, was focused only on the matter at hand. “Any news on Spanky?”
“We still haven’t found him if that could be classified as news,” Teddy said.
“But the thing I can’t get past, Pop is the fact that Spank’s involved at all.
Because if Spank is the middle man, the person he’s working for has to be a heavy-hitter.
He has to be. Spank don’t roll no other way.
But who could that be?” he asked as he turned around to look at his father.
He was shocked when he saw that Mick was holding Roz’s hand.
Roz was shocked as well when he took her hand and held it. Mick was never demonstrative of his affection for her. He rarely ever believed in public displays. But he was trying to turn over a new leaf, once again, and she was going to wait and see if this time was going to stick.
But when Mick didn’t answer Teddy’s question, Roz began to feel that nothing had changed at all. But she wasn’t letting it slide.
She looked at him. “Teddy asked you a question, Mick,” she said to him.
Mick looked at her with slight irritation on his face. “What?”
“He asked you a question.”
So, his look seemed to say. “I know that,” he said.
“Then why didn’t you answer him? That’s rude.”
Nikki looked through the rearview mirror at Mick once again and Teddy tensed up. They both knew how volatile Mick’s temper could be. He wasn’t called Mick the Ticking time bomb for nothing. Even with Roz.
And Mick responded irritably. “What do I need to answer him for? The answer is obvious. I don’t know who the fuck any of those fuckers are.”
“Then that’s what you could have told him, Mick.”
Mick had a bewildered look on his face. What did they expect from him?
He was purposely introspective because he had a million moving parts on his mind that he had to contend with.
Including who tried to murder him and take out his wife and son and daughter-in-law.
But yet they wanted him to be hyper-present in their lives as if he was responsible for Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood rather than the largest crime syndicate in the world and a Fortune 500 mega-corporation.
But Roz was still staring at him. And Nikki through that rearview mirror although she was trying to camouflage it. So he gave in. It was easier to just give in. “No, I don’t know who’s behind it,” he finally said.
“Why we going to talk to Cleo?” Teddy asked. “She don’t know shit.”
“When they arrested me in that small town, they used a tranquilizer gun,” Roz said. “Mick said they used the same weapon when they kidnapped Cleo, as you call her, two years ago.”
Teddy was nodding. “They did. She told us that.” He turned and looked at his father. “Does that mean you think Ricardo’s involved?”
“I’m going to find out.”
“So that’s why we’re heading to see Cleo first.”
“That’s the reason, yes,” Mick said.
“But who is she anyway, Teddy?” Roz asked him specifically.
And he didn’t hold back. “She’s a self-centered bitch on two legs still in love with Pop.”
Nikki wanted to kick Teddy. He didn’t have to say all of that!
But Roz knew he was only telling the truth. And that truth hurt. “She’s still in love with him?” she asked and then looked at Mick. “I thought you said she was a girl you turned out to be with your clients.”
“That’s right.”
“You didn’t tell me you had her too, Mick.”
Mick knew he had been purposely opaque about the full nature of his relationship with Cleo. “That was assumed,” he said, and then looked at Roz.
Roz was fuming. “Sometimes you’re so full of shit!”
Mick frowned. “Full of shit about what? Cleo? That’s nothing.”
“It’s love. That’s something.”
“Not on my end it’s not.”
Teddy and Nikki glanced at each other. What an odd thing for a husband to say to his wife. But Roz knew what he meant. She leaned her head back.
“You’re blaming me for how she feels?” Mick asked her.
She frowned. “No. I’m not blaming you for how she feels. I’m blaming you for how I feel. For how your actions make me feel!” Roz said it with great emotion and then she looked at him.
Nikki and Teddy wanted to look, too, as the tension in the SUV intensified. But they didn’t even look at each other. Nikki kept driving and Teddy kept his eyes on the road ahead of them.
And Mick and Roz knew, in that moment, that their tumultuous marriage still had a long, long way to go.