CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN #2
Cleo knew it too, and she allowed Roz to wrap her wound. Nikki got down there and assisted Roz. It was surreal to Teddy. What the fuck were they doing, he almost said out loud.
But it warmed Mick’s heart. Because Roz wasn’t cut from the same cloth and somehow he knew it from the moment he saw her on that stage trying to dance when she was hands down the worst dancer there.
But he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
For once in his life he had somebody he felt he could rely on.
He knew it then. He knew it even more so now.
Even Cleo was stunned that the wife of Mick Sinatra would stoop herself that low to help one of his ex-lovers. She even looked at Teddy. Teddy was blown away too.
“Sit down,” Roz said to her after she and Nikki had wrapped the wound and secured the towel with a belt. Cleo sat back down. Then she looked up at Mick with sad, heartbroken eyes. Not only did the man she love stab her, but his wife was nice to her. This day could not have gone any worse for Cleo!
“Your ass will live,” Mick said to her. “If I wanted to kill you, I would have.” Which, she knew, was his way of reassuring her although he was the one who abused her!
Then she looked at Roz. She was supposed to hate this woman.
And she did, from afar, for many years. Mick wouldn’t let her go anywhere near his precious Roz and she therefore never got a chance to get to know her at all.
But she seemed so kind. Like a big sister helping out her little sister.
Cleo didn’t know how to take it. “Thank you,” she said to Roz and Nikki.
“You’re welcome,” Nikki said.
But Roz just went and sat back down, folded her legs, and looked at her husband.
She was pissed that he kept her in the dark on virtually everything going on in his life.
She had no idea he owned this cabin for twenty-five years.
She had no idea he had purchased Cleo a house.
She had no idea there was a Cleo in his life for which to purchase a house.
She wondered how many more Cleos were out there.
But Teddy was anxious to get this ball rolling. “Let’s go, Pop,” he said. “Let’s go get that bastard.”
But Mick was still staring at Cleo as if there was more to her story.
“Pop, let’s go,” Teddy said impatiently. “What’s he waiting on?” he asked Nikki.
But Mick had a feeling. And he decided to act upon it. “Who else is there with him?” he asked Cleo.
At first she was ready to deny that anybody else was there. But she’d already seen what Mick was capable of. She wasn’t about to put herself in more of his sudden and out of nowhere rage.
But she had to have a reassurance. “Mick, you can’t kill him.”
Teddy frowned. “Who the fuck are you to give Pop orders?”
“You gotta promise me, Mick, that you won’t kill Ricky. You gotta promise me.”
“You love a dude that trafficked you against your will?” asked Teddy. “What kind of bullshit is that?”
“If it was against her will,” Nikki said, and everybody looked at Cleo.
“Is Nikki accurate?” Mick asked her.
Cleo hesitated. “It was against my will at first.”
“What changed?” Nikki asked.
“Ricky changed. He was very kind to me. He convinced me this could make us millions. So I started going along with it. But it was about survival and nothing else.”
Teddy shook her head. “You’ll never change.”
“Who else is with Ricardo?” Mick asked her.
“I’ll tell you if you promise not to kill him. Please, Mick.”
Mick stared at her. She was in tremendous pain. He could tell that. But she brought it on herself. He didn’t owe her a damn thing. “Who’s with him? I’m not asking again.”
She knew she had no cards to play. None at all. “Spanky,” she said.
Mick was expecting that answer.
Teddy and Nikki weren’t. “Spanky?” Teddy was floored.
“Spank was behind the attack on me at Essence,” Nikki said.
“Who else is with them?” Teddy asked Cleo.
“Nobody else. Just Ricardo and Spank.”
“Who’s their money man?” Mick asked her.
She shook her head. “I don’t know, Mick, and don’t hurt me because I’m not lying. I just know Spank’s working for Ricky and Ricky is the man that answers to the big boss man. That’s why you can’t kill Ricky. He knows who the money man is.”
That gave Mick another idea. “What part did he play in that ambush in Fangen?”
“He was the middle man like I told you. He hired that police chief and gave him money to pay all those cops that were involved.”
“You came back from the dead right around that attack. Was that a part of it too?”
She nodded. “I was there to distract you while they kidnapped either your wife or one of your children or Teddy or Nikki. But Mick promise me you won’t hurt Ricardo. He’s the middle man. He can give you the name of the mastermind.”
Mick and Teddy looked at each other. “Spank working for somebody other than the big boss? That’s news, Pop. I never heard of that before. Spank’s always the middle man.”
Mick had never heard of it either. Spanky was always the second-in-command of any operation Mick had ever known him to be involved with too. But Mick believed Cleo. For once, he believed her.
Then he looked at his daughter-in-law. “Nikki, you’re in charge. Keep my wife safe and don’t fall for any of Cleo’s bullshit.”
“Yes sir,” Nikki said.
“Let’s go, Teddy.”
But Roz stood up. “I’m going too, Mick.”
Teddy and Nikki thought she was insane. Mick knew she was. “There’s no way.”
“But Mick--”
“You will stay here and do whatever Nikki tells you to do. Nikki’s in charge.
Not you. And that’s final.” He stared at Roz a moment longer, daring her to resist, but she didn’t.
She, like Cleo, knew she had no cards to play when it came to safety.
The last time she defied him she ended up in that jail in Fangen.
And he ended up almost dead. She sat back down.
Mick and Teddy left the cabin and walked to the first Escalade. “Follow us,” Teddy said to his capos as Mick hopped behind the wheel and Teddy got in on the front passenger seat. Their capos scrambled to get into the other two Escalades as they took off behind Mick.
Teddy looked at his father. “Think it’s time to bring the Gabrinis back in?”
But Mick knew there was still too many unanswered questions. “Not yet,” he said, as he drove onto the highway and did as he always did whenever he was behind the wheel: He floored it.