CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
But back at the cabin, Cleo was in a state of panic. But Roz and Nikki didn’t understand why.
“What’s wrong with you?” Nikki frustratingly asked her.
But she was leaned forward, crying and wringing her hands. “He can’t kill Ricky,” she said.
Nikki frowned. “Why are you so obsessed with that man? You said yourself he was trafficking you after he kidnapped you.”
“But that’s not . . .”
Roz was beginning to sense that this was more than just about love. “But that’s not what?” she asked Cleo.
“That’s not the whole truth,” she said. “I was a willing participant. It was good, easy money, and it gave me a chance to get over Mick.”
Roz ignored that little comment. “So are you saying you no longer love Ricardo?” she asked her.
“Yes, I still love him. I’ll always love him. I love him more than life itself.”
“Then what’s not true?”
“It’s not true,” Cleo said again.
“So you don’t love your lover?”
“He’s not my lover,” Cleo said firmly. Then she looked at Roz. “He’s my son.”
Roz and Nikki were floored. “Your son?” asked Nikki. “Ricardo DeSouza is your son?”
“He’s my son,” Cleo said, “and Mick’s son.”
When she said those words, Roz jumped from her seat. “You’s a dirty lie!” she angrily yelled. She was tired of these bitches trying to trap her man.
But Cleo didn’t look like she was lying to Nikki. “It’s the truth,” Cleo said. “Mick is going to kill his own son. Ricardo is his son!”
Nikki stood up too. She was as floored as Roz.
“He had just met you,” Cleo said to Roz. “He slept with me one night, and then I found out he was with you that next night. That’s when it all started going downhill for us.” She had venom in her eyes. “It was because of you!”
But those two ladies weren’t thinking about who won Mick. “Are you saying he cheated on Roz?” Nikki asked her.
“He cheated on every one of his baby mamas. Why not Roz too?”
But Roz couldn’t think about that right now. All she could think about that if Cleo was telling the truth, that would mean that Mick was going to kill his own son. “Does Mick know that’s his child?”
“No he doesn’t know, you idiot!” Cleo yelled at Roz. “He’s gonna kill his own son.”
“But he can’t,” Roz said as panic swelled inside of her. “He can’t be forced to do that again.”
Cleo frowned. “What you mean do it again?”
But Roz was thinking out loud. “It’ll kill Mick if he has to do that again. It’ll kill him. He can’t!” she cried out as she got on her phone calling Mick, while Nikki, remembering how Mick had to take out his son Adrian to save Roz, got on her phone calling Teddy. But neither answered the call.
Then Roz took off running.
“Roz, what are you doing?” Nikki yelled out. “Roz!”
But she knew her mother-in-law. Once her mind was made up, little could be done to change it.
Nikki took off after Roz. When she got outside, Roz was already hopping into one of those Ford Expeditions. The capos outside were running behind her, but not one of them had the nerve to stop her. Who was going to stop Mick’s wife?
“Stay here and guard Cleo,” Nikki ordered the capos as she ran to the SUV and hopped in on the passenger seat. And she hopped in just in time because Roz sped away. Four capos hopped into the second Expedition and sped behind them. The other capos remained at the cabin to guard Cleo.
“Get my phone,” Roz ordered Nikki, “and pull up the GPS.”
“On Mick’s Escalade?”
“No. On Mick’s phone.”
Nikki looked at her as she grabbed Roz’s phone. “You have GPS on Mick? Since when?”
“Since he was laid up in that hospital. I knew he was going to come out with both barrels blazing and still wasn’t going to tell me shit. He was still gonna pull that Rambo shit. That’s over,” Roz said as Nikki pulled up the tracker. “Let’s just pray we get to him before he can get to his son.”
“If it is his son,” said Nikki. “She could still be lying to protect her lover.”
Roz knew it too. But she still wasn’t taking any chances. Mick would die if he had to kill another one of his boys. It would do Mick in for certain.
“Just tell me where to go,” she ordered, and Nikki did just that.