CHAPTER THIRTY
Mick and his capos sped through the streets of Philly, trying with all they had to keep up with that fast-ass Maserati.
But the driver of the first SUV directly behind Mick wasn’t able to maneuver through all of that heavy traffic the way that Maserati could, and he ended up broadsiding a vehicle as he blew through a red light. The SUV overturned.
And then the second SUV, coming up behind the first one, tried to slam on brakes, but he ended up slamming into a pickup truck in that same intersection. Rendering their SUV disabled too. But the capos in both SUVs were okay.
But Mick didn’t even notice what was happening behind them. He had no such trouble maneuvering through heavy traffic. He’d done it all his life. He knew how to drive like a maniac with the best of them. That was how he kept up with that Maserati.
Teddy was holding on for dear life as Mick’s maniacal driving caused him to barely missed car after car and truck after truck.
He even barely missed a city bus and a massive semi during the chase.
But Mick kept his pedal to the metal and he didn’t let off of the gas not once.
That fast-ass Maserati was blowing through lights and stop signs, and so was Mick’s big-ass Escalade.
But when Teddy saw that they were approaching a railroad crossing and that the arms of the crossing were already down with the alarm lights flashing, he braced himself. He knew his father was going to try to make it just like that Maserati was going to try to make it.
“Dad, be careful,” Teddy was saying nervously. “If he gets away, he gets away.”
Mick didn’t even hear Teddy as he kept going full speed ahead. His entire attention was on getting across those tracks before it was too late. But that Maserati had to get across first.
And that Maserati was full speed ahead too.
It drove right through those crossing bars as if they weren’t there, tearing them apart, and then it sped onto that railroad track.
But by then it was already too late. That train, which looked to Teddy to be traveling over a one-hundred-and-fifty miles per hour, flew into that intersection and slammed into that Maserati so hard that the Maserati split in two in spectacular fashion.
“Gotdamn!” Teddy yelled out in horror and even Mick, who was just about to enter and run into that train as well, had enough wherewithal to turn his steering wheel so hard that he was out of his seat turning it and turning it.
He was burning rubber as if he was doing donuts in the road, but he was doing all he could to avoid crashing into that train that way that Maserati crashed into it.
And he was doing all he could to avoid a rollover on top of that.
But there was no avoiding it. His tank of an SUV didn’t slam into that train as Mick was able to do turn just sharp enough to steer it away, but it rolled over and over five times. It landed upright, but was so badly wrecked that it looked as if that train had hit it anyway.
But it hadn’t hit it. And Mick and Teddy, both unharmed, were able to climb out of their vehicle unscathed. That train was miles up the track still trying to come to a complete stop.
But Mick and Teddy didn’t delay. They pulled out their guns as they ran across those now wreck-spewed tracks and up to the horrifically-mangled Maserati.
“There he is, Pop,” Teddy said when he saw Spanky, who had been driving the Maserati, thrown nearly twenty feet from the wreckage.
While Teddy ran over there to make certain he was dead, Mick searched the front end of the car, but found no one.
Then he hurried over to the backend of the car, which was much further over.
But he still found no one. But that was when he looked and saw a black man running into the woods.
“Ted!” Mick yelled as he began running after the man. Teddy left Spanky’s dead body and ran behind his father.
Roz and Nikki arrived at the horrific scene just as they saw Teddy running into those woods.
Roz slammed on the brakes and jumped out before Nikki could unbuckle her seatbelt. They both were horrified when they saw the state of Mick’s Escalade and the state of that Maserati. “Good Lord, what happened here?” Roz said out loud, but she kept running into those woods too.
Nikki hopped out of that Expedition and was right on her tail as both women ran into those woods after Teddy.
Because the second Expedition had stopped to pick up the capos that had been in the accident further back, they arrived after Roz and Nikki had run into those woods.
Now they had to figure out where they’d gone!
They hopped out scrambling to find them.
Mick was shoving tall weeds out of his way and stumbling over tree stumps as he ran through those thick woods still on the chase.
By the time Teddy caught up with Mick, they both saw the young black man hiding in those woods.
That was when they stopped running. And they both pointed their guns at the young man they assumed was Cleo’s lover.
“You’re surrounded,” Mick yelled out. “Toss your weapon out and then you come out slowly!”
It took a moment, but the young man stood up and tossed his gun.
Both men knew Ricardo DeSouza looked young in the photos they saw of him, but their capos always dealt with him.
They’d never seen him in person. And when he came out of those woods, they were shocked.
They knew he was young, but they never would have guessed he was that young.
He was a kid. He looked like he was barely twenty.
He was right around Marco’s age! And there was something very familiar about him.
So familiar that it made Teddy say what the fuck out loud.
But Mick was too focused on finding out who was behind that ambush to pay attention to any of that. “Walk toward us slowly,” he ordered Ricardo.
But when Ricardo came out of those woods, he wasn’t armed with a gun, but he had a switchblade in his hand that he swiftly threw and caught Teddy in his shooting hand, stabbing him all the way through.
Teddy was about to shoot when that knife penetrated his hand, but the pain of that stab wound caused his weapon to fly out of his hand and him to drop to his knees.
Mick fired a shot, but Ricardo had dropped down low, causing the bullet to sail past his head, and then he grabbed Mick by his lower legs and flung him down, slamming him to the ground on his back. He grabbed hold of Mick’s gun and began fighting for control of it.
He was decades younger than Mick, but nobody was stronger. Mick managed to flip Ricardo off of him, get on top of Ricardo, and take control of his weapon.
“Who’s the money man?” Mick asked him pointblank.
Ricardo smiled. “I am.”
“Bullshit,” Mick said. “Where your ass was able to get that kind of dough to sling around?”
“I have my ways of making money just like you do, Mick the Tick. It’s not that hard.”
Mick knew he was lying, but he needed answers. “Why did you target me? Because of my past relationship with Cleo?”
Ricardo smiled again. “If that’s what you think you’re dumber than I thought.”
“Then why?”
“That’s for me to know and for you to find out,” he said, and Mick hit him violently in his mouth with the butt of his gun.
“Gotdammit!” Ricardo cried out from his busted lip. Then he reached for that gun again and began wrestling with Mick again. But Mick got the upper hand again and took charge of his weapon.
Despite his own pain, Teddy pulled that knife out of his hand and then began crawling toward his own gun, but that was when they heard Roz’s voice.
“Mick! Don’t shoot him!” Roz cried out. “He’s your son, Mick! Don’t kill him!”
When Mick and Teddy heard Roz’s voice first, and then the words she was saying, they both looked in that direction.
That was when she and Nikki ran up to them. “He’s your son, Mick,” Roz kept saying. She was virtually out of breath. “Cleo says he’s your son!”
As soon as Roz said those words, Teddy knew it was true. He knew it! That kid looked just like they looked. That kid looked like a younger, black version of Mick!
But Ricardo had taken advantage of their shock and had taken the gun from Mick like a damn magician and had it pressed against Mick’s head.
Nikki had run to Teddy’s aid until she saw that gun turned on Mick. She quickly drew her weapon, but Ricardo yelled at her. “Drop it now or he’s dead!”
Nikki wasn’t taking any chances with Mick’s life. She quickly dropped her gun.
Then Ricardo got to his feet, still pointing that gun at Mick’s head.
Mick looked up at him. He had green eyes just like the Sinatra men had.
He had that same look he saw in Duke and in Teddy.
It was as if Mick was looking at himself as he looked at that young man. He stared unblinkingly at those eyes.
Ricardo could have shot him dead right then and there. They all knew it. But he didn’t. He stared at Mick’s eyes for a moment longer as if he was shocked himself, and then he took off.
That was when the capos from the Expedition finally found their way into those woods too. Teddy got to his feet, grabbed his gun, and ordered the capos to follow him.
They took off further into those woods after Ricardo, with Nikki going to protect Teddy.
But Mick was frozen in place. He was still looking at Roz. “He’s my son? What are you talking about, Roz?”
“Cleo said he’s your son.” Roz was frazzled and so out of steam she was bending over. “You can’t kill your son. You can go through that again,” she said to him. “You can’t.”
Mick knew it too. But was it true? Or was Cleo trying to protect Ricardo again?
But he saw those eyes.
That kid had Sinatra eyes.
Just the thought of it staggered Mick.
But by the time Teddy and Nikki and their capos returned with no Ricardo in their midst, which meant he had yet another problem still out there somewhere, it staggered Mick even more.