CHAPTER ELEVEN
“He’s here!”
“Who’s here?”
“Director Reese is here.”
“Are you serious?”
“He’s just getting out of a limousine.”
“Go tell the boss,” the office manager said, but it was too late.
Hamilton “Hammer” Reese, the former director of the CIA and the current head of all Special Ops units for the entire federal government, walked into the office building of Amelia Sinatra Investigations. And he didn’t look pleased. “Is she in?”
“I’ll go and see if she’s available, sir,” the manager said, rising from behind her desk.
But Hammer motioned for her to get back in her seat. “Stay right where you are,” he said as he walked down the hall that led to Amelia’s office.
When he got to the door he didn’t bother to knock or announce himself. He barged on in.
And Amelia, who was seated behind her desk refreshing her makeup, nearly jumped out of her skin. “What are you doing here?”
“Didn’t I tell you no more of that bullshit, Amelia,” Hammer proclaimed as he hurried toward her desk.
Amelia jumped up from her seat and held onto her desk, as if she might have to make a run for it in the opposite direction of Hammer’s run behind her desk. But he didn’t come behind her desk. “I can explain, Hammer, damn,” she said. “What are you so upset about?”
“I told you countless times that if you didn’t leave that crowd alone this was going to be the end of this so-called private eye business you’re running.”
“First of all it’s not a so-called business I’m running, it’s a business. And second of all, they came to me, Hammer. What was I supposed to do? Turn them down?”
“Yes! That’s exactly what you were supposed to do. I’m not playing with your ass, Millie. I’ll shut all this shit down!”
Amelia knew he could too. “Okay okay,” she said. “I messed up. It won’t happen again.”
“That’s what you said the last time and I fell for it. This has got to stop, Amelia. You aren’t your brothers and you will not become your brothers and be with me. Understand?”
“I understand you can’t stand my brothers. That’s what I understand.”
“I have nothing against Big Daddy Sinatra. Nothing whatsoever. Charles and I have a wonderful relationship.”
“I’m not talking about Charles. I’m talking about Mick. You can’t stand Mick.”
“Mick Sinatra is the number one mob boss in this world. I have turned blind eye after blind eye to that man’s crimes for years. I have gotten his ass out of more certain imprisonments than I can count. Why would I do all of that if I couldn’t stand him?”
“Because of me. That’s why,” said Amelia.
There was a hesitation that Hammer didn’t mean to have.
“That’s ridiculous,” he finally said, although his lackluster voice indicated that his heart might have said differently.
He’d never admit it out loud, but it was always because of Amelia that he put up with things he never dreamed he’d put up with.
He couldn’t live with that woman. He couldn’t live without her.
“If you didn’t have me to boss around you wouldn’t have anybody,” she continued saying. “You’d be lost without me. Face it.”
The first part of that comment was ludicrous on its face, and Hammer knew she knew better than that.
He commanded vast armies of men in his former and current positions.
And he had no problem finding women more than happy for him to boss around too.
That first part was wrong as hell. But the other part wasn’t.
Amelia drove him nuts, got on his last damn nerve, drove him to the brink of divorcing her ass more times than he’d ever admit, but she was right.
He’d be lost without her. He’d do anything for her.
But this time he wasn’t playing with her.
He wanted to come around that desk and grab hold of her to prove to her he wasn’t playing, but he didn’t go that far.
He pointed at her and looked her dead in her eyes instead.
“You are not allowed to have mobsters for clients. And yes I said you are not allowed! The ones you have on your client list, get rid of them and get rid of them today. Do I make myself clear, Millie? That gangster life you used to live is over. And if you keep it up you and I will be over. And I mean it this time. Am I clear about that?”
Amelia knew when he wasn’t playing. “Yes. You’re clear. But may I ask you a question?”
“A question? Are you hearing me, Amelia?”
“May I ask you a question?”
Nobody frustrated him like she did either. Not even their children. “Sure, why not? I’m telling you I’ll shut this shit down, and you want to ask a question. Ask away!”
“How did you find out?”
“How do you think?”
“You said you wasn’t going to be spying on me, Hammer.”
“I didn’t have to spy on your ass. The very loyal men that I command know everybody in that murky world of mobsters. Everybody. And they let me know when you’re out of line. I don’t have to spy. I don’t have to do anything. They keep me informed.”
“Excuse me, Boss?”
Amelia looked beyond Hammer and saw her office manager at her door. She looked terrified. “What is it?”
“It’s all over the news.”
“What’s all over the news?”
“Your nephew’s son.”
Amelia was puzzled. “Which nephew’s son?”
“Tommy Gabrini’s son.”
When he heard that name, Hammer turned and looked at the manager too. “What about his son?” he asked.
“They’re saying he’s shooting up his school. A lot of students have been shot. It’s all over the news.”
Amelia, her heart pounding, quickly grabbed her remote and turned on the television.
It wasn’t on the local channels in Baltimore where they were, so she turned to CNN.
And there it was. A picture of TJ’s beautiful face was on one screen while the best private school in Seattle, surrounded by flashing lights and children running out of various buildings as if they were victims of a domestic terror attack, were on another screen.
And Wolf Blitzer was insisting that TJ, that her TJ, was the terrorist?
She stumbled in shock. Hammer had to rush around the desk and grab her lest she fall.