When Teddy stopped his car, neither immediately stepped out. Teddy looked at his beloved kid sister. “Going to tell me who your friend is?”
But Gloria didn’t even want to think about Oz, although that was all she’d been doing the entire drive over. “No,” she said.
“He’s that bad?”
Gloria frowned, and removed her seatbelt. “Let’s just do this,” she said.
“Be patient with him, Glo,” said Teddy.
“Patient with whom?” Gloria asked. Did Teddy Know Oz?
“With Dad,” Teddy said. “Who else? You need to get this right.”
“Why do I need to get it right?”
“Because if you get it right,” Teddy said, “I just might step out too.”
Gloria looked at him. “From under Dad?”
Teddy nodded. “Yeah.”
“But I thought you loved being the number one man in his entire organization.”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t love me being it. I can’t do anything right lately. He’s been riding me like a damn workhorse. Riding Nikki, too, although I think she likes it. But we hardly get to see each other anymore.”
“Still haven’t even set your wedding date yet,” said Gloria.
“And we aren’t going to,” said Teddy, “until we get a handle on our involvement with Dad. He runs my life and her life now. If he says frog, we jump. We can’t continue like this. We need to know that somebody can do this thing successfully.” Then he looked at his sister. “I never would have thought, in a million years, that it would be you leading the way for the rest of us.”
“It’s not been easy,” Gloria said.
“Something worth having never is,” said Teddy.
Gloria thought about Oz. “No,” she said, “I guess not. Anyway, ready?”
Teddy nodded, unbuckled his seatbelt, and they both got out of the car.
When they entered their father’s mansion, and headed across the long expanse of the living room, they could hear voices in the family room that they both knew belonged to their dad and to Teddy’s girlfriend Nikki.
“He talks to Nikki like she’s his equal,” Gloria said.
“Yeah, he does, when she’s doing it like he says. Then he cusses her ass out when she doesn’t do it like he says.”
Gloria was surprised. “Really? He cusses out Nikki?”
“Hell yeah, Glo! Dad doesn’t change. The only person on the face of this earth he doesn’t try to handle is Roz.”
“He handles her, too,” said Gloria. “But she handles him right back.”
Both siblings laughed, and made their way into the family room.
And just as they suspected, Mick Sinatra was slouched down on his couch having a work-related conversation with Nikki Tarver, Teddy’s girlfriend.
Nikki was as comfortable as you could get around their father, which was never totally relaxed, as her curvaceous, voluptuous body sat upright and attentive. Sometimes Teddy felt jealous of his father’s seemingly easy relationship with Nikki. Other times, he wanted to kill his father for being so hard on Nikki. It helped that he trusted Nikki. It helped that, as soon as he walked into that room, she smiled a grand smile at him.
“Hey, Teddy,” she said and immediately ceased her conversation with Mick, and stood up to greet him. “Hey babe,” she said as Teddy gave her a big hug.
“Hey, Glo,” she said as she released Teddy, and hugged Gloria.
“Nick, what’s up?” Although they’d had their differences in the past, mainly because Mick had promoted Nikki into a higher position than Gloria in his company, they still remained good friends.
Mick’s wife, actress Roz Graham-Sinatra, and his son Joey, who was still wheelchair-bound despite the fact that he could take limited steps before his legs would weaken again, were also in the room. And both hurried to Gloria too. Joey pushed his wheelchair so fast up to Glo, that she was afraid he was going to run over her feet.
“I know what I’m doing,” he said happily as Gloria reached down and hugged his neck too.
But she had a bone to pick with him. “Traitor,” she whispered in his ear as they hugged.
But Joey, being Joey, never took full responsibility for anything. “What did I do?” he asked her.
But Gloria ignored him as she hugged her stepmother’s neck. Roz was everything to all of Mick’s children, including his two youngest, the twins he had with Roz. Without her insistence, their relationship with their father might have been as strained as it was when they were neglected kids.
“You look wonderful, Glo,” Roz said. “Florida agrees with you.”
Gloria glanced at her father, to see if he would object to her so much as mentioning Florida, but, as usual, he kept that same stone expression. “Thanks,” she said.
“Sit down, sit down,” Roz insisted and although Teddy sat on the sofa with Nikki and his father, Gloria sat on the sofa across from them with Roz.
“I’m glad you could make it, Gloria,” Roz said. “I was worried about you when Teddy said your flight was canceled. How did you get here?”
“A different flight,” said Gloria as she glanced at Mick. She wanted to give as little information about Oz as she possibly could. Maybe her father knew of him and his reputation with women, too, and would not approve even her personal life, let alone her professional decisions.
“They had a different flight that would bring you to Philly at the same time as your previous flight?”
“No, it wasn’t that,” said Gloria.
“Then what was it?” asked Roz. “Stop beating around the bush with me.”
“I caught a ride with somebody I knew.”
“Somebody with their own plane?” asked Nikki with a smile. “Must be nice.”
But Mick would have none of it. “Have you quit your job?” he asked her.
And just like that, the lighthearted fare was over. And everybody knew it. Gloria didn’t realize it, but she actually sat her body up straighter. “I haven’t officially quit, but yes, I intend to submit my resignation.”
“No need,” said Mick. “You’re fired.”
“Mick!” Roz said disapprovingly.
“Don’t you Mick me!” Mick shot back. “I gave her every break she’s ever had and what does she do? My guys find out that she went and bought some shitty-ass diner and don’t bother to mention it to me. I think my daughter’s on vacation, and I find out she’s moved to Florida! To Florida. And you think I’m going to support that shit?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you support,” Gloria said before she realized the words had come out of her mouth.
There were audible gasps in the room, as everybody looked at her, and then, more importantly, looked nervously at Mick. He’d kill that child; didn’t she realize that???
Mick was staring at her with that stare of his that could melt steel. But Gloria did not back down. “You never support me, anyway,” she said. “You act as if I didn’t work my butt off for you for all of those years. Hard as I worked for you, getting demoted and humiliated time and time again, and you fire me because I decided I wanted to live my own life on my own terms? Fuck you!”
When Gloria said those two words, everybody jumped up. Even Joey tried to jump up. But Mick was too fast and too big and strong for all of them. He was over to that sofa in record time, and slapped the shit out of Gloria before she could even stand to her feet.
“Pop, no!” Teddy said, pulling his father back.
“Don’t, Mick.” Roz was keeping him away from Gloria too.
“Don’t do it, Dad!” even Joey was yelling too.
Nikki wasn’t saying a word. She was in shock. She knew why they called him Mick the Tick. His temper was like a ticking time bomb. She understood that. But to see it in action was still, to this day, a sight to behold.
Gloria was holding the side of her face that still stung from his slap. Her father had slapped her before. He’d beat her ass before. But there was something about this time that pricked her to her heart
. Because, for the first time, she wondered if he loved her at all. This man, her father, the one person that she loved and tried to please more than any other person alive, might not even care for her at all. And that was breaking her heart. She stared at him. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him.
Mick stood there, staring at her, too. His hair had fallen across his forehead, making him look like a young man, and his chest was breathing in and out at a rapid pace. He saw the disappointment in his daughter’s eyes. He saw the hurt and the pain. His anger was in the fact that he knew that all of her problems, including those that led her to run away from her life in Philly, was all his doing. His sadistic father had messed him up until everybody feared him even more than they respected him. He had messed up his children too.
“Everybody out,” he said to the room.
“Pop, you can’t,” Teddy was saying.
“Everybody out!” Mick yelled like a thunder clap.
Roz, knowing her husband more than anybody else, and certain he would not hurt Gloria any more than the slap she deserved for speaking to him so disrespectfully, grabbed Teddy by the arm. “Come on, let’s give them some space.”
But Teddy was still resistant. He wasn’t leaving his kid sister with that animal.
“He’s not going to hurt her, Teddy,” said Roz. “Let’s go.”
Teddy continued to stare at his father, and then at Gloria, but he knew how much his father loved Glo. He wouldn’t hurt her. At least not anymore. He agreed with Roz.
He and Roz, along with Nikki and Joey, made their way out of the family room. Mick and Gloria were left alone. Mick, tired, pulled up a side chair, and sat down in front of his daughter. He leaned back and folded his legs, staring at her the entire time. Gloria was still upset to say a word.
But it was Mick who spoke first. And, as usual, he came from out of left field. “Your hair is a mess,” he said.
Gloria was about to smooth it down, to please him once again, but she stopped herself. Those days of kowtowing to him were over. “Yes, I know,” she said.
“Take it out of that damn ponytail,” Mick ordered.
Gloria started to say that Roz wore her hair back sometimes, too, but she caught herself. Because she knew him. You aren’t Roz, would be his comeback line. But she already knew that to be a fact. She wasn’t Roz because he loved Roz. Right then, Gloria was convinced he didn’t love her. She wondered if he hated her.
She removed the scrunchie from the back of her hair and let it careen down in a cascade of curly bounciness.
Mick watched her, and seemed pleased. “That’s better,” he said.
Then he unfolded his legs and leaned forward, both of his expensive Italian shoes pointed directly at her, and made himself clear. “You are going to sell that diner,” he said to her, “and return to Philadelphia. You’ll continue to work for me, or not, that’s your choice, but you will remain a present part of this family.”
“A family under your total control?” Gloria asked him.
Mick almost looked as if he wanted to slap the shit out of her again. But he settled back down. “What do you want me to say, Gloria? That I don’t control my own family? What kind of man doesn’t control his family? Certainly not a man like me,” he said with a look so chilling to Gloria that she almost looked away.
“And I’m not any man,” Mick continued. “I’m Mick Sinatra, whether you like it or not. Because you’re my daughter,” Mick continued, “there are certain precautions I have to take to protect you. To protect all of you. And having one of you living in fucking Florida is not going to happen.”
Mick waited and composed himself again. “That’s why all of you will remain under me. In Philadelphia. Under my protection. Until I’m dead. Then, maybe, at least I hope and pray, you’ll be free.”
A pain pierced through Gloria’s heart at the thought of anything bad happening to her father. She wasn’t sure about his feelings for her, but she was absolutely certain about her feelings for him. She loved her father. She admired and respected him, and was proud to be his daughter. But he was right: she feared him too. And it was that fear, she felt, that was crippling her. He was toxic to her. He was toxic to all of them. She had to make her own way!
“You’re going to sell that diner,” he said again, when he realized she was faltering, “and come back home.”
But Gloria was already shaking her head. “No,” she said. “I’m not selling my business.”
Mick slammed his hand down on the side table so forcefully that it made Gloria jump in adject fear for her safety.
“Am I asking you,” Mick angrily asked, “or am I telling you?!”
The old Gloria would have backed down easily. Her father’s word was final in his world. But she wasn’t in his world anymore. She had a business to run, employees to pay, and a house of her own to find. She had things to do that did not concern him for the first time in her entire life.
“I will not be selling my diner,” she said again, and rose to her feet. And for the first time ever, she managed to shock her father.
He looked at her, as she stared at him, and then she left the room.
It was a testament, she knew, to how much he respected those who stood up to him when she was able to defy his word, and still walk out alive.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
The casino was at near-capacity, even for a Thursday night, and Oz was making his rounds. The ladies were admiring him, as usual, and some wanted to slip him their room numbers. Although he smiled that charming smile they loved, and joked around with each one of them, his heart just wasn’t in it. He had only one woman on his mind, and she wasn’t in the building.
Until he heard her voice, and turned toward the entrance. He stood there as if he was planted in place, as she walked toward him.
Her heart was hammering as she walked toward him, and she wondered if she was making the biggest mistake of her life. Was she trading in one father for another one? Was that what this was about? If it wasn’t, why couldn’t she wait to get back to Apple Valley to go see him? But it was a fact. Gloria couldn’t wait to get back to him.
She wanted him, she thought. What a crazy thought!
But it wasn’t so crazy, after all, she felt, when she made it up to Oz. “Hi.”
“Hello.” Oz felt odd seeing her again. “How are you?”
“I’m okay. You?”
“I’ll survive.”
Gloria smiled. “Yes, I’m sure you will.” Then the awkward pause. “I just wanted to thank you, again, for flying me to Philly. You didn’t have to do that, and I really appreciated it.”
“No problem. How’s your family?”
“They’re . . . they’re okay. Thanks for asking.”
Oz didn’t know how to respond to that. The idea that her father was Mick the Tick Sinatra still astonished him. He didn’t know a mob boss alive who didn’t fear Mick the Tick. And if he was the one running the Ghost Mafia, Oz knew he had bit off way more than he could chew. But after they eventually opened up the lines of communication, he knew he’d find out just what the demands were, and if Sinatra was, in fact, spearheading that land grab.
It was obvious to Gloria that Oz wasn’t trying to make amends after how he treated her when they landed in Philly. She had hoped her showing up would prove to him that she wanted them to be on good terms. But it wasn’t working out as she had hoped.
“Ozzie, my friend!”
Oz and Gloria turned toward a beautiful lady coming their way.
“Remember me?” the woman asked Oz.
Oz smiled. “Beatrice. How could I forget Beatrice?”
Bea laughed. “Damn right,” she said.
“What can I do for you?”
She grinned. “I little problem in my room I thought you could help me, ah, repair.” She said this and then looked at Gloria.
Gloria knew exactly what the woman wanted. And her heart sank. “Anyway,” she said to Oz, “I just wanted to thank you. Good evening,” she said to both O
z and Beatrice, and then she began leaving out.
Beatrice began talking, but Oz wasn’t hearing her at all. He was too busy watching Gloria head toward that exit. He was too busy wishing to God that she was not Sinatra’s daughter. Because, even despite the fact that she belonged to Mick the Tick, there was still something about her that ignited something in him. And as she was leaving, it felt as if a part of him was leaving with her. But only a fool would go down that road.
“Excuse me,” Oz said to Beatrice, interrupting her little speech, and he began hurrying toward Gloria. Count him among the fools, he thought, because she was the one he wanted. She was the one.
Just as Gloria thought there was no hope left for her to ever get to know him better, or why she even wanted to, she heard his voice. “Gloria!”
At first, she thought she was imagining things. She wanted it too badly. But then she heard her name again. And she turned around. He wasn’t with Beatrice, or whatever her name was, anymore. He was right in front of Glo. “I thought you were talking with your friend,” she said.
“Have dinner with me,” Oz said quickly. To hell with it. He wanted this woman, and he was going to have her. No matter what.
What he didn’t know was that those words were music to Gloria’s ears. She’d been thinking about him all night. He excited her when no other man could. He made her happy. And she wasn’t letting this chance, despite his moodiness, pass her by. “Yes,” she said. “I’d love to.”
Oz was surprised by her quick comeback. Happily surprised. He smiled. “Let me button it up with my guys here, and then we’ll go in my car.”
Gloria smiled. “Good because I don’t have one.”
“No, go on! No wheels? How did you get here?”
“Good ol’ Uber.”
Oz laughed. Then he reached out his hand. “Come here,” he said.
She went to him and placed her hand in his. He walked her over to a side chair. “Wait here. I won’t be a minute.”
“Beatrice is still over there waiting for you,” Gloria said.
“Who?” Oz asked with a grin, and then headed to, as he put it, ‘button it up’ with his guys.
Oz Drakos: Loving Mick the Tick's Daughter Page 10
