Amelia Sinatra: What Hammer Wants

by Mallory Monroe

  And then Big Daddy Charles Sinatra showed up, entering her home after automatic clearance from the guards outside. He looked around, saw her and JoJo, and hurried to them. “Are you guys alright?” Charles asked anxiously as he sat beside Amelia, effectively putting her in the middle between himself and JoJo, and he hugged them both. “Are you okay?”

  “Hey, Uncle Charles!” JoJo said.

  “Hey, baby,” Charles said as he reached over Amelia and ruffled JoJo’s hair, and kissed him on the forehead. “You okay?”

  JoJo nodded. “Unhun,” he said.

  “I told you about that unhun, Jo,” Amelia said.

  “I mean, yes, sir,” JoJo said to Charles. “I’m okay.”

  Then Rowena, who had been out on a date with Ozzie Jones, hurried through the door with Ozzie. Rowena ran to JoJo’s side. Ozzie went over to Hammer.

  “I just found out,” Rowena said hysterically. “Is everybody alright?” JoJo reached for her, and Ro lifted him into her arms.

  “Yes, Ro,” Amelia said. “We’re all okay.”

  “Thank God!” Rowena said. “What happened?”

  Amelia shook her head as if to say, not in front of JoJo.

  Rowena understood. “He’s up so late. Do you want me to put him to bed?”

  “Yes, please. But not in his room.”

  “My room got all shot up,” JoJo said.

  Charles’s heart dropped. What a thing for a child to have to say!

  “His room is unavailable,” Amelia said. “Hammer already has a clean-up crew and a glass replacement crew outside, but they can’t get in Jo’s room nor my room until the cops finish collecting their evidence. Put him in one of the guest rooms.”

  “Which one?” Amelia had several inside her home.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Amelia said. Then she looked at Jo. “I’ll be in to see about you in a little bit, okay?”

  “Okay, Mommy,” JoJo said. “Bye, Uncle Charles!” he added, Charles said goodnight, and Rowena took him away.

  Then Charles looked at Amelia. He kept his arm around her waist and moved her closer against him.

  “We’re okay, Charles,” Amelia said. “You didn’t have to come. We’re okay.”

  “I couldn’t believe it when I heard it,” Charles said. “Whoever did it tried to target JoJo too?”

  Amelia nodded. “But he’s good,” she said. “He will be anyway.” Then she looked at Charles, who sat so close to her they appeared to be melded together. “Who told you?” she asked him.

  “Mick,” Charles said. “Since you wasn’t going to mention it.”

  “It just happened. I haven’t had a chance to fully digest it myself.” Then she scrunched up her face, as if she was still reeling from it. “How did Mick find out?” she asked. “Who told him?”

  Charles hunched his shoulders. “Who knows? You know Mick. He always finds out everything going on in the family before anybody else does.”

  Amelia smiled. “He’s not the boss of all bosses for nothing,” she said as if she was proud of Mick’s number one ranking in the underworld.

  But Charles found it repulsive. He even lowered his voice. “Don’t ever mention that title around me. Boss of all bosses indeed! And he’ll never get out of that life,” Charles added and looked at Amelia suspiciously. “You know that, right? If you go down that mob road, you can never get out.”

  “I’m not trying to be in the mob, alright?” Amelia said.

  “Then what’s this shit about?” Charles asked her.

  Amelia knew it didn’t look good, and she knew her side jobs were most likely the reason. She couldn’t understand why the hit, though, when she’d already paid Lenny, thanks to Hammer. She paid her debts. She didn’t owe anybody.

  But that was a worry for another day. “Where’s Mick anyway?” she asked. “His sister and nephew’s near-death wasn’t enough to warrant his appearance?”

  “You know his ass is here,” Charles said. “But he’s making no appearance until all of these cops clear out. They’ll try to blame him for this shit if they see his face.”

  Amelia smiled. She knew it too.

  Some two hours later, when Hammer and Ozzie finally finished their conversations with the cops, and the cops finally cleared out completely, Ozzie went back to check on Rowena, and Hammer came over and sat down beside Amelia. Banging could be heard as the clean-up crew and glass replacement crew were finally permitted into Amelia and JoJo’s bedrooms, and the cleanup began.

  When Hammer sat beside her, Amelia, at that very moment, became overwhelmed with drain and found herself leaning away from Charles, and against Hammer. She didn’t realize she had done so, because her mind was on the event itself. She didn’t want to so much as imagine what might have happened had Hammer not been there with he and JoJo that night.

  They sat quietly, mainly talking about little of nothing, until Mick Sinatra, the man tagged the most feared mob boss in the world, walked through that door. Although Mick, like all mobsters, would declare to his dying day he had no affiliation with any mob of any kind and, in fact, didn’t even know what the mob looked like. It would have been a laughable declaration, but from Capone to Gotti to Mick the Tick to Sal Gabrini, they all declared it.

  Although Amelia was always happy to see her brother Mick, a look of distaste came over Hammer’s face given who Mick was, and who Hammer was. But they had long ago agreed on a mutual disrespect type of truce that held over the years. For Amelia’s sake.

  “Where were you?” Amelia asked Mick.

  “I get around,” Mick said as he sat his muscular frame on the coffee table in front of her. “Where’s Hannibal?”

  Mick was about the only person that still called JoJo by his Christian name. “Ro put him to bed a couple hours ago,” Amelia said.

  “I understand he was targeted too.”

  Amelia nodded. “Can you believe that? Who targets a child?”

  Mick glanced at Hammer. In their line of work? Many people, they could have said. But neither answered that question.

  “Any security footage of the attack?” Mick asked.

  Amelia looked at Hammer. “Are there?”

  Hammer nodded. “It was a lone gunman, face covered, wore overstuffed clothing to appear bigger than he was, but he wasn’t on the grounds. He was at a distance.”

  “You saw the tape already?” Charles asked Hammer.

  “I saw it.”

  “The cops saw it?” Mick asked.

  Hammer hesitated. Then admitted he held the tapes back. “No,” said Hammer.

  Mick smiled. “That’s the infamous Hammer Reese. A by-the-book, law-and-order man until it’s inconvenient for him. Then it’s the wild fucking west, every man for himself, to his ass too.”

  “Fuck you, Mick,” Hammer said, but Mick continued to smile.

  Then his smile, such as it was anyway, was gone. “But here’s the thing, Amelia,” he said, his elbows resting on his knees, his hands clasped beneath his chin. “I need particulars. Who did it?”

  Amelia was offended by Mick’s insinuation. “Like how would I know?” she asked him.

  “You know,” Mick said. “And if your ass don’t know, you have a pretty good idea.”

  “I don’t know, Mick, alright? How am I supposed to know?”

  “You paid off Lenny the Butcher, thanks to Hammer. You paid off Scarf.”

  Amelia and Hammer were both shocked that Mick knew about that. But Charles was confused. “Who’s Lenny the Butcher? Who’s Scarf?”

  When Mick nor Amelia would answer, Charles looked to Hammer. Unlike Hammer’s frosty relationship with Mick, Hammer respected Charles above most men. And he answered his reasonable question. “Lenny Buckner is known as Lenny the Butcher. And Milo Scarferetti is known as Scarf. Amelia does side jobs, as she calls them, for those characters,” Hammer added.

  And Charles was beyond disappointed. “Millie!” His green eyes were vexed. “I should have known. You’re back in that shit again? Why do you keep going ba
ck in?”

  “Because you said so yourself. I can’t get out! I didn’t plan it. I did the first job as a favor for a former vendor. Then others started asking me to be their middle person. So I did it. That’s how it goes.”

  “Why are they targeting you?” Charles asked. “You didn’t do whatever the job was?”

  “I did it, but there were problems. But I paid the debt.” Then she corrected herself. “I paid one. Hammer paid the other one.”

  Then she looked at Mick. “How would you know about Lenny and Scarf?”

  “When they ambushed you on Jappa Road, I began asking around.”

  Charles looked at Amelia. “Ambush? What ambush?”

  Amelia shook her head. “It was nothing. I wasn’t even harmed.”

  “Was JoJo with you then too?” Charles asked her.

  “No. It was just me. It was nothing, Charles.” She patted his hand. “Stop worrying.”

  How can I not with you and Mick as my siblings, Charles wanted to say, but didn’t.

  But Amelia had another concern. “How did you know about that ambush?” she asked Mick.

  Mick didn’t answer that. He, instead, asked a different question. “Do you think either of those two men are responsible for what happened tonight?”

  “Scarf? No,” Amelia said unequivocally. “No way. But Lenny?”

  “It’s possible?” Mick asked.

  Amelia nodded. “With Lenny, yes. It’s possible.”

  “Why would either one of them want to take you out,” Charles asked, “if you paid them what you owed them?”

  “We don’t know, big brother,” Mick said. “But I’m going to find out.”

  “No, you aren’t,” Hammer said to Mick. And Mick gave him a what you say look. “I’m already on it.”

  “Then get off it,” Mick said. “This concerns my sister.”

  “This concerns my woman,” Hammer said. “I’m on it.”

  “Are you serious?” Mick asked him. “She’s my sister,” he said as if that said it all.

  “She’s my woman,” Hammer said, as if that said it all.

  “Just stop,” Amelia said. “Both of you. I’m your sister in name only, Mick, because your ass is never around.” Then she added, less forcefully, to Hammer: “I’m not your woman, and you know it.” And then she stood up, prompting all three men to stand up too. “I’m tired. I’m going to check on JoJo then I’m going to bed.”

  They all stared at her as she headed down the hall, and then was out of sight.

  Charles and Mick looked at Hammer. “She’s not your woman?” Charles asked him. “What’s that about, Hammer?”

  “You’ll have to ask your sister.”

  “I’m asking your ass,” Charles said. “What’s that about?”

  Hammer didn’t respond, which told Charles all he needed to know. “If you broke her heart again, I declare I’ll--”

  “I didn’t do anything, alright?” Hammer said. “It was a misunderstanding.”

  “It always is with you,” Mick said.

  “Kiss my ass!” Hammer said to Mick.

  Mick got in Hammer’s face. “You first, motherfucker!” he said angrily to Hammer. They didn’t call him Mick the ticking time bomb for nothing. He’d be cool, then he’d explode on your ass.

  But before the two men could come to blows, Charles got in between them. All three were big, muscular men overloaded with testosterone. But Charles was the biggest. “Knock it off!” he said, pushing them both back. “Knock it the fuck off!”

  They stared at each other a moment longer, and then Mick spoke. “I’ll find The Butcher,” he said. “Get it out of the CIA pipeline, or whatever agency you’re working for these days. Those fuckers will just slow me down.”

  Then Mick stared at Hammer a moment longer, and then left the house altogether.

  Hammer looked at Charles. Charles was growling at him.

  “I’ll check on Millie,” Hammer said, not at all eager to mix it up with a man he respected. He got himself out of that room.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  After checking on a sleeping JoJo, Amelia, still in her bathrobe, fell onto her back, on top of the covers, in one of the guest rooms. She stared up at the ceiling, wondering why in the world would anybody target her and JoJo?

  Then she thought about what had transpired over the last few months. Scarf’s cargo went missing. She was able to cover that with her own funds. Then Lenny’s cargo went missing, and she had to rely on Hammer. Which would not have been so bad had he not messed up again. Or, at least, gave her reason to believe he was messing up. Because with Reggie Dell you never really know ...

  Then it hit Amelia. Reggie Dell, she thought. Now that was a chick who would have a motive.

  But just as she was thinking it through, Hammer appeared in the open doorway. She looked away from him. Couldn’t exactly throw him out because he did save her life.

  Hammer knew he was probably the last person she wanted to see, but he wasn’t going to just leave. She had to know him better than that. And the way she was just laying there, staring up at the ceiling as if she was still trying to figure out why life kept throwing her so many curve balls, tugged at his heart. Why didn’t he just say yes to her when they had that honest woman discussion? Why was he always such an asshole?!

  He pushed away from the doorjamb and made his way over to the bed. When he saw her big beautiful eyes staring at nothingness, he exhaled. And sat on the edge of the bed. “I saw JoJo,” he said. “He’s sound asleep already.”

  “Where are they?” Amelia asked him.

  “Mick left. Big Daddy’s still here.” Hammer smiled. “He stared me down.”

  Amelia gave a soft smile. “He loves me.”

  “I love you,” Hammer said and stared at her.

  A sad look appeared in Amelia’s eyes, and then she looked away.

  “Why did you say you aren’t my woman, Amelia?” Hammer asked her bluntly. “You are mine.” When Amelia didn’t respond, he gently took her chin and turned her face toward his. “You are mine,” he said with all sincerity in his eyes.

  But she was shaking her head. “I can’t keep doing this, Hammer.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Forgiving you. Letting you trample on my heart the way you do.”

  “In the past, yes, I played the field, Amelia.”

  She stared at him. He finally admitted it!

  “But every time I played that field,” Hammer said, “it was because you told me it was over. I took you at your word.”

  “That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Amelia said. “You didn’t fight for me. If you wanted me, you wouldn’t have taken me at my word. You would have fought for me the way I would have fought for you. If you wanted me.”

  “I didn’t know what I wanted, Millie. You don’t understand this life I have to live. I’m always in dangerous hotspots just trying to survive. I can’t get home sometimes for months at a time. And women?” Hammer shook his head. “I didn’t have to go out looking for a woman. Women were throwing themselves at me. It was as easy as picking out which one I wanted for a particular night.”

  He exhaled. His behavior was not something he was proud of. “And then you came along. Amelia Sinatra. Mick the Tick’s sister, of all people, walked into my nightclub. And you didn’t throw yourself at me. You didn’t just want my dick or to say you slept with the Hammer the way all those other women wanted. You put demands on me. You demanded respect and love and my time, something I had precious little of for myself, let alone for somebody else. And I freaked. I wasn’t ready for that kind of commitment.”

  “So you cheated on me?”

  “I never cheated on you. All those times we broke up? That’s a different conversation. But when we were together? No. You thought I was, but I wasn’t.”

  “But during the time we were so-called broke up, you went after it,” Amelia said.

  Hammer wasn’t going to deny that. “But I never went after Reggie Dell since I’ve bee
n with you. That’s the damn truth.”

  Amelia stared at Hammer. “How could you let her on your plane after what she tried to do to me? Yeah, she wouldn’t let that fool harm JoJo, but she would have been glad to let him harm me. How could you let her anywhere near you?”

  “I was ordered by the Secretary of Defense, my boss, to give her a ride to Canada. I provided her an SUV to get her to Ottawa, which was where her assignment was. I wasn’t taking her to Charlemagne.”

  “And she didn’t want to go with you to Charlemagne?” Amelia asked.

  Hammer hesitated. “Yes, she wanted to,” he admitted. “But I wasn’t about to let that happen, Millie. And that kiss? That was just Reggie being Reggie. I wasn’t thinking about her ass and she knew it.”

  And Amelia remembered what she had been musing about before Hammer walked in. “Could it be her?” she asked him.

  “She’s not my woman, Millie,” Hammer said.

  “Could she be responsible for what happened tonight? She is, after all, a trained assassin for the CIA. Could she have done this to me?”

  Hammer stared at her. And then exhaled. “It crossed my mind. Of course it did. But no, Millie,” he said. “She would not have done it.”

  “Why not? She hates my guts. She hates that I’m still with you, or at least I was still with you when she saw me at the airport. Why wouldn’t she try to get rid of me?”

  “I’m not saying she would not have tried it.”

  “Then why wouldn’t she have tried it? Because she saved JoJo’s life the last time? That means nothing if she’s hellbent on getting what she wants.”