Amelia smiled. “Don’t mind the cave man,” she said to Nikki. “Nice to meet you. I’m Amelia. I’m Mick’s sister.”
“I’m Nikki,” Nikki said as they two women shook hands. “Very nice to meet you, too.” Nikki was surprised that Mick Sinatra had a black sister, but nothing about this family seemed to fall in the norm.
But then Big Daddy looked at Roz. “You might want to take the twins to the nursery, Rosalind,” he said.
Roz knew what that meant. They were about to get down to business. They were about to get the whole story. “I’ll see if I can get more info on Mick’s condition while I’m at it,” she said as she gathered up, not only the twins and their nannies, but also Gloria and Nikki, and they all left the waiting room.
Amelia, whose background in illegal trade made her as gangster as her brothers and cousins, remained with the men. And they all, once the coast was clear, turned to Teddy and Joey.
It was Reno who led the charge. “What the hell happened, Teddy?” he asked.
But Joey stepped in. “It was my fault,” he finally admitted.
“Your fault?” asked Sal. Big Daddy was staring at Joey too.
“I hired the Bevin twins,” Joey continued.
Reno frowned. “The who?”
“They were guys on my crew who turned on Pop. I trusted them. They had me convinced that I could run Pop’s organization better than Teddy could.”
“What are you saying?” Big Daddy asked him.
“I plotted with them. We cooked up a scheme to embarrass Teddy by taking the guy who set Dad’s ships on fire and hiding him out in a safe house. The twins handled the interrogations. I didn’t know they were going to force him to lie. I didn’t know what they were up to. But they were involved in that ambush. They took sides against us. I had no idea that was happening.”
“Are you saying you plotted and schemed against Teddy?” Reno asked.
Joey nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said.
Sal’s anger unleashed. “Why you dirty dog!” he yelled and knocked Joey to the floor. He was about to jump down on him and beat the shit out of him, but Reno and Amelia held him back.
But as soon as Joey stood back up, Big Daddy knocked him back down. Nobody held Big Daddy back.
“This is family!” Big Daddy yelled to Joey, who remained on the floor. “You don’t plot against your own family! You don’t get in league with anybody who schemes against your own family! You should know that by now. When the fuck are you going to grow up, Joey?”
Joey had tears in his eyes. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know they were going to go that far!”
Big Daddy rolled his eyes. “What is wrong with this boy?” he asked.
But Amelia helped Joey to his feet. They had a bond that went back to the time when Joey helped to save her life. “He apologized,” she said. “That has to be enough.”
But Big Daddy and Sal and Reno weren’t feeling his apology right now. Not while Mick was in surgery fighting for his life.
“We need to act,” Teddy said to his relatives.
“Act how?” Big Daddy asked.
“We found out that the man behind those explosions at the docks, and possibly behind that ambush, is a cop named Malidec.”
“A cop?” Sal asked. “A fucking cop?”
Teddy nodded. “He supposedly heads some east coast mafia syndicate that nobody’s heard of.”
“You heard of Malidec before?” Reno asked Sal.
“What are you asking me for?” Sal asked defensively. “No.”
“Oh, Sal, cut the bullshit,” Reno said. “Everybody in this room knows you’re a mob boss. Why you still play dumb is a mystery to me.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sal said. “I’ve never heard of any Malidec.”
“They’re supposed to meet tonight,” Teddy said. “They’re expected to pay off the Bevin twins when they get there. But the twins are dead.”
“Good,” said Reno. “Ungrateful motherfuckers!”
“Where is the meeting place?” Big Daddy asked.
“This warehouse on Roladeck.”
“How do you want to play it?” Reno asked Teddy. Mick was down. Teddy was in charge. “You want to go to the warehouse now?”
“I say we put a tail on Malidec and follow him to the warehouse,” Teddy said. “That way, we won’t get any cross wires. That way, we’ll have him in our sights at all times.”
Reno was nodding. “Good plan,” he said.
“What do you think, Sal?” Big Daddy asked him.
Sal was about to object again about this mob boss fixation they have with him. But he couldn’t play those games with Charles. “I agree with Reno,” he said. “It’s a good plan.”
“Then let’s execute it,” Big Daddy said.
But before they could get down to the details, and who was going to do what, the door opened and Roz, along with a doctor, walked in.
“He’s out of surgery, guys,” Roz said with relief in her voice.
Teddy and Joey especially hurried to her and the doctor. “How is he?” Joey asked.
Roz looked at the doctor. “His surgeons are pleased,” he said. “Your father is very fortunate. No vital organs were disturbed at all. He should make an easy and speedy recovery.”
Teddy and Joey, and everybody in that room, sighed relief.
“The surgeons will be available soon to answer all your questions,” the doctor said. “They can give you more details on what’s ahead of him. But they report an excellent outcome.”
“The doctor says we should be able to see him shortly,” Roz said happily.
“Maybe by the time we get back,” said Teddy.
Roz knew what that meant. They were going on a mission. An undoubtedly dangerous mission.
“Maybe so,” she said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
They planned to begin their surveillance that afternoon. Teddy went to Nikki and walked her to the outdoor patio just off from the hospital’s cafeteria. Armed guards were plentiful in protection of the pair. But Teddy felt Nikki needed the sunlight. He needed it too.
They sat beside each other, shoulder to shoulder sipping lattes, so that their conversation could not be overheard.
“You look flustered,” Teddy said.
“No, I’m okay,” Nikki said. “I’m worried about you, though.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. It felt good to have somebody worry about him for the first time in his life, but at the same time, he didn’t want her worrying. “I’ll be alright, Nick,” he said. “I just have some things I have to do. But this is the life, honey. Spending hours in hospitals waiting on news from doctors is nothing new to our way of life. Can you really deal with this?”
“If I get to have you with this,” Nikki said, “then yes. I can deal.”
Teddy smiled and felt such deep feelings for her that it warmed him all over. He leaned over, and he kissed her on the lips.
She looked him in his eyes when their kissing stopped. “When?” she asked.
“Noon,” he said.
“Will it take long?”
“Into the night,” Teddy said. “We have to run surveillance.”
“That sounds boring.”
Teddy smiled. “Like you wouldn’t believe,” he said. “But if it will get the results my father expects me to get, I say bring on the boredom.”
Nikki smiled too, and she leaned against him. But as soon the reality of the mission hit again, and the fact that if anything went wrong they might not see each other again, the smiles were gone. This was the life. Teddy wasn’t joking. And it was a good life overall.
But Teddy knew, and Nikki would soon learn, that it could be a brutal life as well.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Subject on the move,” was the first word that came in over the Van’s two-way radio, and Teddy, sitting on the front seat with the motherboard in front of him, motioned for his driver to go. The car in question, driven by Detective
Malidec, was on video after one of Teddy’s men were able to plant a recording device beneath it. Teddy’s uncles, Big Daddy, Sal, and Reno, and his aunt, Amelia, were also in the back seats, but all were able to see the monitor that Teddy was monitoring up front. Joey was ordered to remain at the hospital and stand guard there.
“Car One keep a safe distance from the subject car,” Teddy said into the handheld radio transmitter.
“Roger that,” replied the driver of the first car.
“He’s turning onto Malton,” said Teddy as he watched the monitor recording the car’s movements. “Car Two,” he then said into the radio, “go to Jaxington. He’s heading in that direction. Pull to the curb and wait.”
“Roger that,” said the driver of the second car.
And on and on it went. Seven cars in all, each turning off and one turning on as they kept Malidec totally clueless that he was being followed. Teddy’s van stayed back the farthest, monitoring Malidec’s every move thanks to the planted cameras, and his relatives were impressed.
“Good set up you have here, Teddy,” said Big Daddy. “Mick taught you well.”
“Or he taught himself well,” said Amelia with a smile. She knew how protective her brother was about Mick, and she enjoyed needling him about it.
And they remained loose like that, as Teddy seemed to have it all in hand, until Malidec stopped at a red light.
“Slow down,” Teddy ordered his driver. “He’s at a red light.” Teddy’s car was one street over, and he wanted to keep it that way.
“He might turn off up ahead, Teddy,” said Sal. “If he’s going to that warehouse on Roladeck. There’s a shortcut that way.”
“How do you know?” Reno asked Sal.
“What do you mean how do I know? I know, alright? I’ve got connections to this town, and they have nothing to do with Uncle Mick. I’m just telling him.”
“Thanks, Uncle Sal,” Teddy said, “but I’ve already baked it in the cake. I have two cars waiting to take over if he takes the shortcut.”
“What I’m more interested in,” Reno said, “is that girlfriend of Teddy’s. What’s her name again?”
“Nikki,” Big Daddy said.
“Yeah, Nikki. You’ve got yourself a nice-looking woman,” Reno said. “A nice-looking full-figured gal. What you gonna do with all of that, Teddy?”
Teddy laughed. “Don’t you worry about that, Uncle Ree.”
“Be careful,” Sal said. “Reno roams when he wants to.”
“That’s a dirty lie!” Reno said. “Besides, who’s your ass to talk? I feel sorry for Gemma having to put up with you, is all I have to say.”
“Sorry for Gemma?” Sal asked. “It’s Trina I’m sorry for!”
Teddy and Amelia smiled, and both glanced at Big Daddy. Big Daddy shook his head. “Testosterone,” he said. “They have it, and don’t know what to do with it. Come to Maine, guys,” Big Daddy said. “I’ll teach you!”
They all laughed as the light turned green and Malidec pulled off. And as soon as he did, the driver of the car beside him pulled out what appeared to be a flare gun and shot into Malidec’s car.
“What the fuck?” Teddy asked as soon as he saw it. He leaned closer to the monitor.
“What was that?” Amelia asked.
But before Teddy could answer, Malidec’s car buckled and then exploded into a massive explosion. And Malidec exploded with it.
“Damn!” yelled Sal and Reno in unison, when they saw that sudden explosion.
“What the hell happened?” yelled Amelia.
“Follow that car!” Teddy yelled to the driver. “Fuck the fallback. Follow that car. Don’t lose that motherfucking car!”
Teddy had no cars in place for the direction the new subject car began traveling in. It turned the corner at the light, and then took off.
“Back track onto Mercer,” Teddy ordered two of his cars. The others were too far away. “Forget subterfuge. Forget not being seen. Just don’t lose that car!”
Teddy’s driver did all he could to catch up to the car. The two cars did all they could, as they reported in where the car was heading.
And then Teddy realized where his destination probably was. “He’s going to the warehouse on Roladeck,” he said.
“How the hell you figure that?” Sal asked. “He’s way out of the way.”
But Teddy had pulled a map up on the monitor when his video recording was stuck at Malidec’s fatally mangled car. “He’s going in a circle. He apparently figured Malidec might be followed. He’s going around the city and circling back in, to get rid of any tails. But every road he’s taking is leading him back to Roladeck.”
“That could be a big miscalculation if you’re wrong, Teddy,” Reno said.
“I know,” said Teddy. “Drive to Roladeck,” Teddy ordered his driver. “Those other two cars can try to follow him, but my money’s on Roladeck.”
“Yes, sir,” the driver said, and turned a corner that would take them there.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Nikki headed for Mick Sinatra’s hospital room. His wife, Roz, had been in there alone, and then their twin toddlers, along with Gloria and Joey, joined her. By the time Nikki was asked to come in, Mick had been awake, and was able to have guests, for nearly an hour.
It was the strangest thing in the world to Nikki. There he was, this great man, lying in a hospital bed. But when Roz smiled at her, it felt okay to be there.
“Don’t be shy,” Roz said with a smile. “Come and say hello!”
Nikki walked up to the foot of the bed. “Hello, sir,” she said.
“Hello, Nikki.”
“I’d bet this was the last place you expected to be today.”
“You’d win that bet,” said Mick. “Heard from Teddy?”
“No, sir. Not yet.”
“I think it’s marvelous you’re his new assistant,” Roz said. “He really needs one.”
“I agree,” said Nikki. “Nobody can live the way he’s living for very long.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Joey asked. “You’re trying to say our father overworks him? You’re trying to criticize our father?”
“I’m saying what I said, Joey,” Nikki said. “He can’t continue nonstop like that. And he’s not going to continue nonstop like that.”
Gloria grinned. “You heard the lady, Joey. She’s only looking out for Ted.”
“Who needs that kind of looking out?” Joey asked.
“Teddy,” said Roz and Gloria in unison.
“Teddy,” said Mick, agreeing.
And they all laughed.
They parked out of sight and waited. When reports began coming in from the other cars on the chase that confirmed Teddy’s suspicion that Malidec’s killer was heading their way, Big Daddy leaned forward and squeezed Teddy’s shoulders. “Good job, son,” he said. “Good instincts. You’re a credit to your father. Good job.”
Teddy smiled for the first time that evening. “Thanks, Big Daddy,” he said. “Coming from you it’s a compliment.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Reno asked. “If it came from me or Sal it wouldn’t be a compliment?”
Everybody laughed.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Sal said, echoing Reno. “But that’s how they do us, Ree.”
“That’s not what I’m saying, Uncle Reno,” Teddy said. “Not at all.”
“Yeah, sure,” Reno said. And then he smiled. “I’m just messing with your ass! You showed excellent instincts. Big Daddy’s right. I see why Mick made you his number two. But that Joey on the other hand.”
“He’s got a lot of growing up to do,” Amelia said. “That’s all.”
“He’ll be okay,” said Big Daddy, agreeing with his sister.
“Oh, he’ll be okay now?” Reno asked Big Daddy. “Weren’t you one of the two guys that knocked his ass to the floor?”
Amelia laughed. “That’s right, big brother. You did do that!”
“Yeah, his ass did it!” sa
id Reno.
Big Daddy leaned back. “I knocked him down because what he did was wrong. There’s no two ways about that. Wrong is still wrong and right is still right. You never go against your own brother.”
“But,” Amelia said.
“But he loves his father,” said Big Daddy. “And you’re right. He still has a lot of growing up to do. His immaturity is his problem. And if my son Donald is any indication, it will probably always be his problem.”
“Crying shame, though,” said Reno. “My son Jimmy was immature like that too. It looked like he would never shake it loose. But he did. He got around that corner. Now he works for Tommy Gabrini. It doesn’t get any bigger than that.”
Sal looked at Reno. “What the fuck that’s supposed to mean?” he asked.
Big Daddy looked at Amelia and shook his head. “Here we go,” he said.
“Tommy’s my brother,” Sal said, “and I love him to death. Everybody knows that. But what makes him the biggest? I’m the biggest!”
“No, I’m the biggest,” Reno corrected Sal. “I’m not talking about that kind of big. I’m talking about in terms of having a major corporation Jimmy could work for.”
“Your corporation ain’t major?” Sal asked. “You own the fucking PaLargio on the Vegas Strip, the biggest hotel and casino in Vegas. You’ve been voted the most powerful man in Vegas I don’t know how many years running. And what about Sinatra Industries? What do you think Uncle Mick is running? A McDonald’s?”
Amelia laughed again.
“And don’t forget Amelia’s old man Hammer Reese,” Sal continued, “or even Carly’s old man Trevor Reese. They have big companies. And Big Daddy’s big, too. For Maine, that is.”
Big Daddy laughed. “Fuck you, Sal,” he said, prompting Sal to laugh.
“But they run big companies too,” Sal said.
“Yes, they’re all major,” Reno replied. “But I’m talking moral authority. Tommy and Big Daddy, they have that moral authority.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Sal asked.
Big Daddy and Amelia, knowing those two, laughed again.
Teddy Sinatra_Chains For Love Page 18
