“Who tried to kill Nikki?” Teddy asked.
“What do you mean Nikki? They were trying to kill me! Somebody’s always trying to steal
my show!”
“Not the drive-by, Dad. We’re talking about what happened after that, at the condo.”
Tosh was dumbstruck. “What condo? What are you talking about?”
“Somebody tossed a bomb on the balcony of the condo I’m renting,” Nikki said. “It was
operated by remote control. They pushed the button as soon as we opened the curtains to see
what the noise was.”
“Wait, what?” Tosh was confused. “Somebody tried to kill you?”
Nikki was still distressed. “Yes,” she said.
“And you think I was involved in that shit?” Tosh asked her.
“I told Teddy I didn’t think you would do something like that.”
Tosh was offended. “You don’t think I would? You know I wouldn’t! You’re my daughter. I
wouldn’t kill my own child!”
“I don’t know what your ass will do,” Teddy said. “But I know somebody tried to kill my
lady. I was there. I saw that shit myself!”
“Who says they were trying to kill her?” Tosh asked. “Your ass ain’t exactly Mister Clean.
Maybe they were trying to kill you!”
“That’s not possible.”
“Why not?”
“Because he had just gotten into town,” Nikki said. “That bomb would have taken days to
construct, not a few hours. They had to be targeting me.”
A painful look appeared in Nikki’s big eyes, a look that devastated Teddy. He was supposed
to be her protector. He was supposed to be the one man on the face of this earth who would
shield her from all of this crazy shit. But every time he turned around, it was close-call after
close-call. And his ass didn’t have enough foresight to see the dangers, not even the ones
waiting for her to show up in New Orleans. He just sent her on her way! She was going to get
killed, or harmed badly, if he didn’t get his act together.
But Tosh had a pained look on his face too. Because it wasn’t supposed to be this way. And
he knew it couldn’t be. “Not you,” he said, shaking his head. “It can’t be.”
“But it had to be, Dad,” Nikki was saying.
“No. No. No. It can’t be. They weren’t supposed to target you. He told me you weren’t
going to be a target. That was my precondition! That motherfucker! He said you would not be
targeted.”
Teddy and Nikki looked at each other. “Who said it?” Teddy asked Tosh.
“They wouldn’t do that to me,” Tosh was saying, still shaking his head. He looked like a man
who had been so badly betrayed that it stupefied him. “That was the one thing I said they
couldn’t do. They wouldn’t do that to me.”
“Who wouldn’t?” Teddy asked again.
Tosh finally looked at Teddy. “You look better in person than you do on the Internet.”
“Dad!” Nikki yelled.
“Milo,” Tosh said. “Milo wouldn’t.”
Teddy’s heart skipped a beat. “Milo?” he asked. Even Nikki wondered if it could be the
same person. “Milo who?”
“He said she wouldn’t be a target. He promised me.”
“Tell me his name!” Teddy insisted. His heart was now hammering. “Milo who?”
“Milo Jalarni,” Tosh said. “MJ,” he added, leaving no doubt.
But when Tosh suddenly jumped up from the sofa, staring toward the bedroom door, Teddy
and Nikki looked too.
The woman Tosh had been fucking was still naked just as he had left her, but with one
exception: she had a gun in her hand. A loaded gun pointing directly at Tosh.
“Motherfuck!” he said, as Teddy quickly stood in front of Nikki, shielding her. “What are you
doing?” Tosh asked her.
“My job,” the woman said. “The job I was paid to do. And it was easy, too. As soon as the
cops dropped you off, I timed it perfectly. Ring your bell and ask if you remembered me, which
was planned too. See him at the club, turn him down, and then go see him later. It was the
easiest pickup I ever made.”
While the woman spoke about her prowess, Nikki attempted to slyly grab her father’s gun
that she had placed on the table beside the sofa. If Teddy had seen her, he would have stopped
her because he knew the woman was a professional. He knew by the way she held her gun.
He knew it by her swag. He knew it because he’d been around trained assassins his whole life.
And he had assessed her correctly because, as soon as Nikki’s hand reached for that gun,
the femme fatale fired a shot that came within a hair’s breadth of Nikki’s hand. Nikki snatched
her hand back. She wasn’t hit, just stunned.
Teddy looked back, and when he saw what Nikki had attempted, he was horrified. “Don’t
do that shit!” he yelled at her as he flung her further behind his body. And even Nikki could see
his admonition was out of fear than anger.
The woman, the assassin, laughed. “You’d better handle that chick,” she said. “Or I will.”
“What do you want?” Tosh asked.
“You,” the woman said without hesitation. “I was paid to murder you.”
Tosh was shocked. “Who paid you?” he asked.
“Don’t ask, cause I’m not telling. It’s not your business.” Then she looked at Teddy and
Nikki. “Yours either,” he said. “You two can go.”
Nikki knew no assassin was going to let them just leave, but to her shock, Teddy grabbed her
by the hand to do just that: they were going to leave.
If Nikki had not trusted Teddy, she would have cussed his ass out. He couldn’t just leave her
father for that woman to kill! He couldn’t just leave as if that woman was going to let them get
away. What was his problem?
But Teddy knew exactly what he was doing. Because as fast as he had grabbed Nikki’s hand,
and turned her away from that table so that they could presumably leave, he had also grabbed
that gun off of that table and, in one fluid motion, fired it at the woman.
He hit her dead center in her forehead. She might have been a trained assassin, who picked
her targets and deliberately, slowly, gunned them down. But Teddy was a trained killer. There
was nothing slow or deliberate about his moves.
And, just as he had hoped, the woman didn’t know what hit her. She was large and in
charge one minute, and dead the next. She fell down hard: dead immediately.
Teddy knew he had made a risky move. Nikki’s father’s gun might not have been loaded.
The woman might have been more adept than he took her to be. But he knew, like Nikki knew,
that she wasn’t about to just let them leave. It was a chance he had to take.
Tosh was amazed by Teddy’s skill. He looked at Teddy with renewed respect. “Thanks,
man,” he said.
“Don’t thank me,” Teddy responded. “Tell me what’s going on. Tell me what in the world
does MJ have to do with any of this.”
“We needed the cash and we needed it quick,” Tosh said. “We already gave them that gun
shipment.”
“What gun shipment?” Teddy asked.
“The one off the coast of Anguilla. The shipment that came in from Amsterdam.”
Nikki was floored. “But that shipment belonged to . . . You stole Mick Sinatra’s guns? Dad,
are you insane?!”
“It wasn’t just me! MJ handled that shit. It wasn’t just me!”
Though Teddy was as stunned as Nikki, he had more questions. “What about that arsenal
at the hotel?” he asked. He wouldn’t have to be any more specific, if Tosh knew what he was
talking about.
Tosh knew. “We took that too,” he said. “And the money. But this fucker we’re dealing
with is greedy as hell. He still wanted more. We still owed him.”
“What we?” Teddy asked. “You and MJ?”
“Yeah.”
“How did you get hooked up with MJ?”
“I handled shit for him down here, and he handled shit for me up there. It was just a mutual
benefit society relationship. Although I haven’t been able to reach him all day.”
And he wasn’t ever going to reach him, Teddy knew. “Who do you and MJ owe?” he asked.
Tosh didn’t answer. He, instead, glanced at Nikki.
Why was he glancing at me, she wondered? “Who, Dad?” she asked. “Who do you and that
man owe?”
Then Tosh just said it. “Damon,” he said. “We owe Damon.”
Teddy had heard that name before. But he couldn’t place it! “Who’s Damon?” he asked
Tosh.
But it was Nikki who answered. “Damon Tarver,” she said. My ex-husband.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Late that night, Teddy was fucking Nikki from behind in the shower. The water was on full
blast, Nikki was holding on to either side of the stall, and Teddy was pounding into her with an
urgency they both felt.
They were in a safe house Teddy owned on the outskirts of New Orleans, and their
lovemaking became a needed release after a too-eventful day. And especially after the news
they received from Tosh.
Teddy was grunting as he pushed in deeper and deeper, and Nikki kept having rolling
orgasms the harder he pushed. Teddy was squeezing her ass, and pumping her with such
unrelenting force that he almost came within minutes of their coupling.
But he held on. He wanted this shit to last. He slowed down, sped up, and slowed down
again to keep it going. All that could be heard in that bathroom was the sound of running
water, and flesh slapping against flesh.
They continued fucking for nearly half an hour. Nikki was having spasms over and over, and
Teddy was enjoying every second of his near-cums.
Until even he couldn’t work the magic any longer, and he came too.
It was a long, hard outpouring, and he kept slapping against her tight ass as he came. Until
he had pumped so hard, and poured out so much, that even his legs couldn’t find the strength.
He leaned against Nikki, and held onto the sides of her hips, just to hold himself steady. They
stayed that way for several moments.
And then he finally pulled out. His cock had felt so full inside of Nikki that when he pulled
out, it felt as if the innermost part of her had been hollowed out.
Later, after finishing their shower and getting out, Nikki and Teddy began making calls. Nikki
was in bed phoning everybody she knew in New Orleans and asking if they’d seen Damon.
Teddy was pacing the floor, getting the latest updates on Damon’s whereabouts too.
Every call turned up blanks.
Teddy was the last to end his phone calls.
“What did your father say?” Nikki asked him.
“I can’t reach him,” Teddy said. “Joey says he’s off the grid.”
“Off the grid? What does that mean? I mean, I know what it usually means.”
“We had a breach in our ranks back in Philly, with some of our men going rogue, so he’s not
going to risk making telephone calls until he gets more intel. That’s what it means.”
“But everybody’s okay?”
Teddy nodded. “They’re okay,” he said. “Joey’s on duty watching Glo and Roz, and Big
Daddy’s got the twins on lockdown at his house in Maine.”
“What about your Uncle Tommy?”
Teddy looked at her. It was Tommy Gabrini who encouraged him to pursue his relationship
with Nikki. “What about him?” he asked.
“You and Mr. Sinatra aren’t pulling him in?”
“We don’t know enough to pull him in,” Teddy said, “or any of the Gabrinis. But we always
let them know what’s going on, just as they let us know when shit goes down with them.”
Nikki had never been a part of a close-knit family. It was something special to behold. Then
she exhaled and fell back in bed, her head hitting the pillow. “I just want to find Damon’s stupid
butt. I just can’t imagine why a big-time mob boss like Milo Jalarni would be afraid of my ex-
husband.”
Teddy considered her. “You do remember what your father said on the way over here,
right?”
“I know,” said Nikki as Teddy received a text message. She waited while he read it. He was
naked standing there, and Nikki still got chills just thinking about how fine a man he was. And
he was all hers? From his serious face, to his six-pack abs, to that bundle between his legs that
made his six-pack look second-rate, all of him belonged to her.
And Nikki believed it to her core now. If she had any doubts before, when she realized he
had come all the way to New Orleans just to make sure she was okay, she lost all doubt. Before,
when he rescued her from that situation in L.A., she didn’t know him like that. Now she knew
him like that, and she was even more impressed. Teddy cared about her when he came to L.A.
to help her. Now, she believed in her hearts of hearts, that Teddy loved her too.
“Who was that?” she asked him when he finished texting somebody back.
“One of my guys in town. He wanted to know if they should reroute. I told him they
should.”
Nikki felt she had so much to learn about Teddy’s professional lingo. “What’s rerouting?”
she asked.
“It’s when you get no results, so you start over. You revisit places. You make second calls to
the same person. You reroute.”
Nikki nodded. “Oh.”
“Now what were we talking about?” Teddy asked.
“What Dad said on the way coming over.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“But do you think that’s enough to frighten a man like Milo Jalarni?”
“Exposure like that?” Teddy asked. “Shit yeah, that’s enough. That’s major in our line of
work. That’s everything.”
But then Teddy saw that worried look cross Nikki’s face. And he exhaled. “Some bargain
you got,” he said. “Why the fuck didn’t you fall in love with a bowtie-wearing accountant
motherfucker?”
Nikki laughed. “Get real!”
“I mean it, Nikki! On days like this, when you had so many close calls, a part of me wished
you had.” Then he stared at her. “Although,” he admitted, lifting his big dick toward her, “the
biggest part of me is glad you hadn’t.”
Nikki laughed. How in the world could he have her laughing at a time like this!
There was a knock on their bedroom door. Nikki looked at Teddy. Was there news about
Damon?
“Yeah?” Teddy yelled.
“We got company, Boss,” said the capo on the other end of the locked door.
“Who?” Teddy asked.
“Mick Sinatra,” his man said.
Teddy and Nikki looked at each other. He was in New Orleans? “We’ll be right there,”
Teddy said.
And both of them, stunned, scrambled to put on their clothes.
CHAPTER THIRT
Y-TWO
Mick Sinatra, still suited-up, sat at the table inside the safe house, listening to Tosh Baker go
on and on about himself.
“So you say you heard of me?” Tosh said.
“That’s correct.”
“Well. I’m impressed. Who told you about me?”
“My investigators,” Mick said.
Tosh didn’t like the sound of that. “Investigators? You had somebody investigating me?”
“That’s correct.”
“What the fuck for?” Tosh asked.
“My son is involved with your daughter. I needed to know about her background.”
“Don’t blame Baby girl,” Tosh said. “I been fucked up all my life. Her mother too. She’s
nothing like either one of us.”
“Oh, I would disagree with that,” Mick said.
Tosh looked at him. “So you’re that kind of dude, are you? You figure the fruit don’t fall far
from the tree? Is that it?”
“She has your toughness,” Mick said. “And your hustle.”
“Oh, said Tosh. “Yeah, I agree with that!”
“The difference,” Mick said, “is that Nicole is an honest broker. An ethical person. You’ve
raised a very special young lady.”
Tosh grinned. “Shit, you talk like you wanna fuck her!”
When Mick didn’t crack so much as smile, and Mick’s guards inside the safe house looked at
Tosh as if he had just disrespected royalty or somebody, he cleaned it up. “Just kidding,” he
added. “But yeah, Nikki’s tough like that. She always has been.” Tosh cleared his throat.
Teddy, with Nikki, entered the living room from the back of the house. When Teddy saw his
father still suited-up, he knew something either had already gone down, or was going down.
“Hey, Pop,” Teddy said as he pulled out a chair for Nikki. “What’s up?” He sat down at the
table too.
“Hello, Nikki,” Mick said.
“Hi, sir, how are you?”
“I’m holding up,” Mick said.
“So what’s going on?” Teddy asked. “I was trying to reach you.”
“To tell me what?”
“That Mr. Baker here, Nikki’s father, by the way.”
“Yes, we’ve met,” Mick said.
“He says he and Milo Jalarni were doing business together.”
Mick was surprised. “Were they?”
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