Her Protector

by Mallory Monroe

Tosh nodded. “That’s right.”

  “Then am I to assume that you, Mr. Baker, was responsible for intercepting my shipment

  out of Anguilla?”

  Tosh hated to admit it, but he was certain Sinatra already knew. “Your man Gio intercepted

  it. We just took it from Gio. But you don’t’ know the fucker we were dealing with.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “He wanted everything we had,” Tosh continued.

  “But you didn’t have my shipment. I had that.”

  It wasn’t going as Tosh had hoped. He looked to Nikki. “My father knows what he did was

  wrong,” she said to Mick.

  “But I had no choice,” Tosh quickly interrupted. “They had us, man. We had no choice.”

  “You had no choice but to steal from me?”

  “I didn’t do that,” Tosh said. “I told you Gio stole that shit. And then Milo and me, we stole

  it from him. But that’s how he had us going. He’s crazy, man.”

  “Just so I’m I understand,” Mick said. “Who’s crazy?”

  “Damon Tarver,” said Teddy. “He’s Nikki’s ex-husband.”

  Nikki expected Mick to be seriously surprised to hear that she had been married before, and

  that her husband was just as crooked as her father. But Mick didn’t look surprised at all.

  “What did Damon have on you?” Mick asked Tosh.

  “Everything,” Tosh said. “He had videos and audio recordings and paperwork. He had all

  that shit on me! On Milo too. Even more shit on Milo!”

  “But what I don’t understand,” Teddy said to Tosh, “is how could this guy get all of this stuff

  on you and MJ?”

  “Hell if I know!” Tosh responded. “But he had it all. I mean, my life story. Every bad move I

  ever made. It was amazing.”

  “But where would he get all of that?” Teddy asked. It was still confusing to him.

  “He got it all,” Mick said, “because he’s ATF.”

  Everybody looked at him. “Who’s ATF?” asked Nikki.

  “Your ex-husband. Damon Tarver. He’s an undercover ATF agent.”

  Nikki couldn’t believe it. Neither could Teddy nor Tosh. “Undercover ATF?” Tosh asked.

  “Got damn, I’m in trouble!”

  Teddy’s concern was heightened too. “But Pop,” he said, “how do you know this?”

  “I have infiltration into ATF also. That’s how. I only discovered it when everywhere we

  searched there was no untouchable I didn’t know about. He had to be Fed. And since it was

  blowing back on me, I had my guy at ATF see what he could find. He found Damon Tarver. And

  that’s why Milo referred to him as untouchable.”

  Teddy leaned back. He was floored. He looked at Nikki. But Nikki was looking at his father.

  “How long has he been working for the government?” she asked.

  “In various capacities, he’s been with the Feds since before he married you.”

  “You mean he was working undercover during our marriage?”

  “No way!” Tosh said.

  “It’s true,” said Mick. “He was the one who snitched on you, Mr. Baker. I know you were

  blaming your daughter. But it was your son-in-law all along.”

  Nikki was speechless. Tosh was angry. “I’ll be damned!” he said. “All this time he had me

  blaming my own daughter, and he went right along with it? And they called themselves

  arresting him, too, when they picked me up. No wonder they had him serving in some

  undisclosed prison. Yeah, right. He wasn’t in prison at all!”

  “That’s correct,” Mick said. “He simply went on to a different assignment.”

  “I’ll be damned!” Tosh said again. “I never liked that guy. I told Nikki not to marry him. I

  remember one night he was at the house and we were all watching this movie. Then his

  smartass gonna tell us the ending when he knew we hadn’t seen it. I told Nikki you can’t trust a

  man like that. He doesn’t have empathy. He doesn’t care about nobody but his own ass. He

  got his, and screw everybody else. That was Damon. I told her not to marry that joker! Didn’t I,

  Baby girl?”

  The last thing on Nikki’s mind was an I told you so. She was too shook-up to think that

  logically. All she could do was feel. And her most potent feeling was anger.

  Teddy looked at her. “You alright?”

  She nodded. “I’m okay,” she said. “Just a little . . .” She couldn’t continue. “I’m okay,” she

  said. Then she looked at Mick. “If what you’re saying is true, Mr. Sinatra,” she said, “and I’m

  certain it is coming from you, then Damon is more dangerous than we thought. He’s Fed. How

  in the world are we going to get around that little fact?”

  “He’s caused a lot of harm to my family. MJ and Mr. Baker, with respect, were just

  puppets. Damon Tarver is the puppet master. At the end of the day, he has to pay.”

  “It won’t be easy,” Tosh said. “That’s one greedy sonafabitch. Every time we gave him what

  he wanted, he wanted more. He was looking to take his loot and get out. But he kept wanting

  more and more and more. I was beginning to feel like it was never going to end.”

  “It wasn’t, until you had nothing left to give,” Mick said. “But as long as you were going

  around bragging about how your daughter was in my family--”

  “Dad, you didn’t!” Nikki said, embarrassed.

  “He did,” assured Mick. “And as long as Damon knew he had potential assess to money, the

  more he wanted. That very well may be what’s kept Tosh alive.”

  “Then why did Damon hire that female assassin to kill me?” Tosh asked Mick.

  “Because the police hauled you in. And word on the street was that you were telling too

  much. You had become a liability.”

  “But wasn’t it Damon who shot up Dad’s nightclub?” Nikki asked.

  Mick shook his head. “Yep. He knew Nikki was coming to town, and he planned to take her

  out.”

  But Teddy was blown away. He rubbed the top of his head. “But what I don’t get,” he said,

  “was why did he spare us? When he decided MJ was a liability, too, and he came for him, why

  didn’t he take us out too? Or at least attempt to take us out?”

  “Because he knew I had reach, too, and my reach just wasn’t at ATF. Although I have deep

  contacts there. He killed MJ because he knew, when we decided to launch a hit on his

  compound, that MJ could very well expose him.”

  “You’re saying MJ knew he was Fed too?” Tosh asked.

  “He didn’t know that. But Tarver knew, I’m sure, that we would have found that out.”

  “But that doesn’t follow, Pop,” Teddy said, his arms folded now. “MJ’s men tried to take out

  Joey and me at that bakery, remember?”

  “That was because Milo thought his men and Gio would come out victorious. They were

  supposed to kill you, Joey, and Sammy, grab the money - which they thought was going to be

  the full amount, not a down payment, and get out. But you thwarted that effort with your skill

  alone. And you took them out. And it did blowback on Milo. That’s why he had to claim

  ignorance and declare they were just rogue capos doing shit he knew nothing about.”

  Teddy and Nikki looked at each other. This was some heavy information. His father had

  been busy!

  “But why target Nikki at the condo?” Teddy asked.

  “And with that drive-by?” Tosh added.

  “When Tosh told Damon Nikki was coming to town to help him round up some cash, that

  sea
led her fate,” Mick said.

  “Why would you say that?” Tosh asked.

  “Because Tarver was afraid of Nikki. From what my guys at ATF said, she always outsmarted

  him. At least that was what he was always griping about in the early days. He knew, once Tosh

  told her all he knew, she would figure it out. That was why he ordered that drive-by to begin

  with. It was getting out of hand. He planned to take both of you out.”

  Nikki felt her skin crawl at the thought that she and her father could have lost their lives in

  that club earlier. She leaned closer to Teddy. Teddy placed his arm around her.

  Mick exhaled. “But the point is,” he said, “I’ve located Damon Tarver.”

  Everybody was shocked. Teddy removed his arm from around Nikki. “You know where he

  is?”

  Mick pulled out blueprints. “He’s holed up in this old, remote farmhouse in Plaquemines

  Parish. We’ll go in tonight. Me, you, and Tosh.”

  Tosh was surprised to hear his name. Nikki was too. But he was all in.

  Mick opened the blueprints and all of them, still reeling from all Mick had told them, had to

  refocus just to see what was in front of them.

  “I want as many men and SUVs as we can get. We’ll keep one SUV away from the scene for

  backup, in case we have an emergency evacuation from the area. But other than that, we’ll

  have to go in full force ahead.”

  “That’ll be deadly, Pop, if Damon is ready for us.”

  “Knowing Damon,” Tosh said, “he’ll be ready for us.”

  “We’ll tell the men to enter the property,” Mick said, “but keep their distance. We want

  distraction more than anything else.”

  Teddy nodded. He was all in too. But Nikki was nervous as hell.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  His nickname was Red, not just because of his skin tone, but because of his penchant for

  always wearing red-soled Louboutin’s. And Red, certain that the Sinatras would strike soon,

  had confirmed what he had been waiting for.

  He ran up three flights of stairs, in his Louboutin’s, to warn his men. He had been in the

  study, going about his business, when his cameras, stationed on the old dirt road that led to his

  compound, a dirt road where nobody had any business traveling on unless they were

  trespassing. And his cameras picked up the activity: convoys of SUVs. Heading his way.

  When he made it to the top floor, he hurried into the bedroom that faced the front of the

  property. Five men, all with guns pointed toward the entrance, were sitting around yapping.

  “We’ve got movement,” he said.

  “How far out?”

  “They just turned in. Three minutes tops. Get ready!”

  The men all hurried to their positions behind all five guns. When they gave Red the thumbs

  up, he hurried across the long, wide hallway to the second bedroom. Five more men were in

  that room, with guns positioned toward the back of the property.

  “We’ve got movement,” he said to them too, and they didn’t ask any questions. They

  hurried to their guns.

  “Shoot to kill,” Red reminded them. “These fuckers don’t play!”

  The men voiced their understanding, and Red made his way back into the hall. Then Red

  went back into the first bedroom to wait there, because he knew the action would begin in the

  front of the house.

  And he was right. A convoy of SUVs turned onto the property and began a slow drive

  toward the house. The men waited for the signal.

  Red waited until they had breached his perimeter, just in case this shit went to court.

  “Now,” he said, and the men began firing.

  Each man targeted an SUV and didn’t let up. Red was pleased when the drivers sought to

  back up, or turn around, but each gunman had taken the drivers out first, and the occupants

  didn’t stand a chance. They fired back, but they didn’t appear to be sure of where the shots

  were coming from. They were shooting blindly. Red was pleased. It had been planned to the

  letter, and it was working out beautifully.

  But when he heard gunshots from the room across the hall, he panicked. He didn’t expect

  another onslaught this quickly. He would have thought the Sinatras would have hit in waves.

  Only they hit one behind the other

  But it didn’t matter. He was ready for any eventuality. And his men were outshooting their

  visitors easily.

  Red, careful to stay out of harm’s way, remained near the back of the room. That was why

  he was the first to hear the rumbling.

  He was stumped. What the fuck?

  He walked out into the hallway, to see if he could hear it over the gunshots. And that was

  when he made out what it was. A helicopter. They were using a fucking helicopter!

  He ran down the hall to the window at the end of the hall. He lifted it quickly, and looked

  out. He heard the helicopter, but he didn’t see it. It should have been visible!

  As his men continued to battle the two convoys in the front and back of his house, he put

  down the window quickly and ran down the hall again, to the window on the other end. He

  lifted that window, too, and looked out on that end. But he still didn’t see that helicopter!

  He ran toward the middle of the hall, where the stairs were. He needed to get downstairs,

  to his monitors, to see what he needed to see.

  But before he could make it to the stairs, he stopped in his tracks. If his eyes weren’t picking

  it up, how could his cameras? Especially if the helicopter was where he suspected it was. And

  when he stopped and listened, and realized it was indeed on his roof, he was about to run back

  into one of the bedrooms to alert his guys. He figured he would use two from each room.

  But as soon as he turned to do just that, Teddy Sinatra, hoisted down by a rope from the

  helicopter hovering above the roof, crashed through the old skylight and landed at the opposite

  end of the hall from where Red stood.

  Red hadn’t expected that and he pulled out his weapon and started shooting. “Intruder!”

  Red yelled. “We’ve got an intruder!”

  But Teddy was able to roll into a third bedroom and avoid Red’s attack.

  But before his men could come out to help him, Red was shocked when he saw Mick Sinatra

  crash through the skylight at the opposite end from where his son had landed, his long, white

  coat flowing outward as he landed. Red couldn’t believe it. The Sinatras he deployed two

  helicopters, and it worked.

  Red ran for cover in the bathroom.

  As some of his men from both bedrooms came rushing into the hall, Mick started shooting

  as he landed, but dived for cover as Teddy, already concealed, returned their fire.

  Teddy and his father returned fire for fire, taking out man after man, and then both of them

  let up. And waited.

  The men still in the two bedrooms battling the onslaught from the front and back of the

  houses, assumed what the Sinatras were hoping they had assumed. They assumed their men

  had taken care of the situation, and they stayed where they were, battling the outside forces,

  holding their ground.

  But it wasn’t as simple as they had hoped. Three more men came out of the respective

  rooms with their guns drawn. Teddy could hear one of them walking toward one end of the

  hall where he was, and the other two walking toward the other end of the hall, where Mick

  was.


  Teddy was leaned against the wall breathing heavily, his gun raised up at chin level. He had

  to time it just right, or he would be dead. It was as simple and as complicated as that.

  He timed it just right. As soon as the gunman rounded the corner, in a stooped posture, and

  aimed his weapon, Teddy was already stooped and ready with his weapon aimed. He fired

  before the gunman could react, killing him with a single shot.

  Simultaneously, the two gunmen on the other end rounded the corner stooped, too, and

  ready to take Mick out. But they didn’t see anyone. Until they looked up and saw Mick holding

  onto a beam on the ceiling. Mick kicked one of the gunmen with such force that it knocked him

  across the hall, slamming him into the wall, and then Mick dropped down and shot the second

  one. Teddy, from the other end of the hall, shot and killed the man Mick had kicked down.

  Red, realizing his men had been defeated, ran out of the room he had taken cover in and

  just missed a shot fired by Teddy and began running down the stairs.

  “I’ll get Damon!” Teddy said to his father as he ran down the staircase where he saw Red

  retreating to, and Mick made his way to one of the two rooms where the gunmen were holed

  up.

  “Did you get’em?” one of the gunmen asked without looking back. He was too busy

  shooting at the intruders outside.

  “No,” said Mick.

  When they heard that voice, they knew it wasn’t one of theirs. They all turned around.

  When they saw who it was, that it was Mick the Tick, they tried to aim their weapons away

  from the window and toward Mick’s big frame but they were too late. Mick mowed them

  down before they had the chance.

  Then he headed into the second bedroom.

  Downstairs, Teddy was light years faster than Red, and was able to come within a floor from

  overtaking him. When Red looked up and saw that Teddy had gained that much ground, he

  fired three shots at him.

  Teddy backed up against the wall, to avoid the bullets. But when he heard Red continue to

  run downstairs, he returned the fire. But both were missing, as they both knew they would,

  because hitting wasn’t the point. Slowing the opponent down was.

  And Teddy had been slowed slightly, but it wasn’t enough. By the time they made it

  downstairs, and as Red was trying with all he had to make it to a side exit, Teddy ran him down