Cathleen suddenly realized that he had been tempting her, to see how far she’d be willing to go. “Sadistic bastard!” she said as she stood. She grabbed the envelope off of the table. “Go fuck yourself!”
“I’m sure that would be infinitely more pleasurable than fucking you,” Teddy said with a laugh, as Cathleen angrily left.
Then he closed his eyes and placed his hand against his forehead. This could all go sideways really quickly, and he knew it. He had to keep his eye on the fucking ball, not try to get under Cathleen’s skin. He hated her for keeping that hate going in Joey’s heart. The same hate that caused his dead brother Adrian to try and kill Roz. The same hate that forced their father to kill Adrian. It was a vicious cycle in their family. One that had to stop.
But not with Teddy. Because he had debts to settle too. Because when this was all over, he was going to do more than get under Cathleen’s skin. He was going to show that bitch just how sadistic he really could be.
He stood and tossed a fifty on the table. He missed his business meeting when Cat called and asked him to meet with her. Now he had to get back into the action before his old man missed him.
But then his cell phone rang. When he saw it was his kid brother, and remembered that his brother was with his father, he answered quickly. “What’s up?” he asked.
“Dad wants you to meet us at Roz’s office,” Joey said over the phone. “There’s a problem.”
“What problem?” Teddy asked, although he didn’t hesitate to hurry out of the restaurant.
“Roz has been accused of sexual harassment,” Joey said.
Teddy stopped in his tracks. What the hell, he thought. He didn’t authorize that Chad person to make that shit public! “Who’s accusing her?” he asked, as if he didn’t know.
“Three of her male employees.”
And Teddy, to his additional shock, realized he didn’t know. He had no idea that Chad’s unexpected arrival in town would suddenly lead to other stories of sex harassment. As if his arrival wasn’t unexpected at all. As if his arrival was planned all along!
What the fuck, Teddy thought angrily as he ran out of the restaurant. Was he being played too?
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Roz rose from her desk and ran to Mick when he and Joey walked through her office door. Tee was in the office too, along with Roz’s senior talent scout, Stu Scott. He and Tee were at Roz’s desk fielding the phone calls of nervous clients. And there were many.
Mick swept Roz up into his arms, and held her tightly. Everybody in the family were jealous of their relationship to some degree, and Joey wasn’t immune to that. But that anguished look on Roz’s face touched him. She was a decent woman. Even Joey knew that. She wouldn’t harass some sorry-ass talent agents for sex when she had Mick Sinatra in her bed. All to herself. Joey knew this crap had to be a pack of lies.
When they stopped embracing, Mick looked at Roz. He didn’t have to ask if she was okay. He could see that she wasn’t. “Did you see this coming?” he asked her.
Roz shook her head. Her eyes were filled with distress. “No,” she said. “There was no indication whatsoever. None. But I don’t believe in coincidences,” she added. “Chad suddenly shows up, like a blast from the past, and now this? There has to be a connection.”
“Damn straight,” Mick said. “And I’ll find out what it is. I’ve already ordered my men to find his ass.”
Roz nodded her approval. What she loved most about Mick was how he didn’t require her to explain herself. The allegations were false, and because he knew her, despite her past with Chad, he knew that they were. She loved him for that.
Stu, after ending a phone call, walked over to Mick, Roz, and Joey. “Hey Joey.”
“What’s up?”
“Hello, Mr. Sinatra.”
“How are you?” Mick asked. He knew how much Roz respected the guy. It was assumed he wasn’t a party to these ridiculous allegations. At least Mick hoped he wasn’t. Because heaven help those who were.
“More clients calling?” Roz asked Stu.
“Many more,” Stu said. “I had to instruct downstairs to start fielding calls. I told them to tell every client that there’s nothing to worry about. The Graham Agency is not going out of business, which seems to oddly be the concern of many of them, and that the allegations aren’t true. They all want to talk directly to you, of course, but they understand they can’t right now.”
Roz shook her head and looked at Mick. “I hate this,” she said. “I hate that my clients have to be tainted by this.”
“They’ll be okay, Roz,” Stu said. “Don’t worry.”
“That’s right,” Mick said, placing his hand around her waist. “They’ll get over it.”
“But it’s just so unfair,” Roz said. “I worked so hard to make a name for myself in this town, out of your shadow, but the first thing those reporters mention is that I’m your wife. As if they want to drag you in the mud too.”
“Since my ass already dirty,” Mick said to laughter from Joey and Stu, “don’t you worry about me.”
Roz smiled too and leaned against him. Tee ended her last call and walked up to them. “We’re starting to get cancellations,” she said.
Roz frowned and stood erect. “Already?”
“Some clients just want out before the shit hits the fan,” Stu said.
“I tried to tell them they were making a big mistake,” Tee added, but Roz cut her off.
“Don’t beg,” Roz said. “Most of the clients I agreed to represent were having trouble getting any gigs anywhere, and there was no agent around that wanted them. But I signed them anyway. And this is how they repay me? Don’t you dare beg a single one,” she said. “If they wanna leave, fuck’em. Let’em leave. We’re better off without them.”
“Damn right,” Mick said. He was proud of Roz. He held her tighter.
“Okay, I won’t ask them to stay,” Tee said. “But it’s still a tough thing. I mean three of your agents are making these allegations. Not just one of them. Everybody seems to think that makes it true.”
“Yeah, right,” Roz said. “More like they got together so people would think that.”
“Who are these agents anyway?” Mick asked. “How long have they worked here?”
“They’re all relatively new,” Tee said, thinking about it. “Most started within the last few months actually.”
That surprised Mick. “All three of them?”
Roz nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Now that you mention it. That’s right. They’re all new.”
“Sounds like a set up to me,” Joey said.
“To me too, Joey,” Roz agreed with her stepson. She was surprised to see him by Mick’s side, but was pleased to see the reconciliation. “As if they came to work for me for this very reason. And I couldn’t turn them down. They had excellent references. At least on paper.”
“Did you verify their references?” Mick asked.
“That’s my job,” Tee said. “And yes, sir, I personally contacted every employer they listed. I always do.”
“Give their resumes to my son,” Mick ordered Tee.
“Yes, sir,” Tee said, although she didn’t understand why that would matter. But she didn’t question it, and Joey followed her out of the office.
But Stu questioned it. “Why would you need their resumes?” he asked. “If you don’t mind my asking.”
“I mind,” Mick said.
“Mick,” Roz said, upset that he would offend her colleague. “That wasn’t necessary.”
“His question wasn’t either,” Mick said. “Why would he care what I’m doing? He needs to worry about himself and make sure he’s not caught up in this shit. Because those who are will regret it.”
Stu swallowed hard. This was who he assumed they meant when some of the staffers called him Mick the Tick. “I’ll be in my office,” he said to Roz. “I’m sure I have a backlog of phone calls waiting too.”
Roz nodded and Stu, after giving Mick another look,
walked out.
After he left, Roz looked at her husband. “He’s not caught up in this,” she assured him.
“You don’t know that and I don’t either,” Mick assured her. “I just wanted to make it clear, if he is, that he’d better extricate himself now. He’d better tell what he knows now. Tomorrow will be too late.”
Then the reality of the situation returned, and that sinking feeling within Roz’s gut returned too. “The press conference is tomorrow,” she said. “I dread to think how awful it’s going to be. How many lies they’re going to tell.”
“It’s my job,” Mick said, “to make sure there will be no press conference.”
Roz looked at him. “What do you mean?”
“I was about to head to New York.”
“New York?”
“To confront who I believe to be the mastermind behind Ma and Pa Kettle’s roadshow.”
“You think there’s a connection between that car scam and this?” Roz asked.
“What do you think are the odds that it’s unrelated events in our lives?” Mick asked her.
Roz thought about it, but she didn’t have to think long. “Given our lives,” she said, “a million to one?”
Mick loved her perceptiveness. “That’s about right,” he said. “So in answer to your question, yes. This shit related. I’ve just got to find out how.”
Roz exhaled. And fell back into Mick’s arms.
“I’m putting you, Gloria, and the twins on lockdown until I get back,” Mick said, kissing the top of her head. “Around the clock protection with Deuce at your side and Teddy in charge.”
“He’s the one I expected to show up with you,” Roz admitted. “Where is he anyway?”
“He claimed he had some meeting about that nightclub he’s trying to get off the ground. Joey called for him to get here. He should have been here by now.”
Roz looked up at Mick. “And what about Joey?” she asked.
Mick exhaled. A pained look appeared on his face. “I can no more shield that boy from my lifestyle than I can shield myself,” he admitted. “He’s coming with me.”
Roz nodded. “Good,” she said. “He saved your life that time in that safe house, remember? He has what it takes.”
“Yeah,” Mick said. “That’s what I was always afraid of.” Then he exhaled. “Anyway, let’s get him and get out of here before more press shows up.”
“They’re already out there I imagine,” Roz said.
“Oh, yeah,” Mick responded.
After Joey retrieved the resumes from Tee, he followed his father and stepmother downstairs to the lobby. And by the time they made it out of the lobby doors of the Graham Agency, Roz’s suspicion was right. The press was out in force.
“Stay beside me,” Mick said to Roz as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her tightly against him. Deuce was already standing at the end of the walkway beside Roz’s limo, and so was Mick’s driver waiting beside Mick’s.
“Which limo are we going to take, Dad?” Joey asked.
“Deuce,” both Mick and Roz responded.
Joey attempted to move in front, to direct them through the crowd of media that suddenly swarmed them, but the media was too aggressive. Joey wasn’t even there, as far as they were concerned. They saw the big fish, Mick and Rosalind Sinatra, two for the price of one effort, and they were going for the story hard.
“Mr. Sinatra, sir? Any comment?”
“Mr. Sinatra, how do you feel about the allegations, sir?”
“Mr. Sinatra, given the nature of the allegations, will you continue to support your wife?”
And then: “Mr. Sinatra, is it an insult to your manhood that your wife would need to harass her employees for sex?”
It was out of bounds totally, and every other reporter there seemed to know it. They also seemed to love that it was asked. They held their microphones closely to Mick’s mouth and followed him toward his waiting limousines. But if that provocative question was meant to provoke an old pro like Mick, it didn’t work. He kept his family moving.
But Joey, who was new to the ways of the press, was completely provoked. “Fuck you!” he said to the reporter who had asked the question, forcing all of the microphones to shift his way. “That’s Mick Sinatra you’re talking about. Every woman in this town knows who he is. Who the fuck are you?”
“Who are you?” another reporter asked.
“I’m Joey Sinatra,” Joey said proudly. “Now get the fuck out of my face.” Joey knocked a few of the microphones away.
“What about you, Mrs. Sinatra?” yet another reporter asked and all microphones moved to her. “Why did you sexually harass your employees?”
“She didn’t, asshole!” Joey responded for her.
“You did it before,” the reporter said to Roz. “Didn’t you, Mrs. Sinatra? In the Chad Dawkins case?”
Joey didn’t know who Chad Dawkins was, or what they were talking about. But that didn’t stop him from defending his stepmother. “Just leave her alone,” he said.
“Are you a nymphomaniac, Mrs. Sinatra?” yet another reporter asked and Joey, who knew exactly what a nympho was, decked the guy on the spot, even before his father had a chance.
The reporters scrambled to get the picture of their downed colleague and Mick hurried Roz and Joey into the limo driven by Deuce. Deuce took off.
“I’m sorry about that, Dad,” Joey said as they rode away. “But he made me so angry! I’m sorry.”
“Sorry my ass,” Mick responded. “Good shot.”
Joey was surprised by his father’s response. “But he could try and sue you,” he said.
“Even if he does,” Roz said, “it’ll still be worth seeing his insulting butt on the ground. Your father’s right. Good shot, Joey.”
Joey smiled. What a difference a day made! Just this morning his father wouldn’t even let him through the gate at his estate. Now he had just done something to make his father and stepmother proud. He felt lucky for the first time in a long time. He couldn’t believe his good luck.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After they made it back to the Sinatra compound, Joey was allowed to play with the twins in their playroom. But he wasn’t alone with them. Not yet. Mick made sure Deuce and the nannies were in that room too. Joey was on his way back in Mick’s eyes. But the sting of what he tried to pull with that kidnapping ploy still haunted Mick. It was going to take more than one day to turn that around.
Mick and Roz were in the living room, slouched down side by side on the sofa, sipping wine and reviewing the resumes of Roz’s three accusers.
“What are we looking for?” Roz asked as she searched the info.
“An oddity,” Mick said. “Something that stands out. A similar name on all three resumes. Anything.”
They kept looking when the front gate intercom buzzed notifying them that someone was heading toward the main house. Mick looked on his cell phone. It was Teddy. He was one of the few people allowed on the grounds without prior permission.
Roz looked at Mick with concern in her eyes. “You said you were going to New York?”
Mick nodded. “That’s right.”
“When?”
“My plane, and my men, are waiting at the airport now.”
“But why New York? You were obviously going before this harassment story broke. What’s in New York?”
“Answers to that crash for cash scam those so-called salt of the earth idiots tried to pull on you. And now I’m going to find out the connection to this harassment bullshit.”
“So what happened with Bonnie and Clyde?” Roz asked. “Did they talk?”
“After I did what I had to do,” Mick said, “the old lady talked.”
Roz knew what doing what he had to do meant. “What did she say?”
“A thug by the name of Frog Henry Camino paid them. She claimed to know who was yanking Frog’s chain.”
“Did she tell you who?” Roz asked.
“I didn’t give her a chance.
I know who.”
“Who?”
“A mobster by the name of Lenny D’Amato.”
Roz knew that last name. She rarely forgot a name. “D’Amato? Is he related to the guy Joey used to work for? The guy Joey had to end up killing in that safe house to save your life?”
“That was Stone Cold D’Amato. His brother. Lenny is in a different league than Stone. Lenny’s not about making money. He’s just a killer.”
“So you figure he wants revenge?” Roz asked.
“I know he does,” Mick said. “What I’ve got to work out is why now. And why so butt-ass backwards as a car accident scam. A test run at that. And now this harassment bullshit. It doesn’t sound like Lenny’s M.O,” Mick added, as Teddy entered their home.
“But you think D’Amato is behind these allegations too?” Roz asked.
“And the fact that Chad Dawkins suddenly hit the scene, yes, I do,” Mick said.
“Hey, Roz,” Teddy said as he entered the living room. “Hey, Pop.”
“Where the hell were you?” Mick asked.
“I told you I had a meeting,” Teddy said. “What’s this about sexual harassment?” he asked. “Joey said there’s an allegation of sex harassment. What’s it about?”
“Craziness, that’s what,” Roz said as she took the three resumes from Mick and began going through them again.
Teddy sat in the flanking chair. “It’s crazy alright. But that ain’t all that’s crazy.”
Mick and Roz looked at him. “What?”
“A few days ago I did what you said,” Teddy said.
Mick was at a lost. “About what?”
“About putting some feelers out on your three baby mamas living here in Philly, while you handled Gloria’s mom in New York.”
Roz looked at Mick. She knew how Mick once loved Bella Caine more than any of his other exes.
Mick Sinatra: The Harder They Fall Page 10
