“How did the meetings go?” Mick asked her.
“They went well. The London producers are excited, and we’re excited. Problem is, my producers and me want a one-week-only when we play the West End. But London wants a longer commitment. Upwards to a year commitment.”
But Mick was already vigorously shaking his head. “Nope. That’s out.”
“They’ll settle for six months.”
“I don’t give a fuck! You aren’t staying away from home a year nor six months, I don’t care what they’ll settle for.”
But then Mick caught himself. Acting was her dream, not his. She never stopped him in his pursuits. Why was he trying to stop her? “If that’s what you want,” he said, “then I’ll have to make some adjustment. I’ll have to see what I can do.” He looked at her. “If that’s what you want.”
“There was a time,” Roz responded, “when I would have wanted nothing less. But now that I have you and the twins, and Teddy and Gloria and Joey, no. It’s not what I want. One week is enough.”
Mick smiled. Inwardly, he was relieved. He kissed her forehead. “Then you must stick to your guns,” he said. “Do not negotiate away what you do not want. You’re the toast of Broadway right now. They’ll take you however they can get you.”
“That’s what Giles said when he saw I wasn’t biting at any of their offers. The talks are ongoing, but we’ll hold the line. Giles and Archie are negotiating on my behalf. That’s why I was able to finally leave and come back home.”
“Where you belong,” Mick said, and kissed her again. Then he exhaled. “And speaking of Gloria,” he said.
Roz looked at him. She didn’t recall speaking of Gloria. “She’s still scheming with Will Flannigan?”
“Yes. Still sneaking around and sleeping with him, too.”
“She’s coming for dinner tonight,” Roz said. “Maybe she’ll come clean.” But Roz suspected something more was at work here. “What is it?” she asked him.
“He’s a bad character, Rosalind.”
“Who? Will?”
“Yes.”
Roz was concerned for Gloria. She turned her body even more toward him. “In what way, Mick?”
“I’ve had him in my crosshairs for some time now. In addition to all of that scheming he was doing, I had already suspected he was misappropriating funds to support his lavish lifestyle.”
“Embezzlement?”
“Yes. He owes everybody. Including loan sharks. Has gambling debts, too.”
“But why haven’t you told Gloria all of this?” Roz asked.
“Because she has to use her instincts to feel people out. She should have known something wasn’t right with that guy, but she kept on seeing him anyway. A child of mine cannot be that way. She has to handle her business, I don’t care how young she still is. I’m not giving her and Joey passes the way they want. Tonight, her ass is growing up.”
“She still hasn’t said anything to you?” Roz asked.
“No,” Mick said, with hurt in his eyes. “But I’m going to say something to her tonight. Her deceit ends tonight.”
Roz stared at Mick. “Love can make you blind as a bat, and make you do some stupid shit. Go easy on her.”
“Easy?” Mick asked. “What the fuck is that? She’s bad enough to play the game with Will, she’s bad enough to face the consequences of her game playing. Fuck easy.” Then his patience broke. He was tired of talking about Will and Gloria. “Turn your ass over,” he ordered. “I need to fuck you.”
Roz wasn’t about to argue about that. She did as he ordered and laid on her bare stomach, while Mick rubbed his tongue all over her bare ass.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Gloria’s Lexus drove onto the Sinatra estate and stopped behind her stepmother’s car. Will had been blowing up her phone ever since she left work, but this time she avoided answering him. He knew where she was. He knew she was attending a family dinner at her father’s house. Where was his respect? But as Gloria got out of her car, pulled down her tight-fitting dress, and made her way up the steps, she knew that very question could be asked of her, too. Where was her respect? Why did she feel a need to rush a process that her father might very well get around to making happen anyway?
But the operative word, according to Will, was might.
When Gloria entered her father’s beautiful home and was escorted to the dining hall by the butler, she was pleased to see that her brothers, Joey and Teddy, had already arrived. All three of them had different mothers, and Gloria, whose mother was an African-American fashion designer, was the only biracial sibling of the three. Their father was the thread that bound them to each other, and each one of them often felt as if they had a romantic, outsized appreciation for their father that he might not deserve.
But they were proud to be the offspring of Mick Sinatra. His name carried massive weight in the business world and in the underworld, and just being a part of his DNA made them feel as if they were special, too. Even thought, if they were to be honest with themselves, their father never made them feel that way at all.
Teddy was especially pleased to see Gloria, as she quickly sat at the dinner table between he and Joey. Gloria wasn’t just his kid sister. She was the ideal woman in his eyes. Gorgeous. Smart. And with the biggest heart. He loved her. Whereas he and Joey had more of a big brother look out for little brother relationship, Teddy and Gloria were best friends. Although lately Teddy felt as if she was keeping him more out of her life than in.
“So what’s up, Glo-Glo?” he asked her.
“Just trying to make it. What’s up with you?”
“Making it,” Teddy said arrogantly. “Fuck trying! I’m fucking making it.”
Gloria and Joey laughed.
“Where are the twins?” Gloria asked.
“Sleep already,” Joey said. “And you know Roz is a stickler about not waking them up on a whim. So I let them sleep.”
“What about Roz and Dad?” Gloria asked. “Where are they? I thought I was running late. Turns out they’re running late!”
“The staff said they were on their way down and dinner was about to be served,” Teddy said. “That’s why we made our way to the table. But the fact that Roz has been out of town for four days, and, knowing Dad, he probably had to get as many hits in as he possibly could.”
Gloria laughed. Joey frowned. “You think they’re fucking?” he asked. “I don’t!”
Teddy and Gloria both looked at him. “Are you out of your mind?” Teddy asked him. “Have you seen Roz? She’s our stepmother, but the lady is fine. Why wouldn’t Daddy be hitting that?”
“They’re very busy people,” Joey said. “They don’t have time for sex.”
Teddy laughed and shook his head. “You have so much to learn, little brother!”
And within a few seconds after that declaration, the subjects of their conversation entered the dining hall. Mick and Roz. Both were dressed for the occasion: Mick in his suit and tie. Roz in a form-fitting black dress. Teddy, who looked more like Mick than any of his children, was dressed in a suit and tie also, and Gloria was still in her stylish dress from work. Joey, however, in his hip-hop dress style, with his oversized jersey, oversized jeans, and gold chain around his neck, was the lone exception.
Roz walked gingerly to her seat, thanks to Mick’s libido, and Mick pulled out the chair. The table was too long for her to be at one end, and Mick at the other one, so she sat at the seat to the right of the head of the table, and next to where the children were sitting. Mick sat at the head of the table.
But Joey looked curiously at Roz. Had his Dad beaten her or something? “Why were you walking like that?” he asked her.
Teddy and Gloria smiled. That boy! Teddy thought, with a shake of his head.
Roz looked at Joey, ready to school him, but decided not to go there. “How’s everybody?” she asked instead.
But Joey was still too curious. “Why were you walking like you were in pain?” he asked her. “Why were you walking fu
nny like that?”
Roz decided to put an end to his curiosity by giving him too much information. “You’d be walking funny too,” she said, “if Daddy put a triple play on you the way he just put it on me.”
Teddy laughed hysterically, and Gloria and Mick laughed, too. But Joey frowned. “Gross, Ma!” he declared, and they laughed even more.
After dinner was served by the staff, grace was said by Roz, and everybody began eating. Mick looked at Teddy as they ate. “How did it go?” he asked him.
“I handled it,” Teddy responded.
“And?”
Teddy nodded. “And he was ready to deal.”
Mick stared at Teddy. “Tell me.”
“He understood he had no choice in the matter. He’s infringing on our ability to do what we need to do. He has to give up some territory, point blank period. No ands, ifs, or buts about it.”
“How much did he offer?” Mick asked.
“Twenty percent at first.”
Mick frowned. “Twenty percent? That’s a fucking insult.”
“Either that,” Teddy responded, “or he thought I was a fucking idiot. But he cut the bullshit eventually and revised his offer upward. To fifty percent.”
“Fifty percent?” Joey asked excitedly. “That’s great negotiating, Teddy!”
“No, it’s not,” Mick corrected him. “That won’t help us. I don’t have an equal partnership in territory with anybody.”
“I know that,” Teddy said. “That’s why I gave him our non-avoidance clause. Or, as they say in the movies, an offer he couldn’t refuse.”
“Which is?” Joey asked.
“Give us what we want or lose your life.”
Gloria cringed when she heard her big brother speak like that. But she was no fool. She knew the family business wasn’t just the family business.
“Needless to say,” Teddy continued, “he revised his offer again. And we were back to twenty percent.”
Joey frowned. “He still offered us twenty percent?”
“We offered him twenty percent,” Teddy said. “And lo and behold, he accepted.”
Joey was amazed. Mick smiled. “Now that’s good negotiating, Joey. Take notes.”
Teddy felt as if he was on top of the world. To have his father’s complete confidence was like the best thing ever for him.
Even Roz, who usually stayed out of these matters, was impressed. “You’re following in your father’s footsteps, Teddy. Big shoes to fill, but you’re doing a good job trying. Good work.”
Teddy smiled. “Thanks, Roz.”
But Mick had already moved on. “And the dock hit?” he asked.
Teddy shook his head. “He didn’t know anything about it. But that’s some baffling shit, Pop.”
“Yeah,” was all Mick was willing to say about it.
Joey knew what they were talking about regarding Mahoney. Teddy had filled him in. But he also knew that his father did not allow discussion of that part of their lives unless he asked. Since he didn’t ask Joey anything, Joey remained silent.
But as the conversation returned to more general topics, Gloria kept taking peeps at her father. Will expected her to try sabotage and subterfuge to get ahead at S.I., but he didn’t know her father. He didn’t play like that, and Gloria, now staring at him, wondered why she didn’t know that herself. She fell for Will, although she knew it was a stupid thing to do, and she went along with his scheme all the way. But the rubber was about to meet the road. Tomorrow she was supposed to expose all the dirt on Mick’s senior management team to pull herself ahead. But she decided, as late as today, that she just couldn’t do it. “Dad?” she asked.
Mick looked at her.
“Could I speak with you privately, after dinner, when you get a chance?”
He stared at her. He was so disappointed in her he could hardly contain himself. He tossed his napkin on the table and rose to his feet. “Come with me now,” he said, and headed for his study. Gloria swallowed hard and rose, too. And followed her father.
Joey looked at Roz and Teddy. “Wonder what that’s about?” he asked.
Roz knew, and Teddy and Joey both knew that she knew, but she wasn’t talking. She continued to eat her food.
But Joey, being Joey, couldn’t let it go. “What’s that about?” he asked again.
“Probably work,” Teddy decided to respond, although he was as in the dark as Joey was. “Glo works for him, as you know.”
“But there’s more to it than just about work,” Joey said. “You saw the way Daddy looked at her when she asked to talk to him. He looked like he wanted to beat the shit out of her.”
“Beat the shit out of his little princess?” Teddy asked. “His favorite child? I don’t think so!”
“Stop saying that, Ted,” Roz admonished. “Your father doesn’t play favorites. He loves all of his children.”
“Loving all of us,” Teddy said, “and loving one of us above the rest of us is not mutually exclusive.”
“I would have to agree with Teddy, Ma,” Joey said. “Dad put me in the mailroom when I worked for him. But Glo? He gave her a seat at the table right off the bat. Now she’s in middle management. Other than the twins, who haven’t been around long enough yet, she’s his favorite. But so what? It is what it is. I’m not mad at her.”
“Why would you be?” Roz asked. “Not that I’m buying what you’re selling,” she added to laughter from Teddy. “But why would you be angry with Gloria because your father favors her? That would be the very definition of misplaced anger.”
“It always is with Joey,” Teddy said. “Dad can do nothing but wrong in his eyes, and Dad can do no wrong in his eyes. A walking contradiction. But that’s your stepson.”
“Ah, forget you, Theodore,” Joey said with a dismissive wave of the hand. “At least the ladies love me. While you, on the other hand? I don’t never see you with one.”
Roz smiled. “I like Teddy’s restraint. What’s wrong with that?”
“Thank you, Roz,” Teddy said. “Because I’m no whore, there must be something wrong with me. At least, let pea brains like Joey tell it.”
“He’s not a pea brain,” Roz said. “Stop calling him that. He’s just young.”
Joey smiled. “Thank you, Roz,” he said, and they laughed.
But inside Mick’s study was no laughing matter. Gloria walked further into the room in an almost aimless pace, as Mick stood near the door with his arms folded. He was not a happy camper, and she didn’t understand why. But then again, she thought, her father was never a gregarious guy.
She, at least, was hoping that he would ask what she wanted to talk to him about, but he didn’t say a word. All he did was stare at her with that one wide eye, and with that half-sleepy eye that sometimes gave her chills. But she also knew he wasn’t going to let her pace around all night. She finally stopped, and turned to him. “It’s about your COO,” she said.
If she thought Mick was going to help her along after making such a statement, she was mistaken. He already knew it was about Will Flannigan. He already knew it all. There was nothing that went on in his corporation that he didn’t know about.
Gloria decided to just do it. Because her choice was stark: betray Will in order to avoid betraying her father’s trust. “Will has been scheming,” she said, “to take over S.I.”
Still no rise from her father. He just continued to stand there, staring at her.
“His scheme is to dig up dirt on all of your senior management and give it to you anonymously, creating a crisis at S.I. that you wouldn’t be able to correct right away. Will would be left standing as the only senior guy untainted by the smears, and you would elevate him. And me, too, temporarily. His scheme is that, during that interim period, he’ll prove his worth to you and be in position to eventually take over. He had it all figured out.”
“And what is your role in this scheme he figured out?” Mick asked her.
Gloria’s heart began to pound. She knew she had to deny any rol
e at all or she could face his wrath. And nobody ever wanted to face his wrath. “I had no role,” she said convincingly. “Why would you ask such a thing, Dad?”
Mick’s eyes turned even colder. “How did you find out about the scheme if you weren’t a participant in its’ planning?”
Gloria hadn’t expected to hear him ask that. She thought this conversation would be all about Will, not all about her. “He mentioned it one time,” she said, “but I shot it down.”
She would lie to his face, Mick thought. He had to correct that. “You’re still sleeping with him, aren’t you, when I told you that was forbidden?”
How would he know, Gloria thought. They were super-careful. And besides, his father had far too many things going on in his life than to be worried about her love life. She was certain he didn’t know, but was just fishing. “I’m sleeping with Will?” she asked as if he was totally off track. “He’s your COO. And he’s married! Why would you think I’m sleeping with him?”
Mick didn’t mince words. “Because you are,” he said.
Gloria felt like crap. Lie after lie she had to tell to her own father. But she knew it beat the alternative. “But I’m not sleeping with him. I told you I wasn’t.”
Mick felt a swell of anger that was only matched by his disappointment in his beloved daughter. Like Joey before her, she still didn’t get it. She still didn’t understand what he was capable of. That had to be corrected. If his children did not fear him absolutely, they could disobey an order and find themselves in mortal danger. They were not the children of a banker or a school teacher. They were the children of Mick the Tick. And Mick the Tick had more enemies than an ocean had water. They had to understand, at all times, what that meant.
“I’m going to have to show you what happens,” Mick said as he closed the door, “when you lie to me.”
Then he stared at a now terrified Gloria, as he unbuckled and removed his belt.
Back in the dining hall, Roz and her two stepsons continued to eat quietly, when they suddenly heard the first sound of belt on flesh, and the first of Gloria’s cries. Teddy and Joey both attempted to jump from their seats and go to their sister’s aid when they heard her cries. But Roz stopped them in their tracks. “Stay right where you are,” she ordered them. “Your father is handling his business.”
Mick Sinatra: Love and Shadows Page 4
