Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life

by Mallory Monroe

  Leo quickly grabbed the man and hurried him to the limousine, while Mick ran to Roz, grabbed her, and hurried her too. Now they were in a race to avoid the cops. That was why the limousine, with Carissa Caine, the driver who flew with them to the Big Apple, sped off even before the doors were shut.

  What Roz didn’t understand was why they had allowed one of the gunmen to not only live, but to get in the limo with them. She quickly found out.

  She and Mick were seated on one seat, while Leo and the gunman were seated on the seat opposite them. If she thought Mick was going to pamper her, and make sure she was okay, she was sorely mistaken. Mick’s total focus was on that gunman. Mick’s total focus was finding out who ordered this hit on his infrastructure and he had to know now.

  Mick placed his hand behind the scruff of the gunman’s neck, yanked his head forward, and then placed a gun to the side of his head. Roz saw a look in Mick’s eyes, a look so chilling, that it scared even her.

  “Give me the name,” Mick said to the gunman.

  But the man was crying like a baby. “Don’t kill me,” he pleaded. “I was just following orders.”

  “Whose orders?” Mick asked angrily.

  “Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.”

  “Whose orders, motherfucker?” Mick screamed. “I’ll blow your fucking head off of your fucking body and scatter your fucking brains all over your fucking face if you don’t tell me who gave you the orders to take out me and mine? Who?”

  The man was shaking his head, the tears draining down.

  “Who motherfucker?” Leo angrily asked. “Tell him who!”

  “Carp,” the man said quickly, still shaking his head. “Carp Bianchi.”

  Mick and Leo both stopped cold. Roz could tell it was not the name, not in a million years, that they expected to hear. Carp Bianchi was one of the trio of Dons Mick did business with. Roz had met him before, in Mick’s office, and she also remembered how Mick nearly rearranged his face just for speaking ill about her. It didn’t seem that impossible to her that the man would seek revenge. But Mick and Leo looked dumbstruck.

  It was such shocking news that Mick didn’t ask for more information. He didn’t try to bully that man any further. He sat back.

  Roz was sitting on the edge of the bed while Mick was pacing the room and talking on his cell phone. His white coat was off, the sleeves of his turtleneck were rolled up, and his black trousers looked as if they were sagging on his sagging body. He was exhausted. Roz could see it even in his posture.

  They were at what Mick called a “safe house” in upstate New York. It was in an isolated area not far from town. The house itself was nothing to write home about either. Just a walk-up to the residence, a couple bedrooms in back, and a living room and kitchen up front. Mick and Roz were in the bedroom. When Mick ended his conversation, he sat on the edge of the bed beside her.

  “Have they found him?” she asked.

  “No,” Mick said. “I’m probably going to have to get out there myself.”

  Roz frowned. “You?”

  “Yes! We’re shorthanded. We lost a lot of men today. And Shane,” Mick said, with pain in his voice.

  Roz’s heart fell. “Shane? What about Shane? They got him too?”

  Mick looked at her. Took her hand. “Yes, Rosalind. They got him too.”

  Roz was shocked. “Oh my God,” she said. “That poor child! Who would kill a ten-year-old?”

  “Carp Bianchi, that’s who!” Mick said angrily. “Rat bastard!” Then he stood up again, and began pacing again.

  Roz was distressed. Just the thought of little Shane caught up in all of this had to tear Mick apart. And then to find out that somebody in his inner circle was behind it all. Roz knew he was a devastated man.

  “What about the gunman you captured? What if he’s lying?”

  “He’s not.”

  “But how do you know?”

  “Leo and some of our experts tortured him, just to make sure. He stuck to his story. It’s Carp. The rat bastard! Wait until I get my hands on him.”

  Then Mick stood still. “I handle pain differently, Roz,” he said to her. “But please don’t think I’m not grieving for Shane. I am. I truly am. But I have to protect you. And the rest of my children. I have got to track this cancer down and excise it before it excise the people I love. Then I’ll grieve the proper way. Then I’ll grieve.”

  Roz had a terrible thought. “What about Teddy and the others?” she asked. “What about the rest of your children, Mick? If they killed Shane---”

  “They’re secure,” Mick said quickly. “They’re in safe houses too. They’re alright.”

  “Oh thank God!” Roz was beyond relieved.

  “And you’re secure,” Mick said, looking at her. He would have killed the world if she would have been harmed. But she wasn’t. And she was handling it. The stress was on her face, but she was handling it.

  “What about Shane’s mother? Has she been notified?”

  Mick began pacing again. “They got her too,” he said.

  Roz shook her head. “Lord have mercy.”

  “Carp got her too. And everybody in her house. He knows what he’s doing.”

  Roz looked at Mick. “Who is he anyway? This Carp Bianchi. He works for you, right?”

  “He’s one of the three Dons I am in business with. He works for himself, but he answers to me. He was one of the men I relied on.”

  “So it’s a severe betrayal?”

  “Of the highest order,” Mick said. “He was the one I was consulting with about all of the security breaches we were having. When he was the one either causing them, or decided to take advantage of them.”

  Roz shook her head. “It’s always the one you least expect,” she said. “They love to take the spotlight off of them by putting it on somebody else. So you’re right. He might have caused those breaches. And while you’re concerned about plugging holes, he’s plotting and scheming right before your very eyes. You probably thought he was above doing something this crazy.”

  “No man is above shit,” Mick said. Then he looked at Roz. “You’ll do well to remember that.”

  “You’re above it,” Roz said confidently.

  Mick looked at her. He was pleased that she believed it. Then he stopped pacing, ran his hands through his hair, and exhaled. “Shane was a good kid,” he said. “But he was an unhappy child. He probably wanted his daddy and didn’t have him.”

  Roz stared at Mick. She could feel his pain.

  “I can’t change that. What’s done is done.” Mick said it with such resignation that it worried Roz. But then he rallied. “But I can change things with the rest of my children. And I have every intention of doing so.”

  “Of being there for them emotionally rather than just financially?”

  Mick nodded. “That’s the beginning, yes. A beginning I wouldn’t even be starting if it wasn’t for you.”

  “And at least Shane got to see his daddy before . . . it happened.”

  “Yeah,” Mick said. “At least that.”

  Then a knock on the door and Leo opened it. “The Dons are here,” he said.

  Mick left the room, and Roz followed behind him, as they made their way into the living area. Teddy Stefani and Vito DeLuca were just sitting down. They rose when they saw Mick.

  “Thanks for coming,” he said to them.

  “Sorry about your boy,” Teddy said, as he and Mick hugged. Of all of the Dons, Mick was closest to Teddy.

  “Yeah, it’s a shame,” DeLuca said, and he and Mick hugged too. “They found that cocksucker yet?”

  “Not yet,” Mick said. “But they will.”

  Roz came up alongside Mick. He placed his hand around her waist. “You gentlemen remember my lady?”

  “Rosalind, of course,” Teddy said. “Give me a hug. I’m a hugger.”

  Roz and Teddy hugged.

  “Have a seat, gentlemen,” Roz said. “Would you care for something to drink?”

  �
�No, no,” Teddy said as the two Dons sat down. “But thanks. Any word on your other children?”

  “They’re all safe, thank God,” Mick said.

  “Thank God,” Teddy said, making the sign of the cross across his chest.

  Mick, heading out of the room, looked at Teddy and motioned with his head.

  Teddy stood up again. “Excuse me, please,” he said, and followed Mick into the kitchen.

  Mick was leaning against the drain board, his arms folded, when Teddy walked in.

  “What a mess,” Teddy said, shaking his head. “Carp has got to be out of his damn mind.”

  “I’m going to have to get out there,” Mick said.

  “I know,” Teddy said with a nod. “We’re all shorthanded. They hit Silvio and Pauly too.”

  “I heard.”

  “What you think Carp’s up to? He hate your guts this much?”

  “Hell if I know.”

  “He didn’t want you out of the game. I thought that was the big deal for him. He felt with you out of the game it was going to hurt our bottom line, even with Provensano’s territory in our pocket. Why would he want to take you out now?”

  “I don’t know,” Mick said, and ran the back of his hand across his bloodshot eyes.

  “You look like shit,” Teddy said. “Sure you have the capacity to get out there?”

  “I don’t have a choice. Carp Bianchi killed Flo’s son. And Flo and her entire household. And an army of my men. And tried to take out my lady. I have no choice.”

  “But for Carp to turn on us like that!”

  “Yeah,” Mick said. “But I don’t know. I keep thinking something is off. Something’s not right.”

  Teddy’s heart began to pound. “Like what?” Teddy asked.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know!” Then Mick exhaled. Nothing he could do about it right now anyway. “But what I want from you, Teddy, is your word that you’ll look out for Rosalind. If anything happens to me, you’ll protect her.”

  Teddy placed his hand on Mick’s arm. “You know I will,” he said.

  Mick was pleased to hear it. Then he headed for the front.

  He called Roz to the bedroom, to privately explain to her what was going to happen. She wasn’t pleased, but she understood. Mick reloaded his guns, and headed out with a handful of his men.

  But as soon as they closed the door on the living quarters upstairs in the building and made their way downstairs, and were about to exit the building, Carp Bianchi entered the building. Mick and his security team all drew their weapons. Carp raised his hands, frozen in place. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” he asked them.

  Mick was stunned that he would ask such a question. “You ask me something like that when you just killed my people? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “Killed your people?” Carp was stunned. “How you gonna think I killed your people? Your people are my people! What the fuck are you talking about, Mick?”

  Was this another misdirection? Mick stared at Carp.

  “I heard about the hit. I heard you were in New York so I knew where to come. I knew radio silence was activated to avoid tracking, and I came where I knew to come. Now you’re trying to accuse me of orchestrating this shit? Me? Of turning on you, on our people? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  Mick already had an inkling. He already had that feeling in the pit of his gut that told him something was off. Then, as he stood there, as his men kept their guns drawn on Carp Bianchi and Carp kept insisting they had the wrong guy, Mick remembered something Roz had just said.

  It’s always the one you least expect, she said. They take the spotlight off of them by putting it on somebody else. It’s always the one you least expect. The one you least expect. The one you least . . .

  And Mick took off and ran back up those stairs.

  “What is going on here?” Carp asked bewilderedly, watching Mick run.

  The men were floored too. They didn’t know what to do. That was why half of them followed Mick back up, and the other half kept their weapons trained on Carp. He wasn’t going anywhere until they found out what was really going on.

  A double cross was really going on. It happened a mere minutes after Mick and his men walked out of the upstairs part of the house. Everybody were in the living room when it happened. First a gun was drawn. It had a silencer on it, so it was a planned hit. Roz was stunned. She saw Vito DeLuca get shot. She saw Teddy Stefani get shot. Then Leo Barone, Mick’s right hand man, Mick’s security chief, the double-crosser, turned his gun on Roz.

  But Roz was ready for him. Because Mick, when he was reloading his guns before he left, had handed one of those guns to Roz. “Trust Teddy,” he had said to her. “But nobody else. If anything happens, be prepared to shoot.”

  She knew it was going to be a tall order, since she’d never shot a gun before in her life, but as soon as Leo Barone shot Vito DeLuca, she was pulling out her own gun. By the time Leo shot Teddy Stefani, she was aiming her gun at Leo. By the time Leo turned to her, she fired her weapon. But her lack of experience showed. She missed badly. Leo smiled at her lack of skill, aimed his own weapon at her, and prepared to take her out. She had her chance and missed. Now it was his turn.

  But Mick never missed. And this time was no exception. The door flew open, and he took Leo out as soon as Roz’s gun misfired. He shot him repeatedly. He wanted to overkill him. He wanted to keep shooting that dead man. But Mick was so angry, and felt so betrayed, that he decided the man who had been his chief of security, wasn’t worth the bullets.

  Mick tossed the gun aside, tired of this shit. Then he looked at Rosalind. And opened his arms. She didn’t hesitate. She ran to him.

  EPILOGUE

  The Lamborghini drove up to the huge office complex and stopped at the curb. Mick was behind the wheel. He removed his shades from the top of his head and placed them over his eyes, and then looked up over the steering wheel. He had been out of the country for a few days, but he hadn’t expected this much progress.

  He grabbed his hardhat, put it on, and got out of his car. It didn’t look like it from out front, but it was a construction zone. Mick, in his jeans and a tucked-in pullover shirt, fit right in.

  THE GRAHAM AGENCY, Roz’s new company, was written over the building’s entrance in bold black letterings, as if it was ready to go. But when Mick walked through that door and made his way inside, all of the promise of the completed, ready to go outside, gave way to reality: it was a long way from finished.

  The front side of the building, which was a big, open space, was completed, but the back side, where there were numerous walls going up, was still a work in progress. Mick placed his hands on his pockets and looked around. Construction workers were everywhere. But he only came to see one worker: Rosalind. The owner of the joint. And when he saw her, across the room, going over blueprints with her project manager, he smiled.

  She was in hardhat too, but everything else, from her power skirt suit to her power heels, was all Roz. And the way she was explaining her position to her manager, telling him exactly the way she wanted it, not the way he wanted her to have it, made Mick proud. If he was a woman, he would want to be just like Rosalind. Then he caught himself. If he was a woman? What the fuck?

  He shook his head of that nonsensical thought and made his way to his woman. To Rosalind. When she saw him, and she smiled that grand, dimpled smile he loved so much, his heart melted. He was so far gone with this lady that he knew there was no going back.

  Roz knew it too, as she excused herself from her manager, and made her way to Mick. “You’re back early,” she said as she hurried to him. “I didn’t expect you for another four hours.”

  Mick swept her into his arms. “I couldn’t bear it,” he said. “I had to get back to you.”

  Roz grinned as he embraced her. Even though he was casually dressed, he still looked debonair to Roz.

  Especially when he kissed her. And he kissed her long and lovingly. He kissed her for all of those f
inger-pointing and grinning construction workers to see. But Mick and Roz didn’t care.

  When they finally stopped smooching, Mick looked around. “How’s it been going?” he asked. He kept an arm around her waist.

  “It’s going,” she said. “Javier’s giving me fits, but I can handle it.”

  “Good.” There was a time when Mick would try to handle it himself. But no more. He was her protector, no man was touching a hair on her head, but he didn’t sweat the small stuff.

  “I still can’t believe you’re doing this for me,” Roz said. “I’ll have my own talent agency right here In Philly. It’s right up my alley, Mick. This is going to be perfect for me. And every dime of your investment will be returned to you a hundredfold, I promise you.”

  “I told you not to worry about that.”

  “Mark my words,” Roz said. “The Graham Agency is going to be the toast of this town, of Broadway, of Hollywood, and of Paris and London too. International baby, when I get through.”

  Mick smiled. “That’s what I love about you. Your modesty.”

  Roz had to laugh at that one.

  Then they just stood there like soldiers who overcame a lot of battles to get where they were. But they were still battle-scarred. Mick exhaled. “We’ve had some turbulence early on,” he said. “Some very dark days. I’m glad it’s getting brighter.”

  Roz smiled. “So am I. Our best is yet to come. But what about you, Mick? How are you holding up? Everything that happened was done to hurt you. Leo betrayed you. How are you holding up?”

  Mick nodded. He wasn’t going to lie. “It’s tough. Leo knew we were already having security breaches and he decided I was showing signs of weakness. He decided he was going to take advantage of that slither of an opening and take over my organization. He had to get everybody out of the way first.”

  “But what would Shane and his mother have to do with that?” Roz asked.