Teddy came back into the living area.
“Anybody?” Monk asked him without taking his eyes off of the men.
“Nobody’s back there. But somebody had been back there,” Teddy added. “They had whoever it was chained up back there.”
Monk looked at Teddy. “Recent?” he asked him.
“I checked the sheets. They were cold. But this is Canada. It’s always fucking cold.”
Monk looked at the two gunmen. “How did you assholes know I was in town?” he asked them.
Although he was as angry as number one, gunman number two knew of Monk’s reputation better than number one. He didn’t bullshit around and answered the question. “Vinny told us,” he said.
“Vinny? Vinny who?” Monk asked.
“Vinny Blanks,” said number two.
Teddy looked at Monk. “I’ll be damn. Vinny Blanks? I remember his ass. Who’s he connected with nowadays?”
“He wants you to think nobody,” Monk said. “But I say he’s hooked in with the DeGarno family. Dumb fucker. He would pull a stunt like this.”
“How did Vinny know you were making this trip?” Teddy asked Monk. “You told him?”
“What I look like telling that cocksucker my business? Hell no I didn’t tell him.”
“Then how did he find out?”
Monk looked at the gunmen. “Answer the man’s question,” he said. “Because I know both your asses know Teddy T. How did Vinny know I was headed this way?”
“Why you asking us that?” Gunman number one said with a frown. “Ask Vinny. Do we look like Vinny?”
Before anybody could react, Monk grabbed one of those bottles off of the table, leaped over that table and slammed that glass bottle against gunman number one’s head. It wallowed him sideways, and cut him in several places. “Wonder who you look like now?” Monk yelled at him as the blood poured. “Wonder who you look like now, motherfucker!” That guy rubbed Monk the absolute wrong way.
Teddy was accustomed to Monk’s out-of-nowhere temper, and that was why he didn’t flinch. But gunman number one flinched. And was quick to answer Monk’s original question as the pain and blood overtook his foolish pride. “Because he knew you’d find her.”
Monk and Teddy both looked at number one. “Find who?” Monk asked.
“The girl. The one your old man wants found. The one you’ve been looking for. He knew you’d find her.”
“She’s here?” Monk asked.
“She was here,” Red Cap spoke up and said. Although he was still in pain from his leg wound, he wasn’t about to incur any further ire from the Monk by acting stupid like gunman number one. “But two guys came and got her this morning.”
Monk frowned. “Whatta you mean two guys? What two guys?”
“Two guys.”
“Like who?”
“Italians, like the two of you.”
“You’re saying wise guys took her?”
Red Cap nodded. “Like you two, yes. They were the ones told me to be on the lookout for you, and to trick you into following me back here. And then these two,” Red Cap said, pointing at the two gunmen, “were supposed to take you out.”
They damn near did, Monk thought, and it still didn’t sit well with him. He should have saw a setup coming while he was still in that poolhall. He should have seen it a mile away. But he didn’t, which scared him. “Where did they take the girl?” Monk asked.
“Away from here,” gunman number two said. “That’s all we know. We were paid to watch her. And that’s what we did. Until they came and got her. Then they paid us to handle you.”
“Who paid you?” Teddy asked.
Red Cap and number two looked at a still bleeding gunman number one. Monk and Teddy looked at him too. “Who paid you, asshole?” Monk asked him.
Gunman number one was seething with rage. But that bottle had taught him his lesson. “Vinny Blanks,” he said. “He paid all of us. Including those two guys who came and got the girl.”
“Where did they say they were taking her?” Teddy asked.
“They didn’t say nothing,” gunman number one said. “They didn’t have to say nothing. We just wanted the money.”
“How much?” asked Monk.
But then they heard the sound of somebody entering the building downstairs, and then running up the stairs.
Monk pointed his revolver at number one especially. “Talk and all your asses dead,” he said in no uncertain terms, and then he and Teddy hurried into the hallway, out of view. Teddy sat the two old style machine guns at his feet, because of their sometimes unreliability, and kept his weapon handy.
A guy quickly came onto the second floor landing and entered the smelly apartment. “Smells like somebody shit in here,” he complained. And then he saw the state of number one and Red Cap. “What the fuck happened? He was here?”
Number one was subdued. “Yeah,” he said.
“Tell me you took that fucker out,” the man said, but none of them told him that. Which should have been his answer.
Monk and Teddy listened. But Monk knew that voice. He’d heard that voice before!
“So what you’re telling me,” the man said, “is that you didn’t take him out?”
“Does it look like we took him out?” Number one angrily proclaimed. “No, we didn’t take him out!”
Monk was about to look, to see if number one just put his foot in it again, but just as he was about to peep around that wall, gunshots rang out and Teddy pulled him back.
Certain that those bullets weren’t directed at them, they hurried from out of the hall with their guns ready to fire too. And that was when they saw that the new guy had already shot up both gunmen and was just finishing off Red Cap too.
“Drop it!” Monk yelled at the new guy.
But instead of dropping his gun, the new guy turned quickly at the sound of Monk’s voice and was about to fire on Monk and Teddy. But Monk and Teddy both fired first, and took the new guy out.
Then they hurried over to the scene. Both gunmen were dead, and so was Red Cap. Then they looked at the new guy.
“You know him?” Teddy asked.
Monk nodded. His suspicion was right. “I know him,” he said. “That’s Vinny Blanks kid brother.”
Teddy exhaled. “Damn. What’s up with Vinny? Looks like that’s one joker you need to find,” he said.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Monk said. “I’ll find his ass. That I will do,” he added, and then exhaled. They came all the way to Canada and still ended up with a big fat zero. With nothing. Which lately, Monk felt, described his life perfectly.
CHAPTER FOUR
Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, and his wife Jenay, sat side by side in their sprawling living room in Jericho, Maine. All four of Big Daddy’s sons from a previous marriage, Brent, Tony, Bobby, and Donald, sat around them. Makayla Sinatra, Brent’s wife, and Rain “Sunny” Sinatra, Bobby’s new wife, were sitting around the living room too. Tony and Donald, still bachelors, were there as well. They were all waiting for Teddy and Monk to drop by, for Ashley to get home, and for Carly, Ashley’s younger sister who was also adopted by Big Daddy and Jenay, to get in town from her home in Boston so that they all could have their weekly family dinner. Big Daddy called himself entertaining them with jokes. But nobody was laughing. Except Jenay. And she was laughing vigorously.
Brent shook his head. “Nobody thinks Pop’s stale jokes are funny,” he said, “except for you, Ma.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jenay said. “Bonita laughs at Big Daddy’s jokes all the time.” Bonita was Big Daddy’s youngest child, the only child he had with Jenay.
“Bonita is still a little kid,” Bobby said. “Her ass don’t know any better yet.”
“That smart girl?” Makayla asked. “She knows.”
“I know that’s right!” Jenay said happily as she leaned over and clasped hands with Makayla. “My baby knows!”
“Okay, Kayla,” said Brent. “What do you think? Was Pop’s
joke funny to you?”
“Be honest now, girl,” Sunny said with a grin. She, Makayla and Jenay, as the only wives in Big Daddy’s immediate family, were becoming close.
“I wouldn’t call it funny exactly,” Makayla said, at which point all of the brothers broke out into laughter. “But it held some humorous qualities,” she added, which made the brothers laugh even louder.
And it was during that laughter that Teddy and Monk knocked once, and then walked on in.
When Teddy heard the laughter, he grinned and rubbed his hands together as if he was a Las Vegas pit boss. “So this is where all the fun’s at!” he said with a grin on his face, and everybody stood up and hurried to the two men.
“About time your asses get here,” Big Daddy said as he hugged his nephew.
“Long time, no see,” Brent said as he hugged Teddy too. Most of the family knew Monk as Teddy’s longtime running partner, and welcomed him too. And then they all sat back down.
Monk sat back and crossed one of his legs over the other one and enjoyed the family comradery. He didn’t have that kind of family. His old man was a mob boss who was losing his grip on power, which meant Monk had to constantly step in and protect him, and his kid brother was an idiot, too, who was always getting into all kinds of trouble that Monk had to get him out of. He had two other brothers, but they had long since left the family and wanted nothing to do with them. Although he was sitting there, and smiling too, Monk could not relate in any way, shape, or form to a family like Big Daddy’s.
They were so close, in fact, that Big Daddy had no qualms at all, it seemed to Monk, to discuss Teddy’s dilemma right in front of everybody.
He leaned forward, which meant he was about to talk. The room went from festive to quiet when Big Daddy leaned forward. “So Teddy,” he said, “I hear you’re about to pull a Gloria on my brother.”
The room broke into laughter. Even Monk understood. Gloria was Teddy’s sister, who left their father’s Philadelphia corporation to make her own way in Florida. Which was fine, generally speaking. Except her father was Mick the Tick.
“As police chief, I don’t need to be hearing this,” Brent said, as he shook his head.
“Neither do I,” said Bobby, the town’s mayor, and their comments provoked laughter too.
Everybody was laughing, except Big Daddy. He was dead serious. He continued to look at Teddy. “Is it true?” he asked him.
Teddy had no idea how it all became such common knowledge. First Monk had heard rumors. Now Big Daddy. But he knew he wasn’t about to play around with Big Daddy. “I’ve been thinking about it,” he said.
“You’re a strong man, Teddy,” Big Daddy said, “and more powerful than nearly every mob boss in this country because of who your father is. But get one thing straight: if you decide to leave, you’ve got a battle royal on your hand. My brother is a vicious man. He’ll see it as a betrayal.”
Teddy frowned. “A betrayal? After all I do for Pop?”
“I’m telling you who my brother is,” Big Daddy said, “not who we want him to be. He will see it as a betrayal and view you as his enemy, yes, he will.”
Teddy couldn’t believe it. “Why in the world would Pop see me as his enemy?”
“Because that’s the kind of twisted fuck your old man is,” said Monk bluntly to his best friend, and everybody looked at him. “I mean no disrespect, but the truth is the truth.”
“But that’s not the reason,” said Big Daddy, always protective of his kid brother.
“Then what’s the reason?” Teddy asked him. “Why would Pop all of a sudden consider me, the person he most depend on in this world to handle his affairs, his enemy?”
“Because he needs you,” said Big Daddy. “And he hates that he does.”
Teddy looked at Big Daddy. The idea that his father would need somebody, other than Roz, was laughable. But Teddy wasn’t laughing. Nobody was.
“This is what I’m going to say about it and this is all I’m going to say about it,” Big Daddy said. “If you’re leaving Mick to go legit, then God bless you. You’ll have my blessing. But if you’re leaving to get into the same racket he’s into; if you’re leaving to start your own syndicate or whatever the hell y’all call it, even I won’t support that. I’ll be as against it as my brother will be. Capeesh?”
Teddy nodded. He understood.
And then the door opened again, and Ashley, along with her kid sister Carly Sinatra, walked in.
The family’s reaction was swift, as all of them stood on their feet and hurried to Carly. Monk stood up, too, but he mainly just watched. It was as if a rock star had entered the house. He didn’t know much about the two ladies, since he was hardly ever invited to Big Daddy’s house, but he figured they were probably Big Daddy’s adopted daughters that Teddy mentioned a time or two. But it was Monk’s first time seeing them in person.
The shorter one, the one they were all calling Carly, was gorgeous, Monk thought as he looked at her. There was something about her that made him understand why she held that star status in a family like the Sinatras, which was like a family of stars. And the way she leaned her head back, laughing with such a sweet, coquettish laugh, made him figure she was loving every second of her time in the spotlight. She was shining alright.
But her sister, the one nobody even glanced at except Teddy, who quickly gave her a little peck on the cheek and then gave his full attention to Carly, the star, as well, was another story. If the shorter one was that beacon on a hill, the taller, slender one was barely a flashlight in a glove compartment the way they were treating her. And he didn’t understand it. To him, there was no comparison. The one they were calling Carly was cute, alright. She was a gorgeous girl. But that was the problem. She was a girl compared to her taller sister. And if anybody was a star, it seemed to Monk, it was the taller one. But by the way they were all fawning over the smaller one, nobody seemed to agree with him.
Including the taller sister. She was acting as if she was out of her depth. She was acting as if, because the star had arrived, she had to take a backseat.
And to prove his point, he watched as she left the crowd, walked over to a chair in a corner, and sat down like she wanted to be that invisible person her family was acting like she was. She pulled out her phone and began flipping through it, as if she was in another place and time from the rest of them. She seemed so out of place, it seemed to Monk, that she didn’t even notice him standing over by the sofa staring at her.
An even after the adulation party was over, and everybody were seated once again, with Big Daddy being sure to sit his younger daughter right beside him, reaffirming for everybody that she was indeed the g.o.a.t., the other daughter remained in her corner. But Monk found himself fascinated with the other daughter, and didn’t understand why nobody else was.
But Monk wasn’t blind either. He knew the woman he was taking peeps at was a bad girl. She had it written all over her. That miniskirt she wore and that halter top that barely kept those big boobs of hers in place, was only further evidence of her badness. She’d been around the block, that was for damn sure. But a lot of that, Monk suspected, might not have been all her doing.
“Okay, people, time to eat,” Jenay announced, and everybody began making their way to the kitchen, all in conversation, all finding a way to converge around Carly. But the other sister stayed put. Monk, the last to leave the living room, didn’t plan to do it. He didn’t particularly want to do it. But he felt compelled to walk over to the other sister, and extend his hand.
“Hey, how are you?” he asked.
Ashley looked at his big hand first, and then up at his face. His big eyes kind of startled her. Who was he, and why was he in her father’s house? But she shook his hand. “Hey,” she said.
“I know you don’t know me,” Monk said, “but the name’s Frankie. Frank. I’m a friend of Teddy’s.”
“Oh, okay,” Ashley said. At least he was attached to somebody in the family. But she still kept her guard
up. He just didn’t come off as nice. “Nice to meet you,” she said. His eyes were almost as big as Bobby’s, but not nearly as warm. “I’m Ashley.”
“Big Daddy’s adopted daughter, no?” he asked her.
Ashley never considered herself as anything but Big Daddy’s daughter period. “I’m his daughter, yes,” she said.
“Yeah, I heard about you,” Monk said, his shoulders moving as he talked. Why was his shoulders moving, Ashley wondered. “Teddy said a thing or two about you. You and your sister, that is.”
He talked like a straight-up gangster to Ashley, complete with the hat on his head that he should have known was rude to wear indoors. But he wore it anyway. And instead of asking what did Teddy say about her and Carly, since Ashley didn’t care either way, she returned her attention to her phone.
Monk felt like some kind of a sucker standing there. Why was he even bothering her? By the way she went right back to minding her own business, she certainly didn’t want to be bothered with him. But for some reason he couldn’t even explain, he continued to bother with her anyway. It was like he didn’t want to dismiss her, too, the way he felt her family had. “So you’re gonna eat, or what?”
Ashley inwardly frowned. Why was this person still hanging around her? She looked up at him again. “Excuse me?”
“Dinner’s being served, according to your old lady. I mean, pardon me, your mother. You’re ready to eat? I figure I’d escort you to the table if you’re ready to eat.”
Those shoulders were moving as he talked again, Ashley thought, but she concluded that was apparently just his way. Besides, he was the only somebody who actually noticed her even though the golden child, Carly, was around, so she decided to stop being a bitch. She smiled and placed her hand in his. “Thank you,” she said, put her phone away, and stood up.
Monk felt some kind of stupid placing her hand on his arm to walk her into her own parents’ dining hall, but he wanted her to know that she was just as special as her sister. In truth, he didn’t know if she was special or not, but he felt she should be. She had kind eyes. She ought to be.
Monk Paletti: Taming Ashley Sinatra Page 3
