“What are you doing here?” Big Daddy asked him as they met.
“Ma home?”
“Yes, she’s upstairs. Now answer my question.”
“I wanna talk to Ma.”
Big Daddy shook his head. He knew exactly what that boy wanted. “She’s not giving your ass a dime,” he said.
Donald frowned. “Who says I’m here for money?” he asked.
“Yeah, sure, boy. Why would I think your always broke ass would come here for money? Stop bugging her,” he warned, and continued downstairs.
Donald rolled his eyes and hurried upstairs. He wanted to ask his stepmother for money before his father made it back up. Because as sure as the day was long he knew his father wasn’t giving him a cent. He always told Donald no. But Jenay, he knew, could sometimes be persuaded.
But as soon as Donald entered his parents’ bedroom, he quickly found out that that particular night wasn’t one of her persuadable times.
“No, Donnie,” Jenay said as soon as she saw him, “so don’t even ask.”
She was sitting up in bed in a pair of pajamas, looking cute, he thought, with a big bowl of popcorn on her lap. Although she was closer in age to Donald and all of Big Daddy’s grown sons than she was to Big Daddy, she was still Ma to all of them. Their father raised them alone when their useless mother deserted them, and when he met Jenay at Donald’s ill-fated wedding, they didn’t think it was going anywhere. His father had a type and she wasn’t it. They’d never known their father to even date a black woman before Jenay.
But he dated that black woman. And elevated her above all his women. And then, to the shock of the entire town of Jericho, he married Jenay. It took years but she won the town over and became the mother Big Daddy’s grown sons always needed.
But she was also tough as nails. Donald worked for her at his father’s hotel, so he knew firsthand just how tough she was. But he also knew she loved him, and would give him the moon if she could.
Right now, he just needed a few hundred bucks.
He slung his thin body across the bottom of the bed and folded his legs at the ankle. And he smiled. “What’s this?” he asked, looking at her popcorn. “Movie night?”
“That’s right,” said Jenay as she ate one popcorn at a time. It tasted rubbery without her hot sauce. She threw one to Donald and he caught it with his mouth.
“I thought you guys had movie night downstairs in the theater room,” Donald said.
“We do. Just not tonight. Brent and Makayla has the kids for the weekend, theirs and ours, and since it’s just your father and I, we didn’t see the point of lounging around downstairs when we can lounge around in our own bed.”
But they both knew Donald wasn’t there to shoot the breeze. And he got to the point. “I’ll give it back to you as soon as this deal I’ve got working on comes through,” he said to her. “It’ll be before my next payday.”
“I said no,” Jenay said. “I’m not giving you a cent.”
“Why not, Ma? I always give it back!”
“That’s not the point, Donnie. You make an excellent salary working at your father’s hotel. There’s no excuse for you to be giving your money away to all of those fast-tail hookers you run with, and then you end up broke. I’m not bankrolling that. And you know your father won’t. You wasted your time coming here, if that’s why you came.”
“But Pop will lend it to me if you tell him to.”
“Ha! That’s what you think. He’ll tell me to kiss his ass, too, if I come at him like that.”
Donald rolled his eyes. He knew good-and-well his old man worshipped the ground Jenay walked on. Everybody knew that but Jenay, it seemed.
But then his father was back upstairs and coming back into the room. With a bottle of hot sauce in his hand.
Jenay frowned. “But I wanted the Louisiana hot sauce, Charlie. Not Tabasco.”
“It’s from Louisiana too,” Big Daddy said. “It’s on the label.”
“But it’s hot as hell.”
“Oh, for crying out loud, Jenay!” Big Daddy snapped. “How am I to know that shit?”
“Never mind,” Jenay said, reaching out her hand. “Just give it to me. I’ll use it rather than hear your mouth.”
Big Daddy, in a pair of pajamas, too, gave the hot sauce to her and got back in bed. She was sitting up, but he laid down and grabbed the TV’s remote. Wheel of Fortune was on the TV and Vanna White was turning letters on the big board. He looked at his son. “She give you any money?” he asked him.
Donald sat up. “She’d give it to me if you let her,” he said.
Jenay laughed. “Boy please,” she said. “I do whatever I want. Your father doesn’t have to let me do anything.”
Big Daddy gave her a hard look.
She corrected herself. “At least not everything,” she said, and Big Daddy smiled. Then she smiled too.
But then she looked at the time. “Turn on the movie,” she said to her husband. “What are you waiting on? It’ll be on in few minutes!”
“You’re the one who wanted to watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune,” Big Daddy said as he began flipping through channels.
“Jeopardy?” Donald asked. “You can answer those tough questions, Ma?” he asked her.
“Hell no,” said Big Daddy. “I answer more than she does, but she still loves watching it.”
“I learn a lot, thank you,” said Jenay.
But as Big Daddy was flipping through channels with the TV’s remote, he was surprised when he saw his kid brother’s face on one of the channels. “What the hell,” he said.
“What?” Jenay asked.
Big Daddy quickly moved back to the channel he had so quickly passed. And he wasn’t mistaken. It was Mick’s big photo in the background on CNN, and the anchor was telling why:
“. . . the CEO of a Fortune 500 company and reputed boss of all bosses in the east coast mob, a man known as Mick “The Tick” Sinatra, was involved in an ambush this evening.”
“An ambush?” Jenay asked, her face stunned. Big Daddy quickly leaned up. So did Donald.
The anchor was still talking: “Said to be second only to the Gambinos in the terror they spread, the Sinatra Crime Family is well known in the mob world. But the head of the family, Mick Sinatra, has always had the cloak of legitimacy because of his legitimate company, Sinatra Industries. But many in law enforcement, although thus far unproven, believe the company’s founder still has ties to the mob.”
“Fuck law enforcement!” Big Daddy yelled. “Who the fuck cares what law enforcement thinks? What about the ambush?!”
“The ambush occurred,” the news anchor continued, “when three mobsters allegedly opened fire on Mr. Sinatra. But when she said, “Mr. Sinatra was not injured,” both Big Daddy and Jenay, and Donald, too, sighed relief.
But then the anchor continued: “But two of his children, his son and his daughter, were not so lucky.”
“What?” Big Daddy asked, his heart now pounding.
“His son, Joey Sinatra,” the anchor continued, “who is himself said to be an active participant in the Sinatra Crime Family, was shot repeatedly tonight. And his daughter, Gloria Sinatra, a midlevel executive at S.I., was severely injured too.”
Big Daddy sat all the way up, his heart sinking.
“All of the other mobsters involved in the ambush are dead.”
But before the anchor could even mention the other mobsters, Big Daddy and Jenay were jumping out of bed and both were pulling out their cell phones.
Big Daddy called Mick. Jenay called Roz. And even Donald pulled out his phone and called his cousin Teddy.
But none of them were able to get through.
Nobody was answering their phones.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
THE NIGHT OF THE AMBUSH
TOMMY AND RENO GABRINI
“I’m not saying it’s a bad deal,” Reno Gabrini said as they sat in the restaurant, “but I’m saying it’s a bad deal.”
Tommy Gabrini
smiled, as did his wife Grace and Reno’s wife Trina. “I thought you weren’t saying it’s a bad deal,” said Trina, who knew her husband’s doublespeak better than most.
“It’s a good deal,” Reno said, “moneywise. But it’s a bad deal,” he added, “because we’d be responsible on the back end. That’s where the law suits can pile up and those assholes who drafted that contract knows it.”
Tommy nodded. “I agree.”
“Then why did you and Reno sign it, dear, if you agree?” Grace asked.
“Good question,” said Trina.
“Because I wrote it out of the contract before we signed it,” said Tommy.
Reno, and the ladies, too, stared at him. “You wrote it out of the deal?” Reno asked. “But how?”
“When?” Grace asked.
“When I told them to let me take a final perusal,” said Tommy. “While you guys were entertaining them with tales of woe you were encountering while rebuilding the PaLargio, I was replacing page 7 with a page 7 of my own. Everything was the same as the original page 7, except mine said they would be responsible on the back end, not us.”
“But their attorneys were there,” said Reno.
“None of their attorneys bothered to check to see if a word or two had been changed,” said Tommy. “And why would they? We were all right there. And we all initialed every page and signed the contract right then and there at the same time, with the wording of that back end proviso changed. It’s binding and it’s legal, and it will probably never come up again until there’s a back end problem.”
“And at that time all we have to do is tell them to review the contract,” Reno said, a grin forming on his face.
Tommy nodded. “We will stand by the four corners of our contract, that’s right,” he said, and everybody laughed.
Reno shook his head. “I’m telling you, man, you are the true brains of this family. I would have never even thought to do something that slick! And right under their noses!”
“I see why they call your ass Backdoor Tommy,” Trina said, agreeing with her husband. “Nobody see you coming!”
They all laughed again. And then Tommy’s cell phone rang. When he saw who the caller was, he placed it on Speaker. “It’s Big Daddy, guys,” he said.
“Hey, Big Daddy!” Grace said loudly after Tommy said hello.
“Hey, Baby,” Big Daddy replied to Grace.
“Hey, Big Daddy!” Trina said after Grace.
“Hey, Tree,” Big Daddy said, although they could tell his voice was deflated. “Where are you, Tommy? At Reno’s?”
“No,” replied Tommy. “Reno and Tree are here with Grace and I in Seattle, at a restaurant. We’re about to have dinner. Why? What’s up?”
“Mick’s been ambushed,” Big Daddy said and all of them reacted with what, how, and shouts of shock.
Like his brother Sal, who was getting word of the ambush even as Big Daddy was talking to Tommy, Tommy was floored too. Uncle Mick, in their eyes, was invincible. “Is he okay?” Tommy asked.
“He survived it,” said Big Daddy. “But Joey and Glo were hit.”
“His children?” Grace asked. “Good Lord.”
“Is it bad?” asked Tommy.
“I don’t know anything yet. I just heard about it on the TV and nobody in Philly’s answering their phones. Millie’s driving over there now from Baltimore.” Millie was Amelia Sinatra, Big Daddy and Mick’s African-American half-sister. “She sent her plane to collect me and Jenay. We’re on our way to the airfield now.”
“Okay,” Tommy said as all of them began getting up from the table, “we’re hop my plane and get to Philly too.”
“Just get there,” Big Daddy said anxiously. “And call me if you find out anything! Nobody’s answering their phones, not even his capos. Just get there!”
“Yes, sir,” Tommy said as Reno tossed a couple hundred bucks onto the table, to cover their drinks, and all of the Gabrinis took off.
Tommy and Reno looked at each other as they hurried out of the restaurant. Who in the world would fix it in their heads to ambush Mick Sinatra?
But it was Trina who said it best. “Somebody done lost their gotdamn mind,” she said. And Tommy and Reno, and Grace, too, couldn’t agree more.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A dozen SUVs began arriving at the Philadelphia hospital and Teddy, his suit coat off, his shirt half out of his pants, and looking emotionally exhausted, stood outside directing the drive of each vehicle to line up, back to back, against the curb. Mick’s men got out of each and every one of those SUVs and Teddy barked out orders and posts for each group. Security was paramount at a time like this.
“Nobody gets near the family,” he ordered the groups, “I don’t care who the fuck it is!” And every man voiced their understanding.
But as the men were all hurrying inside, to take up their guard stations, another SUV drove up and swung against the curb in front of the convoy. And it wasn’t until Big Daddy and Jenay got out of the SUV did Teddy realize his omission. He had been so caught up into organizing security that he forgot to call his father’s big brother.
And he could tell, as soon as he saw Big Daddy’s face, that he was pissed. Teddy walked over to them.
“Are they alright?” Big Daddy asked as he took Jenay’s hand.
They could tell by Teddy’s worried face that they were not. “Glo’s still in a comma,” he said, “and Joey’s still in surgery.”
“Damn,” Big Daddy said and gave out a loud exhale.
“We were hoping the news accounts were wrong,” said Jenay.
“They ambushed us in a three-prone attack,” said Teddy. “We didn’t stand a chance. If Pop hadn’t realized something was off and did what he did, they would have took all of us out.”
“Thank God Mick was there,” Jenay said, rubbing Teddy’s arm.
But Big Daddy wasn’t interested in consoling Teddy. He removed his hand from Jenay’s hand and punched Teddy hard across the face with a roundhouse right. Then he grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him against his rock hard, muscular body. His mouth was to Teddy’s ear. “The next time something like this happens,” he said to his nephew, “I’m your first call. You got it?”
Teddy was angry, but he knew who Big Daddy was. Mick’s ruthlessness came from that man. Teddy nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said.
Then he could see compassion reemerge into Big Daddy’s big green eyes as he released Teddy. Then Big Daddy began heading toward the hospital’s entrance.
Jenay moved over to Teddy and gave him a hug. Teddy hugged her back. But he knew she was Big Daddy’s woman. She wasn’t about to go against him. She whispered in Teddy’s ear too. “He’s the head of the family,” she said. “Your father might be the muscle, but Big Daddy is the head. Never leave him out when it comes to his baby brother.”
Teddy nodded again. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, and then Jenay hurried to catch up with her husband.
The two capos still outside when the punch occurred, were still astounded by what they saw. But they knew Big Daddy too. They weren’t surprised Teddy didn’t fight back. Any other man would have been dead if they coldcocked Teddy T the way Big Daddy had. Any other man who wasn’t a Sinatra or a Gabrini, they added to themselves, and then headed to their posts too.
Big Daddy and Jenay were escorted down a corridor that led to Gloria’s hospital room. Security was tight from end to end and Big Daddy was glad to see that at least Teddy got that right. He made sure the family was secured. But forgetting to phone Big Daddy was an enormous breach of family protocol and he wasn’t having it. Something happened to Mick and his family, it was as good as it happened to Big Daddy and his. Teddy had to understand that.
The heaviness of the room met them at the door. Because as soon as they walked in, they could feel the fear. Glo was unconscious and had all kinds of tubes hooked up to her. They were shocked to see how badly she had been beaten. Her beautiful face was almost unrecognizable.
They were also shocked to se
e Mick sitting on the edge of her bed, holding her hand and staring at her, as if he was willing her to open her eyes.
Glo’s biological mother, gorgeous African-American fashion designer Bella Caine, was seated on the opposite side of Glo’s bed holding her opposite hand and staring at her too. Big Daddy was always suspicious of Bella‘s relationship with Mick, but Roz didn’t seem to have a problem with it. So it wasn’t his problem to worry about.
Roz and Amelia Sinatra were in the room, too, seated against the wall. They were holding hands. And as soon as they saw Big Daddy and Jenay, they both hurried to them. Big Daddy pulled Roz into his big arms and held her tightly, as Amelia and Jenay embraced. Then Big Daddy and his kid sister embraced for a long time while Jenay and Roz embraced. Roz pulled out the handkerchief Mick had given to her, and began wiping away her tears.
When the hugs ended, Big Daddy looked at Roz. “What have the doctors said?” he asked.
“That time will tell. She could wake up tomorrow and be just fine, or it could be fifty years of tomorrows and she still won’t wake up.”
“Let’s pray that doesn’t happen,” said Jenay.
“Time will tell,” said Roz.
“And Joey?”
Roz shook her head. “Still in surgery,” she said.
“Where are the twins?” Jenay asked.
“At the house. Nikki’s with them. And Deuce McCurry. They’re in the safe room. Mick didn’t want me to bring them here. He believes Nikki can handle it, and he knows Deuce can.”
Big Daddy nodded. “They’re in good hands with both of those individuals,” he said. “Deuce will guard them with his life.”
Roz nodded. “Yes, I know. I just wish it didn’t have to keep being about guards and security and . . . and all of this pain.”
Big Daddy understood that, too, and hugged her again.
When they stopped embracing, he looked at his kid sister. He and Mick were extremely close to Amelia, and they, along with her boyfriend and baby daddy, former CIA Director Hammer Reese, looked out for her. Although she’d be the first to tell them she could look out for herself.
Mick Sinatra: Ice Cold Love Page 11
