Mick Sinatra: Ice Cold Love

by Mallory Monroe

  But his usually on-fleek, gorgeous kid sister didn’t look so hot to her big brother. More than just what happened tonight was weighing her down. “You okay?” he asked her.

  She nodded. “I’m okay.”

  “Where’s the baby?”

  “With Hammer.”

  “Where’s Hammer?”

  Big Daddy had hit the nail on the head, he could tell, when he mentioned Hammer Reese’s name. “Wherever he wants to be,” Amelia said as if it didn’t matter to her when, Big Daddy knew, it mattered to her with every fiber of her being.

  But Mick and his family was upmost on Big Daddy’s mind, not Amelia and her continuing drama with Hammer. He walked slowly toward the bed. Neither Mick nor Bella looked his way, as both parents continued to stare at their daughter. She was hanging on by a threat, and they both knew it.

  Big Daddy, instead, placed his hand on Mick’s broad shoulder and squeezed.

  Mick felt that squeeze as emotions welled up inside of him. But he pushed it all back down. He could not fall apart. He would not fall apart until his children were alright, and the bastards responsible were no more.

  But Big Daddy felt a little bit of the tension go out of his brother’s body when he touched him. “Hey,” he said to him, staring at Gloria too.

  “Hey,” Mick replied. But he would not move his eyes away from his daughter.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Several hours later, and everybody had arrived: Sal arrived first on his private plane, followed by Tommy and Reno on Tommy’s plane. Reno’s plane took Grace and the kids, along with Trina, back to Vegas to wait and find out what was happening in Philly. Trina had gathered up her and Reno’s kids and they, along with Grace and her and Tommy’s kids, all stayed at Sal’s house with Gemma and their son Lucky, under the tightest security. Reno’s two oldest sons, Jimmy and Dominic, handled security too, on Reno’s orders.

  Trevor Reese and Carly were out of the country, in Luxemburg on business. Big Daddy ordered them to stay right where they were until Mick’s situation was handled. He knew if Carly was with Trevor, she would be just fine.

  But as those who did make it sat around in Glo’s room, worried because Joey was still in surgery, his exhausted surgeon finally entered the room. Everybody rose to their feet. Everybody except Mick. He was now seated against the wall, with Roz in one chair and Bella in the other chair beside him. But even Roz and Bella were standing too.

  But the Surgeon addressed his remarks squarely to Mick. “He’s out of surgery,” the surgeon said.

  “And danger?” Mick asked. “Is he out of danger?”

  “He’ll live, if that’s what you’re asking,” the surgeon said, and everybody sighed relief. Everybody, again, except Mick.

  “He’ll live,” Mick said, “but?”

  Everybody, surprised that there was a but, looked at the surgeon too. But Mick had read the surgeon spot on, because the man exhaled. “But,” the surgeon slowly said, “he will probably never walk again.”

  The mood in the room immediately deflated. Teddy was stunned. “Are you saying that my brother, that Joey, is paralyzed?” he asked, his voice unable to shield its pain.

  The surgeon nodded. “That’s what I’m saying. Right now, he has no feeling in either leg. His back was apparently turned to the violence when it first occurred because three of the six bullets that penetrated his body, entered through his spine.”

  “Jesus,” said a horrified Roz.

  “His chances of ever walking again,” the doctor said, “are practically nil.”

  Roz and Amelia both covered their mouths in shock. And they both looked at Mick. Everybody did.

  Then Mick stood up. “Take me to him,” he said.

  “He’s in Recovery, sir, and we don’t---”

  “Take me to my son,” Mick said again with a firmness that brook no debate. And the surgeon, who did not like his rules to be violated, but who, nonetheless, knew who he was dealing with, turned to escort him out.

  Mick reached out his hand to Roz, she quickly took it, and they followed the surgeon out of Gloria’s room and into the Recovery room.

  What shocked them both, when they arrived in the room, was that Joey was wide awake, lying in bed, and staring at everything around him like a scared little boy. Mick’s heart dropped when he saw his most vulnerable child. He would have preferred, at that moment, that it was him, and not poor Joey, in that bed. He wished it was him!

  But Joey smiled when he saw his father. “Pop,” he said excitedly. “Over here!”

  Mick and Roz made their way to Joey’s bedside. “Hey, Ma,” Joey said when they arrived.

  “Hey, baby,” Roz said, squeezing his hand.

  “Glo alright?” Joey asked. “They wouldn’t tell me if Glo was alright.”

  “She’s alright,” said Roz, although she knew that wasn’t true. But he had to worry about himself right now. He had to do his best to get better himself.

  And her words did relax him some. “Good,” he said. “I didn’t know what had happened.” Then he looked at his father. “Why are you looking so sad, Pop?” he asked. “Roz said Glo’s okay.”

  And those words just made Mick feel like shit. Here was his son, a son he loved dearly, not even realizing that Mick was sad, not just because of Gloria’s situation, but because of Joey’s too! But Joey, Mick knew, never believed he meant a damn thing to his hardhearted father.

  “How are you feeling?” Mick asked him. “I want to know how you’re doing.”

  Joey was surprised to hear that. And he just stared at his father. This man didn’t love him. Why was he trying to act like he did, he wondered? And he couldn’t stop staring at Mick.

  “Joey?” Roz asked him. “What’s wrong?”

  Then tears appeared in Joey’s eyes.

  “What is it, baby?” Roz asked him. His biological mother was dead, when Roz had to defend her own life and take her out herself. Mother-wise, Roz was all he had. “What is it, Joey?”

  Joey looked at his father, a man he once thought could walk on water. “The doctor said I may never walk again, Pop,” he said to Mick.

  “You’ll walk, son,” Mick said to him.

  Joey looked suddenly hopeful, as if Mick knew something he didn’t know. “I will?”

  “Yes. You will.”

  “You promise?”

  Roz almost lost it when Joey said those innocent, childlike words. Mick almost lost it too. His jaw tightened. “Yes, son,” he said with nothing but sincerity in his eyes. “I promise.”

  Joey smiled a big, grand smile as if he could not believe his good luck. To have a father who could promise such a thing!

  Then he glanced at the surgeon, who was at the foot of his bed. He bent his finger, so that his father could come closer.

  Mick leaned his tall body down to his son’s face. And Joey whispered to him. “Get those bastards, Pop,” he said. “You gotta get those bastards or they’ll come back and get us.”

  Mick nodded. “For you,” he said, “I’ll get’em.”

  Joey was shocked. “For me?” he asked. “You’ll do it for me?”

  Mick knew he was the reason why Joey was so doubtful of his love. All those times when Joey was a kid and he promised to go see him and didn’t show up. Or he showed up and wouldn’t stay long. “For you,” he said. “I’ll do it for you.”

  Joey smiled again. “Thanks, Pop,” he said. But then he began coughing.

  And the surgeon stepped in. “He needs his rest,” he said.

  Mick squeezed Joey’s hand. Roz kissed him on the forehead. And then they walked out of the room.

  As soon as they did, Joey started bragging. “You heard that, didn’t you?” he asked the surgeon. “My Pop said I’ll walk again.”

  “Your Pop,” the surgeon said, “is not God.”

  Joey frowned. “I didn’t say he was, though. Why you going there? I never said nothing like that! I said I’ll walk again because my Pop said so.”

  “Your Pop doesn’t h
ave a medical degree,” the surgeon said. “He isn’t a doctor.”

  “That’s what you think,” Joey said confidently. “I’ve seen him operate.”

  And then Joey laughed. Until the coughing and the pain returned. And the surgeon ordered more morphine.

  But the news got better and better when Mick and Roz returned to Gloria’s room. She had just awakened.

  “I was just coming to get you,” Teddy said.

  He had just entered Glo’s room, after doublechecking security, and had sat on the bed to talk with her, when her eyes suddenly opened. And he was right: he was the one who was about to happily go and get their parents. But as soon as Mick and Roz walked in and saw Gloria’s beautiful eyes wide open despite her injuries, they hurried to her bedside. Bella Caine, her mother, was already there.

  But the big question remained for Mick and Roz: would she recognize either one of them?

  But when she immediately said, “Hey, Daddy. Hey Ma,” they both smiled. And relaxed.

  “Hey,” Mick said, and everybody laughed. It was the most, they knew, he was going to give.

  But Roz knew better. She looked at Mick. She saw what he gave to Joey, the child that needed it the most. He gave Joey hope. And she knew he had a lot more to give to Gloria too.

  Because everybody in that room knew that now that Glo was awakened and Joey was out of surgery, Mick would arrange for both of his children to recover at home. There was no questioning that. He had already flown in the best doctors and nurses money could buy and the ambulances were on standby. Mick only had to give the word.

  But now that he knew the situation with his children, and that both were going to survive the still-astonishing hit, and before he could give the word to move them, Mick had other matters to attend to first. Vengeance was on his mind.

  And if his next words didn’t prove his absolute authority when revenge was at hand, nothing did. Without breaking his stride, he said, “Millie and Charlie. Teddy. Gabrinis. Come with me.” And he strode out of Glo’s room even as none of the men nor Amelia questioned his order, and followed him.

  Roz, Bella, and Gloria, the ladies left in the room, smiled after they all walked out. “Mick don’t play,” Bella said, shaking her head. “That man does not play. I don’t know how you stayed with a man like that as long as you have, Roz,” she added.

  “Mick? Are you kidding?” Roz asked. “Piece of cake,” she said, and they laughed at that too.

  But when Gloria asked, “where’s Joey,” and they knew they had to explain to her what happened to her brother, the mood became decidedly less frivolous.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  When Mick and crew walked into a room at the end of the hospital corridor, one that had already been debugged and was guarded by Mick’s men, he stood in front of the family leaders. And the leaders stared at him. That hit, they all could tell, had took a toll on Mick. He looked like death itself.

  But Mick didn’t delay. “I’m going to kill them all,” he said. “Any questions?”

  They all looked at each other. Mick always made it seem so simple! “First of all,” Reno asked, “who are they?”

  “The ringleader calls himself Gregor Govanoff nowadays,” said Mick. “But his real name is Alvin Merensky.”

  But Teddy remembered that Russian name. It was the name the dons said were out to get them. Mick acted, at the time, as if he’d never heard of the guy before. “The Russian?” Teddy asked his father. “You know him, Pop?”

  “What Russian?” Amelia asked.

  “Last night we met with a trio of dons who said they needed us to help fight this Russian and his men,” Teddy said.

  “This Govanoff character?” Sal asked.

  “Right,” said Teddy. “He’s a guy supposedly some kin to Putin and a big dog at the Kremlin.”

  “Shit,” said Reno. “Putin? The Kremlin? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “That’s what they said,” said Teddy. “We don’t know how true it is. It might have been their way to get us to go in with them. But their asses turned on us when Pop wouldn’t play ball, and we had to handle each one of them. But they named that Russian as the guy who was out to control the east coast. That Gregor Govanoff guy. The one we assumed had ambushed us.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Sal said. “You and Mick iced three dons last night when that ambush happened?”

  Teddy nodded. “That’s right.”

  “And the guy who ambushed you,” Sal continued, “is said to be Putin’s cousin, has major ties to the Kremlin, and is out to get Uncle Mick too?”

  “That’s right,” Teddy said.

  “Shit!” said Sal. “You mean to tell me we’ve got the Kremlin and three fucking families out to get us now?”

  “That’s what he’s telling you,” said Mick.

  “Shit, shit, and gotdamn!” Sal said.

  “And you know this powerful Russian?” Big Daddy asked Mick.

  “I know him,” said Mick. “His ass didn’t even want to be considered Russian when I knew him. Just American. I’m an American, he used to always say. His old man didn’t have that hang-up. He was a proud Russian-American. He tried to kill me when I had just hit the streets good. I was a newbie gaining a rep of my own, and was infringing on his territory. And his old man didn’t like it. So he tried to take me out. I was seventeen at the time, and meaner than a junkyard dog. I took him out. And could have took over his territory, but I didn’t.”

  “But you think, all these years later,” Big Daddy asked, “that his son would want to avenge his father’s death?”

  “That sounds like a stretch to me, too, Mick,” said Reno. “After all these years?”

  “His name is the name we have,” Mick said. “That’s where we start. My men are searching high and low for his ass now. Once they get a read on him, I make a move.”

  “You mean we make a move, Uncle Mick,” Sal said. They all knew Mick’s penchant for going it alone.

  “Right,” said Reno. “We make a move.” And all of them agreed.

  “What do you want us to do in the meantime?” asked Tommy.

  “Prepare for war,” Mick said. “Like Sal Luca said, they’re going to be coming for us in every direction. Get your wives and children here to Philly. No exceptions. Everybody stays at my house, including all of you.”

  “And then?” asked Reno.

  “And then we fight,” said Mick. “We fight every member of every don’s family. We fight the fucking Kremlin if we have to. We leave nobody alive. And I mean nobody.”

  “They won’t know what hit’em,” said Sal.

  “That’s right,” said Mick. “They’re expecting us to toss grenades at their asses,” he added, “since everybody on our end survived. But we’ll be tossing bombs. Prepare for war,” he said again, and all of them understood.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  It was like a family reunion at Mick’s house. All the children and wives had arrived, Gloria and Joey had been transported home to a world-class, makeshift hospital inside the home, and the mood at the house was decidedly festive compared to how it had been at the hospital. But a heaviness clung in the air too. And nobody carried that burden more than Mick.

  He sat at the head of his long table in the dining hall and all of the grown people were at that table too. The men sat with their wives or girlfriends if they had any, and the electricity in the room could not be denied. Reno’s kid Dominic was in charge of the young people, and they all were downstairs in the massive rec room, having fun too.

  “I haven’t seen this many Sinatras and Gabrinis under one roof in a long time,” said Brent Sinatra as he sipped from his bottle of beer. His wife, MaKayla, agreed.

  “I’ve never seen it since I’ve been in the family,” she said.

  “Especially Bobby,” said Teddy, his arm around Nikki. “He used to never show up for any family function.”

  “As if we ever had any family functions,” Bobby said, and they all laughed.

  “Spea
king of families,” Tony said, “when are you going to have one of your own, Cousin Teddy?”

  “Ah, here goes,” said Teddy.

  “And you’re one to talk, Tony,” said Bobby. “Where’s your wife? Oh, that’s right. You don’t have one, and Sharon Rachel left you!”

  Everybody looked at Tony. “That schoolteacher dumped you, Tone, for real?” Teddy asked him.

  “We weren’t talking about me,” Tony responded. “We were talking about you.”

  “He makes a point, Ted,” said Amelia. “Your ass isn’t getting any younger. It’s high time you get on with it. You and Nikki went on a two-week vacation to decide on a date for your wedding, and we still haven’t set a date yet. What gives?”

  “We couldn’t agree on a date,” said Nikki.

  “Oh yeah?” asked Tony. “Who wanted the wedding sooner, and who wanted it later?”

  “Uh-oh,” said Bobby. “It’s Tony the psychologist at work right about now.”

  “Don’t trip,” said Bobby’s wife. “Tony’s an excellent shrink.”

  They all laughed. “I’m a trained Clinical Psychologist, Brianna, I’ll have you know,” Tony said. “Not a shrink.” Then he looked at Teddy. “So answer the shrink’s question,” he said to laughter. “Who wanted the wedding sooner, and who wanted it later?”

  “I wanted it sooner,” admitted Nikki. “Teddy is the one who feels we should wait a little while longer.”

  “Might I ask why?” Tony asked.

  “He feels I need more time to adjust to my new life here in Philadelphia. To make sure I want to walk down that road with him.”

  “Or aisle, as it were,” said Tony.

  “Right.”

  “Sounds like a deal breaker to me,” said Jimmy. “Sounds like Teddy aims to remain in the bachelor category.”

  “You’re one to talk,” said Teddy to Jim. “I don’t see you and Oprah walking down any aisles either.”

  Oprah smiled.

  “All in time,” said Jimmy.