Mick Sinatra: Needing Her Again

by Mallory Monroe

“But you don’t know who Pauley Jay feared,” Teddy said.

  “I don’t have to know,” Randazzo said. “I fear your father more. That is why I would never cross him. And if Pauley Jay didn’t fear your father, then Pauley Jay was a fool.”

  “And your men?” Teddy asked.

  “They no longer worked for me,” Randazzo said. “Pauley Jay must have hired them.”

  “Or they hired Pauley,” said Mick, and Teddy and Randazzo looked at him.

  “There’s a mob boss behind this,” Mick said. “No man can infiltrate the mob, and especially not my operations in Rome and Belarus, without inside help.”

  “But if it wasn’t a mob boss,” said Teddy, “then it had to be a made man.”

  “Correct,” Mick said.

  “A made man like Pauley himself.”

  Mick nodded. “Correct,” he said.

  “But why would he do it?” Randazzo asked. “He was your man in Rome. You speak to me about prestige. Pauley Jay had the most prestigious job in Rome. Why would he turn on you?”

  “Money,” Mick said easily. “It’s always money.”

  “Which means,” Teddy said, “Pauley had to have either received or been promised tremendous dollars.”

  “Millions,” said Randazzo.

  “But why would he lie when he had everything to lose?” Teddy asked.

  “Because he knew he was going to lose it anyway,” said Mick. “He figured he’d give me a name, and I would let him back up to weave his tale. That’s why he lied. He thought his lie would let him live.”

  But Mick was staring at Randazzo. Mick was still making up his mind.

  Randazzo, realizing it, looked at him. And pleaded his case. “Please do not let anybody lead you to believe that the Randazzo family is not simpatico with you, Michello. We are. We will always be. We have given our allegiance to the Sinatra family, and your family will always have that allegiance.”

  Mick stared a moment longer, and then began getting out of the car. “Provide that verification to my office,” he said, and headed back to his plane.

  Teddy got out and hurried beside his father. “You don’t believe him?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “Then why would you humiliate your friend?”

  “I told you I have no friends,” Mick said.

  Teddy stared at his father. “You don’t believe Pauley Jay was the only inside man. Do you?”

  “The only inside man? Yes. He provided the intel, but he wasn’t the snitch. Whoever alerted the Feds to come after my operation had to be major, and with major reach.”

  “The kind of reach only a mob boss could have?”

  “Right.”

  “Then why did you go along with the Pauley Jay as puppet master theory in Randazzo’s car?”

  “Because my theory wasn’t Randazzo’s business.”

  Teddy stared at Mick. “You know who that mob boss is. Don’t you, Pop?”

  Mick didn’t respond and began heading up the steps of his plane. Like always, Mick was keeping it to himself until he knew for certain how he was going to handle the problem. Which infuriated Teddy. He was his underboss, dammit, but he didn’t know what shit was going down half the time and was groping in the dark the other half. But what could he do?

  One day he was going to do plenty, he thought, as he got on that plane too. One day he was going to get out from under his father’s shadow and do his own thing. He had to. A strong man like him couldn’t stay boxed in the way his father boxed him in. His break from his father was a long time coming, and he knew it was high time he put it into high gear. He might not survive the split: he understood his father wasn’t going to be happy with the split. But a split had to happen.

  Now, Teddy felt, more than ever.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  By the time Roz made it home late that evening, Joey, in his standard oversized jeans and jersey, was just leaving for his evening out. But she noticed a problem. “Where’s your cane, Joey?” she asked him at the door.

  “Don’t need it tonight,” he said happily. “I feel great.”

  “But what if the pain returns, boy,” Roz said, “and you’re unable to walk without assistance? Don’t get cute with your health.”

  Joey laughed, the thick gold chains around his neck clanging from the movement of his upper, now very muscular body thanks to all of those workouts in his father’s home gym that his physical therapist helped him through. “I’m alright, Ma! I know how my body responds now. I’m good, though. For real.”

  Roz still was doubtful, but Joey was a grown-ass man. As nothing more than his stepmother, she had no vote in how he chose to live his life, and she knew it. “Where are the twins?” she asked.

  “Sleep,” he said. “Bye, Ma!” he added, kissed her on the cheek, and walked out with only the slightest of limps.

  And as soon as the door closed behind him, and she locked it, she could feel the emptiness of that big home. It most felt like home when Mick was there. Whenever he wasn’t there, the big house sometimes felt like a beautiful but foreboding museum to Roz. Or sometimes, on her worse days, like a mausoleum. It was a lot of house with the addition of a servants’ quarters in the basement that only added to its plantation feel. She still couldn’t imagine how Mick lived there alone before he met her. It was bigger now, thanks to rebuilds and renovations, but it was big then too. And he lived there alone. For many years alone. She would never live in a house that massive by herself. Never!

  She made her way to the twins’ bedrooms downstairs. First Duke, who was fast asleep, and then Jackie, who was fast asleep, too, but with her iPhone still in her hand. Roz smiled. That was Jackie. Always the most popular girl in the room even in grade school.

  She removed the phone, placed it on her nightstand, and stared at her beautiful daughter. Mick had one other daughter, Gloria Sinatra, who was grown and lived in Florida and whose mother, a thorn in Roz’s side too many times, still relied on Mick for financial support whenever her fashion line didn’t sell the way she had hoped, or for whatever reason she came up with. What always concerned Roz was why Mick felt a need to continue to support that grown-ass woman when Gloria was well beyond her minor years. But he supported her. And Bella Caine, Gloria’s mother, always found a way to get anything she wanted from Mick. She just had that way about her. A part of Roz, she wasn’t ashamed to admit, was jealous of their relationship.

  She kissed Jackie goodbye, left her room, and made her way upstairs. After a long tub bath, she put on one of Mick’s big dress shirts. Not because she didn’t have pajamas of her own, but because, whenever he was gone, she loved smelling his scent in his shirts. And then she got busy, walking around their big bedroom studying her lines for her next audition.

  A couple hours later, she was still at it. “Don’t confuse me for that whore in thirty-two,” she said as she walked around rehearsing. But then she looked at the script she held in her hand, and realized she’d, once again, made a mistake. “Thirty-nine!” she corrected herself. “Not thirty-two. Why do I keep saying thirty-two? Get it together, Roz!” And then she heard what sounded like an automobile pulling up outside.

  She went to the bedroom window and looked out at the front of the house. When she saw Mick’s Escalade driving up, she was shocked. She didn’t expect him to be back in the States that soon! But it didn’t matter. She smiled. She missed him so!

  And she couldn’t help it. She dropped that script, hurried out of that bedroom, and ran down those stairs as fast as she could run. She wanted to meet him at the door. She wanted to feel his arms around her again, and his lips on her lips. And she made it with time to spare. So much time that she was able to swing open the door, run across the porch and down the steps, and all the way up to the Escalade just as Mick was stepping out.

  When Mick, in jeans and a pullover shirt he changed into during his plane trip back to Philly, saw that front door fly open and Roz come running out to greet him, his heart soared. That was why he loved Roz so. Ever s
ince he met her, and they became a couple, she made no bones about her feelings for him. She didn’t try to hide them, or be cute about them, or make him work for her affection. She just so freely gave of herself to him that it made him feel liberated. And he pulled her into his arms, right out there in public, in plain view of his grounds security.

  And when he lifted her off her feet and began kissing her with a very passionate kiss, his men elbowed each other and smiled. Seeing a vicious man like Mick the Tick behaving like some softy for his wife, stunned them still. They remembered when he used to treat women like they were his bitches and whores whose sole purpose on earth was to please him. And he never tried to please them, or show them an ounce of affection. Not ever. Until he met Roz.

  And even as his Footman hurried out from the servants basement exit to attend to his car and whatever needs he had, Mick carried Roz across the sidewalk, up the steps, and into their home. And as soon as he closed and locked the door, he began kissing her again. Seeing her so excited to see him made him realize just how badly he had missed her too. And he wanted to show her just how much he did miss her. He wanted her in the worse way. “The twins?” he asked as he carried her toward their winding staircase, still kissing her.

  “Sleep,” Roz managed to say as she rubbed her hands through his silky black hair and returned his kisses with just as much vigor.

  “Joey?” he asked.

  “Out.”

  Mick needed to know those things to know just how rough he could be with Roz. He couldn’t go all-out the way he did when they were home alone, but he could get close enough. And he didn’t waste time. He carried Roz up those stairs in no time flat, and closed and locked their bedroom door. Then, still holding her, he lifted his dress shirt from off of her, revealing her naked body. And as he began feasting on her big breasts, Roz leaned her head back to give him total access. And he took full advantage.

  When his erection became too hard to handle confined in jeans, he laid Roz on the bed, removed his shirt and pulled down his jeans and underwear. But before he could even step out, Roz did something that made him stop in his tracks. She opened her legs. And that made Mick crazy. He crouched down, between her legs, and began licking and sucking her with such passion that both of them nearly came then and there.

  Roz was arching, and sighing, and he was groaning and moaning and wouldn’t stop doing her even as she tried to slide away from the ferociousness of his passion.

  Because wherever she moved, he moved too. By the time they were at the zenith of their excitement, Mick was on the bed and half of Roz’s body was hanging over the other side. And Mick was still putting it on her!

  It was so ferocious, and so passionate that Roz began to have an orgasm. She couldn’t hold it off a moment longer. His oral was enough.

  But as soon as she began to cum, Mick moved up along her sleek black body, put his penis deep inside of her, and began to stroking her hard, which only increased her cum.

  It didn’t take long. Within a few more strokes, and Mick was cumming too. “Ahhh!” he kept saying as he came, as if cumming inside of Roz was his happy place. He couldn’t hold back. He poured into her. He gave all he could to the woman he loved.

  And when he couldn’t give anymore, he collapsed beside her, keeping his penis deep inside of her as he pulled her with him.

  And they both fell asleep.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  The next day, on a bright Saturday morning, Roz woke up feeling as if she was on top of the world. Mick was home! She remembered that immediately. And when she turned, she realized he wasn’t still asleep beside her but was very much awake, laying on his side in those same jeans and pullover he wore last night, and was staring at her.

  At first, she felt a sense of dread, because his look wasn’t exactly warm, as if she’d just caught him in deep thought. But then he smiled, a smile that lit up his handsome face and caused his one sleepy eye to open wider, and she was good. She smiled too, and stretched. She was still wet. She could still feel him inside of her.

  “Hey,” she said.

  “Good morning.”

  “How long have you been awake?”

  Mick didn’t respond to that. To him it was a throwaway question not worth answering. Roz was used to that about him too.

  “How long are you going to be in town?” she asked him.

  Apparently that question was worthy, because he answered her. “Just today,” he said. “I still have business to take care of overseas.”

  Roz felt defeated. She placed her hand on his thick chest and began rubbing him.

  Mick saw the sadness in her eyes. “I’ll try to come back home as soon as I can,” he said. “But you understand. Don’t you, Rosalind?”

  Sometimes it felt like manipulation to Roz. As if he wanted her to buy into a lifestyle that might have been wonderful for him, but did little for her. She didn’t respond to that question. She had one of her own. “Why did you come back,” she said, “if you have to go right back again?”

  “It was in my plans all along,” Mick said.

  “Really? Based on what?”

  “You,” Mick said.

  Roz stared at him. “Me? In what way?” she asked.

  “I knew I was coming home for my baby’s birthday,” Mick said.

  Roz beamed when he referred to her that way. And the idea that he’d come all the way back from Rome just to celebrate her birthday with her, touched her deeply. Getting Mick to say anything romantic, let alone do something romantic, was a hard road to hoe.

  “Happy birthday, Rosalind,” he said, and then he leaned over and kissed her. She wanted more. She desperately wanted more. But Mick, instead, slapped her on her bare behind. “Get up,” he said. “Come and see what I got you for your birthday.”

  Roz, excited, gladly got out of bed. “Could I at least take a shower first?” clean freak Roz asked.

  “Take one afterwards. Throw on some clothes and come on.”

  Roz was so excited as she threw on a pair of shorts and a jersey. But he did give her a moment to at least pee, and she quickly brushed her teeth while she was in the bathroom. Then he took her hand and escorted her out of their bedroom, and down the staircase.

  She wondered what in the world it could be. But when she realized he was leading her outside, she was pretty certain she knew what it was. A car? Another brand new car? What kind this time, she wondered excitedly.

  “Happy birthday!” the group said in unison as soon as the double doors of the home opened, and Mick and Roz stepped out.

  Roz was shocked. Not only were Joey and the twins out there to wish her a happy birthday, but Teddy and his girlfriend Nikki were out there, too, as was Gloria Sinatra, all the way from Apple Valley, Florida. She noticed that Glo’s beau Oz Drakos wasn’t there, but she also knew the couple had been having their share of problems too. Gloria didn’t exactly confide in Roz when it came to her love life, but she confided in her half-brother and best friend Teddy, and Teddy told Roz it wasn’t going great. Oz, he said, needed to put that womanizing life down, and step up.

  But Roz was so blown away by the gesture, that she just went to Gloria and hugged her neck. “When did you get here?” she asked her.

  “Early this morning. I almost thought I was going to be late. But I wasn’t. Thank God.”

  “I’m so glad you came.” Then Roz looked at Teddy and Nikki too. “I’m so glad all of you came. I wasn’t expecting anything like this.”

  “You deserve it, Mrs. Sinatra,” Nikki said.

  “Thank you, Nikki,” Roz responded, squeezing her wrist. Then she looked at Mick. “Is this the gift? All of you guys coming together for me? If it is, I’m happy!”

  “Don’t say that, Ma,” Joey said. “You always let Pop off the hook too easily. The least he can do is give you a gift on your birthday, geez!”

  Roz felt a little embarrassed. She knew everybody in the family felt as if she wasn’t hard enough on Mick and his ways.

  But Mick didn’
t seem to agree with his son’s assessment. He gave Joey a hard, cold look.

  “Or not,” Joey said and moved out of his father’s reach. All of Mick’s children laughed, including the twins.

  “Come on,” Mick said, taking Roz’s hand again, “let me show you your gift.”

  Roz was certain it had to be a new car as she, Mick, and their children all made their way toward the garages. But when Roz saw the draping over something so tall and big it looked like it could be a house, she was confused. What on earth could that be, she wondered. “Is that it?” she asked.

  Mick smiled as if he was proud of himself. “That’s it,” he said.

  “But what is it?”

  Two of the household staff were waiting beside the massive whatever it was, and Mick nodded for them to do the unveiling. And they unveiled it.

  But as the draping came down, Roz was stunned. The children were too. It was an RV. An RV? Roz, and the children, looked at Mick.

  Mick was beaming with pride. “Love it?” he asked her. They all looked at it again.

  “What do they call these things?” Roz asked.

  “A mobile home,” Teddy said, shocked too.

  “You got Ma a mobile home?” Joey asked, frowning. “I don’t know if you realize this, Pop,” he said, “but Ma tends more toward champagne and caviar taste. Her name might begin with an R and an O, but it ain’t Roseanne!”

  The grown children laughed, knowing he was referring to Roseanne Barr.

  Even Jackie was shaking her head, and Duke said it out loud. “Daddy, you bought Mommy a house on wheels?”

  “It’s not a house on wheels. Nor is it a mobile home. The term is RV. It’s a recreational vehicle.”

  “On wheels,” Jackie said, backing up her twin brother.

  “What do you think, Ma?” Gloria asked Roz.

  Roz was still trying to wrap her brain around it. “I’m not quite sure,” she said. She looked at Mick. “What’s the plan? We’re going to do a trip across America in an RV?”

  “Ha!” Teddy said. “Only if it’s a day trip the way Dad’s rarely around.”