Mick swam far away from shore. He might not have been in the shape he used to be in, but he was in shape. And he swam and he swam. He felt all along those wonderful men and ladies of the coastguard were only going after the victims who were nearest to the explosion. Which might have been understandable since they were live bodies begging to be rescued right there in their faces.
But Teddy was Mick’s son, his oldest son after Adrian died, and there was no way he was going to stand around while Ted might need his father’s help.
And he kept swimming. It seemed as if he was so far from shore that he was in the middle of an ocean. But there was still no sight of Teddy.
He had swam so far away from the action that he couldn’t even hear the action anymore, just a wary silence. And he was getting so tired! How in the world was he ever going to be able to swim back to shore was a mystery to him. But he kept on going. He wasn’t leaving that water until he had his son with him.
But it would be minutes more of swimming and resting, of resting and swimming, and even more minutes of pure terror and hopelessness. But Mick kept going. And he prayed. He was a God-fearing man. He fell short every day of his life, probably every moment of his existence, but he believed in God. And he prayed. He just wanted his son back. He prayed as he swam.
And in the midst of his prayer, he heard what sounded like a muffled voice. He turned, saw nothing, then he turned again and still saw nothing. But when he turned the third time, certain he had heard something, that was when he saw Teddy’s head pop out of the water as if he was a phoenix rising. He yelled in a breathless, garbled voice, Pop, and then went back under.
And Mick, stunned, dived deep down into that water and raced to his son’s side. He bumped into him before he saw him, grabbed him, and with all the strength he had left he lifted Teddy’s muscular body all the way up for air. And when they made it up, they both exhaled heavily.
“You okay?” Mick managed to ask his son, holding him up.
“I’m okay,” Teddy managed to say with labored breaths.
But they both were in bad shape. Because they had what seemed like a whole ocean to cross. And Teddy’s strength was all but gone. Surviving out there as long as he had, when he had been thrown and then drifted so far away, took the life out of him.
So it was all up to Mick, and he knew he had to be up for the challenge. He placed his arm around his son and began swimming him back toward the shore. He could now feel bodies that had drifted that far away, too, but they were all dead bodies. It was so eerie, it gave Mick the willies! But he kept going.
But his heart was faint because he knew the truth. There was no way he was going to make it all the way to shore, or even anywhere near it. His arms already felt as if a ton of steel was bearing down on them, and his legs felt like two tons of steel were bearing down on them. He was barely moving them an inch a minute.
But as he continued to try to make it, he first heard and then saw, in the midst of all of that water, a speedboat coming their way. He would have lifted his arm to wave at that boat, but his arm was too heavy, and he couldn’t risk letting his son slip away from him. “Lord, let them see us,” he said out loud. “Let them see us!”
The man on the boat apparently saw them because he immediately pulled alongside them, idled his engine, and then assisted first Teddy and then Mick onto his boat. And then he hurried back to shore.
When Mick was able to regulate his breathing, he looked at the boatman. Was he for them or against them? That was always his question. Was he a part of the crew that had planted the bomb onboard that ship in the first place, or was he an answered prayer? “Thank you,” he said to him, to gauge his response.
“Don’t thank me,” the boatman said, glancing back. “A black lady, not the voluptuous one but the smaller one, told me she’d pay me big money if I got my boat out here to find you. I wasn’t going for it at first. I mean, I ain’t got nothing against the blacks, but where she gonna get big money like I would call big money? But then somebody yelled she’s good for it, that she’s Mick Sinatra’s wife, and I didn’t hesitate then. I got my boat on out here fast, searching for you.” Then he glanced back. “I know the name, but I don’t know the face. You Mick Sinatra, right?”
Mick was smiling, which the boatman took to mean yes. But Mick wasn’t smiling because of what that boatman had asked him, but because of Roz. He had himself a wife who knew how to take care of business, and he appreciated that. He was smiling because he was inwardly thanking God for rescuing them, and for giving him the good sense to marry, not any of those beauty queens he used to date, but a beauty of a good woman. A smart, talented, very good woman.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
When they made it back to shore, Teddy, with Nikki right by his side, was taken to the hospital although Teddy kept insisting he didn’t need it. But Roz saw differently. She agreed with the paramedics.
“You’re going, Teddy,” she said, “I don’t care what you say!”
“But I’m fine!” Teddy again insisted.
“If you don’t get your ass to that hospital and let them run some tests, you better,” Roz said with gritted teeth. “You were in an explosion. You were thrown into that water and you stayed in there for a long time. You need to make certain there’s no internal injuries, boy!”
Teddy looked at Mick. “Pop, tell her I’m alright.”
But Nikki answered before Mick could. “I agree with Mrs. Sinatra,” Nikki said. “You need to let them run some tests, Teddy.”
Teddy couldn’t believe it. “I’m not getting in any fucking ambulance, and I’m not going to any fucking hospital. I hate hospitals!”
“You’re going,” Mick said, which settled it. “You don’t have to go in that ambulance. Nikki can drive you there. But you’re going to that hospital, and you will let them run tests. I’ll have Doc meet you there, to speed up the process, but if Rosalind says you’re going, you’re going.”
And that was the end of that disagreement. “And call your mother,” Mick said to Teddy, which Teddy knew he meant his biological mother, as Nikki drove Teddy to the hospital. He went.
But at the docks, Mick and Roz and Joey planned to remain until the last man was accounted for. Most were rescued, but some, including Mick’s crew chief, perished.
Roz’s cellphone rang. It was Billy Lancer, probably calling to ask if she’d made up her mind yet.
As she answered it, Joey shifted his weight on that stick he had for support and looked at his father. “What are we going to do about it, Pop?” he asked. “Do we even have a clue who could be behind it?”
“Call a meeting for next week,” Mick said, staring at the coastguard as they continued their rescue efforts. “I want every family under my umbrella here, in Philly, and tell them it’s not optional.”
“Everybody?” Joey asked.
“Everybody,” said Mick. “Except the DiGenovas.”
Joey looked at him. “You think Frankie DiGenova was behind this shit, Pop?”
“Just do it,” Mick said. Then he handed him the keys to his Escalade. “And get your cane out of the trunk of my vehicle. You look ridiculous with that stick or branch or whatever it is you’re using.”
Joey frowned. “But I didn’t put a cane in your truck,” he said.
“I keep one there,” Mick said, “just in case you ever needed it. Go get it.”
Joey took the keys from his father with bewilderment in his eyes. His father would do that for him? He put a cane in his truck just in case they were off somewhere and his son needed one? It made him inwardly happy.
But as he walked to his father’s truck with his stick for support, the pain still excruciating, he was a little pissed too. Acts like putting a cane in his trunk in case Joey might need it was what a loving father would do. But why was his love always a secret to them? Why were all of his children still amazed when he did something lovingly for them? It shouldn’t be that way, Joey felt. But it had been that way his whole life. And even now, he
was still shocked when his father did something that demonstrated his love. And that, to Joey, was the tragedy of Mick Sinatra.
Roz saw Joey limping toward Mick’s SUV as she ended her call. It was, at first, Gloria who had phoned her. But then Billy called and she answered his call. And he wanted to know, as she suspected, if she’d decided yet. But she told him she was in a family emergency and would talk to him later. She also told him she hadn’t made up her mind yet. “Where’s he going?” she asked Mick.
“Who were you talking to?” Mick asked her.
Roz, accustomed to his non-answers to her questions, started not to answer his. But she wasn’t him and, in that respect, didn’t want to be. “It was Gloria,” she said. “She said Security picked them up from the mall and she and the twins were back at the house safe and sound. She was checking on Teddy.” Roz wasn’t ready to mention Billy Lancer yet.
Mick’s mind was on his dock crew anyway. He was seething, she could tell, but she knew he had to keep it together because the Feds were already breathing down his neck. Revenge had to be happen, but very undercover. Even Roz understood that.
And then it was Mick’s cellphone that rang. When he answered and heard that voice, he glanced at Roz. And Roz knew who it was before he said her name. “Bella, I don’t have time,” he said over the phone. Bella was Gloria’s biological mother.
But then he listened as Bella talked, which was Bella’s way. No matter what Mick said, she was going to be heard. And then, when he began talking back to her, he moved away, out of earshot of Roz, which she didn’t like. But she never tried to ever get in between Mick and his baby mamas. But as the years had come and gone, it was getting harder, not easier, for her to accept.
And when the call ended, and Mick returned by her side, he didn’t say a word. And she knew, if she said something, it would only start an argument. And she wasn’t trying to get into it with Mick, at a time like that, over Bella Caine. That would be playing right into Bella’s hands!
But as they stood there, watching the coastguard continue to search but turn up nobody lately, Roz realized what Jenay and Amelia and every other woman in the family didn’t seem to understand. Being married to Mick was the toughest thing any woman would ever have to do. Because he was a man who kept his own counsel, who shut down debate, who would kick you to the curb if you decided to go your own way. And the fact that he was the don of all dons, and was always up to his sleepy eye in problems and situations and one crisis after the other one, was a challenge they couldn’t begin to understand. Mick was high maintenance beyond belief. It was a full-time job loving him. But as Roz was getting older, she also realized, standing there, that it was wearing her out.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” the boatman who had rescued Mick and Teddy came over and said.
“Oh, hi,” Roz said.
“I don’t mean to be greedy, and I tried to give you folks a chance to settle back down, but a deal is a deal,” he said.
“Oh, right!” Roz said. She and Mick both had forgotten. “And you’re correct,” Roz added. “A deal is a deal.” She looked at Mick. “Pay the man,” she said.
“You’re making me pay for my own rescue?” Mick asked.
Roz smiled. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“How much did you promise him?” Mick asked.
“Just pay whatever you think your rescue is worth,” Roz said.
“Um, excuse me, ma’am,” the boatman said. “But I would prefer if you paid me what you think his rescue is worth.”
Roz found that an odd request. “What difference would it make?”
“Because you love him. You probably would put more of a dollar sign on his rescue than he would.”
Roz laughed. Even Mick found it amusing. “You’re right about that. How’s twenty-five thousand?” she asked the boatman.
The boatman’s mouth gaped open. “Ah, that’s what I would call big money, yes ma’am. You would definitely be keeping your word to the letter if you pay me that amount.”
Roz looked at Mick. “Pay the man,” she said.
Mick was annoyed by what he considered an excessive amount, but he also knew he and Ted would have been dead had she, and that boatman, not acted as swiftly as they had. “Do you at least have Zelle?” Mick asked him, and the boatman grinned. He had it.
And as Mick got the man’s phone number to do a quick money transfer into his bank account, via Zelle, he didn’t even give that amount a second thought. Roz was not a frivolous person. She wanted him to pay out what she felt the job was worth. But his mind had already moved on. His mind wasn’t on money, but was on that conversation he had just had with Bella Caine.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
The cattle call was for eight that Monday evening and Roz barely made it to the theater in time. It was still demeaning to her that she had to audition for every major part she wanted, but that was the state of affairs on Broadway, especially for veteran actresses. And when you add to the fact that many of the biggest stars in Hollywood were doing limited run engagements, too, none of it helped her prospects.
She made it on stage where the other actresses up for the lead role were individually rehearsing the lines, and went to sit next to some young girl who barely looked eighteen. But then she saw Dena Allen. Dena used to be in the same group Roz and Billy Lancer ran in. Dena was one of the first of them to make it big on Broadway. And she treated Roz and every one of them still left behind like they were trash in the street. She was hardly Roz’s friend. But then again, Billy left Roz behind, too, when he made it big. But at least she was a familiar face, and she was around Roz’s age. So Roz smiled and sat beside her instead. “Hey girl,” she said as she sat.
“Roz Graham?” Dena was thrilled. They hugged. “What are you doing here?”
“The same thing you’re doing here,” Roz said. “Auditioning for the lead.”
“They’re making you do cattle calls too?” Dena was shocked. “I thought it was just me.”
Roz shook her head. “It’s just Broadway. It’s just show business.”
“You’re right,” Dena said. “They don’t give a damn about your past success. They can pick and choose now.”
“What do you mean now?” Roz asked. “They’ve been picking and choosing ever since I got in the business,” she said, and Dena laughed.
Then Dena shook her head as she looked around the room. “They’re getting younger by the day,” she said.
Roz looked around too. “I know. Make us look like their mothers.”
“You don’t look like anybody’s mother. But me, on the other hand.”
Roz looked at Dena. They used to call her the black bombshell on Broadway, but the lines of age were beginning to seep through. Roz patted her hand. “You’re be okay,” she said.
“There just isn’t any work anymore,” she said. “I called and ask and nobody’s working. You know I had to play a maid last season because that’s the only role they would give to me. Believe it or not.”
“Oh, I believe it,” Roz said. “They offered me that kind of role the other day. So I absolutely believe it.”
Dena looked at her. “You turned it down?”
Roz didn’t respond.
“You can, can’t you? You’ve got that talent agency, and, of course, your rich husband. You can afford to say no. I can’t turn down none of this shit. I apply for everything. A paycheck is a paycheck, that’s my motto.”
Roz understood. She definitely understood. But she wasn’t there to lollygag with Dena. She was there to win that part. She pulled the script out of her shoulder bag, and got busy rehearsing.
The limo stopped in front of the famed Carson-Benning hotel, the luxurious Manhattan hotel Mick owned outright, and Bella Caine, a beautiful African-American woman, stepped out, walked across the sidewalk, and was ushered in by the doorman.
“Welcome back, Miss Caine,” the doorman said as he tipped his hat for her.
“Thank you, George.” That wasn’t his name, but
she felt it was close enough.
Once she made it inside of the elegant lobby, the general manager, who had been laughing with the receptionists, hurried toward her as soon as he saw her enter. “Miss Caine, hello!”
“Is he here yet?”
“Yes, ma’am, he’s actually here. Shall I let him know you’re here?”
Bella gave him a hard look. “Why would you need to do that? I’m the mother of his only daughter. I don’t need to be announced.”
Even the GM knew that was a lie. He knew Mr. Sinatra had a younger daughter with his only wife, but he wasn’t about to get into it with fashion designer Bella Caine, who was a big name in her own right. “Right this way, ma’am,” he said, and escorted her to the elevator that led to Mick’s penthouse suite.
One of the receptionists at the desk waited until Bella was on the elevator. And then she picked up the desk phone and made a phone call. When the male voice on the other end picked up, she smiled. “Guess who’s here for dinner?” she asked.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
As soon as Deuce McCurry ended the call, he saw his rider come out of the theater doors. He jumped out, hurried around to the back passenger door, and opened it for Roz. “You were the best one,” he said.
Roz looked at him. How would he know?
“Because I’ve been your driver for so long,” Deuce explained, “they know me around here now, so they let me sneak in and sit in the back. Did you get it?”
Roz exhaled. “No,” she said. “I didn’t.”
Deuce was disappointed. “Sorry about that, ma’am,” he said as she got into the backseat of the limo.
Deuce shook his head. What was wrong with these show business people? How could an actress go from being all in demand to not in demand at all? But then he closed the door, got in behind the wheel, and cranked up. He looked at her through the rearview. “Where to? The Carson?”
Mick Sinatra: Needing Her Again Page 10
