Roz knew it was as close to an apology as she was going to get from him, but she wasn’t ready to forgive and forget. Because it wasn’t just about him meeting secretly with Bella, a woman he knew still wanted him. It was about their relationship and how the power was tilted too much in one direction, and she knew, if she allowed it to continue, it would only get worse. And she couldn’t afford for it to get any worse or he would hardly ever make it home. When she was younger, she could deal with it easier. But she wasn’t getting any younger, and she couldn’t deal with it hardly at all anymore.
Mick pulled back and looked at her. “How did the audition go?” he asked her.
She hesitated. That was part of it too. “Not good,” she said.
Mick was disappointed to hear it. “You didn’t get the role?”
Roz shook his head. “Nope.”
“What reason this time?”
“They didn’t bother to give me a reason this time. They had a callback on five actresses. I wasn’t one of them.” Dena, the woman she had sat beside at the audition, wasn’t called back either. “They said maybe next time, and dismissed us losers.”
“You’re nobody’s loser,” Mick said.
Roz smiled a smile she could barely muster. And then the landline phone inside the suite began to ring. But Mick pulled her back into his arms.
“Aren’t you going to get that?” Roz asked him.
“No,” he said. “And it was about the raid.”
Roz didn’t understand. Was he talking about the ringing phone? “Excuse me?”
“That meeting I had with Bella,” Mick said, rubbing her soft hair. “She has a relationship with the Don I believe is responsible for feeding intel to the ATF about my overseas facilities.”
“That’s what that check was for?”
Mick hesitated. “No,” he said. And he didn’t have to say more. Roz knew he was just helping her out, the way he always had.
But when the ringing stopped on the phone, and the beep of the Voice Mail sounded and a female’s voice could be heard, Roz paid attention then.
“Hey, Mick,” the soft voice said over the phone’s Voice Mail. “It’s Charlotte. I heard you were in town, baby. Want me to come over? I can make you feel better than any woman can. You said so yourself many times. Including the other night, which was great, by the way. Call me if you want me to come. I always enjoy you too. Bye babe!” And the call ended.
Roz, shocked, pulled back from Mick. “That’s not true,” Mick said quickly and reached for her.
But she slapped him hard across his face and snatched away from him. “Get away from me!” she said angrily.
“It’s not true, Roz!” he said just as forcefully.
But Roz was already hurrying out of that penthouse. And this time, he knew, she was not coming back. She even tried to slam the door so hard that it flew back open.
Mick stood there, shocked, his face frowned. Why would a woman he hadn’t seen in over a decade suddenly call him with that bullshit? He was stunned. Absolutely flummoxed. “What the fuck is going on?” he asked out loud.
But Roz wasn’t shocked at all. It was as if that Voice Mail confirmed her worse fear. And as she made it downstairs, across the lobby, and out onto the sidewalk of the austere hotel, she fought back tears. Deuce quickly opened the limousine door for her, she hurried inside, and she knew what she had to do. No more delays! No more worrying about Mick’s feelings when he didn’t give a damn about hers.
As Deuce drove her away, staring at her worriedly through the rearview, she pulled out her cell phone and called Billy Lancer. “It’s a yes,” she said as soon as he answered.
“Wonderful!” Billy responded. “I’ll come down and we’ll celebrate.”
“No,” Roz said quickly. “I mean, not a good time.”
“I understand.” Billy was pleased, and worried about her at the same time. But then he rallied. “Okay! Welcome aboard, Roz. I’ll notify the casting director. And let me know when you’re ready to get together and sign the paperwork, to make it official.”
“I will,” Roz said, and ended the call.
And what should have been joyous, the fact that she was about to take on the role of a lifetime in a production that was two years guaranteed, caused her, instead, to cry. The tears that she had been suppressing flowed freely. She couldn’t control the flow at all. Mick was cheating on her? He was in love with another woman? Or even if it wasn’t love, just lust, how were they going to come back from that?
“Oh, God,” she said as Deuce drove her through the congested streets of New York city. “This is too much!” she cried.
Deuce, stunned by the usually in-control Mrs. Sinatra bawling like that, looked at her through the rearview, felt he was peeping in on something beyond private, and looked back at the road ahead of them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The security gate of the Sinatra compound opened, and Mick sped his Cadillac Escalade all the way up to the main house as if a barely in control tank was invading the property. Teddy came out of the house and hurried down the steps as Mick just sat behind the wheel, hunched over.
Teddy went up to the SUV and got inside on the passenger seat. And then he looked at his father. “Pop, what happened?”
“What are you doing here? She called you?”
“Deuce called me. He said she cried all the way from New York. And I just had a conversation with Roz. She told me about Bella, and about that Voice Mail. What’s going on?”
“That’s none of your fucking business,” Mick said.
Teddy’s jaw tightened. Sometimes he wanted to beat the shit out of his father. “You’re still fooling with her?” he asked him pointblank.
Mick frowned. “With who?”
“Charlotte, Pop. You know who!”
Mick didn’t respond to that.
Teddy exhaled. He was the only man in the family who could speak plainly to Mick, but it was a risk for him too. “You’re going to lose Roz,” he said. “You’ve got to get your shit together or you’re going to lose Roz!”
Mick seemed to dismiss his concern, although Teddy could never tell with his father, as Mick unbuckled his seat belt. “Find Charlotte,” he ordered. “Then call me.” He got out of the SUV, and headed inside the house.
As he entered the house, the twins, their bookbags on their backs, were hurrying down the staircase.
“Hey, Dad,” Duke said. “Bye, Dad!”
Mick frowned. “Where are you going this time of night?”
“With Teddy,” Duke said and hurried out of the door.
But Jackie stopped, stood on her tiptoes, and hugged Mick’s neck. “Be nice to Mommy,” she whispered in his ear when he bent down to her, and then she made her way out of the door too.
As Mick continued up the stairs, he was getting more than a little pissed. Forcing the children from their beds over what? A fucking phone call? He hurried up the remaining stairs, across the landing, and into the master bedroom.
When Mick saw the overnight bag on the bed, he frowned. “What are you doing?” he asked her.
“I’m getting my shit,” Roz said as she threw an armful of lingerie into the bag, “and getting the hell out of here. That’s what I’m doing!” She threw more clothes in.
“Can I explain?” Mick asked.
“No!” Roz decried as she zipped up the bag.
But Mick couldn’t believe it. “You aren’t going to even let me explain?”
“No!” Roz said again as she grabbed the bag. “You haven’t done me right, Mick,” she said. “You haven’t treated me right!”
“I’m not sleeping with that woman, Rosalind.”
“I’m not talking about that woman! I’m talking about me! I’m talking about how you’ve been treating me! I’ve needed you . . .” Her voice cracked and the tears returned.
Mick stood there stunned by the sight of his non-emotional wife so emotional!
“I’ve needed you and you’ve been doing everything but attend
ing to me. To my needs. And I’m not talking sexual needs, either. But emotional needs. You’re like a fucking block of ice when I need more, Mick. I need more than you’re willing to give to me. I’ve allowed it. It’s my fault too. But I’m not allowing it anymore. Sometimes I’m weak, I’m sorry, but I am. I know you hate weakness, but sometimes I’m weak, Mick, and need you at that level! Maybe it’s something you can’t even give to me. I realize the kind of man I married. But gotdammit, man, there has to be some growth! Some change. Some recognition of what I need and want instead of what you’ll willing to make me settle for.”
Then just talking became too painful for her. “I’ll send somebody for the rest of my things,” she said, and hurried out of the bedroom.
Mick was too stunned to speak. He couldn’t believe it. What just happened? Did Roz just leave him? Did Roz leave???
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“Gonna stay over?” Teddy already knew what the answer was going to be, but he asked it anyway.
Nikki placed the meatball in her mouth and began chewing.
“Nick? Gonna stay over?”
When Nikki finished chewing, she leaned back. They were at Teddy’s house, at his dinner table, after both of them had had a long day at work. “No, I’m not staying over,” she said.
“You never do lately. Why not?”
“You know why not. We need to set a date, Teddy.”
“And we will. I just need to get some things lined up first.”
“You’ve been saying that for too long,” Nikki said.
“I’m still pulling things together. Once I get some things lined up, I’ll be better situated for marriage.”
“What kind of things?” Nikki asked. “Like leaving your father?”
Teddy hesitated, and then answered her. “Yes.”
Nikki shook her head. “He’s not going to like it, Teddy.”
“He didn’t like Gloria leaving him, either, but ultimately he let her do it.”
“She wasn’t his underboss. She wasn’t his second-in-command,” Nikki said and then realized she was hearing something. She stood up from the table and looked out of the dining room window.
“What?” Teddy asked.
“We’ve got company.”
“Who?”
“I’ll give you a hint. Tank. As in Cadillac. As in Escalade.”
Teddy removed his napkin from his lap and tossed it on the table. When he looked through the window and saw his dad’s truck, he exhaled. “It took him long enough,” he said, and then headed for the front door.
When Teddy made it outside, he saw Mick sitting behind the steering wheel of the SUV with both hands on the wheel. Teddy knew he was too full of pride to just ring the bell and come inside to see who he really came to see, so Teddy made his way over to the truck and got in on the front passenger seat.
For a few moments, nothing was said. His father was in that brooding mood he often got into when he was troubled. Teddy waited for him to speak.
Mick finally looked at his son. “Any word on Charlotte?” he asked.
“Nothing yet, but I’m on it. We can’t seem to find her ass.”
“All this shit going on,” Mick said as if he was mumbling.
But Teddy heard him. “What do you mean?” he asked. “What shit?” When Mick didn’t respond, he frowned. “You think that call from Charlotte is connected to that explosion, and the raid?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come on, Pop. Charlotte? Her ass good for only one thing, and it’s all in the bedroom.”
Mick leaned back, and exhaled. “Just find her,” he said.
“I don’t understand why she would pull a stunt like that,” Teddy said. Then a though occurred to him, and he looked at his father. “If it was a stunt.”
Mick looked angrily at him. “Kiss my ass,” he said.
“It’s just weird, that’s all I’m saying, Pop. You have to agree it’s strange that she calls out of the blue like that when you and Roz already---”
Mick looked at him. “Roz and I are already what?” Mick asked his son.
“Nothing,” Teddy said. Mick was the king of denial when he wanted to be, and Teddy wasn’t getting his head blown off for nothing. He moved on.
“Tell me some news,” Mick said. “What’s going on?”
“They haven’t found her, that’s the news. She used to hang out over in Queens,” Teddy said. “At some club over there. I’ve got the guys checking there too.”
“We get bombed and lose more than a few guys. We get raided, in Rome and Belarus, forcing us to shut down operations, and ATF has a big chunk of my shit, and you’re worrying about that bitch? Just find her and let me worry about her!”
“I’m only worried about her,” Teddy said, “because those raids and ATF wasn’t the reason why Roz left you. I’m worried about Roz.”
Mick exhaled. He was worried too. He looked at Teddy. “How’s she doing? And my children?”
Teddy hunched his shoulders. “Okay, I guess.”
Mick frowned. “What do you mean you guess?”
“I haven’t seen or spoken to them,” Teddy said. “So I guess they’re alright.”
Mick didn’t understand. “You haven’t seen them? Aren’t they here with you?”
“They were, yeah.”
“Then where are they?” Mick asked with just enough hysteria in his voice to make Teddy acutely aware of just how much Roz’s short absence was already affecting him.
“She didn’t want to stay here,” Teddy said. “I mean, she wanted to, but I think she felt she needed more than what I could give her. She needed some advice. So they stayed overnight here, and left early this morning. It’s summertime. School’s out. The twins will be okay.”
“Where did they go?” Mick asked.
Teddy knew he wasn’t going to like it. And he hated being the messenger. “She decided to go to Maine, Pop. To Jericho. She and the twins went to Big Daddy.”
Mick’s jaw tightened. Roz knew how he hated anybody in his business, and that included his big brother. And the idea that she would leave the state, with his two children, and not tell him anything about their whereabouts angered him.
But mostly being without Roz was the real trigger.
He slammed the palm of his hand on the steering wheel.
But then his cell phone began ringing. Hoping it was Roz, he grabbed it quickly and looked at the Caller ID on the SUV screen. It wasn’t Roz. But it was a call he knew he needed to take. He pressed the Speak button. “Yeah, Lew?”
It was his international security chief. “DiGenova’s back in the States,” Lewdy said.
“Where?”
“He’s home.”
“Now?”
“Right now.”
“Good work, Lew,” Mick said, sat up straight as if it was the best news he could have hoped for, and ended the call.
“Let’s go,” he said to Teddy.
Teddy looked at him as if he was insane. “Go? Now?”
“Yes, now. When the fuck you think I’m going to go? He’s right where I want him. You think I’m going to forget about it?”
“No, Pop, but . . .” He exhaled. Nikki wasn’t going to like it. “I need to get some hardware.”
“I’ve got plenty,” Mick said.
“Could I at least tell Nikki I’ll be back?”
“Tell her over the phone,” Mick said, pulling out of his driveway, and then speeding off.
Teddy shook his head. “And you wonder why Roz left your ass,” he said boldly.
Mick looked at him with a terrifying gaze, but it wasn’t as if it was a lie. She told him herself he didn’t treat her right. Teddy was accentuating the point. He ignored him, and sped across town, to Frankie’s.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Jaguar pulled up and Charles got out. It had been another long day of evictions and acquisitions and all manner of city council noise about him owning too many properties around Jericho that even Bobby, as mayor, cou
ldn’t silence. Now he just wanted to relax.
When he walked inside he smelled where his wife was, and headed in that direction. And sure enough, Jenay was in the kitchen stirring one of her aromatic pots. “Hey,” Charles said as he walked over to her and hugged and kissed her from behind.
Jenay smiled and leaned against him. “Hey,” she said.
“You smell about as good as that food you’re cooking,” he said fondly.
Jenay laughed. “You don’t smell bad yourself.”
Charles smiled, too, and kissed her again. And then he released her. “Where are they?” he asked.
“The twins are upstairs.”
“And Roz?”
Jenay motioned. “Out back,” she said.
“How’s she doing?”
Jenay shook her head. “Not good. I can just kick Mick’s ass. Roz doesn’t deserve this treatment.”
“Did she tell you what happened?” Charles asked.
“I didn’t ask. The way I see it, this was a long time coming. Mick was back up to his old tricks again, and Roz wasn’t having it. I saw it coming a mile away.”
Charles nodded. “Yeah, I did too. I was hoping he would wise up. Teddy was even trying to talk to him. But you know my brother. It’s like talking to a brick wall sometimes. Anyway,” Charles said, and began heading toward the back exit.
When he got out back, he saw Roz, in a bikini, sitting on the side of the pool wading her feet in the water. Big Daddy, still in his suit from work, sat down beside her, with his expensive shoes up on the pool’s edge.
“Nice night for a swim,” he said to her.
“Yeah, it is. Jenay had a brand new bathing suit I could wear, so I took advantage of it.”
Charles smiled. “I’m glad you told me that! I was wondering who packs a bikini when they’re in the heat of a breakup.” Then his smile left and he looked at her. “It was a breakup, right?”
Roz nodded. “Right.”
Charles saw the sadness in her big, pretty eyes. “What happened, darling?” he asked her.
“He’s at it again, Big Daddy.”
“Never home?”
“Hardly ever,” said Roz. “And here I am just trying to stay afloat with my career and . . .”
Mick Sinatra: Needing Her Again Page 12
