BIG DADDY SINATRA 2: IF I CAN'T HAVE YOU, Book 2 (21 page)

Arianna
was livid.
 
She was screaming that
Charles owed her.
 
She was screaming and
yelling and Ed was holding her back.
 
But
Charles and Jenay didn’t give her ranting and raving a second thought.
 
They left.
 
They weren’t trying to look back.

But
as soon as the door slammed shut, Arianna looked at Quince.
 
Quince looked at Arianna.
 
“Why didn’t you play along, you idiot?” she
yelled.
 
“I knew what I was doing!”

“What
were you doing?” Quince asked.
 
“Talking
about your children.
 
What did they have
to do with this?”

“The
same thing yours had to do with Jenay!
 
I
want my boys back in my life.
 
But he’s
the barrier.
 
He’s the wall.
 
I was trying to get in good with him, to get
to my boys.
 
But you blew it.”

Quince
was even angrier.
 
“Why didn’t you tell
me that was what you were doing?”

“Because
it would have been unauthentic!
 
You had
to be shocked.
 
You had to feel
betrayed.”

“And
it didn’t work,” he said.
  

“No,”
Arianna admitted sadly.
 
“Not this
time.
 
But we aren’t done yet.
  
The plans will have to change, but the goal
never will.
 
We aren’t done by a long
shot.”

The
girls looked at their father.
 
“What’s
she talking about?” Carly asked him.
 
“And what about Jenay?”

“You
forget that bitch!” Quince snapped.
 
“Forget Jenay.
 
You saw how easily
she left you again.
 
You saw how she
chose that man over you.
 
Why would you
even bring her name up?
 
From here on
out, after the way she treated us, neither one of you will ever speak her name
again. You hear me, Ash?”

Ashley
nodded. “Yes, sir,” she said.
 
She still
cared for Jenay, but her loyalty was with her father.

“Yes,
sir,” Carly responded a lot slower.
 
She
was only eight when Jenay left their lives.
 
It should have been easier for her.
 
But it wasn’t.
 
Because she was no
fool.
 
Because she knew deep within
herself that Jenay was the best thing that had ever happened to them.

Two
weeks later, Jenay was just leaving Reuben’s Market on Harvey Street.
 
Reuben, the owner, was walking with her,
carrying her bags of veggies.
 
It had
already been eventful.
 
One punk had
taken a corner so wildly that he nearly ran both of them over, causing them to
jump back onto the curb.
 
They had both
been spooked by such a close call.
 
Now
they were headed for her red Mercedes across the street.
 

But
just as they stepped back off of the curb and were headed that way, her
Mercedes exploded into a mushroom cloud of fire and smoke, knocking both of
them backwards and undoubtedly killing everybody inside that car.
 
Jenay knew her baby was inside that car, and
her baby’s nanny.
 
She had left them both
inside when she hurried over to Reuben’s to pick up her order.
 
That was why she wailed.
 
That was why she ran.
 
That was why she came within inches of
throwing herself in that fire too.
 
Her
baby was in that car!
 
She had to get her
child!

She
fought and she fought.
 
She cried and she
prayed.
 
And she fought.
 
She broke away from the men and was again
within inches of throwing herself into that fire.
 
If Reuben and the other men of Jericho would
not have stopped her once again, that fireball would have consumed her too.
 
Charles Sinatra’s wife, right along with his
baby girl, would have met her end on Harvey Street.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

He
was in his big pick-up truck, on his way to his bank, when the call came in.
The person on the other end was hysterical, and the background noise sounded manic,
so he couldn’t make out anything the man was saying.
 
But he knew it was bad.
 
He knew it had to have something to do with
his wife or his children or both. He knew it was bad.

“What
are you saying?” he yelled into the phone. “Tell me again!”

“An
explosion on Hardy,” the man finally said plainly.

“An
explosion?” Charles asked.

“Across
the street from Reuben’s Market.
 
Your
wife’s car exploded.
 
It’s crazy out
here!”

Charles’s
heart dropped through his gut as he swerved his truck, completed a U-turn, and
then raced like a bat out of hell for Reuben’s Market.
 
He knew exactly where it was.
 
That wasn’t the problem.
 
Getting there fast enough was.

A
full mile away from Hardy Street, he could see the black smoke bellowing up
even from that distance.
 
He could hear
sirens too.
 
And he drove even
faster.
 
He covered a ten-minute ride in
two.
 
He was praying as he drove.
 
He was praying for a miracle as he
drove.
 
All he could think about was
Jenay, and Bonita, and his sons, and he couldn’t stop praying.

When
he arrived at the scene and got out of his truck, the Fire Department was
there, and police cars, and the rescue wagon.
 
And he could see what was apparently the red Mercedes he had purchased
for Jenay, blown to smithereens.
 
There
was nothing but smoke and chaos.
 
It
looked like a war zone.
 
But where was
his wife?
 
He didn’t see his wife!

Then
he saw a body.
 
It was completely covered
and being lifted into the ambulance.
 
Charles ran up to the truck.
 
His
suit coat was off, his dress shoes were on, but he ran faster than he’d ever
run in his life.
 

When
he made it up to the ambulance, he pushed the EMT aside and hurried
inside.
 
The emergency worker and a
policeman attempted to pull him back out, but when they realized that it was
Big Daddy Sinatra they were trying to yank out, they both backed off.

Charles’s
heart was hammering when he lifted that sheet.
 
He was praying almost uncontrollably when he lifted that sheet.
 
Don’t let it be Jenay.
 
Please God, don’t let it be Jenay!

It
was Tess.
 
Tess Magrid.
 
Bonita’s Nanny.
 
She was charred and burned and dead.
 
Barely recognizable.
 
His heart sank for her.
 
That poor young woman.
 
But if Tess was there, that meant that Bonita
had to have been there too.
 
And Charles
jumped back out of the ambulance, still in a state of hysteria.

“Where’s
my wife and child?” he asked the EMT.

“I
don’t know, sir,” the EMT responded nervously.

“What
do you mean you don’t know?
 
Were they
here too?”

“I
don’t know, sir,” the EMT responded again.
 
Big Daddy Sinatra had the kind of reach that could get him fired.
 
He wished he knew everything.
 
But he had just gotten there.
 
He didn’t know a thing.

Charles
looked around.
 
His green eyes were
blazing with worry.
 
He was in full panic
mode now.
 

Until
he looked again.
 
That was when he saw,
through the smoke and the chaos, his son Donald coming out of the Drug Store on
the far end of the street.
 
He didn’t
understand why Donald would be there at all.
 
It seemed like a mirage to see Donald at this scene.

But
then he realized Jenay was with him.
 
And
she had a child in her arms.
 
Their
child!

He
ran.
 
He ran through all of the noise and
confusion and smoke and fire.
 
He didn’t
have running shoes on, but that didn’t slow him at all.
 
All he saw was his wife, his son, and his
baby girl, and he couldn’t get to them fast enough.
 

When
Jenay saw Charles, she started running too.
 
Little Bonita was bouncing in her arms, but Donald was running with
them, holding Jenay and Bonita in his arms as a brace in case they fell.
 
It was the most beautiful sight Charles had
ever seen in his life.
 
His heart ached
for Tess.
 
It was an awful thing.
 
But his wife, his son, his baby girl were alive.
 
And he couldn’t suppress his gratitude.

“Thank-you
God,” he was saying as he ran.
 
“Thank-you God!”

He
could tell Jenay had been spooked.
 
Her
eyes were as big as a pair of Kennedy Fifty Cent coins, and she was talking
wildly without realizing Charles could not hear her.
 
He immediately grabbed a hold of her, and his
baby, when they met.
 
Donald was
concerned too.
 
He didn’t let them go.

Charles
finally could hear what Jenay was repeating over and over.
 
“I thought she was in the car,” Jenay was
crying.
 
“I thought she was in the car!”

“They
killed Tess, Dad,” Donald was saying.
 
Tears were in his big blue eyes.
 
“They
killed Tess.”

Charles
nodded and ran his hand along his sons’ hair.
 
“I know son,” he said.
 
“I saw
her.”

“She
was with Bonita,” Jenay said.
 
“And when
I saw that explosion, I thought she and Nita.
 
I thought she and Nita.
 
I thought
Nita. . .”

Charles
pulled her and their baby into his arms.
 
Bonita was crying.
 
Even she knew
this was no laughing matter.
 
But she was
alive.
 
Jenay was alive.
 
His family was intact.
 
That was all that mattered to Charles.

They
arrived at their father’s house at nearly the exact same time.
 
First, it was Brent’s police cruiser.
 
It swerved along the circular driveway and
stopped at the steps, just behind his father’s pick-up truck.
 

Then
it was Robert’s Corvette.
 
It nearly ran
into the back of Brent’s car as it came to a screeching halt behind the patrol
car.
 

Then
it was Tony’s old Jeep, a Jeep he’d owned since he was sixteen years old and
earned the money working in his Dad’s property office.
 
It drove onto the grass and parked beside the
front lawn’s waterfall.

And
they all got out, Brent, Robert, and Tony, and ran up the steep steps, past the
coliseum-styled columns, and through the thick double doors of their father’s
house.
 

They
ran down the long hallway that led into the huge Family Room.
 
That was when they saw Charles and Jenay
seated side by side on the sofa, with Bonita in Jenay’s arms and Donald seated
beside his father.
  
All three brothers
were surprised to see Donald.
 
But they
were too thrilled to see Jenay and Nita.
 

They
hurried to them, hugging Jenay and kissing Nita.
 
Bonita, playing with her toy, wiped away the
saliva with each one of her brothers’ kisses.
 
They all found it hilarious.
 
Then
they all sat down, Brent, Tony, and Robert, not in the chairs and the other
sofa in the room, but on the coffee table directly in front of Charles and
Jenay.
 

“We’re
under siege,” Charles said with a smile.

“What
in the world happened?” Tony asked.
 
“I’m
minding my own business at the barbershop, getting a haircut, when this guy
comes in and ask if I heard the news.
 
I
said what news.
 
Your stepmother’s car
exploded, he said.
 
I jumped from that
chair so fast the barber almost clipped my ear.”

They
laughed.

Then
somberness returned.
 
“It was a
terrifying thing to hear,” Tony added.
 
“And poor Tess.”

They
all nodded their heads. It was an awful thing.

“I
spoke with Chief Joffee,” Brent said.
 
“He’s the one who told me what happened.
 
He said you guys gave a statement at the scene.”

“That’s
right,” Charles said.

“Where
were you?” Tony asked Brent.
 
“You’re
usually first on the scene.
 
Then it’s
your family, and you’re nowhere to be found.”

“Sure
you wasn’t with Miss Denise?” Robert asked with a smile.

“I
was in Lewiston picking up an armed robbery suspect,” Brent responded.
 
“I don’t fuck around on the job,” he added.

“What
happened, Jenay?” Tony asked.
 
“Did you
and Nita get out of the car, and Tess was still inside?”

“Nita
was still in the car with Tess when I got out,” Jenay said and a gasp of
surprise filled the room.

“Nita
was still in the car?” Tony asked.
 
“Good
Lord!”

Jenay
held Bonita tighter.
 
She refused to let
her go ever since she discovered that she was still alive.

“But
how did she get out?” Robert asked.

“I
got her out,” Donald said.

“You?”
Robert asked.
 
“You were there too?”

“I was
walking by when I saw Jenay’s car,” Donald said.

“You
were walking by?” Robert asked. “Why weren’t you driving?”

“I
was driving,” Donald said with exasperation in his voice.
 
“I left my car around the corner and was
walking, okay?
 
Why are you making a
federal case out of somebody walking down the street?”

“Just
tell us what happened, Don,” Brent said.

Donald
exhaled.
 
“That’s when I saw Jenay’s car
parked on the side of the road and then I saw that Tess and Nita were waiting
in the car.
 
So I picked up Nita and was
playing around with her, then I told Tess I was going to take her with me down
the street.”

“Down
the street?” Robert asked.
 
“Down the
street where?”

“Down
the damn street, Bobby, why you keep asking me all of these questions?”

“Go
on,” Brent said.

“So I
went down the street with Bonita, and then the next thing I know I hear this
loud explosion.
 
So I’m trying to run and
get away, I’m trying to protect Nita.
 
I
didn’t know what that explosion was.”
 
He
frowned.
 
“Then I found out.”

 
Jenay reached over and squeezed Donald’s
hand.
 
“Thank-you,” she said.
 
“You saved Bonita’s life.
 
I will never be able to thank you enough.”

Donald
smiled and squeezed her hand too.
 
He’d
never felt closer to Jenay.
 
“I’m just
glad I was there,” he said.
 
“I only wish
I could have gotten Tess out of there too.”

Jenay
nodded her head.
 
“I know.
 
I just don’t understand what happened.”
 
She looked at Charles.
 
“Who would want to do something like this?”

But
Charles wasn’t talking.
 
His brain was
too busy thinking about the who and the why of the entire episode.
 
He snuggled her closer against him, but he
wasn’t talking.

The
doorbell rang as they sat there.
 
Tony
got up and answered the door.
 
When he
saw that it was his father’s sister, Jacqueline Gabrini, better known as Sprig,
he opened the door further. “Hey, Aunt Sprig,” he said.

“Where’s
Jenay and the baby?” Sprig asked.

“In
the den,” Tony said.
 
But just as she was
about to hurry to the den, Tony took her by the arm and pulled her back.