Big Daddy Sinatra: Carly's Cry (17 page)

“It’s the only way we can find out
what this guy is up to.
 
If my men
couldn’t find out shit, that means it’s deep.”

“And dangerous?” Charles asked his
brother.

Mick couldn’t lie to him.
 
“Always that,” he said.
 
Then he exhaled.
 
“Look, I know she’s your sweet little girl
and you love her dearly.
 
But she wasn’t
so sweet and little when she stabbed that man damn near thirty times.
 
She was all grown up then.
 
She’s got to work for her freedom.
 
She’s got to fight for her life.
 
That’s what will be expected of her.”

Mick’s cell phone began ringing as
Jenay and Brent looked at Charles.
 
They
hated that it had come to this, but they knew Mick was right.
 
Charles knew it too.
 
That was the hardest part for him.

“What are you thinking, Charles?” Jenay
asked him as Mick walked away to answer his phone call.

“I’m thinking Carly’s been through
hell already.
 
I’m thinking I don’t want
to take her through anymore.
 
But,” he
added with a sense of resignation in his voice, “there doesn’t appear to be any
other way.
 
Unfortunately,” he said,
looking at Jenay, “Mick is right.
 
It’s
her life, and her freedom we’re talking about.”

Mick ended his call and looked at
Charles.
 
“My men are in town.”

“Then let’s go,” Charles said,
getting ready to leave.

Brent was about to follow the two
men, but Charles put his hand on Brent’s chest and stopped him.
 
Brent looked at his father.
 
“What?” he asked.

“You aren’t going anywhere.”

“Dad!”

“You have a town to run, and a family
to oversee.
 
My
family.
 
You stay
here.
 
We’ll be back.”

Brent was accustomed to being on the
front line of the action, not the backseat player.
 
But it was his father and Mick Sinatra.
 
He understood.
 
He didn’t like it, but he understood.
 
He nodded.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said.

Charles gave Brent a double pat on
his chest.
 
Brent was the best oldest son
a man could ever hope to have.
 
He felt
blessed to have him.
 
Charles kissed
Jenay, pulled her in his arms again, and then he and Mick left.

Brent looked at Jenay.
 
“Are they serious?” he asked.
 
“Is Daddy really going to let Carly anywhere
near some guy who just might be Mafia just because Uncle Mick wants him
to?
 
How can he rely on that?”

Jenay, still holding the folder on
Trevor Reese, saw the anguish in Brent’s eyes.
 
She pulled him into her arms.
 
Brent’s eyes squeezed shut.
 
This
was getting to him, and Jenay knew it.
 
“Trust your father,” she whispered in his ear as she held his big
body.
 
“He loves all of us, but he sees a
vulnerability in Carly that draws her to him.”
 
Then she pulled back and looked Brent in his beautiful green eyes.
 
“Daddy will never let anything happen to
her.
 
Rely on that.”

Brent looked at her and nodded.
 
He always understood why his father loved
Jenay above all those other women he used to have, but he understood it right
now more than ever.
 
And he hugged her
again.

They sat in a cargo van on the
outskirts of Jericho.
 
Three men sitting
strong, all lined up against the white metal wall.
 
The fourth man, Craw, was standing, and when a
knock was heard on the door, he was the one to slide it open.
 
Mick and Charles got in and sat in seats
across from the men.

“Why are we here, boss?” one of them
asked.

“We had a breach,” Mick said.
 
“I have a grave robber on my payroll.”

The men looked at each other.
 
“A grave robber, boss?” one asked.
 
“What do you mean?”

“The Boston job.
 
What happened?”

“Nothing happened.
 
We did our work and got out.
 
Like we always do.
 
We didn’t rob that grave.
 
We didn’t say a word about that job.
 
We’ve been working for you for years.
 
We wouldn’t do anything like that!”

Then it suddenly dawned on Mick.
 
He frowned.
 
And looked at Craw.
 
“Where the
fuck is Anzino?” he asked.

Craw shook his head.
 
“We couldn’t locate him.”

This surprised even Charles.

Mick frowned.
 
“What do you mean you couldn’t locate him?”

“I couldn’t locate him.
 
He didn’t return my calls.
 
It happens.
 
He’s probably on vacation or something.”

Mick stared at Craw as if he had just
insulted him.
 
Before Charles knew what
was happening, Mick jumped up, grabbed Craw and slammed his head against the
van’s metal wall.
 
He continued to slam
the man’s head, drawing blood, and Charles wanted to stop him.
 
But these men were Mick’s men, and none of
them were saints.
 
Mick knew what he was
doing.

“You tell me that one of my men won’t
respond to an urgent callout,” Mick said, “and you don’t think that kind of
information isn’t an important piece of information?
 
What the fuck do you think a callout means?
 
What the fuck were you thinking?”

“I wasn’t thinking like that, boss,”
Craw said nervously.
 
“Mag was just the
driver.
 
I didn’t think his not answering
was a big deal.”

Wrong answer, the other men thought
as Mick, angered by the response, banged Craw’s head even harder.
 
“
No big
deal
?” Mick screamed.
 
“You think I’m
doing this for my fucking health?
 
Now he
knows we had a callout.
 
Now he knows his
ass is on the grill!
 
You stupid fuck!
And it’s all because you unilaterally decided that my decision to find out if I
had a breach didn’t need to include one of the men who could have caused the
breach!”

“I didn’t mean it like that,
boss.
 
I thought you just wanted to talk
to the grave diggers.
 
Anzino was the
driver.
 
He’s never been deep in the
action.”

“Until now, motherfucker,” Mick said,
and angrily released Craw.
 
“Until now!”

Craw, bleeding from the ear, slid
down to the floor in excruciating pain.
 
Charles expected the other men to help him, but they didn’t move a
muscle.
 
They, instead, took their cues
from Mick.
 
And Mick just stood there.

Charles watched his brother stand
there as if he was catching his breath.
 
Most men in that position would regret losing their temper that
way.
 
But Charles didn’t see regret
anywhere on Mick’s handsome face.
 
He saw
anger and frustration, maybe even a little rage.
 
But he never saw regret.

Mick looked at his men.
 
“Remain in this area.
 
Check into a motel.”

“Yes, sir,” the remaining men said.

“Stay put until you hear from
me.”
 
Then he looked at Craw.
 
“And that includes you too, asshole.”

“Yes, yes, sir,” Craw said, the pain
causing him to sweat profusely.
 
He wiped
the sweat from his brow.
 
“Yes, yes,
sir!”

Mick walked over to the door of the
van, slid it open, and stepped out.
 
Charles looked at Craw, and then stepped out too.

Mick had a handkerchief out, and was
wiping his hands.

“You’re going after him?” Charles
asked.

Mick looked at Charles as if he had
lost his mind.
 
“Does a lion roar?” he
asked.

Charles nodded.
 
He knew it was an obvious question when he
asked it.
 
But he needed to know Mick’s
thinking.
 
“You believe your man Anzino
may be the breach?”

“He may.
 
I will find out, believe that.
 
It will probably take some time, so don’t
expect overnight results.
 
It could take
weeks.
 
If he’s guilty of betraying me,
he’ll be hiding deep down undercover.
 
But I’ll work that end until he’s found.
 
Count on that.”

Then Mick looked hard at
Charles.
 
“But Carly will need to work
Trevor Reese.
 
She’s got to find out what
he knows, and what he’s up to.
 
Anzino
might have told about the grave, and might have even unearthed that body.
 
But there’s no way he took it back to Carly’s
house by himself.
 
He had power behind
him.”

Charles stared at Mick.
 
“Trevor Reese’s kind of power?”

Mick nodded.
 
“That kind, yes.
 
And I know you hate the thought of it, but
it’s up to your daughter.
 
Carly has got
to be the one to crack his ironclad code.
 
My men haven’t been able to do it.
 
We can’t do it the traditional way.
 
She has to be the one.”

Trevor Reese glanced at his watch one
more time as he sat in the restaurant at the Jericho Inn.
 
Carly had actually phoned his office and left
a message for him to get in contact with her.
 
He was still in Canada at the time, but he eventually returned her
call.
 
On his way back to Boston, Carly
had said, she wondered if he could meet with her.

It was exactly what he had hoped to
hear, and he quickly agreed.
 
Now she was
late.
 
He did not like tardiness.

“Hello, Mr. Reese.”

He looked up and saw the lady he
remembered being introduced to him as Carly’s mother standing beside his
table.
 
He rose to his feet.
 
“Mrs. Sinatra, hello.”

Jenay smiled.
 
“Welcome to the Jericho Inn.”

“Thank you.”
 
He did his due diligence after he met her and
discovered that her husband owned this place, so he wasn’t entirely surprised
to see her there.
 
But she didn’t know
that.
 
“You’re here for dinner too?”

“Hardly,” Jenay said with a faint
smile. “I run this place.
 
I hope the
service so far has been good.”

“It’s been excellent.
 
Thank you.”

“You’re waiting for my daughter.
 
Correct?”

She wasn’t being coy about it, and he
liked her directness.
 
“That’s correct,”
he said.
 
“She’s late.”

“She’s usually very punctual, so I
suspect she’ll show up momentarily.
 
If
you would like I can phone and see what’s keeping her?”

“That won’t be necessary.
 
But thank you.”

Jenay gave him a smile, and headed
over to the bar.
 
Tony was seated at the
bar with a bullseye view of Trevor Reese.
 
Jenay sat beside him.
 
“He’s a
very charming man,” she said.

“So was Hitler,” Tony responded.
 
“Where’s Carly?
 
She should have been here by now.”

“She’ll be here.
 
Daddy thought it would be a good idea to see
how long he would be willing to wait for her.”

“Why would that matter?” Tony asked.

“If he patiently waits, then that
usually means he genuinely came because he cares about her, or at least have
genuine feelings for her.”

“And if he impatiently waits?” Tony
asked.

“Then, as Ashley would put it,
he ain’t about nothing good
.”

Tony smiled.
 
“Your verdict?” he asked.

“He must have checked his watch ten
times since he’s been sitting there.”

“He ain’t about nothing good?” Tony
asked.

“Bingo,” Jenay said.
 
Then a worried look appeared on her
face.
 
“Unfortunately,” she added, as she
stood up.
 
“Just make sure you keep your
eyes on her.
 
I know Uncle Mick has his
people around this place, although I haven’t spotted any of them.”

“You aren’t supposed to spot them,”
Tony said.
 
“If you do, then they aren’t
doing a good job.
 
But you know
Daddy.
 
He made me come as backup.
 
He isn’t going to let his daughter meet with
a man, especially a man they have determined is dangerous, without covering her
like a blanket.”

Jenay smiled.
 
“Thank God for Daddy.
 
He looks out for us well.”

“Speak for yourself,” Tony said.
 
“Nobody’s looking out for me.”

Jenay laughed and looked toward the
entrance.
 
Carly was just arriving.
 
She patted Tony on the shoulder.
 
“Alright, hot shot, your sister is here.
 
Do the job your father ordered you to do.”

“Will do,” Tony said as he sipped his
drink.
 
Jenay headed back across the
room, to the front desk inside the lobby of the B & B.

Trevor looked at Carly as she entered
the Inn.
 
There was no denying her
beauty, he thought as she headed his way.
 
But it was a tortured beauty to him.
 
When she first started working for him, he used to observe her daily.
 
And something struck with him.
 
She presented as a strong, confident woman,
but what he saw instead was a quiet desperation in Carly, like a caged bird in
an open cage.
 
Every time other birds
flew past her, he could tell she wanted to fly away too.
 
But she, instead, as if to prove just how
good a bird she truly was, stayed in her cage.
 
And she waited.
 
What he couldn’t
figure out then, and still couldn’t figure out now, was what in the world was
she waiting on?

She wore a sleeveless bubble dress
that highlighted her narrow waist and shapely legs, with matching heels and
purse.
 
With her long hair dropped down
her back in waves, and her big eyes soft but sharp as a sword, and her flawless
brown skin, she was a sight to behold.
 
He wanted to fuck her so bad he could feel his penis throb.
 
And he was going to fuck the shit out of her,
among other things.
 
But in time.
 
He rose to his feet as she arrived at his
table.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said
cheerfully.

“Quite alright,” he said with a smile
of his own.
 
“I don’t care for tardiness,
but I will let you slide this time.”

Carly smiled as he moved over and
pulled her chair out for her.
 
“Thank
you,” she said, and sat down.
 
Her heart
was pounding, and she was as nervous as she’d ever been, but she was a master at
wearing the mask.
 
She laid it on thick
tonight.
 

Trevor sat across from her and
watched her as the waitress arrived and took her drink and food orders.

“They know me here,” Carly said, “so
we’ll get good service.”

“Your father owns the place,” Trevor
said.
 
“Or is that wrong information?”

She had hoped he didn’t know
that.
 
Because the more he knew, the more
research into her family life he would have had to do.
 
Which would only confirm what her father and
uncle were saying all along: he was up to something, and it more than likely
wasn’t something good.
 
“No,” she
said.
 
“Your information is correct.”

“I also discovered that this town
does not like him very well.
 
But of
course they have no reason to dislike him, right?”

“Wrong,” Carly said.
 
“They have plenty of reasons.
 
A lot of them have business with him, or rent
from him, and he doesn’t go along with their nonsense.
 
He holds them accountable for paying their
rent on time or for fulfilling their obligations under any contracts they may
have with him.
 
If they fail to perform,
he cuts them off.
 
He shows no
mercy.
 
They have plenty of reasons to
think of him as nothing short of an asshole.
 
Are their reasons fair?
 
No.
 
Are their reasons justifiable?
 
Yes.”

Trevor smiled.
 
“That is why I have always liked you, Carly,”
he admitted.
 
“That is why I hired you in
the first place.
 
You do not
bullshit.
 
You tell it like it is.”

When he said that, Carly outwardly
smiled.
 
But inwardly she felt
horrible.
 
She always liked her former
boss too.
 
She liked his
professionalism.
 
She liked his no
nonsense approach to every problem.
 
She
liked the fact that he was this great looking guy who didn’t fool around with
anyone at work nor allow his employees to so much as glimpse his personal life
in any way, shape, or form.
 
He was still
the only man she had ever worked with who didn’t try to get her in his
bed.
 
And that was despite the fact that
he was the only man she ever worked with whom she would have loved to get in
bed with.
 
But he never crossed that
line.
 
She respected Trevor Reese.

And all of this talk about him having
something to do with digging up Ethan Campbell’s grave, despite her knowledge
of him, was making her feel uneasy.
 
She
worked with this man for months.
 
He had
a national reputation for his integrity and ethical standards.
 
She couldn’t imagine him being involved with
such hideousness.

The waitress returned with her drink
order, and refreshed Trevor’s drink.
 
When the waitress left their table, Trevor looked at Carly.
 
“I’m pleased you phoned me,” he said.
 
“I thought you were a little upset that I had
visited you at your home.”

Carly wasn’t going to lie.
 
She was very upset that morning.
 
But she knew how to pivot.
 
She knew how to stay focused on why she was
there to begin with.
 
“You’re the man who
was able to get me out of that Boston jail.
 
You’re the man who miraculously got them to drop the charges.
 
I’ll always be grateful to you for that.”

“Ah, that was nothing,” Trevor said
with a wave of the hand.
 
“You’re worth
every effort I demonstrate.”

Carly stared at him.
  
“But weren’t you a little curious about
Ethan’s body? They said they found it in the house I used to rent.
 
I didn’t put it there, I was in Jericho
living my life, but somebody did.”

“I was curious, yes,” Trevor
said.
 
“But I did my research.
 
Your father has many enemies, and not just
the local ones here in Jericho.
 
I
concluded that somebody tried to get to him through you.
 
Besides, I know you.
 
There is no way in hell that you would have
been foolish enough to leave a dead body in your house.”

“But they weren’t just claiming that
I left his body there,” Carly said.
 
“They were claiming that I killed him and left his body there.”

“Yes, I know,” Trevor said.

Carly stared at Trevor.
 
“But doesn’t that part disturb you?
 
The fact that the authorities arrested me for
the
murder
of Ethan Campbell?”

Trevor seemed to think about that
question.
 
Then he looked at her.
 
“Ethan was an asshole.
 
Which is fine.
 
He has that right.
 
But he was rapist too, and we both knew
it.
 
He raped that child and probably
would have raped others too.
 
Whoever
killed him did the world a favor, in my book.
 
Whoever killed him probably had no choice.
 
So no, Carly, that part of the equation
doesn’t disturb me at all.”

He and Carly shared a long
stare.
 
She didn’t want to go there, but
she knew she had to go there.
 
The FBI
could have him wired, her uncle Mick had already warned her, so she knew her
words had to be carefully chosen.
 
“Do
you think I killed Ethan Campbell?” she asked him point blank.
 
If he was an FBI operative or informant, he
would take the ball and run with it.
 
If
he wasn’t the Fed, he would punt.

“I don’t know,” Trevor responded,
“and I don’t care.
 
I have enough
business of my own, and that is not my business.
 
You needn’t declare your innocence to me, or
confess your sins to me.
 
I don’t give a
shit, to be honest.
 
Not when it concerns
a bastard like Ethan Campbell.
 
I’m just
glad you’re out of their custody.
 
I’m
just glad I got there before they could formally book you in.”

“You wouldn’t have been able to get
me out if they had?” Carly asked.

Trevor smiled.
 
“I didn’t say that,” he said.
 
“It would have made my job more difficult,
yes.
 
But for you?
 
I would have pulled it off.”

Carly smiled too.
 
He was a charmer alright, she thought.
 
No doubt about that.
 
But she couldn’t be fooled by it either. Her
father and uncle didn’t have him on their shit list for the hell of it.
 
They didn’t have her calling him up and
asking to meet with him, when there could be danger involved, for their health.
 
Despite all she knew about him, and believed
him to be, he might be attempting to bring her down.
 
She had to fight to stay up.
 
This meeting, they told her, was the
beginning of her battle.
 
“How was your
trip to Canada?” she asked him, careful to stick to the script.