Mick Sinatra 4: If You Don't Know Me by Now (15 page)

The next
morning, when Mick arrived at work, his son Teddy and his enforcer Angelo
Jovanni, were waiting for him.
 
He knew
it was serious or they wouldn’t be at S.I.
 
He allowed them into his office, but not to sit and talk.

He sat his
briefcase on his desk and turned to them.
 
“What’s the problem?” he asked.

“You gave
Mayor Wallace the two names?” Teddy asked him.

“Why?” Mick
asked.

“He won’t
name them.”

Mick
frowned.
 
“What is that supposed to
mean?”

“He’s
resisting, boss,” Angelo said.
 
“He’s
tossing around other names, like those union-backed names, at his press
conference.”

Mick didn’t
like it.
 
Favors had to be returned.
 
Period.
 
“Did you pay him a visit?” he asked his son.

“I paid him
a visit, yes, sir, but I don’t know, Pop.
 
I got the feeling he think he has the upper hand.
 
It was like he wasn’t taking me serious.
 
I told him we weren’t fucking around with
him.
 
I told him he didn’t know us like
that.”

“What did he
say?”

“He told me
to get the fuck out of his office.
 
He
said he wasn’t scared of you.”

Mick was
floored.
 
What in the world was going
on?
 
First some yahoos in New York
thought they could undermine him.
 
Now
some yahoo here in Philly? On his own turf?
 
After the favor he did for that asshole?

“You’re
going to have to show him better than you can tell him, Pop,” Teddy said.
 
“Or I can.”

Mick looked
at his son.
 
They didn’t even have their
people in place in the police ranks.
 
What if he got caught?
 
“You don’t
do shit unless I authorize,” he said. “You hear me?”

Teddy knew
that look in his father’s eyes.
 
It had
that combination of anger with his sometimes lack of street smarts, and fear
for his safety.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said.

And then
Mick’s cell phone rang.
 
When he saw that
it was Gloria, he started to let it go to Voice Mail.
 
But he answered.

All he heard
was screaming.
 
“Daddy, help me!” she
cried.
 
“They’re taking me!
 
Daddy, help!
 
Daddy!
 
Daddy!”

Mick’s heart
fell through his shoe.
 
“Gloria?” he
yelled back. “Gloria?”

But all he
heard was another scream.
 
And then
nothingness.

“Pop, what’s
wrong?” Teddy asked anxiously.
 
“Pop,
what is it?”

But Pop didn’t
have time to answer anybody’s questions.
 
He ran out of his office as if his life depended on it.
 
And Teddy and Angelo, knowing big-ass trouble
when they saw it, ran after him.

They would
find Gloria’s condo ransacked, blood everywhere, Gloria nowhere to be
found.
 
And a video, made by Gloria
herself, putting all of the blame on Rosalind.

“You don’t
dress them alike?” the saleslady asked as Roz paid for outfits for her twins.

“Never,” Roz
responded.
 
“They’re two individuals and
I treat them like two individuals.
 
Besides, they’re a boy and a girl.
 
I know it doesn’t matter now what they wear, it damn sure will later.”

The
saleslady laughed.
 
“I know that’s
right!” she said, and handed Roz her change and then the bag.
 
“Have a nice rest of your day, ma’am.”

“You too,”
Roz said with a smile.
 
It was rare that
she did any shopping at all, but she grabbed the small bag, and made her way
out of the boutique.
 
She was still in the
mall, walking toward the staircase, when she saw a group of men walking toward
her.
 
She could tell Mick’s men a mile
away when they came in a pack.
 
Not by
their faces, but by their dark suits, their muscular build, their shades in
winter.
 
And their almost Secret
Service-level hypervigilance and fast walking.
 
Roz stopped walking and braced herself.
 
If they knew the code, she knew she had to go with them.

“Mrs.
Sinatra,” the lead man said, “you’ve been ordered to come with us, please?”

“On whose
authority?” Roz asked.

“Alpha One,
ma’am,” the lead man said.
 
Which meant
Mick.
 
Which meant Roz hurried in front
of them and they all hurried down the staircase and out of the mall.
 
Roz didn’t ask questions because she knew
they were not allowed to answer them.
 
Something had happened.
 
And it
was bad or Mick would have come for her himself.

A line of
SUVs were waiting, and she was placed in the second one.
 
Her brand new Rolls Royce was still parked in
the parking lot, but that was the last thing on her mind.
 
Mick was on her mind.
 
And the family.
 
Did something happen to one of the
children?
 
Did something happen to him?

She pulled
out her cell phone and checked on the twins as the driver drove.
 
Once assured by the nannies that the twins
were fine, she phoned Mick.
 
She didn’t
expect to get an answer, and she didn’t.
 
She phoned Teddy: no answer.
 
Gloria: no answer.
 
Joey: his
phone went to voice mail.
 
They were all
probably being rounded up too.
 
She
exhaled, and leaned her head back.

The drivers
of the SUVs drove the speed limit while they were still in the busy vicinity of
the mall, but as soon as they hit the open road, they flew.
 
Roz’s heart was pounding as the streets of
Philadelphia swerved and curved around her.
 
She was growing accustomed to these pickups, but she would never be
comfortable with them.
 
But Mick was only
looking out for her.
 
She knew that
now.
 
The fact that he didn’t beat her
ass for helping out William and creating problems in their own relationship
proved that.
 
Then she thought
about.
 
He did beat her ass, she
realized.
 
But not like he could have,
she thought again, with an inward smile.

But there
was nothing to smile about when the SUVs turned onto the street that housed
their compound.
 
It was the only mansion
on the street and it was fortified with even more security than it usually
had.
 
Armed guards at either end of the
street.
 
More guards at the gate.
 
And as the gates opened and the SUVs drove
through, Roz saw even more guards walking the grounds inside the gate.

But what she
didn’t see was Mick’s Maserati.
 
What she
didn’t see was Teddy’s Land Rover.
 
What
she did see were the doors to her home opening, two more men hurrying down to
meet her SUV, and then those same two men escorting her inside the house.
 
The only face she saw, other than their
regular household staff, was Deuce.
 
That
gave her some comfort as he walked up from the safe room downstairs.

“I was going
to pick you up,” he said apologetically, “but I was too far away.
 
They ordered me to come here and wait.”
 
He began hurrying her downstairs.

“The twins
down there?”

“Yes,
ma’am,” Deuce said.
 
“Joey’s down there
too.”

But Joey
didn’t know a damn thing either.
 
He
hurried to Roz as soon as she entered what was a basement safe house, in
essence, with all of the amenities, and they hugged.
 
“Where’ Glo and Teddy?” Roz asked.

“I don’t
know,” Joey said.
 
“They aren’t telling
me anything!
 
Dad’s goons came and got me
from work, and made me come here.
 
The
least they can do is tell us something.”

“Stop
bitching so much,” Roz ordered Joey.
 
“Your father knows what he’s doing.
 
Just be thankful he’s running this.”

“But what’s
going on, Ma?”

Roz shook
her head.
 
Joey knew nothing.
 
Roz knew next to nothing.
 
They just had to wait.

After taking
the twins from their nannies and holding them, and Roz and Joey putting them to
bed, they did just that.
 
They
waited.
 
And waited.
 
And waited.
 
It would be several hours before they got any word.
 
And they were both relieved when they saw
Mick walk through that door.

They both ran
to him, and hugged him, and he pulled them both into his arms.
 
But when Roz looked back up at him, she saw
the distress, the anguish in his tired, green eyes.

“What’s
happening, Dad?” Joey asked.
 
“And
where’s Gloria and Teddy?”

“Where are
the twins?” Mick asked.

“Asleep,”
Joey said.

“Down here?”

“Yes,” Roz
said.

“Dad, what
about Teddy and Glo?” Joey asked anxiously.
 
“Where are they?”

“Ted is
still out searching,” Mick said.

“For what?”
Joey asked, and Roz wanted to know too.

Mick looked
at them both.
 
“For Gloria,” he said.

Roz’s heart
rammed against her chest.
 
Joey, too, was
floored.
 
“She’s missing?” he asked.

Mick ran his
hands through his hair.
 
It was only then
did Roz realize just how unkempt he looked.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“She’s missing.
 
I’ve been out searching.
 
Teddy’s still out there. I’ve got every man
available searching and asking questions and finding what they can find, from
the East Coast to the West.
 
We’re
questioning everybody who knew her, might know her, or crossed her path.
 
We’ll find her.”

“What about
her cell phone?” Roz asked.
 
“Is it with
her?”

“It wasn’t
in her condo,” Mick said.
 
“I assume it
is.”

“Can you
trace it?
 
Don’t you have some special
trace on her phone?”

“And her
car,” Mick said.
 
“But both have been
disabled.”
 

“What about
any cameras?” Joey asked.

“We checked
every camera in the area, including the one in her garage.
 
Nothing.
 
Her car is not seen.
 
She is not
seen.
 
There is no way to track her.”

A look of
foreboding appeared on Roz’s face.
 
She
was so worried for Gloria that it hurt to her heart.
 
“What are we going to do, Mick?”

Then Mick
took her hand.
 
“Come with me,” he said.

“What about
me?” Joey asked.
 
“Can I come with you
too?”
 

Roz’s heart
went out to Joey.
 
All of Mick’s children
were like little kids when it came to their great desire to be with their
father.
 
Mainly because they knew he was
somebody special and they wanted a bigger slice of that specialness.
 
But also because they wanted him to do more,
to make up more ground for the lack of attention he paid them in their
childhood.
 
But Mick was too busy going
forward to look back, and Roz knew it was affecting them.
 
And the fact that Joey was about to get
rejected yet again by his father didn’t help.
 
But she knew Mick.
 
When he wanted
to talk to her alone, he wasn’t about to have an audience.

“You can’t
come right now,” Mick said to Joey.
 
“Go
check on the twins.
 
I have to talk to my
wife alone right now.”

Roz could
see the envy in Joey’s eyes when Mick called her
his
wife, as if he was more than willing to voice his ownership of
her, but not of him.
 
Roz told Joey often
that his father was not the kind of man given to outward displays of affection,
and he probably was not going to change just because they all wanted him
to.
 
But that didn’t change the fact that
Joey, and all of Mick’s children, wanted him to.

And Joey
didn’t want to take no for an answer.
 
“But maybe I can help find Glo,” he said.

Mick looked
at him.
 
“What do you know?” he asked.

“I know she
was obsessed with her boyfriend.
 
With
Fonz.”

“They’re
searching for him now,” Mick said. “When they find him, they will bring him
here.”

“Let me go
look for him,” Joey said.
 
“I bet you
I’ll find him.”

“No,” Mick
said.

Joey
frowned.
 
“Why not?”

“Because
until I find out what’s happened to one of my children, my other ones will not
be running the street.”

“But Teddy’s
out there,” Joey said.
 
“He’s running the
streets.”

Mick almost
said that Teddy was out there because Teddy knew what he was doing, but he was
learning Joey’s sensibilities.
 
“Just do
like I told you to do,” he said, took Roz’s hand, and they went upstairs.

Joey was so
angry that tears almost appeared in his eyes.
 
But Deuce came up beside him.
 
“The fastest way to his heart,” Deuce said to the young man, “is not
going to be through toughness.”

Joey looked
at the older man.

“It’s
through obedience,” Deuce said.
 
“If you
stop questioning his wisdom, and just do what he tells you to do, he’ll pay
attention.
 
But only then,” Deuce added.

“He owes me,
man,” Joey said angrily.
 
“I don’t owe
him!
 
Why should I have to be the one to
prove myself?”

“Because
you’re the one who wants the relationship,” Deuce said.
 
“He loves you.
 
I think he loves you more than you will ever
know.
 
But being close with you the way
you want?
 
He can take it, or leave it.”

Joey knew
Deuce spoke the truth, but it still hurt him inside.
 
But this wasn’t the time nor the place.
 
Gloria was missing.
 
He got on his cell phone, attempted to see if
friends of hers that he knew too had seen or heard from her, as he went to
check on the twins.

Upstairs, in
the main house, Mick and Roz went into the study and sat side by side on the
sofa.
 
Only Roz sat on the edge of the
sofa, and turned toward Mick.

“What is
it?” she asked him.

Gloria’s computer
was sitting on the coffee table in front of them, with the screen up and paused
at the beginning of Gloria’s accusatory video.

“Did
anything happen between Gloria and yourself?” Mick asked.

Roz was
puzzled.
 
“What do you mean?”

“Any bad
blood?”

“Bad
blood?
 
Between Gloria and I? No.”

“There was
some, Roz.
 
I saw it for myself the night
she threatened to expose your relationship with William.”