Mick Sinatra 4: If You Don't Know Me by Now (21 page)

“I don’t
think she’s the one,” Joe Strasberg said to the mayor as they reclined in the
den and reviewed a stack of applications.
 
His inauguration was soon to come, but he needed to put key personnel in
place.
 
“You need a diplomat to handle
the council.
 
Not a novice like her.”

Mayor
Granville Wallace looked at another application.
 
“What about her?”

Strasberg
looked at the application.
 
“Another
no.
 
Too strident.”

“Now look,”
Granville said irascibly, “we’ve got to choose somebody.”

“Does it
have to be a woman?”

“Yes!” the
mayor insisted.
 
“It has to be a
woman.
 
I promised to have the most
diverse administration ever, and I aim to keep that promise.”

“I have
promises to keep too,” a voice said behind them, and both men, startled, turned
quickly.
 
When they saw Mick Sinatra was
entering the den, their hearts pounded.
 
And they both stood up.

“What is the
meaning of this?” Granville asked.
 
He
immediately looked at the surveillance monitor, but his security detail were
standing around outside as if nothing was going on.
 
“How did you get in here?”

“Get out at
once,” Strasberg demanded, “or I’ll have your thuggish ass arrested and arrested
this very night!”

“I have
business with the mayor,” Mick said.

“Didn’t I
tell you to leave? Or am I going to have to make you leave?” Then Strasberg,
forgetting who he was dealing with, pulled out a gun as if he was going to
prove to Mick he meant what he said.
 
But
as soon as Strasberg reached for his gun, Mick reached for his own weapon, with
silencer already attached, and shot the gun out of Strasberg’s hand.
 
Then he shot Strasberg dead.

The mayor
was terrified.
 
“You killed him?
 
You
killed
him?”

“The same is
going to befall you,” Mick said, “if you don’t get my wife released from police
custody, all charges dropped, immediately.”

“Your
wife?
 
What are you talking about?”

But Mick was
in no mood for explanations.
 
He grabbed the
mayor, slammed the side of his head onto the side tabletop, causing immediately
ear damage, and aimed the gun at his skull.
 
“Does it look like I’m fucking with you?” he yelled.
 
“Does it look like I’m here to reason with
you?”

“No!” the
mayor said nervously.
 
“But I can’t do
what you’re asking.
 
I don’t even know
what you’re talking about!”

Mick was in
his face now, and the nose of his gun was inside the mayor’s ear.
 
“I’m talking about you, phoning whoever the
fuck you have to phone, to get my wife released.”

“But my
people are not in place yet.
 
I haven’t
even announced who the new police chief will be---”

“You’re
going to announce that too.
 
You will
honor your deal with me.
 
But right now,
I don’t give a shit about that.
 
Right
now, this is not about your promise to me for rigging that election for
you.
 
This is about my promise to
you.
 
This is about my promise to
motherfucking kill you if you do not have my wife released from the custody of
your police department, with all charges dropped.
 
Dial.
 
Get
it done.
 
Now.”

The mayor
already saw what this man was capable of.
 
He was not going to risk a second demonstration.
 
Besides, that suspicion he had about Mick’s
weakness just proved true.
 
He was
willing to risk his own life to protect his wife.
 
His weakness.
 
Mayor Granville Wallace knew Mick had the upper hand tonight.
 
That gun in his ear proved that.
 
But he would gain the upper hand later.
 
He would exploit Mick’s weakness to gain his
own advantage.
 
This was not over by a
longshot.

But Mick had
the upper hand tonight and, within the hour, Rosalind Sinatra was released from
police custody.
 
All charges dropped.

Rosalind
stepped out of the shower cleansed from all of that jail dirt.
 
She felt rejuvenated.
 
There was still a long road ahead for them,
and Gloria’s situation wasn’t getting any clearer, but at least she and Mick
were together again.

Mick was
lying across the bed, on his back, when Roz came out of the bathroom.
 
He smiled when he saw her.
 
One of the few smiles she’d seen on his face
since Gloria’s disappearance.

She went
over to him, as he pulled her naked body on top of his.
 
They laid there, stomach to stomach, and Roz
removed a strand of his dark hair out of his face.
  
The strain on his face was as obvious to her
as the cleft in his chin.
 
He was a long
way from alright.
 
“You’re going to find
her, Mick,” she said.

“I know.”

“What
happened with the lead?
 
Who was it?
 
What did you find out?”

“It was
Marco Terranz’s brother.”

“Terranz?
 
The ATF agent?
 
The guy Gloria had to kill to save her own
life?”

Mick
nodded.
 
“His brother, yes.
 
He admitted beating her up.”

“Oh,
no.
 
At her condo?”

“He claim it
was on some backroad he can’t remember or identify.
 
But he said it was all set up by some
attractive woman with a name like Beverly.
 
Or Bev, he said.
 
He couldn’t
remember her name exactly.”

But Roz was
intrigued.
 
She lifted her head.
 
“Bev?
 
Like Belle?
 
Could he have meant
Bella Caine?”

Mick
nodded.
 
“He could, yeah.
 
That’s what I figured.”

“So did you
ask her about it?
 
Where’s Bella anyway?”

“My people
have her.
 
They will keep her until I’m
persuaded she’s not involved.
 
My gut
says she’s not, and she says she’s not, but I can’t take any chances.
 
Until I find out what’s going on, she stays
under wraps.
 
Besides,” he said, his hand
rubbing the side of Roz’s face, “she’s the one who called the cops on you.
 
She got you arrested.
 
That cannot go unpunished.”

“But Mick,”
Roz said, “she’s worried about her daughter.
 
She’s worried about herself, I feel you on that, but she’s worried about
her daughter too.
 
Don’t be too harsh.”

“I have no
middle ground,” Mick admitted.
 
“She
knows that.”

Roz knew it
too.
 
“So you’ve detained her the way the
cops detained me?”

“I don’t
know what else to do.” Mick’s voice sounded frustrated.
 
“I have no leads.
 
My people have no leads.
 
There are no leads!
 
If Belle knows anything at all, she’ll
talk.
 
She hates a lack of control.
 
She’ll talk.”

Roz stared
at him.
 
And then exhaled.
 
“I heard Joey left,” she said.

Mick
nodded.
 
“Yeah.
 
I beat his ass and he left.”

“You beat
him?”

“Hell yeah,
I beat his ass.
 
He gave that woman that
tape to implicate you.
 
He started this
shit rolling down that hill.
 
What was I
supposed to do?
 
He knows me.
 
And if he didn’t, he does now.”

“But you
guys were moving forward.
 
Now it’s all
falling apart.
 
I hate that, Mick.
 
I know how that must hurt you.”

And it
did.
 
It hurt him to his core.
 
“But he has to look out for family.”

“He thought
he was looking out for Gloria,” Roz said.

“He was
undermining you more than he was looking out for Gloria.
 
Joey is no fool. He knows you had nothing to
do with that child’s disappearance.
 
He
knows it.
 
This was his payback time.
 
That’s what this entire situation feels like
to me.
 
Some kind of payback.
 
There’s nothing else.
 
There are no more leads to exhaust.
 
And every lead leads back full circle.”

“But why
would Bella allow somebody to beat up her own child?
 
That doesn’t make sense.”

Mick shook
his head.
 
“I don’t know.
 
Gloria and Belle have always had a good
relationship, but they weren’t close.
 
Belle was always out of town, or out of the country, and she never had
that much time for Gloria.”

“Neither did
you,” Roz said honestly.

Mick
nodded.
 
“Neither one of us have been the
world’s best parents.
 
Gloria didn’t get
the
best
of either one of us.”

Roz placed
her hands on the side of his face.
 
“At
least you’re working on it,” she said.

“I need to
work harder,” he admitted.
 
Then he
stared into her eyes.
 
“I’m just glad to
have you back home where you belong.
 
You
didn’t deserve what happened to you.
 
I’m
glad you’re back.”

“I’m glad to
be back, to be honest.
 
Being locked up
can be a scary thing.
 
And try not to
worry yourself crazy, Mick.
 
Gloria will
be back too.
 
Gloria will be home soon
too.”

“But those
fucking cops are involved now too.
 
They
dropped the charges against you, but they couldn’t overlook the carnage they
found at her condo.
 
So they’re looking
into it.
 
They’ve turned back over the
tape, declaring it was illegally obtained and they therefore had no business
viewing it, but they know something terrible happened.”

But Roz was
amazed on one point.
 
“How in the world
did you get them to return that tape?”

Mick didn’t
brag.
 
His methods were too harsh, too
final, for him to ever brag.
 
“They
didn’t want to have to deal with the newly reelected mayor, and the mayor
didn’t want to have to deal with me.”

Roz was no
fool.
 
She knew her sudden release cost
somebody something.
 
“I heard his
campaign manager was found dead at the mayor’s mansion,” she said.
 
“They said it was a self-inflicted
wound.
 
They said the cops are ruling it
a suicide.”

Mick looked
at Roz.
 
“I have to do what I have to do,
Roz.
 
I’ll take out any motherfucker who
stands in my way, to protect my family.”

Roz
smiled.
 
Mick placed a finger in one of
her dimples, pleased that she could still smile after her ordeal.
 
“I love you,” he said.
 
“And I love how you look.
 
You know that?”

“I look
okay.
 
I’ve never thought of looks as my
strong suit.
 
Besides,” she said, “Bella
Caine can run circles around my looks.
 
You know that too, right?”

“I know it,”
Mick replied honestly.
 
“But she can’t
run circles around you.”

Roz smiled
again what Mick considered to be her gorgeous, dimpled smile.
 
“And to think you thought I was going to give
you up for William?
 
Get real!”

“You know
what else she can’t run circles around?”

“What?”

“This ass,”
Mick said, as he began rubbing it.
 
“This
tight, beautiful ass that I need to fuck right now.
 
And I need to fuck it badly.”