Mick Sinatra: The Harder They Fall (13 page)

But not with
Teddy.
 
Because he had debts to settle
too.
 
Because when this was all over, he
was going to do more than get under Cathleen’s skin.
 
He was going to show that bitch just how
sadistic he really could be.

He stood and
tossed a fifty on the table.
 
He missed
his business meeting when Cat called and asked him to meet with her.
 
Now he had to get back into the action before
his old man missed him.

But then his
cell phone rang.
 
When he saw it was his
kid brother, and remembered that his brother was with his father, he answered
quickly.
 
“What’s up?” he asked.

“Dad wants
you to meet us at Roz’s office,” Joey said over the phone.
 
“There’s a problem.”

“What
problem?” Teddy asked, although he didn’t hesitate to hurry out of the
restaurant.

“Roz has
been accused of sexual harassment,” Joey said.

Teddy
stopped in his tracks.
 
What the hell
, he thought.
 
He didn’t authorize that Chad person to make
that shit public!
 
“Who’s accusing her?”
he asked, as if he didn’t know.

“Three of
her male employees.”

And Teddy,
to his additional shock, realized he didn’t know.
 
He had no idea that Chad’s unexpected arrival
in town would suddenly lead to other stories of sex harassment.
 
As if his arrival wasn’t unexpected at
all.
 
As if his arrival was planned all
along!

What the fuck
, Teddy thought angrily as he ran out
of the restaurant.
 
Was he being played
too?

Roz rose from
her desk and ran to Mick when he and Joey walked through her office door.
 
Tee was in the office too, along with Roz’s
senior talent scout, Stu Scott.
 
He and
Tee were at Roz’s desk fielding the phone calls of nervous clients.
 
And there were many.

Mick swept
Roz up into his arms, and held her tightly.
 
Everybody in the family were jealous of their relationship to some
degree, and Joey wasn’t immune to that.
 
But that anguished look on Roz’s face touched him.
 
She was a decent woman.
 
Even Joey knew that.
 
She wouldn’t harass some sorry-ass talent
agents for sex when she had Mick Sinatra in her bed.
 
All to herself.
 
Joey knew this crap had to be a pack of lies.

When they
stopped embracing, Mick looked at Roz.
 
He didn’t have to ask if she was okay.
 
He could see that she wasn’t.
 
“Did you see this coming?” he asked her.

Roz shook
her head.
 
Her eyes were filled with
distress.
 
“No,” she said.
 
“There was no indication whatsoever.
 
None.
 
But I don’t believe in coincidences,” she added.
 
“Chad suddenly shows up, like a blast from
the past, and now this?
 
There has to be
a connection.”

“Damn
straight,” Mick said.
 
“And I’ll find out
what it is.
 
I’ve already ordered my men
to find his ass.”

Roz nodded
her approval.
 
What she loved most about
Mick was how he didn’t require her to explain herself.
 
The allegations were false, and because he
knew her, despite her past with Chad, he knew that they were.
 
She loved him for that.

Stu, after
ending a phone call, walked over to Mick, Roz, and Joey.
 
“Hey Joey.”

“What’s up?”

“Hello, Mr.
Sinatra.”

“How are
you?” Mick asked.
 
He knew how much Roz
respected the guy.
  
It was assumed he
wasn’t a party to these ridiculous allegations.
 
At least Mick hoped he wasn’t.
 
Because heaven help those who were.

“More
clients calling?” Roz asked Stu.

“Many more,”
Stu said.
 
“I had to instruct downstairs
to start fielding calls.
 
I told them to
tell every client that there’s nothing to worry about.
 
The Graham Agency is not going out of
business, which seems to oddly be the concern of many of them, and that the
allegations aren’t true.
 
They all want
to talk directly to you, of course, but they understand they can’t right now.”

Roz shook
her head and looked at Mick.
 
“I hate
this,” she said.
 
“I hate that my clients
have to be tainted by this.”

“They’ll be
okay, Roz,” Stu said.
 
“Don’t worry.”

“That’s
right,” Mick said, placing his hand around her waist.
 
“They’ll get over it.”

“But it’s
just so unfair,” Roz said.
 
“I worked so
hard to make a name for myself in this town, out of your shadow, but the first
thing those reporters mention is that I’m your wife.
 
As if they want to drag you in the mud too.”

“Since my
ass already dirty,” Mick said to laughter from Joey and Stu, “don’t you worry
about me.”

Roz smiled
too and leaned against him.
 
Tee ended
her last call and walked up to them.
 
“We’re starting to get cancellations,” she said.

Roz frowned
and stood erect.
 
“Already?”

“Some
clients just want out before the shit hits the fan,” Stu said.

“I tried to
tell them they were making a big mistake,” Tee added, but Roz cut her off.

“Don’t beg,”
Roz said.
 
“Most of the clients I agreed
to represent were having trouble getting any gigs anywhere, and there was no
agent around that wanted them.
 
But I
signed them anyway.
 
And this is how they
repay me?
 
Don’t you dare beg a single
one,” she said.
 
“If they wanna leave,
fuck’em.
 
Let’em leave.
 
We’re better off without them.”

“Damn
right,” Mick said.
 
He was proud of
Roz.
 
He held her tighter.

“Okay, I
won’t ask them to stay,” Tee said.
 
“But
it’s still a tough thing.
 
I mean three
of your agents are making these allegations.
 
Not just one of them.
 
Everybody
seems to think that makes it true.”

“Yeah,
right,” Roz said.
 
“More like they got
together so people would think that.”

“Who are
these agents anyway?” Mick asked.
 
“How
long have they worked here?”

“They’re all
relatively new,” Tee said, thinking about it.
 
“Most started within the last few months actually.”

That
surprised Mick.
 
“All three of them?”

Roz
nodded.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“Now that you mention it.
 
That’s right.
 
They’re all new.”

“Sounds like
a set up to me,” Joey said.

“To me too,
Joey,” Roz agreed with her stepson.
 
She
was surprised to see him by Mick’s side, but was pleased to see the
reconciliation.
 
“As if they came to work
for me for this very reason.
 
And I
couldn’t turn them down.
 
They had
excellent references.
 
At least on
paper.”

“Did you
verify their references?” Mick asked.

“That’s my
job,” Tee said.
 
“And yes, sir, I
personally contacted every employer they listed.
 
I always do.”

“Give their
resumes to my son,” Mick ordered Tee.

“Yes, sir,”
Tee said, although she didn’t understand why that would matter.
 
But she didn’t question it, and Joey followed
her out of the office.

But Stu
questioned it.
 
“Why would you need their
resumes?” he asked.
 
“If you don’t mind
my asking.”

“I mind,”
Mick said.

“Mick,” Roz
said, upset that he would offend her colleague.
 
“That wasn’t necessary.”

“His
question wasn’t either,” Mick said.
 
“Why
would he care what I’m doing?
 
He needs
to worry about himself and make sure he’s not caught up in this shit.
 
Because those who are will regret it.”

Stu
swallowed hard.
 
This was who he assumed
they meant when some of the staffers called him Mick the Tick.
 
“I’ll be in my office,” he said to Roz.
 
“I’m sure I have a backlog of phone calls
waiting too.”

Roz nodded
and Stu, after giving Mick another look, walked out.

After he
left, Roz looked at her husband.
 
“He’s
not caught up in this,” she assured him.

“You don’t know
that and I don’t either,” Mick assured her.
 
“I just wanted to make it clear, if he is, that he’d better extricate
himself now.
 
He’d better tell what he
knows now.
 
Tomorrow will be too late.”

Then the
reality of the situation returned, and that sinking feeling within Roz’s gut
returned too.
 
“The press conference is
tomorrow,” she said.
 
“I dread to think
how awful it’s going to be.
 
How many
lies they’re going to tell.”

“It’s my
job,” Mick said, “to make sure there will be no press conference.”

Roz looked
at him.
 
“What do you mean?”

“I was about
to head to New York.”

“New York?”

“To confront
who I believe to be the mastermind behind Ma and Pa Kettle’s roadshow.”

“You think
there’s a connection between that car scam and this?” Roz asked.

“What do you
think are the odds that it’s unrelated events in our lives?” Mick asked her.

Roz thought
about it, but she didn’t have to think long.
  
“Given our lives,” she said, “a million to one?”

Mick loved
her perceptiveness.
 
“That’s about
right,” he said.
 
“So in answer to your
question, yes.
 
This shit related.
 
I’ve just got to find out how.”

Roz
exhaled.
 
And fell back into Mick’s arms.

“I’m putting
you, Gloria, and the twins on lockdown until I get back,” Mick said, kissing
the top of her head.
 
“Around the clock
protection with Deuce at your side and Teddy in charge.”

“He’s the
one I expected to show up with you,” Roz admitted.
 
“Where is he anyway?”

“He claimed
he had some meeting about that nightclub he’s trying to get off the ground.
Joey called for him to get here.
 
He
should have been here by now.”

Roz looked
up at Mick.
 
“And what about Joey?” she
asked.

Mick
exhaled.
 
A pained look appeared on his
face.
 
“I can no more shield that boy
from my lifestyle than I can shield myself,” he admitted.
 
“He’s coming with me.”

Roz
nodded.
 
“Good,” she said.
 
“He saved your life that time in that safe
house, remember?
 
He has what it takes.”

“Yeah,” Mick
said.
 
“That’s what I was always afraid
of.”
 
Then he exhaled.
 
“Anyway, let’s get him and get out of here
before more press shows up.”

“They’re
already out there I imagine,” Roz said.

“Oh, yeah,”
Mick responded.

After Joey
retrieved the resumes from Tee, he followed his father and stepmother
downstairs to the lobby.
 
And by the time
they made it out of the lobby doors of the Graham Agency, Roz’s suspicion was
right.
 
The press was out in force.

“Stay beside
me,” Mick said to Roz as he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her
tightly against him.
 
Deuce was already
standing at the end of the walkway beside Roz’s limo, and so was Mick’s driver
waiting beside Mick’s.

“Which limo
are we going to take, Dad?” Joey asked.

“Deuce,”
both Mick and Roz responded.

Joey
attempted to move in front, to direct them through the crowd of media that
suddenly swarmed them, but the media was too aggressive.
 
Joey wasn’t even there, as far as they were
concerned.
 
They saw the big fish, Mick
and Rosalind Sinatra, two for the price of one effort, and they were going for
the story hard.

“Mr.
Sinatra, sir? Any comment?”

“Mr. Sinatra,
how do you feel about the allegations, sir?”

“Mr.
Sinatra, given the nature of the allegations, will you continue to support your
wife?”

And then:
“Mr. Sinatra, is it an insult to your manhood that your wife would need to
harass her employees for sex?”

It was out
of bounds totally, and every other reporter there seemed to know it.
 
They also seemed to love that it was
asked.
 
They held their microphones
closely to Mick’s mouth and followed him toward his waiting limousines.
 
But if that provocative question was meant to
provoke an old pro like Mick, it didn’t work.
 
He kept his family moving.

But Joey,
who was new to the ways of the press, was completely provoked.
 
“Fuck you!” he said to the reporter who had
asked the question, forcing all of the microphones to shift his way.
 
“That’s Mick Sinatra you’re talking
about.
 
Every woman in this town knows
who he is.
 
Who the fuck are you?”

“Who are
you?” another reporter asked.

“I’m Joey
Sinatra,” Joey said proudly.
 
“Now get
the fuck out of my face.” Joey knocked a few of the microphones away.

“What about
you, Mrs. Sinatra?” yet another reporter asked and all microphones moved to
her.
 
“Why did you sexually harass your
employees?”