Mick Sinatra: The Harder They Fall (17 page)

“This better
be worth it,” Lenny said.

“It’s bad, boss,”
Frog said, quickly closing the door behind them.

“What is
it?” Al asked.
 
“What’s so bad?
 
It’s too fucking cold to be out in this
weather.”

“They came
to see me,” Frog said.

Lenny looked
at Frog.
 
“Who came to see you?”

“Mick’s
men,” Frog said.

Both Lenny
and Al were surprised.
 
“When?” Al asked.

“What did he
want?” Lenny asked.

“And Mick,”
Frog said.

Both men
were now stunned.
 
“Mick Sinatra came to
see you?” Al asked nervously.

“Yes!” Frog
said.
 
“I told you it was bad!”

“Well what
did he want?” Lenny asked.

“He wanted
to know if I had anything to do with his wife’s car accident.”

“But why
would he think you were involved in something like that?” Lenny asked.
 
“Why would he think you of all people would
have anything to do with it?”

“How should
I know?” Frog asked.
 
“He was asking
questions.”

But Lenny
knew better than that.
 
He remembered how
ruthless Mick the Tick could be.
 
“Who
talked?” he asked Frog.

“Nobody
talked!” Frog insisted.
 
“He was just
fishing.
 
He was on a fishing
expedition.”

Lenny frowned.
 
“What are you out of your fucking mind?
 
Micky Sinatra don’t go on no
got
damn fishing expeditions!
 
If he showed up it’s because he knows
something.”

“But how can
he?” Al asked Lenny.
 
“We were
careful.
 
We covered all our tracks.
 
He could never put two and two together and
come up with us!”

“He would if
somebody talked,” Lenny said, looking at Frog again.
 
“He would if somebody caved!”

“I didn’t
cave,” Frog insisted.
 
“I didn’t talk!”

“What about
the scammers you hired?” Lenny asked.
 
“Could they have talked?”

Lenny, as
usual, had hit the nail on the head.
 
But
Frog could never admit it.
 
“No!” he
insisted.
 
“And say what?
 
What are they gonna say?
 
They don’t know what we’re up to.”

“Yeah, but
they know you,” Al said.
 
“Micky came to
you.”
 
Then Al thought about it.
 
“And he let you live?”

“Because he
knew I didn’t know anything!” Frog said.
 
“I’m trying to tell you he’s fishing.
 
Those two scammers who did the crash for cash are middle America people.
 
Mick would never suspect them.”

“Where are they
now?” Lenny asked.
 

Frog hadn’t
heard from Joe and Betty Alanbeck since last night, when the accident
occurred.
 
But telling Lenny that would
be his own end, and he knew it.
 
“They’re
back in Buffalo,” he said.
 
“They did
what I asked them to do.
 
They reported
back to me.
 
And I paid them.
 
Now they’re gone back to doing what they do.”

Lenny let
out a harsh exhale.
 
Then he shook his
head.
 
“But I know Micky Sinatra.
 
I know that motherfucker.
 
He doesn’t drop by for the hell of it.
 
He has to know something.”

“But what
can he know?” Al asked.
 
“We were
careful.
 
We planned this shit to the
last detail.
 
Sinatra may be smart, I’ll
give him that.
 
But he’s not
that
smart.
 
And he’s no
got
damn clairvoyant!”

“Which
brings me back to my point,” Lenny said, looking at Frog once again.
 
“He knows something.”
 
Then he nodded.
 
“Get the scammers on the phone,” he said.

Frog’s heart
dropped.
 
“The scammers?” he asked.
 
“Why?”

“Get them on
the phone!” Lenny ordered.
 
“You don’t question
me!
 
You just do it!”

But Frog
knew he couldn’t do that.
 
The scammers
were most likely dead.
 
The scammers were
most likely the very reason Mick the Tick showed up in New York today.
 
“I lost their number,” he said.

And it was
then and only then that Lenny and Al were convinced.
 
There had been a breach, and Frog had caused
it.
 
They stared at their subordinate.

“I mean,”
Frog said, backing up.
 
He knew that
look.
 
“I can find it.
 
I just got to get my phone.
 
My new phone.”

He turned to
run, which was always his natural instinct, but Lenny was too quick.
 
He shot him in the back.
 
Multiple times.
 
By the time Frog fell, he was already dead.

“Damn!”
Lenny said.
 
“Damn!
 
Damn!
 
Damn!
 
How could he be that
sloppy?
 
How could he hire people Sinatra
could so easily get a read on?
 
They were
supposed to be average joes.
 
They were
supposed to look so ordinary they wouldn’t have that con look anywhere near
them!”

“The
question is,” Al asked, “how much does Micky know?”

Then Al
exhaled.
 
“What else can he know?” he
continued.
 
“Frog didn’t even know what
we were really up to.
 
He thought we just
wanted to see how Sinatra would respond if he thought his wife was at risk.
 
Frog said he was quick about it, and his wife
was no slouch either.
 
But that’s all
Frog knew.”

“We’ve got
to destroy him,” Lenny said.
 
“That’s all
I know.
 
He killed my brother like he was
discarded trash, but he gets to walk around like the prince of Philadelphia.
 
I’ve been planning and plotting this shit for
months.
 
I finally get an angle.
 
I finally realize what it’ll take to bring
his ass down.
 
You can’t go at Mick
Sinatra with all guns blazing.
 
He’ll
just wait until you empty your bullets, and then start firing.”

Al
chuckled.
 
“You know you’re right!
 
Meanest bastard I’ve ever met.”

“You have to
chip away,” Lenny continued.
 
“We were
chipping away at that black chick he loves.
 
First the car accident to see just how much he loves her by his reaction
time.”

“And then I
got Chad Dawkins to show up and plant some lies about me and Mick’s old lady,”
Al said.

“We were
chipping away.
 
We were chipping away at
the wife.
 
There’s no way Mick could put
all of that together with that car accident.
 
And that car accident was all Frog knew about!”

“But I knew
Frog,” a voice suddenly said, and Lenny and Al both began shooting as they
turned to the sound.
 
They didn’t
hesitate.
 
They didn’t wait to see it to
believe it.
 
Because they knew who that
voice belonged to.
 
They shot and they
shot at that backroom door.
 
They were so
terrified that they couldn’t bring themselves to stop shooting until they had
emptied their ammunition.

And then,
after they realized, to their horror, that they had no more firepower left,
Mick walked out of that bullet-riddled backroom door.
 
Danny, Angelo, and Joey walked out behind
him.

“I knew
Frog,” Mick said again, “and I knew Frog worked for you.”
 
He was looking at and walking toward Lenny
D’Amato.
 
“And just like Danny and Angelo
works for me, I knew he worked for you exclusively.
 
I knew he didn’t shit unless you ordered him
to shit.”

Lenny was
defeated.
 
He knew it.
 
But his hatred for Mick was too deep for him
to ever surrender.
 
“You killed my
brother.
 
You know that, motherfucker?”

Joey was the
one who had actually killed Stone Cold D’Amato when D’Amato was about to kill
Mick.
 
But Mick let it be known that he
was the killer.
 
Mick protected Joey from
any blowback.
 
“Stone Cold got what he
deserved,” Mick said, still protecting his son despite knowing the fate these
two men faced.
 
“I’d do it all over again
if I had to.”

“Rot in
hell!” Lenny said between clenched teeth.

Mick
smiled.
 
“But I think you are not in
position to tell me to rot anywhere.
 
I
think you are the one who will be rotting first.”

Then Mick
looked at Al Zanetti.
 
“Hello Alphonse,”
he said.

“Fuck you,
Micky!” Al shot back.
 
“If you’re gonna
kill us, kill us!
 
We won’t be kissing
your ass!”

“Oh, but you
used to love kissing it,” Mick responded.
 
“You wanted to be just like me.
 
You wanted to walk like me.
 
You
wanted to dress like me.
 
You wanted to
fuck the women I fucked.”

“You ruined
my life when you fired me,” Al responded. “Someday somebody’s gonna ruin
yours!”

“Someday
maybe,” Mick said.
 
Then his look turned
cold as ice.
 
“But not this day.
 
And not by the hands of two sorry-ass punks
like you.”

He
frowned.
 
“I was listening to your little
conversation.
 
You said you planned to
chip away at my wife.
 
That was the way
it was phrased.
 
You two planned to chip
away at my wife.”

“That’s how
we put it,” Al said.
 
“Big deal!”

Rage pierced
Mick’s heart, but he kept his cool and reached inside of his overcoat.
 
He pulled out a machete.

Al and Lenny
both stiffened as soon as they saw it.
 
They knew Mick.
 
They knew how
ruthless he could be.

“Maybe I can
return the favor,” Mick said.
 
“Maybe I can
chip away at you.”

“No!” Al
cried as Mick, without hesitation, chopped off his right arm.
 
The blood gushed out, hitting some of Mick’s
men.

“And maybe I
can chip away a little more,” Mick said, as he chopped off Al’s left arm.
 
Al fell to his knees in agony.
 
And then, as the blood flowed too rapidly, he
fell over and died.

Lenny,
certain that Mick had the same horrific fate in store for him, ran toward the
window and tried with all he had to throw himself out through the glass.
 
But the glass was too tempered.
 
It wouldn’t break.
 

And then
Mick Machete, singularly focused on ridding his family from this clear and
present danger in front of him, was upon him too.

Three weeks later

“Why is he
making me come to a Cadillac Dealership, Deuce?” Roz asked as the limo stopped
in the dealership’s parking lot.

“Maybe he
wants to buy you a Cadillac,” Deuce said.
 
“You still haven’t settled on what car you want to replace your wrecked
Rolls Royce.”

“But I’m not
a Cadillac person,” Roz said.
 
“Don’t get
me wrong, now.
 
Those ladies be styling
in their Caddies.”
 
But her true
preference was another Rolls Royce, or a Bentley, if truth be told.

“Don’t knock
it,” Deuce advised as he opened his door and prepared to get out.
 
“I’ve driven many cars in my day.
 
No car drives better, nor looks prettier in
my opinion, than a Caddy on the road.”

But as Deuce
opened the backdoor and Roz stepped out, she wasn’t feeling it.
 
When she tried to tell Deuce that very thing
over the phone, he wasn’t trying to hear her.
 
He wanted her to meet him at the Cadillac dealership.
 
He wasn’t leaving it up for debate.

Now she was
on the car lot.
 
And Deuce wasn’t
lying.
 
Those Cadillacs were
gorgeous.
 
But she always equated them
with old, rich white guys in golf caps, or middle-aged, wealthy black women
with blue hair.
 
She didn’t fall into
either category.
 
These cars, though
beautiful, wasn’t for her.

 
She saw Mick and headed his way.
 
Mick, along with what appeared to be a
fast-talking salesman, was standing beside a big, white Cadillac Escalade.

“It’ll give
you that kind of protection,” the salesman was saying.
 
“I guarantee you that.
 
They don’t call it the SUV for the family
with style for nothing.”
 
Then he saw
Roz.
 
“Hello there.”

“Hi,” Roz
said with a smile.

“May I help
you?”

Mick placed
an arm around Roz’s waist.
 
“This is my
wife,” he said to the salesman.

“Mrs.
Sinatra,” the salesman said, a slight look of surprise in his eyes.
 
“How good to meet you.”

Roz looked
at Mick.
 
“Really, Mick?
 
An Escalade?
 
For me?”

“For me,”
Mick said.
 
“I wanted you to see it
before I bought it.”

Roz was even
more surprised.
 
She smiled.
 
“For your men, or for you?”

“For my
family,” Mick said.
 
“What do you
think?
 
Gorgeous or what?”

“Gorgeous,”
Roz said.
 
“It’s very nice.
 
But is it you?
 
I’m not sold.”

“Sold,” Mick
said to the salesman, and they shook hands.

“I’ll draw
up the paperwork, sir,” the happy salesman said as he hurried toward the
showroom.

“It’s not
about me anymore, Rosalind,” Mick said.
 
“We
have the twins to think about now.
 
And
what if we wanted to do a family outing with all of the kids?
 
I have five, you know.
 
We need the space.
 
I don’t want us piling in some limousine
every time we want to go out together.”

“But you
have a fleet of SUVs, Mick.
 
Big, black,
reliable SUVs.”

A pain shot
through Mick’s body as if it were a reminder of his still unsettled life.
 
“Those are for business use only.
 
My family life is separate.”

Roz looked
at him.
  
She felt the pain too.
 
“I’m just glad it’s over.
 
I hated what I had to do to Stu, but he left
me no choice.”

“You and
Teddy did the right thing,” Mick said, pulling her closer against his
side.
 
“Don’t ever leave them around to
come back for you.
 
They might miss you
and hit one of our children.”

Roz
nodded.
 
“I agree,” she said.

“My men took
care of that bastard Chad Dawkins too.
 
I
would have kicked Cathleen’s ass for entertaining him and his nonsense, and for
trying to get dirt on you in the first place.
 
But I didn’t want to alienate Joey again.”

“Good,” Roz
said.
 
“She’s not worth it.”

“But I still
paid her ass a visit,” Mick said.
 
“I
still laid down the law with her.
 
She
won’t be getting another chance.”

Roz
nodded.
 
“I’m just sorry my three
accusers got away with it,” she said.

Mick looked
at her.
 
“Who says they got away with
it?”

Roz was
confused.
 
“But after they admitted they
lied at that press conference, they went back to their lives in New York.
 
Or, at least, that’s what I thought
happened.”

“You thought
wrong,” Mick said.
 
“No fucker is going
to make those kind of allegations against my wife and expect to walk away scot
free.
  
They plotted and planned that
shit for months.
 
They smiled in your
face as if they were on your side, and then tried to stab you in the back.
 
They got theirs.
 
You better believe they got theirs.
 
And if Cathleen hadn’t been Joey’s mother,
she would be right there at the bottom of the ocean with those assholes.”

Roz rubbed
her forehead.
 
“Such tangled webs,” she
said.
 
“Why do they keep insisting on
weaving them?
 
Don’t they realize who you
are by now?
 
Look like Cathleen would
have known.
 
She used to share your bed.
 
I’m sure she’s seen the extent of your rage a
time or two.”

“I never
wasted that kind of energy on my lovers,” Mick admitted.
 
“Only on my enemies and my loved ones.
 
Never on lovers.
 
They have never been worth it to me.
 
Cathleen didn’t know the extent of my wrath.
 
But she knows now.”

Roz
smiled.
 
“Yet I have to endure it night
after night.”

Mick looked
at her doubtfully.
 
“What wrath of mine
you endure night after night?”

“The wrath
of your penis,” Roz said, and Mick grabbed her in a playful bear hug,
laughing.
 
She laughed too.

But as that
same big penis of his began to jut against her small tight ass, his seriousness
returned.
 
“Another thing that big SUV is
good for,” he said in her ear as he continued to hold her.

“What’s
that?” Roz asked.

“It’s great
for pulling over on the side of the road, lifting up the window tint, and
fucking in the backseat.”

Roz
smiled.
 
“Like kids,” she said.

“If you
weren’t my wife, and if I didn’t respect you the way I respect you, as soon as
we leave this place I’d pull over and start taking care of business all over
you.”

Roz smiled
and looked at him.
 
It was only then did
she see just how serious he was.
 
“After
we secure our ride,” he said, “we’ll stop at a hotel.
 
I can’t make it all the way home.”

Roz stared
at him, then decided.
 
“I’ve got a better
idea,” she said.

After Mick
wrote a check and purchased the Escalade, and after Roz got behind the wheel,
they were off.
 
And true to her word, she
didn’t drive all the way to their estate.
 
She, instead, drove to a familiar suburban house that Mick had all but
forgotten about.

“Isn’t this
your old house?” he asked.
 
“The house
you were renting before we got married?”

Roz
nodded.
 
“Yes,” she said.

He looked at
her.
 
“What’s this about?”

Roz wasn’t
sure how he was going to take it, but she was sure she had to tell him the
truth.
 
“I bought it,” she said.

“You were
renting it,” Mick said.

“With the
option to buy,” Roz said.
 
“And just
before we got married, I bought it.”

Mick was
floored.
 
“But why?
 
You were going to live with me.”

“I know I
was.
 
But . . .”

Mick stared
at her as they sat in the driveway of the modest home.
 
He did not speak in the silence.
 
He waited for her to continue.

“But it’s
good to have your own, Mick.
 
I was about
to get married for the first time ever, and move into your house and your life
and your world.
 
I needed to have
something here in Philly that was mine first.”

“You were
afraid it may not work out for us?” Mick asked her.

Roz hated to
admit it, but she knew she had to.
 
“You
never know,” she said.

Mick stared
at her.
 
And then he nodded.
 
“Always think like that,” he told her.
 
“Do you have a separate bank account too?” he
asked her.

She
nodded.
 
“Yes.”

“Good,” he
said.
 
“I want you to stay strong and
independent that way.
 
Because if
something happens to me and the Feds freeze my assets, you can’t afford to
scramble around.
 
You’ve got to be able
to keep our children afloat.
 
You know
about our offshore accounts?”

Roz
nodded.
 
Shortly after they were married,
Mick showed her all of the various bank accounts he had overseas.
 
All of the various bank accounts the Feds
knew nothing about.
 
“Yes,” she
said.
 
“I remember.”

“Those you
do not touch until after the heat is completely off,” he reminded her.
 
“I’m glad you thought to have something to
tie you over.”

Roz was
pleased by his response.
 
She leaned over
and kissed him on the lips.
 
“You’re the
best,” she said.
 
But when she was about
to move away, he pulled her back.
 
And
kissed her harder.

“But Mick,”
she said playfully, between kisses, “you said you respect me too much to do it
in a car.”

“But this is
an SUV,” Mick responded.
 
When Roz hit
him on his arm, he laughed.

“Come on,”
he said, grabbing her hand and getting them both out on the passenger side,
“let’s get it on!”

They got it
on.
 
In the bedroom of the furnished
house.
 
All that could be heard was
Mick’s big dick pumping into Roz’s tight pussy.
 
All that could be seen was their discarded clothes strewn throughout the
room, and their two naked bodies making love on the pillow top bed.

Roz was on
top, riding him hard, and the pain she felt every time she went all the way down
on him was only matched by the pleasure she felt coming back up.
 
He was long and thick and juicy, and she was
enjoying the long ride.
 

He was
squeezing her breasts and fondling her nipples, which she also enjoyed, as she
rode him.
  
And she was moving her body
in ways that made his cock hit her sensitive spots every time she rode
him.
 
She was in control of their
journey, and he allowed her to take the reins.

Until she
was getting too good at it.
 
Until her
movements weren’t only hitting her sensitive spots, but his as well.
 
And then he took over.

He pulled
her body down on top of his, sucking her breasts as she moved closer to his
face, and his strokes paced faster.
 
He
pumped into her with force going in, and tenderness moving out.
 
Over and over he repeated his strokes until
he was in that groove that kept them both on the verge of cum.
 
It was that sweet spot they loved.
 
It was where the moment was so enjoyable, and
so soothing, that it felt as if it would never end.