Mick Sinatra: The Harder They Fall (2 page)

One Month Earlier

“Did you see
her?”
 
Hillary asked.

“See who?”
Cathleen responded.

“That wife
of Mick’s.
 
Roz.
 
She’s in here too.”

They were walking
to their table inside Akon’s restaurant, and Cathleen Thomas nearly broke her
neck as she cranked it from side to side in search of Rosalind Sinatra.
 
When she saw her sitting at a back table
alone, with her plate of food pushed to one side, she stared at her.
 
Roz was reviewing a small stack of papers
spread out in front of her, and typed messages on her cell phone as if she was
the queen of multitasking.
 
Cathleen’s
look turned hard.
 
“I still can’t believe
she got the ring,” she said, “of all of us.
 
It makes no sense.”

“None
whatsoever,” Hillary Riverton agreed.

“And I bet
she was the one who pushed Mick up to do what he did to Joey,” Cathleen added.

But Hillary
wasn’t buying that one.
 
“Oh, please,”
she said.
 
“Nobody pushes Mick Sinatra up
to do anything.
 
Least of all
her
.”

The waiter
sat them at a table in the middle of the crowded restaurant, took their drink
orders, and left.
 
Cathleen sat her Louie
Vuitton purse on the table and removed her coat and gloves.
 
“My son has recovered physically from that
chain gang style beating his father put on him.
 
But emotionally?”
 
Cathleen shook
her head.
 
“He may never recover.
 
Poor baby.
 
And I still say it’s her fault too.
 
Joey wouldn’t have done what he did if she wasn’t monopolizing Mick’s
time.
 
Joey would have never put that
child in harm’s way if his father was more involved in his life.
 
But that bitch over there hates Joey because
his father loves him.
 
It’s her fault
too.”

Hillary
looked at Cathleen as she removed her own coat and gloves.
 
They were card carrying members of the Mick
Sinatra baby mama club, and there were three additional women with cards
too.
 
One of those women, the one sitting
at that table on the other side of the restaurant, had a leg up on them
all.
 
She not only managed to get Mick to
put a ring on it, his first time ever doing that with one of his ladies, but
she also was the only one to bear him twins.
 
There was plenty of scorn to go around for Rosalind Sinatra.
 
But Cathleen, Hillary knew, had an even
deeper reason.

“Joey will
recover emotionally too,” Hillary said.
 
“Just you wait and see.
 
And I
agree with you.
 
Roz could do more to
facilitate Mick spending more time with his children.
 
But don’t let that heifer win.
 
Mick is the one who put that beating on
Joey.
 
Mick is to blame.”

“I know
that,” Cathleen said.
 
“But that bitch
had a hand in it.
 
I know that too.
  
I put as much blame on her for what happened
to Joey, as I put on Mick.”

But across
the room, Rosalind had no idea she was being blamed for anything.
 
She didn’t know that Mick’s former lovers had
even entered the restaurant.
 
She was too
busy texting her assistants with issues she was discovering with each of the
various contracts she reviewed.
 
She ran
a talent agency with many clients, and that job alone commanded all of her
attention.

But she did
manage to notice her client Kinna Franks entering the restaurant.
 
Mainly because she entered so
frantically.
 
Mainly because she looked
around the room as if she would die if she didn’t see who she needed to see,
spotted Roz, and then hurried to her table.
 
“I didn’t get the part, Roz,” she said anxiously, her eyes red from too
many tears.
 
“I didn’t get the part!”

Roz
frowned.
 
“What do you mean you didn’t
get it?
 
You did get it.
 
Jerry called me and offered it to you.
 
What are you talking about?”

“He chose
somebody else,” Kinna said with a whine in her voice.
 
“The casting list was emailed and my name
wasn’t on it.
 
He chose somebody I never
even heard of before!”

Roz didn’t
need this headache.
 
Not today!
 
But she abruptly stopped texting, looked up
the telephone number of Broadway director Jerry Copeland, and gave him a
call.
 
She motioned for the distraught
Kinna Franks to sit down.

Kinna
plopped down.
 
“How could he do this to
me?
 
I don’t know what happened.
 
I was the best one at the auditions, Miss
Roz, I swear I was!
 
Even the stage
manager said I had it in the bag.
 
Even
he said I was the best.
 
I just knew I
had it.”

But Jerry
Copeland’s voice mail picked up.
 
Roz
leaned back in her chair, and left a message.
 
“Jerl, this is Roz Graham.
 
I
don’t know what’s going on, but my client Kinna Franks is telling me she
received the casting list and it didn’t include her.
 
I know that can’t be right because you
assured me she had the part.
 
Please give
me a call back.
 
We need to get this
resolved today.
 
Thanks, Jerl.
 
Bye.”

Roz ended
the call.

“So what do
we do now?” Kinna asked.

“We wait,”
Roz said.
 
“He’ll call when he
calls.
 
But he’ll call.”

“So you
think it could be a mistake?” Kinna asked hopefully.

“I don’t
know,” Roz said, looking over at the entrance as a customer walked in.
 
“But we’ll find out.”

When she
realized who that customer was, and why he caught her eye to begin with,
something changed.
 
Even Kinna saw
it.
 
Roz’s confident face suddenly looked
mortified.

“Miss Roz?”
Kinna asked.
 
“Are you okay?”

Roz’s heart
was pounding.
 
She was a long way from
okay.
 
She began grabbing her papers.

“Roz, what’s
wrong?” Kinna even turned around, to see what the disturbance was.
 
But all she saw was a tall black man waiting
to be seated.
 
She turned back
around.
 
“Are you okay?”

“I’ve got to
run,” Roz said as she stood up.
 
She
grabbed her coat, stuffed the papers into her shoulder bag, and grabbed her
phone.
 
“I’ll let you know what he says
when I get a call back,” she added, and then hurried out of the restaurant from
the side exit door.

It was so
sudden, and so unexpected, that Kinna took note.
 
The man at the entrance took notice too.

But across
the room, Cathleen and Hillary more than noticed Roz’s sudden departure.
 
But unlike Kinna, they saw when the change
occurred.
 
And they saw who caused the
change.

“Waiter,”
Cathleen said excitedly as a waiter was walking pass their table.

The waiter
hurried to her table.
 
“Yes, madam?”

“See if that
gentleman waiting to be seated would like to join us.”

 
The waiter bowed.
 
“Right away, madam,” he said, and went to do
her bidding.

Cathleen
looked at Hillary.
 
“Who knows?
 
It may be nothing.
 
It may be something.”

“From the
way she ran out of this restaurant,” Hillary said, “I say it’s something.”

“So do I,”
Cathleen said happily.
 
“Now, with our
visitor coming over, it’s our job to find out what that something is.
 
And to figure out how in the world we can use
it to our advantage.”

Hillary
smiled and shook her head.
 
“You never
quit, do you?”

“The way
that man did my son?” Cathleen asked.
 
“Never!” she said.

The
limousine and the SUV drove off-road beneath the viaduct and splashed over
water puddles from day old rain.
 
Four
men, led by Barry Criggs, were waiting in the isolated place, all rubbing their
hands together against the cold, all blowing visible breath in the wind as they
waited to see if Mick the Tick would understand.
 
There had been a royal fuck up.
 
But it wasn’t their doing.

When the
vehicles came to a stop, the back door of the limo was opened, and the four men
got inside.
 
All four sat across from
Mick, who was sitting next to his son Teddy Sinatra.
 
Teddy did as he always did in these
situations: he sat quietly, listened to his father, and learned.

The four men
tried to small talk his father at first.
 
They tried to talk about everything but the main thing.
 
It was a fool’s errand, and Teddy knew it.
 
What surprised him was that Criggs and the
guys, all of whom were much older than Teddy, didn’t.

“Wasn’t it
something?” one of them asked.
 
“The way
our Eagles came back from a twenty-eight-point deficit to win?
 
That was some sweet shit there, boss.
 
Some sweet shit.”

 
“What happened?” Mick asked in his quiet,
no-nonsense way.

“The quarterback
threw this incredible pass to Jarrett,” another one said and Mick, without a
moment’s hesitation, lifted the gun they didn’t even realize he had by his side
and shot the talkative guy through the forehead.
 
The other three men slammed their bodies away
from their suddenly fallen comrade.
 
Even
Teddy flinched, but quickly composed himself.
 
His father, he knew, was doing what he had to do.

“I want
another motherfucker to fuck with me,” Mick said angrily.
 
“Now tell me what happened out there, and I
don’t mean what happened at some fucking football game!
 
What happened?
 
I heard it was like taking candy from a
fucking baby the way they took my shit!”

“We were
outmanned, boss,” Criggs said.
 
He was
the leader of the pack, and he knew he had to be the one to convince Mick to
keep them alive.
 
“We were outnumbered
something like five to one.
 
Our men
didn’t stand a chance.”

“And how did
that happen?” Mick asked.
 
“How could it
be that a shipment worth fifty million dollars is unloaded into trucks that all
some fucker had to do was drive up with more men and take it?
 
Where the fuck was the backup crew?
 
Where the fuck was the crew backing up the
backup crew?
 
I told you never cut
corners when it comes to my money, Criggs!
 
How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“But we
thought we had enough people!”

“You
thought
you had enough?” Mick’s voice
rose with anger.
 
“You were thinking you
had enough while my enemies knew your ass didn’t!”

“But we had
it covered, boss,” Criggs said.
 
He knew
his butt was on the grill.
 
He knew he
was going to be the one to get it if he didn’t come up with a better
explanation fast.
 
If he didn’t convince
his long time boss that he knew what he was doing.
 
“We covered that waterfront.
 
I swear to you we had every single angle
covered.
 
I didn’t drop the ball.
 
You know me, boss!
 
I never drop the ball.
 
What can you do to a guy like me who never,
before this shit went down, did nothing but good work for you?”

But Mick
frowned.
 
“What can I do to you?” he
asked.
 
“What do you think I’m going to
do to you?
 
Thank you for a job well
done?
 
Reward you for your past
service?
 
This shit ain’t static, it’s
fluid!
 
I can’t keep men around who did a
good job yesterday but fucked the hell up today!
 
Who do you think I am?
 
Unless you have fifty million dollars in your
back pocket right now, you know what I’m going to do to you!”