Mick Sinatra: The Harder They Fall (7 page)

“I was going
to pick her up,” Teddy said.
 
“But she
told me she had to deal with a distraught client or something and couldn’t
leave the office right away.
 
She said
she’ll meet us here.”

“And she’s
not here?” Mick asked.

Teddy
realized Roz wasn’t known for her tardiness.
 
“No, sir,” he said.

Mick quickly
reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone, and called her.
 
Joey rolled his eyes.
 
It was always about Roz all the time!

“I hope
she’s on her way,” Gloria said as Mick made his call.
 
“I have a hot date tonight.
 
You guys are cutting into my date time!”

Teddy
smiled.
 
“And why is that, Glo?
 
Because those men you date are so old they
have to be in bed by eleven?”

Joey
laughed.
 
Gloria threw her napkin at him.

“Where are
you?” Mick asked when Roz came on the line.

“I’m just
leaving the office, sorry,” Roz said over the phone.
 
“I had to tell a client she didn’t get a
certain role in a play and it didn’t go so well.
 
But I’m on my way.”

“Drive
carefully,” Mick said, “but get here.”

“I will,”
she said.
 
They ended the call, and Mick
sat his phone on the table.
 
“Who with?” he
asked, and then looked at Gloria.

“Yeah,”
Teddy asked, smiling at his half-sister.
 
It was no secret to anyone that he was impressed with Gloria.
 
If he had to pick a woman, he would want his
woman to be just like Glo.
 
And he didn’t
mean because of her physical beautiful either.
 
But because of her heart and spirit and decency.
 
“Who is this hot date?”

“None of
your business,” Gloria said to Teddy.

“None of
mine either?” Mick asked.

Gloria’s
heart began to beat faster.
 
She knew, if
she said the name, her father would run a background check on the guy, declare
him unsuitable, and that would be the end of a budding romance.
 
She felt she had no choice.
 
“His name is Derby,” she said.

Mick leaned
back.
 
He wasn’t even looking at Gloria,
but Teddy, who knew his father’s moods better than any of them, knew that he
was highly pissed with her.

Teddy,
fearing for his sister, decided to give her an out.
 
“Now tell us his real name,” he said with a
grin.

When Gloria
looked his way, he gave a slight head movement toward their father.
 
It was only then did Gloria realize that
Mick, and the spies he often had tailing his children, probably already knew
chapter and verse about her new love interest.
 
He probably knew more than she knew about the guy.
 
And she had the nerve to lie to him?
 
“I knew you were going to say that,” she said
to her brother, thankful for his heads-up.
 
“His real name is Deburt Morney.
 
Alright?”

“How old is
he?” Teddy asked.
 
“Let me guess.
 
Dad’s age, right?”

“Very funny,”
Gloria said, although Mick wasn’t laughing at all.
 
He knew the fact that Gloria was always
attracted to older men was because she had daddy issues.
 
Because he wasn’t there for her when she
needed him most.
 
“No, he’s not Dad’s
age,” she said to Teddy.

“But older
than you?” Teddy asked.

Gloria
didn’t respond and took a sip from her drink instead.
 
When a lull in the conversation occurred,
Gloria decided to go there.
 
It was the
only way, she felt, that her private life wouldn’t be the hot topic of conversation.
 
“Dad,” she said, “may I ask you something?”

Mick looked
at her.
 
She was the spitting image of
her mother Bella Caine, which meant she was most attractive.
 
But she also had her mother’s inquisitiveness
that sometimes veered too far from her business into his.
 
A trait that irritated him.
 
“You may ask,” he said.

“Why did you
beat Joey the way you did?”

Teddy and
Joey both were stunned that Gloria had asked that question.
 
They couldn’t believe she had gone
there.
 
But if anybody could get away
with it with their father, they also knew, it was Glo.

Mick could
have been upset, but to Gloria’s relief, he wasn’t.
 
“Did your brother not tell you why?” he asked
her.

“He told us
what he wanted us to know.”

“Which was
nonsensical even to our simple minds,” Teddy added.

“None of
your business,” Joey interjected to both of his siblings.
 
“That’s what happened!”

“Your
brother,” Mick said, refusing to go along with Joey’s attempt to end the
conversation, “participated in the kidnapping of Sal Gabrini’s son.”

Both Teddy
and Gloria looked at Joey with pure shock in their eyes.
 
“He
what
?”
they both asked in unison.

“If I would
have allowed Sal Gabrini to do to your brother what he wanted to do to him,”
Mick continued, “he would not have been scarred by a chain beating by my
hand.
 
He would have been dead by a
bullet from Sal’s hand.”

“Damn right,
Joey,” Teddy said with a frown on his face.
 
“What the fuck were you thinking?
 
You fucked with Sal Gabrini?
 
Sal Gabrini
?
 
Are you fucking kidding me?”

Joey frowned.
 
“It has nothing to do with you, aw’ight?
 
Dad took care of it.
 
I have the scars to prove it!”
 
He held out his scarred arms.
 
“So I don’t know why you’re tripping about it
now.
 
It’s over.”

Gloria shook
her head.
 
“You need counseling, boy.”

“Maybe I should
give him an ass-whipping too,” Teddy said angrily.
 
“For being stupid!”

“Forget
you!” Joey said with equal venom, and looked out of the window.

Mick’s drink
arrived just as his cell phone began to ring.
 
When he looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Roz, he picked up
immediately.
 
“Are you outside?” he
asked.

“I’m on
Tyler.
 
Across from Glasco.
 
I just rear-ended somebody, Mick.
 
They just suddenly hit on brakes and I had no
choice.”

Mick’s heart
pounded.
 
He immediately smelled a
rat.
 
“Has the police arrived?” he asked
as he motioned for Gloria to let him out.

“No.
 
It just happened. I haven’t even gotten out
of the car yet.”

“Don’t get
out until I get there!” he ordered.
 
“Are
people around?
 
Are other cars around?”

“No, not
really.”

A terrified
look appeared on Mick’s face.
 
His
children had never seen him so unhinged.

“Drive away
right now,” he ordered.

“I tried
already,” Roz said.
 
“My car won’t
crank.
 
But I’ve got my gun out, it’s
loaded, and I’m going to shoot the first motherfucker who tries anything
stupid!”

Thank
goodness she had balls, Mick felt.
 
“Good,” he said.
 
“You fire on
those fuckers first and ask questions later.
 
I’m on my way!”

 
“But Dad,” Joey said, astounded.
 
“You’re going to just leave?”

But Mick was
doing just that.
 
He was running out of
that restaurant.
 
He was pulling out his
second cell phone, phoning his men to get to Tyler too, and running.

Teddy, who
knew the peril Roz could be in, tossed a hundred dollar bill on the table,
jumped up, and was running behind him.

“Let’s go
too, Joey!” Gloria said urgently as she grabbed her purse and ran behind their
father and brother.

Joey was in
a state of shock.
 
He hadn’t had a chance
to ask their father anything he wanted to ask him.
 
He hadn’t had a chance to get back in his old
man’s good graces the way his mother and Hillary wanted.
 
Now they were off to the races over that damn
Roz again.
 
Roz again!
 
But he didn’t hesitate.
 
He was off to the races too.
 

They jumped
into their father’s four-seater Maserati and had barely closed the door when
Mick put pedal to the medal and sped off.
 
The pure power sound of that revved up engine caused the valets to smile
and shake their head as the car sped away from the restaurant.
 
When it made it onto the street, it completed
a fast U-turn, and then flew.

Gloria and
Joey sat in the backseat, while Teddy sat up front with their father, and all
three held on for dear life.
 
Their
father might have been dressed conservatively in his expensive business suit,
but he was changing gears like an all-pro racer.
 
Zoom!
the car went.
 
Za-zoom
! it went some more.
 
And Mick was turning corners and going around curves as if he lived for
this shit.

And Joey,
who wanted to live for this kind of adrenalin rush too, was elated.
 
He loved it!
 
He looked at his father, at his big biceps so muscle-tight even through
that suit coat, at the way he maneuvered through traffic, and he loved him for
being so big and strong and so fucking cool.
 
He wanted to be just like him!
 
He
had to get back in his good graces.
 
He
had to do everything in his power to make this right.
 
Because he loved this!
 
He wanted this!
 
He wanted to be just like Mick the Tick.

When Mick
finally arrived at the scene, he saw Roz still sitting in the bright red Rolls
Royce he purchased for her, as he had instructed her.
 
An older white couple, presumably the owners
of the severely wrecked minivan, was standing beside her car.
 
They looked innocent enough to Mick, like two
middle America people who actually didn’t have a clue, but he still wasn’t
taking any chances.
 
He pulled his gun
from his glove compartment.
 
“Wait here,”
he ordered Gloria and Joey.
 
“Back me
up,” he ordered Teddy.

Teddy pulled
out his gun and stayed at the ready as Mick got out of the car with his own gun
concealed at his side.

When Roz saw
Mick approaching through her rearview mirror, she got out of her car.
 
She would have sooner, because she was pretty
certain the old couple had no hidden agenda, but she obeyed Mick and waited.
 
Now she was relieved to see him.
 
“You got here super-fast,” she said as he
approached her.

“Everybody
okay?” Mick asked, although his entire focus was on Roz.

“We’re
fine,” the woman said.

“Just sorry
it all happened,” said the man.

Mick moved
to the front to see the extent of the damage to the Rolls.
 
It was extensive.
 
Total loss extensive, in his view.
 
“Police called yet?” he asked.

“Well, no,
sir,” the old man said.
 
“We didn’t see
any need for that.
 
Given how it was just
a simple accident.
 
I hit on brakes
because I was about to miss my turn, and the young lady here simply couldn’t
stop in time.
 
It’s my fault entirely.”

When Mick
heard those words, he stared into that man’s eyes.
 
He wasn’t buying what he was selling.
 
In Mick’s world, only a fool would admit
guilt when he was the one rear-ended.
 
This man didn’t look like a fool to Mick.

He moved up
to the man, placed his gun in the man’s gut, and placed his hand around the
man’s neck.
 
Roz was stunned.

“Who paid
you?” Mick asked the man.

“What are you
doing?” the man’s wife asked, astounded too.
 
But even Roz could see a change in her look too.

Teddy,
behind them, got out of the Mick’s car and began looking around for any ambush
activity.
 
But he wasn’t needed.
 
Mick’s men, who had been ordered to the
scene, arrived in an SUV.
 
They arrived
five men deep, led by Mick’s best enforcers: Danny Padrone and Angelo
Jovanni.
 
All five got out.

“Frisk him,”
Mick said to Angelo.

Angelo
patted the driver down.
 
“He’s clean,
boss,” he said.

“Tell me who
paid you,” Mick said, “or I will splatter your brains right on this
thoroughfare, and pile your wife’s on top of it.
 
Who paid you to force this accident?”

Roz was
astounded by Mick’s perception of these people.
 
How could he think they were being paid at all?
 
What did he see that she didn’t see?

“Nobody’s
paying us,” the driver said.
 
“I don’t
know what you’re talking about, sir.”

“So you
expect me to believe that your sudden brake slam was innocent?” Mick asked.

The driver
knew he couldn’t insult the man’s intelligence.
 
He obviously knew better.
 
“No,
sir,” he said.
 
“I’m not saying
that.
 
But nobody paid us to do it,
honest.
 
We do it by ourselves.”

Roz
frowned.
 
“You do what by yourselves?”

“Insurance
fraud,” the woman said.
 
“We don’t know
what this is about,” she added nervously, “but we didn’t think she was anybody
special.
 
I mean, we didn’t know she
belonged to somebody like you or we wouldn’t have done it.”

Roz was
amazed.
 
“So you caused this accident on
purpose?” she asked.

The woman
nodded.
 
The man spoke.
 
“This is what we do.
 
We go from town to town doing it.
  
Most people just give us some money at the
scene, and sometimes we file a claim.
 
But nobody’s putting us up to it.
 
It’s just how we supplement our income.”

Roz smiled
and shook her head.
 
“I’ll be damn,” she
said.
 
“I never would have guessed it in
a million years.
 
I’m thinking I’m
dealing with Ma and Pa Kettle when I’m really dealing with Bonnie and Clyde!”

Mick’s men
laughed.
 
Even Bonnie and Clyde relaxed.

But Mick
didn’t.
 
Because he wasn’t buying their
oh golly gee
act.
 
He wasn’t buying it at all.
 
“Ted!” he yelled.

Teddy
hurried to his father’s side.
 
Joey and
Gloria, still inside the Maserati, leaned forward to see what was about to go
down.

“Yes, sir?”
Teddy asked as he hurried up to Mick.

“Take them
to McCormick.”
 
McCormick
was the name of one of Mick’s safe houses on McCormick
Blvd.
 
“They’re bullshitting me now.
 
Taking me for a fool.
 
Get the real story.
 
Stay there until their asses tell you who’s
the brains behind the act.”

“But I told
you there is no one else,” the driver pleaded.
 
“It’s just the two of us, sir.
 
It’s just my wife and I!”

Mick ignored
him.
 
Teddy looked at Mick’s men.
 
“You heard the boss.
 
Let’s get this show on the road!”

Mick’s men
grabbed the couple and put them in the SUV.
 
Angelo drove the couple’s beat up van away, while Teddy and the others
drove off in the SUV.
 
Danny Padrone
remained with Roz’s inoperable Rolls, to wait on the wrecker.
 
Then Mick looked at Roz.

“You think
it’s more than just a scam?” she asked him.
 
“They look like a couple of hillbillies to me.
 
But I know.
 
Never judge a book by its cover.”

“What did I
tell you?” Mick asked her.

Roz was
slightly puzzled.
 
“What do you
mean?
 
About that couple?”

“About
your
ass!” Mick fired at her.
 
“Didn’t I tell you to stay in that car?”

Roz
frowned.
 
“I did stay in it!”
 
Then she realized that wasn’t entirely
true.
 
If she had stayed in the car, she
would still be in the car.
 
“I stayed in
until you came,” she said.

Mick looked
at her.
 
He was dead serious.

“How was I
supposed to know they were crooks, Mick?”

“You
weren’t,” Mick responded.
 
“I am supposed
to know it.
 
That’s my job.
 
That’s why when I tell you to do something,
you do it.
 
From start to finish!
 
I have to know that you’ll do what I say,
Rosalind, in situations like this.”
 
His
heart was hammering when he got the call from her.
 
He wasn’t sure how many more calls like that
he could take.

When Roz
realized how pained Mick looked, she immediately realized her error.
 
She reached out to him.
 
He pulled her into his arms.
 
“I’m sorry, babe,” she said.
 
“It won’t happen again.”

“It better
not,” Mick said mercilessly.
 
And then he
squeezed her, held her as tight as he could, and then began looking around.
 
“Let’s get out of here,” he said, “before I
have to use this thing.”
 
The “thing” he
was referencing was the gun he still held in his hand.
 
They began walking toward his car.

Joey and
Gloria remained in the backseat of their father’s Maserati and watched them as
they came.
 
They watched the way Mick
held onto Roz as if she would melt away if he let go.
 
And both of his children, each in their own
way, were envious of that kind of love.

With their
surround sound stereo in the background, playing old school music to mute their
moans and groans, Roz was on top of Mick, riding his penis hard, and he was
holding her steady by the catch of her hips.
 
Her big breasts were juggling up and down as she rode him, and the sweat
was beginning to bead between those breasts as her pace increased.
 
He felt so thick inside of her, and so full,
that even as her vaginal juices were making her wet and soggy, he still was
tight and painful inside of her.

Mick, too,
felt the squeeze as she rode him.
 
His
cock was so fully aroused, and so fully erected that even he could feel that
wonderful friction.
 
It was never easy
getting into Roz.
 
Not with a rod like
his.
 
Not with a passageway like hers
that didn’t stay stretch like some women he knew, but was always tight and
rigid and required him to lift up to push deep inside.

He squeezed
her jumping breasts as she rode him.
 
Then he pulled her down by those breasts and sucked them hard.
 
He wanted to suck them dry.
 
Roz loved the way it felt to have his mouth
on her nipples.
 
She loved the way her
breasts were as erected as Mick’s cock, and as sensitive to his touch.

And then he
pulled her down even further, until her mouth was on his mouth.
 
Until her sweaty chest was on his sweaty
chest.
 
And he kissed her long and hard
as her tight pussy slid up and down along his wet cock.
 
He closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth of
her sweet taste.

And then,
when the feelings began to turn up even higher for both of them, he wrapped her
slender body into his big arms, opened her even wider with his fingers, and
took over.

His cock
began to fuck her hard, going down deeper and deeper inside of her, until he
was in a groove that was even more manic than her fucking had been.
  
His cock was putting it on her.
 
And the deeper inside he went, the more
exhilarated they felt.

Roz felt the
heat to the roots of her hair.
 
She
wrapped her arms around his head, and moaned and groaned as he fucked her so
hard it felt as if her insides were on fire.
 
And when he went down even deeper, slapping against her so hard that the
top edge of his balls began to push inside of her, she screamed in
elation.
 
She knew she could wake the
twins.
 
Even with the music playing
loudly in the background, she knew she could still be heard.
 
She knew she was giving the nannies something
to talk about.
 
But she couldn’t help
herself.
 
Mick was putting it on
her!
 
And she could hold back no longer.