Mick Sinatra 4: If You Don't Know Me by Now (7 page)

Roz
smiled.
 
“You too?
 
How many?”

“One and
counting, child.
 
I’m not pregnant with
the second one yet, but I’m crossing my fingers every day.”

“Oh, that’s
great, J.!
 
Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Hell if I
know.
 
He’ll be a sperm donor.
 
My second sperm donor.”

Roz shook
her head.
 
“Well I’ve got two with one
shot.”

“Twins?”
J.J. asked with a grand smile.
 
“You have
twins?”

“Yup,” Roz
said proudly.
 
“Jacqueline and Michello,
Junior.
 
Six weeks old.”

“Wow.
 
Congrats, Roz.
 
That’s great!
 
I never thought you’d stop working long enough to have kids.
 
I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you
so much,” Roz said, and waited.
 
If J.J.
couldn’t stay, and if J.J. didn’t really want to come in the first place, why
was she here?

“What about
your husband?” J.J. asked.
 
“I hope what
I’ve heard isn’t true.”

Roz looked at
her with a puzzled look.
 
“What have you
heard?”

“That he’s
an asshole of the first order.
 
That he’s
mean as a junkyard dog and treats you like you’re his property rather than his
wife.
 
I heard he was a hired killer for
the mafia and put you in danger time and time again.
 
Oh, I heard a mouthful, honey.”
 
J.J. gave her an earnest look.
 
“Please tell me none of it is true.”

“None of it
is true,” Roz said without hesitation.
 
“But I bet I know who told you it was.
 
All together now.”

J. J.
smiled.
  
“Bess,” they both said in
unison.
 
“You’re right,” J.J. added.
 
“And I have considered the source, believe
me.
 
But you’re still her best friend.
 
At least that’s how she still sees you.”

Roz and
Betsy Gable were once struggling actresses together in New York who developed a
close bond and friendship that lasted for over a decade.
 
They ended their friendship less than a year
ago, when Bess and her need to date abusive men put Roz in danger one time too
many.
 
Mick told Roz that such a
relationship was toxic, too one-sided, and he wanted it to end.
 
Roz agreed, but he didn’t exactly give her a
say in the matter.
 
When it came to Roz’s
safety, or the safety of their children, Mick had the last word.
 
He paid Bess off, ordered her to have no more
contact with his wife, and Bess took off for good.
 
But that didn’t mean Roz didn’t miss her
friend.

“How is
she?” Roz asked J.J.

J.J. leaned
back.
 
A different look appeared on her
face.
 
A grave look.
 
“That’s why I’m here,” she said.

“Oh, Lord,” Roz
responded, certain it was going to be about some nonsense.
 
“What’s happened now?”

“She was in
the hospital, Roz, but they can’t do anything with her at this point.
 
So she’s at Gwen’s old rusty house on Long
Island, trying to recuperate, but Gwen’s only doing it for the money.
 
She’s already hit me up for her room and
board.”

Roz
frowned.
 
“But why didn’t they take Bess
to her own apartment?” Roz asked.

“She doesn’t
have a place of her own,” J.J. responded.
 
“She was staying with her boyfriend’s sorry ass and he’s the one who
beat her.
 
The cops arrested him, thank
God, and it looks like he’s going to do some serious years.
 
But that doesn’t help Bess.”

Roz was
extremely concerned.
 
“What exactly
happened?”

“She hooked
up with some good looking psycho, this guy named Lance, and I know, I
know.
 
Hooking up with losers is what
Bess does, right?
 
But this guy was bad
news with a capital B, Roz.
 
He beat her
so bad he nearly killed her.”

Roz’s heart
squeezed.
 
“Good Lord.
 
But she’s okay, though, right?”

J.J. shook
her head.
 
“She’s not okay.
 
That’s why I’m here.
 
She may not pull through.”

Roz was
floored.
 
She shouldn’t be shocked, given
Betsy’s penchant for fooling around with dangerous men.
 
But she was.
 
“What do you mean she may not pull through?” she asked J.J.

“He beat her
bad.
 
He beat her with a pipe.
 
She looks . . . horrid.
 
Just horrid!”

“How did you
find out about it?” Roz asked.

“The
hospital called me when she first got admitted.
 
She listed you as her next of kin, but she forbade them to get in touch
with you.
 
According to them, she’s
afraid of your husband.
 
At least that’s
the reason she gave them.
 
So they called
me instead.
 
I was listed as her number
two contact.”

A sad look
came over J.J.’s soft face.
 
“We’re all
she has, Roz, you and I.
 
Her family
disowned her long ago.
 
And she wants to
see you.
 
She begged me to get you to her
bedside.
 
But she doesn’t want you to
tell your husband.
 
She’s terrified of
that man, Roz.
 
She just wants you to
come.”

Roz wasn’t
about to go see anybody out of town without Mick knowing about it, she didn’t
care what the circumstance.
 
But she also
knew he was not going to like it.

J.J. stood
up.
 
“I’m going to see my folks in
Cleveland while I’m in the States, and then I’ve got to get back home.
 
But Bess begged me to come see you.
 
So I came.
 
I’m sorry to drop this burden in your lap, Roz, honest I am.
 
I’m sure after having twins just a month-and-a-half
ago you have your hands full.
 
But it’s
you she wants to see.
 
She begged me,
girl.”

Roz stood
too and walked from behind her desk.
 
The
two friends hugged, J.J. gave Roz the number she could phone if she wanted to
speak with Gwen, and then left.
 
Roz sat
back down when she did.

She might not pull through
.
 
Those were the words that stayed with her.
 
The unsinkable Betsy Gable might not pull
through.

But Roz
didn’t feel burdened as J.J. had suggested.
 
She felt determined.
 
Because like
it or not, she thought as she picked up the phone, she was not about to let her
best friend, flawed though she might be, die alone.

But then her
cell phone rang.

Roz pulled
out her cell phone.
 
She answered without
looking at the Caller ID.
 
She assumed it
would be Mick.

“Ready?” It
was a male’s voice, but not Mick’s.

She was
still reeling from J.J.’s visit, but she knew life had to go on.
 
And she still had to get this business out of
the way if she expected to go and see about Bess.
 
“I’m ready,” she said.
 
“I’m coming down now.”

But Roz
thought again when she thought about those prying eyes of her lobby
employees.
 
They would undoubtedly be
looking out of the lobby windows, ready to see and tell.
 
That was why, as Roz made her way out of her
office and toward the elevators, she phoned her visitor and told him to park
out back.
 
And she took the elevator
downstairs, but went out of the back exit.

But Deuce
McCurry, in the limo, was waiting out front.
 
And when he saw Roz get off of the elevator inside the lobby of the
Graham Agency and made her way toward the back, he drove the limousine back
there too.
 
He was her driver for the day
as she had three meetings to attend and needed the assistance, and it was his
duty to be ready.
 
She apparently was
going somewhere with somebody else, and had forgotten to forewarn him.
 
But that was fine too.
 
It wasn’t her job to keep up with him. It was
his job to keep up with her.

But by the
time he drove the limo to the back of the agency, Roz was getting in a car with
a gentleman, was leaning over and kissing him, and they were driving away.
 
Deuce’s heart dropped. But he didn’t follow
her. He had to believe that Roz Sinatra, smart lady that she was, wife of a man
as ruthless as her husband was, would have more sense than that.

Teddy
Sinatra paced the floor inside his father’s suite of offices like a man in
trouble.
 
His father’s army of
assistants, all of whom had their desks inside the large area outside Mick’s
office, were taking peeps at Teddy, commenting on his great looks, at how fine
he was, as they smiled whenever he glanced their way.
 
But they might as well had been cardboard
cutouts for the attention he was giving back to them. His father was on his
mind.
 
And what went down last night.

Last night
, Teddy thought as he paced, with his
expensive shoes clacking against the marbled floors as he moved.
 
He was a proud man, who didn’t take shit from
anybody, but he always felt insufficient around his father.
 
He always felt as if he had something
unprovable to prove.
 
He always felt as
if he wanted his father’s love so badly, and his respect even worse, until it
made him feel desperate for that love and respect.
 
He and Roz had a great relationship.
 
And she’d been a great encouragement to
him.
 
But Teddy, in his early thirties,
was just a few years younger than Roz was.
 
She was more like a sister to him than a stepmother.
 
All he needed from her was her understanding,
and she gave that to him in spades.
 
He
needed so much more from his father, and he hated that he did.

The double
doors of the suite opened, and his half-sister Gloria, with a stack of folders
in her arms, walked in.
 
She was on their
father’s executive assistant staff, and was still learning the ropes.
 
She was mainly the gofer right now, and hated
it.
 
But when she saw her half-brother
standing there, she smiled grandly.
 
“Hey, Teddy.”

Teddy smiled
too when he saw his younger sister, and went to her.
 
“Need some help?”

“No, I’ve
got it,” she said, as Teddy gave her a hug.
 
With her great looks, her sleek, statuesque body, many men kept their
eyes on her.
 
But with her magnificent
personality, Teddy was proud to call her his sister.
 
Even though, because she was biracial and
looked black, and he was white, many people didn’t believe they were related at
all.
 
But he never gave a damn what some
random people believed.

“What are
you doing here?” Gloria asked him.

“I need to
see Dad.”

Gloria
glanced over at Blair Conyers, Mick’s chief assistant and the supervisor of all
of Mick’s aides, including Gloria.
 
Blair
was on the phone in what appeared to be an intense conversation.
 
Gloria looked back at Teddy. “Are you seeing
him about last night?” she asked him.

Teddy was
surprised she figured it out.
 
“Maybe,”
he said.
 
“Why?”

“Good luck
with that,” she said.
 
“He’s in an awful
mood.”

“You saw
him?”

“This
morning.
 
Joey and I went by his house
before we came to work.
 
We called
ourselves apologizing, but that only pissed him off even more.”

Teddy
frowned.
 
“You apologized?
 
Why would you guys apologize?
 
Bump that shit.
 
What’s done is done.”

Gloria
smiled.
 
“You sound just like Dad.
 
He told us the very same thing.”

Teddy
smiled.
 
He felt good anytime he and Mick
were on the same page.

Blair
Conyers finally hung up the phone.
 
It
was only then did she realize Gloria was in the office suite.

“Why don’t
we get together again tonight?” Teddy asked Gloria.
 
“Just me, you, and Joey?
 
We can go to a better class of club this
time.”

Gloria found
her brother the oddest thing.
 
He was
gorgeous, and had women dying to want to be with him, but he always seemed to
fly solo.
 
“Don’t you have better things
to do with your time than hang out with me and Joey?” she asked him.

“Better
things to do like what?”

Gloria
smiled.
 
“Like taking a lady to a better
class of club.
 
Like going on a date,
Teddy.”

Teddy kept
that part of his life so private even his father didn’t know about it.
 
Or, at least, he didn’t think his father
knew.
 
“Do you want to go out or don’t
you?”

“Can’t,”
Gloria said.
 
“I, unlike you, have a
date.”

This
surprised Teddy.
 
“Who with? I thought
you and whatshisname broke up.”

“We did,”
Gloria said.
 
“But we’re back together.”

“Again,
Gloria?”

“Again,
Teddy.
 
It happens, alright?
 
Fonz isn’t as hopeless as you think.”

“Yeah,
right.
 
Better not let Dad know.
 
I thought he ordered you to stay away from
the guy.”

“He didn’t
order me.
 
He just doesn’t like the fact
that we keep breaking up, that’s all.
 
And don’t you tell him anything about who I’m dating.
 
I don’t need the aggravation.”

“Miss
Sinatra?” Blair asked.

Gloria,
surprised that she was off of the phone, jumped.
 
And looked at her.
 
“Ma’am?”

“Do you have
something for me?
  
Or are you just here
for your health?”

Gloria and
Teddy shared
a
whatever
glance as both of them were tired of Blair’s heavy-handedness.
 
She was their father’s right hand woman who
sometimes acted as if she was his woman outright!
 
But Gloria knew Blair had the upper
hand.
 
She knew Mick didn’t believe in
showing them any favoritism just because they were his children.
 
And Blair seemed to relish in rubbing it in.
 
“Talk to you later,” Gloria said to her
brother.
 
“The
Blair Witch
is calling,” she added in a lower voice, causing him to
smile, and then made her way to Blair’s desk.

As she
handed Blair the stack of files, and Blair signed for them, Mick walked
in.
 
He wasn’t surprised to see
Gloria.
 
She worked at Sinatra Industries
now.
 
But he hadn’t expected that Teddy
would be there.
 
He walked past Teddy,
and then Gloria, just as he walked past everybody else, and entered his
office.
 
Teddy moved to follow him in, but
the door was slammed in his face.

“What did I
tell you?” Blair quickly said.
 
“If you
want to see your father you will have to wait.
  
You have no appointment and he has things to take care of this morning.”

But Teddy
wasn’t thinking about her.
 
He was still
reeling from the door slam.
 
His father
was such an asshole sometimes!
 
But
Gloria was right.
 
The man was in a
shitty mood.

But then
again, Teddy thought, when was he not?
 
And how was he ever going to win his father’s respect if he kept
allowing him to treat him like some insignificant kid?

Teddy made
up his mind.
 
What was the worse he could
do to him?
 
He could knock him through a
wall.
 
He could paralyze him for
life.
 
But he still was determined.
 
“Fuck this,” he said, opened the door,
stepped inside, and closed it behind him.

Outside of
that closed door, Blair stood to her feet.
 
“What does he think he’s doing?”

“He’s going
to see our father,” Gloria responded.

Blair began
moving from behind her desk.
 
“Not like
that, he will not!”

“I would
leave him alone,” Gloria warned, “if I were you.
 
He may not be quite as lethal as Mick
Sinatra.
 
But he’s close.
 
I wouldn’t risk it if I were you.”
 
Then Gloria smiled.
 
“But what do I know?” she asked, and left the
outer office.

Inside the
inner office, Mick’s office, were father and son.
 
Mick had made his way around his desk and was
standing behind the desk by the time Teddy barged in and headed toward
him.
 
He was surprised, but pleasantly
so.

“What do you
think you’re doing?” Mick asked him.

“I need to
see you,” Teddy said as he walked up to his desk. “Since I’m your son, I didn’t
think I needed an appointment to see my own father.”

“Who gives a
fuck what you think?” Mick asked.
 
But
when he saw that look of doubt come into Teddy’s big, green eyes, and that look
of fear that all of his children showed towards him, he immediately regretted
it.
 
He had to remember to stop being so
hard on them!
 
He had to learn to show
some
got
damn affection.
 
He frowned.
 
“What do you want?” he asked.

Teddy’s
heart was pounding, as it usually did whenever he was in his father’s presence,
but he was not about to back down.
 
“You
told me to meet with Mayor Wallace,” he said.
 
“I met with Mayor Wallace.”

Mick stared
at him.
 
He hadn’t expected a result this
soon.
 
If there was a result.
 
“What did you find out?”

 
“I found out he was a sleaze ball who had no
qualms about killing a man to win an election.”

Mick studied
him.
 
Would this child, the one he needed
to take over someday, be tough enough?
 
“What else did you find out?”

“I found out
that there’s an advantage in dealing with slime.
 
The price to pay is lower than usual.
 
The risks are lower too, given the nature of
the client.
 
And his power and position,
which is the point for even agreeing to help.”

Good so far,
Mick thought.
 
“What did you get for us?”

“We get rid
of his opponent in exchange for him allowing us, after he wins reelection, to
install one of our men as the new chief of police.”

Mick stared
at him.
 
“You would kill a man just to
have a chief of police in your pocket?”

“I wouldn’t,
no,” Teddy said.
 
“But one of our men
will.”

Teddy could
tell he said something wrong.
 
Mick sat
down.
 
“What?” Teddy asked him.
 
“What did I say?”

“If you
aren’t willing to do the dirty work yourself, you had better never make one of
my men do it for you.”
 
Mick’s anger was
showing.
 
“If it’s beneath you, it’s
beneath them.
 
That’s a leader!
 
If it’s wrong for you, it’s wrong for them.
 
My organization works from the top down, how
many times do I have to tell you that, Teddy?
 
They don’t run this shit, you run it!
 
They follow your lead!
 
But you’d
better never lead any one of my men where you will not go.”
 

Mick leaned
back in an attempt to control his sudden rage.
 
“Why is it offensive to you to kill a man just to have the chief of
police in your pocket?”

Teddy was already
thrown by his father’s reaction.
 
He had
expected high praise.
 
Not this.
 
“Because I can’t just take a life like that,”
Teddy responded.
 
“It’s a life.
 
Who am I to just take it? I mean, what did
the mayor’s opponent ever do to me?”

“Right!”
Mick said with emphasis.
 
“You hit the
nail on the head.
 
When you take somebody
out, it had better be personal.
 
And you,
not my men, but you had better take responsibility for that kill.
 
If it’s not personal, if you aren’t willing
to sign your name to that death warrant, you had better call the shit off.
 
We are not savages, son.
 
We are not kill for the fucking thrill.
 
We do to them when they do it to us, or
because they intend to do it to us.”