Mick Sinatra: The Harder They Fall (19 page)

Roz
understood.
 
“We all are,” she said.

“And if it
was up to me, I would have called the Gabrinis too,” Charles said.
 
“But this is Mick we’re talking about.
 
I don’t know if this is what he would want.”

“He can’t
make that call now,” Roz said.
 
“That
call is on me.
 
And I say they’re his
family too.
 
And they’re gangster as they
come.
 
If we’re in a war, I need
warriors, Big Daddy.
 
I need men with
armies who can take it to our enemies as good as Mick would have took it to
them.
 
Because Mick has always told me
that if something ever happened to him, and if I felt that the children and I
needed protection, I was to call you first, and then immediately call the
Gabrinis.
 
Reno, Sal, and Tommy.
 
And after I hung up the phone with you,
that’s exactly what I did.
 
And they
didn’t hesitate to heed my call.
 
They’re
on their way.”

Charles
stared at Roz.
 
He dreaded the idea of
some bloody mob war, but he couldn’t bury his head in the sand either.
 
His baby brother was a mob boss.
 
A feared and hated mobster.
 
Roz had handled it exactly as Mick, despite
his issues with the Gabrinis, would have wanted her to.
 
He nodded.

But then he
had to make something else clear.
 
“Until
they get here,” he said to Roz, “I’m in charge.
 
You understand?
 
Mick would want
it that way too.
 
I want you to go back
into that waiting room and get some rest.
 
I’ll go check on the twins.
 
I’ll
receive the updates.
 
You won’t be any
good to any of them if you keep going at the rate you’re going.”

Roz didn’t
feel rest was possible, but she knew Big Daddy was right.
 
She could barely stand up.
 
“Okay,” she said.
 
“And thank you,” she added.

Tommy
Gabrini’s private plane had just touched down in Vegas when word came from
Roz.
 
He ordered his pilot to prepare for
departure to Philly, while Vegas residents Sal Gabrini, Tommy’s younger brother,
and Reno Gabrini, Tommy’s first cousin and best friend, hurried to the airport
and hopped aboard too.
 
They had to wait,
however, because they bought an army with them that was forty-man strong.

Now they
were well on their way, within minutes of landing, and Tommy was on the phone
getting a status update.
 
Reno and Sal,
who sat side by side across from Tommy, eagerly awaited the new news.
 
Their men sat in the back of the plane,
waiting for their instructions too.

Tommy
finally ended the call.
 
“He’s out of
surgery,” he said to Reno and Sal.
 
“The
doctors are pleased with that result.”

“Thank God,”
Sal said.

“But his
condition is still critical,” Tommy added.

“He took
three bullets,” Sal said.
 
“Who wouldn’t
be in critical condition after that much damage?”

Reno leaned
back.
 
“I still can’t believe it.
 
Mick the Tick down like that?
 
Fighting for his life?
 
I thought it was a crank call when I got the
word.
 
I thought Sal was trying to pull
my leg when he told me that.”

“What would
I look like pulling your leg at a time like this?” Sal asked.
 
“If I wanted to crank on your ass, it’s not
your leg I would be pulling.”

“But that’s
what I thought you were doing, alright?
 
I’m not saying you were doing it,” Reno added, “but that’s what I
thought.
 
Because you’re telling me Mick
is in this situation?
 
Mick the
Tick?
 
That was some hard news to
swallow.
 
Mick Sinatra was always
untouchable in my eyes.
 
What fucker
would target him?
 
I remember when Mick
was a young thug back in the day who had the balls to go to war with my old
man.
 
And Mick won even back then!
 
No fucker alive would be crazy enough to go
after him full force like this.
 
At least
that’s how I was thinking.”

“I’m was
thinking the same way,” Sal said.
 
“I’m
like what the fuck?
 
They hit Uncle Mick?
 
And they hit him with his wife and kids right
there?
 
I couldn’t believe it
either.
 
You would have to have a death
wish to even think you could pull that shit off.”

“And fucking
delusional too,” Reno added.

“And
nobody’s talking,” Sal continued.
 
“That’s
the weird part.
 
An event like this
happens, look like it would be front page news in the underworld.
 
And yeah, everybody knows it happened.
 
But nobody knows a
got
damn thing about who made it happen.”

Tommy looked
at his kid brother.
 
Sal was a mob boss
himself.
 
One of the fiercest.
 
But it wasn’t something he would ever cop
to.
 
“You put feelers out already?” he
asked him.

“All over
the place,” Sal responded.
 
“But it
turned up zilch.
 
It’s as if whoever did
this isn’t even a part of our world.
 
They
aren’t in the underworld at all.
 
It’s
like this might not have anything to do with anything we can figure out.”

“I hope
you’re wrong about that,” Tommy said as his plane touched down.
 
“Because if we can’t figure out who was big
and bold enough to take it to Uncle Mick of all people, we might all be
doomed.”

Sal and Reno
looked at Tommy.
 
They knew he spoke the
truth.
 
That was why they all looked
away.

Their
concern, however, wasn’t alleviated at all when their convoy of SUVs arrived at
the hospital.
 

Teddy was
standing outside to meet them, but he was out there alone.
 
Sal frowned.
 
“What the hell?” he asked, as all three Gabrinis got out of their SUV.

Teddy walked
over to them.
 
He gave Tommy a hug, and
then Reno.
 
But Sal was puzzled.
 
“Where the fuck is Mick’s men?” he asked.

“His
men?”
 
Teddy asked.

“Yeah,” Reno
said, realizing that Sal had a point.
 
“Where’s his security detail?”

“Oh, that,”
Teddy said.
 
“I ordered them to hit the
streets and get us some answers.
 
The police
department is guarding Pop.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“The police department?”

“The fucking
police?” asked Reno.

Teddy was
confused.
 
“What’s the problem?” he
asked.

Sal and Reno
began ordering their men to position themselves in various areas of the
hospital.
 
Some inside.
 
Some outside.

But Tommy,
seeing Teddy’s confusion, pulled him aside.
 
“In times like these, son,” he said to him, “you protect the family
first.
 
I don’t care what went down.
 
I don’t care who’s down.
 
It’s your job, as head of your family while
your father isn’t able, to protect him and the family first.
 
You get your most trusted men, not your
second most trusted, but your absolute best men on guard duty before you do
anything else.
 
You secure the
family.
 
Then you go after the bastards who
caused the madness.
 
Then you annihilate
them.
 
But security first.
 
Understand?”

Teddy used
to think of Tommy Sinatra as nothing more than his nickname: Dapper Tom.
 
The pretty boy of the family.
 
The lover not the fighter.
 
And the way Tommy was dressed right now,
decked down in his Armani suit with a matching scarf around his neck, didn’t
dispute that image one iota.
 
But after
he got to know Tommy for himself, he came to realize that he was so much more.
 
More like the brains of the family.
 
More like one of the most respected members
of the family.
 
Teddy certainly respected
him.
 
“Yes, sir,” he responded.
 
“You’re right.
 
I should have thought about security
first.
 
I guess I dropped the ball.”

Tommy wasn’t
going to minimize it.
 
Teddy wouldn’t
learn from his mistake if he did.
 
“Don’t
drop it again,” he warned him.
 
“And
never, ever rely on cops for security or anything else.
 
That’s like relying on the enemy.”

Teddy found
that an odd thing to say, since Tommy was once a police captain himself.
 
But then he realized Tommy spoke with
authority in that sense too.
 
He knew the
cop culture.
 
He knew the cop world.
 
“Yes, sir,” Teddy said again.

And after
all commands were given, and after Teddy was sufficiently chastened because of
his poor execution in his leadership role, they made their way into the
hospital.
 
Roz, they learned, was in the
private recovery room with Mick.
 
The
police had allowed Big Daddy Sinatra and Mick’s children to see him one at a
time, and only for a few minutes each.
 
They weren’t allowing anybody else clearance at all.
 
Not even brother-in-arms Brent Sinatra, the
police chief of Jericho County.

But when the
Gabrinis arrived, and the police refused them entry, Tommy got on the phone,
worked his contacts at the highest levels in the police hierarchy.
 
One of those officials contacted the cops on
duty and got the ball rolling.
 
Within
minutes, Tommy, Reno, and Sal were not only allowed into the recovery room, but
were allowed to go in together and to stay in as long as they wanted to stay
in.
 
The cops guarding the room didn’t
like it one bit, and displayed their displeasure, but it wasn’t as if the
Gabrinis cared very much.
 
In fact, they
didn’t care at all.
 
Their only focus was
Mick, seeing Mick, and making sure Mick was going to be alright.
 
They walked in.

Roz was
sitting at Mick’s bedside, holding his hand, and apparently praying for
him.
 
So the Gabrinis walked in, but
didn’t say a word.
 
They gave her time to
finish her prayers.
 
They gave themselves
time to digest what they were seeing.

Mick was
hooked up to all kinds of machines and hoses and everything else a man in his
condition, fighting for his life, would be hooked up to.
 
And it affected each one of them.
 
Not because they weren’t accustomed to seeing
an injured man.
 
Each one of them had
been in that very spot themselves before.

But it was
seeing Mick this way that took them by surprise.
 
It was seeing the man they thought was immune
from near-death experiences that took them for a loop.
 
They just stood there, watching him have
assisted breathing.
 
Watching his big,
powerful arms lay helpless at his side.
 
Watching his hard face, though asleep, look so grim.

Roz stopped
praying before their shock subsided, and she saw them before they realized she
was looking.
 
She hesitated too, because
she saw that same look in Mick’s children eyes, and in her own eyes when she
first saw the big man down.

“Thanks for
coming,” she said to them, to break the ice.

Tommy was
the first to let go, and he smiled a smile, Roz thought, that could melt a
lady’s heart.
 
He came toward her.
 
“Thanks for calling us,” he said as he
came.
 
He kissed her on the cheek.
 
Then he looked at Mick as Sal and Reno made
their way to his bedside too.

Reno kissed
and hugged Roz and got on one side of her, while Sal did the same and got on
the other side of her.
 
The two of them,
even more so than Roz and Tommy, seemed particularly shaken.

“He’s a
fighter,” she assured them.
 
“He’s going
to make it.”

“What are
the doctors saying?” Tommy asked.
 
He and
Reno pulled up chairs.
 
Sal continued to
stand.

“They still
say it’s touch and go,” Roz said.
 
“But
I’m not going by what the doctors are saying.
 
I’m praying.
 
I’m trusting the
Lord on this.”

Tommy
nodded, as they all looked at Mick.
 
“We
all better do the same,” he said.
 
“If we
want him out of this alive.”

“How are the
kids?” Reno asked.

“Thank God
Big Daddy is here,” Roz said, “or they would be in even worse shape.
 
He’s concentrating on them and letting Teddy
worry about catching the bad guys.
 
And
they need him.
 
They’d never seen their
father this vulnerable.
 
It’s hurting
them to their hearts.”

Reno placed
his arm around her, to comfort her.
 
“Like you said,” he said, “he’ll pull through.”

“Thanks to
you,” Sal said.
 
“Teddy told us how you
refused to leave him to die.
 
That was
very brave of you, Roz.”

“Or
foolish,” Roz said.
 
“I had the twins in
the car.
 
I was risking their lives too.”

Sal ran his
hand through his hair.
 
He looked worse
of all.
 
“Thank God it worked out,” he
said.
 
“If anything would have happened
to you or those twins, and if Mick had lived, he would have never forgiven
himself.”

Roz
nodded.
 
“I know.”

“But the
twins weren’t harmed at all?” Tommy asked.

“Not at
all,” Roz said.
 
Then she looked at
Tommy.
 
“How’s Grace and your kids?” she
asked.

“They’re
good,” Tommy said.
 
“Under heavy
security.
 
Reno and Sal’s families are
too.”