Mick Sinatra 2: Love, Lies, and Jericho
MICK SINATRA
LOVE, LIES, AND JERICHO
BOOK TWO
By
MALLORY MONROE
Copyright©2015 Mallory Monroe
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This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the story’s sake.
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INTERRACIAL ROMANCE SERIES
BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MALLORY MONROE:
THE SINATRAS OF JERICHO COUNTY
SERIES IN ORDER:
BIG DADDY SINATRA
THERE WAS A RUTHLESS MAN
BOOK ONE
BIG DADDY SINATRA 2
IF I CAN’T HAVE YOU
BOOK TWO
BIG DADDY SINATRA 3
THE BEST OF MY LOVE
BRENT SINATRA
ALL OF ME
BOOK ONE
MICK SINATRA
FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE
BOOK ONE
THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND
SERIES IN ORDER:
THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND
THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND 2:
HIS WOMEN AND HIS WIFE
DUTCH AND GINA:
A SCANDAL IS BORN
DUTCH AND GINA:
AFTER THE FALL
DUTCH AND GINA:
THE POWER OF LOVE
DUTCH AND GINA:
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
DUTCH AND GINA:
WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE
FOR THE LOVE OF GINA
BOOK EIGHT
THE MOB BOSS SERIES
IN ORDER:
ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS
MOB BOSS 2:
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
MOB BOSS 3:
LOVE AND RETRIBUTION
MOB BOSS 4:
ROMANCING TRINA GABRINI
A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS:
THE PREGNANCY
(Mob Boss 5)
MOB BOSS 6:
THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI
RENO’S GIFT
BOOK 7
RENO GABRINI:
A MAN IN FULL
BOOK 8
RENO AND TRINA:
GETTING BACK TO LOVE
BOOK 9
RENO AND SON:
DON’T MESS WITH JIM
BOOK 10
MOB BOSS ELEVEN
THE WRONG ONE
BOOK 11
RENO AND TRINA
IN THE SHADOWS OF LOVE
BOOK 12
THE GABRINI MEN SERIES
IN ORDER:
ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI
ROMANCING SAL GABRINI
TOMMY GABRINI 2:
A PLACE IN HIS HEART
SAL GABRINI 2:
A WOMAN’S TOUCH
TOMMY GABRINI 3:
GRACE UNDER FIRE
SAL GABRINI 3:
HARD LOVE
SAL GABRINI 4:
I’LL TAKE YOU THERE
TOMMY GABRINI 4:
DAPPER TOM BEGIN AGAIN
SAL GABRINI 5:
UNTIL YOU COME BACK TO ME
ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING
INTERRACIAL ROMANCE
FROM MALLORY MONROE:
DANIEL’S GIRL (ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN)
ROMANCING MO RYAN
ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR
ROMANCING THE BULLDOG
INTERRACIAL ROMANCE
FROM
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
KATHERINE CACHITORIE:
LOVERS AND TAKERS
LOVING HER SOUL MATE
LOVING THE HEAD MAN
SOME CAME DESPERATE:
A LOVE SAGA
ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING
INTERRACIAL ROMANCE:
A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
YVONNE THOMAS
AND
BACK TO HONOR:
A REGGIE REYNOLDS
ROMANTIC MYSTERY
JT WATSON
ROMANTIC FICTION
FROM
AWARD-WINNING
AND
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
TERESA MCCLAIN-WATSON:
DINO AND NIKKI:
AFTER REDEMPTION
AND
AFTER WHAT YOU DID
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www.mallorymonroebooks.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
“I still cannot believe it,” Betsy Gable said as she looked back at the private jet they had just un-boarded.
“You still can’t believe what?” Rosalind Graham walked beside her.
“I can’t believe that you, Roz Graham, the woman who never got any breaks in New York, now owns a jet in Philly!”
“I do not own a jet. How many times do I have to tell you that, Bess? Mick owns this jet.”
But Betsy wasn’t trying to hear it. “He lets you fly around in it as if it’s yours. What’s the difference? He ordered his pilot to fly you to New York, and to wait to bring you back. You might as well say it’s yours.”
If she didn’t know the difference between the owner of a plane and a borrower of that plane, Roz thought, then she couldn’t help her.
“You need to know your worth, Roz,” Betsy admonished. “You need to understand that no man is going to let a woman fly around on his private jet unless he loves that woman something fierce. Just accept the fact that you’re special to him. You’re practically his wife, and don’t you forget that.”
“There’s no such thing as being practically somebody’s wife,” Roz said as they headed toward the waiting limousine, stepping high in her heels beneath her Versace pantsuit, with her yellow Hermes Birkin bag on her arm. “You’re either the wife, or you aren’t the wife. There’s no practically in it. Don’t you forget that.”
“But you get what I’m saying,” Betsy said with a smile. “Shit like this don’t happen to girls like us!”
Roz laughed and looked at Betsy. Betsy was a tall beautiful blonde, a New York actress, who thought her looks alone should have elevated her to star status years ago. She instead found herself, not on Broadway, but relegated
to acting roles in skin flicks just to pay her rent. Roz’s acting career didn’t go anywhere either when she was out there struggling in New York too. She understood. “I get what you’re saying,” she said. “I just thank God the tide is turning.”
“Yes Lord,” Betsy said with a grin. Then she hesitated, as if deciding if she should ask it, and then decided to do so anyway. “But you figure he’s the one, hun?” she asked.
Roz would have found that an odd question if anyone else had asked it, but she knew how uneasy Betsy felt around Mick. She knew Betsy was a little afraid of Mick. “Yes, Bess. I think he’s the one.”
“When I met him in New York, I don’t know. He seemed so mean and rude.” Betsy said this and looked at Roz, praying that she hadn’t offended her.
“He is mean and rude,” Roz responded, and looked at her sensitive friend. “He’s a very hard man, you’re right about that. Just because he met me doesn’t mean his entire personality has changed. It hasn’t. He’s hard and he’s going to stay hard. But if he comes for you, you’d better go for him. You hear me, Bess? The same way you give those guys in Brooklyn a piece of your mind when they try to give you a hard time, you do the same with Mick. He doesn’t like coy and weak. So don’t try it on him.”
Betsy nodded. Roz wasn’t just a smart, beautiful woman, she was a very serious one. And she never gave idle advice. “I will heed your warning,” Betsy said sincerely. Then she thought about the reality of her own situation. She stopped walking, touching Roz on the arm so that she could stop walking too.
When Roz stopped and looked into Betsy’s big blue eyes, she saw her sudden distress. “What’s wrong?” she asked her.
“I want to thank you for coming to my rescue.”
Roz rubbed her friend’s arm. “I’ve had creeps for boyfriends too. Major league creeps. I know what it’s like when love and hate collide.”
“Like Carmelo, right?”
Roz nodded. Carmelo Rivera was Roz’s ex-boyfriend. “Like Carmelo. Yeah.”
Betsy removed her shades. “How does it look now?”
Roz looked at Betsy’s right eye. It was still swollen, and there was still puffiness, but it had improved. “It’s going to take time to heal,” Roz said. “Just like you.”
“He hit me in my face,” Betsy said with a sudden flash of anger as she placed her shades back over her eyes. They began walking, once again, toward the limo. “That’s what pissed me off. He tried to mess up my coins when he went for my face. Now I can’t work.”
Betsy’s “work” was as a porn star in small internet films. Roz had seen a couple of them, and they both were horrendous. But Betsy was her friend.
“I won’t stay here in Philly long,” her friend said. “I just need time to think.”
“And your ass is going to work while you’re thinking,” Roz said.
Betsy laughed. “Work? You’re going to put me to work, girl?”
“You know I am! I’m trying to get my new agency off the ground. I can use somebody who’s been in the business long enough to teach these newbies and thing or two. Somebody I can trust.”
Betsy smiled greatly. Roz was her only true friend. The fact that she dropped everything and flew to New York to help her proved that. She felt honored.
But when they approached the limousine and Deuce McCurry, an attractive older black man, stepped out, Betsy smiled. “Your driver is one sexy brother.”
Roz looked at Betsy as if she was nuts. Deuce McCurry was Mick’s best driver and the one assigned to escort Roz when needed. He was also a former cop and an expert marksman. Roz knew it was no accident that Mick would give her the driver who used to be his number one. And although Roz agreed Deuce was a very good looking man, he was also a man pushing sixty. Old enough to be their father. But Betsy had a thing for black guys, their age a non-factor, and was still admiring the view.
Deuce held the back door open for the ladies. “Hello, ma’am,” he said as Betsy approached first.
“How are you?”
“Very well, thank you.” Betsy got into the limo.
But Deuce reserved his greatest smile for Roz. He and Roz had a bond. “Welcome back, Miss Graham.”
Roz smiled. “Thank you, Deuce. It’s great to be back!” She got in too.
But Betsy took exception as soon as Deuce closed the door and began walking around the limo toward the driver side door. “Why do you make that man call you Miss Graham?” she asked. “He’s old enough to be your daddy!”
“I don’t make him call me anything,” Roz responded. “I told him to call me Roz, or even Rosalind. But he said Mick wouldn’t like it.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Betsy said as Deuce opened the driver side door. “All you had to do was tell your man the deal. You told me to be straight with him. You need to take your own advice. You should have told Mick to give Deuce permission to be less formal with you and to call you by your first name.”
Roz looked at her friend. “What do you take me for, Bess? I asked him that already.”
Betsy looked at her as Deuce got in behind the wheel. “And what did he say?”
“He said hell no,” Roz said.
“Did you just accept that, or did you argue with him about it?”
“You don’t argue with Mick, not about something like that. He doesn’t change his mind on things like that. I argued with him once about going back to New York to teach one final semester, and when he agreed, against his better judgment, it nearly cost me my life. He regretted that he didn’t stop me from going ever since. Now his word is final.”
Betsy looked at Roz as if she had lost her mind. “On everything?”
“If he feels it’s a safety issue, or even a respect issue, yes.”
Betsy shook her head. “No way. I couldn’t deal with a man like that.”
“Yes, you could,” Roz assured her. “If you know he’s only looking out for your best interest, if he treats you better than any human being ever have, you’ll deal.”
Deuce, who had heard the gist of their conversation, smiled. Roz never told him that she had asked Boss to let him be less formal with her, but he could have told her what the answer was going to be. It was always a question of respect with Mick. And he didn’t allow his subordinates to get that close to him that way. Not ever. And Mick viewed Roz, Deuce knew, as an extension of himself.
Deuce looked through the rearview mirror as he moved to close the front driver side door. He had a grand smile on his face. “Told you so,” he said to Roz.
Roz, realizing what he meant, laughed.
But just as Deuce was about to pull his driver side door completely closed, a hand reached in and flung it back open. Roz and Betsy both were startled, because they didn’t see the man coming. But they became downright terrified when the man lifted a gun and put a bullet through the side of Deuce’s head.
Betsy screamed hysterically when she saw Deuce’s head lob around on his neck, and then she saw his entire body fall sideways onto the front seat.
The gunman quickly turned his weapon toward the ladies in the back. “Get out!” he ordered them. “Now!”
But while Betsy was screaming to a point so hysterical that she could not make herself move, with her hands shaking uncontrollably, Roz was near a state of panic too. But she was not so thrown that she couldn’t think. She remembered how Mick, when she first met him in that same limo, once pressed the side button and a gun dropped into his hand. So when the gunman pointed his gun away from her and toward screaming Betsy, to shut Betsy up, Roz knew she had to act now. She had to kill or be killed because she wasn’t about to go to some second location with a man who took out Deuce that easily.
“Shut the fuck up!” the man was yelling at Betsy. “Don’t you hear me woman? Shut the hell up! And get your ass out and get out now!”
And just as he was about to turn his weapon on Roz again, to order her out too, she pressed that button, secured that gun, and then raised it and shot him between the eyes. Now he was the one stunn
ed. He stared at her as if he wanted her to see his disbelief, and then fell lifeless to the ground, on the outside of the limo.
But Roz knew, if this was a snatch and grab, he wasn’t the only one on scene. She hurried over seats to the front of the limo, nervously looking behind as she did. When she saw another car speed up behind the limo, undoubtedly the gunman’s getaway car, she knew she had to act fast. Betsy was still screaming and making it worse, but Roz didn’t hesitate. She tried to move Deuce over so that she could get behind the wheel, but she could barely bulge him.
“Bess, help me! Come and help!” Roz was yelling at her friend as she continued to try and move Deuce, but Betsy was too hysterical. All she knew to do was scream for help, not be the help herself.
Roz knew it was up to her. “Lord, help me,” she cried, as she kept pushing Deuce. It was a useless effort because she was too small and he was far too big. But when she looked through the rearview and saw a group of men hurry out of the car behind her, she knew time was up. She had to act and act now.
She sat on top of Deuce and placed the limo in Drive just as they were drawing their weapons. The first gunman’s body was on the ground just outside the driver’s side door, which meant she couldn’t close the door until she sped off away from him. She managed to press the gas petal and sped away from him. Bullets were flying as she drove and was finally able to close the door. But she floored that limo. She drove as if her life depended on it, because she knew it did.
The airstrip was on the outskirts of Philadelphia and so was Mick’s home. She was determined to make it to Mick’s home. She looked through the rearview again. The men in the getaway car had turned around and were heading back to their car, to get in and chase the limo. She also saw that Betsy was lifting her confused blonde head up again, right in the line of fire. “Get down!” she yelled at Betsy, who was still just sitting there screaming. But Betsy was a survivor too. She quickly got down.