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  “He’s crazy,” Reno said, joining in the laughter. “He’s fucking certifiable!”

  “But I’m serious here, Reno,” Sal said. “If they have moral authority, what do we have? You make it sound as if the rest of us, you and me specifically, are a couple of weasels!”

  “He’s here,” said Teddy suddenly, and all jokes, as fast as they had started, stopped.

  While they had been joking around, Teddy had been focused like a laser beam awaiting the arrival of Malidec’s killer. And now the killer’s car had driven up to the warehouse.

  Their van was parked one block down, on the corner of a side street, and everybody began getting their weapons ready.

  Teddy had on a shoulder holster, and double checked both of his guns. And he continued to bark out orders. “You stay with the driver, Aunt Amelia,” he said. “In case anything goes sideways we’ll have a heavy hitter backing us up.”

  “We won’t be waiting on this side street by that time, though,” Amelia said. “As soon as we see where you guys have penetrated inside, we’ll be at that door locked and loaded and waiting.”

  “Sounds good,” Teddy said.

  “I see Mick’s rubbing off on your ass,” said Reno, staring at Amelia.

  Amelia laughed. She rarely got a chance to be around the Gabrinis. “Just do your fucking job,” she said jokingly.

  Sal laughed. “Tell his ass, Mill! Tell his ass!”

  “Fuck you, Sal!” said Reno.

  And then they looked and waited. When the garage-styled door of the warehouse opened, and the killer’s car drove through, Teddy, Big Daddy, Sal, and Reno got out of the van and ran across the dark, isolated street that led to the warehouse.

  As a sign of respect for Teddy’s leadership in Mick’s organization, those big, powerful men, men who never took a backseat to anybody, allowed him to take the lead.

  Led by Teddy, they hurried around to the side of the warehouse, where they had already spotted a door. And they didn’t hesitate. If this was the meeting of the east coast mafia as Ron Bevin said it was, they were not going to delay their entry. All the cars had to be inside. Which meant all the bodyguards and muscle were inside too. They would have to go in fast, with all guns blazing.

  Teddy kicked the door in, and they all rushed in ready for the explosion of gunfire.

  But there was no gunfire, no meeting, no muscle or bodyguards. There weren’t even any Dons assembled. The only person in that garage was Malidec’s killer, and he had only gone inside to ditch his current car and get in another one: it was waiting for him.

  “Put your fucking hands in the air where we can see them!” Teddy yelled to the driver. “Put your hands up!”

  The driver had already been scared shitless by the entry, and he didn’t immediately comply. But when he realized who was aiming those guns at him, and who was barking out that order, he quickly lifted his hands in the air. It was one thing to defy an intruder. It was a far different thing to defy the likes of mob boss Sal Gabrini, and son of a mob boss Reno Gabrini. And not just those two, but fuck-with-him-if-you-want Big Daddy Charles Sinatra was there too, and Teddy the Tower, Mick Sinatra’s son. What in the world, he wondered, was going on?

  While Teddy kept his guns on the driver, Big Daddy and the Gabrinis were casing the joint, to make sure there was no secret rooms or hidden compartments. There was nothing. Just a big warehouse with a backup car waiting.

  They made it back to Teddy’s side. “Who the hell are you?” Teddy asked the killer. “What’s your name?”

  “Pelcum,” said the driver. “Russell Pelcum.”

  “Who hired you?” Teddy asked.

  “Guy named Malidec,” said Pelcum.

  “Malidec?” asked Sal. “What is this a joke?”

  “You just killed Malidec, asshole!” said Teddy. “Who the fuck you think you’re fucking with?”

  “But that’s who hired me.”

  “Who do you think you just killed?”

  “A cop, all I know. I was hired to kill a cop. But Malidec hired me!”

  “Malidec is a cop, you idiot!” Teddy said.

  “A cop?” Pelcum seemed genuinely surprised.

  “Why did he hire you?”

  “To take out a cop,” he said. “That’s all I know.”

  Big Daddy looked at Teddy. “What do you think, Ted?”

  “I think we put a few holes in his ass,” said Teddy. “Maybe he’ll get a memory then.”

  “I’m not fucking around with you, man! I’m hired to do jobs. I was hired to take out a cop. That’s all I know. I didn’t know the cop I was hired to take out had the same name too!”

  “Have you ever met the man who hired you?” Big Daddy asked.

  “I never met Malidec face to face, no,” said Pelcum. “But I met his underboss.”

  “His underboss?” Sal asked. “Who’s his underboss?”

  “Guy named Carter.”

  “Carter his last name or his first name?”

  “His last name. He never told me his first name, and I never asked.”

  “Describe him,” Teddy said.

  But Pelcum was at a loss. “He was a regular guy. White. Tall. Regular!”

  Now Teddy was at a loss. What was going on? “What about Ron Bevin? You know him?”

  “The Bevin twins? I don’t know him, but I know of him. He’s a made man for the Sinatra Crime Family. I’ve heard of him.”

  “We’re wasting time,” said Sal. “This is a big fat bust. Get rid of his ass, and let’s go!”

  “If Malidec was a cop like y’all said, all I did was take out a cop. Why would you get rid of me for taking out a cop?”

  “He’s got a point,” Big Daddy said.

  “Yeah, he does,” said Teddy. Then Teddy surprised them all by taking the butt of his gun and knocking Pelcum unconscious.

  They all looked at Teddy.

  “I’ll call my men in to take him to a safe house and hold him there until this is over. If he’s not involved, I’ll let him go. If he is involved, I won’t.”

  Big Daddy smiled, and then he squeezed Teddy’s shoulders. “Getting more and more like your old man every day,” he said.

  But by the time they arrived back at the hospital and was making their way toward the elevators, they remained unsettled. They still didn’t have their man. And although a backup crew arrived quickly and carted Pelcum off to the safe house, they still had no answers.

  “Why would Bevin lie about that meeting?” Amelia asked as they walked.

  “He wasn’t telling a lie,” Teddy said. “We heard Malidec on the phone, or somebody pretending to be Malidec, tell him about that meeting. But . . .”

  They all looked at Teddy. “But what, Ted?” Big Daddy asked him.

  And Teddy suddenly realized what. He stopped walking. They all stopped walking. “That’s it. That could be it!”

  “What could be it?” Reno asked.

  “It’s what Pelcum said that kept bothering me.”

  “What did he say?” Amelia asked.

  “He said he didn’t know the cop he was hired to take out had the same name too. He thought he was hired by Malidec when, in truth, he was hired to take out Malidec.”

  “But what are you thinking?”

  “The same name too,” Teddy said. “This all started when Khaki beat up Boss Bovenconti’s son.”

  “And?” Sal asked.

  “And Pelcum tells us he was hired by Malidec’s underboss. A guy named Carter.”

  “And?” Reno asked.

  “And Khaki’s last name is Carter.”

  That stopped everybody cold.

  “The same last name as Malidec’s supposed underboss,” Teddy added.

  “But wait a minute,” said Reno. “Carter. Do you realize how common that name is?”

  “It’s common,” Teddy said. “But is it common that the very man who started this craziness and was taken care of by me, also happens to share the same last name as the guy who hired the Bevin twins and th
eir team to take out me and Pop at that safe house?”

  “He’s got a point there,” Sal said. “A hellava point!”

  Then Teddy suddenly thought of something else. “Geez,” he said with a panicked voice, and began running for the elevators. He pulled out his cell phone. Everybody began running with him.

  “What is it?” asked Big Daddy.

  “The doctor treating Pop,” said Teddy.

  “What about him?”

  “I remember the name on his lab coat! That name was Carter too. Dr. Carter!”

  Their collective hearts dropped, and Teddy repeatedly pressed the buttons. Then he abandoned the elevator altogether, and he ran for the stairs.

  A few minutes earlier, Dr. Carter, the same doctor who had updated the family on Mick’s status, walked into Mick’s room.

  “How’s everybody?” he asked.

  “We’re all great,” said Roz. “How are you?”

  “I’m good. Thanks for asking. But I think our patient may need a little rest.”

  “Agreed,” Roz said. “Come on, children,” she said to the toddlers. “Daddy needs his rest.”

  The children kissed their father goodbye and Roz and Gloria got them off of the bed just as Nikki’s cell phone alerted her that she had a text.

  While she answered it, Roz and Mick kissed goodbye. “We’ll be in the Nursery,” she said, and she, Glo, and the toddlers headed out.

  But Nikki, smiling, made her way toward Mick’s bed.

  “Come on, Nikki,” Joey said. “The doctor said no more visitors.”

  “I know,” Nikki said. “But I just wanted to show your father the picture.”

  “What picture?”

  “Remember I told you how my brother looks just like Teddy?” she said to Mick. Her prayer was that he would understand what she was doing.

  Mick looked at her. “I remember, yeah. You have the picture?”

  “Yes, sir. He sent me one of his latest photos? See?” She handed her cell phone to Mick.

  No picture was showing, but a text was. A text from Teddy: Dr. Carter the killer. Do not trust, the text read.

  And Mick had a quick decision to make. It couldn’t be rational. It couldn’t be with any aforethought. It had to be based on gut and instinct alone. Should he trust Joey to handle it, or this newbie, Nikki? Teddy had already proven what his gut was saying. Teddy texted Nikki, not Joey. And Mick’s gut was telling him the same thing.

  “Look in my drawer right here,” he said to Nikki. “Pull out my wallet. I’ve got a picture of Teddy in my wallet. Then we’ll see if there’s a similarity.”

  “Pictures?” Joey asked at the door, nearly giving it away. “What’s with the pictures all of a sudden? The man said we need to let you rest, Pop!”

  And just like that, Dr. Carter realized what was happening. They were on to him. Pictures his ass, he thought, and decided he had to do what he had to do, and he had to do it now!

  He reached into his pocket just as Nikki opened Mick’s side drawer and saw his wallet, yes, but also his loaded gun. And as Dr. Carter pulled out his gun ready to fire, Nikki pulled out Mick’s gun, turned, and, seeing Carter’s gun, she didn’t wait to get ready. She fired. She struck him, in the arm, but it was enough. He grabbed his arm, and his weapon fell from his hand.

  Joey, stunned, quickly and nervously scrambled to pull out his own gun too, but by then the guards outside, who responded to the gunfire and had just received the phone call from Big Daddy, came busting in. And Teddy, who had run up every flight of stairs, came running in too.

  “Everybody okay?” he asked anxiously as he saw Carter on the floor, the guards with their guns aimed at him, and Joey and Nikki and Mick all in one piece. He also saw the gun in Nikki’s hands. His father had trusted Nikki to protect him. It was a great revelation.

  “You okay?” he asked Nikki, as Big Daddy, Amelia, and Sal and Reno ran in.

  “Go to Roz and the children,” Mick said to Big Daddy. “Make sure they’re okay.”

  “Come with us, Joey,” Big Daddy ordered, as he, Amelia, and Joey hurried to the nursery.

  “Security has been alerted and the cops are on their way,” Reno said to Teddy. “If you’re going to get intel, get it now.”

  Teddy quickly knelt down to Carter, who was nursing his wounded arm, and he asked him why.

  “You killed my son,” Carter said.

  “Khaki?”

  “He was my only child. And you killed him.”

  “And because of that you did what?”

  “Everything I could,” Carter said, “to destroy your life.”

  “Including bombing our ships?”

  “I paid the Bevin twins to bomb that ship, and their hired some fire loving fucker named Caulfield. Roger Caulfield. It was an immediate payback for what happened to my son. But it didn’t work out the way I wanted it to. It didn’t satisfy the way I needed it to.”

  “So, you did what?” Teddy asked.

  “I turned to the Bevin twins again. They were easy pickups. I was rich. I could afford to pay them handsomely. Because they were all about the money. Forget loyalty! They just wanted to get paid. But there I was, a regular doctor, a healer, hiring killers and arsonists. But I was determined to take you down.”

  Teddy exhaled. Another enemy. That was why a mobster could never retire. “What about Malidec? Was he involved?”

  “No. I used him because I’d heard he had it in for your family. He would be a good decoy.”

  “You pretended to be Malidec on that phone call with Ron Bevin?”

  Carter nodded. “That’s right. Bevin thought Malidec had hired them. They never saw me. Everything was transactional and handled that way. I hired Russell Pelcum to take Detective Malidec out, just to keep you guessing, and busy. Oh, I had it planned!”

  “What about Bovenconti?” Teddy asked.

  “Bovenconti was going to kill your woman at that party that night. I was there to kill him for parading my son’s dead body around town. But then you did that for me,” he said with a smile. “You saw him about to pull out his gun, and you took him out.”

  “He didn’t have a gun,” Reno said.

  “Oh, yes, he did,” said Carter. “I removed it from his grasp in the pandemonium. I wanted Teddy to get the blame. But even that wasn’t enough.”

  “So that’s when you decided to do the hit at the safe house,” Teddy said.

  Carter nodded. “That’s when I decided to do it, yes,” he said. “But even that didn’t turn out right!” He was in distress now. “So, I had no choice. I told the surgeons I was on your father’s staff of doctors. Nobody questioned it. I told you I was a spokesman for the surgeons. Nobody questioned it. I was able to get inside of this hospital easily. I was so close. Until that bitch pulled out that gun!”

  Teddy stood up, and he reached out his hand to Nikki. Nikki knew exactly what he wanted. She handed the gun to him, he pulled out a silencer and put it on, and took Carter out. Then he removed his silencer and dropped the gun.

  “Bet you won’t be calling her a bitch again,” Sal said to Carter’s dead body, and he and Reno laughed.

  Nikki looked at Teddy. Teddy looked at Nikki. And then he looked over at his father.

  Mick nodded. “Good choice,” he said.

  Nikki wasn’t sure what he meant. But Teddy was. “He meant you,” he said, as he placed his hand around her waist.

  And then the cops and hospital security made their way inside.

  EPILOGUE

  Two weeks later and it all somehow settled down. Mick was out of the hospital and already well on the mend, and Dr. Carter and his almost-successful assassination attempt was nothing more than another terror attack they stared down.

  Teddy and Nikki felt especially blessed. As they walked along the water’s edge at the lake in the back of Teddy’s house, they felt revitalized. They felt as if they weathered their first storm together, and they came out stronger on the other side.

  “Unfortunately, Teddy said
as they walked, “there will be many more storms to come.”

  “I can count on it?” Nikki asked.

  Teddy nodded. “You can count on it,” he said. “Unfortunately.”

  “It’s still worth it,” Nikki said.

  Teddy looked at her. “Is it?”

  “With you in the storm with me? Oh, yeah. Definitely!”

  Teddy smiled and pulled her closer to his side. “I really see us going places, Nikki. Just you and me. All the way.”

  Nikki knew what he meant, but she didn’t respond. They had some ways to go before they could talk the forever talk. She just wanted to enjoy the here and now.

  Teddy smiled. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m not trying to rush anything. I want us to do this right, and to take it slow. That’s really the best way.”

  Nikki nodded. “Agreed,” she said. They continued walking until they were on the side of the house.

  And that was when she saw it. “Look, she said, pointing toward his front driveway. “Somebody just drove up. Were you expecting someone?”

  “No,” Teddy said and pulled out his pistol and placed it at his side.

  Nikki pulled out her pistol, too, and placed it at her side.

  “Let’s go see who it is,” Teddy said, when he saw that she was ready. And they headed toward the front.

  It was an SUV with fully-tinted windows, but what gave it away for Teddy was the fact that it was an Escalade. His father favored Cadillacs for his SUV transportation, and this one looked brand new.

  “I think it’s Pops,” Teddy sad.

  “Really? You think he’s well enough to be out and about already?”

  “After two weeks? Heck yeah!”

  They walked up to the SUV as Mick and Roz stepped out. When they received a visual on who it was, they immediately placed their weaponry back up.

  “See what I told you,” Teddy said with a proud smile. “He doesn’t even have a cane. That’s my old man!”

  They walked up to them.

  “Hello, Ma,” Teddy said to his stepmother. “Hey, Pop.”

  Mick nodded toward his son.

  “Hello there,” Roz said with a smile.

  “What brings you two to our humble abode?”

  “Humble my ass,” Roz said, and Nikki laughed.