Her Protector Page 2

  You’ll feel better if you do.”

  “Ah, fuck you, Joey!”

  Joey turned around, ready to tell Gio a thing or two, but Teddy slapped Joey’s arm and

  turned him back around. “Just go,” Teddy said to Gio.

  Gio got out of the Charger and made his way across the street. Joey and Teddy watched as

  he went. “I still don’t like this,” Joey said.

  Teddy continued to look around. It was dead everywhere, but there was a car parked in

  front of the bakery. But Teddy knew that didn’t mean shit if it wasn’t Sammy’s.

  But Joey was still worried. “What if Pop finds out?” he asked.

  “He finds out,” Teddy said.

  “But he might not like this.”

  “This has nothing to do with him. I’m not dealing with his contacts. This is my thing.”

  “You’re always doing your thing. Pop kicked your ass once for doing your thing.” Then Joey

  looked at his brother. “But why are you doing it now, though, when Pop’s worried about that

  missing shipment as it is?”

  Teddy continued to stare across the street. Joey’s mind might have been on the why.

  Teddy’s mind was on the how. How was he going to make sure he, his brother, and Gio got out

  of this alive?

  “I know it’s for the money,” Joey continued. “But why you all of a sudden need this kind of

  dough?”

  “I’ve got responsibilities now,” Teddy responded.

  “You mean as Pop’s underboss? You’ve been his number two for a while now.”

  “Not that.”

  “Then what?”

  No response.

  Joey realized what. “Nikki?”

  No response.

  “But her ass left you!” He smiled. “I thought that was over. I thought you decided you

  wasn’t down with the swirl after all, especially a big-ass one like Nikki, and you--”

  Teddy’s out-of-nowhere temper came out of nowhere and he reached over angrily and

  grabbed Joey by the catch of his shirt. “One more negative word about my lady and your ass is

  mine, Joey!”

  “Okay, okay,” Joey said, his hands up in surrender. “I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. I

  respect Nikki. She saved my life once. You know I respect her.”

  Teddy stared at him, and then released him.

  “I was just figuring she’d go the way all your other girlfriends have gone, Teddy. That’s all

  I’m saying.”

  Teddy understood why Joey would think that way. His actions made him think that way.

  Because it wasn’t playing out the way Teddy had it in his mind to play out. He saw himself, first

  and last, as Nikki’s protector. As the man she could rely on if the entire world turned against

  her. But he was acting as if he had turned against her too. Telling her they had no future. Not

  trying to stop her from walking out on him. Breaking into her apartment. What was Joey

  supposed to think? What was Nikki supposed to think?

  But before Teddy could say a word about it, Gio was running back across the street and

  getting into the backseat of Joey’s car.

  “He’s there,” Gio said. “He says to go around back.”

  Joey looked at Teddy. “Why the fuck we gotta go to the back? I don’t like this, Teddy.”

  But Joey could tell his brother wasn’t listening, but was, instead, in one of his contemplative

  states. They just had to wait for his decision.

  It came faster than Joey expected.

  “Go,” Teddy said to Joey.

  Joey, still unconvinced, nonetheless did what he was told and drove around the corner and

  then down a side street that led to the back of the bakery. It was in a dark and isolated part of

  town. Everything seemed wrong to Joey. But Teddy was looking at the big picture: the money.

  He didn’t seem to give a shit.

  “Get behind the wheel and stay ready,” Teddy said to Gio as he began getting out. “Joey,

  you come with me.”

  “I don’t like nobody driving my ride, though, Teddy,” Joey said sincerely as Teddy got out.

  “Teddy?”

  But Teddy wasn’t thinking about Joey’s pettiness. He kept on moving.

  Joey looked at Gio. “Not a scratch,” he said between clenched teeth as he got out, too. And

  then he hurried behind Teddy.

  They walked along a long, dark, narrow passageway that led to the backdoor. “This place

  gives me the willies,” Joey was saying as he made haste to keep up with Teddy’s fast pace.

  Teddy wasn’t exactly thrilled with the meeting place, either, nor the time, but if all went

  well it would be more than worth it. Besides, he was hyperaware. If anything went sideways,

  he’d be the first to know.

  They entered the back door into a quiet, well-lit bakery kitchen that was as dusty and rusty

  as those years out of commission assumed it would be. The man they came to see, Sammy

  “the lizard” Matanzas, along with his driver/bodyguard, was sitting on a stool beside the cooling

  station.

  “Teddy T,” he said. “Long time, no see!”

  Teddy walked over to the countertop, with Joey just behind him. “Not such a fine time to

  do business, Sammy,” Teddy said.

  “Ah, you know me. When I make up my mind, my mind’s made up. Three in the afternoon

  or three in the morning. You know me! I was ready. So I’m here waiting. Too long for my

  taste.”

  “How much?” Teddy asked.

  “How’s your Pops?” Sammy asked.

  Teddy didn’t respond to such a question. He knew Sammy the Lizard didn’t give a damn

  about his old man. “How much?” he asked again.

  Sammy smiled, grabbed a briefcase from beside his chair, and threw it at Teddy. Teddy

  caught it and opened it. It was loaded with cash.

  “Damn,” Joey said, looking over Teddy’s shoulder. “A lot of dough to deliver nothing.”

  “How much?” Teddy asked Sammy yet again.

  “Right there? Half-a-mill. I get my product? Nine-and-a-half million more. But I must take

  delivery in three days. Not four. Not five. Three days. Can you make it happen?”

  Teddy didn’t have to count the cash. He’d have plenty of time to do that before delivery

  day. He closed the case. “Just make sure you have the rest of the money,” he said. “I’ll have

  the product.”

  Sammy smiled. “That’s why I like doing business with you. Teddy the Tower. You’re a

  towering figure in our business, and strong as steel just like your old man. And I know you’ll

  keep your word. But if you don’t, I’ll come down on your ass hard. You know that too.”

  Teddy knew it. Sammy was a cordial man, but behind that façade he was a ruthless

  sonafabitch who got his “lizard” nickname, not for being slimy, but for being annoying as hell

  when you crossed him. Because he never forgot. And never would allow you to forget. “Just

  remember,” Teddy said, “this is a transaction between you and me. Not you, me, and my old

  man.”

  Sammy smiled. “Branching out on your own, are you? Good for you! I say it’s never a great

  thing to be in somebody else’s shadow. And Mick the Tick casts a mighty wide shadow. I say

  more power to you.” He stood up, and they ended the meeting.

  Joey was a little surprised that they were walking out with half a million dollars without

  delivering shit to Sammy, but Ted wasn’t surprised at all. The underworld knew Teddy even

  before they knew he was Mick’s son. He
always delivered then, although he was moving a

  different product. They knew he would deliver even now.

  Teddy and Joey went out back, only to find Gio asleep at the wheel. “Look at that asshole,”

  Joey said. “He’s got our backs alright.” Joey immediately began hurrying to his Charger to yank

  the door open and expose Gio for sleeping on the job.

  But just as he was about to yank on the door, a car wheel squealed, Teddy and Joey turned

  in that direction, and shots began ringing out. Teddy and Joey slammed their bodies to the

  ground hard, pulling out their weapons when they did. The gunfire woke Gio up, too, and he

  ducked down inside the car. And the shots were unrelenting.

  But then, just as they were ready to return fire, they all could hear the getaway car burning

  rubber speeding away.

  “Follow that motherfucker!” Teddy yelled as he tossed the briefcase to Joey, and as he ran

  from behind the Charger. He started running across the field to cut the car off the next street

  over, but it was a gamble. There were other ways around. But Teddy’s calculation was that the

  street he was heading for would be the car’s quickest route. And professional getaway drivers

  always took the quickest route.

  Joey grabbed the briefcase and yelled for Gio to move his ass over. Then he jumped into his

  Charger, getting behind the wheel, as Gio hurriedly moved over to the passenger seat. Then

  Joey sped off onto the side street where the getaway car was getting away, and followed it.

  But although Teddy was on two legs, he stood the best chance of catching those assholes.

  And he aimed to catch them.

  He ran with all he had across that thorny field. This was supposed to be a private meeting

  and he was angry as hell that somebody had gotten wind of it. Unless that somebody, he also

  knew, was Sammy’s people. But how would killing him profit Sammy? He hadn’t delivered shit

  to Sammy yet!

  He kept running across the field until he was on the street he was expecting the getaway car

  to travel. His calculation was right. The car swerved onto that street and began speeding

  toward the next street. He and the gunman inside the car were looking back, as if Joey in that

  Charger was the only Sinatra they had to worry about.

  They were mistaken. Bold-ass Teddy, as Joey sometimes called him, ran into the middle of

  that road, right in front of that oncoming vehicle, and began firing at the driver and the man

  riding shotgun.

  Both men were shocked to see Teddy in front of them. It was as if a ghost had suddenly

  appeared in the night and they swerved to avoid the incoming! But they swerved too late. The

  incoming was already coming in. The driver was hit first, by Teddy’s design, and then the

  passenger, the man who was actually the shooter, was hit immediately after. But Teddy had to

  keep running toward the car and shooting that bastard multiple times because he was still

  lifting that rifle; still trying with all he had to shoot back.

  But he didn’t get a shot off. Teddy took him out just as the rifle was lifted. The car swerved

  out of control and didn’t stop its progression until it landed in a ditch.

  Joey and Gio had already driven up, and were jumping out of the car. And driving up the

  opposite end of the street was Sammy the Lizard and his bodyguard. Sammy and his guard

  jumped out too. All of them ran toward the wrecked car.

  But Teddy got there first. He had to press his shoe onto the side panel of the car and force

  the wrecked door open. But he had to know who they were. When he saw their faces, dead in

  that car, he didn’t know either man.

  “What the fuck happened?” Sammy asked as he and his driver ran up. “Are they yours?”

  “Hell no,” Teddy said. “Are they yours?”

  Sammy walked past Teddy and looked into the car at the men too. He shook his head.

  “They don’t belong to me.”

  “But do you know them?” Joey asked.

  “Why would I know them?” Sammy asked. “You don’t ask me that kind of question. Didn’t

  your old man teach you manners? Stay in your place, boy!”

  If Sammy the Lizard wasn’t the major mob figure he was, Joey would have told his ass off.

  But Sammy was too big. Not big as his old man, but big. Joey kept his trap shut.

  “What you think they were after?” Gio asked Teddy.

  “The money, what else?” Joey responded.

  But Teddy and Sammy weren’t thinking like that. Nobody was going to take a shot at Teddy

  Sinatra on his own home turf in Philadelphia for the kind of money that could fit into a

  briefcase. A suitcase, maybe. But not a briefcase.

  Teddy exhaled. He had run so fast across that field that he was nearly out of breath. But he

  still had present-ness of mind to change the rules of the game. “When we meet again,” he said

  to Sammy, “it will be at a time and place of my choosing. Not yours.”

  Sammy normally would not allow an underboss to talk to him that way. It was disrespectful

  on every level. But Teddy was Mick’s underboss. Which meant that Teddy, every head of

  family in the underworld knew, was one notch above all of them.

  “Just as long as I take delivery in three days,” Sammy said, “I don’t care where we meet.”

  And then he and his bodyguard got back into their Town car, and took off.

  But Teddy was still disturbed. What the fuck was this about? Who would come at him like

  this?

  “What do we do now?” Joey asked.

  “Hand me your keys,” Teddy said. Joey handed them to him. “Pull out your phone, take

  pictures of those assholes, and you and Gio get a crew over here to clear up this mess.”

  Teddy began heading for Joey’s Charger.

  “And you?” Joey asked. “Where you going?”

  “To find the fucker responsible,” Teddy said. “Where else?”

  And Teddy got in behind the wheel, and sped off.

  “I thought you didn’t want anybody driving your precious car,” Gio said to Joey. “But yet

  you let Teddy drive it without saying a word.”

  Joey frowned. “Teddy’s my boss. What the fuck you think I was gonna do? Object?” Then

  he hit Gio upside his head. “Call in a crew like my brother said, asshole. Just do your job!”

  And Joey pulled out his own cellphone and took pictures of their would-be assassins, as

  Teddy had ordered.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Nikki grabbed her purse, phone, and briefcase, hurried out of the bedroom inside her small

  apartment, and gave herself a final look-over in the full-length mirror near the front door. It

  was her first day of work and she made it her business to dress the part. She wore a dark-blue

  power-suit, and her hair was in a straight, weave-enhanced, body-rich drop-down style that

  framed her face and highlighted her high cheekbones and smooth, brown skin. She smiled at

  her reflection, showing perfect white teeth, but her smile didn’t match the sadness even she

  saw in her eyes.

  She stood there momentarily, staring at that sadness. She knew she needed to conceal that

  shit. The last thing she wanted was for some man to know she was pining over his ass. She

  showed her true feelings once before, and Teddy went ballistic. She wasn’t going down that

  road of vulnerability ever again.

  She put on a pair of dark shades, for concealment purposes, and headed out her front door.

  She
was still going to work for Teddy even though she had left his house under a less than

  ideal situation, and had moved into her own place. Now she was broke and heartbroken, but

  wasn’t so full of pride that she was going to give up the job he had offered her. She needed the

  work, especially if she planned to eat meals and be able to pay her upcoming rent anytime

  soon: to survive, in other words. Just putting down a deposit and first month’s rent had

  completely busted her tiny bank account as it was. She needed the job.

  But that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be awkward as hell, she thought, as she made her

  way to the building’s elevator. She hadn’t seen or heard from Teddy in nearly a week.

  It all started when he used her car to go check on something that had come up, something

  syndicate-related, and didn’t return until late-afternoon the following day. They got into it. It

  was bad.

  “I told you not to pull that shit again, Teddy,” she had said when he finally made it home.

  They were out back, on his patio, where she had been waiting for him. Waiting all night and

  half that next day.

  But Teddy took offense to what she thought was a reasonable comment. “What shit am I

  pulling?” he asked her. “I was taking care of business. Hard motherfucking business. You talk

  as if I was running around with women!”

  “I don’t know what your ass was doing. But I know you could have phoned me and told me

  something!”

  “Why the fuck I have to phone you? I’m no got damn lap dog! I don’t answer to you! I don’t

  answer to anybody but my old man. You got that?”

  Ordinarily, Nikki wasn’t the type of person who allowed words to hurt her. But it did hurt

  when those words came from Teddy. Her response, she knew, reflected that hurt: “Why are

  you talking to me like that?” she asked him. “I said what I said and I meant it. I’m not being

  with a man who doesn’t think enough of me to at least phone and tell me something! It’s been

  nearly two days, Teddy. You could have phoned me.”

  “It’s not that simple and you know it. When shit’s going down I don’t have time to be calling

  you. The work I do is not simple like that!”

  “I know it’s not,” Nikki replied. “I didn’t say it was. But this isn’t your first time. It’s all the