Mick Sinatra: Ice Cold Love Read online

  Gloria’s eyes stretched. She couldn’t believe her father would put her on front street like that! But, then again, she thought, that was exactly what he’d do to her just like he’d do to anybody else. The way she saw it, he didn’t give her any breaks as his daughter.

  Nikki could not have respected another human being more than at that very moment when Mick put it all out there on the table with no bullshit attached. His daughter was one of her accusers, and he wanted her to know it. And she also knew he wanted her to ask Gloria why.

  So she did.

  “Why would you be spreading vicious rumors about me?” she asked Gloria, and then she and Mick looked at Gloria.

  “I didn’t start any of those rumors,” Gloria said.

  “Cut the crap,” Mick admonished her. “She didn’t say you started them. She wants to know why did you spread that shit? Why didn’t you go to her and tell her what they were saying instead of spreading that shit?”

  “Because it’s not fair!” Gloria blurted out.

  Finally no more bullshit, Mick thought, and leaned back.

  But Nikki was confused. “What’s not fair?”

  “That he would give you a position higher than mine,” Gloria said. “That he would make you a vice president when I’ve been working for him for years and you just got here!”

  Nikki glanced at Mick. She knew this wasn’t a good look for Gloria. Her father wouldn’t like her being so emotional the way she was at that moment, even if those were her true feelings. But Gloria, nor any of Mick’s children, seemed able to read him for some weird reason. It was as if they thought if they put their hearts on the table, he would pick it up and nurture it for them when even Nikki knew that wasn’t going to happen. He’d more likely kick the shit out of it, if you asked Nikki. But Mick’s children had lived their lives sheltered by their mothers, whom Mick funneled lots of money to, and their sense of entitlement stunned her. There was nothing sheltering about Nikki’s upbringing.

  But Gloria continued. Tears were in her big, pretty eyes. “I know this company inside out,” she said. “What makes you better than me? Why does he like you better than me?”

  And there it was. It played into the rumors, too, that somehow Mick Sinatra had a thing for Nikki and were giving her breaks he wouldn’t give any other human being alive. It was an affront not just to Nikki, but especially to a powerful man like Mick Sinatra who even Nikki knew wasn’t the kind of man who slept around with his employees.

  That didn’t mean he didn’t sleep around. Nikki couldn’t vouch for any man that deep, not even Teddy. But she could not see a great man like Mick Sinatra, a man she believed loved his wife dearly, playing footsie with his employees. And she certainly knew he wasn’t playing footsie with her!

  “I understand that you may not like what’s happened,” Nikki decided to say to Gloria, “but who gets hired here, in a senior position, is not your call.”

  Gloria frowned. “This is my father’s company, what are you talking about? Why would I think I have some say over who works for my father when I don’t?”

  “Because you’re an entitled bitch who thinks the world revolves around her,” Mick responded to her question, and even Nikki was stunned by his bluntness. He wasn’t lying, but damn, she thought. That was cold.

  Gloria was staring at him, and then she nodded her head. “I’m a bitch now, okay. Okay. Got it.”

  But Mick wasn’t playing her game. He continued to stare at her, knowing that his silence would provoke her to keep talking.

  “I’m not a bitch,” she said to her father. “And I’m not entitled.”

  “Yes, you are,” Mick said, “on both counts. The bitch part is on me. I’ll own that. My actions put that chip on your shoulder. But the entitlement part is all you. You’ve got to own that.”

  Gloria was upset. “I don’t have to own anything,” she spat out to her father, jumped up from her chair, and began hurrying for the exit.

  Mick rose to his feet. “Bring your ass back here!” he yelled, and that commanding voice was enough to stop Gloria in her tracks. And she did turn around, but she didn’t go to him. She angrily wiped tears from her eyes.

  This drama shit drove Mick up a wall. He hated it with a passion! But he loved Gloria.

  To Nikki’s surprise, he moved from around his desk, went up to his daughter, and instead of chewing her out the way Nikki thought he was going to do, he pulled Gloria into his big arms.

  Gloria, at first, winced when her father put his hands on her, as if, to Nikki, she was expecting a slap or something on that order. But when he embraced Gloria, Nikki could see the tension release from Glo’s small body, and she embraced him back. Nikki knew that Mick had children who worshipped the ground he walked on, but she also could tell that he didn’t seem to like that they felt that way about him. As if he didn’t deserve it.

  But she was glad he was comforting Gloria. She needed it. And that was why Nikki stood up, and was about to leave the room. But Gloria saw her, and pulled back from her father’s embrace.

  “What I did was wrong, Nick,” she said to her. “I know you aren’t the kind of person they were claiming you were. I apologize for participating in that.”

  Nikki was pleased to hear it, and she managed to smile. “Thank you,” she said. “But your father has made it clear that he’ll fire you and me both if we keep the drama going in his organization. So we’ve got to work together, Glo.”

  Gloria smiled. “I agree,” she said. “And trust me, he nearly fired me before, so he’s not lying.”

  Nikki laughed and glanced at Mick. “Oh, that I already was certain of. I’ll talk to you later,” she added, and left the office.

  Mick looked at Gloria. If she expected him to give her accolades for apologizing for her part in the bullshit, she was gravely mistaken. “Get back to work,” he said to her, and headed back behind his desk.

  Gloria wanted to say something snarky, like thanks a lot or something like that, but she knew her father too well. “Yes, sir,” she said, wiped her eyes again, and left his office.

  When Mick sat down, he exhaled. And he started thinking about the twins. Now he had two babies he was raising. Would he have to go through this shit all over again when they grew up too? Did they have issues with him too?

  But then he knew they stood a chance. Roz would kill the twins if they even thought about being spoiled and entitled. And she’d kill anybody who tried to spoil or give them that sense of entitlement. Including him, he thought with a smile, as he got back to work.

  But he wasn’t an hour back on his computer reviewing his company’s monthly cost overruns, when a phone call came in.

  Because it was his wife’s driver calling, he was immediately concerned. He leaned back in his chair. “She’s alright?” he asked.

  “She’s fine, Boss,” Deuce McCurry said.

  “Then what’s up?”

  “It’s just this guy. He’s been getting awfully fresh with her. I told his ass personally to knock it off more than once. I told him she’s a married lady and her husband don’t play that shit. Others told him too. But he won’t stop. He keeps getting fresh with her. Maybe you can call him and put a word in his ear.”

  “Why hasn’t she put a word in his ear?” Mick asked.

  “She says he’s just being cute, but you know how she is. She figure she can handle it so it’s no big deal. Not that I figure it’s a big deal. I’m not saying that. But it don’t look cute to me. He looks like a man who wants some and won’t stop till he gets it.”

  Mick’s jaw tightened. He pitied the fool that would even try it. “Who is he?” Mick asked. “I thought we ran background on everybody associated with that play.”

  “We have, and there’s no red flags like that. He’s just a standard issue rich fucker who bought his way onto the Broadway stage. That kind of actor. It’s just a bad look, that’s all.”

  Mick exhaled. “Okay,” he said, and then ended the call.

  He leaned back, with
a fixed frown on his face. Were these fuckers insane, he wondered. Did they realize whose wife they were fucking with? Used to be a time everybody knew. But since Teddy took over the day-to-day of his syndicate, Mick had managed to keep his name on the downlow. Which was great for his legit business. No longer were those questions swirling around about Sinatra Industries and ties to the mob.

  But it wasn’t so great for his family. He was once labeled the most dangerous man in America, and that label kept his family protected. Now he was seen more as a business mogul than the boss of bosses that every boss knew he still was, but that some knuckleheads like that actor in New York had no idea he was.

  But he could show him better than he could tell him. And because that fucker was harassing Rosalyn, it would be his pleasure to show him.

  He picked up the phone again, and called his flight crew.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Corvette sped onto the driveway of Teddy’s house and Teddy got out of his lowriding car. He had just met with Hector Morales and had ordered Joey to come to his house and meet with him too. Because if that shit was true, he was going to kill that little asshole brother of his. But he didn’t believe that shit. Not that shit. He knew Joey could do some fucked up stuff, but he wouldn’t do something that fucked up.

  But as soon as Teddy unlocked his front door and entered his home, he heard noises in the back, near his kitchen area. Had Joey made it there already? He didn’t see Joey’s Charger out front. But then he heard the noise again.

  Instead of calling out his brother’s name, he pulled out his weapon and began making his way, gingerly, toward the sound of the noise. Maybe Nikki had come over and was preparing him a meal. Or Glo was in his kitchen. He had to be careful, but just in case it was an unwanted intruder, he was taking no chances.

  And sure enough, when he entered his kitchen, he saw a man he didn’t know opening and closing his cabinets. But Teddy hesitated and didn’t say a word, because it looked staged to him, as if that guy wasn’t the real threat. But was the draw.

  But before Teddy’s external body could react to what his gut realized, he felt a crowbar come down onto his arm that carried his gun and it knocked the gun out of his hand. The gun scurried across the room.

  Although the pain was agonizing, Teddy immediately swirled around and with his good arm flipped the man with the crowbar over onto his back, causing the crowbar to sail across the room too.

  And the fight was on. Only it was two guys against Teddy because the guy rummaging through the kitchen cabinets ran around the center island and joined the fight. Teddy was beating down the crowbar man, but as soon as the other guy made it to Teddy’s side he kicked Teddy in his chin and knocked him away from his partner in crime.

  But Teddy grabbed the second guy by his legs, tripping him down, and then he hurried to him and began pummeling him too. It was no contest when it was one-on-one. But the guy who had held the crowbar jumped in to defend the second guy, and Teddy was fighting two-on-one again. But even then he was holding his own.

  He even got on his feet and tried to race to get to his gun across the room, even as the guy who had had the crowbar, who was still on the floor in pain, grabbed one of Teddy’s legs. But Teddy was still strong enough to drag the guy with him as he hurried toward his discarded gun.

  And he made it to his gun, and was about to quickly pick it up and put a cap in both their asses. Those fuckers were about to pay for the pain they had inflicted on him.

  But then a third figure appeared in Teddy’s kitchen. He was their backup plan, Teddy quickly realized, because as soon as he reached for his gun, it was kicked out of his reach.

  Teddy, stunned, turned toward the third figure, ready to kick his ass too. But another piece of metal swung toward him. But unlike that crowbar, it didn’t hit him on the arm. It caught him on the side of his head with such force that all he saw was no longer that red fire of anger that consumed him as he was reaching for his gun, but black.

  Everything faded to black.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Deuce McCurry took puffs on a cigarette as he stood on the side of the Cadillac Escalade and waited. It was late afternoon in New York and he knew rehearsals would be over shortly. He had to get back to his post. But when the boss called and told him to meet him at the airfield, what was he supposed to say? No? He hightailed his black ass to the airfield to pick up the boss. His hope was that he could make it back to the theater before rehearsals were over.

  When the door to the boss’s private plane finally opened and Mick began descending down the steps in that lumbering gait he knew all too well, Deuce dropped his cigarette, smushed it under his shoe, and opened the back passenger door.

  “Hey, old man,” Mick said to his old friend and employee as he made his way toward his SUV. “I see she hasn’t fired your ass yet.”

  “She wanted to,” Deuce said with a grin. “She wanted to drive herself back and forth. She was pissed when you wouldn’t let her.”

  Mick knew Deuce spoke the truth as he got into the SUV. But that was tough. He wasn’t about to let Rosalyn travel alone to New York and back these days, he didn’t care how pissed she was. And he made certain she had his best driver/bodyguard too because Deuce, a former law enforcement guy, knew what he was doing.

  Deuce got in behind the wheel and didn’t hesitate driving off.

  “Where is she?” Mick asked him as he checked out the sights and sounds of New York.

  “She’s still rehearsing,” Deuce said.

  “And the guy?”

  “Rehearsing too. I called you, Boss, because his ass won’t quit. And there’s something about him that’s so weird and creepy to me that he gave me the willies. And that ain’t easy to do,” Deuce added, as he glanced at Mick through the rearview. “But I was stunned when you told me you were coming to New York.”

  “Somebody tells me some joker’s trying to fuck my wife,” Mick asked, “what do you think I was going to do?”

  Deuce smiled. It still amazed him how a stone cold man like Mick the Tick would have fallen so hard for a woman. Deuce remembered how Mick would change women with the same amount of forethought it took him to change his socks. If they were good in bed, he was with them. When the lust left, he left. It was as simple as that.

  But then Roz came along.

  And it was no doubt in Deuce’s mind whatsoever that Mick loved Roz, although all of Mick’s other men still doubted that he could love anybody.

  “Roz,” Deuce began to say and then quickly corrected himself. Mick didn’t allow any of his employees to refer to his wife as anything less than Mrs. Sinatra, although Roz insisted Deuce call her by her first name. “Mrs. Sinatra is probably going to consider my phone call to you, and definitely your visit, as an overreaction.”

  “She would,” Mick said.

  “That don’t bother you?” Deuce asked.

  “What the fuck that look like bothering me?” Mick asked. “A man harassing my wife for sexual favors is going to hear from me whether my wife likes it or not. Always call me when you see that shit.”

  Deuce was pleased to hear that, even though he was certain Roz would have told him not to bother. But Mick paid his salary. Mick buttered his bread. “Yes, sir,” he said, and picked up speed.

  Roz made her way off the stage of the theater while the production team was called in to once again review their ongoing lighting issues. It was the third time during that rehearsal and it was getting old to Roz fast. But she was also glad for the break. Most of the other actors had already been dismissed for the day. She and the writer were still going over lines she disagreed with when the lightening problem returned, and they were asked to leave the stage.

  “Gladly,” the writer said. He was getting frustrated with so many actors changing his lines that he wanted to pull his hair out. Or theirs.

  Roz laughed when he told her so. “Get used to it,” she said. He was a newbie. Only his second Broadway show. Roz had been in the game for years.

&n
bsp; But when she made it down the stairs and into her dressing room, it was no laughing matter to her when Uri was in her room.

  She frowned. “What are you doing here?” she asked him. Enough was enough. His mild flirtations had gone on too long as it was. Now he had taken it too far. She was sick and tired of it.

  “I was waiting for you,” Uri said.

  “For what?”

  “To talk to you.”

  “About what, Uri? Don’t fuck with me!”

  Uri smiled. Roz was always blunt, he’d give her that. He rose to his feet. “I wanted to talk to you about us,” he said.

  “Us?” Roz frowned. “What are you talking about? There is no us.”

  “I think there is.”

  “You do?”

  “And I think you do too,” Uri said.

  Roz stared at him as he slowly made his way toward her. “What in the world are you talking about, Uri? What’s your problem?”

  “I think you know what my problem is,” Uri said. “I have an itch. You’re going to scratch it.”

  “Boy, get out of my dressing room with that silly nonsense.”

  “Nonsense? When did love become nonsense?” He was now toe-to-toe with her. “When did wanting someone become silly?”

  Then, suddenly, he grabbed Roz by the hair and snatched her head backwards violently, and began attempting to kiss her.

  Roz angrily slapped him hard across his face and tried to jerk away from his grasp but he was holding her hair too tightly and still trying to put his mouth on her mouth.

  But just as she was struggling to break away from him, and was trying to kick him in the groin, and even as he continued to attempt to kiss her, Mick appeared at the entrance to the open dressing room door. And as soon as he saw what was happening, he didn’t hesitate. Before Roz realized he was even present, Mick hurried to Uri, snatched him away from Roz, and threw him across the room.

  “Mick!” Roz yelled with welcomed relief. She was as shocked to see him as she was by Uri’s behavior.