Mick Sinatra 4: If You Don't Know Me by Now Read online

  “Wait here,” Mick said as he made his way toward the bedroom. But before he could get anywhere near it, Betsy came running out.

  “They made me do it!” she cried. “They made me do it!”

  “Who?” Mick asked, his gun still trained on her. Roz began moving up behind him.

  “Who?” Roz asked too.

  “Melo,” she said.

  Mick frowned. “Who?”

  “Carmelo Rodriquez,” Betsy said. “He made me do it, Roz. Gwen is his old lady now. They planned this together. They called Hamp in and Hamp pulled me and J.J. in. But not like this.” She saw the dead bodies. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

  But Roz was skeptical. “Why would Carmelo want to kidnap me?” she asked her.

  “Because of what Mick did to him.” They both remembered how Mick beat Carmelo’s ass over some nude internet photos of Roz. “He wanted revenge.”

  Mick couldn’t believe the stupidity of these people. Didn’t he know Mick would kill his ass for sure if he did Roz any harm? Didn’t Hamilton know that? How could they underestimate him this badly?

  “But why were you involved?” Mick asked Betsy.

  “I needed the money,” she admitted. “Why else?”

  But Roz’s anger toward her friend was about to get legendary. She’d had it now. Mick saw her for the snake in the grass she was, and now Roz saw it too. She moved from behind Mick and began walking toward her “friend.”

  Mick continued to stand guard. He never let his guard down. But he also knew Roz needed this confrontation once and for all.

  “So you were never in the hospital?” Roz asked Betsy as she walked toward her.

  “No, girl,” Betsy said with a smile.

  With a smile, Roz thought with nothing but contempt for this so-called friend.

  “I wasn’t in the hospital at all. Gwen came up with that.”

  “And J.J. went along with this too?”

  “Easily,” Betsy said. “She needed some coins too. She’s living in Belize, but she’s struggling still.”

  “And she needed coins?” Roz asked.

  “Yeah. We all did.”

  “You needed some coins.” Tears were staining Roz’s eyes. “You needed coins so you thought about me. Your best friend. And if getting those coins meant my death, then so be it. Right?”

  “Right,” Betsy said with a smile. And then she quickly caught herself. “Oh, no! That’s not what it meant at all! That’s not what I meant. Doing you harm wasn’t a part of our agenda at all! Harming you wasn’t in the plan!”

  “But harming you,” Roz said, “is in my plan.”

  Betsy looked at her as if she didn’t understand English all of a sudden, but Roz hit her with the butt of her gun and knocked sense back into her. And then it was on. Mick stood back and watched his wife beat the shit out of Betsy. Betsy was crying in that high-pitched shrill of hers he hated, but Roz, for the first time since he met her, showed Betsy no mercy. She beat her down.

  Betsy needed hospitalization for real when Roz finished with her. She was on the floor, bleeding, and begging Roz for mercy. She backed her bloody body against the wall, and begged.

  Mick watched to see if Roz went there. She could have. Betsy deserved to die, in Mick’s opinion. But Roz didn’t. She didn’t go there. There was just still too much humanity within her toward her inhumane so-called friend.

  But there was none there within Mick. He handed his handkerchief to Roz. “Go in the bathroom and clean yourself up,” he said to her. “We’ll leave when my men get here.”

  But Betsy didn’t trust him. “Don’t do it, Roz,” she begged. “Don’t leave me with that man! Don’t do it, Roz!”

  But Roz wasn’t thinking about Betsy. She was, instead, thinking how she didn’t even know he had phoned his men. But Mick was always one step ahead of her. She went into the bathroom.

  And Betsy’s warnings were right on target. Because as soon as Roz left the room, Mick aimed his weapon at Betsy. She sat up straighter, and tried to move back, but she was already against the wall. “Please don’t harm me,” she begged.

  “Just as they weren’t going to harm my wife?” Mick asked.

  “They weren’t. They promised me they weren’t!”

  “And witches ride over rainbows. And cats can fly. And you give a shit about my wife. Lies, in other words,” Mick said. And then he shot Betsy Gable through the heart.

  Roz, in the bathroom, jumped when she heard that one particular shot. She didn’t even have to look to know that it was Mick taking Betsy out. Because it hurt her to her core. Two old friends at the end of the road.

  Roz took both hands and placed them on either side of the sink, as tears fell down, and took a moment.

  CHAPTER TEN

  After Mick’s New York crew arrived to clean up the mess at Gwen’s house, and to dispose of the bodies, the limousine drove slowly back to the airstrip. Mick was leaned back on the leather seat and Roz was sitting on his lap, facing him, with her head on his broad shoulder. She was devastated by the turn of events and Mick held her tightly in his arms. He was devastated too. But his devastation was born completely out of rage that any fucker anywhere would think they could kidnap his wife, do whatever the hell they planned to do to her, and get away with it. And the so-called mastermind of the group, Carmelo Rodriquez, already knew what Mick was capable of.

  Mick closed his eyes and leaned his head back. Apparently he didn’t know. Apparently Hamilton Sturgess didn’t know either. Or even Betsy Gable’s slick ass. All of them had been on Mick’s bad side, and all of them continued to push the envelope his way. What did they think? He didn’t love Rosalind? Could they possibly think that she didn’t mean to him what she truly meant to him? Or did they see him as a weak man now? A man who didn’t keep his word? A man who could be roiled without retribution? Where the fuck, Mick thought, did they get a bat shit crazy idea like that from?

  He heard Rosalind sniffle. He placed his hand beneath her chin and lifted her face from his shoulder. When he saw that there were tears in her eyes, his facial expression changed from a frowned look to one of heartfelt compassion. “Don’t cry, sweetheart,” he said to her.

  “I should have listened to you,” she said. “I should have listened.”

  Mick wiped her tears away. The sincerity in her big, brown eyes touched him deeply. “You wanted to make sure your friend, a woman you believed to be your best friend, was okay. I will never fault you for your loyalty to a friend. It is your friend that I had issue with.”

  “But if I would have trusted your judgment, maybe I could have seen what you saw in Bess.”

  But Mick was shaking his head. “No, darling, you would have never seen that unless you saw it with your own eyes. And she was too slick to ever show you that. Somebody you didn’t think had any skin in the game, this J.J. person, came to you with news of your friend’s pending demise. What were you supposed to do? A loyal person like you? I understood your plight from the very start. But you have got to understand mine.”

  A distressed look appeared on Mick’s face. “You have got to understand that making sure that you’re safe, that the twins are safe, that my grown children are safe, is my top priority now. All of you are my responsibility.”

  He had more to say, but he hesitated. He wanted to say it gingerly, given Roz’s state, but he also knew he had to be perfectly clear. “That is why,” he continued, “my word, when it is a matter of safety, has to be final. There can be no debate about it. There can be no yes, but about it. You’re a strong lady, Roz, and I love that. In times of crisis I know I can depend on you. But with that strength comes that sense that you know best. That nobody can take better care of you than you can take care of yourself.”

  Roz stared at Mick. He was being kind because of her grief, but she knew him. He was laying down the law.

  “You have always had to fend for yourself, to look out for yourself, to pay your own way. And you did it well,” Mick continued. “But those d
ays are gone. They will never return as long as I have breath in my body. I fend for you. I look out for you. I pay your way. I run our household.” Mick gave her a chillingly strong look. “You do not,” he added.

  Roz understood every word he spoke, but it was also foreign to a woman like her too. She looked into his crystal green eyes.

  He could tell she was afraid. “It is not control, Rosalind,” Mick said. “I am not trying to control you.”

  “I know you wouldn’t, you’re not that kind of man, but your words sound as if you could, that you have that right. It sounds like much more than just my safety that you could control if you wanted to.”

  Mick didn’t respond to that. He was not debating it.

  Then Roz managed to smile. “Whatever happened to fifty/fifty in a marriage?” she asked.

  “If you want fifty/fifty, go marry a lawyer, or a doctor,” Mick said. “Marry a banker or a baker or a cabinet maker. But do not marry me. I do not do fifty/fifty.”

  He placed his hand on the side of her pretty face. Their marriage was still young. They were just over a year in. She was still understanding the true extent of his reign. “I am older than you,” he said. “I have far more experience than you will ever have.” Mick smiled. “You can kick ass. You put a good ass-whipping on that lying, cheating dog of a friend of yours, I’ll give you that.”

  Roz couldn’t smile at that. Betsy’s end still troubled her.

  “So, yes, you can kick ass,” Mick continued. “But even in that, I can kick better.”

  Roz placed her hand on his cheek too. “Mister Modesty,” she said with a smile. “Is there anything I can do better than you can do?”

  That got a smile out of Mick. “You can run your talent agency better.”

  “Check,” Roz said.

  “You can breastfeed our babies better.” The mention of her breasts caused Mick to glance down at the bountiful cleavage above her blouse, cleavage that was staring up at him.

  “Check,” Roz said. She began to feel his penis expand beneath her butt.

  Mick looked at her luscious lips. “You can kiss me, and make love to me, better than any woman I have ever known.”

  And before Roz could check that too, Mick’s mouth was covering hers in a smothering kiss that caused both of them to start moaning and groaning and holding each other tighter.

  Mick moved one of his hands to the seat of Roz’s panties, eased inside of the seat and began massaging her clit.

  When Roz felt his hand expertly rubbing her pleasure button, giving her pleasure, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him as hard as he was kissing her. Their faces moved around and around in a music-less rhythm as they kissed. Mick, especially, was drinking up her taste. Even though she returned his kisses with equal vigor, his vigor went to another level she couldn’t match. He was all into Roz. He couldn’t get enough of this woman he loved.

  Or her breasts. Because he lifted her blouse, lifted her bra above those breasts, and began to suck. He lifted the mound of one big breast into the palm of his hand, giving him full access, and began to suck until her nipple was as hard as his dick. He wanted her so badly that he then moved both of his hands to the seat of her panties and ripped the seat apart. He wanted to eat her. He wanted to eat her pussy as if he’d never touched her before. But they were in a car for crying out loud. They were on a busy highway!

  But fuck it, Mick thought. Car or no car, highway or no highway, he laid Roz onto the limo’s long leather seat, lying on her back, and moved down between her legs. When he licked her, she felt that sense of elation she always felt when he did her down there. But when he began mouth-fucking her, moving his tongue up and down and slicing in, pleasuring not just her clit but all within her folds too, she could hardly bear it. She squeezed the hair of his head, holding tightly, as her vagina squeezed out the juice he needed to get by. And Mick licked it up as soon as it was produced. He was in love with her taste.

  But he was more in love with fucking her. He moved back onto the seat of the limo, put her back onto his lap where she was straddling and facing him. He unzipped his pants, pulled it out, and put it inside of her. Both were distressed by the events of the day. Both were still reeling by what could have been had Mick not come to New York with Roz. But when Mick began to move inside of her, and when sex felt this good, even all of that distress had to take a back seat.

  Mick leaned his head back, Roz leaned her head back, and she rode his big, thick, rock-hard cock as if she was riding a wave.

  And Mick drowned in her pussy. No vagina felt better to him, or tighter, or sweeter to the core of his being, and he’d been inside of thousands in his lifetime. But Rosalind’s pussy was the golden place. It was the place that made him stop searching when he got inside, and never wanted to leave. He had a sense, the very first time he made love to her, that he had found what he was looking for.

  By the time she came first, and then he came shortly afterwards, by the time they both were arching and groaning and enjoying the intensity of their cum, the limousine was pulling into the airstrip and Mick’s men were standing guard, waiting for their boss to open the door.

  It would be several more minutes before Mick finally stopped fucking her. His cock was nearly covered with that thick white cream, with her juice mixed in with it, by the time he stopped all movement. His wad was deep within her, and she was loaded too. He pulled out his handkerchief to catch her drain out and to wipe her dry.

  But while he was cleaning her up, she was looking out of the window of the limousine. What she saw shocked her. Mick had an army of men waiting at that plane! She knew the windows of the limo were completely tinted and the men surrounding them could not see her, but it still was odd. It still was a strange feeling to have her breasts exposed and wet, to have her pussy exposed and wet, and to have all of these men just outside of the limo, surrounding them. It made her feel almost paranoid. What if they could see something? But her bigger concern wasn’t their eyes, but their numbers.

  She looked at Mick. “There’s an army out there,” she said to him.

  “They’re going to escort you to the plane. Half are going with you, and half are staying with me.”

  Roz was concerned. “Staying with you? Mick, why?”

  “Unfinished business. My men are attempting to locate Mr. Carmelo Rodriquez as we speak. I ordered them to locate him today or they will answer to me. They will locate him today, I assure you.”

  Roz knew it had to be done. “Will you find out why he did it first?” she asked. “Make sure he’s the one behind this?”

  “I will make sure, don’t worry. My men have been ordered to stand down until I get there.”

  “Where will you stay until they find him? Then she remembered that Mick owned one of the most iconic hotels in New York. What was she saying? “I forgot,” she said before he could answer. “I would stay with you,” she added, “but one of us need to be there with the twins.”

  “You weren’t going to stay anyway,” Mick said bluntly as he concluded cleaning her and then himself. “Teddy will meet your plane when you arrive in Philly. He’s been ordered to stay with you until I’m back in town. You stay at the house until I am certain the threat has been neutralized.” He looked at her as he wiped his dick. “You understand?”

  Roz understood. Sometimes she was amazed she could ever question this man. But she couldn’t lose herself. There was a fine line between running their household and completely running her, and she had to make sure he didn’t cross the line. “Yes, sir,” she said to him.

  Mick knew he could be brutally heavy-handed most of the time. It was needed with everybody else in his universe. But Rosalind wasn’t everybody else. She was his wife. “Teddy is in charge while I am gone,” he said to her as he put her bra back in place and pulled down her blouse. “But Teddy is not in charge of you. I fully expect, however, for you to obey me and do what I just told you to do. Stay at home, under extra guard, until I return. I’ve ordered Joey and Glor
ia to get to the house too until they hear from me.”

  Roz looked at him. She wasn’t about to question his authority regarding her safety ever again. “I won’t go off the reservation again, Mick,” she said. “Don’t worry about me, or the children.” She placed her hand on the side of his face. “You just take care of yourself, and come home safely.”

  “With you to come home to,” Mick found himself saying, “I’ll be a fool not to take care.”

  Roz smiled, they kissed, and then Mick opened the door.

  Mick’s men glanced at each other with that inwardly smiling look. They could tell they had been fucking. Roz had that glow all of Mick’s previous women used to display whenever they got out of that limousine with Mick. But they dared not even joke about it the way they used to. Mick loved this one. She was Mrs. Sinatra in more than name only. He made it clear to them from the first day of their marriage: “Mrs. Sinatra and I are one,” he said to them. “What you do to her, you do to me. How you treat her, is how you treat me. Try me,” he added with that cold stare that even they feared, “if you don’t believe me.”

  They weren’t about to try him. They treated Rosalind Sinatra as if she was royalty in their midst.

  Carmelo Rodriquez could not expect such royal treatment. Carney, one of Mick’s New York men, hurried across the street in Yonkers as an SUV drove up and parked on the side of the road. Mick, sitting in the front passenger seat, pressed the window down and looked at Carney.

  “Is he in there?” Mick asked him.

  “Not over there, he’s not. But if you drive behind it, there’s another motel. He’s in room 9. Playing cards at a table on the left side of the door. And boss, there’s a backdoor.”

  “Who gives a shit?” Mick asked. “The fucker who tried to kidnap my wife will not be getting away from me.”

  Mick rolled the window back up, and ordered the driver to Carmelo’s location. Carney smiled. What he and Mick’s men loved about him was that he wasn’t afraid to do his own dirty work. He didn’t send anybody to do what he could do himself. Carney looked around, and then left the scene.