Mick Sinatra: No Love. No Peace. (The Mick Sinatra Series Book 9) Read online

  “No,” Roz said.

  “Why not?”

  Roz couldn’t believe how dense he was behaving. “You hit her, Dontae,” she said. “Why do you think? You have a morals clause in your contract.”

  “But you said I had every right to hit her back.”

  “I said it because that’s what an agent is supposed to say on behalf of her client. But you know better than that.” Then she frowned. “Don’t you?”

  A changed look appeared across Dontae’s face. He knew better. And he nodded, as his tears reemerged. “Yeah,” he said. “I did that one stupid thing, and now my career is in ruins.”

  As he spoke, and unbeknownst to both of them, Mick appeared at the door. It didn’t take him long, after Rosalind left their home earlier, to realize that he needed to make amends. He had a powerful need, in fact.

  And as Roz pulled the good-looking guy at the conference table into her arms, and the guy closed his eyes as if he loved her embrace, Mick understood why that need was so powerful. He could lose Rosalind. She was strong enough, and smart enough, to leave him in the dust. Just the thought of it brought chills to his spine.

  “What am I going to do, Roz?” Dontae asked her as they embraced. “I can’t start over at my age. It took me too long to get to this point.”

  Roz pulled back and removed her arms from around him. “I’m not going to lie and tell you that you don’t have a problem. You have a major problem.”

  “Maybe if you talk to the producers instead of just Wes,” Dontae said.

  But Roz was already shaking her head. “They aren’t going to go against Wes. He’s the reason they invested their money in the first place. The key for us is the girl. You’ve got to get one of your friends to talk to her, don’t you do it yourself, and see what’s in her head. You need to find out where she’s going with this.”

  “She wants money,” Dontae said. “She already told me. But I’m not giving that bitch a dime.”

  “How much does she want?” Roz asked.

  Dontae looked at her. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying you’ve got to clean this shit up, Dontae. That’s what I’m saying! If she presses charges, or tries to make a bigger deal out of this, you’re screwed in this industry. If we can keep it in-house, then maybe we can make this right. But it’s your ass that put your ass in this spot. Not her. You did this. You’ve got to get your ass out of it.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Dontae asked.

  “After your friend discreetly finds out how much she wants, get a lawyer and get him to negotiate a deal. Pay her. And move on.”

  “Move on? You make it sound so easy.”

  “As easy as a slap,” Roz said. “That was easy, too.”

  Dontae exhaled. “What about my Tony nomination?”

  “You don’t have one yet. And besides, nominations won’t be out until May. That’s a long time away. But you were in the production long enough to qualify, so that’s good. But I’m going to be blunt with you, Dontae. You’d better hope you get that nomination. Because if you do, then all will be forgiven and you’ll get another shot. Shows like to hire Tony-nominated actors. It looks good on the marquee. It gives their plays prestige.”

  “And if I don’t get nominated?”

  “You may get another shot. I’m not saying you won’t. But it’s going to be a long shot. I’m not going to even lie. It’s going to be an uphill climb.”

  “Will you keep me on as a client? Or are you going to dump me, too?”

  “I don’t dump my clients when they’re in a crisis. Of course I’ll keep you on, and do all I can. But you need to get it together. Temper tantrums and all of that shit won’t work on Broadway. You know that,” she said as she Roz rose to her feet, prompting Dontae to rise to his. It was only then did they see Mick at the door. Dontae was taken aback. How long had he been there? Roz was inwardly pleased. They even exchanged that I miss you look. “Hey,” she said.

  “Hello,” he said.

  She looked at Dontae. “Don’t try to approach her yourself, or try to do it on the cheap. Get a friend, and get a lawyer to handle it. You’ll get yourself in a world of trouble if you try to handle this any other way.”

  “Got you,” Dontae said. Then he looked at Mick again as if he was assessing a rival. Dontae knew who Mick was, but he was relatively certain Mick had no clue about him. “Aren’t you going to introduce us?” he asked Roz.

  “No need,” Mick said before Roz could respond. Then he looked at Dontae with an undeniable grimace. “Have a nice day.”

  Dontae didn’t like the idea of some man dismissing him like that. But even he knew when to fold’em. He had enough worries of his own. He wasn’t about to get into it with his agent’s husband. “See you around,” he said to Roz, and headed for the exit. When he and Mick were side by side, he gave Mick another assessing look. Mick ignored him.

  When Dontae left, Mick pushed away from the doorjamb, closed and locked the door, and slowly made his way toward the table.

  CHAPTER NINE

  “That asshole disturbing your morning?” Mick asked. Then he had to smile. “More than I already had, that is,” he added.

  Roz smiled, too. “A bit more, yes,” she said. Then both of their smiles dissipated. “What are you doing here?”

  Mick rubbed his hand across the tops of the leather chairs as he made his way on the other side of the table, and next to Rosalind. He sat his butt on the edge of the table, with one thigh resting on the table, and the other thigh hanging freely. He was now facing her, and they were now eyeball to eyeball. Her natural eyelashes were long above her bright, brown eyes, giving those eyes a look most attractive, as he stared into them. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  His eyes looked tired and a little bloodshot, but even looking exhausted he was still the sexiest man alive to her. “I’m okay,” she said.

  “Still pissed?” he asked.

  She didn’t have to think long. “Yes,” she said. “We’ve been through this a hundred times, Mick. I know things come up and you have to handle your business. I have no problem with that. But you keep promising me and promising me that you’ll keep me in the loop and at least call and let me know what’s going on. But you continue to not do it. And now this woman too?”

  “It’s not like that,” he said.

  “I wouldn’t know,” she responded, “since you won’t tell me anything about her.”

  And Mick still wasn’t going to. It was a point of pride with him. No woman, not even Rosalind, was going to be handling him.

  He placed his hand on her arm and gently pulled her until her entire small body was between his thick thighs. She glanced down as he moved her in front of him. The bundle between his legs was expanding. “What I can tell you,” he said, “is that you don’t have to worry about any other woman. And that’s all,” he said as he purposely pulled her so close that her stomach was pressed against that section of his trousers that housed his expanding penis, “you need to know.”

  That wasn’t all Roz felt she needed to know. Not by a longshot. But his eyes were so damn sexy. And his body was so damn big and strong. And his touch. And the way his rod was hardening even through his pants. It was enough for now.

  Mick moved in, staring in her eyes and then down at her lips, and he kissed her. But as she wrapped her arms around him and returned his kiss, he could smell the last remaining remnants of Dontae’s cologne on his wife’s clothing. And Mick hated that. She belonged to him and for some reason he had a constant need to make sure she understood that. He didn’t want another man to so much as touch a hair on her head, he didn’t care how innocent the gesture. The only way he knew how to make himself clear was to reassert himself on her. To reclaim her. To rebrand her as his.

  He lifted her up onto his lap and continued to kiss her. Then he turned her around, and sat her on the tabletop. As he continued to kiss her, he slid down her pants and panties until one leg of both were dangling off. “You know wh
at I want, don’t you?” he asked after their lips stopped kissing and he was now rubbing his lips against her cheeks, and back over her lips. “You know what I want.”

  Roz wasn’t a big talker during sexual encounters, and neither was Mick. But sometimes, she knew, he wanted to make his intent clear. “I know,” she said.

  “Next time I catch you hugging any man that isn’t me,” Mick said, “I’m going to kick your ass.”

  Roz knew he didn’t mean that, but it turned her on, and she held him tighter. “I know,” she said in a husky voice.

  Mick lifted her blouse and bra, and began sucking her breasts. Roz began to pant. She had a backlog of work waiting for her upstairs, and one of her more successful clients just got his misogynistic ass handed to him. But all that mattered to her right then and right there was being with Mick. He had a way of eclipsing everything else in her life.

  And when he placed her on the table, the anticipation eclipsed any other thoughts completely. And when he went down, between her legs, he outdid himself in ways even she didn’t think possible. He wasn’t licking her gently around the edges, and flicking her clit. He was eating the shit out of her. She found herself moving her body, gyrating to his appetite, as he ate her.

  And then he stood up. He stared at her as he unbuckled and then unzipped his pants. When he pulled them down and his penis jutted out, fully aroused, her eyes hooded-over.

  And when he slid into that black gold, her breath caught. She laid back on the table, giving Mick full access now. And he took full advantage. He moved into her, deeper and deeper, and stroked her like a man on a mission. And his mission wasn’t just to cum, although that would be the final outcome. His mission was to remind Rosalind whose she was. And as he stroked her and stroked her, as he stared at her and she stared at him, both with passionate eyes, it was crystal clear. They belonged to each other with no daylight between them. Nobody else was going to be able to squeeze in.

  And they came together. Mick and Roz. They came hard. Until Mick poured into her so completely that his body collapsed on top of her, totally and unabashedly drained.

  Later, after he took her to the conference room bathroom and began cleaning her up, he finally let her in.

  He had sat her on the bathroom vanity, and was wiping between her legs with a wet cloth, when he spoke up. “I used to have a partner,” he said.

  Although Roz was surprised to hear it, since she always thought Mick worked alone, she knew not to interrupt him. It was amazing, given his stubbornness earlier, that he was giving her any details at all.

  “His name,” Mick continued as he wiped her, “was Santo Vichy. He wasn’t a partner in the traditional sense. I ran my own show. But he was my number one. We were closer than brothers. But we were also thugs in the worse sense. But Santo changed. He started getting crazy and careless with it. When it got too bad, and he was running around offing people if they looked at him wrong or some other stupid shit like that, I knew I had to put an end to our partnership. I don’t mind tough. On the streets, you had to be tough. But Santo was behaving as if he had a bloodlust. As if his ass made a deal with the devil. I wasn’t with that shit. No way no how. I told him to get his ass away from me. I didn’t want any parts of him anymore. And if you’re crazier than a fucker like me? You’re crazy. So he bounced. He left. I didn’t see him for a while. I heard he was selling drugs on the street corners, doing shit like that. I threw jobs his way. A lot of jobs. But I kept my distance. Then I heard he did a stint in prison in some murder-for-hire bullshit. But I didn’t hear anything else. Until a week ago.”

  Roz stared at him. Did this have to do with that woman and his staying out all night?

  “I get this call from his woman. From Natalie,” he said and looked at Rosalind. She nodded. It was about last night.

  “She calls me,” Mick said. Roz’s vagina was now completely clear of his semen. He was wiping her needlessly now. But it felt good, so she didn’t object.

  Mick continued: “She said Santo was in trouble. She said they were trying to kill him. But before she could tell me anymore, the call went dead. I didn’t want to be bothered with her, or him either, but I couldn’t just let that call stand. Santo was my boy back in the day. So I get my men on it. Find out what they can. But that was the problem. They couldn’t find Santo or Natalie. Until last night.”

  “They found her?” Roz asked.

  Mick nodded. “They found her. So I met up with her and we talked. She told me not only was Santo dead, but that his own people, his own men, had killed him. She said I had to avenge his death.”

  “Like hell,” Roz said.

  “That’s was my initial reaction too. Until those same fuckers started shooting at me. And before I killed their asses, I got a look at them.”

  “They were Santo’s people?”

  Mick nodded. “Yup. They were his. And if their asses were bad enough to shoot anywhere near me, they were bad enough to kill their own leader.”

  Roz stared at him, fearing what he was going to tell her. “So what does this all mean?” she asked him.

  Mick finally stopped wiping her and began wiping himself. “It means I’ve got to avenge his death. I spent most of the night figuring out the landscape, and the players. They aren’t just a ragtag bunch of drug dealers like I thought. I put Natalie in a safe house and her ass finally came clean.”

  “What is it?” Roz asked.

  Mick began folding the cloth. “The kill order didn’t just come from the rank-and-file of Santo’s organization. He wasn’t out there on his own. He had a godfather.”

  Roz’s heart began to pound. “Who?” she asked.

  “Teddy Stefani,” Mick said.

  Roz knew that name very well. “Teddy Stefani? The man our Teddy was named after? But he’s dead, Mick.”

  “I know,” Mick said. “But that’s the name Santo had given to Natalie. And they didn’t just want to take out Santo, according to her. I was the one they wanted.” Mick looked at Roz. “So yeah, I’ve got to go to war. And apparently, if Natalie is to be believed, I’m going to war with a fucking ghost.”

  Roz stared at Mick. She knew he hated days like these. She pulled him into her arms.

  After several minutes of just holding each other, Mick and Roz released each other. “Just keep me in the loop, Mick,” Roz said. “That’s all I’m asking. Call me when you won’t be home. Don’t leave me worrying about your big ass all night long.”

  Mick looked at her.

  “Okay?” Roz asked.

  Mick kissed her. “Okay,” he said.

  “So what’s next?”

  “Since getting any sleep appears to be out of the question,” Mick said with a slight smile, “I’ve got to be somewhere.”

  Roz got down from the vanity. “Be where?” she asked.

  Mick just stood there, unwilling to say any more.

  Roz couldn’t believe it. “Mick!” she decried. “You’re doing it again?”

  But Mick, being Mick, still just stood there.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Bella Caine looked through the peephole of the hotel room. When she saw that it was Mick standing there, she took a moment to spruce herself up. She smoothed down her hair. She made sure her skirt seams were angled side to side and not too far in front or behind. And, given that she needed his help and still believed Mick’s attraction to her was still high, she unbuttoned the top two buttons of her blouse. And then she opened the door.

  When she opened the door, she saw Mick alright. But then Mick moved Roz from the side of the door and placed her in front of him. Bella’s heart dropped. She and Roz weren’t exactly on any kind of good terms, although Gloria, Bella’s daughter, thought the world of her stepmother.

  But Bella, who had been a professional model for many years and was now a successful fashion designer, knew how to shield her distaste. She didn’t even bother to button back up her blouse. “Hello, Mick.” Her voice was professional. Neutral. “Hello, Rosalind. Come in.”
r />   She stepped aside and allowed the couple to walk in. Mick placed his hand on the small of Roz’s back and moved her in front of him as they walked in. Mick and Bella did hug, however, when Mick entered the room, and Bella gave him a soft kiss on his cheek. To this day she still missed that man! Which was a shame. But given that he bought his wife with him, she knew he was still off limits; that he was still trying to be the good husband. An experiment she knew was destined to fail. She closed the door, and offered them both a seat.

  Mick and Roz sat on the sofa inside the hotel suite, and Bella sat in the wingback chair in front of the sofa. Although Roz leaned back and crossed her legs, Mick sat forward with his arms on his thighs. It was obvious to Bella that he wasn’t interested in a prolonged meeting: he wasn’t going to give her a lot of his time. Since he never did, anyway, not even when they were dating, not even when she had his daughter, she decided to get on with it too.

  “Somebody’s trying to kill me,” she said.

  Roz was surprised. She didn’t expect to hear that. Her first question would have been who. But Mick, being Mick, had a different question. “Why?” he asked Bella.

  Bella would have preferred to answer the who question, instead, but she gave Mick what he needed. “I owe money. One of my stores, my fashion house in Paris, didn’t have as good a season as we had hoped, and I needed a quick flow of capital to get through the season.”

  Roz couldn’t help it. “Why didn’t you come to Mick if you needed money?” she asked.

  Bella looked at Roz as if she should be seen and not heard, but she knew disrespecting Roz would get her nowhere. She was a New Yorker, and a frequent dinner guest of theater types. She heard about what happened to Joe Ranley. She heard how Mick beat the shit out of that producer for disrespecting Roz. “I’ve gone to Mick too often in the past,” she said. “I was trying to keep him out of it. I would borrow it, pay it back, no problem.”

  “What went wrong?” Roz asked.