Page 30 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
Mick stared at him. He was just like Duke when he was a kid. Impatient. Insolent. Ready to break free and never look back. But Mick be damn if he was going to allow Duke to become like him. There was a price to be paid to be like him. They could ask Joey. And Adrian. And even Teddy. Not another son of his was going to pay that price.
“The only reason we’re playing this game is because Duke ruined the movie.”
“What movie?” Mick asked.
“We were watching this movie on Netflix, this mystery, and Duke saw it before so he told me who done it before I could find out for myself.”
Mick frowned at his son. “Why on earth would you do something that dumb? You know better than that, Michello.”
“It’s downright evil,” Jackie said.
“It’s only evil if you meant to do it,” Duke responded. “I forgot.”
“Bullshit!” Jackie said forcefully and then quickly looked at her father. “I didn’t mean to use profanity, Daddy--”
“Yes you did,” said Duke.
“But Duke is lying,” Jackie continued. “I told him at the beginning not to tell me what happened at the end and who done it, but he told it to me anyway. He got to enjoy figuring it out on his own when he first saw the movie, but he didn’t want me to enjoy that same thing. That’s just selfish and hateful and evil just like I said.”
“I agree,” Mick said. “No son of mine had better ever play life that way. It’ll come back on you and bite your ass in the butt when you least expect it.”
“Bite my ass in the butt?” Duke was blown away by his father’s mixed metaphors.
“Yes, when you least expect it that’s what will happen,” Mick said, standing by his odd reference.
“I told him the same thing more or less,” said a defiant Jackie.
“So cut it out,” Mick said bluntly to Duke. “You treat people the way you want to be treated. Sinatras don’t start shit. They finish shit. Don’t you ever be the starter because that kind of behavior starts with little things like sabotaging a movie’s ending so that your sister can’t enjoy it the way you did. Don’t you ever be that kind of slick bastard nobody can trust. Don’tyou ever bring those kind of unnecessary problems to our family, you hear me? You’re smarter than that.”
“Yes sir,” Duke said, and meant it this time.
Mick exhaled. Roz had made him early in their marriage to always stop what he was doing and teach his youngest children whenever they needed correction. He didn’t do it with his older children. But Roz refused to let him be an absent father in the lives of their twins. But Mick came home horny. He didn’t come to teach lessons. He wanted Roz beneath him. “Where’s your mother?” he asked them.
“She called and said she’ll be late,” Jackie said as Duke picked up their consoles.
“Late doing what?”
“Something about taking Teddy to find Nikki or something like that.”
Mick frowned. “To find her?”
“I think that’s what she said.”
“But you weren’t paying attention?”
Jackie hated to admit it, but it was the truth. “No sir.”
Now Mick was the exasperated one as he pulled out his phone and attempted to call Roz. But he got no answer. Then he called her security detail.
“Hello sir.”
“Where is she?”
“She picked up Teddy from an accident scene.”
“An accident?” The twins looked at their father when he said those words. “Was he harmed?”
“No sir. He was okay. I don’t even know if he was a part of the accident.”
