Page 32 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
“No you don’t. And you don’t know who my wife is either. Or this lady,” he said, motioning toward Roz. “Got it?”
The man smiled. “And I’m sure you never heard of me either. I got you.”
Teddy continued to stare at him, but he did release him. But something wasn’t right. Teddy could sense it. But he couldn’t figure out what it was. Then he and Roz stood up to leave.
But that was when what sounded like a gunfight erupted outside. Before Teddy could turn around good, the front door was being kicked in. Realizing Roz was in danger, Teddy leaped over at her, grabbed her, and knocked both of them over the back of the sofa.
The gunmen entered shooting and fired shot after shot after shot at Juda, killing him instantly.
But Teddy knew they weren’t going to just walk back out. He moved to the end of the sofa, looked around, and as they started searching for more bodies to kill, he took off a shoe and threw it across the room. The men turned in that direction and he began firing at them, taking out three of the four before they could react.
But the fourth one was still alive and he began firing at Teddy, shooting Teddy’s gun out of his hand. Then the man began rushing toward the sofa to take Teddy completely out.
Roz tossed Teddy her gun and he was about to fire, but the man was upon him and would fire first. But just as he was about to shoot, Mick rushed in and shot first. The gunman hesitated as if he was in disbelief, and then he fell on his face. Dead.
Mick ran behind the sofa where the gunman was headed and that was when he saw Teddy and then Roz. She was terrified and shaking. Mick couldn’t believe she was caught up in that scene.
As soon as Teddy stood up, Mick angrily punched him so hard that it knocked him right back down.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Roz said quickly as she got up and hurried over to Mick as he was about to grab up his son and continue the beatdown. “It wasn’t his fault, Mick!”
Teddy got back on his feet. He felt he deserved that punch. But only that one. He would go fist-to-fist with his father if he had to.
Mick was furious and Teddy knew it. “Don’t you ever involve my wife in your bullshit!” he yelled at him.
“I told her to stay in the car!” Teddy yelled back.
“It wasn’t his fault, Mick,” Roz insisted again.
But Mick was still too angry and they knew it. There was no talking to him when he was in that zone.
“They wiped out all three of my men,” Mick said, and it was when he said it did Teddy and Roz realize that Mick apparently had a hidden security detail on Roz. That was the gunfight they heard outside before the door was kicked in. Which sobered up both Teddy and Roz.
But Mick kept yelling. He was trembling with anger. “Her entire detail was wiped out. Every single man. And you had the nerve to let her drive your stupid ass to this level of danger? Are you out of your fucking mind? This is my wife!” he screamed at Teddy again as if Teddy didn’t know it. Or at least acted as if he didn’t know it.
Roz and Teddy both were too shaken to argue their points any longer. Because they both knew, in hindsight, that Mick was right.
But Mick wasn’t done. He turned his rage to Roz. “And your ass had no business driving him over here,” he said.
“He was in an accident,” she tried to explain.
But Mick didn’t want to hear it. “Let’s go,” he said with anger still in his voice as if he was going to take care of her when they got home. When she didn’t move, he grabbed her by the arm. “I said,” he said with clenched teeth, “let’s go!”
Since they all knew the cops took their pretty time getting to this side of town, there was no rush. But Roz, knowing when to say when with Mick, got in a hurry. She began getting her ass out of there.
As Roz past Teddy on her way to do as Mick ordered, she gave Teddy the key fob to her Bentley because she knew Mickwasn’t about to let her drive home. She knew Mick didn’t want Teddy nor Nikki driving her brand-new car, but she also knew that was the last thing on his mind. Losing men always took something out of Mick. It always did.
Mick hurried up behind Roz, and he looked at Teddy with that fire still in his eyes as he approached him. “You and Nikki at my house tomorrow morning ten sharp,” he ordered. And then he placed his hand on Roz’s back and escorted her out of that house. He was as angry with her as he was with Teddy.
When they had gone, Teddy shook his head. Juda had told him a story that didn’t comport with this kind of fire power. He was paid ten grand to take out a stalker for Nikki and at the same time a small army showed up at his house? For what? Over stalking? To avenge some smalltown farmer stalking Nikki? Who were these gunmen, he wondered as he called in a cleanup crew. “We got casualties,” he told them, which amped up the response.
But as Teddy grabbed up his gun and Roz’s gun and got the hell out of that house too, he would believe pigs could fly before he believed that much firepower showed up because of some farmer stalking Nikki.
That wasn’t the answer to this riddle.
But was going to get the answer tonight if it was the last thing he did.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
