Page 39 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
And Mick didn’t hesitate to get to the point. “Why were you at that trailer last night?”
Teddy had expected him to ask about Roz’s presence there first, and cuss him out again because of it, but he knew better than to ever try to predict where his father was going with anything. “I followed Nikki there.”
“What was Nikki’s ass doing there?”
“A friend of mine was staying there,” Nikki answered before Teddy could.
“That same man I saw you with at that restaurant?”
Nikki nodded. “Yes sir.”
What man?What restaurant? Teddy didn’t know anything about neither.
“What were you doing at his house when it was damn-near midnight?” Mick asked Nikki.
“He text me and told me he needed to see me.”
“So you just dropped everything and went on your own without notifying Ted?”
Nikki realized her blunder after Teddy admonished her over that very same point. “Yes sir.”
“They killed my men, and almost killed my wife because of your ass,” Mick said bluntly to Nikki. “You want to get me furious with your ass, pull that shit again.”
But Nikki was floored. “What do you mean they killed . . . Our men were involved?”
Mick frowned. “You’re the underboss of my organization and your ass didn’t know you took three casualties last night?”
Nikki was astounded. She looked at her husband. “Teddy? We lost three men last night?”
Teddy ran his hands through his already messy hair. Mick knew Teddy was still working too hard despite Nikki taking some of the load off of him. He wish he could retire both of them from all of it too.
“I tracked my car to Juda’s house. I got in an accident with Marco’s Bugatti—”
“An accident? You were in an accident last night?”
“You should have seen that car. It was totaled,” Roz said.
“Ma was driving by and saw me talking with the cops. She gave me a ride to Juda’s trailer. While we were inside trying to find out why you were at his house, a small army of assassins showed up. One group ambushed Ma’s security detail, with both sides taking out each other, while another group came inside and ambushed Juda. There was a gunfight, but I was able to take out most of them. Pop showed up right on time and took out the last gunman.”
“But you said Roz was . . .” Nikki caught herself. They were to never refer to Roz as just Roz in front of Mick. She was either Ma or Mrs. Sinatra, but never just Roz. It was like them calling him Mick, rather than Pop or Dad or Boss or Sir. That was how Mick was. He demanded respect. He demanded that his wife be respected. But when Mick wasn’t around, Roz preferred they just call her Roz. But outside of his presence, they still didn’t just call him Mick.
And besides, Nikki caught herself because Mick was present. “I meant, I thought I heard you say that Mrs. Sinatra was nearly killed last night too.”
“Yes that’s what I said. My wife,” he began to say and then his anger rose. “My wife,” he said again more forcefully,“was in a gunfight in that hellhole neighborhood last night. My wife! Because of you and Teddy’s dumbasses, she was at risk. Now what is going on and if either one of you lie to me I’ll knock both of you through that wall.”
Neither one of them doubted it as Nikki looked at Teddy. She wanted a way out, a way to stop her heart from pounding out of her chest, but Teddy wasn’t going to give it to her. If she was going to live up to the title of underboss, it was high time she acted like it. This was on her. He would protect her if Mick tried anything physical, but she was going to tell her own story her own way.
Nikki looked at her in-laws as both of them, even Roz, seemed to expect to hear a horror story. But Nikki knew it was even worse than that.
She let out an audible exhale, and told her story.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
She told her story. All of it. From her falling in love with Emilio Cabrera, to her helping him out by dropping off packages to the drug boys. She told Mick and Roz about how young she was at the time, and the manipulation she endured from Emilio, but how she held to her refusal to transport across state lines or out of the country even then. But as she continued to fall hard for him, and when he dangled marriage and kids in her face, she agreed to be his drug mule just that one time.
Roz was completely sympathetic. She knew what it was like to fall hard for these no-good men. “Oh you poor baby,” she said.
“Poor my ass,” said Mick, completely unsympathetic. “All her ass had to do was say no.”
