Page 48 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
There was a long pause. Not only did Teddy’s heart dropped, but Mick’s did too. Because her silence said it all. They both stared at Nikki.
But Nikki looked distracted, as if it was true and she was trying to think up an excuse. Or a lie.
But she wasn’t doing either. She saw that red dot on Emilio’s forehead and she frowned. Then she turned and saw that he was seated directly in front of the window across the room. And her heart dropped, too, but for a very different reason.
“Get down!” she screamed from the top of her lungs as she leaped onto Teddy and knocked him down just as gunfire rang out and Emilio was shot repeatedly.
Mick pulled his weapon and began firing volley after volley as he ran toward the right side of the window.
Teddy and Nikki got up and crawled over to the left side of the room as the gunfire continued.
“Stay down!” Teddy ordered Nikki as he ran to the back of the safe house, ran out of the back door, and made his way around the side of the house. A van was speeding away beforehe made it to the front of the house. He ran out into the street, with Mick and Nikki running out through the front door, but the van was gone.
Teddy ran to Mick’s SUV, to try and follow them, but all four tires had been shot and deflated. “Gotdammit!” Teddy yelled angrily as he hit the side of the Escalade. Nikki immediately called for backup.
Then they all seemed to think about Emilio at the same time, and they ran back inside.
When they got inside, they saw that Emilio had been shot several times and was dead.
But Teddy frowned. “If they wanted him to bring Nikki and Juda in alive, why would they kill him?”
“Because he was lying,” Nikki said, and Teddy and Mick looked at her. “When he was chasing after me and we were forced to stop to let a train go by, I saw fear in his eyes. He was in town, not to bring me to any cartel. He was in town because he was running from something.”
“And he thought you could help him?” asked Teddy.
“Apparently so,” said Nikki. “Maybe that was why Juda was in town too.” Then she scrunched up her face. “I don’t know!”
But Teddy was staring at her. “Why would they think you could help them though, Nikki? It can’t be because you’re a Sinatra. Only an idiot wouldn’t know that Pop don’t have any dealings with drug gangs. What could you possibly have that they both needed?”
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I’ve got to find out before we end up in a full-blown war.”
“But a war with who?” asked Teddy. “Regular drug gangs? Or the cartel?”
Nikki’s face was a mask of anguish. Because she knew what it would mean if it was the cartel.
“And you were in Jersey last week,” Teddy reminded her.
Mick looked at Teddy. “She was in Jersey?”
Teddy nodded. “She met with Frankie Paletti to work out a distribution deal we wanted to try through his territory.”
“How would Emilio know that she was in New Jersey last week?” Mick asked and then both men looked at Nikki.
“Maybe he was following me even then.”
“Negative that,” said Teddy. “Whenever you’re out of town I have secret security on you at all times. Two details. One behind you and one much further behind them. They would have spotted anybody interested in your movements a mile away.”
“Then they know I didn’t spend the night at some hotel with Juda.”
“They don’t spy on you. They only report problems. Not your bad habits.”
“What bad habits?” Nikki asked him.
“It was a figure of speech,” said Teddy.
But Mick had a different question. “Do you have offshore bank accounts, Nikki?” he asked her. “And your ass better answer me this time,” he added.
Nikki just stood there. It was as if she couldn’t win even if she tried. She leaned her head back, and then nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Yes!”
