Page 53 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
Nikki closed her eyes and shook her head. “No I couldn’t have, Teddy. Don’t you understand that? We barely knew each other when you helped me out of that horrible situation in California. I killed my landlord when he tried to rape me. I called my own father and he told me to go to hell. I barely knew you and you came to my rescue.”
“Just like you helped me when Roz was attacked. You came to my rescue at that hospital.”
Nikki dismissed that. “That was nothing,” she said. “That was just being a good citizen. But you got on your plane and flew a thousand miles to my rescue. I could have gone to prison for life if it wasn’t for you. You already showed me what you was made of. And I wanted you with all my heart. I needed somebody like you. I’d never had that before. And you expected me to tell you, ‘oh by the way I had this drug-dealing boyfriend who made me his drug mule and I took the drugs of a South American cartel worth millions of dollars on the streets and trashed it all and took off.’ Thinking about nobody but myself. And then all those children were killed because of my action. All those innocent children dead because of me. It took me years to come out of that fog. Years, Teddy! I couldn’t go back there. I wasn’t going to do anything to risk losing you and I guarantee you would have ran from me if I would have told you all of that. I would have been trouble with a capital T and you would have ran! I couldn’t risk that. I’m sorry, but I couldn’t.”
Teddy stared up at the ceiling. “I understand that. I do.” Then he looked at her. “But I’ll never understand how you could have these offshore accounts and keep them a secret from me too. What did you think I was going to do? Steal your money?”
“Okay now that’s not fair. You know I would have never thought anything like that. You have more money than I can ever put in any account for the rest of my life and you know it. It was never about that.”
“Then what the fuck was it about?” Teddy’s face was filled with puzzlement.
“It’s about me running away from Miami when I trashed those drugs. I had nothing but the clothes on my back. I was homeless for a period of time. And whatever jobs I got from Phoenix to L.A. to Beverly Hills, I never made enough money to get by. Hunger scares you. Not being able to pay your bills is chilling. I had to have something separate and apart from everybody else. Something that could sustain me and my baby if you and your family didn’t want me anymore.”
“Nikki, we wouldn’t do that to you.”
“I knew it wasn’t the best thing to do in your eyes, because you’ve never known hunger in your life. Even when Mr. Sinatra was an absent father, he still kept your mother in big houses and pearls. His children might not have had his time, but he made sure they didn’t lack for money or any material need. My adult life was just the opposite. I had to figure out a way to fend for myself. I couldn’t even call my mother when I was on the run. My parents knew nothing about Emilio and what I was up to. Financial uncertainty changes you. It’s a scary place to be. Once I got on my feet, I vowed to never put myself in that position ever again.”
Teddy turned onto his side. He could feel her pain.
“Then when Kimmie was born,” she said and then shook her head. “When Kimmie was born,” she said again, “I doubled down on that pledge. And I will continue to double down on that pledge. I have to have financial independence, Teddy. I have to.” Then there was a plea in her voice. “Can you understandthat?” she asked him as she searched his face for some kind of clue.
Teddy stared at her and placed his hand on the side of her face. Then he nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I can understand it.” Then he leaned in and began kissing her. His phone started ringing, but he didn’t stop kissing her until she began returning his kiss. Until he felt she believed him.
Then he reached over and grabbed his phone. When he saw it was their acting cargo supervisor, he put the call on Speaker. “Why are you calling me instead of Nikki?”
“This is bigger than Nikki, sir. Ship number five just exploded. It just exploded!”
Teddy and Nikki both jumped out of bed. “When?” Teddy said as they began putting back on their discarded clothing.
“Just now. It started below deck so we’re able to contain it there, but it did massive damage to our cargo sir.”
“We’re on our way,” Teddy said and tossed the phone on the bed. He looked at Nikki. “One day,” he said, “you’re going to be the first call they make like it’s supposed to be.”
Nikki doubted that. Those men would never accept a woman as their boss no matter what she did for them or for the organization. But at least Teddy knew what they were about. “Let’s just try to contain the damage,” she said, “before it gets out of hand.”
And they dressed quickly, and took off.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Teddy flung his Corvette into high gear and sped toward his gate. The gates opened, the capos manning the gate nodded, and he and Nikki took off. A security car waiting outside the gates, one ordered by Mick, took off behind them. The idea that there would be an attack on their cargo in the middle of what they were going through with Nikki’s past caused great consternation. They didn’t need this shit. That was their sentiment. But for Teddy, it was also a little too convenient.
“What do you mean?” Nikki asked him.
“I don’t know. It’s the way he said it.”
“That it was contained below deck?” Teddy nodded. “I thought that sounded odd too.”
“We’ll go in through the side street,” Teddy said, “just in case shit’s going down.”
“And if it doesn’t look like an emergency,” Nikki added, “we back off.”
“Exactly.”
“Anybody we can trust to call over at the docks now?”
But Teddy was already shaking his head. “No. After you fired Mike and demoted Sammy, it could be anybody. A lot of those workers have an allegiance to both of them.”
“And that’s the problem at the docks,” said Nikki. “Their asses should have allegiance to the organization, not to one man in that organization. We need to clean house, Teddy, I keep telling you that.”
