Page 6 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover
As he walked past Big Steve’s table, he could hear the mother telling the children that their father would be back soon. She told them he had to talk with a client. A client, Teddy thought. She thought her old man was legit. Just another boring accountant. The lies men told their women.
Teddy walked past that table and went down the back hall that led to a back room. When he walked up to the door, he could hear Hoke yelling at Steve and Steve yelling back, but their voices were muffled. Since the door was locked, Teddy knocked once. Hoke opened the door and Teddy went inside.
Big Steve was seated in a chair in the middle of what looked like a storage room. Ted grabbed the tire iron that Hoke had in his hand and had been threatening Steve with. Teddy walked up to his accountant.
He could tell Steve was concerned when he thought it was only Hoke coming after him. But when he saw Teddy enter that room, his entire look changed. It was as if terror itself had just walked in. Because he knew Hoke was no Teddy T. Because he knew Teddy T didn’t fuck around.
“Where is it?” Teddy asked him as soon as he walked up to the chair.
“Where’s what, Teddy?” asked a dumbstruck Steve. “I told Hoke I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
“One more time,” Teddy said. “Where is it?”
“But I don’t know,” Steve started saying again and Teddy took that tire iron and slammed it across his head.His head jerked sideways from the impact and began bleeding immediately. Steve cried out in pain.
“Where the fuck is my money?!” Teddy yelled out this time.
“I don’t have it!”
Teddy knocked him across the head again. “Where’s my money?!”
“Teddy please. I don’t—”
Teddy was about to slam him again, but he wised up. “In my bank accounts,” he said quickly. “I have three bank accounts!”
“That ain’t all of it. That’s a million and change. You stole three million from me. Where’s the rest of it?”
Steve was shocked that Teddy would know that.
“Thought your Ivy League ass was smarter than me? You’re in my world. I’m not in yours. You think you know my world better than I do? Now where the fuck is my money before you can forget ever seeing your wife and kids ever again. Where is it?!”
Steve gave in. “I have a locker.”
“Where?”
“At a storage facility. It’s in the locker.”
“How much?”
Steve hesitated. Teddy was about to hit him again. “A million-five,” Steve quickly said.
“Shit,” said a shocked Hoke.
But Teddy didn’t believe him. He was about to knock him over the head again.
“Two million!” Steve quickly blurted out. “It’s two million, please don’t hit me again.”
“Don’t hit you?” asked an incredulous Hoke. “You got some nerve stealing that kind of dough from Mick the Tick and Teddy T and you don’t want nobody to hit you? Are you nuts,you idiot? Let me finish his ass off, Boss. Let me do the honors and dump him in the river. He’s too stupid to live.”
But Teddy couldn’t get the sight of his wife and kids out of his mind, and his son asking where daddy was. “Go out the back way and take him to that locker. Have a detail meet you over there. If his ass don’t pony up, dump him in the river.”
Steve looked horrified.
“You know what that means?” Teddy asked Steve. “It means you’d better pony up every dime. And if I discover there’s more that we missed? It’s over for you. So if it’s more than two, now is the time to come clean. There won’t be a second time.”
“That’s it,” said Steve. “Two million. And it’s all there. I’m bleeding to death, Teddy.”
“Your ass ain’t bleeding to no death,” said Hoke. But Teddy did allow Steve to remove his shirt and staunch the blood.
