Page 12 of Teddy Sinatra: Go Your Own Way
The man struggled, moving his body side to side as he fought to break free and to remove that bat from his neck.
He was strong enough and scared enough to remove the bat, and then he knocked Nikki off of him and attempted to get on top of her. But she was fast of foot, much faster than he was, and she was able to get on her feet and with that positioning take back that bat and beat him down.
At first it was still a struggle as he continued to try to get up and take that bat away from her, but the more she beat on him the less of a threat he became. But she didn’t let up. Now she was angry at his ass, and was screaming at him, and she wasn’t going to stop beating on him until he had no fight left in him.
By the time Teddy and his bodyguard had arrived at the house and ran inside, the man was unconscious.
“Nikki!” Teddy called out and ran to her. She was standing there, breathing heavily, as Teddy took the now-bloody bat from her and tossed it aside. His bodyguard checked the man’s pulse. It was still strong.
Nikki, now exhausted, plopped down on the coffee table. That was when Teddy saw the blood on her.
“You’re bleeding,” he said to her as he lifted her chin and realized it was a nosebleed. “Hold your head back,” he ordered her.
“I’m okay.”
“Like hell you are. Hold your head back,” Teddy ordered again as he pulled out his handkerchief and pressed it against her nose. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to talk to her.”
“Talk about what? And didn’t I say hold your head back?”
Nikki leaned her head back as far as it could go. “I wanted to introduce myself.”
“Why? What the fuck you need to introduce yourself to her for? I told you it was nothing.”
“You also told me our guys were going to handle him.”
“They did handle him.”
“They did a lousy job,” she said, her head leaning forward and Teddy pushing it back.
“Hold your head back!” he yelled at her again. Then he exhaled as she held her head back once again. “When I heard you screaming when I was running up to this house, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. You scared the shit out of me.” Then he began rubbing her back with one hand as he nursed her bloody nose with his other hand. “You scared the shit out of me,” he said again as if he was coming to the realization himself that his wife in the field was spooking him more, not less, as time went by.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Teddy drove Nikki to the docks while his bodyguard drove her car behind them. But the drive was mostly silent as if he was allowing Nikki time to decompress. But when they arrived at the dock office, and they went inside, Teddy couldn’t hold back any longer. He unleashed on her.
“That was some dumbass, backwards-ass shit you pulled, Nikki.”
“That man was attacking her,” Nikki said as she leaned her back against the wall. “What was I supposed to do?”
“Mind your own fucking business, that’s what!” Teddy fired back as he went behind the desk. “You shouldn’t have been there. What you looking her up for with all this work we got to do?”
“You act as if this was some elaborate plan. I was no plan at all. I was wanted a face to face with her, that’s all.”
“But why? What you need to see her face for? I told you she needed a favor and I gave her one. End of story!”
“You say.”
Teddy looked at her. “And your ass better say it too.”
“That may not be what she says, is what I mean.”
“Who gives a shit what she says? You’re my responsibility, not her!” Then he frowned even deeper. “Why would you even go there when I told you she was having trouble with her old man?”
“I wasn’t thinking like that. I just wanted to size her up, that’s all. I never dreamed I’d pull up and there she was being manhandled by that man. He slapped her down as soon as she walked in that house. I couldn’t let that stand.”
“Wait a minute. What do you mean? She was there?”
