Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal (5 page)

But none of his feelings were about her looks.
 
Nor her hot body.
 
She was beautiful, but not the most beautiful
woman he’d ever known.
 
She had a smoking
body, but he’d fucked thousands of women in his lifetime.
 
He’d been with women that could easily put
her body to shame.
 
It wasn’t about
that!
 
It was about her.
 
Rosalind.
 
It was about what Rosalind did to his heart that no other woman had been
able to do.
 
It was about the way
Rosalind made him feel whenever she entered a room.
 
It was about her intelligence, and her deep
moral core, and the way she handled herself that turned him on.
 
And this smart, tough, but beautifully
fragile lady was now his undisputed woman.
 
His wife.
 
His complete and utter
responsibility.

But even with that weight on his shoulders, and
because it was Rosalind he now carried, he felt as if he was the most fortunate
man in this whole wide world.

Mick was sitting at the center island inside their
gourmet kitchen the next morning, drinking coffee and reading over his text
messages, when Roz finally made it downstairs.
 
He looked up as she walked in.
 
In
her conservative gray slacks and yellow cardigan, with her white blouse ruffled
at the throat, she reminded him of a prim and proper school teacher rather than
the energetic businesswoman she actually was.
 
A gorgeously prim and proper
teacher, that is
, he inwardly thought.
 
Then he thought again wickedly.
 
She wasn’t prim and proper last night!

She sat on the stool beside him.
 
“Good morning,” he said as he continued to
read his texts.

She attempted to smile, but couldn’t pull it off.
 
She wasn’t exactly a morning person to begin
with, and last night, with Betsy’s mess, didn’t help.
 
She picked up his coffee cup and took a sip.

“I’m tired,” she said.

Mick looked at her.
 
Concerned.
 
“Take the day off,” he
said.

But Roz shook her head and hugged his warm coffee
cup with her hands.
 
“Can’t,” she
said.
 
“I’ve got too many clients.”

“Your talent agency is taking off in a major way,”
Mick said, “and I’m proud of you for that.
 
You took a nonexistent business and made something special out of
it.
 
But,” he added, staring at her,
“it’s taking its toll.”

Roz nodded.
 
She understood what he meant.
 
She
probably looked as bad as she felt.
 
“I’m
okay,” she reassured him.
 
“I just had a
long day yesterday, and then Bess and her mess.”

“I love your allegiance to your friends and your
clients.
 
That is why I did not come down
harder on you last night the way I could have.
 
I like that you are a caring, loyal woman.
 
But you are giving too much of yourself to
people who, quite frankly, Rosalind, would throw you to the wolves first chance
they got.
 
That I do not like.”

Roz considered him.
 
Mick was always a powerful looking man to her.
 
His thick, muscular frame and intense green
eyes made him a sight to behold to anybody watching.
 
But it was his heart that captured hers.
 
It was all in the way he treated her.
 
Even when he was angry with her, which was
often, she never saw hate through that anger, but love and concern.
 
He cared about her.
 
He wanted the best for her.
 
She would always be in his corner because she
believed he was camped out in hers.
 
“I’ll slow down, I promise,” she said.

“Just not today?” he asked.

She smiled a dimpled smile.
 
He loved the deep dimples on either side of
her cheeks.
 
“Not today,” she said as she
leaned her head on his shoulder.
 
He
smelled like a combination of his own cologne scent and, in a twist that was
always odd to Roz,
her
perfumed
scent.
 
As if he kissed her and licked her and ate her so much that she was now
coming out of his pores.
 
Crazy, she
knew.
 
But that was his smell.

“Anyway,” she said, as she took another sip of his
coffee and lifted her head back up, “I’ve got to skedaddle.”
 
She got up and headed for the foyer.
 
Mick got up too, and followed her.

After grabbing her briefcase, car keys, and purse,
Roz, with Mick behind her, made her way out of their home, down the steps, and
up to her waiting Bentley.
 
She
smiled.
 
“How did it get here?” she
asked.

“It’s magic,” Mick said with a smile of his
own.
 
Roz hit him on his thick bicep,
causing him to grin.
 
But he knew her
question wasn’t worth any serious response.
 
He had one of his men drive her car home last night.
 
That was how he handled his business.
 
He was certain she understood that.

He opened the door of her Bentley.
 
She got inside, cranked up, and when he
closed her door she pressed her window down.
 
Mick folded his arms over the top of her downed window and leaned
in.
 
Roz looked at him.
 
He looked simply adorable, she thought, with
his hair windblown across his forehead and his trademark tailored suit, this
one a dark brown Brioni, giving his usually fair skin a boyish, almost
airbrushed tanned look.
 

Mick leaned in further and kissed her on the
lips.
 
It was supposed to be a simple
goodbye kiss but, as usual when Mick tasted Roz, his kiss lingered.
 
By the time he finished, they were both
contemplating going back inside.
 
If they
both didn’t have companies to run, they would have.
 
“What’s on tap for you today?” he asked her.

Roz dropped down her overhang mirror and began
refreshing her lip gloss.
 
“I have three
new clients coming in, and a handful that make it their business, not to mind
their own business, but to drive me nuts on a daily basis.
 
So the normal abnormal.”
 
She glanced at him.
 
“What about you?”

“Same.
 
Meetings and more meetings.”

“I hear Joey got a promotion.”
 
Joey was Mick’s youngest son.

“Joey told you that?” he asked her.

“Yeah, he called all excited.
 
He said he’s going from a busboy in the
cafeteria to a supervisor in the mailroom.
 
He knows he still has a long way to go to get to the top, as he calls
it, but he’s willing to do whatever it takes.
 
I like that about him.
  
I’m so
happy for him.”

Mick agreed.
 
“He doing his job.
 
He’s got his
act together.
 
He’s keeping his ass out
of trouble.”

Roz smiled.
 
“Because he knows his ass is yours if he gets in trouble.”

Mick smiled too.
 
“He’d better know it.”
 
Then he
exhaled.
 
“Remember tonight,” he said.

Roz looked at him.
 
“That’s still on?”

“Far as I know, yes.”

A sense of dread occurred within Roz.
 
The kind of feeling she often got when she
had a disagreeable task in front of her.
 
“Okay,” she said.
 
“I’m not
looking forward to it,” she added, looking away, “but okay.”

Mick could see the anguish in her eyes.
  
“I’ll cancel it,” he said definitively.

But Roz would have none of that.
 
“No, don’t,” she said.
 
“The mothers want this meet and greet so I
need to oblige them.
 
We need to come
together now that I’m their children’s brand new stepmother.
 
I just pray they don’t try any stupid stuff.”

“They know I don’t play that,” Mick assured
her.
 
“They aren’t crazy.”

Roz kissed Mick on the forehead.
 
“I’ll meet you there,” she said.

Mick leaned in and kissed her again, lingering
again, and then she drove around the circular driveway, blew her horn with a
playful wave, and drove away from him.

Mick watched her leave, waving as she went, and then
pulled out his cell phone as he headed inside.
 
He ordered an additional man to tail her.

But as soon as he ended that call, his cell phone
rang.
 
It was the man he paid to tail his
daughter, and he didn’t like what he had to tell him.

Mick drove his bright red Maserati to the condo his
daughter had recently purchased.
 
He
received a report from one of his men about a situation that concerned him, and
he wanted to see what she had to say about it.
 
His relationship with all four of his grown children were still in flux,
as he had not been there for them at all when they were younger.
 
He had been their financial backer and
nothing more.
 
It was difficult for him
to be there emotionally for them even now, but after he met Rosalind and she
showed him the error of his ways, he was trying to change.

He parked his car, made his way into the building
with the assistance of the Doorman, and then made his way up to her
apartment.
  
He didn’t know a lot about
Gloria’s habits, or any of his other children’s if he were to be truthful, but
he knew she was an early bird.
 
Early to
bed, early to rise.
 
She was responsible
that way.
 
But if the report he received
was accurate, none of his children could be more irresponsible.

She answered after only a few knocks, and although
she was still in her bathrobe, she was nonetheless bright-eyed and seemingly
ready to go.
 
And, to Mick, the most
beautiful young woman in the world.
 
She
was biracial (half black/half white), tall, slender, and gorgeous.
 
The spitting image of her mother.

“Dad?”
 
She
was unable to suppress her surprise.
 
“Good morning.”

“Good morning.
 
May I come in?”

“Why, yes.
 
Of
course,” she said, and stepped aside to allow him passage in.
 

  
Gloria
Sinatra was still growing accustomed to her father’s presence in her life, when
he had shown so little interest up until a year ago, and that awkwardness she
felt around him was still there.
 
And the
idea that he was at her condo was downright unnerving.
 
He’d never come this far into her world
before.
 
She closed the door behind him.

Mick was looking around at the beautifully
decorated, but small room.
 
“Very nice,”
he said to her.

“Thanks.
 
Have
a seat.”

The “seat” was a sofa that wasn’t that far away from
the front door.
 
It was one of those
condos with the living room/kitchen space, and then a wall that separated the
bedroom.
 
It was an expensive condo in a
great area, but it was tiny.

Mick sat on the sofa and Gloria sat, with her bare
feet tucked beneath her butt, beside him.
  
“I didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, still curious as to why he
would be there.
 
“I didn’t think you knew
where I lived.”

Mick knew more about his children than they would
ever imagine.
 
But that still wasn’t
nearly enough.
 
“I knew,” was all he
would say about it.

“Did Mom tell you?” Gloria asked.

Mick hadn’t spoken to his ex in years.
 
“No,” he said.

Gloria still couldn’t understand how he could know,
but she also knew he wasn’t the kind of man who was just going to tell
her.
 
They didn’t have that kind of
relationship.

Mick crossed his legs and turned toward her.
 
She was already turned toward him.
 
“Do you have class today?”

Gloria hesitated.
 
“No,” she said.

“You aren’t in school any more, are you?”

Gloria continued to stare at him.
 
“No.”

“Why?”

“I’m taking a semester off.
 
I’m taking a break, that’s all.”

“A break that just so happens to coincide with your
introduction to Marco Terranz?”

Gloria’s heartbeat quickened.
 
How could he possible know about Marco?
 
“It wasn’t planned, Dad,” she said.

“He’s an ATF agent,” Mick said, and stared at her.

Gloria still didn’t understand where he was going
with this, but she was beginning to understand that her relationship with Marco
was the reason for this visit.
 
“I’m
aware of that,” she said.

“Then I’ll be blunt,” he said.
 
“You are not going to have anything more to
do with him.”

Gloria couldn’t believe he just said those
words.
 
“Why would you tell me something
like that?
 
My relationship with Marco
has nothing to do with you.”

Mick didn’t respond to that because he knew her
relationship with that pig had everything to do with him.
 
Marco knew it.
 
Mick knew it.
 
She was the only one who didn’t.
 
“Stop seeing him,” he said.
 
“Or
I’ll put a stop to it.”

Gloria used to idolize Mick.
 
When she was a kid she used to dream of the
day when they would sit around and shoot the breeze and have a real father and
daughter relationship.
 
That day never
came.
 
It broke her mother’s heart.
 
It broke Gloria’s heart.
 
Her brothers and their mothers, who had
similar hopes and dreams, were heartbroken by this man too.
 
Now he had the nerve to try to control her
life?
 
She stood up, her arms folded.
 
“I think you should leave,” she said.

“He’s using you,” Mick said.
 
“He’s using you to get to me.”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Dad, really?
 
He’s using me to get to you?
 
I barely know you, why in the world does he
think he can get to you through me?
 
Like
you said, he’s a federal agent.
 
He
should know these things.”

“He does,” Mick said.

Gloria shook her head.
 
“You watch too many movies, Dad.
 
Better not speak too loudly. He may have
bugged the place.”

“He did,” Mick said.

Gloria smiled as if her father was losing his grip
on reality.
 
“What?”

“He bugged your condo.
 
My men removed it.”

“Your men what?
 
When?”

“Last night, after he left here.
 
That was when he did it.”

Gloria was concerned about Marco possibly bugging
her, but she was even more concerned about her father allowing strange men into
her condo.
 
“You had strange men coming
into my house?”

Mick didn’t respond to that.
 
He already had.

Gloria shook her head.
 
“This is crazy.
  
I don’t believe this!”

Mick stared at her.
 
She was stubborn. And skeptical.
 
That was a good thing.
 
But his
word was law in their family.
 
He reached
into his coat pocket, pulled out an envelope, and tossed it onto the coffee
table in front of them.
 
Because it was
not sealed, a group of photos slid out.
 

“What’s that?” she asked.

“He’s married,” Mick said.
 
“Happily married.
 
He has two small children.
 
He’s playing you to get to me, Gloria.”

Gloria hesitated as she stared at the photos on the
table.
 
Then she picked up the envelope
and began to sift through the stack.
 
Marco, the man she had only recently met, was laughing with some woman
and two cute kids.
 
Their house looked
suburban.
 
They even had a minivan in the
driveway.
 
It was too typical.

She looked at her father.
 
“So it’s true?
 
Is that what you’re telling me?
 
Adrian used to tell us all the time that you
had us snowed, that you were no more a businessman than Al Capone was a
salesman.
 
You’re in the mob, he
said.
 
And not just in it, but you run
the east coast mafia.
  
That’s what he
always used to tell us.
 
Teddy and I used
to think he was full of it.
 
Are you now
telling me he was telling the truth?”

Mick stood up too, buttoning his suit coat.
 
She was upset with him, but that didn’t
change the fact that his presence was still intimidating.
  
But she would not be moved.
 
“Well is it?” she asked.

“I’m the Chairman and CEO of Sinatra Industries, of
S.I.
 
I run my business.”

“And the mob?”

“I run my business,” Mick said.
 
“Don’t you worry about the
mob.
”

That was the most non-answer Gloria knew he could
have given her.
 
Which would make it a
yes.

“You are going to stay away from that cop,” Mick
said in no uncertain terms.
 
“Do I make
myself clear?”

Gloria looked down at the pictures again.
 
She actually thought she was going somewhere
with the guy.
 
But like all of her
previous loves, he was a user too.
 
And
the fact that her father wouldn’t outright deny his involvement in mob
activities gave her pause too.
 
She was
in over her head.
  
“Yes,” she said with
defeat in her voice.
 
“You’ve made
yourself clear.”

Mick could sense her defeat.
 
He considered her.
 
“You’re a beautiful woman,” he said.
  
“Remarkably so.
 
You can do better than conmen like Marco
Terranz.”

“Yeah, sure,” Gloria said in a voice that was meant
to sound dismissive, but sounded more like pain to Mick.
 
He wanted to hold her, to comfort her, but
they weren’t there yet.
 
He began to walk
away.

But then he realized this was his daughter.
 
His only girl.
 
And he was walking away from her yet
again.
 
He turned back around, and pulled
her into his arms.

Gloria was at first shocked, and then relieved when
Mick held her.
 
She wasn’t going to sob
in his arms.
 
He hated weakness.
 
Even she knew that!
 
She stifled her cry, but she couldn’t
suppress it.
 
It wasn’t until they had
stopped embracing, and he left, did she fall against the door and let it all
out.
 
She boohooed cried.
 
She was so tired of these endless false
starts, when she had been so hopeful.

Outside of her front door, Mick could hear her
sobs.
 
He stood on the opposite side of
the door and listened to his daughter cry her eyes out.
 
His heart melted as he heard her.
 
He wanted to go back in, and hold her again,
but he knew he was not the answer.
 
He’d
let her down too many times himself.
 
What could he bring to the table?

But he couldn’t walk away.

He opened the door, forcing her to back away from
it, and went back into her apartment.
 
When he closed the door, she fell into his arms.

On her sofa, he held her.
 
He held her until she had no more tears to
cry.
 
He held her until she was sound
asleep.

Roz parked her Bentley in the space reserved for
CEO, grabbed her briefcase and purse, and made her way toward her front
entrance.
 
She almost made it in.
 
She was a mere few inches away, when somebody
called her name.

“Rosalind Graham?”

A few weeks ago she became Rosalind Sinatra.
 
But because her agency was the Graham Agency,
she continued to use her maiden name as her professional name.
 
She therefore assumed whoever was calling her
wasn’t a friend, but a client.

When she turned and saw a gentleman walking her way,
a tall, elegant African-American gentleman, she was as surprised as she was
confused.
 
It wasn’t just any man walking
her way, but Broadway star Hamilton Sturgess.
  
“Hamp?” she asked with a smile.
 
“I don’t believe it!”

Hamilton smiled grandly as he made his way up to
her.
 
He was dressed in a suit and tie,
looking far more formal than she remembered as his usual style.
 
And he looked older too.
 
But he still had that charm.
 
“I’m not a ghost, don’t worry,” he said as he
approached.
 
“A blast from the past,
maybe, but not a ghost.”