Mick Sinatra 2: Love, Lies, and Jericho (25 page)

But Mick was
right.
 
He couldn’t let him go, or he
might not ever make it back.
 
Charles
moved up to his son, pulled him into his arms, and held him up.
 
Donald squeezed his eyes shut, and held on
too.

One week
later, after Mick and Roz were back in Philadelphia living their own lives and
running their own companies, Roz received a phone call from Betsy Gable, her
best friend who still lived in New York.
 
Betsy’s boyfriend had beaten her up.
 
Again.
 
But it was the last straw
for her this time, she declared.
 
Could
Roz come?
 

Roz not only
flew to New York to check on her friend, but she brought her friend back, on
Mick’s private plane, to Philly with her.
 
It would only be for a week or two, to get
Betsy away for a little while, and it was a huge favor Betsy really
appreciated.

But that was
before they were ambushed at the airstrip.
 
That was before their beloved limo driver, Deuce McCurry, was gunned
down like a dog and Roz had to gun down his attacker and then commandeer the
limo herself.
 
Roz drove that limo, under
heavy fire from additional gunmen, to Mick’s estate.
 
Mick’s men took care of the gunmen who were
chasing the limo, but they suffered casualties too.
 
And the team of men Mick had assigned to
guard Roz were nowhere to be found.
 
Mick
was furious.
 
It was a terrible night.

But now it
was nearly five hours later, after midnight, and the earlier pandemonium had
given way to a needful, if not unsteady, calm.
 
Mick was inside the main house, in his office, strategizing with his top
lieutenants.
 
He feared war, but he
didn’t know who had declared it.
 
Roz had
showered upstairs, had put on a big white bathrobe, and was now checking on her
friend. Betsy was staying in one of the guest houses on the enormous property,
and although she wasn’t screaming the way she had been as those bullets sailed
around them and as Roz drove understandably recklessly to get to Mick, she was
still a nervous wreck.

Both women
were holding hands.
 
Roz could still feel
the tremble in Betsy’s hand.

“Thanks for
checking on me,” Betsy said to Roz in a voice still hoarse from all of her
earlier screaming.
 
“But I’m okay
now.
 
It’s very comfortable in here.
 
This is a beautiful estate.”
 
She tried to smile.
 
“Even this guest house is the most beautiful
home I’ve ever been in.
 
Forget the main
house.”

Roz knew
Mick’s house was the last thing on Betsy’s mind.
 
But she also knew that sometimes small talk
was a powerful distraction.

“You live
here with him?” Betsy asked.

“I did until
a few weeks ago,” Roz said.
 
“I have my
own place now.”

“Well why
didn’t we go there?” Betsy wanted to know.
 
“I would feel safer if we got away from him.”

“No, you
won’t,” Roz said.
 
“Trust me on
that.
 
We’re right where we need to be.”

“I don’t
like him, Roz.
 
I’m sorry, but I
don’t.
 
Why don’t you leave him and get
you a regular guy?”

“You mean
like the regular guy who beat your ass?”

Betsy hadn’t
expected that comeback.
 
“You know what I
mean,” she said.
  
“He’s bad news. Just
leave him.”

“You want me
to leave him because you don’t like him.”

“Right!”

“How many
times have you dated guys I didn’t like, Bess?”

“Plenty of
times,” Betsy responded with a smile.

“And how
many of those guys did you leave because I didn’t like them?”

Betsy didn’t
expect that question either.
 
She decided
to answer her own version.
 
“I just think
you need a regular guy.
 
And yeah, they
might beat your ass and all of that.
 
But
Mick is gonna beat your ass too.
 
Marry
him.
 
You’ll see.
 
But at least that’s all you’ll have to worry
about.
 
An ass beating every now and
then.
 
Not all of this gangster stuff.”

Roz sat
erect.
 
Her neck was stiff with stress
and she wasn’t trying to add to her woes.
 
“Look, Bess,” she said, “I know you’re shaken up right now.
 
I am too.
 
But I’m not about to sit up here and let you blame Mick for what
happened at that airstrip tonight.
 
It
wasn’t his fault.”

“But you
make it sound like it was nothing,” Betsy complained.
 
“It was surreal enough when you came to New
York in his private plane when I told you Jason had jumped on me.
 
I’m grateful you came to my rescue, I really
am, Roz.
 
I’m glad you’re letting me stay
with you for a week or two.
 
But we
weren’t off the plane two minutes and barely got in the limo when we’re knee
deep in a shootout!
 
Now the limo driver
is dead.”

“He’s not
dead, thank God,” Roz said.
 
“He’s
wounded, but the doctor is taking care of him now.
 
He’s going to pull through.”

“But what
I’m trying to say is that you won’t have to live this kind of life if you get
yourself a regular Joe.
 
I’m concerned
for you.
 
This guy, Mick, isn’t worth
it!”

Roz squeezed
Betsy’s hands.
 
“We’re going to be
alright, kido,” she said.
 
“Don’t worry
about it.
 
And don’t worry about me.
 
We’re here with Mick now.
 
Nobody’s harming us here with him.”

Betsy shook
her head.
 
“You used to be the
levelheaded one.
 
Now you’re talking
crazy.
 
Because I don’t have any
confidence in him at all.”

“That’s
fine,” Roz said, “because I have enough confidence in him for the both of us.”
But Roz was no fool.
 
She could tell
Betsy wasn’t feeling Mick.
 
If she was
ambivalent toward him before they were ambushed at the airstrip, she was
unequivocal now.

Mick was bad
news to Betsy, and Roz, she felt, was in complete and utter denial.
 
She was about to tell her so when knocks were
heard on the guest room door.
 
And then
the door was opened.
 
Bryce Bookman,
Mick’s new House Manager, peeped inside.
 
“Sorry to disturb you, Miss Graham,” she said, “but Mr. Sinatra is
looking for you.”

“He’s
looking for me?” Roz asked.

“Yes,
ma’am.
 
He told me to come and get you.”

“Where is
he?
 
Is he still in his office?”

“He said
he’d be upstairs,” Bryce said.
 
Then
added: “In bed.”

Despite all that
had gone on tonight, Roz still managed to feel her vagina pulsate at the
thought of Mick waiting for her in bed.
 
But she wasn’t about to share those feelings with his estate manager.
 
“Okay,” she said to Bryce.

Bryce
glanced at Betsy, and then he left and closed the door behind him

“Little
sweet, isn’t he?” Betsy asked with a smile. “Are you sure he doesn’t want Mick
for himself?”

“You mean
like you wanted him when you first met him?” Roz responded.

Betsy
laughed.
 
“Touché,” she said.

“Most of the
women I encounter want him,” Roz said, “and some of the men.
 
That comes with the territory when you hitch
your wagon to a desirable dude.”

“But how do
you handle that?” Betsy asked.

“I don’t,”
Roz said.
 
“I let him handle it.”

“And you
actually think Mick’s going to keep his hands off of all of these gorgeous
women out here?
 
Women that look way
better than you and me both?”

“When it
comes to choosing a permanent mate, it’s not about looks for Mick,” Roz
said.
 
“That’s what you don’t
understand.
 
If it was all about looks
and seductive capabilities, he would have chosen you over me hands down when he
first saw us in New York.”

This was a
sore spot for Betsy.
 
She was always the
one chosen first over Roz.
 
All men,
black and white, used to choose her youth and blonde hair and blue eyes over
Roz every time.
 
The only exception so
far was that day Mick showed up.
 
“What
did he see in you that I don’t have?” she asked Roz.

“Oh, come
on, Bess.
 
You don’t want to go there.”

“I do!
 
What did he see in you?
 
Other than the fact that you have a big heart
and you’re smart and tough and a beautiful black woman?”

Roz looked
at Betsy.
 
She was never the sharpest
knife in the drawer, but surely she understood how insulting her comment
was.
 
“It can’t possibly be
other than
those factors you just
mentioned,” Roz responded.
 
“You do
understand that, right?”

She
didn’t.
 
Roz realized it as soon as Betsy
had to think about it.
 
She stood up.

This alarmed
Betsy too.
 
“Wait.
 
Where are you going?”

“It’s okay,”
Roz said.
 
“I’m just going to see what
Mick wants.”

“You know
what he wants,” Betsy said.
 
“He wants to
have sex with you.
 
That’s why I used to
hate when he came to New York to see you.
 
He kept you in bed most of the time he was there.
 
Which means I probably won’t see you again
tonight.”

“Stop
worrying, Betsy.
 
We’re safe now.
 
Mick has more men guarding this place than
Ft. Knox ever had.
 
You’re safe here.”

Betsy
nodded. “If you say so, girl,” she said, with doubt in her voice.

Roz hugged
her.
 
“Stop worrying.
 
I got you.”

Betsy
smiled.
 
“Yes, mother,” she said.
 
Roz laughed, and then left.

Betsy
waited, to make sure Roz had left, and then she pulled out her cell phone.

“Jason,” she
said, when a voice answered on the other end.
 
“It’s me.”

Mick was
naked in bed, rubbing his penis, when Roz made it upstairs.

“Where have
you been?” he asked.
 
“After you left my
office I thought I told you to shower and take yourself to bed.
 
Where were you?”

“I
showered,” Roz said as she closed and locked the door, and headed his way, “but
then I wanted to check on Betsy before I called it a night.
 
It’s been very difficult for her.”

“It’s been
difficult for all of us,” Mick said.
 
“You included. Hell, you’re the one who had to kill that bastard.
 
You’re the one who drove that limousine, and
because you were quick on your feet, saved Deuce’s life.
 
All her ass did was scream.”

“She’s
sensitive, Mick,” Roz said as she removed her bathrobe, revealing a naked body
that not only caused Mick’s penis to respond with a hard throb, but his eyes to
react as well.
 
He was staring at her
bod.
 
“I told you how sensitive she was,
but you won’t believe me.
 
She’s a
nervous wreck.”

But Mick
didn’t want to hear any more about Betsy Gable.
 
He needed Roz.
 
He lifted her on
top of him and held her in his arms.
 
He
almost lost her tonight.
 
If she had not
been as quick to act, and if she would have responded in the same manner Betsy
responded, he was certain he would not be holding her now.
 
And that thought alone made him hold her
tighter.
 
He placed his finger beneath
her chin and lifted her face, and then he kissed her for a wonderfully long
time.

They made
easy love that night.
 
He mostly kissed
her, and massaged her naked butt, and held her for long moments on end.
 
And when he guided his fully aroused penis into
her wet and ready vagina, he eased it in.
 
He enjoyed the thrill of entry for longer than he usually did.
 
It was always a sweet spot for them, when his
cock slid along her pussy, as if that sensual feeling was the most remarkable
place to be, and he lingered at that entry point.