OZ DRAKOS
LOVING MICK THE TICK’S DAUGHTER
BY
MALLORY MONROE
Copyright©2020 Mallory Monroe
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This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the story’s sake. The cover art is depicted by models and are not the actual characters.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
EPILOGUE
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CHAPTER ONE
The Chevy Suburban pulled up alongside the big, black Cadillac Escalade and Leonardo “Leo” Ducetti got out of the Chevy and got onto the backseat of the Escalade. Other than the lights of the two big SUVs, it was pitch-black on that backroad.
Mick Sinatra, sitting quietly on the backseat of the Escalade, didn’t look Leo’s way. He appeared to Leo to be taking his own counsel. Leo knew to wait.
And then Mick exhaled. “How many families?” he asked.
“Ten,” Leo said. “Combined they’ve taken over seven of our territories.”
Mick’s hard jaw tightened. “Motherfuckers,” he said. Then he looked at Leo. “How the fuck could they take over that many of my territories and nobody knows?”
“They were slick with that shit, Boss. They didn’t take over any of our manned posts. Not one of our manned operations was on their list. They only touched those unmanned sectors you acquired years ago that we haven’t even had a need to occupy yet.”
“All on the west coast?” Mick asked.
“All on the northern tip of the west coast, yes, sir. Nobody was supposed to know you own up there. It was supposed to be our safe zone. I figure the assholes that took it don’t even realize it’s your turf either. I think they took over that territory because they thought it was some random mob they were muscling out. I’ll bet the ranch they don’t know it’s Mick the Tick they’re playing with. I’ll bet that.”
“We’re the Ghost Mafia to their asses,” Mick said.
Leo smiled. “Right.”
But Mick wasn’t smiling. He was thinking. “Keep it that way for now,” he said. “They want random mob, give them random mob. Get the word out that the Ghost Mafia owns the land they grabbed, and nobody knows who the fuck they are.”
“The Ghost Mafia. Yes, sir. But how do we stop’em if we plan to stay lowkey?”
“We put them to the test,” Mick said. “They wanna play with the big boys, let’s see how organized they are. They’re stealing from me. Even in the shadows, I’m not letting that shit stand.” Then Mick exhaled again. “Take out one of their guys.”
Leo looked at him. Taking out a man for a land grab they could have easily grabbed back seemed extreme to him, but Mick the Tick lived on the extreme. That was why nobody fucked with him. “A front line guy?” he asked his boss.
“Hell no. Show them we mean business. Take out one of their dons, or whatever the fuck those Greeks call their bosses. Take out the head of the strongest family in that group.”
“And if they retaliate?”
“Then we’ll know they mean business too.”
“And once it’s determined that they mean business?”
“Then they’ll find out just who they’re doing business with,” Mick said bluntly. “But don’t go about it half-ass. Take your time. Pick the right moment. Do it in weeks, not days. Let them relax and think they’re getting away with that shit. And then strike.”
Leo smiled. There was nobody more calculating than Mick the Tick. “Yes, sir.”
Leo was about to get out, and handle the boss’s business, when he glanced back at his boss.
Mick looked at him. “What?”
“How’s Gloria doing, sir?”
Mick’s gaze turned hard. Leonardo was a good man, reliable and steady. But Mick wasn’t interested in his daughter hooking up with a mob guy he didn’t care how reliable and steady he was. And he made no bones about it. “None of your fucking business,” he said to Leo. “Now get your ass to work.”
Leo’s heart dropped. Others in the organization had already warned him against approaching Mick about Gloria, but he had such a massive crush on her. He figured, as one of the top guys in the syndicate, he had earned a right to at least inquire about her. He realized, right then and there, that he had figured wrong. “Yes, sir,” he said nervously, and then hurriedly got out of that SUV before Mick the Ticking Time Bomb blew up on his ass too.
CHAPTER TWO
The dance floor was loaded down with bouncing, sweaty bodies, but Oz Drakos still managed to be the center of attention anyway. It wasn’t just because he was six-three. There were men there who were even taller. It wasn’t just his looks, either. There were gorgeous men all over the place. But Oz had the hair, and he was whipping the shit out of it. Because he knew the women loved it. They were just eating it up. He was in his element.
But none of that explained the fascination he had with her.
He had no clue who she was. When she walked into that Vegas nightclub, she became just another pretty face in a sea of pretty faces as far as he was concerned. Her body was snatched. That was for damn sure. But that wasn’t an unusual feature in that club that night either. The women Oz was dancing with had figures that could easily rival hers. Hell, the three other ladies the woman entered the club with had bodies to rival hers too. So, that wasn’t it either.
But
there was something about that particular woman that got his juices flowing. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. He watched her as she and her girlfriends sat at that VIP table. He watched her turn down man after man after man trying to get her on that dance floor with them. And he wanted her too. It seemed as though many men realized instinctively that somebody special was in their midst. And they all were failing to get a piece of that action. But Oz had nothing but complete and utter faith in his ability to, literally, charm the panties right off of her too.
But the night was young, he decided, as he continued to dance and laugh and enjoy himself. He was going to have her. But he would pick his moment.
But Gloria Sinatra wasn’t trying to have him. She hadn’t even noticed him in that club at all. As she sat at that VIP table, with her eyes darting around as if they were looking at everything and nothing at all, she had too much on her mind to specifically notice anybody.
“A toast,” said her closest friend Leyla, and Gloria and their two other friends raised their glasses. “A toast,” Leyla continued, “to all these fine motherfucking brothers up in here!” The girls laughed. “And the way they’re eyeballing us? We have our pick of the litter tonight, ladies!”
Gloria knew it too. There were certain places where black girl power rocked and outshined them all. Paris was certainly one of those places. London, too, in certain quarters. Vegas was beginning to get that rep too.
And she’d already turned down a handful of guys already. But that was by design. She just had enough on her mind than to have to put some man on it too.
She leaned back and crossed her legs, her short skirt barely covering her toned thighs. The main thing on her mind was her father. She was leaving him. There was no other way she could put it. She was getting out of Philly, and away from his all-consuming influence in her life, once and for all. She’d be the first one of his children to do so. And she was the most unlikely one to do it considering Teddy and Joey’s personalities. But she was going to get it done. Her mind was made up. By hook or by crook, she was getting out.
“What’s wrong, Glo?” Leyla asked after their other two friends eagerly accepted offers to dance and headed for the floor. “You look like the cares of this whole world are on your little shoulders.”
That was what Gloria loved about Ley. She understood her. Her father was overbearing too. “That’s how it feels,” she said.
“But why? Just because you’re leaving Philly?”
“I’m leaving my family. If I take that lady up on her offer, and relocate to Florida, I’ll be leaving my whole family. I’ve never lived away from them before. It going to feel strange. It’s going to be so different.”
“But absolutely necessary,” said Leyla.
Gloria nodded. “Yes. That’s true too.”
“But will your father think so?”
“Hell no,” Gloria said, as a worried look appeared in her large, pretty eyes. “When he finds out what I’ve decided to do, he’s going to be so pissed. There’s no doubt about it.”
“You sound like you’ve signed a contract already.”
Gloria shook her head. “No. Not yet. I haven’t decided which offer to take yet. Do I take over that diner in Florida from that lady my Uncle Reno told me about? Or do I go clean across the country, to San Francisco, and take over that hair salon.”
“Girrl,” Leyla said with a smile, “you don’t know nothing about doing no hair!”
Gloria laughed.
“That’s why you’re always wearing ponytails everywhere we go! All that beautiful, thick hair, and you put it in a ponytail.”
“I don’t have it in a ponytail tonight, thank you very much.”
“Not tonight, but stay tuned. Before our girls’ trip to Vegas is over, you’ll have that tail wagging.”
Gloria laughed again, and they both sipped wine.
Then Myra, one of their other friends, hurried away from the dance floor and leaned over their table. “You see him?” she asked Gloria.
“See who?” Gloria asked as she and Leyla both began looking around.
“That white guy with the hair? He’s been assessing the shit out of you, Glo! And I’m telling you, he’s gorgeous-gorgeous-gorgeous. Gorgeous has got nothing on him, okay?”
“Where?” Leyla asked. She was even more curious than the object of the man’s attention.
“Don’t do it right now,” said Myra. “I have no desire to look like a snitch. But after I walk away, look to your left, all the way over, and then midway to the back of the dance floor, and you’ll see him.”
Leyla and Gloria immediately looked exactly where Myra suggested.
“I told y’all to wait until I left!” Myra protested, but the damage was already done.
“Wow,” said Leyla. “He is gorgeous!”
Gloria saw him too, dancing his ass off with not one, not two, but three women. And Oz was having a ball with all three of them too. But Gloria looked away. Every relationship she’d ever had with good looking guys always led to heartbreak. She wasn’t going down that road again. “Whatever,” she said just as Myra’s dance partner grabbed her and pulled her back onto the dance floor.
“What do you mean whatever?” Leyla asked Gloria. Before she could answer, two other guys came over and asked if they wanted to dance. Leyla said no for both of them.
“Lesbos,” said one of the rejected guys.
“Kiss our lesbo asses!” said Leyla back at him.
The guy, not expecting that kind of aggressive comeback, moved on.
“What do you mean whatever?” Leyla asked Gloria again.
“He’s aw’ight. But he’s dancing with three women already.”
“So?”
“So, I’m just not trying to do that right now. I have too much to deal with as it is. He can keep his trifling behind right where it is.”
“You don’t even know that man and already you’re judging him,” said Leyla.
Gloria was surprised. “How am I judging him?”
“You said he was trifling. How do you know that? He might be a perfectly fine gentleman.”
“Yeah, right,” said Gloria. “A perfectly fine rogue!”
Leyla smiled. “You’re probably right.” Then she looked at Oz again. “But he’s still fine, girl. That white boy is fine.”
“Besides,” Gloria said, “I don’t want a white boy. I plan to marry a brother.”
“Oh, really now? When since you started this white man boycott? Is it because your daddy is white?”
“No! Of course not.”
“Then why?”
“Black men know how to treat a woman,” said Gloria. “In and out of bed. The white guys I’ve dated? They don’t have a clue. It’s always all about them.”
“Well,” said Leyla, “my black ass has dated both, and there’s good and bad on both sides of that coin. Mostly bad on both sides of that coin,” she added, and Gloria laughed. “But that’s just my experience.”
“Mine too,” said Gloria, “to tell you the truth.”
“That’s why I call bullshit when you claim you’re all into black guys only and it has nothing to do with your father. It has everything to do with your father. You want to rid yourself of Mick Sinatra any way you can. Moving across the country if you decide to. Dating guys of a different hue than him. Starting a business where you can be financially independent of him. Yeah, girl, I know your ass. I know you.”
Gloria sipped her wine. She knew Leyla spoke the truth. But she wasn’t ready to acknowledge those hard, cold facts.
And she was too curious. When she looked back over at the guy with the hair again, he was still dancing with his three women, but he was also staring, unblinkingly, at Glo.
And as soon as Leyla, who had turned down mostly every white guy that asked her and finally accepted the offer to dance from a black hunk and left the table, Oz left too. Gloria saw when he left the dance floor, leaving his three women to dance amongst themselves, and made a beeline for her table
.
She started to grab her clutch and head for the lady’s room. She wasn’t trying to deal with a guy like him tonight. But he was too quick. Before she could even reach for that clutch, he was coming up the few steps and standing in front of her. “May I?” he asked her as he motioned toward a chair at her table.
It took Gloria a moment to look up the length of him. He wore well-fitting jeans that highlighted the package between his legs, a package so thick and full that it looked as if it was a bundle of joy ready to spill out and make her happy. He wore a short-sleeve, button-down, tucked-in shirt that highlighted his flat stomach, his massive biceps, his muscular chest. By the time she looked up into his face and saw such beautiful eyes, she was already taken with his body alone. But she still said no.
But Oz, being Oz, sat down across from her anyway.
“I thought I said no, you may not have a seat,” Gloria said.
“Your mouth did say no,” Oz said with a grin. “But your eyes said yes.”
“Now that’s some freaky shit there. That’s some shit a rapist would say,” Gloria said.
Oz was mortified. “A rapist? Okay, I take that back,” he said quickly. “You’re right. You did say no.”
Gloria was inwardly smiling. It was good to see such a ladies man squirm.
“You said no,” Oz, being Oz, said. “But I said yes. Therefore, I sat down.”
He wasn’t squirming as much as she thought, Gloria realized. “You invited yourself to a party you were told you couldn’t attend?” she asked him.
Oz smiled again. “Damn, you’re deep. But yes, that’s what I did, yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you interest me.”
“I interest you? All these women in this club, and I’m the one who interest you?”
“There you go.”
“Those three ladies you were dancing with doesn’t interest you?”
“They interest me, yes.”
“But?” Gloria asked.
Her and her questions were making Oz uncomfortable. “Hell, I don’t know!” he decided to say, and then he leaned back. He looked her dead in her eyes. Her sweet and sad, he thought, expressive eyes. “I haven’t a clue,” he said.
Oz Drakos: Loving Mick the Tick's Daughter Page 1