Mick Sinatra: No Love. No Peace. (The Mick Sinatra Series Book 9)

by Mallory Monroe

  “Your home,” Mick asked, “or your hiding place?”

  Amelia didn’t immediately respond. Mick had a way of coming back at her with such undeniable truth that she couldn’t lie to or pretend with him. “A little of both,” she said.

  “From whom are you hiding?” Mick asked.

  Amelia smiled. “Now you’re playing big brother, and I do mean it with pun intended.” Then her smile left. “What brings you here? I was very surprised when I got the call. I think it’s actually the first time you asked to come see me. So what gives? What’s up?”

  Mick didn’t hesitate. “Hammer,” he said. “Hamilton Reese.”

  Mick and Roz could both tell they had hit a nerve. Amelia’s earlier attempt at levity, and maybe a little laying on of guilt on Mick for not checking on her more, turned into a look that was a combination of fear and loathing.

  “What about Hamilton?” she asked.

  “Have you see him?”

  Amelia shook her head. “Not recently, no. Why?”

  “There have been attempts,” Mick said.

  Amelia knew what he meant. “On you?”

  “And my family, yes.”

  “My goodness, Mick! Is everybody alright?”

  “Everybody’s fine, thank God,” Roz said.

  “None of the attempts were successful,” added Mick.

  “And what?” Amelia asked. “You think Hamilton is behind those attempts? You think Hammer is responsible?”

  “Everybody involved so far, and I mean everybody, said that Teddy Stefani was involved. You don’t know him, but Teddy Stefani was one of my underbosses for a very long time. One of my men killed him. Then I find out that the man behind the curtain isn’t some fucking ghost like Dead Teddy, but the Hammer himself. I’m hearing he’s ordering all of these hits.”

  But Amelia was already shaking her head. “No way,” she said.

  “That’s not what we’re hearing,” Roz said.

  “I don’t doubt you’re hearing that,” Amelia said, “but I doubt the truth of what you’re hearing. Hammer has too much on his plate already to be picking a fight with Mick.”

  “Somebody wants us to believe he’s involved,” Mick said.

  “That may be true,” Amelia said. “But it’ll be too big a leap for me to believe that he’s actually involved.” She shook her head again. “Nope. Don’t believe it.”

  “Can we get to him through you,” Mick asked, “or will we need to go through Trevor Reese?” Trevor Reese was the Hammer’s younger brother and was currently dating Carly Sinatra, Mick’s beloved niece.

  There was a pause before Amelia spoke, and her silence said it all. “Go through his brother,” she responded, which spoke volumes too.

  Roz looked at Mick, wondering if he heard it also. But she immediately knew that he had. He was staring at Amelia. He heard her loud and clear. “What’s wrong?” he finally asked her.

  Amelia looked down at her son. He was asleep in her arms.

  “What is it?” Mick asked.

  “He’s threatening to go to court and declare me an unfit mother,” she said.

  Roz was stunned. Even Mick was surprised. “Why would he do that?” he asked his sister.

  “He wants full custody,” Amelia said. “Hannibal is his first born, his only child as far as he knows anyway, and he wants to raise him his way. But I told him I wasn’t allowing that.”

  “I don’t know, but I thought you two were together,” Roz said.

  “Hell no,” Amelia said bluntly. “Excuse me, but no. Our connection was only a sexual one. We never got beyond the bedroom. There was no love involved whatsoever. All lust. We both agreed that’s no way to build a relationship. Besides, his heart belongs to Reggie Dell. And I don’t see how anybody’s taking it away from her. And just like you told me, Mick: I’m a Sinatra now. And Sinatras don’t take anybody’s sloppy seconds.”

  Roz smiled.

  “That sounds amicable and grownup,” Mick said, leaning forward. “But apparently something turned south. Something happened. What was it?”

  “I wouldn’t agree to just turn over my son to him,” she said. “That’s what! And he doesn’t like it. And when Hamilton Reese doesn’t like something, there will be hell to pay. He smiles and put on that charming front. But you’ll be wise to stay out of his crosshairs when he’s angry with you. I’m in his crosshairs.”

  “But why, Amelia?” Mick asked. “You aren’t telling me why.”

  “What Mick is saying,” Roz said, “and what we don’t understand is why would he go so far as declaring you unfit? Why would he go to that extreme?”

  “I told you guys why,” Amelia said. “He wants full custody.”

  “Not for nothing,” Roz said. “Because you said it yourself: Hammer Reese has enough on his plate than to pick a fight with Mick.”

  “Right,” Mick agreed. “And when he comes for you, he knows he’s picking a fight with me.”

  Amelia felt a warmth inside. She appreciated the support. For most of her life, nearly all of her life, she was out there fighting alone.

  “Is this why you’re in hiding?” Roz asked. “You’re keeping your child from his father?”

  “He has the power,” Amelia said. “I don’t know if you guys understand just how powerful Hamilton really is. And I’m not just talking about the fact that he used to run the CIA. I’m talking about in the here and now. Oh, he runs around Montreal pretending to be this community leader and do-gooder, but he’s way more than that. He runs shadow organizations out of the CIA. He has more reach than even Mick can imagine, and you know that’s saying something. Every motherfucker out here is afraid of Mick. But Hamilton takes that to a different level.”

  Mick remembered what Higgs had said. Fighting Hammer Reese was like shooting the moon.

  Amelia continued. “The courts will give him whatever he wants. And if he tells some judge that’s probably in his pocket, anyway, that he wants full custody and wants to declare me unfit, that judge will do exactly as he says. He’ll get what he wants. And I’ll lose my son.” Amelia pulled the child up into her bosom. “I’m not losing Hannibal. He’s all I have, and I’m not losing him.”

  And she still wouldn’t ascribe any bad motives to Hammer when it came to ill will toward Mick’s family? But just as Mick thought it, and was about to say it, a deafening alarm sounded. Even the baby woke up startled.

  Amelia, Mick, and Roz jumped up. The front door bust open and Amelia’s personal bodyguard hurried in. “We’ve got intruders!” he yelled. “We’ve got intruders!”

  Before Mick could react, or any words could be said in response to such an outcry, a bullet was fired that hit the bodyguard in the middle of his back. He looked at Amelia, and fell, face first, to the floor.

  And the ambush commenced.

  “Go, go, go!” Mick yelled at Roz and Amelia as he pulled out his gun and began to fight back and offer cover for the two women.

  “This way,” Amelia yelled at Roz as she huddled up her baby and ran toward a side door. Roz ran with her.

  Mick jumped behind the sofa and began firing at the sudden intrusion of sweaty bodies and gunfire. He fought as hard as he could. But the firepower kept coming, in an overwhelming show of force, and he knew he was fighting a losing battle.

  But just when he knew he had to figure out a way to get out of that situation or risk certain death, the side doors bust open and Amelia, with two guns in her hands, came out blazing. She shot and she shot her way back into the great room, giving Mick the extra cover he needed. And between the two of them, they took out the first wave of shooters easily.

  But Mick was an old pro, and so was Amelia, who used to be an international drug dealer. They knew there would be another wave of attack.

  They hurried through the side door where Roz was waiting with the baby, a baby she had managed to calm back down.

  “Down here!” Amelia yelled, as she quickly retrieved her baby and hurried toward a set of stairs that led to the
home’s basement.

  Mick quickly grabbed Roz, and they made a run for it down those stairs. Just as Mick was closing the hatch behind them, another group of gunmen appeared and began firing, just missing them by inches.

  Amelia, Roz, and Mick took off down those stairs. And they knew they were running for their lives. The gunmen upstairs kicked in the hatch, and began hurrying downstairs after them.

  Amelia, Roz, and Mick made it through another door, and Mick slammed it shut. Amelia was able to type in a code on the keypad, and lock the door from outside, unable to be unlocked from inside. She knew it was only a temporary fix. But it would buy them some time.

  They were outside now. Amelia and Roz felt a little better. But not Mick. “Where to?” he asked.

  “Over here,” Amelia said as she led them around the side of the house. “I keep a car handy for times like these.”

  They turned that corner quickly, with Mick bringing up the rear and keeping his eye on any approaching bodies. They made it to where the automobile was waiting. But Hamilton “Hammer” Reese, leaned against the car, was waiting too. They were all astounded. Especially Amelia, who thought he had no idea where she now lived.

  Hammer opened the car’s back door. “Get in,” he ordered.

  But Mick quickly placed a gun to Hammer’s head.

  Hammer smiled. “You can fight to the death, and I assure you it will be to the death, with that approaching army, or you can come with me.”

  “We’ll fight,” Amelia said angrily. “We aren’t going anywhere with your crazy ass!”

  Hammer’s anger flared. “And you aren’t going anywhere with my child,” he said.

  And then the sound of kicks on the basement door, and gunshots to try and unlock, or, more likely, knock it down from inside, could be heard.

  “They’re coming, Mick!” Roz cried.

  Although Amelia and perhaps Hammer knew the area far better than Mick, it was Mick’s strength and intuition Roz still relied on. Nobody, not even the man everybody seemed to fear, would ever be more of a badass than Mick, in Roz’s eyes.

  But when the door was finally kicked open, and the gunmen inside were about to commandeer their way outside, it was Hammer Reese, with a hidden remote control in his hand, who changed the game. He pressed the button. Within seconds the interior of the home blew up into a massive explosion of fire.

  “Now will you come with me?” Hammer asked.

  “No,” Mick said just as firmly as Amelia had said it. “But you can come with us.”

  And then Mick frisked Hammer and placed him on the front passenger seat. “Drive,” he said to Amelia.

  Amelia handed the baby to Roz and quickly got behind the wheel of her car: a car whose keys were kept in the ignition. Mick placed Roz in the backseat, and he sat down beside her. Mick could have put his gun on Hammer, just in case, but he knew it wasn’t necessary. He relied on his gut. And his gut was telling him, in no uncertain terms, that Hammer Reese was not his enemy.

  They sped away as Amelia’s house exploded into an out-of-control fireball.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  They arrived at Mick and Roz’s later that night. Gloria and Joey met them at the door. Teddy hung back, inside the foyer, but he was as anxious as his younger siblings. But when Joey saw that not only Amelia were with their parents, but the man he’d heard so much about, and had only seen as a photograph on the internet, he was astounded. He looked at Teddy. “He’s with them,” he said.

  Teddy frowned. “Who’s with them?”

  Joey couldn’t believe he was about to say that name. “Hammer Reese,” he said.

  Teddy didn’t believe it, either. He hurried up to the door where his siblings stood, and moved Joey aside. When he saw that Hammer Reese had indeed gotten out of the vehicle, too, he was as astonished as his brother.

  “Who’s Hammer Reese?” Gloria asked. Then she realized who. “You mean Hannibal’s father? That’s Hannibal’s father?”

  Joey smiled. “Hammer Reese is one of the most notorious sons-of-bitches around, almost as badass as Dad, and the only thing you know about him is that he’s Hannibal’s father. Great. Just great.”

  “Forget you!” Gloria said with a smile of her own. Then she stared at the tall man with the very buff body. “He’s most attractive,” she said.

  Joey laughed. “Boy-oh-boy if you even thought about hooking up with that asshole, Dad will skin you alive!”

  “He’ll try,” Gloria said.

  Teddy, who didn’t play games with them, looked at his sister. “He’ll more than try,” he warned. “Stay away from that man.”

  Gloria wanted to roll her eyes. Not only was Mick her father, but Teddy sometimes thought he was, too. But she kept her eyes on the Hammer as he, Amelia, and their parents conversed with a small group of Mick’s men.

  “Besides,” Teddy added, “you forgot one important point.”

  “Which is?”

  “That man is Amelia’s man. He’s already spoken for.”

  “No, he’s not,” Gloria said quickly. “I mean, not according to Amelia anyway. That’s Amelia’s baby daddy, but she already told me she’s not together with her baby daddy.”

  Teddy looked at Gloria. “When did she tell you that?”

  “When I called to ask how she and the baby were doing. I do check on her, you know. Joey does too. Unlike some we know,” she added, and she and Joey gave Teddy a seriously assessing look. Then Gloria returned her attention to Hammer.

  Joey looked at his sister. He smiled when he saw the lust in her eyes. “But you know why they call him the Hammer?” he asked.

  “Why?” Gloria asked, still staring at the subject of their conversation.

  “They call him the Hammer,” Joey answered, “because of his johnny. It’s supposed to be just that big and powerful.”

  Gloria looked at Joey as if he had just unearthed the secret of the universe. “Really?”

  Joey laughed. Teddy did, too. “Now that impresses her!” Teddy said. Then he shook his head. “If you’re in a room of good men and one bad man, you’re going to find a way to fall in love with the bad one. You’ve turned into an artform, Glo.”

  Gloria knew that was true. Bad relationship after bad relationship proved that it was true. But she couldn’t help who she liked. And she was liking on this Hammer Reese already.

  After the group conversed with Gio Savarino and a couple of Mick’s security chiefs onsite, they made their way toward the front entrance.

  “Made it back?” Teddy asked as he stepped aside and allowed them passage in.

  “Barely,” Roz said, “but yes.”

  A look of worry and concern appeared on Teddy’s handsome face. “Why barely?” he asked. “What happened?”

  As usual, Mick didn’t say anything, and they all made it inside the house. Amelia hugged and chatted with Gloria and Joey, as they dotted on the baby, while Mick and Roz escorted Hammer toward the sitting area. But Teddy was too curious to dote on a baby, or even to speak to his aunt. He followed them. And when Roz sat on the sofa, and Hammer sat in the chair that flanked the sofa, he asked his question again. “What happened, Pop?”

  Mick sat down beside Roz, and didn’t answer.

  “Pop?” Teddy asked. “Will you please tell me what went down?”

  “Don’t you want to know who we have with us first?” Roz asked her stepson.

  “I know who we have with us,” Teddy responded, glancing at Hammer. “But what I need to know is what happened.”

  “A sneak attack,” Mick said. “We ended up in some trouble.” Then a wary look appeared in his eyes just thinking about it, because Roz had been in that danger with him. “Some serious trouble,” he added, “but we survived it.”

  “Thanks to Mr. Reese,” Roz pointed out.

  Teddy was surprised to hear that. He looked at Hammer. “So you’re the hero?”

  Hammer smiled. “Not on your life,” he said. “Not even on mine. But I’ll take it.”

  Teddy s
miled, too. He’d heard Hammer was a charmer. He’d heard how Hammer was up there in Montreal pretending to be nothing more than some meek and mild jazz club owner charming the pants off of those Canadians. He extended his hand. “I’m Teddy Sinatra.”

  Hammer shook his hand. “Hello, Teddy.”

  “I work with my father.”

  “Yes, I know,” Hammer said and he and Mick exchanged a glance. It was once said that there was nothing Hammer Reese didn’t know when he ran the CIA. But it was also said that he was a crooked director who became his own judge and jury too many times. Mick didn’t trust him then, and wasn’t about to blindly trust him now, despite what his gut was telling him.

  “Who launched the attack?” Teddy asked his father.

  “That’s a good question,” Mick responded. Then he looked at Hammer. “Was it your people?” he asked.

  Hammer found such a question insulting, but he smiled all the same. “No.”

  “But you were there. Why?”

  “My son was in that house.”

  “A son you’re trying to separate from his mother,” Roz said.

  “Right,” Amelia said in agreement as she, carrying the son in question, walked over to the sitting area. Gloria and Joey were behind her.

  “Where are the twins?” Roz asked Gloria.

  “In the Nursery,” Gloria said, moving beside Amelia.

  “Put them in the safe room,” Mick ordered. “I want you and Joey to stay down there with them. Take Hannibal down there, too.”

  Amelia looked at Mick as Gloria moved over to retrieve the baby from her arms. Hammer looked at Amelia too. Although he nodded his approval for the move, she needed more. She trusted her brother with her life, but when Hammer wanted to take her son away from her, her trust in him diminished. But because Mick was giving the order, she gave little Hannibal to Gloria.

  Gloria and Joey headed for the nursery to retrieve the twins.

  “I want Deuce in the safe room, too,” Mick said.

  “Yes, sir,” Joey responded.

  “Why don’t you answer her question,” Amelia said as she sat on the opposite side of Roz. She and Mick had Roz sandwiched in. “Why are you trying to keep my son away from me?”