Her Protector

by Mallory Monroe

  TEDDY SINATRA 2:

  HER PROTECTOR

  BY

  MALLORY MONROE

  Copyright©2018 Mallory Monroe

  All rights reserved. Any use of the materials contained in this book without the expressed

  written consent of the author and/or her affiliates, including scanning, uploading and

  downloading at file sharing and other sites, and distribution of this book by way of the Internet

  or any other means, is illegal and strictly prohibited.

  AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING

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  IT IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM ANY FILE SHARING SITE.

  IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL OR GIVE THIS eBOOK TO ANYBODY ELSE

  WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF

  THE AUTHOR AND AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING.

  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.

  TEDDY SINATRA SERIES:

  TEDDY SINATRA

  CHAINS FOR LOVE

  ***

  MICK SINATRA SERIES

  IN ORDER:

  1.MICK SINATRA: FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE

  2.MICK SINATRA: LOVE LIES AND JERICHO

  3.MICK SINATRA: HIS LADY, HIS CHILDREN, AND SAL

  4.MICK SINATRA: IF YOU DON’T KNOW ME BY NOW

  5.MICK SINATRA: THE HARDER THEY FALL

  6.MICK SINATRA: NOW WILL YOU WEEP

  7.MICK SINATRA: BREAKING MY HEART

  8.MICK SINATRA: LOVE AND SHADOWS

  9.MICK SINATRA: NO LOVE. NO PEACE.

  10. MICK SINATRA: HEAT WAVE

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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

  EPILOGUE

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  CHAPTER ONE

  The outer door was jammed, but with his broad shoulder and brute strength he forced it

  open anyway. And then he ran.

  Up one flight of stairs. Two flights of stairs. The third flight. He couldn’t get up those stairs

  fast enough. A baby was crying on one level. A couple were arguing on another level. Two

  teens mooching: another level. But Teddy kept hustling. He kept running up flight after flight

  after flight. The elevator had been too slow in coming, now he regretted not waiting. But he

  didn’t regret his speed. He had to get there. He had to get to Nikki before . . .

  Before what?

  Before another man took her? But Nikki wasn’t that kind of girl.

  Then why in hell was he doing this?

  What the hell was wrong with him?

  He made it. He was at her door. Any thoughtful man would have knocked. This was what

  she wanted, and she had that right. But Teddy wasn’t thoughtful that night. He didn’t give a

  shit. He leaned back and kicked it open with his expensive Ferragamo shoe, a dress style he

  emulated from his old man, but they didn’t live up to the hype because he felt the pain of that

  kick in every bone of his foot. But the door gave way. It flew open. And he went inside.

  Nikki ran out of the bedroom when she heard the intrusion, and then she just stood there

  when she saw it was Teddy.

  He looked like a wild man to her. He wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t pretending to be sorry for

  busting in like that. He looked mad as hell. And that only angered her.

  But Teddy couldn’t believe how she ran out of that room, as if she wasn’t expecting him. As

  if her decision to leave his place and get her own wasn’t going to anger the shit out of him. She

  knew it would. She had to know! So why the fuck was she surprised to see him?

  But that wasn’t her question when he broke in. Why was he surprised that she had left him,

  was.

  But Teddy didn’t answer her question. He looked around the tiny apartment. He even

  walked past her to the bedroom, as if she might have some man in her bed. He knew he was

  being provocative. He knew even the thought that she would be cheating on him would rile her

  up. And when he stopped his cursory investigation and bothered to look at her, he saw just

  how riled up she really was. Nikki was the kind of woman whose big eyes couldn’t conceal her

  contempt. And she was full of it that night.

  “You’re the one who told me we might not have a future together,” she said. “Didn’t you

  tell me that? You’re the one who told me to do what I had to do. But now you’re the one

  running over here like some crazy man all surprised because I did it? Because I wasn’t about to

  live with a man I had no future with? What’s wrong with you, Teddy? Where do you get off

  being angry at me for doing what you told me to do?”

  But he didn’t mean those words! Didn’t she realize he was just saying that shit to cover

  himself in case their relationship went south? That was what Sinatras did. They covered their

  asses! They learned it from their old man, a man who wasn’t worth a damn when it came to

  women either. That was why his old man left Teddy’s mother high and dry when Teddy was

  just a kid. That was why he left his kid brother Joey’s mother, and his sister Glo’s mother, and

  his deceased brother Adrian’s mother too. His father left all his baby-mothers, except for Roz,

  the mother of his young twins. It also wasn’t lost on Teddy that Roz ended up being the only

  one his father actually bothered to marry. That stung a little too.

  But Teddy had his old man’s genes. He’d been told all his life he was just like his old man.

  Leaving women in the dust to fend for themselves was in his blood too. That was why he was a

  man past thirty who wasn’t married yet. That was why he was a man past thirty with one

  serious relationship to his name, and Nikki was the one. But she asked a good question. Why,

  he wondered too, was he so damn angry?

  Just because she left his place and got her own?

  Just because s
he refused to go along with his bullshit and needed her own space?

  Just because . . . why? She didn’t need him?

  Was that it?

  But that was crazy!

  So what if she didn’t need him. Why the fuck should he care? Was his punk-ass that needy

  now?

  And when she pushed him back out of the door he had kicked open, and slammed the door

  in his face, why was he so stunned?

  “Teddy? Teddy? Teddy! You still there, man? Teddy!”

  Teddy suddenly opened his big, tired eyes again. The phone was still resting between his

  neck and his shoulder, with his head cocked sideways to hold it to his ear, but he had dozed-off

  into memory-land almost as soon as he had answered the call. “I’m still here,” he said, forcing

  himself back awake. “What’s up?”

  “You heard what I said, right?” The voice belonged to Joey Sinatra, his half-brother.

  “Say it again,” Teddy said.

  “I said it again already! What’s wrong with you? I said he’s ready to meet.”

  Teddy frowned. “He’s ready?”

  “That’s what I told your ass, Teddy!”

  “When?”

  “Now.”

  “Now? What are you talking? It’s three in the morning!”

  “You know how Lizard is. He’s flaky like that. That’s why I don’t like this idea of doing

  business with a man like him. I just don’t like it! But who listens to me?”

  “Just tell me what he said,” Teddy said.

  “He says he’s ready to meet right now. That’s what he said. That’s what I already told you

  he said.”

  Shit, Teddy thought. This time of morning? It felt as if he’d just gotten into bed, and now he

  had more shit to do. He closed his eyes once more. Was he ever going to get a good night’s

  sleep ever again? He hadn’t had one since Nikki left. “Where?” he asked.

  “The old bakery on Hansen.”

  Teddy’s eyes flew open. “Why the fuck over there?”

  “Maybe he likes the place. Maybe he owns the place. I don’t know, Teddy. How should I

  know? He has the right to pick the time and place, since you gave him that privilege, and this is

  the time he picked and that’s the place he picked. Get some facts and wake your ass up.”

  “Get smart with me again and I’ll wake your ass up,” Teddy angrily responded. “Got that

  fact?”

  Joey let out a harsh sigh over the phone. They used to work side-by-side before their old

  man elevated Teddy to underboss. Now their position in the family, and their relationship,

  were worlds apart. “Yeah I got it,” Joey said.

  “Pick up Gio.”

  “Gio?”

  “I didn’t stutter. Swing by here after you get him. I’ll be ready.”

  There was a hesitation on Joey’s part, which Teddy knew meant he didn’t like that decision

  one bit. But that was tough. Gio Savarino was a longtime capo in the Sinatra crime family and

  was promoted, by Mick Sinatra himself, to a rank almost equal to Joey’s, although Joey hated

  the idea. To Joey, nobody should be that close to him in rank. But Teddy had been crowned

  their father’s undisputed heir-apparent, and nobody questioned his authority. If he told Joey to

  pick up Gio, Joey had to pick him up. “Sure thing, Boss,” Joey said.

  Teddy knew his kid brother was being smart-ass again, but he didn’t have the energy to fight

  it. He’d deal with that shit later. He ended the call.

  He laid his head back onto his sweat-filled pillow and placed the phone on his nightstand.

  Nikki’s picture was on that nightstand and he caught a glimpse of it as he sat the phone down.

  Then he looked at it full-on. She was standing at the new car he had purchased for her, dressed

  beautifully as she always was, with her full-figured body and her gorgeous smiling face

  everything he wanted physically in a woman. But it was her vulnerabilities, and her smarts, and

  her mental toughness - Nikki was tougher than most men he knew, including most of his capos,

  that won him over. And his dumbass blew it. He flat-out blew it!

  He had to make it right, he thought, as he got out of bed. His life and happiness, and the

  final end of that debilitating loneliness that was already creeping back into his day-to-day,

  depended on him righting the wrong he had done to Nikki’s heart, and winning her back. And it

  wasn’t up for debate; he didn’t give a fuck how many women were insisting he was better off

  without her. He didn’t want their asses. He wanted Nikki. And he was going to win her back.

  He just hadn’t figured out how.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Nikki Tarver could barely focus her big, brown eyes when she turned over her cell phone

  and looked at the time. It was three am, which made her want to toss that phone back onto

  the nightstand. Somebody calling her at three am? Seriously?

  But when she glanced at the Caller ID and saw that it was her mother, she knew she

  couldn’t toss it then. She answered quickly. “Hey, Ma. Everything okay?”

  “You need to talk to him,” her mother responded.

  Nikki wondered if she had missed an entire conversation. “Excuse me?”

  “Your father. You need to call and talk to him. He says you won’t answer his calls and I’m

  tired of him calling me.”

  Nikki, lying on her back in bed, rubbed her forehead. No she didn’t wake her up, this time of

  morning, for that. “Anything else?” she asked.

  “Are you going to call him?”

  “Ma, this could have waited until a reasonable hour. It’s three in the morning!”

  “And he’s been calling me since two! Now I’m tired of it, Nicole. You’ve got to call him and

  tell him to keep me out of it. I divorced his butt all those years ago for a reason. But he still

  calls me complaining about all those years he spent in prison and how his second wife died

  while he was locked up. And I’m thinking no this bastard ain’t telling me this shit. He cheated

  on me with that second wife before she became his second wife! Why should I care that her

  ass died while he was in prison?”

  “Ma, it’s three in the morning,” Nikki reminded her. She didn’t want to hear that tired old

  song about her parents’ tumultuous relationship. “I’ve got to go to work soon.”

  There was a pause. “Your ass just like him,” her mother then said. “Call him,” she added as

  if she still had the power to order Nikki around, and then ended the call.

  Nikki just laid there. The last time she called her father for help, he hung up in her face.

  Now her mother expected her to just act as if that earth-shattering moment never happened?

  Or that her earth-shattering past with her father never occurred? Nikki tossed her phone back

  onto the nightstand, and turned over.

  But going back to sleep would be a challenge, since she wasn’t exactly sound asleep when

  the call came in. Teddy had been on her mind. And still was, if she were to be honest. He was

  yet another man who had let her down. Yet another man who had promised her the moon, but

  as soon as she reached for it; as soon as she decided to give love a chance once again, had given

  her his ass to kiss. She should be used to it by now. Her father’s behavior alone had taught her

  to never expect too much out of men. Except she thought Teddy was different. She thought he

  was the one man who understood what she was about, and would handle her with care.

  S
he thought wrong.

  Because he didn’t handle her with care, but however he felt like handling her. And care

  wasn’t the issue.

  Just as it wasn’t with her father, nor her ex-husband, nor any of those other men who had

  been in a relationship with Nikki. Teddy wasn’t different at all, or they wouldn’t be separated.

  He was just more of the same.

  But why did her pain feel differently, and so much more painful, than it felt all those other

  times?

  She turned over again and closed her eyes. But she didn’t see darkness. Nor sleep. All she

  saw was Teddy.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The Dodge Charger came to a rolling stop across the street from the old bakery shop. It was

  almost four in the morning and the street lighting was poor as hell in that entire area of town,

  but Teddy could see all he needed to see. He was on the front passenger seat in Joey’s car.

  Joey was behind the wheel. Giovanni Savarino was in back.

  “Spooky as hell,” Joey said. “It looks worse than I remember around here. And he wants to

  meet here? You think he’s toying with us?”

  But Teddy wasn’t answering questions. “Go see if he’s there,” he said to Gio.

  “But for real, Teddy,” Gio was saying as he unbuckled his seatbelt. “Hook me up, man.”

  They had been talking about Gio’s crush on Gloria Sinatra, Teddy and Joey’s half-sister. Or,

  at least, Gio had been talking about it. “Why don’t you hook me up?” he asked again.

  “We hooked you up once before,” Joey responded, “and your ass couldn’t keep her. Why

  would he hook you up again?”

  “This is an A and B conversation,” Gio said to Joey.

  But Joey wasn’t about to take that slight lying down. “And I’ll C your ass in the street,” he

  shot back. “Who the fuck you think you’re talking to? I’m your boss!”

  “And Teddy’s all our boss,” Gio said. “I was talking to the boss.”

  “Joey’s right,” Teddy said, to Joey’s delight. “You had her once. It was your job to keep

  her.”

  But Gio frowned. “You know how Gloria is,” he said. “She doesn’t know what she wants

  yet. But she respects you like she respects the big boss. If you put in a word for me, I think

  she’ll come around.”

  “In your dreams, Gio,” Joey said. “You’re not good enough for my sister. Face facts, boy.