“You can see your building,” Harper continued when it was obvious to him Mick wasn’t going to cooperate. He looked at Mick. “You realize that? You can see the top tip of the Sinatra Industries building all the way from this side of town. Your building. Your baby. Legit as it comes. With a guy who used to be one of us, and no better than us, as the owner, the chairman, the CEO. Guys like me would kill to have that level of legitimacy you now possess Micky. We’d give our right arm to be up there with you. But what I don’t understand, and maybe you can help me with this, is how do you stay on top?”
Mick was about as interested in discussing his business skill with Harper as Harper was about discussing the reason for their get together. “You loaned my son fifty grand,” Mick said.
Harper wanted to resist getting into the meat of the matter that quickly, Mick could tell, but he knew Mick. He smiled instead. “I run a payday loan facility, Mick. That’s what I do. I loan money.”
“You’re a loan shark masquerading as a payday loan facility,” Mick said. “My son has no pay day.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” Harper said. “Joey’s a trust fund baby just like all of your kids. Even I know that. Mick the Tick keeps all his babies and baby mamas well stocked with green. That’s why I figured the kid was good for it. Besides, if he wasn’t, then certainly his old man was. You always paid your debts, Micky. You owe no man. I know that too. So yeah, I loaned him the cash. Never dreamed he’d bring it right back that same night, belly aching about how you made him return it.”
“If any child of mine ever come to you for anything,” Mick said, “you’d better come to me.”
Harper’s smile left. Now he was angry. “I’d better come to you?” he asked. “Oh, yeah? Is that how you think it works now? I work for you now?” Then his voice became louder. “You used to run numbers for me, you ungrateful fuck! I ran these streets when your ass was just getting on them, and you’re going to dictate to me? You can kiss my ass!”
If Harper thought he was going to talk to Mick the Tick that way and walk away, as he was about to do, he had miscalculated badly. Because as soon as he told Mick to kiss his ass, Mick was grabbing him and banging his head, not against the back wall, but against the window glass, causing the glass to shatter and Harper’s head to bleed.
Harper wasn’t just dazed by the blow, but he was stunned by it. He thought Mick had changed. He thought living in the highest echelons of the legit world meant he had too much to lose to be gangster still. But the tick was still in Mick. He realized, too late, that Mick’s surroundings and bank accounts might have changed for the better, but Mick hadn’t changed at all. He was still the vicious dog he used to be.
Mick dangled Harper’s bleeding head out of the window, and Harper knew it would be nothing for muscular Mick to toss his whole body out too. But Mick wasn’t interested in doing the man, his old running partner, any harm. He was upset it had come to this to begin with. But he had to get his point across. Gangsters only understood the gangster creed, and he knew it. “If any child of mine come to you for anything,” Mick warned him again, “you’d better come to me.”
This time, Harper understood. “I will, Mick, I promise you,” Harper cried. “I’ll come straight to you! I won’t give them a dime, I swear it, Micky, not one dime! You know me? I’m a man of my word. I’ll keep my word, I promise you.”
Mick stared at Harper a moment longer, to make sure he wasn’t just whistling Dixie and meant what he said. Satisfied that Harp got the message, Mick let him go.
Harper leaned back into the room and then moved away from the shattered glass. He leaned against the back wall to regain his courage. He pulled out a handkerchief and compressed the blood flow from his bleeding head.
“Stay away from Joey,” Mick warned. “Stay away from all of my children.”
“You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll stay away from them. And if they come to me, I’ll come to you. You got my word. That’s all I got to give.”
A look of regret crossed Mick’s face. He and Harper went back too far for him to be treating the man this way. But his son was his responsibility now and nobody was going to influence him but Mick. He was stepping up to the plate late, but at least he was stepping up.
Mick turned to leave. He made his point. No point in rubbing it in. But Harper already felt the rub. He already felt as if that ungrateful asshole had disrespected him beyond his wildest dreams of being disrespected. And he wasn’t about to let that fucker just walk away. Harper felt some kind of crazy about it. He felt as if he was allowing Mick to carry his manhood away, if he allowed him to just walk away.
That was why he decided to strike. It couldn’t be a gunshot. That would be too loud, and would be too risky. But he still carried his switchblade. And he pulled it out angrily, and began to advance on Mick Sinatra’s retreating form.
But if Harper thought he was the first man to try to stab Mick in the back, he was sadly mistaken. Mick never turned his back on any man without a plan. He did once, when he was still young and dumb, and nearly died. He learned his lesson well. Now he relied on his car’s key fob. The front side was a fob, but the backside was a mirror. A mirror he already had in his hands and was looking through as he left Harper’s side. He already had his eyes on Harper.
And that was why, when Harper lunged at him with his switchblade, Mick leaned down, lifted Harper’s surging body over his back, and Harper fell onto the concrete floor with a hard thump that caused him to cry out in agonizing back pain.
But his pain was just beginning. Mick wasn’t about to let a man who had just attempted to assassinate him live. He got down on top of Harper, took that very switchblade that could have been his own undoing, and undid Harper. He stabbed the knife down Harper’s throat. Harper’s entire body leaned up in horror, as his eyes seemed to want to pop out of his head, and then he fell back dead.
Mick was breathing so hard he was nearly hyperventilating as he watched his old friend fade out. And for some strange reason, Mick thought about Rosalind. He thought about his lady. He thought about how he would feel if somebody harmed her. He stood up, still staring at Harper but thinking about Rosalind. He didn’t feel sorry for Harper. He tried to kill Mick, and would have if Mick wasn’t hip to the ways of the street. Harper had it coming to him. But did Roz have this lifestyle coming to her? He was doing her no favors by loving her. Just last night she was hurt because he didn’t mention his past relationship with Carolyn. If she felt betrayed by something that small, how in the world would she feel if she ever found out the true extent of his life? Could she even picture him in a dive like this, standing over a dead body he caused to be? Would she understand the nuance? Would she understand that he never started this shit, but that he had to finish it to survive? Or would she be some dainty lady and wouldn’t get it?
Mick shook his head. Rosalind already proved her mettle to him when he gave her a gun in that safe house in New York and told her to kill or be killed. She fired. She was ready to kill. She misfired, it was the first time she had ever handled a gun, but at least she stepped up. She would understand. He was convinced of it.
He got on his cell phone and called for his men to clean the scene by dumping the body and the murder weapon, and then he headed out. He had to make a decision regarding Roz. He loved her, and didn’t want to lose her, those were the easy answers. But did he love her in a higher way? In a way that would cause him to be willing to lose her for her own sake, even if it meant never seeing her again or being with her again? Even if it meant seeing her in the arms of another man? That was the hard one.
He had to go to her. He hurried down those side stairs and made his way back to his car. Seeing her face again would give him the answers he desperately needed. He would know then if it was even possible to let her go. Her face would tell the story.
But a strange thing happened on the way to Roz. Their song, For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder, came on his car’s radio. And although he was still on h
is way to see her, he was kidding himself. He wasn’t losing Rosalind. Not now. Not ever. She meant too much to him.
For once I can say,
This is mine, you can’t take it.
Long as I know I have love, I can make it.
For once in my life,
I have someone who needs me!
CHAPTER FOUR
Unlike the mammoth SI, the Graham Agency was a three-story building in a quiet, less bustling section of town, and it had the vibe of an art gallery rather than a talent agency. Although it was a beautiful building, purchased for Rosalind by Mick himself, it was basically a small operation. It had only been in full swing a few months, and although it was already having an impact on local talent, it would take many moons before it was the international powerhouse Rosalind envisioned it being someday. At least that was Mick’s take on it. But he also knew he knew next to nothing about talent agencies and believed, if anybody could raise it up to that kind of superstar status, Rosalind could.
He parked in the slanted space near the front of the building, beside Roz’s white Bentley (another gift from Mick), and made his way into the entrance. A few people were sitting in the waiting room filling out paperwork, and the quietness calmed Mick down too.
“Good morning, Mr. Sinatra,” the receptionist said with a pleasant smile when she realized he had arrived. “She’s in the conference room, sir.”
Mick thanked her, wondering why his employees couldn’t be this pleasant toward him, and took the side elevator to the third floor. When he stepped off, the door of the conference room was wide open and he could see Roz standing at the window talking with a young, attractive black man. Mick walked up to the door and leaned against the doorjamb as the young man talked about his dream of making it big someday. Roz was dressed beautifully in a bright white skirt suit and heels, as she listened in that caring way of hers that always bothered Mick. Not because he didn’t want her to be caring, but because he knew how sexy that was to other men. He knew what a catch she was. And that young man knew it too, if looks could tell.
But the lustful look on that kid’s face only reinforced Mick’s grave concern. Why would Rosalind want to saddle herself with a complicated man like him when she could have a carefree gorgeous George type like that young man? He could lose her. It was as clear to him as the sparkle in her eyes.
It was also clear that it might already be too late when the young man started laughing at some joke Roz told and placed his hand on her upper arm, and squeezed it. Mick’s jaw tightened as soon as he saw that squeeze, and he pushed his big, muscular body from the doorjamb and began walking toward his lady swiftly.
The young man didn’t hesitate to remove his hand from Roz’s arm when they looked over and saw this big dude approaching them. The young man had never met Mick before, but he’d heard about Roz’s rich white boyfriend. He was pretty certain the man approaching now was the one he’d heard about.
Roz didn’t know how to feel when she saw Mick approaching. It wasn’t that she was surprised to see him: she wasn’t. She expected him to pay her a visit sometime soon. But she was surprised that he came this early. It wasn’t even noon yet, and he was already there.
The young man smiled awkwardly. “Hi,” he said to Mick.
“Good morning.”
“You must be Miss G.’s friend.” He wanted to say Miss G.’s boyfriend but the guy looked so menacing he wasn’t sure how that would go over.
“He’s Mick Sinatra, June,” Roz said. “Mick, meet Junis Abernathy. He’s one of my clients, and a former student.”
Mick was surprised. Roz used to teach acting in New York before she relocated to Philadelphia to be with him. Two of her other former students lived in Philly too now. What was this about? “Another one?” he asked.
“Yeah. Only he still lives in New York. He came down to see if I would represent him.”
“She knows a lot of Broadway producers and directors,” Junis explained. “She could open some doors for me.”
“It’s more like off-Broadway producers and directors,” Roz said, “but June isn’t getting any gigs right now, so anything will help.”
“Anything,” June agreed with a charming smile.
Mick smiled too, he could put on the charm when needed, but he still wasn’t buying it. Guy leaves New York to come to Philly to get an agent to help get him a job back in New York? Made little sense to Mick. And when it didn’t make sense to Mick, he assumed it wasn’t true. He was going to keep an eye on this kid.
Roz could see the skepticism in Mick’s eyes. She wasn’t even going to broach the subject of any nonsense like that. But she knew they did need to talk. “June,” she said, “why don’t you wait downstairs? We’ll go over the contract specifics in a few minutes.”
“So that means you’ll represent me?” June asked excitedly.
Roz smiled. “Yes, I will. You have what it takes to make it. But it may be a long road before you even make it to your first casting call off-Broadway. You understand that?”
“But at least I’ll have a chance to make it there,” June said. “All I want is that chance.”
Roz nodded. “That’s what I’ve always liked about you. You understand the stakes. But we’ll talk specifics. Give me a few minutes.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, smiled again at Mick and told him how happy he was to meet him, and left the room.
Mick watched him leave. “Cute kid,” he said.
Roz folded her arms and leaned against the window frame. Although she was still a little pissed with him from last night, she was glad to see him. “What brings you this way?”
Mick was staring at her. He didn’t mean to, but he was. It was her face. Although she was laughing with lover boy and allowing him to squeeze her arm, there was nothing joyous in her eyes. She was distraught. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
Roz ran her hand through her thick, bouncy hair, creating a cascading effect where some strands dropped along her forehead, making her look, to Mick, as sexy as she looked concerned. “You know what’s wrong,” she said. “I didn’t like the way things went down last night.”
“I spoke to you harshly,” he admitted freely. And then he swallowed hard. “I apologize for that.”
Roz knew it was never easy for a man like Mick to apologize for anything, and she appreciated his effort. But she couldn’t lose sight of the underlying cause of his apology. “I don’t like half-truths, Mick,” she said with a grave look in her eyes. “If I allow you to tell me half a story, it won’t be long before you stop telling me any story at all. Or you’ll tell me whatever you think I want to hear. And I can’t deal with all of those secrets and lies. I don’t want to live like that.”
Mick nodded. “Neither do I.”
“When you came clean to me about your life, about your past, I thought that meant we crossed the threshold. I thought from there on out we were going to be straight with one another. Because from my vantage point, that’s the only way we’re going to make it. But for you to not even tell me that Carolyn was once your lover, and for her to spill the beans like she just knew you would never tell, upset me. Hell yeah it upset me! I expected better from you, Mick. I expect total honesty and trust from you, no matter what that truth entails. That’s what I’m giving to you. I’m not going to accept any less in return.”
Mick’s natural instinct was to lash back at her. If she was anybody else he would have. He would have told her that he bet she was sleeping around with lover boy and who knew how many other boys, who the fuck did she think she was preaching to him? But he held his tongue. This was Rosalind he was talking about. This was the woman he knew had his back, and that he could trust with his life. This was the woman he loved more than life itself, a woman who not only accepted his past, but embraced his present baggage too. Including the fact that he had four grown children he had not been a good father to. Including the fact that he had businesses that were on the opposite end of legitimate, businesses he wanted to drop but coul
dn’t yet. What was he doing? He was getting the better end of this deal, not her.
He moved up to her, placed his hands on the side of her arms, and turned her toward him. “I love you, Rosalind,” he said.
She frowned. “I know you do. That’s the only reason I’m still here. I love you too.”
“And I need you to know you can trust me. I won’t break your heart. I promise you.”
Roz needed to hear those words far more than she needed to hear of his love for her. She nodded her head. “That’s what bothers me.”
“I know it does. Every time I look into your eyes, I know it does. And you wanna know something really fucked up? I have the same fear.”
Roz stared at him. “You fear I’m going to break your heart?”
It pained Mick to admit it, but it went to the larger issue. He had to stop denying how far in he was with this woman. “Yes,” he said.
But Roz was shaking her head. “I’ll never do anything like that to you.”
“And as strongly as you believe what you won’t do to me, you’ve got to believe I won’t do that to you. I’ll never break your heart.” Then Mick exhaled. “I fired Carolyn,” he said.
Roz looked at him. “When?”
“Last night. After I left you.”
“You didn’t have to do that, Mick.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Why? Because she told me what you should have told me?”
“Because she tried to hurt you with that information,” Mick responded, and Roz couldn’t argue with that. She stared at him.
“I’ll take the blame for not telling you,” he said, “but I will not let any member of my household staff think they can harm you, or get the upper hand on you, or whatever the fuck she was trying to do. I got rid of her. That’s over and done. My human resource director is looking for a replacement now.”
Then Mick frowned in a way that made his handsome face appear anguished. “I’m no catch, Rosalind,” he said. “You can have any guy you want, and believe me I’d be at the bottom of that list.”
Mick Sinatra 2: Love, Lies, and Jericho Page 6