And as soon as he said it, Mick cocked his gun, hurried to the middle of the dining room, where everybody in the living room could see him, and shot Archie Bloom straight through the forehead.
Gloria screamed as Archie dropped to the ground, and Adrian immediately moved backwards, clutching Roz tighter. Mick and Charles began walking toward him, both of their guns now trained on him.
“Stay right where you are or I’ll kill her!” Adrian yelled.
Mick’s heart was pounding, as fear for his wife overwhelmed him, but he never shown so much as an inkling of fear. He continued to progress. “You kill her,” Mick said, “where will that leave you?”
“Stay where you are!” Adrian yelled. “I’m not fucking with you!”
“You harm a hair on her head,” Mick said, “and you’re dead.”
“I’m already dead,” Adrian said. “So what?”
When he said those words, both Mick and Charles stopped in their tracks. They both knew he meant what he said. He was going to kill Roz. He was going to kill the love of Mick’s life.
“Kill me,” Mick said to Adrian. “I’m the one you want to destroy. Why are you fucking around? Here’s your chance right here. Aim that weapon at me, and kill me!”
Adrian knew he could. He knew he could fire his gun at his father this very moment, and kill him dead. Charles would probably take him out if he did. But at least he’d see Mick in hell.
Charles knew it too. He knew one of two things were about to happen. Either Adrian was going to kill Mick. Or Mick was going to kill Adrian. Because they both were going to fire. As soon as Adrian moved his gun from Roz’s head, Charles knew his brother was going to shoot, and Adrian was going to shoot. Neither outcome was acceptable to Charles. He wasn’t about to allow anybody to take Mick out, and he was not about to let Mick take out his own son.
That was why, as soon as Adrian removed his gun away from Roz’s head to take Mick up on his offer, Charles, a sharpshooter and the best shooter in Jericho, fired one bullet. It caught Adrian in the hand that held the gun, and ripped through his shoulder. The gun fell, and Adrian screamed out in pain, and dropped to his knees.
Teddy quickly got Gloria and Joey up and hurried them toward the dining room, behind their father and uncle.
Roz didn’t run to the dining room. She grabbed Adrian’s gun and moved away from him. Charles and Mick began to walk toward the downed man.
“Get them out of here,” Mick said to Roz, and she knew exactly what he meant. She went to the dining room and herded all three of Mick’s children into the kitchen, out of eyesight of their injured brother.
Adrian laid there. Dying, but still breathing.
“We need to call an ambulance,” Charles said.
But Mick stood over his son with that cold look in his eyes. “For what?” he asked. “For him to live another day to kill my wife? To kill my children? To kill me?”
“Don’t just stand there!” Adrian cried. “Help me! I need help!”
“Don’t do it, Mick,” Charles said. “He still stands a chance. You can’t live with a thing like this over your head!”
“I’ve been living with things like this my entire life,” Mick said, and then he lifted his gun and fired one shot through his own son’s skull, causing even Charles to wince. “Why the fuck would this be any different?”
In the kitchen, when they heard that single gunshot, all three of Mick’s children jumped. They wanted to hurry back into the living room, to see what was happening. But Roz wouldn’t allow it.
“Stay right where you are,” she ordered them. “Your father has it all in control.”
They stayed put, as their brother, their oldest brother, ceased to exist.
Mick stared at his oldest child. He stared the same way he stared at all those other bodies he had to snuff out. “It’s kill or be killed where I live,” he said. “That don’t change because of somebody’s bloodline.”
And it was at that moment, unlike any of the numerous moments before that day, did Big Daddy Charles Sinatra realize just how gangster his baby brother truly was.
EPILOGUE
The hospital doors flew open and Mick, Teddy, and Joey hurried in. Although his sons were walking with fire under their feet, they still couldn’t keep up with Mick. And when he started running, they trailed even further behind.
But Mick kept running. He ran and ran and didn’t slow down until he made it into the room. Roz’s room. And saw the two babies she now held in either arm.
When Mick walked in, and began walking toward her bed, she smiled her best dimpled smile. “They’re here!” she said with a grin.
Mick smiled too. Gloria, who sat on the bed beside Roz, stood up and moved aside. Eight months ago, she had experienced what it was like to end a life. Now she was there to experience the beginning of life. She preferred this place.
When her brothers finally arrived, they were happy too. “Wow,” Joey said.
“Ten and ten?” Mick asked Roz.
Roz nodded. “Ten and ten,” she said.
Mick inwardly thanked God.
“Did you keep the names?” he asked as he looked at his newborn twins.
Roz laughed. “Yes, Mick. I kept the names we decided upon.”
“Which is which?”
“Dad!” Joey said. “You don’t know?”
Mick couldn’t help but smile himself. “I didn’t want to peep.” Then he looked at Joey. “You be quiet,” he said, and Joey and Teddy laughed.
“This is Michello Sinatra, Junior,” Roz said, proud to hand Mick his baby boy. Mick held him gingerly, as if he was terrified of dropping him.
“And this little feisty girl,” Roz said, “is Jacqueline. Just like we agreed.”
Actually Mick had requested that, if they had a girl, they could name her after Sprig. Not because Sprig was something special. But because she wasn’t, and should have been. Roz agreed without hesitation.
Mick picked up Jacqueline too, and placed her in his arms. But he held both babies over the bed, in case they slipped. It looked so adorable to Roz that she couldn’t help but smile.
Mick looked at both of his babies, and did what he saw other fathers do. He began to bounce them. They began to cry.
Mick was horrified. “Oh, no,” he said. “What am I doing wrong?”
“You aren’t doing anything wrong, Dad,” Gloria said happily. “You’re finally doing it right.”
Mick looked at her. They now shared that bond Gloria craved when she was a child. And then Mick looked at Roz.
Roz nodded. “Another chance?” she asked him.
And Mick nodded too, fighting back tears of joy, and embracing fatherhood in its infancy, for the first time in his life. “Another chance,” he said.
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Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal Page 16