“I serve my country,” Trevor said. “You may not agree with it, or can respect it, but that’s what I do. I take out people who need to be taken out.”
“And who determines this?” Charles said. “The government?”
“Yes,” Trevor said, as if it was obvious. “Who else? They call you Big Daddy. You should know all about Big Brother.”
Charles released him. “Where’s Giuseppe now?” he asked.
“He can locate him,” Tommy said, “but it’s going to take time.”
“And what does that mean?” Charles asked. And then, when he realized what Tommy was saying, he frowned. “You mean release him?”
“It’s the only way, Charles,” Mick said.
Charles looked at Mick. “You knew about this too?”
“Tommy informed me,” Mick said. “Yes. I told him to bring him here, let him see Carly, and then let him get us closer to the motherfucker that did this to us.”
Charles was still uneasy about the prospect of letting the man who was commissioned to murder them roam free. He looked at Reno and Sal. They were practical men if they were anything. Didn’t they have a problem with this?
They didn’t. “It’s the only way, Big Daddy,” Reno said.
“I don’t like it any more than you do,” Sal responded. “But what can we do? He’s the link. We’ve got to use him.”
Charles then looked at Mick. “We’ll at least have men tailing him? We’ll at least know his every move?”
“Not possible,” Mick said. “If we put a tail on him, Giuseppe won’t show himself. We have to create a scenario, a diversion, where Reese has escaped our custody. That’s the only way it’ll work. We have to make them think we have no clue about his Fed connection at all, and they have to believe he hasn’t blown his cover. It’s a compromise.”
Charles hated the compromise game. He hated it because what was right and moral was usually what was being compromised. But he had to let these men before him, men he loved and respected, do their thing. “Okay,” he said.
“But I have to see Carly first,” Trevor said. “Can I please see Carly?”
Charles stared at him. “Why would a man like you, an assassin no less, give a damn about a girl like Carly? She’s a smart, talented, moral young woman. She’s everything you aren’t. Why did you have to choose her?”
“Because she’s everything he isn’t,” Tommy said. He, too, knew something about opposites attracting.
And because, Trevor thought, he couldn’t help who he fell in love with. But he wasn’t about to speak those words out loud. “May I see her?” he asked again.
Charles continued to stare at him. At least he didn’t give him a song and dance punctuated with lies. “Wait here,” Charles said, and then went back into the hospital room.
Jenay was just finishing a phone conversation with Makayla, where she also was able to talk to her little girl Bonita. But Charles was on her mind. “What’s going on?” she asked.
“Reese is out there,” Charles said.
Jenay, stunned, got out of the bed.
“Trevor Reese is here?” Ashley asked, standing up too.
Charles knelt down at Carly’s bedside. He shook her gently, until she opened her big, beautiful, doleful eyes.
She smiled. “Hey, Daddy,” she said.
“Hey, baby,” Charles said, smiling too. He couldn’t help it. “How are you feeling? Still hurting?”
“A little. But I feel better.”
“That’s good,” Charles said. Then he exhaled. “Trevor Reese is out in the hall,” he said.
Carly’s eyes stretched wider. Her heart began to pound.
“He wants to see you,” Charles said. “Do you want to see him?”
“What is he saying about what happened?” Carly asked.
“He says he was hired by the C.I.A. to take us out. He’s going to locate the man who hired him.”
“But C.I.A. is international, isn’t it? Why would the C.I.A. want to eliminate Uncle Mick and the Gabrinis?”
“We don’t know, and they don’t tell the operatives the why. Just the who. Do you want to see him, honey?”
Carly nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I have to.”
Charles nodded, patted her on the shoulder, and then went to the door, opened it, and allowed Trevor to walk in.
While he walked in, Mick and the Gabrinis planned the diversion they would need to fake Trevor’s escape.
But when Trevor walked into the hospital room, and saw Carly lying on that hospital bed, he stopped in his tracks. This was why he never wanted to fall in love. This was why he preferred to be a man alone, working his business and doing the work of the government, without attachments.
But Carly was his attachment, or he wouldn’t be so damn upset all of a sudden. But he hid it well enough to keep walking, and to make it by her side.
He knelt down. Charles stayed right beside him. “Hey,” Trevor said to Carly. “I heard what happened. I didn’t even know you were in Jericho.”
“After I saw that list in your wallet, I had to notify my family.”
Trevor nodded. “And rightly so,” he said.
“You were hired to kill them, Trevor?” Carly knew he had taint in his background, but she never knew just what the taint was.
Trevor, to his credit, Charles thought, didn’t back down. “Yes,” he said. “I was hired to take them out.”
“By whom?” Carly asked.
“C.I.A.,” Trevor said. “But I wasn’t going to do it. That’s why I was in Vegas when your uncle’s men picked me up. I was there to warn Reno Gabrini about the list. But I knew I was being watched too. I had to do it carefully.”
“Why would the C.I.A. be involved with my uncles? The F.B.I., I can see. But the C.I.A. handles international terrorism and problems like that. Why would they want my uncles assassinated?”
“They don’t tell me the why, Carly. “I only know a piece of the puzzle. Every operative knows a piece of the puzzle. Only the bosses know the full puzzle.”
Carly exhaled. She placed her hand on the side of Trevor’s face. “Why, Trevor?”
“Why they gave me the list when they knew you were my girlfriend?”
Carly nodded. “Yes. Why?”
“Probably because you were my girlfriend. Probably because they figured you could give me an inside track.”
“But why would you need to kill people for the government? You have one of the most successful marketing firms in the country. You don’t need the money. Why?”
“Because back in the day, way back, I did some things that could have gotten me a death sentence. The Feds gave me a reprieve, but with a proviso.”
“The proviso being that you work for them?” Carly asked.
“That I put my talents to work for them, yes,” Trevor said. “But you’re okay?” he asked. “Your Uncle Tommy said you were going to be okay, but I had to see for myself.”
Carly placed her hand on the side of his handsome face. “I’m okay,” she said.
“Alright, Reese,” Charles said. “You’ve got work to do.”
Carly didn’t understand what her father meant, but she didn’t question it either. Trevor stood up. “I’ll be back,” he said. But he lingered. He didn’t want to release her hand.
But he did. And he left. Charles, Jenay, and Ashley looked at Carly. “You’re okay?” Charles asked her.
Tears appeared in Carly’s eyes. “No,” she said, and Charles pulled her into his arms.
Trevor jumped out of the hospital’s second floor window, rolled onto the ground, and ran. A few seconds later, and Mick’s men appeared at the window, shooting at him, but he got away. It was staged. It was all planned. But Giuseppe and his men, if they happened to be watching, didn’t know that it was.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It took nearly nineteen hours of surgery, and what the surgeons said were many close calls, but Donald eventually pulled. And over the next several days they began seeing improvements in B
rent, Carly, and Donald’s condition too. Makayla and the children were back, and she and Junior were at Brent’s side, while Bonita was back in her parents’ arms, but it was still a terrible time. The hospital became the Sinatra home for nearly a week, as Mick stayed with the family while the Gabrinis came and went and worked every angle they could across the country. But every lead turned out to be a dead end of false positives and misinformation. This hit, this massive hit in little Jericho, blindsided everybody.
By week’s end, as improvements continued, Mick arranged, under heavy security, for the Sinatra siblings to recuperate at Big Daddy’s house. But it was a yeomen’s task as security was lacking mightily and had to be shored up within every inch of the estate, and full medical staff and equipment had to be flown in. The home also had to be sterilized of the carnage that once defined it. But Brent, Carly, and Donald eventually made it to their parents’ home.
Although Carly was able to get out of bed and move around on her own, Brent and Donald could not and were placed in hospital beds, in the same guest room during the day, for observation and daily medical assistance. Makayla Sinatra, Brent’s wife, stayed by his side. Ashley refused to leave Donald’s side. Tony and his friend Sharon Flannigan cared for little Bonita Sinatra, and Brent, Junior. Robert, still police chief and with a job to do, nevertheless spent most of his time, to no avail, running down leads on the attack.
But in the evenings, the family congregated in the makeshift hospital room with Brent and Donald, and hoped that they would get some answers.
“I’ve never seen this much security in my life,” Carly said, as she stood at the window and looked out over their estate.
“You know Uncle Mick and the Gabrinis,” Brent said as he laid in bed. “They go all out.”
“Thank God they do,” Makayla said. She sat on the side of Brent’s bed. When she heard about his shooting, she thought it was going to kill her. She couldn’t get back to Jericho fast enough. “I feel so much better having you and Donald and Carly here. It’s safer here.”
“Despite the fact that it happened here,” Donald said. At first everybody looked at him, and then they laughed.
“She means with the heightened security, Donnie,” Ashley said with a smile. “Don’t be a dunce!”
Jenay and Charles, seated in chairs against the wall, were especially pleased. They needed the release. Tonight would spell the first night they were going to sleep in their own bed since the attack, after so many nights sleeping at the hospital. Both were looking forward to the familiar.
“Becky asked about you,” Jenay said to Donald.
“Becky Hamlisch?” Ashley asked. “I’m surprised she didn’t come to the hospital. She has a thing for Donnie.”
“Wrong,” Donald said. His voice was clear, but nowhere near at full strength yet.
“I am not wrong,” Ashley fired back. “She likes you.”
“She likes Dad,” Donald said. “She has a thing for Dad.”
“Dad?” Carly asked doubtfully. “Oh, go on, Donnie!”
“Donald’s right,” Jenay said. “She fancies herself in love with Charles.”
“And you don’t mind?” Ashley asked Jenay.
“Of course not,” Jenay responded. “That’s the burden of marrying a good looking man. Women want him.” Jenay leaned against him. “But they can’t have him.”
“Ma don’t play,” Donald said, and they all laughed again.
But for Charles it was bittersweet. He was thrilled to have his children under his roof again, and all with positive prognosis, but he wanted answers. He craved answers! He wanted to find the bastards that put his children at risk in the first place and give them a taste of their own medicine.
His brother Mick, sitting beside him and Jenay, was well aware of his desire for revenge. “Soon,” he said, and Charles and Jenay looked at him. “We’ll find those bastards.”
“Oh, Uncle Mick,” Donald said, looking at his uncle. “I forgot you were in here.”
“Boy please,” Ashley said. “Who could forget Uncle Mick?”
“I did, so I could,” Donald said. “Thank you for sticking by us,” he added, to Mick. “We appreciate it.”
Mick didn’t like sentimentality, and they all knew it, but he nodded his head.
“But don’t you have a family to take care of?” Donald asked. “Don’t you have businesses to run?”
“My business is here,” Mick responded. “My wife holds down my family.”
Brent smiled. “I believe it. Miss Roz is a tough lady. I wouldn’t want to mix it up with her.”
Mick almost smiled. “She’s,” he began saying with fondness in his voice, but then he caught himself. “Yes,” was all he’d say about her.
“I just want answers,” Charles said to Mick. “I want to find out who in this world would target my children?”
“And why would they have a kill list with your names on it,” Jenay added as she looked at Mick too, “but yet they target us?”
“Perhaps the list was a diversion,” Mick said. “Who knows? But we will find out. That I assure you.”
Carly looked at her uncle. “Have you heard from Trevor?” she asked.
Charles and Jenay looked at her. They knew how much she cared for him, even now.
“No,” Mick said. “No news. But that is to be expected. If he is who he says he is, he has to go very deep undercover. That takes time, and a lot of work.”
“Who does he say he is?” Donald asked Carly.
If Trevor was indeed a C.I.A. operative the way he claimed to be, Carly knew it wasn’t information everybody needed to know. Least of which her blabbermouth brother. “None of your business,” she responded.
“I nearly died,” Donald said, “and you’re still mean to me?”
“I wasn’t mean to you when you were dying,” Carly said. “But since you’re going to live, you get no special treatment from me.”
They all laughed. “I know that’s right,” Ashley agreed.
Then a buzz sounded on Mick’s phone. He answered quickly. “Yes?”
“The Gabrinis have arrived, sir,” a voice responded. They had been in neighboring towns, in search of Miller Franklin, who disappeared shortly after Charles and Tony paid him a visit. They’d been tracking down lead after lead. The hope was that one of those leads would eventually lead somewhere.
“We’re on our way down,” Mick said into his phone and he, Charles and Jenay stood to their feet.
“Maybe they have some news,” Brent said.
“Yeah, maybe,” Mick responded.
“I sure hope so,” Makayla said, rubbing Brent’s forehead. “Not knowing is the worse part.”
“I’m coming too,” Carly said to her father. She wasn’t a hundred percent herself, but well enough to manage.
But Charles nixed that idea without hesitation. “No, you aren’t,” he said. “You’re staying right here.”
Carly didn’t like it, but she stayed.
Reno, Sal, and Tommy were getting out of the limousine just as Charles, Jenay, and Mick made their way outside. They met up at the car, with hugs, handshakes, and hellos.
“Any news?” Charles was the first to ask.
“Nothing,” Reno said. “We got nothing.”
“Not even a motive?” Charles asked. “I thought Sal had at least a read on what Franklin was up to.”
“I had several leads on him,” Sal said. “And we personally ran down every one. But none of them panned out.”
“But what do we really know about him definitively?” Charles asked.
“He’s a liar,” Mick said. “We know that. All of that talk about him owning a timeshare and planning a wedding for his daughter was bullshit. He doesn’t own shit.”
“He doesn’t work for any insurance company in Boston either,” Tommy added. “He doesn’t even have a daughter.”
Jenay looked at Charles. Charles placed his arm around her waist.
“So it’s pretty certain now that he’s i
nvolved too,” Jenay said. “And he has to be involved, right? Why else would he disappear like that? Why else would he tell us all of those lies?”
“He’s involved,” Reno agreed. “That’s for damn sure. But to what extent? That we don’t know yet.”
“Well, we know you’ve got to get back to your businesses and your own families,” Charles said. “Thank you for all you’ve done for us.”
“Anytime you need us, Big Daddy,” Sal said. “You know that.”
“Come say goodbye to the kids before you go,” Jenay said.
Sal grinned. “Kids?” he asked. “You sound like Big Daddy. Those fuckers look older than you! I think Brent is older than you!”
Jenay smiled. “Not quite,” she said.
“Talking about kids,” Sal said again.
“Come on up and see my old-ass children then,” Charles said. “How’s that?”
They all laughed. “Better,” Sal said.
But as they all began heading toward the house, so that the Gabrinis could say their goodbyes to the Sinatra brood, an SUV stopped at the newly installed security gate, and then drove up to the limo. They all recognized the driver as a member of Mick’s security team.
He jumped out. “We got a lead, boss,” he said without hesitation.
Mick and others moved toward him. “What is it?” Mick asked anxiously.
“The men who gunned down your nephews and niece? We got a read on who they were, and we know who they worked for.”
The look on everybody’s face changed. This was the break they’d been waiting for! “Who?” Mick asked. “Who’s their boss?”
Mick’s man hesitated. And then just said it. “Jimmy,” he said. “Jimmy Gabrini.”
And all eyes went from Mick’s man, to Reno.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
If it was meant to be a joke, it was a cruel one. Reno, Tommy, and Sal were especially unamused. They couldn’t believe it.
“Jimmy?” Reno asked. “What the fuck are you talking? My son? They worked for my son?”
Mick’s man didn’t back down. “That’s the information we turned up, yes, sir.”
Big Daddy Sinatra: Papa Don't Play Page 11