But Monk was too busy staring at the younger woman’s photo, as if it had spooked him. Then he thought of something else, and quickly looked up her name instead of her mother’s name.
And there it was. Just what Monk feared.
“What’s that?” Teddy asked. “She was kidnapped?”
And that was the article heading. Heiress Beverly Pelletier, the daughter of recently deceased Laurianna Pelletier, is missing. French authorities are searching frantically for her whereabouts.
“I’ll be damn,” Teddy said, and Monk jumped up, took Ashley’s hand as if he had the same idea she had about her going wherever he went, too, and they began hurrying toward the exit.
“Where are you going?” Teddy asked him.
“To Pop,” Monk said. “This shit begins with him. I need to find out what he knows.”
“You think he’s been bullshitting you about that weapons snatch a year ago?” Teddy asked him.
“Oh, I know he has,” Monk said.
“Where does Rain Man live these days?” Mick asked.
It was an insulting nickname for his father, but given what Monk had just found out, he didn’t give a damn. “Three hours from my house. But just one hour from this condo.”
That sounded good to Mick. He wanted answers too. Somebody tried to kill his niece, not once, but twice? Somebody was going to pay.
They all left the condo.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Raymond Paletti stood by the fireplace in his home in Cape Hambler as Monk and Ashley walked into the living room.
“What are you doing here?” Raymond asked his son. “I didn’t ask you to,” he began adding, but stopped short when Mick and Teddy walked in too.
And he frowned. “Mick Sinatra? What are you doing here?”
“Same reason your son’s here.”
Raymond was confused. “But what this got to do with you? We don’t got no trouble with your family. What are you doing here?”
“You took her, didn’t you, Pop?” Monk asked his father as Ashley stood close beside him.
Raymond was still reeling from Sinatra being there, him and his underboss. Why would they be there?
“Pop? You heard me? You took her, didn’t you?”
Raymond frowned. “Are we on that again?”
“Again?” Monk asked. “When we got off of it? Yes, we’re on that again! You took her, Pop, didn’t you?”
“I told you I took her,” said Raymond. “What news is that?”
“You took her again,” Monk said, “at that motel. That’s the news!”
Ashley looked at Monk. So did Raymond. But then he smiled. “What are you on dope? That was DeGarno’s men that took that girl!”
“That’s what you wanted me to think,” Monk said. “You wanted me to believe that DeGarno was behind everything. But Tally was on his way out as his underboss. DeGarno said so himself. And you knew it. You got spies in his organization. You won’t tell me who, but I knew you had spies there. I’m figuring it was Tally. I’m figuring you hired Tally to get that girl for you. They had a tail on me, and they followed me to that motel. And you didn’t care how many of your own men got killed, including your own son, just as long as they got that girl out of there alive. And they did that. They got her out alright. And they killed many of your own men to get her out. And you knew I’d take care of Tally. You knew I always aimed for the ringleader.”
Raymond stared at his son. “It’s not like that,” he said.
“Then what is it like, Pop? I know what happened. I know about Laurianna dying. I know about her daughter, and the heir to her fortune, being kidnapped after her death.”
“But I didn’t kidnap her,” Raymond said. “That’s what you don’t understand.”
“Then who did?”
Raymond hesitated.
“DeGarno?” Monk asked.
“He smuggled her out of France, yes. He was claiming he had rights to her, and to her fortune. He was claiming he was her father. I got wind of it. And yes, from Tally. And he set it up for me. And I took her. Yes, I took her!”
“You snatched her from DeGarno,” Mick said, “to get your greedy paws on that same fortune, I’m sure. But what was your claim to fame? What claim you had on that girl?”
“So what if I snatched her from DeGarno? What he gonna do? He can’t go to the cops. He stole her too!”
“But why, Pop?” Monk asked. “Why would you risk so much to get that girl? Just for money?”
“Yeah, for money! Seven hundred million? Yes, you idiot! But also because she belongs to us. We have more rights to that money than DeGarno ever will.”
“What are you saying, Mr. P?” Teddy asked.
“I’m saying that girl is my granddaughter. Or my daughter. Either one can be true.”
They all looked at him. Monk frowned. “What are you talking?” Monk asked. “How in hell can she be your granddaughter, or your daughter?”
“She’s Laurianna’s daughter,” Raymond said. “You remember Laurianna, don’t you, Frankie? Think back. She was the first woman you ever been with. And what you don’t know is that she got pregnant not long after that. And had a baby. She had that girl. And that girl, her heir, could be yours.”
“Or yours,” Mick said.
“Yes,” Raymond admitted. “Or mine. Or DeGarno’s. Fuck, before Laurianna married that rich guy, everybody had her. We called her the wide world because of that. Everybody had her.”
But Monk was shaking his head. “Not everybody,” he said.
Ashley looked at him. Raymond did too. “What’s that supposed to mean? Didn’t you hear me? She’s Laurianna’s daughter. She got pregnant shortly after she’d been with you.”
“She may have gotten pregnant,” Monk said. “But not by me.”
“How would you know that?” Raymond asked him.
“Because nothing happened, Pop,” Monk said, and Ashley looked at him. Everybody did.
“On that night you brought her to my room and closed the door,” Monk continued, “nothing happened. She talked about her life. And her dreams. And I listened. Then she walked out of my room and told you every lie you wanted to hear. She told you all the sick details. And none of it was true. Nothing happened,” Monk said again.
But Raymond was confused. He just didn’t understand his son! “Why didn’t something happen? What was wrong with you? Couldn’t get it up?”
“Yeah, that was it, Pop. That’s always it to you, isn’t it? I wasn’t about to fuck some lady I just met. That’s why nothing happened,” Monk said.
But he had another issue with his father. “Why did you order security to leave their post at my house, Pop?” Monk asked. “And don’t tell me it wasn’t you because I know it was you.”
Raymond hesitated. He seemed cagey to Mick and Teddy. “I had my reasons,” he said.
“And those guys that showed up?” Monk asked. “Those hitmen? You hired them too. Didn’t you, Pop? You hired them to ice my lady while I was gone to that meeting. Didn’t you, Pop? You wanted me to blame DeGarno for that too. Didn’t you, Pop?”
“Yes! Alright? I needed you off of the scent because I know how self-righteous you are. You’d let her go. You’d let a seven hundred million dollar girl walk free. A girl that could be my daughter!”
Monk was so disgusted with his father he could hardly stand the sight of him.
“It was all a scheme,” Mick said. “Is that how you run the Bonaducci family, Rain Man? By scheming and conniving? You wanted your son, in the end, to take DeGarno out because you knew he was the only one standing in the way of you getting that girl?”
“But after that meeting,” Monk said, “he was still dissatisfied. I wasn’t ready to go after DeGarno the way he wanted me to. So what did you do, Pop? You instituted your second plan. The plan where you’d go after my lady, and I’d believe it was DeGarno. And then, caught up in my emotions over losing Ashley, I’d go after DeGarno on a rage kill. That’s what you wanted. You wanted him out of t
he way. Because he just might be that girl’s father. After Laurianna died, you both realized that girl had the keys to that fortune. And you both wanted her for that reason and that reason only. You don’t give a shit if she’s your daughter or DeGarno’s. You just want the money.”
“And it would have worked,” Raymond said, “if you would have stayed out of it.”
“There’s one problem with the part about it working,” Mick said.
“And what’s that?”
“Attempting to kill a Sinatra?” Mick shook his head. “You know better than that.”
Raymond frowned. “What Sinatra? You putting claims on that girl too?” he asked him.
“No, Pop!” Monk said. “Ashley’s a Sinatra.”
Raymond was floored. “What? What are you talking?”
But before Monk or anybody else could answer, a big Chevy Suburban crashed through the floor-to-ceiling window in that living room so fast and violently that all everybody could do was dive for cover. Monk, Mick, and Teddy all pushed Ashley over the sofa, and they all dived over it too. And then all three men jumped up, their weapons drawn, and ran toward the SUV.
“Get her out of here, Teddy!” Monk was yelling as gunfire erupted and he began running behind Mick. “Keep Ashley safe!”
“Come on, Ash,” Teddy said to his cousin, and as Mick and Monk began firing back at the gunmen inside that SUV, Teddy shielded Ashley with his own body as they ran toward the kitchen.
DeGarno jumped out of the SUV, firing wildly with an assault rifle, and his three capos were out of that SUV firing too.
Mick was able to escape behind a side wall, and Monk had to dive over the full-size bar to escape the unrelenting gunfire. It was too much for two men!
But as DeGarno and his men began rushing them, certain they had the tactical advantage, Monk stood up from behind that bar, and Mick stepped out from behind that wall and fired back. But there were no wild shots fired by them. While Mick took out two of the three capos, Monk took out DeGarno. But the third one was still alive, and he was about to take out Monk. But Teddy came rushing out of the kitchen, his gun drawn as he ran, and took out DeGarno’s third capo.
And suddenly, all the gunfire had ended.
But Monk had Ashley on his mind. “Where’s Ash?” he asked anxiously.
“I’m right here,” Ashley said, hurrying out of the kitchen. “I’m okay!”
She ran to Monk and he placed his arm around her.
“Where’s your Father?” Mick asked, looking around.
And suddenly Monk realized Raymond wasn’t around either. “The basement,” he said, and they all began hurrying in that direction.
“Wait up here, Ash,” Teddy said.
But Monk nixed that idea. What if his father pulled a fast one, and was still upstairs and wasn’t in the basement? Monk couldn’t take that chance. “She stays with me,” he said, as he and Ashley, along with Mick and Teddy, hurried down those stairs.
And that was when they saw Raymond standing there. But he wasn’t alone. They all looked to where Raymond was looking, and that was when they saw her. Beverly Pelletier, the kidnapped girl, was being held, at gunpoint, by Raymond’s son and Monk’s kid brother, Mikey Paletti.
Mikey had the girl in front of him and his revolver to her head. “Stay back or I’ll kill her!” he yelled, and all of them stopped in their tracks.
“Mikey, what are you doing? Let her go,” Monk said.
“Like hell I will!”
“Let her go so we can talk this through. DeGarno’s gone. He took matters into his own hand and we had to snuff him out. He’s gone. All you got to do is let her go too, and it’ll all be over.”
But Raymond was shaking his head. “She’s a Sinatra,” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me your lady was a Sinatra? Mick ain’t gonna let my boy get away with all he’s done.”
Monk looked at his father. Mick, Teddy, and Ashley did too. “All he’s done? What are you talking, Pop?” Monk asked him. “Are you saying Mikey’s behind all this shit?”
“No. I took the girl from DeGarno after he smuggled her into the country. But then Mikey took over. He was the one who took the girl from that motel. He was even the one who paid one of DeGarno’s men to take out Ashley at that skating rink as a way to get you on DeGarno’s tail. When that didn’t work, when you still played it cautiously and wanted to make sure, Mikey was the one who forced me to call off security around your place.”
Mick frowned. “He forced you? You’re a fucking boss. How the fuck he forced you?” he asked Raymond.
“He forced me to do it because he said if I didn’t call off security around Monk’s house, he was going to kill the girl. And we would end up with nothing. So I called them off assignment. That’s all I did. I told them we had a crew from another family coming in to handle security, and they needed to go radio silent and leave. And they did what I ordered them to do. But I had no idea Mikey was going to send guys to try to kill Monk’s girl. I had no idea!”
Everybody looked at Mikey. But Mikey was still reeling by something his father had said earlier. “A Sinatra?” he asked. “Monk’s girl is a Sinatra?”
But before anybody could answer him, he shook his head. “I’m fucked,” he said.
Monk knew his brother. He knew when he was on the verge of doing some rash. “No, you aren’t, Mikey,” he said. “You aren’t fucked. All you got to do is let the girl go. That’s all you got to do.”
BAM!
“Mikey, no!” Monk screamed but it was already too late. Mikey had pulled the trigger and Beverly Pelletier, the kidnapped heiress, fell to the floor, dead, with a gunshot through her skull.
Everybody were shocked. But not Mikey. He shot her as if he was shooting a bird out of the sky. Because his entire focus, like all of his life, was on him. And what it all meant for him. “A Sinatra,” he was saying, shaking his head. “I can’t outrun the Sinatras. I can’t fight a war against Mick the Tick. I’m fucked!”
“You self-centered piece of shit!” Monk yelled and ran to his brother. He was so enraged that he knocked that gun out of his hand and began pistol-whipping him with his own gun. “How could you kill that girl? You didn’t have to kill her!”
And then he thought about how Mikey’s actions nearly got Ashley killed at that skating rink and with those four hired guns at Monk’s house too. She could have been killed both times, because of his sorry ass brother. And Monk spared no pain. He beat his brother’s ass.
Teddy tried to turn Ashley’s head as the blood spewed, but Ashley pulled away from him. Monk was only giving his brother exactly what he deserved, she felt.
And Monk was yelling has he hit his father. “You nearly killed Ashley, too, you worthless pile of garbage! How could you do something like that? That’s why I hated you. You never gave a damn about anybody, not even Pop who always defends you, and I hated you for it! All my life I’ve hated you!”
“Then kill me, motherfucker!” Mikey yelled. “Kill me! Act like a man for once in your pitiful life and kill me!”
Monk angrily took his pistol and placed it at his brother’s skull.
“Monk, no,” Ashley said. She knew he’d live to regret doing something like that to his own brother. “Don’t do it, Monk.”
But Monk was tempted. Snot was running from his nose as he pressed that gun into his brother’s skull. Mikey deserved to die. He deserved to die when Teddy spared him. He deserved to die so many times when his father protected him.
But he couldn’t pull the trigger.
Not on his own brother.
Not on a mob boss’s son.
He just couldn’t.
He removed the gun, and just stood there.
“Why didn’t you do it?” Mikey asked bitterly, blood coming from his mouth. “Do it, Frankie, do it since you hate me so much. Do it! Put me out of misery. Even a dog deserves that. Put me out of my misery!”
And Mick the Tick did. Without batting an eye, he shot Mikey Paletti straight through the forehea
d.
Raymond, shocked, looked at Mick. Monk did too. Everybody did!
But Mick had no regrets. “Nobody tries to kill my niece, he said, “and lives.”
And nobody, not even Raymond Paletti himself, who shielded his son far too long, could disagree with that. They all knew, to a man, that Mikey had it coming.
A long time coming.
Ashley didn’t know the history of Mikey and his craziness like the men did, and she didn’t care. She ran to Monk.
And Monk, sad and relieved all at the same time, fell into Ashley’s arms.
EPILOGUE
“I love the wind,” Ashley said as Monk drove her to the airport with the top down on his Mercedes. “You know that, Monk? I love the wind.”
“I’m sure the wind appreciates that,” Monk said as he drove, his hat pushed back off of his forehead, his entire being unable to face the fact that Ashley was finally leaving. She’d been there for weeks. Even he knew she had to get back to her life.
She looked at him. “I wish I could stay longer.”
Monk had no shame. “I wish you could too,” he said. And that was a major understatement by both of them.
“I’ve got to help out at the store,” Ashley said. “And you know Daddy’s not going to let me stay out here for much longer. And you’ve got the big meeting with Bonaducci.”
Monk nodded. “There’s that,” he said.
Ashley looked at him. “What do you think he’s going to say?”
“He already said it,” Monk responded. “He wants me to head the family.”
“What does that really mean?” Ashley asked. “That you’ll no longer be the underboss, but the boss?”
Monk exhaled, and then nodded. “That’s what it means, yes.”
“But what about your father?” Ashley asked him.
“The Don’s tired of the bullshit. And so am I. He coddled Mikey when he should have been kicking his ass, and he made decisions that kept making the family look bad. Something had to be done. And the way the Don saw it, that something meant new leadership.”
Monk Paletti: Taming Ashley Sinatra Page 19