“Everybody’s inside and safe, yes,” said Nikki. “Big Daddy, Jenay, and Gloria are with the others in the family room.”
Roz, who realized it was Mick’s phone ringing and that she had it in her hand, answered it. And then pointed it at Mick. “It’s for you,” she said.
Mick found it odd that she would have his phone. And then he realized he had left it on the table in the courtyard and she apparently grabbed it. “Who is it?” he asked as he went over to take possession of his phone.
“She said she’s your doctor,” said Roz.
Everybody looked at Mick. What doctor? But Mick took his phone from Roz’s grasp and then made his way to his office down the hall beyond the foyer. Reno tried to follow him to his office, but when Mick walked into the office he closed and locked the door behind him. He had effectively slammed the door in Reno’s face. Sal started laughing out loud.
“Teddy?”
Ted looked and saw that Nikki had separated herself from the group and was motioning for him to come to her. He hurried to her side. “Yeah?”
“What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.”
“Bullshit, Teddy. What’s happening?”
Teddy exhaled. “Pop says we’re at war.”
Nikki frowned.“War?What war?With who?”
“He hasn’t said yet.”
“Damn Teddy.”
Teddy nodded. “Damn is right. I’m the boss of the most powerful syndicate in the world and I feel like I’m groping in the dark when it comes to Pop. He won’t tell me anything anymore. But something’s up. I felt it before this explosion. Now I know it’s true. We’re under warning, we’re in a war, and me, the head of Pop’s organization, don’t know shit about it. He’s got you and me flying blind over here. And that ain’t right.”
“We need to confront him,” Nikki said. “This has got to stop.”
Teddy agreed. “Go get Big Daddy. We may need him,” Teddy said as he began heading up the hall that led to Mick’s office.
Nikki, delighted, did as she was told.
But when the others saw Teddy heading for Mick’s office, they wanted in. Roz, and then the Gabrinis, and then their wives and Amelia were all hurrying behind Teddy as he made his way to Mick’s office.
But when they got to the door and the door was locked, Roz moved up, pulled out her keycard, swiped it, and entered Mick’s home office unannounced. Teddy and the Gabrini men went in behind her. But after Amelia went inside too, Tommystopped Trina, Gemma, and his wife Grace. “Wait up front,” he ordered them.
“We wanna know what’s going on too, Tommy,” said Gemma.
“Why can Roz and Amelia be up in there but we can’t?” asked Trina.
“You’ll find out what’s going on when we find out,” Tommy said in answer to Gemma. “The reason Roz is in there,” he said, answering Trina, “is because she’ll stand up to Uncle Mick. And nobody’s stopping Amelia from doing whatever Amelia wants to do. Not even Hammer Reese can stop her. Unless you figure you can?”
None of the ladies said a word.
“Wait up front,” Tommy ordered again in that understated, but unequivocal tone.
The ladies didn’t like it, especially Trina, but they did as Tommy ordered and went back up front just as Nikki and Big Daddy were hurrying to the office. Tommy waited for them, and then they entered the office together. Tommy closed the door behind them.
Mick was just ending his phone call when Big Daddy, Tommy, and Nikki walked in. And he wasn’t all too happy to see all those faces staring back at him either. He frowned. “What’s all of this?”
Roz, standing in front of his desk, folded her arms. “You’re going to tell us what’s going on, and you’re going to tell us now.”
But Mick was still Mick. “Oh yeah?” he asked Roz. “And who the fuck is going to make me? You?” Then his look turned cold. “You don’t come in here and demand shit from me. And don’t you forget that.”
But Roz wouldn’t back down. “What’s going on, Mick? Now you tell us what’s happening so we’ll know what kind ofdanger we’re in. A tanker just blew up in front of our house. We havechildren,” she said with emotion in her voice.
