“But you may need me.”
Mick stopped, turned around, and looked at Duke. “Didn’t I say no?”
“But I can drive Ma’s car back home.Please, Daddy.”
Mick knew it was more practical to have another driver with him. But Duke had never been tested. Not like he should have been as the son of Mick Sinatra. But Mick also realized that now was as good a time as any.
He continued walking toward the exit. “Your mother is gonna leave me when she finds out I let you come on a run with me,” he said as they walked.
Duke grinned. “Since when did you care if Ma leaves you?”
Mick stopped and turned and then stood there. Duke almost ran into the back of him he stopped so abruptly. Duke looked at him. “What?” he asked him.
“From the moment I met her, I cared,” he said. And then he walked on out.
Duke, floored by his response, had to hesitate to take that in, and then he hurried out too.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
They saw theFangen City Limitssign as soon as they got off the exit, but they found themselves driving for nearly eight miles before they were actually in the town.
“Damn,” Duke said as they drove past dilapidated houses and old, broken-down barns and boarded-up businesses as if this rural town was in dire straits. “You ever been to this town before, Daddy?”
Mick was so focused on that town that he didn’t hear his son’s question.
Duke looked at him. Why was he so intense? It was just a nothing town! “Daddy?”
His persistence broke the spell and Mick’s intensity eased. “What?”
“You ever been here before?”
“No.Never.”
“Why would Ma be out this way anyways?”
Mick had a strong guess. “Essence,” he said.
Duke was shocked. “You gave her permission to go?”
“Hell no,” Mick said with a frown. “She gave her security detail the slip and went anyway. Probably drove out along the back passage to evade any security.”
“I thought she wasn’t supposed to know that they were following her.”
“Very little you can get past your mother.” Then he gripped his steering wheel. “Damn woman,” he added frustratingly.
Duke laughed. He had a clever mother. Who knew? Then he turned his attention back to Fangen. This is a rough-looking town. They’re probably arresting rich people like Ma and getting them to pay them to release them. They probably looked at her two-hundred-thousand-dollar car and said yeah, there’s another sucker. Pull her over. And she’s black too?” Duke shook his head. “Ma didn’t stand a chance. These traffic stops are probably their only source of revenue.”
Mick glanced at his biracial son. He was very race conscious and he appreciated that. Roz taught both of the twins to always be self-aware. Mick even called in some of his senior executives and they had a conversation with Duke about being a black man in America. But was it enough?
“And where’s everybody at anyway?” Duke asked. “I’m halfway expecting to see tumbleweed rolling across the street any minute now!”
But when he looked over at his father to see if he appreciated his joke, he could see that he was intense again. Which Duke couldn’t understand. “Why are you so worried? All you got to do is pay them people whatever they want and get Ma up out of here. It’s not that serious.”
Or was it, Duke thought, as he continued to look at his father. He couldn’t possibly admire anybody more than he admired his dad. How could he not be proud to be the son of a legend like Mick Sinatra?
But that didn’t mean he understood him. He didn’t understand him at all. Every news article he ever read about his father, or every podcast that mentioned his father’s name, always used words likeviciousandheartlessandunforgivingto describe him.And Duke knew him to be all those things andmore. He ruled their household, and everybody else, with an iron fist.
Except for his mother. The fact that she was stuck in this town was proof alone that she was the only human being that defied their father whenever it suited her. Which was dangerous for everybody else. Mick was not the one to try.
