“Who is that, Pop?”
“I have no idea.”
“Let’s go find out,” Marco said.
But as soon as they began to head in that direction, Teddy saw, beneath the table, that the man sitting with Nikki was pulling a gun out of his pocket. “He’s got a gun,” Teddy said to Marco as he pulled out his own weapon and began running toward the table.
He was about to yell it loud enough for Nikki to hear it, but he and Marco stopped in their tracks when Nikki apparently already had a gun in her hand, too, and she pressed it against the man’s balls. She said something to him, presumably along the lines ofdrop it or I’ll make you a soprano, because he released his gun and dropped it.
Marco smiled. “Now I see why she’s underboss,” he said admirably.
But Teddy was looking beyond Nikki and the man she now had under control. And that was when he saw another man rise to his feet and began hurrying toward the back of Nikki.When Teddy saw that he was also pulling out his gun as if to shoot as soon as he pulled it out, his heart dropped. “Nikki duck!” he yelled, Nikki immediately ducked down, and Teddy held his gun with both hands and shot the man through his forehead. The crowd in the bar began screaming and running toward the exit as Teddy and Marco were running against the tide toward Nikki’s table.
But when the man sitting beside her went to pick up his gun in the melee, she shot him in the foot as Teddy saw yet another man rise from his table, but instead of running for the exit he pulled out a gun, too, and aimed it at Nikki.
That was when Teddy shot him before he could get a shot off, as he and Marco made it to the table.
“Get him and go!” Teddy ordered Nikki and Marco as they grabbed the man at Nikki’s table while Teddy kept looking around, his gun still aimed in every corner of that bar, as he followed them out onto Burbon Street where crowds were still running out of that hotel. They threw their capture into the SUV, hopped in themselves, and took off.
The streets were so crowded and the police were rushing toward the hotel, that the chaos allowed them to escape unnoticed.
The second SUV, with a group of Teddy’s men inside, knew what to do. Their job was to retrieve all of the hotel’s video recordings and destroy them.
But Teddy, who was seated on the middle row with Nikki and the gunman they had in their custody, was still rattled as he and Marco continued to look to make certain there were no ambush awaiting them beyond that hotel. And Nikki continued to keep her gun trained on their prisoner.
When they got far away from Burbon Street and was able to turn down a side road, Teddy ordered their driver to pull over.
“What’s happening, Teddy?” a confused Nikki asked. “Why did you and Marco come to New Orleans?”
But Teddy had questions of his own. “Who’s this guy? And why were you having drinks with him?”
“I have no idea who he is. He just came and sat beside me and drummed up a conversation about one of the performances he wanted to attend. But I was already suspicious of him, so I pulled out my small pistol as a just in case. Then the next thing I know, I could see his hand reaching into his pocket. So I put my guns to his balls. I had no idea if he even had a gun.”
“He had one,” Marco said.
“It was an ambush,” Teddy said. “All three men had you surrounded.”
Nikki realized it too. “But why?”
Teddy looked at their prisoner. “Who are you?”
“She shot me in my foot. I need a doctor.”
“You’re gonna get an undertaker if you don’t tell me who are you and why were you attempting a hit on my wife.” Then Teddy put his gun to the man’s skull. “Now answer my questions.”
“I was hired to take her out.”
“Hired by who?”
“By Spanky.”
Marco frowned. “Who the fuck is Spanky?” He turned around from the front seat and looked at his father. “You know him Pop?”
“I know him,” Teddy said.
Nikki knew him too. “Why would Spanky order a hit on me?”
“He said it was payback time.”
