But when Mick didn’t answer Teddy’s question, Roz began to feel that nothing had changed at all. But she wasn’t letting it slide.
She looked at him. “Teddy asked you a question, Mick,” she said to him.
Mick looked at her with slight irritation on his face. “What?”
“He asked you a question.”
So, his look seemed to say. “I know that,” he said.
“Then why didn’t you answer him? That’s rude.”
Nikki looked through the rearview mirror at Mick once again and Teddy tensed up. They both knew how volatile Mick’s temper could be. He wasn’t called Mick the Tickingtime bomb for nothing. Even with Roz.
And Mick responded irritably. “What do I need to answer him for? The answer is obvious. I don’t know who the fuck any of those fuckers are.”
“Then that’s what you could have told him, Mick.”
Mick had a bewildered look on his face. What did they expect from him? He was purposely introspective because he had a million moving parts on his mind that he had to contend with. Including who tried to murder him and take out his wife and son and daughter-in-law. But yet they wanted him to be hyper-present in their lives as if he was responsible forMister Rogers’ Neighborhoodrather than the largest crime syndicate in the world and a Fortune 500 mega-corporation.
But Roz was still staring at him. And Nikki through that rearview mirror although she was trying to camouflage it. So he gave in. It was easier to just give in. “No, I don’t know who’s behind it,” he finally said.
“Why we going to talk to Cleo?” Teddy asked. “She don’t know shit.”
“When they arrested me in that small town, they used a tranquilizer gun,” Roz said. “Mick said they used the same weapon when they kidnapped Cleo, as you call her, two years ago.”
Teddy was nodding. “They did. She told us that.” He turned and looked at his father. “Does that mean you think Ricardo’s involved?”
“I’m going to find out.”
“So that’s why we’re heading to see Cleo first.”
“That’s the reason, yes,” Mick said.
“But who is she anyway, Teddy?” Roz asked him specifically.
And he didn’t hold back. “She’s a self-centered bitch on two legs still in love with Pop.”
Nikki wanted to kick Teddy. He didn’t have to say all of that!
But Roz knew he was only telling the truth. And that truth hurt. “She’sstillin love with him?” she asked and then looked at Mick. “I thought you said she was a girl you turned out to be with your clients.”
“That’s right.”
“You didn’t tell me you had her too, Mick.”
Mick knew he had been purposely opaque about the full nature of his relationship with Cleo. “That was assumed,” he said, and then looked at Roz.
Roz was fuming. “Sometimes you’re so full of shit!”
Mick frowned. “Full of shit about what? Cleo? That’s nothing.”
“It’s love. That’s something.”
“Not on my end it’s not.”
Teddy and Nikki glanced at each other. What an odd thing for a husband to say to his wife. But Roz knew what he meant. She leaned her head back.
“You’re blaming me for how she feels?” Mick asked her.
