Mick calmly reached into his coat and pulled out a switchblade. He flipped it open and then pressed it beneath Cleo’s chin. Even Nikki stood up then. She understood Cleo was still valuable to them. She knew how unpredictable Mick could be.
But Roz wasn’t even looking at Cleo. It was rare for her to get a chance to see him at work. She was staring at Mick.
“I’m going to ask you again,” Mick said as Cleo leaned her chin up in defiance, as if she was angrier at him for having the nerve to bring Roz with him than the fact that he had a knife at her throat.
But Teddy and Nikki knew that Cleo might not have seen the real Mick the Tick at work before. She had no clue the danger she was in.
“Where is he?” Mick asked her again.
“I told you I don’t know where he is!” Her voice was loud and still defiant. “You ain’t got to keep asking me that.”
And that was when Mick’s anger flared and without any hesitation he took that knife and flung it downward. It pierced all the way through her shoe and through her foot, sticking into the floor and trapping her there, as they all watched in horror.
Cleo screamed out in severe pain as she bent over, trying to grab her foot. But she was looking up at Mick as she did so. She had a look of total disbelief on her face.
But Mick was just getting started. He quickly reached down and forcefully pulled his knife out of the floor and out of her foot. She screamed out so loud this time that the capos outside wondered what kind of torture was going on inside.
But Mick wouldn’t let up. He stood up erect and placed that now-bloody knife to Cleo’s throat. “Where is he?” he asked her again.
“I told you I don’t,” she began crying out, until he pressed that knife against the skin of her neck, nearly piercing through it.
And that was when Cleo seemed to realize that Mick was about to go for her jugular, where she would bleed to death if he stabbed her there, and she panicked. She was defiant no longer. “He’s at my house!” she screamed out hysterically. “He’s at my house!”
But her answer was almost as shocking as the stab wound Mick had inflicted on her foot. They all stared at her. “At your house?” a confused Teddy asked her. “What the fuck you talking about? I picked your ass up from your house. How could he be at your house? You got another house other than the one on Pulsar?”
Cleo was in so much agony that she wasn’t listening to Teddy.
“Is that your only house?!” Teddy yelled at her.
“Yes it’s my only house!” she yelled back at him.
Mick looked at Teddy. “Did you just snatch her and leave just because she said she was home alone? Or did you do your due diligence, Teddy?”
“Our guys checked it out, Pop. You know I’m not gonna just grab and go. You know I did my due diligence. She was home alone!”
Mick looked at Cleo. “Where was he hiding?”
Cleo was in tears with pain. She looked at Mick. “How could you do this to me?”
Mick moved a little closer to her and she flinched. “Beneath the floorboards,” she said quickly. “I had a trap space installed after you bought me that house. He was hiding in that space.”
Teddy and Nikki glanced at Roz when Cleo mentioned that Mick was the one who bought her that house. Although Roz’s facial expression didn’t change, she got up and made her way to the bathroom. Nikki went with her.
But Mick wasn’t looking at his wife. He was staring at Cleo as if he was still trying to figure her out. “How long has he been at your house?” he asked her.
She was in tears and shaking her head. Teddy could see on his father’s face that it was hurting him to hurt her. But because her lover boy came, not only for Mick, but for his family, he knew his father didn’t give a shit. That was what the world still didn’t understand about his old man: You come for his family, you die.
Cleo was sniffling as she answered Mick’s question. “He’s been at my house since before Teddy found me,” she said, still grimacing. “He was there when Teddy kidnapped me.”
“Great work, Teddy,” Mick said.
Teddy’s anger flared too. “How the fuck was I supposed to know about some trap space, Pop? Your ass wouldn’t have known about it either.”
Roz and Nikki came out of the bathroom with towels and a bathrobe belt. When Roz went over to Cleo, bent down, and was about to wrap her foot with the towel, Cleo flinched. Everybody else were shocked. Especially Mick.
But Roz looked up at Cleo. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding or you can bleed out.”
Cleo knew it too, and she allowed Roz to wrap her wound. Nikki got down there and assisted Roz. It was surreal to Teddy.What the fuck were they doing, he almost said out loud.
