They all nodded and Teddy eased his way down into that hole. When he got down there, he kicked Ricardo. Ricardo didn’t move, but he groaned. “He’s still alive!” Teddy said. “But barely. Help me get him up.”
Monk quickly sat down his pistol, too, and jumped down in that hole with Teddy. And then he and Teddy hoisted Ricardo up and Mick and the two capos grabbed him. They threw him onto the floor as Teddy and Monk got back out of that hole.
Mick turned Ricardo over onto face him, and as soon as he did, his heart dropped. He looked just like Teddy used to look. And when he opened his eyes, and those same Sinatra green eyes were staring up at him, it felt surreal. This was his son? He wanted to kill Mick, and Mick wanted to kill him. What kind of twisted fate was this?
Or was it what it seemed? “Who did this to you?” he asked him.
“I did.”
It was a voice they all were familiar with. And as soon as they turned to look, Cleo shot both of the capos right through the heart, and both of them fell. “Don’t pick up those weapons, Teddy,” she yelled. “And you either, Frankie. And Mick drop yours right now!”
Mick dropped his weapon too. Teddy and Monk were angry that Mick hadn’t already took that bitch out. And now she killed two of their guys? Why was he always accommodating her?! Sal Gabrini said it was love, but Teddy didn’t know about that. He felt the love coming from his father when his father was around Roz. He didn’t feel the love when his father was around Cleo. He felt the guilt.
“So you’re the one behind that ambush?” Mick asked her.
“Of course I am,” Cleo said. “I was the one who hired Spanky to hire those guys to break into Bella Caine’s apartment, too, and leave you that note. I was the one who hired Spanky to go to my hometown and pay off the police chief to take out you and your wife. That was supposed to do it for me. But those fucking rednecks couldn’t even do that right. They blew that out of the water.”
“And you were the one who shot your own son and threw him in that hole,” said Mick as if it was a fact.
They all looked at Cleo.
“I don’t give a shit about him,” she said.
“He needs an ambulance,” Mick pleaded with her.
“Fuck him! Every time I looked at that fool I saw you. And you didn’t give a damn about me. I loved you with all that’s within me and you didn’t even care about me. You made me a whore. I was a good girl and you turned me into a whore. You used me because you knew I loved you, and then you cast me aside.”
“That’s when I knew you were behind all of this,” Mick said.
“How Pop?”
“Because I tried to get her out of that life, but she kept running back to it. And then it was something Rosalind said. She said since Ricardo was trafficking Cleo to all of those mega-rich third-world dictators, maybe he told us he was the money man because they were bankrolling him. But that’s when I realized they weren’t bankrolling DeSouza. They were bankrolling Cleo! She wasn’t working for her son. Her son was working for her. That was the only way it made sense.”
“Clever Mick,” Cleo said with a smile. “But you couldn’t out-clever me, could you?” Then she pointed her gun at him. “I’m gonna enjoy this.”
“What about your son? Are you going to just let him die?”
“I told you I don’t give a damn about him! He’s you in my eyes just like Teddy is. And I despise Teddy even more. I used our son until he was no use to me anymore. I used him to pretend he was my abusive lover and all those times you sent your goons to beat him up, I loved it. I thought that meant you loved me.” Then her look turned bitter. “But I thought wrong. That’s why I got Ricky and his boys to pretend to kidnap me behind that abandoned factory. I needed to go into hiding to plot my revenge. I needed the money. And boy did those fat, stank dictators line my pockets. They loved to pay for my services. Roz ain’t got nothing on me. But you still preferred her.”
Then she composed herself again. “But you know why it was so easy for me to pull this off? This is my biggest secret. You know why it was so easy?”
“This is your big reveal?” Teddy asked. “You always loved to tell the tea. So go on why don’t you? I’m sure you can’t wait to tell us.”
Cleo ignored Teddy. Her entire focus was on Mick. “Your arrogance made it easy,” she said to him. “You just knew it had to be some mighty mastermind pulling the strings. You just knew nobody would dare touch Mick the Tick unless he was the biggest of the big. Thebaddestof the bad.” She smiled. “When it was just little old me.”
“How did you get that gun?” Monk asked her. “Sal Gabrini’s guys searched you when they got to this house. And they searched this house.”
“But I always have secret compartments that his ass didn’t know about. That’s why I was in that bathroom all the time. I wasn’t sick. I knew how to make myself appear sick though. And that’s what I did. That’s also why, when Ted told me his daddy had pulled up, I went in that bathroom again to make sure my gun was still in place. I had it taped to the back of the toilet bowl ready for me to grab it and take Mick out once and for all.”
Then she aimed that gun at Mick. “You rejected me all my adult life. Even when I told you I was carrying your child, you didn’t give a damn. You just wanted me to kill it. Well I took care of that for you already. I took care of your bastard. He’ll be dead soon too. Now I’m gonna take care of you!”
“Not so fast,” Mick said to her, and everybody looked at him. “I didn’t go back in that bathroom just to clean up your shit. I knew you were in there for a reason. I knew that throwing up was an act. That’s why I came prepared. I replaced your gun with a tranquilizer gun that looked like the exact replica of most pistols.”
Cleo looked at her gun in horror.
“What are you saying, Pop?” Teddy asked him.
“She didn’t just kill our guys,” Mick said to Teddy’s delight. “She just put them temporarily to sleep. They’ll wakeup,” Mick said as he revealed a J-Frame pistol coming out of the sleeve of his coat.
