CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

FOUR DAYS BEFORE CHRISTMAS

The next day and Mick’s 747 jumbo jet that seated up to three hundred passengers landed at the airfield in the Catskills mountains. Onboard were not only Robby Yale and their security details, but every one of the family members in the whole of the Sinatra and Gabrini clan. There was Reno and Trina’s family. Sal and Gemma’s family. The rest of Mick and Roz’s family, including Gloria and her daughter, the twins, and Teddy and Nikki’s baby, all of whom had been spending the week with Gloria and her family in Florida. Rounding out the roundup were Tommy and Grace’s family and Big Daddy and Jenay’s seven children, including Ashley Sinatra with her mob boss husband Frankie “The Monk” Paletti, and Carly Sinatra with her beau Trevor Reese and their baby. Mick and Charles’ half-sister Amelia Sinatra was also onboard with her son Hannibal, although her husband, former CIA director Hammer Reese, and Gloria’s husband Oz Drakos, were not onboard. Both men were said to be out of the country. Amelia called bullshit about Hammer’s whereabouts, but that was what his office told her. For the sake of Teddy and Gloria, even their mothers were onboard.

But Reno’s youngest son Carmine found it all mystifying. “Four days before Christmas and we have to come to the Catskills of all places? Why? I ask you why ?”

Everybody on the plane laughed. But nobody was completely comfortable with it either. Because they knew something was wrong. They knew for all of them to not be allowed to shelter in place, but to drop everything and board, not separate planes but one plane, and to get there now, didn’t mean good news by any stretch of their imaginations. It meant trouble. Of the they’re still figuring out how to handle it kind. And given that their family boasted the number one most powerful mob syndicate in the world (the Sinatra crime family headed by Teddy Sinatra/Mick Sinatra), and the number two most powerful mob syndicate in the world (the Gabrini crime family headed by Sal Gabrini), and the third most powerful mob syndicate in the world (the Bonaducci crime family headed by Ashley Sinatra’s husband Monk Paletti), it was startling to think that they were still figuring it out. It was jarring.

And when the family arrived, with a huge convoy of helicopters flying overhead and bulletproof SUVs escorting them along the picturesque views of the Catskills in winter, it still felt unnerving. But when they saw Big Daddy’s sprawling estate, and the mansion that centered it, many of the young people were suddenly thrilled and in awe. “This looks like an old-time castle,” said an excited Mick’s son Duke Sinatra. “It even has a clock tower or bell tower or whatever they call it. Like in the Shrek movies.”

Carmine couldn’t believe Duke said that. “That’s the best example you can come up with? Shrek? Not Hamlet? Not MacBeth? Not even Richard the Third or Dracula’s castle for crying out loud. But Shrek ?”

Duke laughed. “That’s what I said. Shrek.”

“Please don’t say it again.”

“Shrek and Shrek and Shrek and Shrek and Shrek,” Duke said again and again, and they all, with Carmine the only exception, laughed.

But when they all hopped out of their SUVs and entered the beautifully appointed interior of the “castle” and saw their parents standing there as if the situation could not have been more grave, they all sobered up too. It was the price of admission into their families. It was the raw part of the deal. They just all, collectively, wished the deal hadn’t shown up this close to Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year.