CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

The matriarchs of the family sat out back on the estate’s huge terrace. Roz and Jenay, along with Trina and Gemma and Grace welcomed Amelia Sinatra, Mick and Charles’s younger half-sister, to their ranks. While they were getting together, the younger ladies in the family, such as Nikki and Gloria and Ashley and Carly and Bonita and Sophia and Destiny and Madison, along with their beaus and babies and the teens and preteens that populated the large family were on the east end of the rolling estate – in the house-sized game room with every conceivable game in one location, including an indoor swimming pool. It was the perfect set up to stand down.

There was also a noticeable change in security that surrounded the property. With Sal’s underboss Robby Yale and Mick and Teddy’s underboss Nikki in charge of security, they weren’t playing around anymore. In the aggregate, there appeared to be at least fifty men on duty, with each ten-man detail taking over a small section of the sprawling estate. Alcatraz could not have been more secure.

And there were no outsiders. Every single one of those guards were capos in the various family syndicates. The previous guards, all of whom came out of Charles’ corporate entities, had been interrogated with torture-like tactics, but it was ultimately concluded that the one guard up front that had tried to kill Nikki was the only bad apple. But they were all fired and booted off of the property nonetheless. There were even guards stationed at the four corners of the terrace where the matriarchs sat, with instructions by the men to guard their women no matter where they went on the property when they weren’t inside. The women, however, had been ordered to go no further than that terrace.

“It feels like being in prison,” said Gemma.

Amelia, who already had too much to drink and had another full glass of wine, looked at Gemma. “What would you know about being in prison,” she said. “Your ass a lawyer.”

The ladies laughed. Amelia was always the life of the party just by being her oddball self. And the way she was sporting her grandiose clothing and big hair just like the bad-asses of old, made her stand out even in a family of standouts. She had what Roz once called the perfect figure. But there was nothing that made Amelia feel perfect these days.

“When Charles told me he was going to get you guys up to the Catskills for a marriage retreat, I laughed him to scorn. Especially when he said Mick and Roz were coming too. I couldn’t believe it.” Then she looked at Roz. “But here you are.”

“Here I am,” Roz said as she lifted her glass of wine in an imaginary toast and then took a sip.

“How has it been going?”

Roz shook her head. “Not great.”

“Not great?” said Gemma. “Child please. It’s amazing nobody died on our first night here.”

“Why what happened?” Amelia asked.

“What didn’t happen,” Grace said, “is the simpler question.”

“That bad?”

“It was awful,” said Gemma. “Trina was beating down Reno.”

“ Whaat ?” Amelia was grinning.

“Mick grabbed Roz and flung her all the way across this big dining room table.”

“ Whaaat ? Amelia was even more amazed. “And what did Roz do? Kick his ass?”

“Oh I tried to,” said Roz. “It took the whole family to keep me from trying to.”

“It got so bad,” Grace said, “that Big Daddy had to call in Tony to help out.”

Amelia grinned and shook her head. “I knew it wouldn’t work.” Then she leaned over and looked at Grace. “And why are you here? I thought you and Tommy were Mr. and Mrs. Perfection. At least in this fucked-up family.”

“There’s nothing perfect about us,” said Grace. “None of you guys had ever divorced your husbands. I did, remember? We are not perfect by any means.”

“But y’all doing better than us,” said Amelia and the ladies laughed.

“Every time I think about them, I think about that Beatles song I Wanna Hold Your Hand because Tommy don’t let his sister out of his sight!”

“He babies her ass,” Amelia said bluntly. “Always has and always will. But it’s so not like Tommy used to be that it astounds me still. Because I remember his ass. I remember Tommy Gabrini back in the day. Dapper Tom ? Oh he was dapper alright. He was a sho’nuff hoe, okay? Okay? Brotherman knew how to lay it down on those ladies and those ladies knew how to keep going back for more. Remember Shanks and all those bitches? He was a hoe! And I know one when I see one because I was one too.”

They all laughed.

“But after Grace divorced his ass,” Amelia continued, “your boy got serious. He cleaned up his act. Now he won’t ride anywhere without his entire family riding with him. I’m surprised he came to this retreat without the kids in the suitcase too.”

“Girl you crazy,” Trina said as they all laughed.

But while they laughed, Jenay was staring at Grace. “What’s wrong, baby girl?” she asked her. “Don’t tell me there’s trouble in that paradise.”

“I wouldn’t call it trouble, but it’s not perfection either. That’s all I’m saying.”

Jenay continued to stare at her. “He’s overbearing, isn’t he?” she asked.

Grace looked at her.

“I ask it because Charles and Tommy are a lot alike.”

They all looked at Jenay. “Are you saying Big Daddy’s overbearing?” Trina asked.

“I’m saying since my return to the land of the living so to speak, yes, he’s been how do I say it? Hovering. He makes the boys check on me all times of the day and night if he’s out of town. Tony would even come and sit with me if I work late and then escort me home. And he still gets on their case for not doing more.”

“But that’s understandable, Jenay,” Grace said. “He thought he had lost you forever. When it turned out you were safe and sound, he’s overprotective of you.”

“Just like Tommy’s overprotective of you,” said Jenay. “It gets old real fast. Doesn’t it?”

“Sometimes it does. Most times it doesn’t because I know the reason why.”

“Why?” asked Amelia. “He’s scared you’re gonna start hoeing around?”

“Millie!” Gemma couldn’t believe she said that. “You know better than that!”

“She’s a woman ain’t she? A girl’s got to have it too.”

“Girls like you maybe,” said Gemma. “But not like Grace.”

“Oh please. She’s a hot-to-trot just like the rest of us. She’s just prim and proper with it,” Amelia said, and even Grace laughed at that.

But when the laughter died down, Roz leaned her head back as if she was still stressed.

“What’s the matter Roz?” Jenay asked her. “Is it what Mick said before the shooting started?”

“What did he say?” Amelia asked.

They all wanted to tell her. They all wanted to say that Mick was messing around with some married woman to try to get video from her. Video, not of him with another woman, but Roz with another man! It was the hot topic of conversation that nobody was conversing about. Because they dared not say it. Because they knew something that explosive, something that damaging to anybody’s marriage was a story for Roz, and Roz alone, to tell in her own sweet time.

“Anyway,” said Gemma, “we need a Christmas tree to lighten up the place around here. Because no matter how much we want to get back to our homes and our lives, it doesn’t look like we’ll be leaving this beautiful prison any time soon.”

“Here here,” said Amelia as she raised her now-empty glass in a toast. “I need another drink,” she said as she stood up and then stumbled back down into her chair. And all of them, knowing how little it took to get Amelia going, laughed out loud.