CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

By the time Mick and Teddy came into the house, the living room was full of family members. From the oldest to the youngest. Even Teddy’s mother Ursula and Gloria’s mother Bella Caine, two of Mick’s baby mamas, had been flown there with the rest of the family and were in the living room as well.For his children’s sake, Mick always looked out for their mothers too.

Everybody in that living room had heard the gunfire. They all heard the explosion. Tommy and Monk, who were left in charge, had ordered everybody up front when all of the commotion first started. Now it was a traffic jam.

Teddy’s toddler cheerfully wobbled to him excitedly when he walked into the house. Teddy lifted his joyful baby into his arms. But when they saw that Teddy had been injured, he had to explain why.

They were all extremely relieved that the threat had been neutralized, they all even cheered when they heard the news, but going home right away was an impossibility, which caused moans and groans. Air traffic had been grounded to a halt due to the blizzard that was now blanketing Upstate New York, although less so where they were located, and there was no getting away from the mansion before tomorrow afternoon. They were stuck there for at least another twenty-four hours.

But hearing the news that all was well, even though they had to remain another day, had everybody upbeat. It was less nervous energy and just plain old energy as everything seemed to liven up.

Nikki heard about Teddy’s injury and hurried in to check on him. He was pleased to see her, and he told her he was okay, but she stayed with him, holding his hand the entire time, while Tony cleaned and dressed the wound. Tony was no medical doctor, but his PhD put him a bit closer to it than anybody else.

Others were hurrying around and checking on their family members too. Including Monk, who felt compelled to check on his wife. He’d been on his feet taking care of the security needs inside the house and hadn’t spent a second with Ashley. He had to go to the back of the crowd, to the sofa, where his wife Ashley was talking happily with her baby sister Carly and her husband Trevor Reese, and their cousin Gloria and Aunt Gemma.

As the small group continued to talk about the Christmas decorations at their respective homes, Monk stood Ashley up, sat down, and sat her on his lap. “You okay?” she asked him before he could ask her. “You look kind of out of it.”

“I’m okay.”

“I heard you got into with my auntie.”

“Your auntie? You have a hundred here. Which one?”

Ashley grinned and removed the hat Monk always wore on his head and put it on her head. “My auntie Amelia.”

“I wouldn’t call it getting into it ,” Monk said. “She’s a loud individual, so it may have seemed that way to somebody walking by. But we were just talking.”

“What about?”

“You.”

“Me? What about me?”

“She said she heard rumors you’ve been running the streets again. Behind my back, as she put it.” Monk looked at Ashley when he said those words, hoping she would reassure him.

But Ashley, as usual, dismissed the criticisms of others as if none could dissuade her from living her life the way she saw fit to live it. “People need to be minding their own business, sweeping around their own front doors thank you, before they try to sweep around mine. And that includes my auntie.”

Like his wife, Monk had a way of sweeping the weightier matters under rugs too. He didn’t pursue it any further. He just stared at her pretty face. At how youthful she looked compared to him. “You okay?”

Ashley’s face said it all. She was not okay. “I love being with my family again. Don’t get me wrong. I mean, everybody’s here and I love that. But I’d rather be home. All the guys and their families were coming to the house for Christmas dinner this year. It was going to be their first time coming over to the boss’s house for Christmas, and I was planning to do it up. It was going to be so great. But you made me come here.”

He leaned her against him and wrapped his arms around her. “We’ll be out of here tomorrow,” Monk said and kissed her. But he was still concerned about those rumors .

A short time afterwards, Gloria, Ashley and Carly, along with their young cousins Sophia, Destiny, Bonita, and Madison all took care of the babies and the younger kids while the older kids went back to their video games and laughter. A core group, the more senior members of the family, separated themselves into the dining hall.

Seated around that table were Mick and Roz, Charles and Jenay, Reno and Trina, Tommy and Grace, Sal and Gemma, and Teddy and Nikki.

But the OGs in the group wanted more details than Teddy gave the others. Only after he made clear Nails was dead and that Zarbo never existed, at least not since 2012, were they able to demonstrate their relief.

But Roz wanted to hear it straight from Mick, who had said nothing. “Does this mean it’s over, Mick?” she asked him.

Mick hesitated. He was still buried in his own thoughts. “It’s never over,” he replied.

Which just infuriated Roz. “You know what I mean!”

“Yes, Ma, it’s over,” Teddy said. The last thing they needed was for those two to get into it again. “It’s over.”

Roz was still upset with Mick for his still noncommunicative ways, but she let it slide. She was tired of fighting too.

“It might be over, but I’m still worried,” said Grace. “I’m worried about the young people in the family. To be torn away from their homes this close to Christmas has been traumatic for them.”

“I agree with that,” said Trina. “This might be over for now, but we still don’t know when the next shoe is going to drop, or where the next shots are going to be fired. It gets to be unnerving even for me, and I’m old school.”

“Old school my foot,” said Reno. “Your ass just old,” he added, and they all laughed.

But Mick looked at Charles. If it was over, you wouldn’t know by that look on Mick’s face. “There’s no safe room in this castle?” he asked him.

“I thought you said it was over,” Charles blurted out. Then he realized Teddy had said it was over. Mick had said no such thing. “No.”

“None?” Reno was dumbstruck.

“I said no.”

“Why not, Big Daddy?”

“Whatta you mean why not? Why would I need a safe room in the Catskills?”

“Why would you . . .” Reno couldn’t believe he said that. “You’re a Sinatra. You’re Mick the Tick’s older brother. And you didn’t think you needed a safe room in every single home you own?”

The stress that appeared on Charles’s handsome face told the story. And Mick spoke up for him. “He’s in Maine living a quiet life. He’s not caught up in this shit the way we have to be. Remember that.”

“But we have our children here,” said Sal. “Teddy’s saying it’s over, but you aren’t saying that. And now you’re asking about a safe room. What gives?”

Then they heard someone say, “ There’s no safe room ,” and they all turned to the sound of Carmine’s young voice. And there he was: seated in the dining hall in a chair against the wall. None of the principals had realized he was even in the room.

“Quiet as a mouse that kid,” said Sal suspiciously. “Kind of weird to me.”

“Don’t call my child weird,” Reno warned him.

“What did you say baby?” Trina asked her son.

“There’s no safe room,” Carmine said again, “but there’s a bunker in this castle.”

Everybody frowned. “A bunker ?” Roz had incredulity in her voice.

Charles was equally incredulous. “What bunker? Who told you anything about a bunker? There's no bunker in this house.”

“Actually there is, Uncle Charles.”

“There is not, young man! What are you talking? I had this place renovated a year ago. My contractors never found any bunker, or they would have notified me. And I also saw the blueprints of this place before I purchased it. There was no bunker shown anywhere.”

“I reviewed those blueprints,” said Carmine. “But I didn’t stop at the one you received at your closing, nor did I stop at the one your contractors drew up after modernizing the place for you. I went back, many decades back, to the original blueprints.”

Everyone was interested because they knew Carmine was a kid, but he didn’t kid around. They also understood that he usually knew what he was talking about, given his documented genius IQ, even as Charles remained skeptical.

“In the original blueprints there was indeed a bunker,” he said. “Then I found more recent blueprints before your purchase, Uncle Charles, that showed the bunker still in place. It was expanded and modernized three different times. The last time was six years before you bought the property. I even read several articles where the owner at that time was deeply involved in the militia movement and seemed to be preparing for Armageddon or some other apocalyptic event.”

“ Armageddon ? Militias ? You’re blowing smoke up our asses,” said Sal.

“Watch your mouth, Sal Luca,” Trina warned. “My son don’t blow smoke up anybody’s ass.”

“Then how could Big Daddy’s contractors didn’t find this bunker, this expanded bunker let Carmy tell it, and we just finished doing work on this place?”

“It wasn’t built to be found,” said Carmine. “It was built to be hidden.”

“But your ass supposedly found it.”

“My ass followed the paper trail, Uncle Sal. I think I was the only one to bother to do so.”

“Why would you bother if nobody else did?”

Carmine hesitated. “No offense to any of our hosts, but I was bored witless. I thought castle? Secrets. I needed a challenge.”

“He needs a challenge,” said Reno sarcastically. “We’re dying over here and my boy needs a challenge!”

“Okay now,” said Amelia. “Why didn’t Charlie’s contractors find these blueprints you found? It’s their job to know the schematics before they started any renovations, and that includes all blueprints on the location.”

“Even the city didn’t know about that bunker. It wasn’t meant to be public knowledge. The blueprints I found were discovered within the bowels of the internet.”

“On the dark web he means,” said Reno, “where I told your ass to stay away from.”

“You see something on some blueprint on the internet somewhere and you assume it’s still there?” asked Sal. “What kind of sense does that make?”

“I trust the paperwork, Uncle Sal, but I always verify it too. I’ve been inside the bunker,” Carmine said.

Shock filled the room. “You’ve been in it?” asked Trina. “When did you go inside a bunker ?”

“When you couples had gone to bed to work it out or whatever your assignments were, and the young people were still playing those ridiculous games.”

Charles stood up. “No offense, kid,” he said, “but I have to see this to believe it. Show it to me.”

Mick stood up too. He wanted to see what they had to work with too. And they all followed Carmine through the kitchen, down three different back staircases, and around corners that Charles honestly didn’t know existed until they were all on the far east wing of the castle.

When Carmine pressed the hidden button on what they thought was a stone wall, and it opened up, they were all amazed at what was inside.

It was large and beautiful and filled with a huge kitchen and a table that could seat their entire family. There was so much space that everyone could be accommodated easily. “This is incredible,” said Charles as they all walked around the place.

“And it’s fortified,” said Tommy. “I’ll be damn, Little Man. You found the motherload. You found exactly what we needed, Carmine.”

Carmine smiled. Coming from a man like his Uncle Tommy Gabrini, whom he didn’t just love but greatly respected, was huge.

They moved the entire family down there.

But what nobody understood, but Mick, was why.