CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Paris was alive that evening as the streets were just beginning to fill with more than just tourists, but with partygoers and young people galore. It was a gorgeous evening. The skies were a bright blue and just beginning to fade to dawn. And the unmistakable shrills and laughter and the sounds of footsteps pounding pavements as they searched out bars and clubs and crooks and crevices to hangout for another memorable night were evident everywhere you turned. Paris was burning with joyful noise. But inside the limousine that was parked in front of the upscale villa in Saint Germain: You could hear a pin drop.

Mick Sinatra sat on one side of the backseat while Bella Caine sat on the other side. Mick's driver, Big Ed Bronson, sat on the front seat while Mick's bodyguard Vincent LaGuardia waited at the passenger side backdoor where Bella sat. But Big Ed kept taking peeps through the rearview. Bella had been crying the entire ride back. Not boo-who-ing, but the tears were slowly trickling down her gorgeous face. She had Mick's handkerchief and were dabbing her eyes, careful not to spoil her makeup, but every few seconds she would cut her eyes at him and only get sadder, or angrier: Big Ed couldn't tell which.

Boss didn't look at her though. Not once. He was looking out the side window in that way that let you know he was looking, but not seeing. His eyes might not have been directed at Bella, but his entire being was. But this had been going on for not just the drive over, but for nearly ten minutes since they parked. Big Ed nor Vincent knew what the problem was between them two, only that every time they were together there seemed to be a problem, and they weren't about to so much as move a muscle until the boss told them to.

After another few minutes, Bella looked at Mick again. This time Mick looked back at her. And for several seconds, their eyes locked in a knowing look of which only they knew the meaning. And then Bella spoke. "But why, Mick?"

"You know why."

"But I need you too."

Big Ed took a quick peep at the boss when Bella said those words.

But if they expected fireworks in that limo, they were rudely mistaken. Mick looked away from Bella again and out of the window. Bella, frustrated, seemed to shrug her shoulders, and then she quickly tapped on the window and Vincent opened the door for her. Bella looked at Mick one more time. But Mick didn't return her gaze. "You bastard!" she cried out and then got out of the limo, and slammed the door before Vincent could close it. Then she made her way across the sidewalk and up the steps to the front door of her Parisian villa, and then she opened, entered, and slammed the door behind her.

Vincent got back into the limo on the front passenger seat as Big Ed glanced at the boss through the rearview. He was waiting for the signal to drive away.

But the signal never came.

Mick sat there, still in silence against the loudness outside, and then he suddenly, without any warning, opened the back driver side door and got out of the limo.

Vincent, terrified that he was not there to open the door for the boss, scrambled out of the limo, but it was far too late. Mick had already walked up the steps, taking two at a time, unlocked Bella's door with his own personal key, and was walking on in by the time Vincent made it across the sidewalk.

When that front door slammed shut, Vincent got back into the limo and pounded his fist against the dashboard. "I hate when that shit happens! I thought he was going to leave, not follow her, that's why I got back in the car."

Big Ed smiled. "Eh, Vincent? You let the boss open his own door while you sat lazily on your ass. Sounds like a firing offense to me."

"But I thought he was gonna leave. He wasn't even talking to that dame."

"What did he tell you about making assumptions? Didn't he warn you about that?"

Vincent looked defeated. "Yeah he did," he said. "But I thought he was gonna tell you to take him to the hotel. That's what I thought."

"And that's what you get for thinking. It's not your job to think. Opening and closing a door. Protecting the boss. That's your job."

"Maybe I should go up to the front door and wait on him."

"You idiot. Didn't he tell you that if he goes into a residence you're to wait in the vehicle? Didn't he tell you that too?"

"Yeah." Vincent looked downcast. "I'm just stupid like that. Stupid fuck!"

Big Ed stopped smiling and exhaled. "Get over yourself, kid. Boss is fair. He knew you didn't know what he was gonna do."

"But I should have seen it coming. It's always been strange between the two of them. It's never normal with them two. I should have seen it coming."

"Take it easy. It's no big deal," Big Ed reassured his younger car mate. "I've known Mick the Tick for years. We used to run hustles all up and down the streets of Philly. Trying to predict what a man like him is gonna do is like trying to predict who'll win the lottery. Just forget about it. He already has."

Vincent did feel better after Ed's reassurance. But when Ed cracked the windows, turned off the car, and then leaned back with his chauffeur's hat down below his forehead, as if he was preparing for the long haul, Vincent was concerned. "What are you doing? He'll be back in a few minutes. You don't want him to catch you slouching on the job, do you?"

"A few minutes my ass," Big Ed said. "More like a few hours."

"Ah man, don't tell me that shit. A few hours ? But he's married!"

Big Ed looked at him as if he'd lost his mind. "You can't be serious."

In truth, Vincent wasn't serious. He had been around mobsters his whole life. He knew how questionable their morals were, if they had any at all. And he knew Mick Sinatra was at the top of that mob chain. That was why he was over the moon when Teddy T hired him. "I just figured a man of Boss's status would be slicker about it," he said to Big Ed. "He wouldn't be so obvious about it."

"The bigger they are, the bolder they get," Big Ed said.

And Vincent, who was restless already, couldn't help but agree. Especially since the lady in question was somebody he'd heard Boss had had a very long, twisted, and very complicated relationship with. A woman, some said, he loved. She was, from what he'd heard, one of Boss's baby mamas. Which put her on a whole other level than a regular dame as well.

He exhaled. And hunkered down for the long haul too.