CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The eight-hour flight to Paris was three hours old when Mick finally made it to the back of the plane where Roz was seated. She had been on the phone during those three hours as she talked with various producers and casting directors in an effort to line up as many jobs as she could for her clients. She also spoke with Darryl Siskind. He denied ever discussing any role in any of his plays with Patrick. It was all a ruse. All lies.

Mick sat beside her.

"What have you been doing?" Roz asked him.

"Getting the full story from Bella's detail chief."

"She had security?"

Mick hesitated. "Yes. I couldn't understand how the hell anybody could have gotten into her villa when they were supposed to have men on post around the clock. They said our guy was on post, but he was around front and the perp got in around the back. I safe-housed their asses and brought in a new crew."

"You think it's an inside job?"

"I don't know that yet. But I'm not giving them an opportunity to get lost if they are involved. What have you been doing?"

But Roz had a question for him. "Why did Bella need security?"

Mick didn't want to get into it, but he knew he had to. "She'd been getting postcards."

"Postcards?From whom?"

"We don't know."

"What did they say?"

"Every card was about killing her, with a different method with each card."

"Was beating her up one of the methods?"

Mick nodded. "Yes. Violently raping her was another one."

Roz stared at Mick. "She was raped too?"

Mick looked out of the window. A stern look appeared on his face. "Yes."

"Ah man!" Roz didn't like Bella, but she didn't want to hear that! "Does Gloria know?"

"Yes. I told her."

"I know she took it hard."

"She took the rape part harder than the beating part," said Mick.

"I understand that," said Roz, nodding her head. "But it only makes it clear that there's a definite connection between what Patrick tried to do to me and what the guy in Paris did to Bella."

"It's all connected," said Mick.

"And it's all about you," said Roz. "We just don't know what version of you they're after: the businessman. The mob boss. The husband. The baby daddy. It's crazy."

Mick nodded. "Yes, it is."

"I called and talked with Gloria too. She's on her way on Alex Drakos's plane. Alex and Kari are keeping her little girl. I wanted to ask where Oz's ass was, but I didn't. Glo was too devastated about her mother."

"Oz is in Greece," Mick said.

"Again?"

"Again."

"He's going to meet her in Paris?"

Mick shook his head. "She's not telling him. I don't think she wants him to meet her anywhere."

"But you're going to tell him. Aren't you?"

"He's her husband. Greece is only three-and-a-half hours from Paris. He has a right to know and to be there for his wife."

Then Mick leaned his head back. All of them had fucked-up marriages. Even Teddy and Nikki were having issues.

"Was that why you were with Bella at Paris Fashion Week?" Roz asked. "Because of those postcards?"

Mick nodded. "It was such a wide-open event, and she had just gotten another card. She was very scared. She wanted me to stay with her until I could find out who was threatening her, but I told her I had to go home."

"Why couldn't you just tell me all of that, Mick? I would understand if you communicated with me. But you don't talk. You don't tell me anything. And Duke getting in a fight over something I could have explained to him? But how can I explain it if I don't know myself?"

Mick placed an arm around her and pulled her against him. She leaned her head on his shoulder and allowed it, although he said nothing more. He never did.

That was why she pulled away and looked him in his eyes. "We've got to do better, Mick. You've got to do better. I'm tired of our family members and my friends looking at me as if they pity me because they're convinced you're out here cheating on me with Bella and everybody else when I know you aren't."

Then she corrected herself. "I don't know shit. What they believe could be true and you could very well be sleeping with every woman moving. But I don't believe that."

She waited for him to reassure her. But, as usual, he didn't.

And she didn't push it. She could tell he was worried about Bella. They were close: there was just no way around that. And she also knew he had enough on his plate than to have a nagging wife on it too. She leaned back on his shoulder. And he held her again.