CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Two days after the funeral, everybody returned to their respective lives. Mick, Roz, and the twins returned to Philly, and Big Daddy decided to go with them. He told his children that a change of scenery would do him good. But they all knew, like Mick and Roz knew, that Big Daddy wanted revenge. Big Daddy wanted in.

Bonita, Carly, and Ashley, along with Tony Sinatra, followed their father to Philly, although their significant others had to return home to run their businesses or handle other matters. Bobby, as mayor, had to run the town, and Brent, as police chief, had to police the town, so they remained in Jericho. Donald Sinatra had business overseas.

After arriving in Philly, Big Daddy spent almost all of the day out back on the patio with Mick. Both men sat quietly, their legs crossed, their eyes staring out at the great expanse. They did not talk, nor wanted to talk, for hours on end. On the orders of Roz, nobody bothered the two brothers. Not even Roz herself. She could tell Big Daddy loved not only sitting there with Mick, doing nothing because nothing was required of him to do, but the quietness too.

That next morning, Big Daddy and his children, along with the twins, were eating breakfast in the dining hall when Reno and Sal arrived at Mick's estate.

"How you doing, Big Daddy?" Reno walked around to the head of the table and gave Charles a hug. "You're looking good."

"You're gaining weight," Big Daddy responded as they stopped embracing.

"What weight?" Reno buttoned his getting-too-tight suitcoat. "I'm as fit as a man half my age."

"In your dreams," said Sal as he gave Big Daddy a half-handshake/half-hug. "Got you some good rest, Pops?"

Big Daddy was not a man who would lie. He shrugged his shoulders. It was going to take him considerable time to reacquaint himself with good rest. Even before Jenay passed, her constant hospitalizations robbed him of anything that could be considered restfulness. Restlessness, but not restfulness.

"I don't know how you can sit upright," Sal said, and Big Daddy looked at him. Of all the men in the family, Sal, though tough as tough could get, had the biggest heart. Big Daddy, like Jenay, loved him dearly.

"Had that been Gemma," Sal added, shaking his head, "they would have had to bury me right along with her."

"Now that's a good idea," Reno said, and the others giggled.

Except for Sal and Big Daddy. "Not funny, Reno," Big Daddy admonished him.

"But think about what he's saying, Charles. He's saying he'd rather leave his children without a mother and a father and die too, as if the kids don't count. Children always come first," Reno preached.

Sal and Big Daddy glanced at each other. There was a time when Reno had to choose between saving his wife's life or sacrificing one of his children. He chose to sacrifice his son Jimmy to save Trina's life. Jimmy survived, but just barely. But neither man had the heart to remind Reno of his hypocrisy.

"You have to always put the children first."

"Ah shut up, Reno," Sal said. "I was just trying to be nice to Big Daddy. I was just trying to show some empathy over here."

"He don't need that kind of empathy," Reno said, and the two men kept going at it. Everybody else were grinning. Especially the twins. They loved when Uncle Reno and Uncle Sal got into it.

"Where's Uncle Tommy?" Jackie asked. Everybody in the family knew she had a monster crush on "Dapper Tom" Tommy Gabrini.

"He's in Vegas making certain our families are okay," said Reno. "At least until me and Sal get back."

"I sure hope you guys find out who did that to Auntie Jenay," Duke said. "I miss her already."

Everybody looked at Big Daddy. But Big Daddy, like their father, always had that look of steel in the face of adversity. You could never penetrate their emotions. "You guys better get to class," he said to them.

"Class?" Sal asked. "They aren't on lockdown?"

"I'm going to tutor them here at the house, Uncle Sal," Carly said as she and the twins rose from their seats. "They have midterms coming up and Auntie Roz just want to make sure they don't slip up. Perfect grades are needed to get into the best schools you know."

"And Roz isn't about to let the twins go anywhere else but to the best schools in America you know," Ashley said sarcastically.

"That's Aunt Roz to you, young lady," her father corrected her.

Ashley rolled her eyes. "Daddy, I'm a married woman. Married to one of the most powerful mob bosses in the country, in fact. I'm married to the mob. I'm not a kid anymore."

"That's Aunt Roz to you," Big Daddy said again firmly.

"And don't you ever admit to being married to no mob," Sal admonished her.

Ashley hopped up angrily and decided to go with her kid sister and the twins rather than try to prove to her father that she wasn't a kid anymore.

"Monk needs to tame that girl," Sal said, "or she's gonna puff up at the wrong one."

"He feels the world gives her a raw deal," Big Daddy said. "He looks out for her. He knows what he's doing."

"I hope he does," said Reno. "That Ashley's gonna always be a handful. I hear she's been tipping out on Monk Paletti."

Big Daddy looked at Reno. "Tipping out?"

"That's what I heard."

"Bullshit," said Big Daddy. "Ashley had a reputation as a party girl before she met Frankie. But she's been turning that around."

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right," Reno said, although he wasn't so sure at all. "Where's Bonita?"

Big Daddy exhaled. "She flew out early this morning. She had to handle some business for Clark."

"What about Gloria, and Teddy and Nikki. And the babies?"

"Gloria's in the guest house with her mother. The babies are with her. Ursula can't be moved just yet, so Ted's staying at the hospital with her. Nikki's at the docks making sure the ships run on time and whatever else Mick has her doing. She's his right-hand man you know."

"Which don't make no sense to me at all," said Sal. "Teddy T is the best in the business. He knows how to run an outfit, even Uncle Mick's massive outfit. But Uncle Mick acts as if the sun don't shine until Nikki gets up."

Big Daddy actually laughed. "He trusts her, what can I say? You can't help who you trust."

"I thought you can't help who you love, Big Daddy."

"Same difference to me," Big Daddy said.

Then Sal frowned as they began hearing what sounded like something bouncing upstairs. "What the fuck is that?" He looked up at the ceiling.

But Big Daddy and Reno understood what it was right away. They glanced at each other and smiled. "Don't mind Sal Luca, Big Daddy," Reno said. "He's slow. The short bus said he was too slow for them."

"Ah fuck you, Reno," Sal said, and Big Daddy laughed.

But upstairs in their bedroom, Mick and Roz were still bumping and grinding and escalating the noise. Mick was on top. Roz was on the bottom. And they were so deeply in the throes of their passion for one another that they were unable to even consider that they could be heard. Mick was grunting as he moved inside of her. Roz was groaning as she felt every inch of him deep inside of her. They both were sweating and breathing heavily as they released all the stress and tension and even sadness of the past few weeks as if they were releasing everything they had within them.

And when they finally came, it felt as if the dam of their emotions broke free and flooded them with so many different feelings that it took several more minutes of cumming to feel them all.

Until Mick finally joined Roz and collapsed too.

When he slowly pulled out and then rolled off of her, she looked over at him, still unable to ease her heavy breathing. "You're trying to kill us," she said as Mick smiled. "That's what it is. You are trying to kill us."

Then her look turned serious. "We've got to find those bastards, Mick. For Jenay, we have got to find the mastermind."

Mick ran a hand across his face. "We will," he said. "Charles won't rest until we do."

Roz didn't expect to hear him say that. "You're going to allow him to go with you?"

" Allow him ? It's more like he's allowing me to go with him . Nobody bosses the boss." Mick used to call Big Daddy the boss even when they were kids.

"In any event," said Mick, "there's nowhere to go yet.They're coming to us."

Roz was puzzled. "Who's coming to us?"

"Your Patrick Donahue and my Beppie Gastone. They're both lying. I need to know the source of those lies. They still think they're going to collect that four million bucks and it's in their interest to keep the lie going. I've got to disabuse them of that notion once and for all. I ordered my guys to put them in the basement late last night."

"They're here? Under heavy guard I hope."

Mick looked at her without dignifying that with a response.

Roz knew it was a stupid question too. "And if they don't know the source themselves?" she asked.

"They know something. When Ursula's attacker blurted out Charles's name, I knew somebody ordered them to use the names of members of our family. Today I find out who. This shit's been going on too long."

Roz nodded. "I can agree with you on that."

Then he slapped her bare butt as he began getting out of bed. "Get up. We've got work to do," he said, and they both got up.