CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

The strip club that was once bustling with excitement was now a boarded up old community theater building. Mick pulled to the side of the curb, and they all looked at it.

"Damn, Mick," said Big Daddy. "How long ago was this?"

"Before Gloria was born." But Mick looked up, remembered that it had three floors. "The shot that killed Sugar Rossi came from here," Mick said as he began getting out of his SUV.

"How do you know that?" Big Daddy asked as he and Nikki scrambled to get out too. But Mick, with his weapon drawn, was already walking across the sidewalk.

Big Daddy hurried up to him. "We could be walking into an ambush, Mick. Don't you think we need to come up with a plan?"

"He could have killed us at that apartment complex. There won't be any ambush. He wants to have his say."

"And you're going to just give it to him?"

Mick looked at Big Daddy. "Do you or do you not want to know why Jenay was killed, and why you were targeted?"

Big Daddy stared at Mick. And nodded his head.

"I'm sure it's locked," Nikki said as Mick went to pull open the door.

"I'm sure it's not," Mick said as he pulled, and the door opened.

"He's waiting on our asses," Big Daddy said as they slowly walked into the otherwise old, decrepit, boarded up building.

The place was musky from being closed up for so long, but the lights were on as they walked through the lobby and straight ahead where the actual theater was located. They had to walk up a flight of stairs to get to the door.

Nikki was walking in front of the two men. It was her role, as underboss, to act as bodyguard whenever the boss was around, but before she could open the door of the actual theater for him, Mick took her by the arm and pulled her back. "Stay behind us," he ordered her.

Nikki didn't like it. She knew she could handle the situation in front of her. But Mick always did that to her. Always. She also knew he'd stomp her through that floor if she ever complained.

When Mick opened the door and they walked in, the room was lit, albeit dimly, and what sounded to Nikki like some type of classical music was playing.

"What kind of shit is this?" Big Daddy said under his breath.

"Stravinsky," Mick replied. "Rite of Spring."

Big Daddy and Nikki both looked at Mick. His wealth of knowledge never ceased to amaze either one of them.

"Look," Nikki said, and they looked where her head had motioned. And that was when they realized somebody was sitting near the front of the theater.

Led by Mick, they slowly walked down the steps toward the front of the theater. The man sitting in the seat wore a hat and an overcoat, which meant to them that he might have only just arrived in that room himself.Maybe he didn't expect Mick to have figured it out this soon, they wondered.

But Mick didn't hesitate. As soon as he was parallel with the man in the seat, he reached over and grabbed him by his coat collar and stood him up. When Mick realized he was standing up, not a man, but a skeleton, he quickly released it and backed up. Big Daddy and Nikki were floored too.

" Who the fuck is tha t?!" a stunned Big Daddy asked.

"That's my father," a voice could be heard behind the curtains up on the stage. "Drop your guns and put your hands where I can see them or I will unleash hell on each and every one of you."

They all placed their guns on the floor and put their hands in the air.

"Now," said the voice, "grab your backup weaponry and place them on the floor too."

They all pulled out their backup pistols and put them down too.

"Put those hands back up where I can see them," the voice said, and they did as he said.

Then, a few seconds later, a man Big Daddy figured was a little younger than Mick walked from behind the curtain and made his way down the steps of the stage. He walked over to them with an AK-47 rifle pointed at them.

"Who was your father?"

"Jumbo Fourtaine," the gunman said without hesitation. "Remember him?"

Mick said nothing. He had expected to see Jumbo himself. Not Jumbo's skeleton and a son Mick didn't even know he had.

"I'm Parker Fourtaine. His only child. His only anything really. Because you took away from him everything he loved and held dear."

Mick frowned. "I didn't take shit away from your father. We were friends."

"Liar!" Parker yelled out angrily. "You are a liar! My father thought of you as a son. You didn't give a damn about my father except to take everything you could from him!"

"What did I take from your father?"

"You killed the head of the Costantino crime family right in front of his club."

"After the head of that family plotted, in that club, to kill me."

"But they didn't blame you. They were afraid of you. They blamed my father. They burned down the club he loved and that he had worked so hard to build up, and then they framed him for murders they committed themselves."

Big Daddy looked at Mick. It was clear to him by Mick's expression that he had no idea his friend had suffered such a fate. But Mick was young and focused on his own shit back then.

"The DA dropped some of the charges, but not all of them. My father was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. For crimes he didn't even commit. And the only woman he ever loved was in love with you."

Mick frowned again. "What are you talking about? What woman he loved?"

"Bella Caine," Parker said loudly and Nikki wanted to shake her head. What was it about Bella Caine and these men loving her so deeply, she wondered.

"He loved her," Parker said.

"That's bullshit. He was the one who hooked me up with Bella."

"But she always came back to him. But the night of that ambush she left with you and never came back to him. That destroyed him too. And then he lost his club on top of that, and then went to prison for life on top of that ."

Parker waited, as if it was still too painful for him to recite. And that was when Mick and Big Daddy took advantage of his weakness and began inching closer to Parker without Parker realizing they had even moved. Nikki saw what they were doing, and slowly kept pace too.

"He died in prison two months ago," Parker said. "They released his body to me, and I knew exactly what I was going to do. I bought this place sight unseen and brought my father's body here, to the place that he once loved. That once was his. Because I realized something I hadn't even thought about before. I realized that it was you, Mr. High and Mighty Mick the Tick, who destroyed everything my father loved. It was you that caused him to lose his club. It was you that took away the love of his life. It was you who caused him to rot in prison and you wouldn't even return his phone calls."

"He never phoned me."

"I phoned you! To beg you to use your influence and help my father. But you wouldn't even take my calls."

"I didn't know your ass!"

"But I knew yours! And I was going to make sure you suffered if it was the last thing you ever did."

"By doing what?"

"Carlton Rickie got out of prison around the same time my old man died. And he had a stake in poking the bear too. So I hired him. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. I'm rich. Almost as rich as your ass. Only my money is legit. I could afford to pay for services."

"Who did you pay?"

"I hired Carlton to pay everybody."

"Who's everybody?"

"Patrick Donahue rings a bell?" Parker grinned. "If you hadn't shown up Patrick was ready, willing, and able to bang the shit out of that bitch. He was glad to do it."

Nikki looked at her boss. His jaw tightened, she knew he wanted to kick that guy's ass, but he maintained his cool.

"Carlton paid a couple Frenchmen to take care of Bella Caine. Four times was their order. And they did it four wonderful times. I saw it on video while they did her. I wasn't missing that show."

"Why four times?" Big Daddy asked Parker to see if Mick's theory held water.

"Because I knew Sinatra would eventually put two and two together. I hate his guts, but everybody knew he was always smarter than your average thug."

"What about Ursula?" Mick asked.

"That job went to Pock McCanns."

Mick stared at Parker. Was the cargo intercept a part of his scheme too? "Why throw in Monk Paletti?" Mick asked.

Parker smiled. "That was Carlton's idea. He knew all the players and he thought it would be neat to watch you blame those closest to you. We started off with that cargo intercept and used Beppie Gastone to give us the dock times. We weren't thinking about your cargo, but it got you up in arms."

"Why did Pock McCanns decide to use my name?" Big Daddy asked. "For the same reason?"

"No. We knew we were about to go big or go home when I myself went to that hospital cafeteria in Jericho, Maine and killed your wife."

Big Daddy's blood began to boil. Mick and Nikki could see his expression change.

"You were my target, but she got in the way," Parker continued. "But either way, I killed the bitch. I knew it was going to hurt Mick to his core."

All three of them wanted a piece of Carlton Rickie for the way he spoke of Jenay. But they knew they needed all the answers answered first.

"What did Sugar Rossi have to do with this?" Mick asked.

"Nothing whatsoever. That was the beauty of it. I ordered Pock to tell your inside guys that it was Sugar who killed your sister-in-law. Then I told Sugar that you blamed him and were looking for him. I told him to be prepared, but his ass was so scared he couldn't find his way out of a paper bag. But I had to kill him. He was going to mention my name to save his skin, and I couldn't have that. I was right upstairs in this very building when you arrived at that complex. I could shoot and kill at that far a distance and you would have never known a thing. I easily took out Rossi. Could have gotten your asses too, including your fat-ass side piece Nikki, had I wanted to right then."

Nikki wanted to kick his ass personally, but she knew she had to maintain her cool too.

"I think," said Mick, "you should have taken us out while you could."

They could tell he was confused.

"You know why?" Mick asked him.

"Why?"

Nikki, knowing it was a cue, flung herself sideways onto the theater seats beside her and Parker quickly turned and fired at her. But as he did, Mick had already inched close enough to lift his long, muscular leg and kick that rifle out of Parker's hand. Big Daddy caught the rifle as it sailed in the air. Mick looked at Nikki. She had ducked and was fine.

Parker, realizing how helpless he now was, tried to run away. But Big Daddy tossed that rifle to Mick and was able to easily run him down and throw him against that stage. And that was when Big Daddy lost it. He thought about Jenay and how flippantly he spoke of her death. And he started raining down blow after blow after blow on Parker's frail body. Parker was screaming, but he was wasting his breath. All the pain he caused their family, no way was Mick nor Nikki willing to so much as lift a finger to help him.

But as Big Daddy continued to brutalize him, his punches suddenly began to move slower and slower. Because he realized it wasn't going to bring Jenay back. He realized he was taking the law into his own hands. He realized he was doing exactly what he taught his children to never do.

He stopped punching Parker Fourtaine. And just stood there.

Even Parker was confused.

"Nikki?" Big Daddy's voice was nearly breathless.

Nikki quickly stepped forward. "Sir?"

"Call 911."

911 ? Nikki looked at Mick. Mick looked at his brother. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Mick said.

"You aren't me," Big Daddy said. "I told you I'm not God, and I'm not going to play Him either."

As Mick continued to stare at him, Big Daddy looked at Nikki. "Do what I told you to do, Nikki, and do it now."

"Yes, sir," Nikki said. Even she knew Big Daddy trumped Mick when it came down to it. She did as she was told.