CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENT DAY

"There she is."

Sandra Rickie sat upright when she saw Roz Sinatra walk into the restaurant wearing her Prada head to toe and carrying that hella-expensive Hermes bag like she owned the company. Sandra smiled. "Roz got swag," she said with a grin.

But Drayson couldn't stand Roz. After three months, he'd only gotten one gig. And it wasn't even a named role! "She was supposed to meet us at eight tonight," he said. "Now it's almost nine. She's our agent. She works for us. But she's always late. She should have been here waiting on us, not the other way around."

"Don't be stupid," Sandra said. "She's one of the biggest talent agents on the East Coast. We'd better be glad she took us on as clients." Then she looked at her boyfriend/colleague. "And don't forget who she's married to."

Drayson squirmed in his seat. Her old man was the only reason he hadn't cussed her ass out yet and demanded better representation.

"Hiya Roz!" Sandra's pretty pink face lit up as Roz walked up to their table. "Cold enough for you?"

"Too cold for me," Roz said as she sat down in her ankle-length green coat and removed her gloves. "I only have a few minutes guys."

Drayson frowned. "A few minutes?"

Roz looked at him. "Did I stutter?"

Drayson ran his hand through his thick blonde hair and shook his head. "This ain't right."

Sandra kicked him under the table, but he was tired of holding back. "You supposed to be our agent," he said to Roz.

Roz stared at him.

"You work for us, right?"

Roz continued to stare.

"You should have all the time in the world for your clients. But we hardly see you! One role in three months? What I'm supposed to do with that?"

"Shove it up your ass perhaps?" Roz said. Then she leaned forward. "Let's get one thing straight right now. The only reason I took you on is because of Sandra. Don't get it twisted. She's the talent here. You're the boyfriend. You'd better be glad you got the one role you did get."

"Man that's some bullshit," Drayson said. "With my looks I should be the star of a TV show at least. Everybody says that."

"Then let everybody represent you. I free you of our contract effective immediately."

Drayson knew in that moment he had gone too far. Sandra knew it too. She shook her head. And she didn't try to bail him out either. She was tired of bailing him out.

Drayson angrily stood up and grabbed his jacket. "I'll be outside, Sandy. You'll be out right behind me since your so-called agent can only spare a few minutes of her precious time!" He gave Roz an evil look and then he walked out of the restaurant.

Roz shook her head. "Girl what you doing with that?" she asked her. "You can do better."

"I could say the same thing about you."

Roz and Sandra exchanged a glance. They were around the same age and used to hang out when they were both struggling Broadway performers. Roz had made it, and she brought Sandra along. But Sandra, who Roz knew was more talented than she was, wasn't getting any meaty roles lately.

Sandra respected Roz, but they weren't close like that. And although Roz never spoke about her private life, it was no secret to Sandra that she and her hubby were rarely on good terms. He still liked the ladies, was what Sandra had heard.

But discussing it with Roz wasn't something she was comfortable doing. "What did Patrick say?" she asked instead.

"What he always says: no. But I'm still working on it."

"That role in that play could change my life, Roz. I been at this game so long and with so little results that I'm getting scared. And finally they have a role for a woman older than thirty. And I can knock it out of the park. But they won't even give me a reading."

"You're going to get that role. By hook or by crook, you're going to get that role. You just have to let me do what I do."

"But Patrick's the director and he won't even give me an audition."

"Because it's not up to him. It's what the producer wants. And I know the producer too. Just be patient and let me handle it." Roz looked at her Cartier watch. She had another meeting to attend. "Alright?"

"I hear you but . . ."

"But what?"

"But I'm getting scared, Roz. All these years I been getting bit role after bit role and lately not even that. I'm worried."

"That's my job," Roz said and as soon as she said it they could hear loud talking. Both ladies looked across the restaurant and saw a big, burly man yelling at the manager. Then he shoved the manager so hard that his back slammed against a table.

"Oh it's on now," Roz said as she looked at that manager. She could tell he wasn't going to take that laying down.

But just as he was pushing himself back upright and ready to get it on, the big guy pulled out a gun and shot the manager in his stomach. People started screaming and scrambling to leave that it seemed to spook the shooter as he turned his gun on everybody else. The people in that vicinity started scattering like rats.

But as soon as that first shot was fired, and Sandra was getting up to scatter, too, she was shocked to see three men rush up to Roz seemingly from out of nowhere. Two of the men grabbed Roz and began hurrying her out of that restaurant. Where did they come from? And then the third man fired several rounds at the shooter before the shooter could fire at anybody else. The shooter fell back lifeless, his gun flying backwards with him and then skirting across the floor.

Sandra saw the man go down as she was running out of the restaurant with the other terrified customers. When she made it outside, she saw the two men hurry Roz into an SUV, with yet another man, his gun drawn, as he hit the side of the door as if telling the driver to go. The SUV then sped away.

Sandra hurried up to that man. "That's my agent. I was having dinner with her. Where are they taking my agent?" she asked him.

"To safety," the man said, and ran back into the restaurant.

And it was only then did Sandra remember Roz telling her that her husband had bodyguards all over the place wherever she went, and that she rarely could spot them herself. Sandra remembered just who Roz was married to. And if any shooting popped off, the wife of Mick Sinatra wasn't going to be anybody's sitting duck. Which made Sandra feel better despite the carnage that shooter tried to unleash. Roz wasn't just any agent like Drayson said she was. She was an agent with pull. And reach. And if Roz said she was going to get that role, she was going to get that role.

"See how she took off without taking you with her?" It was Drayson, who had been waiting outside. "She's safe, but she didn't give a rat's behind about your safety."

"Those men snatched her away from there like their lives depended on it. She didn't have time to say a word to anybody." Then they could hear sirens coming in the distance. "You can stay if you want," Sandra said, "but I'm getting out of here."

Drayson followed her to her car. And although he was still grumbling and complaining about Roz, Sandra had not been more hopeful about her future than she had been in a long, long time. To see those men in action reminded her that Roz's husband had the kind of pull to get Roz whatever she wanted. Including that role on Broadway for Sandra. Things were looking up, Sandra thought.

But inside the SUV that had sped away, Roz wasn't optimistic. She was pissed. "Let me out of here!" she said angrily. "Nobody was shooting at me! Let me out of here!"

But they knew the protocol. It came down, not from Nikki, nor even from Teddy. It came down from the big man himself. If there was any type of disturbance, they were to get his wife away from the scene without delays. They were not to let her out of their sight, nor out of that SUV, until the boss himself gave the clearance.