CHAPTER FIVE

Nikki Sinatra stood in the upstairs room over her office at the docks. Beppie Gastone, one of their dock supervisors, was seated in the middle of the small room with two capos on either side of him. Another capo was standing next to Nikki, but he was looking out of the window.

One of the capos standing beside Beppie hit him upside his head.

"Don't hit me again I mean it, Dan! I'm getting tired of this shit."

"Then tell us the truth," the first capo said.

"I am telling the truth. I didn't tell. I didn't say anything to anybody!"

"Bullshit!"

"I didn't! I'm telling you I didn't!"

"Why did our guys pick up all that intercept activity? All three on your line!"

"But I didn't do it. What do you want from me? I didn't tell!"

The capo looking out the window stood upright. "He just drove up, Boss," he said to Nikki.

"Who just drove up?" Beppie asked. "Teddy T?"

"You wish," the first capo said.

Beppie looked at Nikki, his direct supervisor. He never liked her. He felt an Italian male should be Teddy's underboss when the big man turned the day-to-day over to Teddy. But Teddy instead decided to install his fat-ass wife, a black chick, as his underboss and upended a hundred years of tradition. Beppie didn't like it, but he always treated Nikki with respect. "Why would you tell the boss, Nikki? Why would you expose me like that? I told you I don't know nothing!"

"That's not gonna fly, Bep," Nikki said. "You're the only one who had the plans."

"But I didn't tell!"

"Then you'll have to say that to Boss."

Beppie looked angrily at her. "Teddy T wouldn't have done this to me."

"I'm not Teddy T," said Nikki.

"You sure as hell ain't," said Beppie and the first capo slapped Beppie upside his head again. "Who are you think you are talking to Nikki like that? You'd better put some respect in your voice!"

Then the door opened, and Mick Sinatra walked in.

Nikki stared at her father-in-law as he entered the room. Big, imposing, chillingly hard, he entered that space in his expensive suit like the business titan he was. As head of Sinatra Industries, a Fortune 500 company, he was the shit. No doubt about it. But he was also the biggest, baddest mob boss that ever lived in Nikki's opinion. Too big for even the Feds to try to take down. And although he turned over the day-to-day operations of his syndicate to his oldest living son and Nikki's husband Teddy, he sometimes got personally involved himself when their operation was tittering on disaster.

As soon as Mick walked in, Beppie immediately began pleading his case. "Boss, it wasn't me," he said as he could see Mick's terrifying eyes staring directly at him as he walked toward him. "Somebody's trying to frame me or something. I would never do anything to harm the organization. You know I wouldn't, Boss. I'm telling you it wasn't me!"

When Mick made it up to that chair, he took his big, Ferragamo shoe and kicked Beppie so hard that Beppie flipped over twice. Then Mick angrily tossed the now-vacant chair aside and hurried to Beppie, with the capos getting out of his way too. When the big man was enraged, they knew to stay out of range.

Mick violently grabbed Beppie up and threw him until his back slammed against the wall. Then he hurried up to Beppie, grabbed him by the shirt, and slammed him against that wall again.

And before Mick could say a word, Beppie buckled. "Okay!" He knew what Mick was capable of. "Okay," he said in a more subdued tone. "I told."

"What did you tell?" Mick angrily asked him, his hand still holding Beppie by the shirt. "Dock time?"

"No, sir."

"Unload time?"

Beppie hated to admit it. "Yes, sir."

"Shit!" Nikki said as she stomped her feet. She wore jeans, a tucked-in white turtleneck shirt that highlighted her huge breasts and voluptuous body, and an open, knee-length coat, as if she was expecting an easy, relaxing day. This was not what she wanted to hear. She was highly upset. All the capos were upset. Because if Beppie told their unload times, they knew they couldn't risk even docking the vessel.

As the underboss responsible for all shipments in and out of port, Nikki had compartmentalized the dock supervisors duties, making them responsible for a certain number of ships only. The supervisor would only know about the itinerary for their ships and their ships alone. That way, Nikki felt, they could pinpoint any breaches right away.

Mick loved the idea as soon as he heard it. Nikki was his girl for a reason. She had the best analytical mind he'd seen in a long time. Teddy disagreed. He felt that such compartmentalizing was too labor-intensive and too restrictive and as the boss, he denied her request. But Mick overruled him and ordered the implementation of the Nikki Plan, as he called it, as soon as he got wind of it. The fact that Mick would take Nikki's side caused a lot of dissention between Nikki and Teddy. There was still dissention.

Beppie, as a dock supervisor, had three of their biggest ships under his authority.

"You have three ships under your command."

"Yes, sir."

"How many did you rat out? One of them, two of them, or all of them?"

Beppie knew it was his ass now. "All of them," he admitted.

Mick quickly looked at Nikki. She was already pulling out her walkie talkie. "Ground all three, sir?" she asked her father-in-law.

"All three," Mick said.

"Crew 908, 909, and 910 do not proceed. I repeat: Do not proceed. New directions will be forthcoming. Roger me now!"

The crew chief of 908 answered first. "Roger that, Boss."

The crew chief of 910 answered next. "Roger that, Boss."

The crew chief of 909 answered last. "Roger that."

The capos sighed relief. Nikki looked at Mick. "They can't stay where they are forever."

Mick looked at Beppie. "Why did you do it?" He'd known Beppie for years. It was a betrayal of the highest order, in Mick's view, because he knew him so long.

Tears appeared in Beppie's eyes.

Mick stared at him. "For money ? You betrayed my trust for money when I pay your ass top dollar?"

"It was an offer I couldn't refuse, Boss."

Mick frowned. "What do you mean you couldn't refuse it?"

"How much they offered you?" Nikki asked.

Beppie hesitated. "Four million dollars."

All of the capos were astounded. They would not have taken the bait, but it would have been tempting.

"Who did it?" Mick asked. It was the most important question.

Mick violently slammed his back against that wall again. "Who?!" he yelled at him.

"The Monk's guys!" he yelled back.

Everybody stopped. Nobody could believe it. Even Mick showed his shock. "Monk Paletti?" Frankie "The Monk" Paletti was the head of the Bonaducci crime family and in alliance with Mick's syndicate.

"Yes sir. Under his orders."

"How do you know it was under his orders?"

"Because I spoke to him myself."

But Nikki was shaking her head, a fixed frown on her face. "Why would Frankie Paletti want to intercept us? That don't make no sense."

But Mick wasn't so quick to dismiss it. He stared in Beppie's eyes. He wasn't lying. That Mick knew.

He looked at his capos. "Keep him here until we verify," Mick said.

"And after you verify?" asked a now emotional Beppie.

Mick turned to him as if he'd lost his mind. Nikki was thinking the same thing. "You betrayed my trust."

"They offered me four million dollars, Mick!" Beppie cried out.

Mick lost it. " I don't care if they offered you four zillion fucking dollars !" he screamed out. "Nobody betrays me and live! Nobody !"

Mick straightened his suit coat in an effort to calm himself back down. Then he glanced at Nikki, which she knew meant he wanted to talk to her, and then he walked out.

Nikki began hurrying after him. But she looked at Beppie as she was leaving. "If your ass lying on Frankie Paletti or trying to pull some bait and switch shit, you know what's going to happen," she warned him.

"I'm not lying," Beppie said. "It was Monk's guys. I know those guys. I'm not lying."

Nikki still didn't believe it as she hurried out of the upstairs office and began following Mick in the enclosed stairwell.

Mick stopped walking. Nikki made it up to him and stood beside him. "He's claiming it's Frankie ?" she said to him. "Teddy's best friend?" She shook her head. "I'm not buying it, Boss."

"It's not for your ass to buy or not to buy," Mick said in that nasty way that always kept Nikki on pins and needles whenever she was around him. "Look into it," he ordered.

"Yes, sir. I'll let Teddy know what's going on."

"No you will not," Mick said. "Keep him out of it."

Nikki frowned. Teddy was the head of the Sinatra Crime family now. Mick was his boss, but Teddy was everybody else's boss. And besides, their marriage was having some serious issues as it was. She didn't want to add secrets to the list. "Why keep Teddy out of the loop?"

Mick gave Nikki a look so chilling she immediately regretted questioning him. "Yes, sir," she said.

Then Mick walked on out of the stairwell and got in his waiting SUV. His driver, Big Ed Bronson, drove him away.

Mick's phone began ringing almost immediately. It was Roz's detail chief. "Yep?"

"There was a shooting, Boss."

Mick's heart dropped. "My wife?"

"Unharmed, sir."

Mick exhaled.

"It appeared to be a disagreement between two men, but we haven't confirmed it yet. But that's what it's looking like."

"Where is she?"

"She's with us."

It was only then that Mick could hear her raised voice cussing out his men.

"Still kicking and screaming," the detail chief noted.

"Fuck her kicks and screams. Take her home. Keep her there until I get there."

"Do you wish to speak with her, sir?"

"That's her bitching in the background?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then no. I don't want to hear that shit. Just take her home. Have you made contact with my children?"

They knew by his children , he only meant his two minor children and the only children he had with Roz. "They're at a house party with some of their schoolmates."

"Bring them in too," Mick ordered, although he was fairly certain they weren't in danger, and then he ended the call.

"Home, sir?" asked Big Ed Bronson, his driver.

Mick gave a nod. And then he plunged into that state of dread where he wouldn't be able to do anything or concentrate on anything until he saw with his own two eyes that Roz was okay.