“But you don’t know who Pauley Jayfeared,” Teddy said.
“I don’t have to know,” Randazzosaid. “I fear your father more. That is why I would never cross him. And if Pauley Jay didn’t fear your father,then Pauley Jay was a fool.”
“And your men?” Teddy asked.
“They no longer worked for me,”Randazzo said. “Pauley Jay must havehired them.”
“Or they hired Pauley,” said Mick,and Teddy and Randazzo looked at him.
“There’s a mob boss behindthis,” Mick said. “No man can infiltrate the mob, andespecially not my operations in Rome and Belarus, without inside help.”
“But if it wasn’t a mob boss,” saidTeddy, “then it had to be a made man.”
“Correct,” Mick said.
“A made man like Pauley himself.”
Mick nodded. “Correct,” he said.
“But why would he do it?” Randazzoasked. “He was your man in Rome. You speak to me about prestige. Pauley Jay had the most prestigious job inRome. Why would he turn on you?”
“Money,” Mick said easily. “It’s always money.”
“Which means,” Teddy said, “Pauleyhad to have either received or been promised tremendous dollars.”
“Millions,” said Randazzo.
“But why would he lie when he hadeverything to lose?” Teddy asked.
“Because he knew he was going to loseit anyway,” said Mick. “He figured he’dgive me a name, and I would let him back up to weave his tale. That’s why he lied. He thought his lie would let him live.”
But Mick was staring atRandazzo. Mick was still making up hismind.
Randazzo, realizing it, looked athim. And pleaded his case. “Please do not let anybody lead you tobelieve that the Randazzo family is not simpatico with you, Michello. We are. We will always be. We have givenour allegiance to the Sinatra family, and your family will always have thatallegiance.”
Mick stared a moment longer, and thenbegan getting out of the car. “Providethat verification to my office,” he said, and headed back to his plane.
Teddy got out and hurried beside hisfather. “You don’t believe him?” heasked.
“Yes.”
“Then why would you humiliate yourfriend?”
“I told you I have no friends,” Micksaid.
Teddy stared at his father. “You don’t believe Pauley Jay was the onlyinside man. Do you?”
“The only inside man? Yes. He provided the intel, but he wasn’t the snitch. Whoever alerted the Feds to come after myoperation had to be major, and with major reach.”
“The kind of reach only a mob bosscould have?”
“Right.”
“Then why did you go along with the PauleyJay as puppet master theory in Randazzo’s car?”
“Because my theory wasn’t Randazzo’sbusiness.”
Teddy stared at Mick. “You know who that mob boss is. Don’t you, Pop?”
Mick didn’t respond and began headingup the steps of his plane. Like always,Mick was keeping it to himself until he knew for certain how he was going tohandle the problem. Which infuriatedTeddy. He was his underboss, dammit, buthe didn’t know what shit was going down half the time and was groping in thedark the other half. But what could hedo?
One day he was going to do plenty, hethought, as he got on that plane too. One day he was going to get out from under his father’s shadow and dohis own thing. He had to. A strong man like him couldn’t stay boxed inthe way his father boxed him in. Hisbreak from his father was a long time coming, and he knew it was high time heput it into high gear. He might notsurvive the split: he understood his father wasn’t going to be happy with thesplit. But a split had to happen.
Now, Teddy felt, more than ever.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
By the time Roz made it home latethat evening, Joey, in his standard oversized jeans and jersey, was justleaving for his evening out. But shenoticed a problem. “Where’s your cane,Joey?” she asked him at the door.
“Don’t need it tonight,” he saidhappily. “I feel great.”
“But what if the pain returns, boy,”Roz said, “and you’re unable to walk without assistance? Don’t get cute with your health.”
Joey laughed, the thick gold chainsaround his neck clanging from the movement of his upper, now very muscular bodythanks to all of those workouts in his father’s home gym that his physicaltherapist helped him through. “I’malright, Ma! I know how my body responds now. I’m good, though. For real.”
Roz still was doubtful, but Joey wasa grown-ass man. As nothing more thanhis stepmother, she had no vote in how he chose to live his life, and she knewit. “Where are the twins?” she asked.
“Sleep,” he said. “Bye, Ma!” he added, kissed her on the cheek,and walked out with only the slightest of limps.
And as soon as the door closed behindhim, and she locked it, she could feel the emptiness of that big home. It most felt like home when Mick wasthere. Whenever he wasn’t there, the bighouse sometimes felt like a beautiful but foreboding museum to Roz. Or sometimes, on her worse days, like amausoleum. It was a lot of house withthe addition of a servants’ quarters in the basement that only added to itsplantation feel. She still couldn’timagine how Mick lived there alone before he met her. It was bigger now, thanks to rebuilds andrenovations, but it was big then too. And he lived there alone. Formany years alone. She would never livein a house that massive by herself. Never!
She made her way to the twins’bedrooms downstairs. First Duke, who wasfast asleep, and then Jackie, who was fast asleep, too, but with her iPhonestill in her hand. Roz smiled. That was Jackie. Always the most popular girl in the room evenin grade school.
She removed the phone, placed it onher nightstand, and stared at her beautiful daughter. Mick had one other daughter, Gloria Sinatra,who was grown and lived in Florida and whose mother, a thorn in Roz’s side toomany times, still relied on Mick for financial support whenever her fashionline didn’t sell the way she had hoped, or for whatever reason she came upwith. What always concerned Roz was whyMick felt a need to continue to support that grown-ass woman when Gloria was wellbeyond her minor years. But he supportedher. And Bella Caine, Gloria’s mother,always found a way to get anything she wanted from Mick. She just had that way about
