Bella laughed. “Close enough,” she said and began making herway toward Roz and the exit. When shemade it next to Roz, she winked as if she was not only in on the joke, but hada mighty secret too. And then she left.
Roz looked at Mick. “She’s yours?” Roz said, echoing whatBella had said.
“You know I didn’t say that to thatwoman,” Mick said. “Want a drink?”
Roz realized Mick wasn’t reading theroom. He was so out of touch with heremotions that he didn’t understand what she was going through. It was about Bella, but it wasn’t just aboutBella. It was about all of it. He didn’t understand how life was handing herdisappointment after disappointment, and he was never hardly ever there tocomfort her or make her feel as if there was still hope for her, and she wasthis close to being fed up with it. Hecame back for her birthday and bought her that yacht and that was supposed toease her troubled mind, when they never even addressed why her mind wastroubled to begin with. He wanted her totake a drink and chill. She wanted tolash out. “What was she doing here?” sheasked him.
“She wanted to meet with me,” Micksaid.
“What about?” Roz asked.
“About some information she wanted togive to me.”
“What kind of information?”
Mick didn’t like the tone of herquestion, but he answered her. “Informationthat she felt I needed to have.”
“You didn’t answer my question,” Rozsaid in an even harsher tone. “What kindof information?”
“Okay now, pump your brakes,” Micksaid, pointing his glass at her.
“Answer my question, Mick!”
Mick frowned. “What?”
“You heard me. I said answer my question for once. Answer the damn question!”
She was angry, but now Mick wastoo. “Who the fuck you think you arecoming in here like this is some fucking inquisition? I answered your question! Now you can sit your ass down and relax, oryou can leave.”
It was the wrong night for him to tryto manhandle her. It was not thenight. “I’ll leave thank-you,” she said,and quickly turned to leave.
Mick hadn’t expected that response. Roz was always reasonable if she wasanything. But she was leaving?
“Roz?” he called after her. “Roz?” But she flung open the door. “Roz!” he yelled as she hurried out of the door.
“Gotdammit!” Mick said withclenched teeth and hurried from behind that bar, across the room, and out intothe corridor. “Roz?” he said again whenhe saw her hurrying for the elevator. His security on duty was shocked to see him running after anybody,especially a woman. But he ran afterRoz. “Roz!” he said again.
And she almost got away. The elevator door had opened, and she wasabout to step on. But Mick grabbed herby the arm, and pulled her against him.
“Let me go!” Roz said angrily.
But Mick kept his grip on her arm andwalked her, nearly dragged her, back to his suite, slamming the door behindthem. The two guards looked at eachother with a did you see that look on their faces. Mick the Tick chasing a woman? They were stunned.
But inside that penthouse, both Rozand Mick were angry. Roz snatched awayfrom his grasp and stood toe to toe with him. He stood toe to toe with her with a fixed frown on his face. “What’s wrong with you?” he angrily askedher.
“Because I’m tired of putting up withyour bullshit,” Roz said, “something has to be wrong with me?”
“What bullshit?” Mick asked. “It was just a meeting!”
“A meeting you couldn’t bother totell me about?” Roz fired back. “Ameeting you can have in New York with your ex-fuck partner, when you knew I wasin town too at an audition that you didn’t even bother to call and ask meabout! That’s the bullshit!” she said angrily, but all Mick saw in her big,bright, beautiful eyes was pain.
And he didn’t hesitate. He pulled her into his arms. “I should have told you about the meeting,”he said. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Roz knew it was as close to anapology as she was going to get from him, but she wasn’t ready to forgive andforget. Because it wasn’t just about himmeeting secretly with Bella, a woman he knew still wanted him. It was about their relationship and how thepower was tilted too much in one direction, and she knew, if she allowed it tocontinue, it would only get worse. Andshe couldn’t afford for it to get any worse or he would hardly ever make it home. When she was younger, she could deal with iteasier. But she wasn’t getting anyyounger, and she couldn’t deal with it hardly at all anymore.
Mick pulled back and looked ather. “How did the audition go?” he askedher.
She hesitated. That was part of it too. “Not good,” she said.
Mick was disappointed to hearit. “You didn’t get the role?”
Roz shook his head. “Nope.”
“What reason this time?”
“They didn’t bother to give me areason this time. They had a callback onfive actresses. I wasn’t one ofthem.” Dena, the woman she had sat besideat the audition, wasn’t called back either. “They said maybe next time, and dismissed us losers.”
“You’re nobody’s loser,” Mick said.
Roz smiled a smile she could barelymuster. And then the landline phoneinside the suite began to ring. But Mickpulled her back into his arms.
“Aren’t you going to get that?” Rozasked him.
“No,” he said. “And it was about the raid.”
Roz didn’t understand. Was he talking about the ringing phone? “Excuse me?”
“That meeting I had with Bella,” Micksaid, rubbing her soft hair. “She has arelationship with the Don I believe is responsible for feeding intel to the ATFabout my overseas facilities.”
“That’s what that check was for?”
Mick hesitated. “No,” he said. And he didn’t have to say more. Roz knew he was just helping her out, the wayhe always had.
But when the ringing stopped on thephone, and the beep of the Voice Mail sounded and a female’s voice could beheard, Roz paid attention then.
“Hey, Mick,” the soft voice said overthe phone’s Voice Mail. “It’sCharlotte. I heard you were in town,baby. Want me to come over? I can make you feel better than any womancan. You said so yourself manytimes. Including the other night, whichwas great, by the
