Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal (15 page)

A convoy of SUVs, three strong, stopped at the
warehouse entrance and Sal Gabrini, along with Rudy Balotti, stepped out of the
middle vehicle.
 
Sal buttoned his
double-breasted suit coat, looked around at his surroundings, and then made his
way into the warehouse.
 
Rudy, buttoning
his own designer suit, followed his old man.
 
Sal’s men, in the first and last SUV, got out and followed too.
 
None of the men waited outside.
 
That was the arrangement.

Eight minutes later, two SUVs arrived and stopped
just past the front of the warehouse.
 
Shortly thereafter, a limousine drove up, moved in front of the two
SUVs, and parked at the warehouse entrance.
 
Deuce McCurry, Mick’s longtime driver and a former cop, got from behind
the wheel, walked around to the back passenger door, and opened the door.
 
Mick’s men stepped out of the two SUVs, and
made their way toward the limousine.
 
Danny Padrone stepped out of the limo first.
 
When Mick stepped out and buttoned his
suitcoat, Danny and all of the men followed him inside.
 
Mick didn’t bother to survey the area.
 
They were in Philly.
 
He knew the area.

Inside was a wide open space and Sal Gabrini was
sitting in a chair, backed by his men, in the middle of the room.
 
Rudy was standing beside his father, his arms
folded, as if his double cross of Mick was of no consequence to him.

Mick walked in slowly, staring, not at Rudy or
anyone else.
 
He was staring unblinkingly
at Sal.
 
This was his sister’s son.
 
This was the man who sent her to an early
grave.
 
This face to face was a long time
coming.

Sal stood up as Mick approached him.
 
All of his life he’d heard about Mick the
Tick.
 
His mother used to brag about him
as if he could do no wrong.
 
But he never
bothered to meet him.
 
Reno said he
attended Sprig’s funeral, but Sal stayed away.
 
Sprig forced his hand the night he killed her, but that still didn’t
make it right.

A chair was waiting in front of Sal’s chair for Mick’s
use.
 
But, first, the two men stood toe
to toe, eyeballing each other.
 
Sal knew,
given his uncle’s reputation, that if anybody was going to break the ice, it
was going to be him.
 
“Have a seat,” he
said.

Mick stood there.
 
Who the fuck did he think he was directing him?

But Sal knew the game.
 
He was usually on Mick’s side of the
line.
 
So he sat back down.
 
It was only then did Mick unbutton his suit
coat, and sit down too.
 
His men took
their position behind him.

“She wanted revenge,” Sal said.
 
“She said I was the reason my father was so
abusive to her, and she wanted me to pay for ruining her life.
 
She called me all the way to Jericho under
false pretenses.
 
She wanted to kill
me.
 
She even hired a man to do it for
her.
 
But when she saw how much I loved
my lady, she came up with a better idea.
 
She decided that she could hurt me more by killing Gemma.
 
I couldn’t allow that.
 
Gemma was my lady then.
 
She’s my wife now.
 
She wasn’t killing my wife.
 
I had to take her out.”

Mick shook his head.
 
“No,” he said.
 
“I’ll never
understand that.
 
You iced your own
mother to save some woman?
 
No.
 
That is not acceptable.”

“It’s what I did,” Sal said.
 
“I don’t give a fuck how acceptable it is to
you.
 
I did what I had to do.”

“The woman who birth you.
 
My sister.
 
My flesh and blood.
 
No.
 
I will never forgive you for that.”

“Good.
 
Because I’ll never forgive myself either.
 
I’ll never forgive myself for going to Maine
when she called in the first place when I knew already that she couldn’t stand
my guts.
 
But I went anyway.
 
To mend fences.
 
To give her another chance.
 
It almost cost me my woman.
 
So, fine.
 
Don’t forgive me.
 
I don’t need
your forgiveness.”

Mick stared at him.
 
“We have other business tonight,” he said.
 
“What happened to my sister will be
revisited.”

“That’s your choice.
 
But understand this. You have reach.
 
But so do
I
.
 
I’m not one of your flunkies.
 
You
fuck with me and mine, I fuck with you and yours.”

“Is that a threat?” Mick asked him.

“Yes,” Sal said bluntly.
 
“Consider it a threat.
 
And not a veiled one either.”

Mick continued to stare at him.
 
He knew he was a powerful man.
 
Sal Gabrini was nobody’s wimp.
 
But he wasn’t shit compared to Mick.
 
“What happened to my sister will be
revisited,” Mick repeated.

Sal nodded his understanding.
 
Because he was ready for whatever Mick threw
his way.

Then Mick looked at Rudy.
 
“So you tried your hand at the double cross,
did you?”

Rudy smiled.
 
“I was protecting my father.
 
I
hear about a man with plans to take him out, I get concerned.
 
I want more
intel
on
these plans.
 
But since your ass is so
secretive, I got nothing.”

“Only a fool would have revealed anything to you,”
Mick said.
 
“I am no fool.”

“He had nothing to do with those ship intercepts,”
Sal said.
 
“I had nothing to do with
those intercepts.
 
If I was involved, I
would own up to it.
 
No fucker alive
scares me like that.
 
But I had nothing
to do with it.”

Mick continued to stare at Sal.
 
He was known as an honorable man who said
what he meant and meant what he said. But Rudy, on the other hand, Mick
thought, as he looked up at Sal’s son.
 
“You’re his long lost son.
 
If
that’s even true.”

Rudy began to move toward Mick.
 
Mick stood up, and so did Sal.
 
Then Rudy smiled.
 
“It’s true,” he said to Mick.
 
“Just like this double cross is true.”

Mick’s men pulled out their weapons, but pointed
them at Mick.

Sal’s men pulled out their weapons, but pointed them
at Sal.

Sal and Mick looked at their men, and the guns now
turned on them.
 
Disloyalty was the
biggest problem bosses like them faced daily.
 
Betrayals went hand and hand in their world.
 
So being betrayed wasn’t new to either one of
them.
 
But that didn’t mean it didn’t piss
them off.

They looked at Rudy.

Rudy smiled.
 
“That’s right, Michello.
 
That’s
right Salvatore Luciano.
 
I double
crossed both of you!”
 
Rudy laughed.
 
“Both of your asses gave me exactly what I
needed.
 
I knew neither one of you would
trust me that easily.
 
So I did it a
different way.
 
I just got to meet you,
Sal.
 
You just found out that you were my
father.” Then Rudy smiled.
 
“But one
thing Rudy Red taught me was to take advantage of every situation.
 
And so I have.
 
I used your desire to get to know me better
as my opportunity to get to know your men.
 
I was your son.
 
They were glad to
get to know me!
 
And that’s when I gave
them an offer they couldn’t refuse.
 
That’s when I promised that they would be partners, not flunkies, when I
took over your organization.”

Mick glanced at Sal.
 
Sal was staring at Rudy.

“And you, Mick the Tick,” Rudy said derisively,
turning his sights to Mick.
 
“You treated
me like the snitch you took me for.
 
You
treated me like I was your bitch.
 
But
while you were ignoring me and disrespecting me and looking at me as if I was
the lowest thing crawling, I was getting to know your men too.
 
I was getting to know you, Danny, wasn’t I?”

Danny smiled.
 
“You were,” he said.

“And I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse either,”
Rudy said.
 
“I told him, instead of being
your second hand flunky, he’ll be co-boss with me.
 
He agreed to pick the security detail for
this outing.
 
Men he knew might
flip.
 
And it was easy.
 
Your men, Mick the Tick, easily turned on
your ass.”

Rudy smiled again.
 
He was so satisfied with his own genius that he could hardly contain his
joy.
 
“That’s how I was able to intercept
those cargos.
 
That’s how I got men like
Lorenzo Zatti to tell me what I needed to know.
 
Because he believed Sal was in on it too.
 
That my old man would protect us from
you.
 
When all the while, I was building
my own army of your own men.
 
While all
the while I had both of you fools snowed.
 
Now I will be the undisputed head of both organizations.
 
And these men right here?
 
From Danny Padrone on down?
 
They are no longer flunkies.
 
They are now my new partners.
 
They are now my board of directors.
 
What about you,
Dad
? What about you,
Uncle
Mick
?
 
Where’s your board?”

As soon as Rudy uttered those words, the lights came
up on the upstairs landing.
 
At first
they were blinding and Rudy looked up, shielding his eyes.
 
And then he saw what all the fuss was
about.
 
Then he saw Reno Gabrini, Sal’s
brother Tommy Gabrini, and Mick’s big brother Big Daddy Charles Sinatra all
standing at the railing with their guns pointed directly at him.
 
Rudy’s heart fell through his shoe.

“We are their board,” Reno shouted down.
 
“And each one of us are the chairman!”

All of the henchmen, on both sides, looked up
astounded.
 
But Sal and Mick were looking
at Rudy.
 
Rudy was dumbstruck.
 

“Drop your weapons now,” Reno proclaimed to all of
the men, “or we will drop them for you!”

Mick’s men looked to Danny.
 
Danny smiled and turned his weapon toward
Rudy.
 
Rudy, stunned once again, looked
at him too.
 
Then he looked at Mick and
Sal.
 
“How did you?
 
How did you know?”

 
“I’m how they
knew,” Danny said.

Rudy looked at him again.

“Did you really think I was going to do like all of
these men behind me did?” Danny asked.
 
“Did you really think I was going to do what all of Sal Gabrini’s men in
front of me did, and double cross my boss?
 
Double cross Mick Sinatra?
 
I
would have, if I wanted to die.
 
But I
want to live.
 
That’s why everything you
fed to me, I fed to my boss.
 
When Reno
Gabrini met with my boss, he let Reno in on your little antics too.
 
My boss and your Dad might still have their
issues with each other, but they are united in their distaste for you.”

“Oh, shit,” one of Reno’s men said with great
anxiety in his voice.
 
“Ain’t this a
bitch?
 
What have you gotten us into,
Rudy?
 
You said this would work!
 
You said they would be dead in their graves
before they found out!
 
Now they knew all
along?
 
Ain’t this a bitch?”

All of the men, who knew their bosses and knew Reno
and Tommy Gabrini didn’t play either, decided, as if they were cowards on one
accord, to make a run for it.
 
They began
shooting toward the peanut gallery as Sal’s men ran for the back exit and
Mick’s men, minus Danny, ran toward the front.
 
Danny, along with Reno, Tommy, and Charles, began firing back, taking
each one out one by one.