Mick Sinatra: For Once In My Life (25 page)

“It’s
clear,” Carmelo said again, praying that these people would just leave.
 
He needed medical attention.
 
He needed help!
 
“Nothing has ever been more clearer in my
entire life,” he added.

Danny
smiled.
 
“Good,” he said.
 
“Because accidents do happen.”

Then Danny
stared at Carmelo a moment longer, and then left too.

Carmelo
immediately crawled on his knees to the nearest phone.
 
He quickly called 911.
 
“I need an ambulance!” he cried into the
phone.

“What is
your emergency, sir?” the 911 dispatcher asked.
 
“What happened?”

Carmelo
wanted to tell exactly what happened, but then he looked at the gun.
 
It was undoubtedly unregistered.
 
And he thought about both men, especially the
main one: the boss.
 
That man was no
amateur.
 
He knew what he was doing.
  
“I shot myself,” he said.
 
“I found this gun on the beach, didn’t know
who it belonged to, and I shot myself.”
 
Then Carmelo cried out as the pain intensified.
 
“Send an ambulance,” he yelled.
 
“Why are you asking me all these questions
for?
 
Send an ambulance now!”

And Carmelo
thought about Roz through his agony.
 
And
how he always thought he got her good.
 
But now, as he laid there, as he waited for the ambulance to arrive, he
couldn’t believe how good she got him.

Over the
next several months, the relationship between Roz and Mick grew stronger.
 
What surprised Roz was Mick’s level of
commitment.
 
He seemed determined to make
it work.
 
He came to town often,
sometimes three times per week, just to spend time with her.
 
He had businesses in New York, but none of
them demanded that kind of attention.
 
Whenever he was in town, he spent nearly all of his time with Roz.
 
Her acting class was still going strong, even
if her acting career continued to wane, but because she had Mick, because her
life was no longer revolving around getting some elusive big break, she loved
things just the way they were.

Until she
got a call from Barry.
 

It was a
Thursday night.
 
Mick was in Philly
taking care of business and Roz was at home, in for the night she thought,
handling her own.
 
But Barry called.
 
He wanted her to come down to the rehearsal
hall.
 
He had a part for her in his
current Broadway play.
 
“We had to fire
one of the actresses,” he said over the phone.
 
“I thought about you.
 
Come over
to the theater and we’ll talk.”

Roz was
certain that this was all Mick’s doing, so she took what should have been great
news with a grain of salt.
 
“I couldn’t
get a part in your chorus line a few months back,” she said skeptically, “but
now you want me as one of your featured actresses?
 
This has Mick written all over it.”

“I knew you
would think that,” Barry said.
 
“But I’m
telling you it’s not true.
 
I haven’t
spoken to Mick since you and he had dinner at my house.
 
I’m his friend, I love him to death, but
that’s how he treats me.
 
Once per year,
sometimes twice, he might give me a call or drop by.
 
Mick has nothing to do with this.
 
The fact that you’re dating Mick has nothing
to do with this.”

Roz wondered
how Barry would know she and Mick were still dating if he hadn’t heard from
him, but she also knew that New York was a small big town.
 
Word spread like wildfire.
 
And she wasn’t going to look that gift horse
in the mouth any longer.
 
She agreed to
meet.

She arrived
at the rehearsal hall in the middle of set runs.
 
Barry was in the middle of it all, as usual,
but he managed to pull away when he saw Roz.

“You made
it,” he said with a grand smile.

“You
convinced me that Mick wasn’t behind your decision,” she said.

“On come, Roz.
 
He doesn’t control me in that regard.
 
But come with me.
 
I need to explain this part to you carefully.
 
You have some big shoes to fill,” he added,
as he began walking away.

Roz hurried
behind him, and followed him upstairs to one of the private rooms.
 
“Why did you have to fire her?” she asked as
they walked.

“Too many
demands.
 
Lack of chemistry.
 
A plethora of reasons.
 
We’re glad she’s gone.”
 
Then Barry glanced back at Roz as she hurried
behind him.
 
“But I will not tolerate all
of that diva drama with you.”

“You don’t
have to worry about that,” Roz said.
 
She
was surprised that she wasn’t more excited.
 
Just a few months ago and this would have been like a dream come true.
 
But now that she had Mick, she realized how
limited everything else affected her.
 
Especially since it was Barry giving her this break.
 
Especially since Barry wouldn’t give her the
time of day just a few months ago.

“We’ll talk
in here,” he said, unlocking one of the private rooms.
 
He and Roz went inside.
 
He closed the door behind them.

But when
they got into the room, and Barry leaned against an old discarded desk, Roz
felt strange.
 
He was a very busy
man.
 
Why was he lingering like this?
 
“So which part is it?” she asked.
 
Normally, the director would give the new
actress the Book and do some dry line runs with her.
 
But Barry was just sitting there staring at
her.

Roz began
feeling uncomfortable.
 
“Okay now, what
is this about, Bare?” she asked.

“Why it’s
about you, Roz,” he said.
 
“It’s always
about you.”

Roz
frowned.
 
“What’s always about you?”

“You want
in?” Barry asked her.
 
“Would you like to
be in my play?”

Roz was
puzzled.
 
That was the reason why she had
come.
 
“Yes,” she said.

“The part is
yours if you give me some and give it to me raw.”

Roz was
floored.
 
What?
 
This was Barry.
 
Mick’s friend!
 
“Excuse me?” she asked, with high offense in
her voice.

“I want to
go inside of you exactly the way Mick goes inside of you.
 
Because I know he’s hitting it.
 
I know that Mandingo dick of his is hitting
you real good.
 
I want to feel what he
feels when your pussy melts in his mouth.”

“You
perverted asshole!” Roz yelled.
 
“What’s
wrong with you?
 
I wouldn’t fuck you if
you were the last man alive!
 
You think
I’m going to do something that vile just to get a part?
 
Are you out of your mind?
 
Let me get the hell out of here!”

Roz began
hurrying out of the room.
 
Barry, stunned
by her response, hurried behind her.
 
If
Mick found out he was dead.
 
He knew it.
He had to make amends.
 
He had to make
sure that bitch didn’t tell!

Roz managed
to make it out of the room and was heading down the stairs by the time Barry
was able to catch her and grab her arm.
 
They began tussling on the stairs.

“You can’t
tell, Mick,” Barry was insisting.
 
“If
you tell Mick I’ll kill you, Roz!
 
I
swear I will!”

But Roz
wasn’t thinking about that awful man.
 
She was fighting to break free.

But it was
all about Mick with Barry.
 
“Mick can
never know,” he said anxiously.
 
“You was
supposed to say yes.
 
What bed action
whore like you wouldn’t say yes?
 
Since when
did you get morals?”

“Since my
parents birth me, you moronic creep.
 
Let
me go!”

But Barry
wouldn’t.
 
Roz had nearly lost her
balance twice on those stairs, so she became more anxious.
 
And then she was able to thrust herself out
of his grasp.
 
But when she did, Barry
was the one to lose his balance.
 
Only he
didn’t correct, but overcorrected and fell.

Roz was
horrified as he fell down that long flight of stairs. His thumps, as he hit
stair after stair after stair, were so loud that a few of the actors on stage
hurried back stage to see what was going on.

By the time
they arrived, Barry was just making it to the bottom.
 
One actor quickly checked his pulse, praying
for a reading.
 
But then, after the
check, he looked at the other actors.
 
“He’s dead,” he said, unable to believe it himself.

And then the
actors, every one of them, looked up at Roz.

Roz was too
stunned to speak.

Mick
motioned for Deuce to drive.
 
He was in
the backseat of his limousine, with the three Dons seated with him, as Deuce
drove them the two blocks to Stanislav Provensano’s house.
 
Teddy Stefani was on board.
 
He trusted Mick’s judgment.
 
Carp Bianchi had his doubts, but after what
Mick did to him previously, he wasn’t about to verbalize those concerns.
 
Vito DeLuca was lukewarm.
 
He trusted Mick’s judgment, but he also knew
Provensano.
 
He didn’t honestly see how
this could work.

But when the
limousine stopped outside of Provensano’s gate, DeLuca could hold his peace no
longer.

“I’m getting
a bad feeling about this Micky,” he said.
 
“A real bad feeling.”

Mick looked
at him.
 
“What’s your concern?”

“My life,
that’s my concern!
 
How are we going to
approach this man?
 
He knows what’s going
down at the docks.
 
His men are supposed
to be seizing our cargo.
 
And now all of
sudden we’re paying him a visit?
 
He’ll
see us coming a mile away.”

“Good,” Mick
said.
 
“I want him to.”
 
And then Mick got out of the limousine.
 
He wore black trousers, a black turtleneck,
and his long flowing white ankle-length coat.
 
Hardly attire for a killing, the Dons thought, but Mick was odd that
way.
 
He never came the way they
expected.

But going
into enemy territory with just good looks and charm was too odd for
DeLuca.
 
“What the fuck is his problem?”
he asked his fellow Dons.
 
But Teddy was
already getting out of the limo, and Carp, after that run-in with Mick, wasn’t
trying to rebel right now.
 
He got out
too.

By the time
DeLuca shook his head and said a few more expletives, he got out too, and then
Mick and his associates walked up to the gate.

“How are we getting
in?” DeLuca asked Mick. “Tell me that.”

And as soon
as he asked it, a security force that was four men strong, opened the gate and
met them with drawn weapons.
 
DeLuca
almost lost his lunch.
 
He looked at
Mick, who looked calm as a cucumber.

The men, all
four of them, realized who it was and pulled their weapons down to their
sides.
 
To even Teddy’s shock, the four
men stepped aside and allowed them unimpeded passage through.
 

DeLuca and
Carp were beyond shock.
 
Now it was
Teddy’s time to look at Mick.
 
“Why would
Provensano’s men let us through this easily?” he asked him.

“Because
they are not Provensano’s men,” Mick responded.
 
“They’re mine.”

Mick smiled
without looking at the Dons.
 
Because he
knew they were blown away.
 
And they
were.
 
They looked back at the men as
they headed for the mansion.
 
By the time
they made it to the front door, all three Dons were smiling too.
 
Especially when the front door opened, and
they were escorted in by another group of Mick’s security force.

But that was
when it got real for them.
 
Because they
saw the bodies of Provensano’s security: in the living area, down the hall, on
the stairs.
 
Blood splattered the walls
like spilled paint.
 
There had been a
bloodbath here.

And then Leo
emerged from a side room.

DeLuca panicked.
 
He knew Leo was their security chief.
 
“Why aren’t you at the docks?” he asked
him.
 
“Why aren’t you guarding out
shipment?”

“Our men
took care of that.
 
The shipment is
secure.
 
Provensano’s henchmen are all
dead.”

“Did we have
any casualties?” Teddy asked.

“Three,” Leo
said.
 
“Unfortunately.
 
But they had fifteen.”

Since Mick
already knew the count, he looked around.
 
“Where is he?” he asked Leo.

Leo escorted
the men to the parlor where Stanislav Provensano sat behind his desk with his
dog, a French Labrador, in his lap.
 
Two
men stood beside him.
 
When Provensano
saw Mick, he attempted to rise from his seat.
 
“Michello!” he declared.
 
But the
two men, each pressing on one of his shoulders, sat him back down.