Page 18 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover

The big white Cadillac Escalade came to a grinding halt and Mick Sinatra hopped out, grabbed his thick briefcase, and made his way towards the front entrance of his mansion.

The heavy grounds security staff still found it odd to see the man they all knew as the most powerful, most respected, and most vicious boss of all bosses in the entire underworld carrying a briefcase every day.

If they didn’t know any better and they saw him on the street, they’d think he was a Harvard-educated titan of industry conservative country club type.

But they knew better. They marveled at how well he could pull it off.

It was around eleven at night when he walked into his home, made his way around the foyer, and saw his twin teenagers Duke and Jackie hard at work playing their video game.

Their eyes glued to the screen, Mick stood there and looked at the screen.

Guys and gals were killing each other in outrageous gun battles and Duke and his sister were trying to kill each other with their handheld game consoles and their tenacity.

Mick was a video game most of his life and knew the real game was nothing like that cartoon bullshit he was watching, but his children loved it.

They were going off to college soon to begin real adulthood, but right now they were more than happy to just be kids.

And Mick didn’t mind it at all as he looked at them.

But what he didn’t like was their inattentiveness to anything but what was in front of them. He taught them better than that. Never look straight ahead, he taught them. Always look for angles.

That was why he took his thick briefcase and slammed it against the wall so hard that it made both twins drop their consoles and jump straight up.

The only thing Mick was pleased with in their reaction was the fact that Duke put his arm protectively in front of his sister as soon as he heard the sound.

“Bang bang you’re dead,” said Mick, and he wasn’t joking either.

But the twins sighed relief. “Daddy you could have given us a heart attack,” Jackie said exasperatingly.

“Why did you scare us like that though?” asked an equally exasperated Duke.

“Why do you think?” Mick asked his youngest son.

Duke knew why, but he was too proud to say it.

But Jackie wasn’t. “Because we weren’t paying attention,” she said.

“There ya go.”

“We were only playing a game,” said a still upset Duke. “Dang.”

Mick stared at him. He was just like Duke when he was a kid.

Impatient. Insolent. Ready to break free and never look back.

But Mick be damn if he was going to allow Duke to become like him.

There was a price to be paid to be like him.

They could ask Joey. And Adrian. And even Teddy.

Not another son of his was going to pay that price.

“The only reason we’re playing this game is because Duke ruined the movie.”

“What movie?” Mick asked.

“We were watching this movie on Netflix, this mystery, and Duke saw it before so he told me who done it before I could find out for myself.”

Mick frowned at his son. “Why on earth would you do something that dumb? You know better than that, Michello.”

“It’s downright evil,” Jackie said.

“It’s only evil if you meant to do it,” Duke responded. “I forgot.”

“Bullshit!” Jackie said forcefully and then quickly looked at her father. “I didn’t mean to use profanity, Daddy--”

“Yes you did,” said Duke.

“But Duke is lying,” Jackie continued. “I told him at the beginning not to tell me what happened at the end and who done it, but he told it to me anyway. He got to enjoy figuring it out on his own when he first saw the movie, but he didn’t want me to enjoy that same thing.

That’s just selfish and hateful and evil just like I said. ”

“I agree,” Mick said. “No son of mine had better ever play life that way. It’ll come back on you and bite your ass in the butt when you least expect it.”

“Bite my ass in the butt?” Duke was blown away by his father’s mixed metaphors.

“Yes, when you least expect it that’s what will happen,” Mick said, standing by his odd reference.

“I told him the same thing more or less,” said a defiant Jackie.

“So cut it out,” Mick said bluntly to Duke.

“You treat people the way you want to be treated. Sinatras don’t start shit.

They finish shit. Don’t you ever be the starter because that kind of behavior starts with little things like sabotaging a movie’s ending so that your sister can’t enjoy it the way you did.

Don’t you ever be that kind of slick bastard nobody can trust. Don’t you ever bring those kind of unnecessary problems to our family, you hear me? You’re smarter than that.”

“Yes sir,” Duke said, and meant it this time.

Mick exhaled. Roz had made him early in their marriage to always stop what he was doing and teach his youngest children whenever they needed correction.

He didn’t do it with his older children.

But Roz refused to let him be an absent father in the lives of their twins.

But Mick came home horny. He didn’t come to teach lessons.

He wanted Roz beneath him. “Where’s your mother? ” he asked them.

“She called and said she’ll be late,” Jackie said as Duke picked up their consoles.

“Late doing what?”

“Something about taking Teddy to find Nikki or something like that.”

Mick frowned. “To find her?”

“I think that’s what she said.”

“But you weren’t paying attention?”

Jackie hated to admit it, but it was the truth. “No sir.”

Now Mick was the exasperated one as he pulled out his phone and attempted to call Roz. But he got no answer. Then he called her security detail.

“Hello sir.”

“Where is she?”

“She picked up Teddy from an accident scene.”

“An accident?” The twins looked at their father when he said those words. “Was he harmed?”

“No sir. He was okay. I don’t even know if he was a part of the accident.”

“Where did she take him?” Mick asked and the twins, satisfied their half-brother and their mother were okay, got back to playing their video game.

“They stopped at this trailer on Crissen Street.”

“Crissen?” Mick was floored. “What the fuck are they doing over there?”

“Nikki was there. She and some guy came out, she hugged him, and then she drove away. Then Teddy and Mrs. Sinatra got out and went inside. They’re still inside, sir.”

Mick was livid. “I’m on my way,” he said and ended the call.

“Ma okay?” Jackie yelled after him, but he didn’t bother to answer. He angrily hurried around that foyer and out of that front door.