Page 21 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover

“Then what happened?”

“I told him I would have gone to prison for life if I’d been caught with those drugs, but he told me they wouldn’t have found them.

I told him those dogs would have sniffed them, but he claimed they couldn’t.

He ordered me to go back into that airport and pick them up.

Or get the bag and hold it in one of the bathroom stalls until the cops left.

As if I was gonna be able to know when those cop dogs left.

I couldn’t keep peeping out of the bathroom doors, they’d know something was up. ”

Nikki hesitated. Teddy was even more terrified. He wanted to pull her into his arms and protect her from every Emilio out there, but he had to hear the whole, unvarnished story. He remained still.

“When he told me to go back into that airport even though cops were there and those drug-sniffing dogs were still there, it was like the veil was lifted. I woke up earlier, but now I was wide awake. All that love I thought I had for that man just disappeared in that very moment. I knew then that he didn’t give a damn about me.

Nobody did and he sure as hell didn’t either.

And the way he slapped me like I was his whore not his woman woke me up too.

He was desperate to get those drugs back.

Just desperate. He even pulled a gun on me and told me if I didn’t come out of there with those drugs in my hand, he was going to kill me. ”

Teddy’s jaw tightened. Wait until he got his hands on that motherfucker. “What did you do?”

“The only thing I could do. I went back inside. I sure did. And I went straight up to the ticket counter and bought a ticket right then and there. A ticket to the next plane heading out I didn’t care where it was heading.

One was boarding, heading to Phoenix, Arizona, and I got my ticket in time and ran and got on that plane.

While Emilio was waiting in that parking lot for me to return with those drugs, I was buckling up.

He had no idea, but I was out of there.”

“That was smart, Nikki. Real smart.” Then Teddy exhaled. “But dangerous too.”

Nikki nodded. “Oh how I found that out. But I thought I had it licked. I couldn’t let nobody know where I was, not even my parents, and I wasn’t going to let them know either.”

“What happened to the drugs?” Teddy knew that was the crucial point.

“When Mill realized I wasn’t coming back out, I found out years later from Juda Gavin, who used to work for him, that he went and got another one of his girlfriends to go in that ladies room, go in that trash, and to dig out those drugs.

But she came back and claimed the trash had already been emptied. ”

Teddy’s heart dropped. “Was that true?”

“Juda said it wasn’t. He said she apparently called her brother or some other dude and she handed the bag to them before she made it back outside to Emilio.

She went out one way, they went out another way.

I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I do know Emilio never got his hands on those drugs again. ”

Teddy studied her eyes. That was bad, but it wouldn’t have her anguished the way she’d been lately. “What aren’t you telling me, Nikki?”

And that was when he knew the heart of the matter had arrived.

Tears appeared in her big eyes. “When I got to Phoenix and got a job waiting tables, I followed articles online about the story. I found out that those cartel boys had Emilio’s young sisters, and three of their friends who were at the house for a sleepover, murdered.

They killed all of them, Teddy. Every single one of them. ”

“ Got damn, Nikki! Got damn!” Then he looked at her. “What about Emilio? Did they get him?”

“No. He and his mother weren’t home when it happened. And when he found out, I heard he disappeared too. I didn’t know, until I saw him here in Philly, if the cartel caught him and disposed of him, or if he got away.”

“Wait a minute. You saw Emilio here in Philly?”

Nikki nodded. “He was chasing me. That’s why I wrecked my car. It was like seeing a dead man alive. It shook me. It took me to a place the terrified me.”

“You think he was the one with that army at Juda’s trailer tonight?”

Nikki nodded her head. “I’m certain he was. He’s out for vengeance, he has to be.”

“But what did Juda do to him?”

“Juda skipped town around the same time I did. He figured we were in on it together. There were rumors that he thought we stole those drugs and that I lied to him. But all those kids were killed, Teddy. All because of what I did.”

Teddy was still trying to process what she just told him to even realize her distress. Children were killed? Young kids? Emilio’s siblings, plus other children, dead? He was stunned.

“I should have went back in that airport and delivered those drugs to him. I should have done it, Teddy. Had I done it those children would still be alive. But I was only thinking about myself.”

When she said those words, Teddy realized his blunder. He was so devastated about the loss of those young people that he didn’t realize how devastated his own wife was. “No, Nikki, no,” he said as he pulled her into his arms.

“It was all my fault, Teddy, and don’t say it wasn’t. It became my fault when I agreed to go to Thailand in the first place.”

She moved back and looked her teary-eyes into his eyes, as if she was daring him to tell her a lie. “It was my fault. Wasn’t it?”

Teddy wasn’t going to pretend she didn’t share some of the blame. She did. But now was not the time to tell her that. He held her tightly as she sobbed.

But she pulled back again. “Tell me, Teddy. Please. All those children dying. It was my fault. Wasn’t it?”

“You was a kid yourself, Nikki.”

“Bullshit. I was old enough to be in love with a drug dealer and be his drug mule. That wasn’t kid stuff.”

“I used to go that way, too,” Teddy said, “until Pop kicked my ass and made me get out. You were only eighteen when you got out. You did the right thing to leave town. You did right. How was it your fault that his other girl stole those drugs?”

“But had I done my job,” Nikki started saying.

But Teddy stopped her again. “You were eighteen, Nikki. He had no business sending a kid like you on an assignment like that. All the fault is on Emilio, not on you. And I’m not just saying that either. It’s the truth.”

Nikki appreciated his support, but she knew it couldn’t possibly be all on Emilio. She fell back into his arms.

He got on the bed beside her and held her for the longest time. But he knew there was more to the story. Why did Emilio come to town? Just to get revenge, or something else? Why now after all these years?

After several more minutes, he asked her. “Why did you meet up with Juda at that trailer?”

“I hired him to take out Emilio.”

“He’s the one that killed Emilio’s family?”

“No no. Those cartel boys did that. Mill was responsible for bringing in that product and he didn’t deliver.

They had to make an example out of him. They took out his siblings and his siblings’ friends.

Juda worked for Emilio. He was a small-time dealer back then. But Emilio worked for Jackson.”

“Who’s Jackson?”

“Jackson Reeves. He’s locked up on a life without parole murder charge. He was incarcerated when it all went down. Emilio was running the show then. Those cartel boys put the blame on Emilio.”

“And Emilio put the blame on you, not his other girlfriend.”

“Right.”

“And now he’s in Philly?”

“He was. But Juda said he took him out.”

“You believed him?”

“Not now I don’t. Not after what you said happened at his trailer. And even before that I was skeptical. I mean I was happy he was saying he took care of it, but I told him before I left his trailer that I had to independently verify what he was saying before I was paying up.”

“So you haven’t confirmed it?”

“No. Juda said he was going to take me to the body tomorrow, but now you said he’s dead.”

Teddy pulled out his phone and immediately called the syndicate’s security chief Hoke Bianca. “Listen, I need you to confirm a death,” he said over the phone. Then he looked at Nikki: “Where did Juda say his man killed him?”

“Parking garage of some dentist office he claimed. But he said he moved him. He didn’t tell me where.”

Teddy got back on his phone. “I need you to find out if an Emilio, what’s his full name, Nikki?”

“Emilio Cabrera. Everybody calls him Mill. He’s from Miami, but he went into hiding so I don’t know where he’s been living all these years.”

“I need to know if an Emilio Cabrera from Miami is dead. He was here in town when it happened. It supposedly happened tonight inside a parking garage. He was at a dentist appointment. I also need intel on a Jackson . . .”

“Reeves,” Nikki said. “R-E-E-V-E-S.”

“Reeves.” He spelled it out too. “He’s locked up on an L-WOP. Which prison, Nikki?”

“I have no idea.”

“We don’t know that. Go through our pipeline and find out yourself.

See if you can get somebody inside to talk to him.

See what he knows about Emilio Cabrera. And also check out Juda Gavin.

Yeah that guy from that trailer park where our cleanup crews should be processing as we speak.

See what Reeves can tell us about him too.

When?” Teddy frowned. “What do you mean when? Yesterday. I want it yesterday. This is urgent,” he added, and then ended the call.

But Nikki knew her husband. And when he looked at her, she spoke. “Let me have it,” she said.

Teddy didn’t want to go there, but he knew he had. “Your ass should have never agreed to be anybody’s drug mule I don’t care how much you were in love with him,” he said to her firmly. “We can agree on that?”

“We can absolutely agree on that,” Nikki said with that genuine look on her face Teddy adored.

“That drug mule shit is on you. That was your mistake. Not allowing yourself to go to prison for life for that fool wasn’t on you.

That was on that idiot that sent you on that run.

You did the right thing in that moment. The death of Emilio’s family and those other children too are on Emilio and the rest of those bums that worked for him.

None of that’s on you,” Teddy said. “I understand why you didn’t want it to come out.

I would have wanted it buried too. But it’s out now.

I know about it and Pop is going to have to know about it. ”

“Not him too, Teddy.”

“He has to know, Nikki. This shit may be bigger than we think.”

She knew it too. “He’s probably going to fire me from a job I love.”

“Maybe he will. Maybe he won’t. But he has a right to make that decision for himself.” Then Teddy added: “I’ll stand by you.”

Nikki smiled. “Thanks, Teddy.” Then she looked at him. “You’re disappointed in me though. Aren’t you?”

“Yes I am. But that’s my fault. I’m treating the kid Nikki like the grownup version I know. I wanted you to be this Nikki back then. But you weren’t.”

Nikki shook her head. “I wasn’t, no.”

“You should have come to me the first time you saw Emilio in this town. You should have come to me. That’s my biggest disappointment. You have a tendency to want to figure it out for yourself.”

“Don’t you?”

“I’m not your wife. I’m your husband. It’s my job to figure it out for both of us. That’s not your job. But that’s the job you were trying to do.” Then he gave her that hard look he was known for. “That won’t happen again.”

Nikki nodded. “No it won’t,” she said. “I guarantee you it won’t.”

“I got this ball now. I’m running with it now. You understand?”

“I understand.” She nodded. “I understand.”

The way Teddy explained the situation did help her.

It didn’t lessen her load, nothing was going to do that, but at least it didn’t add to her burden.

At least he was trying to get a handle on it.

But she could still see the disappointment in his eyes.

He glossed over it, but she knew the truth.

She had let him down. In every single way.

And that was as hurtful to Nikki as what she did in her past. If she lost Teddy, she’d lose everything.

And before she could break down again, because the tears were already coming, he pulled her into his arms.

He laid her down. And he laid down with her. And held her all night.