Page 24 of Nikki Sinatra: For Her Lover

She told her story. All of it. From her falling in love with Emilio Cabrera, to her helping him out by dropping off packages to the drug boys.

She told Mick and Roz about how young she was at the time, and the manipulation she endured from Emilio, but how she held to her refusal to transport across state lines or out of the country even then.

But as she continued to fall hard for him, and when he dangled marriage and kids in her face, she agreed to be his drug mule just that one time.

Roz was completely sympathetic. She knew what it was like to fall hard for these no-good men. “Oh you poor baby,” she said.

“Poor my ass,” said Mick, completely unsympathetic. “All her ass had to do was say no.”

“She was eighteen, Mick!”

“I don’t give a fuck! I was jumping on my daddy for jumping on my mother before I was ten. I had the weight of an entire syndicate on my shoulders by the time I was eighteen, what the fuck I care about her age? She knew what she was getting into.”

Nikki frowned. If he was this angry now, she thought, what was he going to be when he heard the rest of the story? “Yes, I knew,” she said, taking full ownership. “I knew.”

“Keep talking,” Mick said.

“Juda worked for Emilio, but he was just caught up like I was.”

“Is that what they call irresponsibility now?” Mick asked. “Caught up?”

“Pop you’re not being fair,” said Teddy.

“My wife could have been killed last night,” Mick responded furiously, nearly jumping out of his chair, “and you expect me to be fair ?” He looked at Nikki. “Keep talking,” he said to her with anger still simmering in his voice.

Nikki wanted to die where she sat. Had Roz been even injured, it would have been over for Nikki and probably Teddy too.

She swallowed hard, and continued telling how she had that close call in Thailand, but made it back to Miami in one piece.

She told about what happened in the airport and how she decided to take the luggage filled with drugs and toss it in the bottom of the trash barrel in the restroom area.

“You tossed drugs that you knew belonged to some Columbian cartel in the trash?” Mick asked incredulously.

“Didn’t you hear her, Pop? There were drug-sniffing dogs waiting at every exit. She had to get rid of it.”

“What else could I do?” she asked.

“You could have waited until those dogs had left. Wait it out in that bathroom. Why didn’t your ass do that?”

“I told you I panicked, sir. I panicked.”

Mick could feel her pain, and he was sorry. But he couldn’t let his feet off of the gas. He had to be certain she wasn’t bringing the bad habits of her youth into her present situation. “Your na?ve ass should have never been involved in any of it,” he said.

She nodded. “I found that out real quick.”

“Go on.”

“When I got to the car and told Emilio what I’d done, he slapped the shit out of me and was furious with me.”

Teddy could see Mick’s jaw tightened. He wished, like Teddy wished when he heard it, that he could have been there for Nikki.

“He ordered me to go back inside and get that luggage. He said no dog could sniff those drugs out because of the components they had in that suitcase. So I went back inside. But when he slapped me, it was like he slapped some sense into me because I woke up then. And I marched back into that airport, went straight up to the desk, and bought me a ticket to the next flight heading out. One was already boarding and I grabbed the ticket and took off.”

“Good for you,” Roz said. “Where did you go?”

“Where that plane was going. I went to Arizona. I stayed there for a minute waiting tables, doing some bartending. And then I moved on to California.”

“That’s when we met you when you were bartending at that Beverly Hills hotel,” said Roz.

Nikki nodded. “Eventually, yes ma’am.”

“Did Emilio retrieve his product?” Mick asked.

“No sir. He sent another female into that bathroom to get it, but she handed it off to her brother or somebody else. At least that’s what I heard.”

“And that’s it?” asked Roz. “At least you got out of there alive.”

“I did,” said Nikki. But then a horribly sad look appeared in her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Roz asked her.

Tears began to appear in her beautiful, golden-brown amber eyes. “Emilio took off to who knows where but those cartel boys wasn’t going to chase him down. They went to his mother’s house and killed all of his younger siblings, who were all minors.”

Roz was floored. “Oh no!”

“And they also killed the three other kids that were there having a sleepover that night.”

“Good Lord!” Roz was beside herself as tears dropped from Nikki’s eyes. Teddy took her hand in his hand again and squeezed it.

Although Mick just sat there, he wasn’t stunned in the least. “That’s what you get when you play grownup games,” he said to Nikki.

“I thought I loved him,” Nikki said as she looked her tear-stained eyes into Mick’s eyes. “I was doing it for him.”

And Mick softened. Just seeing Nikki in such distress did something to him. “I could kick your ass for being so na?ve, but what they did to those kids wasn’t your fault. You were just a stupid kid yourself.”

Teddy and Roz both looked at Mick. He went from blaming her for all of it despite her age, to excusing her because of her age. It made them wonder if those rumors and jokes were true and that Mick truly did favor Nikki above all else. That he truly loved Nikki.

Nikki knew it was out of character for Mr. Sinatra too, but she needed to hear it. For him to say she was just a dumb kid meant the world to her.

“So where are we now?” Mick asked them. “Why was this Juda in town, and why were you meeting with him?”

“After everything went down in Miami, we ran into each other years later in L.A. He had cleaned up his act and was looking for a job. I was the manager of that Beverly Hills bar at the time, and I gave him a job there. It worked out for him. He came to Philly just a couple months ago when he lost his job. He knew I had moved here to be with Teddy. He looked me up and asked if I could hook him up. I got him a job.”

“On my docks?” Mick asked incredulously.

“No, sir,” Nikki quickly responded. “I got him a bartending job. But the night before last I was on a girls night out at the club. That’s when I saw Emilio.”

“Emilio?” Even Roz was surprised. “That drug dealer you were in love with? The one whose entire family they killed?”

Nikki nodded. “Him yes. So you can imagine I went into meltdown.”

“You should have been terrified.”

“I was. So I called Juda.”

Mick frowned. “Juda? Why your ass didn’t call Teddy?”

“That’s what I said,” Teddy said.

“Because I knew if Emilio was back full-strength, it could be war if I got Teddy or you or anybody else associated with the syndicate involved.”

“Then your ass should have called Reno Gabrini or Sal Gabrini or Tommy Gabrini. Or Monk Paletti. Let them handle it. Hell you could have called Amelia and Hammer Reese and let Hammer put the entire fucking CIA on the case. But your ass called Juda ?”

Nikki looked even more distressed. “You don’t understand.

I couldn’t tell any of them what I’d done.

I caused the death of children. They would never respect me again if they found that out.

You and Ma will never look at me again the same way after what I’d done. You’ll never respect me again.”

“I can never disrespect you, Nikki,” Mick said. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

Mick was saying exactly what Nikki needed to hear. Teddy and Roz were astounded and pleased, but a little suspicious too. That was so not like him to let up off his rage.

But it was music to Nikki’s ears. “Thank you, sir,” she said.

“What did Juda do for you?”

“I hired him to hire somebody to take Emilio out. He was going to get me and he wasn’t going to stop until he accomplished his goal.

That’s why I went to Juda’s trailer that night.

He told me Emilio was dead. I told him I had to confirm it.

He said he would show me where he dumped the body today, and we hugged and I left.

Apparently after I left Emilio’s men showed up. ”

“Which they would have anyway,” said Roz. “Killing one man wasn’t going to make a difference if he had an army of men with him.”

“But he was the head,” said Mick. “Taking out the head makes a difference.”

“But that’s the thing,” Teddy said and everybody looked at him. It was only then did they realize he was even more serious than he usually looked.

“What do you mean?” Roz asked him.

“Remember when I had Hoke look into Juda and Emilio and Jackson Reeves?”

“Jackson Reeves? Him I know,” said Mick.

They looked at him. “You know Jackson Reeves?” Nikki asked.

“He used to run drugs out of Miami years ago. But he got locked up on an L-WOP. I haven’t seen him in a long time.”

“But that’s who Emilio used to work for. He worked for Jackson, and Juda worked for Emilio. Then Emilio took over when Jackson got locked up and everybody was working for him.” Then Nikki looked at Teddy. “But what did Juda tell you?”

Teddy leaned back. “He didn’t tell me any of this shit. Hoke told me before we came over here that Emilio’s not dead.”

Roz was audibly aghast. Mick was inaudibly so. Nikki was angry. “He’s not dead? You’re saying Juda lied to me?”

“Apparently so. An attempt was made on Emilio’s life, we got that on video in some parking garage, but Emilio took out the hired gun himself.”

“But why would this Juda person lie?” asked Roz.

“The money,” said Nikki. “I owed him ninety thousand dollars after I confirmed Mill was dead. For a guy like Juda, that’s a lot of cash.” Then Nikki leaned back too.

“So where do we go from here?” Roz asked.

“Your ass staying out of it and I mean that, Rosalyn,” Mick said. Then he looked at Teddy and Nikki. “We ran the backgrounds on the army that showed up at that trailer last night. They were all your garden variety criminals who were paid handsomely to do the job.”