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Even before they made it to Copperfield Road, there were police cars and ambulances and cordoned off spaces blocks away. It was what they assumed was where it all began as Mick’s Escalade drove passed the twins’ security detail car, which was being processed with all three deceased bodyguards still inside. The car was so mangled that it was almost unrecognizable. Mick, Teddy, and Nikki all froze in fear.
But the main crime scene was much farther away and Mick kept on speeding. That was when he arrived at the nine thousand block of Copperfield Road where bumpers and tire tread and other car parts sprawled across the road like litter, and the damage continued into the woods.
The man in charge, Captain Andrews, knew the Sinatras well. That was why he was out there. He also happened to be crooked as the road and on Mick’s payroll.
“Where’s my children?” Mick asked frantically as they hurried toward the Captain and the Captain hurried to them.
“Their Mustang ran off the road,” the captain said, “and went into the woods. It flipped over, Mick.”
“Lord have mercy!” Nikki cried out.
“They’re trying to get them out now,” the captain added, but Mick and Teddy were already running into those woods and Nikki was right behind them.
When they saw the car that had slammed into that tree and exploded, their hearts began hammering in fear. But when they realized it wasn’t Duke’s car, they kept running. They saw a small group of cops attempting to make contact with Duke, and figure out a way to pull him out with the car upside down, but that wasn’t going to be enough for them.
Mick and Teddy got a grip and began to use every ounce of strength they had to lift that Mustang and flip it over. The cops out there, when they realized first that it was Mick the Tick and Teddy T, and that those fools were actually going to try to lift a car, all lent a hand. And the car actually did flip over and back on its four wheels.
Then Nikki grabbed the jaws of life from one of the cops and pried open the driver side door. And that was when they saw Jackie.
“Daddy!” she cried out when she saw her father’s face. “Duke,” she was saying too. “Duke.”
Duke was still behind the wheel, but his face was buried in the blood-stained deployed airbag, and he was lifeless.
“Get a stretcher back here now!” Nikki was yelling hysterically, and the cops were calling for a stretcher. “We need paramedics back here now!” She didn’t even know if Duke was still breathing, but that wasn’t going to stop them from pulling out all the stops.
Mick grabbed the jaws of life, went around to the passenger side of the car, pried that door open, lifted his daughter out of there, and kept her in his arms. She was crying like a baby. Duke was unconscious and bleeding profusely as Ted and Nikki sought to staunch his blood flow.
And Mick was in another world of rage. He hadn’t been so overwhelmed since the time when the twins were still babies and he, Roz, and the babies were all under attack. He looked at Duke as he held onto his hysterical daughter. These children were his heartbeat, what were these assholes thinking? They came for his children ? For Mick the Tick’s children ? Were these fuckers insane ???
Teddy was beside himself with grief and the kind of rage he could hardly contain too. He held that torniquet tightly against his kid brother’s body as he could hardly believe that somebody had the gall to come for them like this. They came for their business and their men, which was brazen enough. Now they were coming for their family ?
There would be no peace on the face of this earth until he stomped every one of those motherfuckers through the ground. His bad decisions might have started this shitshow, but his rage was going to finish it.