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“Mommy, where’s Daddy? Mommy? Mommy, where’s Daddy?”

Nikki Sinatra slowly opened her eyes. Her biracial toddler was standing beside her bed looking adorable with her big green eyes like her father’s and her smooth brown skin like her mother’s and her long, curly hair like a combination of both her parents. She was still sleepy, but she smiled. Angela Sinatra, called Kimmie , always made her smile. “Hey sweetie.”

“Mommy, where’s Daddy?”

Nikki grabbed her phone from the nightstand and looked at the time. She was still having trouble focusing her sleepy eyes, but she could easily see that it was 11:21pm. Late.

She sat the phone down, grabbed her daughter that stood in her pjs on the side of her bed, and she laid her on the bed beside her. “Where’s Nanny?”

“I waited until she went to sleep. Then I came to your room.”

Nikki shook her head. Another gangster in the family, she thought. “Daddy’s out working, baby. He’s at work.”

“But it’s bedtime. Why Daddy not in bed?”

Nikki rubbed her hair. Both of her parents were smart people and she inherited that gene too. Even as a toddler, she was nobody’s pushover. She was not going to take stupid answers as if they made sense. And Nikki wasn’t trying to make her take them. But she wasn’t about to explain anything about her parents’ complicated work life this time of night either. “Go to sleep. He’ll be home soon.”

“I don’t see him much anymore. I want Daddy.”

“I know, baby girl. It’s just tough times at work. But he’ll be here soon.”

“With bells and whistles on?”

Nikki smiled. It was the way she used to describe Teddy’s entrance whenever he would come home, and it would make Kimmie laugh. “With bells and whistles on,” she said. And that seemed to be enough for Kimmie. She cuddled against her mother and, within minutes, was fast asleep.

But Nikki was wide awake. They had problems at the docks. A series of threats they couldn’t trace were decimating their bottom line and ships were unable to sail because of those threats. And then, just a couple days ago, three of their capos supposedly committed suicide. That was a farce and everybody in the organization knew it. But it all went down while Mick and Roz were on vacation out of the country with the twins, who were going away to college after the trip.

But Mick’s absence made it look as if she and Teddy, who ran his entire syndicate, didn’t have their acts together, and it was all falling apart under their watch.

In that climate, there was no way she was going to fault Teddy for working his ass off to get to the bottom of what was going down. She was working her ass off, too, trying to find answers. But one of them had to be there for Kimmie. And since Teddy was the boss and she was his underboss, she was the logical choice.

Kimmie had a live-in nanny around-the-clock and a security details too, but none of them could substitute for her parents. Nikki was there for breakfast every morning and dinner every night no matter what was going on. As for Teddy at breakfast and dinner? He was there whenever he could manage to get away, which of late was rarely ever. But they both were still going to feel the wrath of Mick when he returned no matter what they did. Which was a lifestyle that was getting unsustainable to Nikki. It was like they were killing themselves for what? His ungrateful ass?

Not that she didn’t love and respect Mick Sinatra. She had nothing but love and respect for him. But his heavy-handed presence in their lives was so overwhelming that he was getting to be too much. It was getting to the outside of too much.

She tried to forget all of that craziness that surrounded them and tried to go back to sleep. But just as she was getting there, her phone rang. When she looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Quinn, she almost didn’t answer it. But Quinn was her girl. Maybe her best friend outside of Roz and Teddy’s kid sister Gloria. She answered.

“Hey, Quinn, what’s up?”

“I hope I didn’t wake you.”

“No I was . . . What’s up?”

“You know I’m no gossip girl.”

She was, but Nikki needed to know what she wanted. “Okay.”

“And you know I hate telling the news.”

“Quinn, what is it?”

“Is Teddy home?”

Nikki’s heart dropped. Somehow she knew it was going to be about Teddy. “No. Why?”

“I saw him at this bar tonight.”

“At a bar?”

“Yeah. Ann and I went out for drinks to talk about maybe getting a couple’s trip together for later this month.”

There was no way Nikki and Teddy were going to be able to go on any trips any time soon, but Nikki needed to know what she saw. “And?”

“And we saw Teddy girl. With a girl. Or should I say a very attractive woman.”

Nikki’s previous anxiety had already factored in that it would be a woman involved. “Okay.”

“I wouldn’t have mentioned it because I know Teddy has to deal with many women in the import/export business he’s in.”

Nikki’s friends knew the rumors about Teddy being named the boss of his father’s crime syndicate and Nikki the underboss, but they all pretended as if it was just bad rumors and they actually were one hundred percent legit down at the docks. “You would not have mentioned it,” Nikki said, “but you’re mentioning it because why?”

“Because she drank from his same glass.”

That did surprise Nikki. But she knew Quinn. That could have waited until tomorrow. “And?” Nikki asked.

“And he kissed her, Nikki. He kissed her on the lips!”

That did throw Nikki for a loop. And her heart did drop again, if that was even possible. “He kissed her?”

“On the lips, yes.”

“Or did she kiss him?”

“Oh come on, Nick! Don’t tell me you’re now that making excuses for your man’s bad behavior girl too. What’s the difference? They kissed each other. He, a very married man, allowed a woman to kiss him or he kissed her. Either way it’s bad.”

Nikki knew it too. But what did she want her to say? “Did they leave the bar together?”

“No, thank goodness. He left first. She stuck around, drinking the last of his drink, talking to some other guy who tried to hit on her but it didn’t work, and then she finally left.”

“Okay thanks, Quinn.”

“That’s it? Thanks Quinn?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“That you’re gonna leave his ass, that’s what! You can’t let him get away with this, Nikki.”

“I’m not trying to let him get away with shit. But what I’m not going to do is discuss my marriage with you or Ann or anybody else. Yes, I appreciate you telling me what you saw. You made the right call. But everything after that is between Teddy and me. I know that sounds harsh but that’s just the way it is.”

“It doesn’t sound harsh, girl. It sounds like you. You went from bartending to getting all the way up in the good graces of a bougie man like Mick Sinatra. And you married his son, who all these bitches in Philly wanted to marry but he wasn’t interested. And I’m willing to bet those Sinatras saw in you what I see in you: You don’t bend, you don’t break. You just keep pressing on. Because if it had been my man, or Ann’s man, we’d have his clothes out on the lawn before he made it home. For real though. But I doubt seriously if you even mention it to him. You have no insecurities Nikki. That’s what we respect most about you. You aren’t like us.”

Then Quinn laughed. But Nikki didn’t find it funny at all. No insecurities? Was she kidding? Nikki had tons of insecurities. And her marriage to Teddy, because he was and still remained in such high demand, was at the top of that list. The fact that she was full-figured and not some skinny girl like the women he used to prefer, was up there too.

“Anyway, I don’t want to wake Kimmie. I’ll call you tomorrow,” Nikki said, they said their goodbyes, and she ended the call.

But it would be hours, and still no Teddy, before Nikki finally fell asleep.

And hours still before Teddy made it home.