Page 35 of Teddy Sinatra: Go Your Own Way
But when five of those SUVs sped across the tarmac and over to the plane as soon as it landed, and big, burly bodyguards got out of those SUVs as if to make a wall of protection around this Marco person, the controllers were even more convinced that he wasn’t just a distant cousin or any remote person like that. By the reaction of the security alone, they knew he had to be a very relevant, very significant mainline Sinatra.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Nikki had fallen asleep. Teddy’s half-sister Gloria Sinatra-Drakos, who had flown into town on her husband’s plane, had fallen asleep. And both of them sat in between Mick with their heads laying on his shoulders. Big Daddy, who sat next to Mick, was leaned forward, his head down. Kimmie was playing in the attached makeshift nursery inside the suite under the supervision of her nanny. Teddy, leaned against the wall and staring at his family, hadn’t seen his father look that stricken in a long, long time. And Roz, who couldn’t be still for more than a few minutes at a time as she moved around the room like a wounded animal, just looked numb.
They were inside Jackie’s hospital suite after all tests confirmed she had no internal injuries but would remain hospitalized overnight for observation. Unnervingly quiet, the only sound in the room was of Jackie lying in bed and punching keys on her iPad as she distracted herself with her social media friends.
Although two large TVs on the walls across from each other had both been turned on and were tuned to the 24-hour news channels, their sound had been muted. But seemingly every few minutes, on CNN’s scroll at the bottom of the screen, and on MSNBC’s scroll as well, was the banner headline:The two youngest children of billionaire industrialist and reputed mob boss Mick Sinatra ambushed in Philadelphia.
It was a continuous loop. But nobody in that hospital suite tried to turn either one of the TVs off. It was as if they wanted the world to know of this injustice. It was as if they wanted their enemies to have that constant reminder, like a scroll in their brains, that there was no way in hell the Sinatras were going to let this stand.
Nerves were shot. The tension was thick. Teddy had already left the room numerous times to check on security inside and outside of the hospital. Mick went to the bathroom three times in an hour. And Roz went from curling up on bed with Jackie, to pacing the floor, to siting in various chairs around the room, and was pacing once again. This entire week had already been a nightmare for the family with what happened at the docks and with those three capos. Now this? Teddy leaned his head back. He knew there was going to be hell to pay.
“Marco!”
Nikki and Gloria quickly woke up and sat up as everybody looked at Jackie, who had sat upright in bed and was beaming from ear to ear. When they looked where she was looking, they were all pleased to see Teddy’s son, along with another young man in his early twenties too, walking through the door.
“Hello everybody,” Marco said in his usual jovial way as he gave Roz a hug and Nikki a hug and Gloria a hug and Big Daddy a handshake and hug.
Then he got to Mick. “Hello Sir,” he said as they shook hands. That was what he took to calling his grandfather:SirorBoss. Both names lacked warmth because their relationship, if they had one at all, was on that surface level too.
Then he got to his father, a man he not that long ago learned was his father, and all he could do was nod his head. “Hey Pops.”
It sounded like a warm greeting, but everybody looking at the two men knew it wasn’t.
And Teddy’s response to his son proved it. “Where your ass been?” he asked him with a sharp tone. “Nikki called you as soon as this shit went down. You should have hopped on your plane right then and there.”
“I did. But remember I live in Cali.”
“I know where you live. And I also know your ass wasn’t in California. You were in Jersey.”
Marco was shocked his father was keeping tabs on him. He didn’t think he cared. But Marco was proficient at getting out of rough situations. “I knew you guys would be holding it down long enough for me to finish my business and then get here as fast as I could.”
Teddy gave him a hard look. “You’re still selling that poison, aren’t you?”
“I don’t sell anything. I do business. I get crated cargo from point A to point B, no questions asked. That’s my business. What they do with that cargo is their business.”
“Answer my question.”
Marco exhaled. “No, sir. I do not sell drugs anymore.”
Teddy continued to stare at him. Mick glared at him. “You changed your name to my name. To Sinatra. You’re a Sinatra,” he said. “Your ass better never forget that.”
“He hasn’t forgotten it,” said Big Daddy. “Have you, Marco?”
“Not for a second,” Marco replied with a smile. Big Daddy kept in constant contact with Marco. They were very close.
But Nikki could see the pain in Marco’s big eyes as those eyes looked, once again, at Teddy. It was as if he wanted his father to make that affirmative step of standing up and hugging him, or at least show some affection towards him. But it wasn’t happening and Marco, a survivor if he was anything, moved on too.
He hurried over to the bed to fall into Jackie’s arms that had been extended and waiting impatiently for him as soon as he entered the room. They hugged vigorously.
“Let me look at you,” Marco said as he pulled back. “Damn girl. You don’t look too bad at all.”
“Some bruises, but I’m okay.” Then her face turned anguished. “But Duke isn’t.”
“He’s still in surgery?” Marco asked, looking over at his father and grandfather, both of whom were staring at the handsome young man smartly dressed in his Tom Ford suit. He got the Gabrini/Sinatra memo that every man in the Sinatra/Gabrini orbit had etched on their brains:Even if you’re a lowdown dirty dog of a thug, dress like a businessman. People, and cops especially, will treat you the way they perceive you. Marco, though they all knew was thuggish to the core, lived that memo too.
When neither man answered Marco’s question, Nikki spoke up. “He’s still in surgery. But we hope to hear something soon.”
