Page 57 of Teddy Sinatra: Go Your Own Way
Nikki nodded. But when Teddy looked toward the front of the hall and saw Marco and the Gabrinis heading their way, he waved for them to wait. They could be the backup if all went wrong. Marco nodded. And then Teddy and Mick gingerly made their way to the open door at the end of the hall.
Teddy moved to the left side, and Mick moved to the right side with their guns ready to fire. Teddy used his fingers to make the count. And on three, they moved into position, with Teddy stooped down and Mick standing upright.
But when they jumped into the doorway ready to shoot, all they saw was an old man in a wheelchair with a shotgun sitting across his lap.
“Drop it!” Teddy yelled out as Mick looked around to make sure nobody else was in that room. “Drop it, old man, drop it!”
“You don’t have to yell. I’m not deaf.” Then the old man tossed the shotgun onto the bed. “She wasn’t worth the bullet anyway.”
When the others saw that Teddy and Mick had taken control of the room, Reno and Sal checked the remaining rooms and everywhere in the house just in case. But Nikki and Marco made their way toward the room at the end of the hall too.
“Who are you?” Teddy asked the old man.
“Whoever you want me to be.”
“I don’t want your ass to be anything. I just wanna know what your involvement was with Josh Lingus and Caitlan Downs.”
“They work for me.”
Mick stared at him. “For you? Who the fuck are you?”
But when Nikki and Marco made it into the room, too, Marco stopped in his tracks. “Poppi?”
They all looked at Marco. “You know him?” Teddy asked.
“That’s Ma’s great granddad. I told you about him.”
Teddy was floored. He looked at the old man. “You’re Dee’s grandfather?”
“Who’s Dee?” Mick asked.
“My mother Delores,” said Marco. “She’s dead.”
“He killed her,” said the old man. “She ain’t deceased by her own will. Teddy Sinatra killed her.”
“How many times I had to tell you Poppi that that’s not true. One of his capos at the time killed Ma when she tried to kill my dad’s child. My dad didn’t pull that trigger.”
“That’s what you say.”
“That’s what I know, Poppi. Ma shot me, remember? I was there!”
But the old man began coughing. It was obvious he was a very frail, very sick individual. “Teddy was the reason she died. What difference does it make who pulled the trigger?”
It made every difference in the world to Marco.
“Are you saying you were behind everything that happened?” Mick asked. “You tried to kill my children, and killed over forty of my men, and three more in that fake-suicide shit, because you thought my son killed your granddaughter?”
“I didn’t think nothing. I know he did it. She would still be alive if it wasn’t for him. If it wasn’t for you,” he added, looking Teddy dead in the eyes. “That’s why I was willing to spend every dime of my considerable fortune to see it through. I found the greedy folks. That dock supervisor. That mobster who wants to take over his daddy’s syndicate but Teddy T was standing in his way. The mob boss that had bad debts he had to pay, and also couldn’t stand the sight of you either. And they recruited the rest. But I bankrolled it all. Them doctors gave me three weeks to live three weeks ago. I wasn’t dying until I destroyed you first.”
“Apparently your plan didn’t work because I’m still here,” Teddy said.
“That’s what you think,” the old man said. “This whole house is about to go up right along with you.”
When he said those words they all stiffened. Then the old man lifted his hand and they realized a tiny remote control was in it and his thumb was on the button. “Every one of you Sinatras are going to die! Everybody’s dead!” he yelled as he was pressing the button.
As soon as he said those words and was pressing that button, Teddy pushed Nikki and Marco out of the room, and Mick shoved Teddy out of the room, and they all began running up the hall. They ran so fast they were all on the verge of stumbling over each other.
But by the time they made it up front, they realized something remarkable. The house was still standing. That bedroom was still intact. They were still standing.
