Page 13 of Teddy Sinatra: Go Your Own Way
“Yes, she was there. She ran out not long before you came up.”
Teddy couldn’t believe it. “And she left my wife to fight him off by yourself?”
“I honestly don’t think she knew who I was. She just saw that he and I were fighting and she took that opportunity to get out of there. It was self-preservation.”
“At least somebody cared about themselves up in that motherfucker.”
Nikki leaned her head back against the wall. Teddy watched her. She had thick, full hair that she always wore in a perfect hairstyle that hung just below her neck. Her face could rival the most beautiful girl’s in the world. But she looked troubled to him. “Nikki, what is it?”
“The way you respond to me in the field is the very reason I’m still not fully accepted by the guys. They see how you baby me. How you’re terrified every time I’m in any kind of scuffle like I can’t take care of myself.”
“Scuffle my ass. He could have killed you!”
“Ah come on, Teddy. We deal with guys far worse than him every week.”
“You don’t.”
“I’m the number two in the largest syndicate in the world. If I can’t handle some woman-beating scum like him, then what are we doing? Playing at this shit? Your father wouldn’t have signed off on me becoming your number two if I didn’t have what it takes.”
“Who said you didn’t have what it takes? I never said that. What I’m saying is that you’re my wife too. The mother of my child. And I can’t pretend you aren’t.”
Nikki exhaled as the office phone began to ring.
“And the next time you ditch your security when Pop ordered security for both of us before he left the country, then I’m telling him about it. I’m gonna let him deal with your disobedient ass,” he said as he pressed Speaker on the desk phone and answered the call. “What?”
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
The voice was unfamiliar. Teddy glanced at Nikki. Nikki stood away from the wall and looked too. They had been getting those same menacing phone calls all week that grounded their fleet.
“You wouldn’t do what if you were me?” Teddy asked over the phone.
“Sail.”
Sail? Who was sailing, Nikki wondered. All of their ships, the ones dockside anyway, were in a holding pattern.
“Why wouldn’t you sail?” Teddy asked the caller.
“Because it isn’t the wise thing to do.”
“What you know about wisdom?”
“I know who I am. And who I am not.”
Teddy frowned. “Who is this?”
“Do you know who I am not?”
“No. But I’m sure you’re gonna tell me.”
“I’m not the Unabomber. You know why?”
“Why?”
“Because, unlike him, I’ll never get caught. I sail away. Just like your men are about to do.”
“Who are you?” Teddy asked again.
“I’m the man that didn’t have to get onboard.”
