Page 2 of Teddy Sinatra: Go Your Own Way
“All three were on Rarsi’s payroll too.”
“Are you trying to tell me that my guys,mycapos, were two-timingme?”
“That’s what I’m telling you, yes.”
“They wouldn’t dare. And neither would Rarsi go along with something that whacked. You gotta give me more than that, Bugs.”
“I’m telling you what I know. Not what I think. What I know.”
“How you know it?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“Yeah right.”
“But I’m telling you the truth. My intel is the best intel in this town and you can’t tell me it’s not. That’s why you keep coming back for more.”
“Okay, hotshot, answer this,” said Teddy. “What Rarsi had to offer them? You tell me that. They were making fifty times what his capos make. They were with the biggest and most powerful organization in the underworld. They were dead men walking if they two-timed me and they knew it. What Rarsi had to offer them?”
Bugs didn’t hesitate. “Revenge.”
Teddy frowned. “What revenge? What are you talking?”
“Revenge against you and your old man. That’s what Rarsi could give to them. And it was an easy buy. They feed him intel on the what and the where with shipments from your various ports of call, and he keeps their double-dealing undercover while Rarsi works his destruction.”
“What’s he trying to destroy?”
Bugs smiled. “Obviously you and your old man.”
“Why would a man that’s been my father’s friend for decades suddenly want to destroy him?”
“I don’t know that yet. But whatever it is, it’s big.”
Teddy had a gruff look on his face. But even Bugs could tell it was more out of frustration by what he just heard than anger toward him: the messenger. But Teddy was thrown. There was no getting around it. “What you expect me to do with news like that?” he asked Bugs.
“Believe it. I wouldn’t put my reputation on the line, not to mention my life on the line, by coming up in your face telling you a lie. I need the money too bad. And I actually like my life.” Then Bugs took a long swig of his whiskey and then sat the mug down. “I’ll get more intel soon enough. More precise intel. But I already gave you way more than you already had.”
That was a fact. But Teddy needed more. There was no way he could go up in Rarsi’s face based on what? Some ex crooked cop spilling tea? He had to have more.
“But how much more intel I’m willing to risk my neck over,” said Bugs, “is entirely dependent on how much you’re willing to pay for what I’ve already given. Which would be a good indicator to me of what I can expect once I get more intel and give it to you.”
It was a no-brainer that Teddy was going big. He needed that intel and Bugs seemed to be the only one with some. “Twenty-five grand. Triple that when you bring me more.”
Bugs smiled. It was more than he could have hoped for. “That’s why I like working for you, Teddy T. You look out for your people.”
“Number one, you don’t work for me. Number two, your kind will never be my people. This is a business transaction. Nothing more. Nothing less.”
Bugs knew he was scum. He knew he was a crooked ex-cop that did a lot of crooked shit in his day. But he hated the way Teddy never let him forget it. The way Teddy always treated him like he was slime. But the money made him smile. “Glad doing business with you,” he said. Then he stood up and made his way toward the restrooms where the actual transaction would take place.
Teddy motioned for one of his capos to come over to him. When the capo arrived, he leaned down to the boss. “Twenty-five grand,” Teddy whispered to him. “And pace-make his ass.” Which meant the capo was to plant a bug on Bugs while he was handing him the cash.
“Got it,” the capo said, and headed for the restroom to handle the transaction.
But the money was the least thing on Teddy’s mind. Because that news had blown him away. It was like he had said Sal Gabrini or Monk Paletti was double-crossing Pop. That was how close Potter Rarsi was to the Sinatra family. Their organizations never had an issue with one another ever. But if what Bugs said was true and Rarsi’s syndicate did have footprints in his syndicate, then Teddy knew he had bigger trouble than some idiot offing three of his capos and making it look like suicide.
But what if Bugs was full of shit and had another agenda? Or was purposely dishing out disinformation? The fact that Teddy had ordered his capo to place a bug on Bugs would help them get an idea where he was getting his intel from. But as a demonstration of how seriously Teddy was taking the intel, he text his third in line and ordered him to put a tail on Cartelli. They needed all they could get.
“I thought that was you!”
