Roz was staring at him. Her hands were flat on his massive chest. “Everything alright?” she asked.
“No,” he said honestly. Then he looked up at her. “I’m going to have to take care of some business.”
“Business? Now?”
He hesitated. It was that part of his life that was going to be the problem. It was this time in his life when he wished he didn’t have that part of his life. “Afraid so,” he said.
Roz was so disappointed that it scared her. The idea of him leaving so soon after such a powerful connection, bothered her. And who had business to handle this time of night? She went from being perfectly content, to very concerned. Because it was more than a sexual connection for her. It was emotional. This man was touching her on a level she never thought she’d be touched again.
Mick was thrown by the intensity of their connection too. As he looked at Roz sitting on him; as he looked beyond her beautiful brown body and into her beautiful brown eyes, he didn’t want to spend a moment away from her either. But he had to go. It couldn’t be helped.
“Tell me the truth,” she said to him.
Mick could feel his heartbeat quicken. He could feel his defenses rise. “What?” he asked.
“Are you going to be okay?” she asked him.
He blinked. Because her sweetness, her concern for him stunned him. Not only was he not accustomed to it, but he never experienced it before in his life. He placed his hand on the side of her face. “I’m going to be just fine,” he said. Then he added, to his own surprise: “I’ll be back.”
The ray of hope that suddenly appeared in her eyes made him glad he said it. He smiled.
“You will?” she asked him.
“I will. That is,” he added, “if you want me back.”
“Um. Do I want you back? Let me think.” Then she smiled. “Oh, alright. You can come back.”
Mick laughed and pulled her into his arms. He could have stayed right there, holding her forever. But he knew it couldn’t be. He rubbed her bare ass. Squeezed it. And then he kissed her again, got up, got dressed, and left.
Roz started missing him as soon as he walked out of her door.
Bernardo Sarino looked up at the rearview mirror and saw the limousine splash through the puddles under the bridge and made its way to their car. Tonk Maggio looked back too, and saw it. When he turned back around, he was shaking.
“You gotta speak up for me, Leo,” he said to Mick’s security chief. Leo sat in the front seat too, beside Bernardo. Tonk sat in the back, in the middle seat, beside Rossi, another one of Mick’s men. “You gotta tell him I had nothing to do with it.”
“Lie to him in other words?” Leo asked.
“It’s no lie! I’m innocent, Leo!”
“Yeah, sure.”
“I am! I wouldn’t undermine Mick the Tick, are you crazy? Are you fucking crazy?”
“But you are,” Leo said. “For what you did, you are!”
Tonk looked back again as the limousine approached. He turned back around, his shaking even more pronounced. “You gotta speak up for me, Leo! He’ll listen to you. This is my life we’re talking about!”
“You’re a dead man, Maggio,” Leo said bluntly. “You should have known better.”
“I know better now. Help me, Leo. We go way back. Help me!”
But nobody cared. Not Leo, not Bernardo, nobody. Loyalty was number one with Mick and they all knew it. Tonk knew it too. He was on his own.
The limo pulled up alongside the Town Car. Deuce hurried out and opened the back passenger door for Mick. Mick got out and got into the backseat of the Town Car, beside Tonk. One of his closest employees.
Tonk was ready. He was ready to beg for his life. He and Mick went way back. But Mick wasn’t ready to listen to his plea. He faced forward. He didn’t even look at Tonk. “Why?” he asked him.
“You gotta understand my position, Michello. You gotta understand---”
“Why?” Mick asked him again.
Bernardo looked through the rearview. What was Tonk’s problem? He knew his only chance was to be straight with Mick. What was he doing?
“I didn’t do anything,” Tonk said. “I keep telling them they have the wrong guy!”
But Mick already heard the recording. The fact that Tonk was now lying to him, instead of coming clean, made it worse. “Why did you go to the Feds?”
“But I didn’t!”
“Stop fucking with me!” Mick screamed so loud it felt as if the car shook. “Your ass went to Special Agent Evans and told him all there was to know about me and my business. You work for me and you’re telling some gotdamn Fed all you know?”
Mick calmed back down. “Fortunate for me, Special Agent Evans work for me too,” he said. Then he looked at Tonk. “Fortunate for me. Unfortunate for you.”
Tonk’s eyes rolled in the back of his head and his entire countenance changed.