They changed cars on Hippa Street.  Mick and Roz got out of the SUV his man was driving, and got into an SUV driven by and guarded by Amelia Sinatra’s men.  And they drove for nearly half an hour to a big house in the woods.  Roz found it all strange, and Mick held her close.  But he didn’t seem too bothered by this layered security Amelia was deploying, so she kept her cool, too.

The house was well-fortified.  It was nothing like at Mick’s estate, but it was substantial.  Mick looked at Roz.  “You okay?” he asked her.

Roz nodded.  “I’m okay.  You?”

“I will be when I get some answers.”

Roz understood that.  And when the men got out, opened the back door, and Mick and Roz stepped out, they both hoped this was the beginning of those answers.

Amelia Sinatra, Mick’s half-sister on his mother’s side, who changed her name to Sinatra, at his urging, after her husband’s death, opened the front door as soon as they walked up to the door.  She was a gorgeous biracial (black and white) woman.  Her baby, Hannibal Joey Sinatra, was in her arms.  The baby’s father, Mick and Roz recently discovered, was the notorious Hammer Reese.

“Hello, Beautiful,” Amelia said to Roz.  “Sorry about all the extra.”

“What extra?” Roz asked jokingly, with a smile, and she and Amelia hugged.

Then Roz looked at the baby.  “And look at the sweet little man,” she said as she rubbed his silky hair.  “He’s sleeping so peacefully in his mommy’s arms.”

Amelia smiled.  Although she was biracial, the product of an African-American father she never met and didn’t know to this day, and a white mother: Mick’s mother, she looked far more black than white.  Her child, however, whose father was white, looked the opposite: far more white than black.  And even Mick could see how tightly she held onto that little boy.  He smiled at him, too, but wasn’t about to get all cuddly like Roz had.

“How are you, Mick?” Amelia asked, as she turned her attention to him.  She and her big brother hugged.  “You’re looking handsome as ever.”

Roz looked at her husband.  He wasn’t accustomed to people calling him handsome to his face; they usually wouldn’t dare.  But Amelia and Mick were slowly becoming close.  She could take liberties with him.

“Come on in,” she said.  “Have a seat!”

They all went into the home’s great room.  Mick and Roz took a seat on the sofa, while Amelia, with the baby, took a seat in a chair.

“So what’s going on?” she asked them.  “It’s not every day that I have Mick the Tick and his lovely wife in my home.”

“Your home,” Mick asked, “or your hiding place?”

Amelia didn’t immediately respond.  Mick had a way of coming back at her with such undeniable truth that she couldn’t lie to or pretend with him.  “A little of both,” she said.

“From whom are you hiding?” Mick asked.

Amelia smiled.  “Now you’re playing big brother, and I do mean it with pun intended.”  Then her smile left.  “What brings you here?  I was very surprised when I got the call.  I think it’s actually the first time you asked to come see me.  So what gives?  What’s up?”

Mick didn’t hesitate.  “Hammer,” he said.  “Hamilton Reese.”

Mick and Roz could both tell they had hit a nerve.  Amelia’s earlier attempt at levity, and maybe a little laying on of guilt on Mick for not checking on her more, turned into a look that was a combination of fear and loathing.

“What about Hamilton?” she asked.

“Have you see him?”

Amelia shook her head.  “Not recently, no.  Why?”

“There have been attempts,” Mick said.

Amelia knew what he meant.  “On you?”

“And my family, yes.”

“My goodness, Mick!  Is everybody alright?”

“Everybody’s fine, thank God,” Roz said.

“None of the attempts were successful,” added Mick.

“And what?” Amelia asked.  “You think Hamilton is behind those attempts?  You think Hammer is responsible?”

“Everybody involved so far, and I mean everybody, said that Teddy Stefani was involved.  You don’t know him, but Teddy Stefani was one of my underbosses for a very long time.  One of my men killed him.  Then I find out that the man behind the curtain isn’t some fucking ghost like Dead Teddy, but the Hammer himself.  I’m hearing he’s ordering all of these hits.”

But Amelia was already shaking her head.  “No way,” she said.

“That’s not what we’re hearing,” Roz said.

“I don’t doubt you’re hearing that,” Amelia said, “but I doubt the truth of what you’re hearing.  Hammer has too much on his plate already to be picking a fight with Mick.”

“Somebody wants us to believe he’s involved,” Mick said.

“That may be true,” Amelia said.  “But it’ll be too big a leap for me to believe that he’s actually involved.”  She shook her head again.  “Nope.  Don’t believe it.”

“Can we get to him through you,” Mick asked, “or will we need to go through Trevor Reese?”  Trevor Reese was the Hammer’s younger brother and was currently dating Carly Sinatra, Mick’s beloved niece.

There was a pause before Amelia spoke, and her silence said it all.  “Go through his brother,” she responded, which spoke volumes too.

Roz looked at Mick, wondering if he heard it also.  But she immediately knew that he had.  He was staring at Amelia.  He heard her loud and clear.  “What’s wrong?” he finally asked her.

Amelia looked down at her son.  He was asleep in her arms.

“What is it?” Mick asked.

“He’s threatening to go to court and declare me an unfit mother,” she said.

Roz was stunned.  Even Mick was surprised. “Why would he do that?” he asked his sister.

“He wants full custody,” Amelia said.  “Hannibal is his first born, his only child as far as he knows anyway, and he wants to raise him his way.  But I told him I wasn’t allowing that.”

“I don’t know, but I thought you two were together,” Roz said.

“Hell no,” Amelia said bluntly.  “Excuse me, but no.  Our connection was only a sexual one.  We never got beyond the bedroom.  There was no love involved whatsoever.  All lust.  We both agreed that’s no way to build a relationship.  Besides, his heart belongs to Reggie Dell.  And I don’t see how anybody’s taking it away from her.  And just like you told me, Mick: I’m a Sinatra now.  And Sinatras don’t take anybody’s sloppy seconds.”

Roz smiled.

“That sounds amicable and grownup,” Mick said, leaning forward.  “But apparently something turned south.  Something happened.  What was it?”

“I wouldn’t agree to just turn over my son to him,” she said.  “That’s what!  And he doesn’t like it.  And when Hamilton Reese doesn’t like something, there will be hell to pay.  He smiles and put on that charming front.  But you’ll be wise to stay out of his crosshairs when he’s angry with you.  I’m in his crosshairs.”

“But why, Amelia?” Mick asked.  “You aren’t telling me why.”

“What Mick is saying,” Roz said, “and what we don’t understand is why would he go so far as declaring you unfit?  Why would he go to that extreme?”

“I told you guys why,” Amelia said.  “He wants full custody.”

“Not for nothing,” Roz said.  “Because you said it yourself: Hammer Reese has enough on his plate than to pick a fight with Mick.”

“Right,” Mick agreed.  “And when he comes for you, he knows he’s picking a fight with me.”

Amelia felt a warmth inside.  She appreciated the support.  For most of her life, nearly all of her life, she was out there fighting alone.

“Is this why you’re in hiding?” Roz asked.  “You’re keeping your child from his father?”

“He has the power,” Amelia said.  “I don’t know if you guys understand just how powerful Hamilton really is.  And I’m not just talking about the fact that he used to run the CIA.  I’m talking about in the here and now.  Oh, he runs around Montreal pretending to be this community leader and do-gooder, but he’s way more than that.  He runs shadow organizations out of the CIA.  He has more reach than even Mick can imagine, and you know that’s saying something.  Every motherfucker out here is afraid of Mick.  But Hamilton takes that to a different level.”

Mick remembered what Higgs had said.  Fighting Hammer Reese was like shooting the moon.

Amelia continued.  “The courts will give him whatever he wants.  And if he tells some judge that’s probably in his pocket, anyway, that he wants full custody and wants to declare me unfit, that judge will do exactly as he says.  He’ll get what he wants.  And I’ll lose my son.”  Amelia pulled the child up into her bosom.  “I’m not losing Hannibal.  He’s all I have, and I’m not losing him.”

And she still wouldn’t ascribe any bad motives to Hammer when it came to ill will toward Mick’s family?  But just as Mick thought it, and was about to say it, a deafening alarm sounded.  Even the baby woke up startled.

Amelia, Mick, and Roz jumped up.  The front door bust open and Amelia’s personal bodyguard hurried in.  “We’ve got intruders!” he yelled.  “We’ve got intruders!”

Before Mick could react, or any words could be said in response to such an outcry, a bullet was fired that hit the bodyguard in the middle of his back.  He looked at Amelia, and fell, face first, to the floor.

And the ambush commenced.

“Go, go, go!” Mick yelled at Roz and Amelia as he pulled out his gun and began to fight back and offer cover for the two women.

“This way,” Amelia yelled at Roz as she huddled up her baby and ran toward a side door.  Roz ran with her.

Mick jumped behind the sofa and began firing at the sudden intrusion of sweaty bodies and gunfire.  He fought as hard as he could.  But the firepower kept coming, in an overwhelming show of force, and he knew he was fighting a losing battle.

But just when he knew he had to figure out a way to get out of that situation or risk certain death, the side doors bust open and Amelia, with two guns in her hands, came out blazing.  She shot and she shot her way back into the great room, giving Mick the extra cover he needed.  And between the two of them, they took out the first wave of shooters easily.

But Mick was an old pro, and so was Amelia, who used to be an international drug dealer.  They knew there would be another wave of attack.

They hurried through the side door where Roz was waiting with the baby, a baby she had managed to calm back down.

“Down here!” Amelia yelled, as she quickly retrieved her baby and hurried toward a set of stairs that led to the home’s basement.

Mick quickly grabbed Roz, and they made a run for it down those stairs.  Just as Mick was closing the hatch behind them, another group of gunmen appeared and began firing, just missing them by inches.

Amelia, Roz, and Mick took off down those stairs.  And they knew they were running for their lives.  The gunmen upstairs kicked in the hatch, and began hurrying downstairs after them.

Amelia, Roz, and Mick made it through another door, and Mick slammed it shut.  Amelia was able to type in a code on the keypad, and lock the door from outside, unable to be unlocked from inside.  She knew it was only a temporary fix.  But it would buy them some time.

They were outside now.  Amelia and Roz felt a little better.  But not Mick.  “Where to?” he asked.

“Over here,” Amelia said as she led them around the side of the house.  “I keep a car handy for times like these.”

They turned that corner quickly, with Mick bringing up the rear and keeping his eye on any approaching bodies.  They made it to where the automobile was waiting.  But Hamilton “Hammer” Reese, leaned against the car, was waiting too.  They were all astounded.  Especially Amelia, who thought he had no idea where she now lived.

Hammer opened the car’s back door.  “Get in,” he ordered.

But Mick quickly placed a gun to Hammer’s head.

Hammer smiled.  “You can fight to the death, and I assure you it will be to the death, with that approaching army, or you can come with me.”

“We’ll fight,” Amelia said angrily.  “We aren’t going anywhere with your crazy ass!”

Hammer’s anger flared.  “And you aren’t going anywhere with my child,” he said.

And then the sound of kicks on the basement door, and gunshots to try and unlock, or, more likely, knock it down from inside, could be heard.

“They’re coming, Mick!” Roz cried.

Although Amelia and perhaps Hammer knew the area far better than Mick, it was Mick’s strength and intuition Roz still relied on.  Nobody, not even the man everybody seemed to fear, would ever be more of a badass than Mick, in Roz’s eyes.

But when the door was finally kicked open, and the gunmen inside were about to commandeer their way outside, it was Hammer Reese, with a hidden remote control in his hand, who changed the game.  He pressed the button.  Within seconds the interior of the home blew up into a massive explosion of fire.

“Now will you come with me?” Hammer asked.

“No,” Mick said just as firmly as Amelia had said it.  “But you can come with us.”

And then Mick frisked Hammer and placed him on the front passenger seat.  “Drive,” he said to Amelia.

Amelia handed the baby to Roz and quickly got behind the wheel of her car:  a car whose keys were kept in the ignition.  Mick placed Roz in the backseat, and he sat down beside her.  Mick could have put his gun on Hammer, just in case, but he knew it wasn’t necessary.  He relied on his gut.  And his gut was telling him, in no uncertain terms, that Hammer Reese was not his enemy.

They sped away as Amelia’s house exploded into an out-of-control fireball.