Famed socialite Fiona Mara stood in the reception area of her Tuscan mansion and personally greeted each and every one of her guests.  When what seemed like the hundredth limo pulled up, she and her date, drug store magnet Shawny Lungren, who stood beside her, was curious to see who it could be this time.  So far, in both their estimates, the party was going to be dull as rocks.  No standouts so far!  Until Teddy Sinatra stepped out.

“Well,” Shawny said with a smile.  “He did show up.”

Fiona was smiling too.  “I told you he would.  He personally assured me he would not be a no-show this year.”

“Teddy’s a big get, no question,” Shawny agreed.  “And the ladies will be pleased.  But he’s never been known as the life of the party on any Continent.  And I have partied with him on all of them.”

“Some people don’t need to be.  Teddy’s one of those people.  His name, his status, is enough.  But look, Shawny!  Look!  It appears as if he has a date.”

“A date?  Well!”  Shawny was surprised, too, when Teddy reached his hand inside the limo and a woman slid over and got out beside him.

“That’s a lot of woman,” Shawny said when he saw Nikki.  “But my my,” he added, “she wears it well.”

“If you go for that,” Fiona said flatly.

Shawny looked at his girlfriend and smiled.  “Jealous, are we?”

“Of course!  She’s young.  She’s gorgeous.  And she’s got the kind of body that would have made Sophia Loren proud!  I’m just surprised Teddy likes that kind of body.”

“Who knew what Teddy liked?  You?  He’s always flown solo whenever I’ve seen him.”

“Which automatically elevates her,” Fiona said.  “And he’s possessive of her as well.”

“How so?” Shawny asked.

“His hand on the small of her back,” said Fiona.  “If there is a small of her back.”

“Oh.  Right you are, Fee!”  He, too, noticed Teddy’s hand on Nikki.  “Well.  That is different.  Looks like this dull party is going to make news after all!  Teddy has a girl!”

“Teddy, my dear!” Fiona said with the biggest smile as Teddy escorted Nikki up the stairs and into the home’s reception area.  “So good of you to come!”

Teddy and Fiona exchanged cheek-to-cheek air kisses, and he shook Shawny’s hand.  “How are you, Shawny?”

“I’m more than tolerable, thank you, young man,” Shawny said as they shook.  “And this lovely lady?”

“Is Nikki,” Teddy said.  “My lovely lady.”

Nikki was surprised by Teddy’s boldness.  This was their first foray out in public as a bona fide couple, but she still had expected him to be his usual cautious self.  She thought he’d introduce her as Nikki, my lovely assistant, rather than as his lady.  And if the hostess was any indication, Nikki just knew she was about to get scrutinized about that title to death!

“Well welcome, Nikki,” Fiona said.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

But Fiona’s eyes, and Shawny’s too, were already looking her up and down, assessing her.

But Teddy didn’t give a damn.  They could assess her all night as far as he was concerned.  He’d already taken the measure of Nikki, inside and out.  And he was very pleased.  With the sparkle of that white gown against her soft, black skin, and with that gown perfectly hugging every curve of her body as if it was a soprano hitting every note, he was certain there wasn’t a dame in the joint who would outshine Nikki.  At least not in his eyes.  That was why Teddy wasn’t just introducing Nikki to his social circle, he was proudly showing her off to them.

 

And he seemed to show her off to every single individual at that party, as they made their rounds from one group to the next.  At first, Nikki was enjoying it because Teddy was enjoying it, but soon she was having fun too.  And even when Nikki looked over from a group of men she was joking around with, and saw a woman whisper in Teddy’s ear, and then Teddy headed down a back hall, she continued to enjoy herself.  She was never the kind of woman who had tabs on her man.  And of all the men she’d ever had, she trusted Teddy the most.  It was odd, considering the newness of their relationship, but it was the truth.  Somehow Nikki felt as if she could trust Teddy with her life.

She was right not to worry this time.  Teddy didn’t go to a room to meet up with a woman.  He went into a backroom for a planned, and clandestine meeting with Boss Bovenconti.  Even Fiona wasn’t aware the meeting was going to take place.  Teddy and B.B. were both in her social circle.  Nothing seemed amiss.

But plenty was amiss.  Teddy needed to know if Bovenconti was behind those explosions, and Bovenconti needed to know why Teddy’s men killed his son.

And Bovenconti didn’t waste time getting down to it.  “We had an agreement,” he said.  “You turned over that bastard Khaki who put my son in intensive care to begin with, and that, I thought, was the end of it.  I respected you for seeing my side in that situation.  But what happens?  Suddenly you change your mind and decide to order a take out?”

They were seated in wingback chairs facing each other.  A small, round table sat between them.  “I didn’t order anybody to take out your son,” Teddy said.

“Then what happened?”

“My men said you paraded Khaki around town.  My men said you were disrespectful toward the Sinatra organization.”

“My son was in intensive care.  Fuck yeah, I was parading around the bastard that put him there!  What did they expect?”

“You asked me what happened, I told you.  They viewed it as disrespectful and they did something about it.  It was wrong what they did.  They were not authorized to do what they did.  But they did it.”

“So, what are you going to do about it?  I buried my son yesterday.  I couldn’t even meet with you because I had to bury my son.  My people want an all-out war.  They figure we’re entitled to go up against the Sinatras on this one.  I had to bury my son.  We’ve been wronged, Teddy.  What are you going to do about it?”

Teddy leaned back.  He hated the position he was in almost as badly as Bovenconti hated being in that position.  But he wasn’t agreeing to shit until he got an answer.  “That depends on what you already did about it,” he said.

Bovenconti looked at him.  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“We had two explosions at the docks,” Teddy said.

“Yeah, I heard about that.  I was happy when I heard it.”

“You heard about it before or after you authorized it?”

Bovenconti stared at Teddy.  “Didn’t you just hear me?  I didn’t authorize no hit on a Sinatra ship.  What, do I look like an idiot?”

“You said your people wanted all-out war.  Maybe they authorized it without the grieving father’s consent.”

But Bovenconti was shaking his head.  “You may let your little brother run amuck over in your world, but nobody authorizes shit in mine but me.  They don’t call me Boss Bovenconti for nothing!  Me and my people didn’t have anything to do with those explosions.  I give you my word on that.”

Teddy stared into Bovenconti’s eyes.  He believed him, but he wasn’t about to rule out anything just yet.   Teddy stood to his feet.

Bovenconti stood too.  In any other room, he would be the one to dismiss a meeting.  Except when a Sinatra was in that room.  But they still had unfinished business.

“You still haven’t told me what you’re going to do about what happened to my boy,” Bovenconti said.  “I can’t let that stand unanswered, Teddy.”

Teddy understood it too.  “We don’t want any more bloodshed,” Teddy said.  “I’ll find which of my men were responsible, and I’ll turn them over to you.”

“Alive this time?” Bovenconti asked.

“Alive this time,” said Teddy.

Bovenconti reached out his hand.  Teddy shook it.  “Your father called me,” Bovenconti said. 

Teddy was surprised, although he wasn’t about to tell Bovenconti he was.

“He offered his condolences for my boy’s death,” Bovenconti continued.  “And you know what I said?”

“What?”

“I said thank you.  I thanked the man whose men killed my son.  Do you know how that made me feel?  But what could I do?  Your father could smash me like a cockroach.  But at least he called, right?”

Teddy could see the pain in Bovenconti’s eyes.  But he saw something else too.  He saw bitterness and anger.  Bovenconti said he wasn’t behind those explosions, but Teddy could never give a mobster the benefit of the doubt.  He had to doubt his word, and his handshake.  But right was right.  Teddy was going to keep his word, and he would turn over whoever killed Boss’s son.

They left the room separately: Teddy first and then, a couple minutes later, Bovenconti second.  It felt like the story of his life.

But as the party continued to progress, and Teddy was once again in the crowd laughing and talking with various friends and associates, he was also keeping his eye on Bovenconti.  The crowd was so big and could so easily get out of hand that Teddy had a contingent of his men in attendance.  Bovenconti, no doubt, had a contingent of his men in attendance too.  Whenever there was a meeting of Crime Families, no matter how formal and elegant the setting, both families had to come prepared.

All was well as the party dragged on into the night, with everybody seemingly having a blast, until one incident changed everything.

Teddy noticed Boss Bovenconti as he made his way across the massive room.  What caught Teddy’s attention was the fact that Boss was moving faster than usual, and Boss’s men were converging behind him.  It almost felt like a hit to Teddy.  But who in the world, in a party like that, could they be planning to hit?

Teddy looked beyond them, to who could possibly be in their path of attack, and that was when his heart sank.  Nikki was in Bovenconti’s path of attack!  Nikki was standing there, sipping her wine, talking with some of the ladies about who-knows-what.  Nikki was in his path!  Never underestimate a grieving man, his father once told him, and he wasn’t about to do so now.

Teddy began moving swiftly in parallel with Bovenconti’s moves, his eyes unblinkingly on his target.  Teddy’s men in attendance saw him moving, and they all began converging behind him.  They didn’t know what was up, but they knew something was up.  Teddy wasn’t moving that fast, nor was his hand ready to reach in and pull out his loaded weapon, unless something was wrong.

Something was wrong.  Teddy could feel it in his bones.  He wanted to warn Nikki, but that would only cause the crowd to go haywire, Bovenconti to panic, and it would place Nikki’s life in more danger.  But as Bovenconti got closer and closer to Nikki, Teddy began to turn inward, toward his target, and his men followed suit.

Teddy was so scared for Nikki he could hear his heart pounding.  But just as he was in the zenith of his fear, something remarkable happened.  Nikki, as if she could sense his heart, looked over at him.  And in that moment their eyes met, and all Teddy had to do was motion for her to get down.

It happened all at once.  Nikki didn’t hesitate when Teddy motioned.  She didn’t understand why he was asking her to do it, but she did it.  She dropped down in a kneeling position at the same time that Bovenconti reached into his pocket and pulled out --

Teddy didn’t give him a chance to pull it out.  Teddy pulled out his own weapon, aimed through the crowd, and shot Boss Bovenconti in the side of his head.  It had to be definite; Teddy couldn’t give that fucker a chance to pull out and fire his weapon anyway.  And it was definite: Bovenconti fell sideways to the floor.  He joined his son that night.

But as soon as Teddy fired his weapon, pandemonium broke out.  Bovenconti’s men began firing in Teddy’s direction.  Teddy’s men began firing in Bovenconti’s direction.  And the crowd went crazy.  Everybody was screaming and trampling over each other and running for cover for themselves.

During the pandemonium, one guest, on his stomach, moved over to Bovenconti’s dead body, reached into his suit coat, and pulled out the gun Bovenconti still had clutched in his hand.  He flapped Bovenconti’s hand back inside his suit coat.  And then the guest, still on his belly, began to hurry for the exit.  When he felt the hail of bullets were all landing in the opposite direction of where he was heading, he got up and ran.

Teddy had dropped down, too, and was firing back at Bovenconti’s men, but mostly he was making his way to Nikki.  He had to get to Nikki!

By the time he made it to her, she was on her stomach crawling away.  Teddy got down in front of her, on his butt, firing at whomever was firing in their direction.  He fired and he fired.  He and his men took out Bovenconti’s men until there was none left alive.

But it wasn’t without a price.  Fiona Mara, the hostess, was dead.  Her beau, Shawny Lungren, was dead too.  A handful of other guests, many of them not connected to the mob in the least: dead.  They were all casualties in what appeared, on the surface, to be a turf war.

But the war wasn’t over land that time, but over loved ones: Bovenconti’s son.  Teddy’s lady.

When the dust was cleared, and the crowd had completely cleared out of that house, and all that was left were Teddy, Nikki, Teddy’s men, and the dead, Teddy helped Nikki back to her feet.

“Are you alright?” he was asking her.  “Were you hit?  Do you have any injuries?”

“None,” Nikki said.  “I’m fine!  But what happened?  Was that man coming for me?”

“It was Bovenconti, and yeah, he was coming for you,” Teddy said.  “I took his ass out, though,” Teddy added as he looked around the massive room for the body.  When he saw it, he and Nikki hurried toward it.

“He was telling me all about his grief,” Teddy continued as they walked, “and how he had nothing to do with those explosions.  But it wasn’t adding up, Nick.  When I looked into his eyes, I knew it wasn’t adding up.  I decided to keep my eyes on him.  I still didn’t have enough evidence to make a move.  But I kept my eyes on him.  That was when I saw him hurrying for you, and he was about to pull out a gun.”

When they got to the body, Teddy opened Bovenconti’s suit coat to see just what weapon he had been reaching for.  But when he looked, he discovered Bovenconti’s hand wasn’t reaching for any weapon.  Teddy, floored, opened the other flap of his suit coat and searched that pocket.  He searched the first pocket again.  And then, irrationally, he frantically searched Bovenconti’s pants pockets and shirt pocket.  But no gun.  He turned up no gun.  He couldn’t believe it!  How could he misread that scene that badly?

Nikki looked at Teddy.  She didn’t see a gun on Bovenconti either.  But she saw how Teddy was mortified.

And he was.  How many ways could he fuck up!

But Nikki knew why Teddy did what he did.  Teddy was protecting her, and he couldn’t take any chances.  But as sirens could be heard in the distance, and as time became their enemy, Nikki knew somebody had to act.  She looked at Teddy the way he looked at her when they were in that L.A. situation.  “That gun in your hand,” she said.  “Is it registered to you?”

“I thought he had a piece,” Teddy was saying, still lost in his own miscalculation.  “I thought he--”

“Is that gun registered to you?” Nikki asked him again urgently.

Teddy looked at her.  “What?”  Then he looked at his gun.  “No,” he said.  “It’s a throwaway.”

Nikki grabbed the gun from Teddy’s hand and wiped it off quickly with her white gown.  Then, still holding the gun cradled in her gown, she knelt down, pulled out Bovenconti’s hand, and placed Teddy’s weapon beside that hand.

When Teddy saw what she was doing, he looked at Nikki.

Nikki stood back up, staring down at Bovenconti: as serious as serious could be.  “In for a penny, in for a pound,” she said.  “I’m all in, Teddy.  And when I’m all in, I’m ALL in!”

Teddy felt a swell of emotion deep inside.  He didn’t just have a woman.  He didn’t just have an assistant.  He had a partner now!  He had that piece of the puzzle he’d been missing all of his life.  He always had to be the strong one.  He always had to fight other people’s battles.  He always had to carry the load alone.  But now, finally, he had somebody in his corner.  He had somebody fighting with him.  He had somebody carrying him!

And she strengthened Teddy enough to get him out of his stupor.  “Everybody with throwaways,” he said to his men, “wipe them, lay them down, and get the hell out of here.  Take off before the cops come the way the rest of the guests are doing.  Everybody with legal carry,” he added, which only referred to his bodyguards who had permits to carry, “get the story straight.  You fired when fired upon.”

They all readily agreed.

Since he and Nikki weren’t legal carries themselves, they got the hell out too.

Teddy looked at Fiona’s body, and Shawny’s body, and the bodies of all those innocent people as he was leaving, and his heart sank again. Bovenconti didn’t have a gun?  His miscalculation caused all of this?  He knew, at least emotionally, he was going to pay a hefty price for the decision he made.

But if he had to do it all over again; if he had to make that split-second decision that he thought was going to save Nikki’s life, he would have handled it the same way.  It cost lives.  It was a hellava decision!  But he didn’t see, and Nikki didn’t see, either, how he could have handled it any other way.