It was six in the morning, Philadelphia time, when Teddy finally made it home.  Home: a spacious ranch-styled retreat perched high up on a hill, with floor-to-ceiling, panoramic views in every room of the house, on exclusive Lake Cosimo.  And when he got home, he removed all of his clothing, leaving them where they fell, and got in the tub and stayed there.  He leaned back, his muscular body aching from too much exertion, and relaxed.

He couldn’t remember the last time he was able to sleep, undisturbed, an entire night through.  Something was always popping off, and he was always the one, the only one besides calling in Pops himself, who had the authority to handle it.  And his stupid ass once begged to be his old man’s number two.  Begged for it!  He wanted in just that bad.  Now he was begging, inwardly at least, to get out.

His cell phone began ringing.  Fuck it, he thought.  If it wasn’t the Boss himself, he wasn’t answering.  Joey, and any other of his lieutenants, could kiss his ass with any new shit.  He grabbed his phone off of the stand behind the tub, and looked at the Caller ID.  When he saw that it was Gloria Sinatra, his kid sister and best friend, he couldn’t help but smile.  Okay.  Not just his old man.  He always answered Glo’s calls too.

“What up what up?” he asked when he answered.

“You’re awake?”

“Not on purpose!  I had to go out.”

“Out?  Out where?”

“Come on, Glo.”

“You can’t even tell me that?”

“Dad told me to keep you out of this side of his business.  You’re on the legit side of his corporation, and he told me I’d better keep it that way.  I can’t tell you shit.”

“You always do what your old man tells you to do?” Gloria asked jokingly.

“Hell yeah.  You?”

“Hell yeah!”

They laughed.

“But for real though,” Gloria said.  “You okay?”

She cared about him, and that was refreshing.  Sometimes Teddy wondered if anybody truly did.  “I’m aw’ight,” he said.  “Joey’s slick ass giving me fits again, but I’m okay.  What’s up?”

“Dad called me this morning.”

“This early?”

“That’s what I said!  But yeah, he called and told me to contact you and Joey and tell you two knuckleheads - my word, that he wants all three of us at his house tonight, eight pm sharp, for a meeting.”

“No shit?”

“None.”

“Did he say what it’s about?”

“Get real, Teddy!  He demoted me, remember?  I’m now an assistant to his assistant to his assistant!  And all of us are assistants to Blair Witch, his chief assistant.  You think he’s going to give me the inside scoop?”

Gloria was Mick’s favorite, although Teddy’s siblings would declare that he was.  But Teddy knew his father better than both of them.

“So, no, in answer to your question,” Gloria continued, “he didn’t tell me what it’s about.  He just told me our asses better be there.  Or, at least, that’s what I interpreted what he was saying.  You know how Dad communicates.  A cave man used more vowels.  He sounded upset, though.”

Teddy closed his eyes.  The old man, apparently, had heard the news already about what went down with Boss Bovenconti’s kid.  Somebody told already!

“What’s wrong, T?” Gloria asked.  “Your silence always speaks very loudly.”

“I’m alright.  Just . . .”

“Just not alright?” Gloria asked.

Teddy opened his eyes.  Gloria always had a listening ear.  But shit he needed to talk to somebody about wasn’t shit he could talk to anybody about!  He was second-in-command of the Sinatra Crime Family.  Mick the Tick’s number two.  What was he going to say?  He was lonely?  He was tired?  He was scared???  “No, I’m good,” he said to her.  “Thanks for passing the word.  Anything else?”

“At six in the morning?  No, brother, I think that’s it.”

“Okay, Glo, see you tonight.”

“Peace out,” Gloria said.  “Be good,” she added.  And they ended the call.

Teddy laid his head back again.  The last thing he wanted was for his father to get wind of what happened at that club last night.  But he had to be crazy to think it wouldn’t eventually get back to him.  Mick’s ass had spies watching spies in their world.  He just didn’t expect him to get the word this soon, before he could even digest it himself.

His cell phone rang again.  Damn, he thought.  And there was no doubt about it: he was going to have to hire an assistant to field all of these fucking calls!  No man should live like this!  He was getting older by the hour!  But who the fuck was he going to hire to field the kind of calls he received?

He answered.  And, sure enough, it was yet another disaster popping off.  This time at the docks outside of Chadds Ford.  A couple of workers got into a brawl.  One knifed the other one.

“Is he dead?” Teddy asked.

“Not dead, no.  But some asshole called the cops.  They’re on their way,” his lieutenant added.

“Shut it down,” Teddy ordered.  “Make sure only liquor crates on top, you know the drill, in case those cops want to sniff around.  And get a suit down there now.  Our people have the right to an attorney and you tell the cops nobody’s talking until one gets there.  We want to see a warrant before they search any of our shit.  You know the drill.  But you also know how some of those cops are.  They may want to sniff before the suits can get there.  So be prepared.  If it doesn’t go according to plan, call me back.”

“Okay, Boss.  Will do.”

“And fire both of those fuckers who caused this shit.  But only after the cops leave.”

“Got cha,” the lieutenant said, and ended the call.

But just as that call was ending, Teddy’s cell phone was ringing again.  He lifted it up and motioned as if he was going to throw it across the room in anger.  He was just that tired.

But he held onto it.  A broken phone was only a broken phone in his line of work.  He still would have to deal with whatever they needed him to deal with.  Besides, it could be his father calling to tell him about that meeting tonight too.

He, at least, looked at the Caller ID.  But it wasn’t his father.

It wasn’t Joey or even one of his lieutenants.

It was Nikki.

Teddy could feel a sudden tightness in his chest when he saw that name.  When she called him a couple times last week, after he had stopped calling, he didn’t answer.  He couldn’t pull himself to answer!  She was better off without a joker like him: that was his main reason.

But he also couldn’t see how in hell was he going to work a woman like Nikki into his off-the-charts busy schedule, a woman who didn’t deserve to take anybody’s back seat, when he couldn’t even work in a good night’s rest for himself.  He couldn’t turn it off for himself, but he was going to turn it off for her?  Teddy might be a romantic.  That was something nobody knew about him.  But he was a realist first.

But when he realized Nikki wasn’t just calling him this time, but she was calling him just after six in the morning, which would be right around three am California time.  He didn’t know her like that, but he knew that wasn’t like her at all. He quickly answered the call.

“Nikki, hey.”

“Hey, James Bond.  Hope I’m not disturbing you.”

Teddy actually smiled.  James Bond.  Her nickname for him after he first introduced himself to her, not just as Ted Sinatra, but as Ted.  Ted Sinatra.  He figured he sounded the way Bond said his name: Bond.  James Bond.  It was a silly, inside joke between the two of them that she never forgot.  And it still made Teddy smile.  “You okay?”

There was a pause.  Then a definitive “no.”

Coming from a girl like Nikki, somebody who wasn’t the help-me type at all, was huge.  “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“I have a situation that I don’t know how to handle.”

“Okay.”  Teddy was trained by his father never to ask too many questions up front.  Get info first!

And, sure enough, Nikki continued to provide it.  “I think . . . I think I might have . . . This guy, you see, I think he’s . . .”  Then she whispered into the phone a four-letter word Teddy knew too well: “Dead,” she said.

His heart dropped.  Coming from Joey, it would have sounded natural.  Even coming from his kid sister, Gloria, it would have too.  But coming from Nikki?  “Who’s dead?” he asked.  “Are you safe right now?”

“Yes, I’m safe.”

“Who’s dead?”

Another pause from Nikki.  “The Super in my building.  I had to . . .”  She whispered again: “Shoot him.”

Teddy leaned up.  “You had to?”  He could only imagine the trauma she was experiencing! “What happened?  And where are you right now, Nikki?”

“I’m okay.  I’m at this diner around the block from my place.”

“Where’s the guy?”

“At my place.”

“And you’re sure he’s dead?”

“No!  That’s the thing, Teddy.  I can’t be sure.  I took off after it happened.  I didn’t know what else to do.”

Teddy could hear the stress in her voice.  “Okay.  That’s alright.  Just . . .settle down. It’s going to be okay.”

“I could go to prison for life, Teddy.  If they don’t believe me, I could . . .”

“It’s okay, Nikki,” Teddy said, getting up and out of the tub.  “I handle shit like this every day.  Don’t worry.  But here’s what I need you to do.  I need you to go back to your apartment.”

“Go back?”

He could hear the panic in her voice.  “You have to go back.  I hate it too, but you have to go back.  If he’s not dead, you can’t let him leave until I get there.”

“Until . . . What do you mean?  Are you saying you’re coming to L.A.?”

Somehow that went without saying to Teddy.  Of course, he was coming to L.A.!  Did she expect him to let her handle this alone?

But then he realized she probably did.  He was the one who stopped calling.  He was the one who wouldn’t answer when she called him!

“Yeah, I’m coming to L.A.  I’m going to hop my old man’s plane and get there as quickly as I can get there.  But I need you to get back to that apartment.  I know it’s scary, babe,” he added, “and I hate with a passion to have to make you do this, but it’s vital he doesn’t leave that apartment, or call for help.”

“I got you,” Nikki said, and Teddy could hear that she was up and walking.  “I’ll go back.”

“Where’s the gun?” Teddy asked.  “You still have the gun?”

“I’ve got it, yes.”

“You be careful going in there.  And make sure he’s in the exact same spot you left him in.  If he’s not, get the hell out.”  He probably already called the cops or somebody, Teddy thought, or was lying in wait for her, he wanted to add.  But didn’t.  Nikki could handle some information.  Too much might spook her.

“When you get there, and you see he’s in the exact same spot, then you check and see if that motherfucker is still breathing.  If he is, you get to a safe distance, put that gun on him, and keep it on him until I get there.  I should be there by . . .”   Teddy, who was hurrying to the bedroom to put on some clothes, looked at his cell phone clock.  “I should be there around noon, which will be nine this morning, your time.”

“Okay.”

Teddy knew some guys in L.A. he’d used in the past as security.  But he couldn’t pull them in on something like this.  They didn’t know Nikki like that.  They might not feel any loyalty to keeping her secrets the way they knew they had to keep a Sinatra’s secrets.  They might be willing to rat her out to get in good with the local cops, or some shit like that.  He couldn’t take that chance.  If this shit was going to be handled, he and Nikki were going to have to handle it.  He hated to put her in this position, but she was in this position.

“I’ll be there as fast as I can get there.”

“Okay, Teddy.  And Teddy?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.  Thanks so much.”

She was thanking him.  He hadn’t done shit yet, but already she was thanking him.  That was the kind of woman she was.  That was the kind of woman he knew he didn’t deserve.  “Call me when you get to that apartment,” he said, she agreed, and they ended the call.

He had already reached the conclusion that she was better off without him in her life.  And he still believed that was the right conclusion to reach.

But not right now.  Right now, he thought as he called his father’s pilot and dressed as quickly as he could, he was the exact right man for the job.