“I don’t know why,” Oz said.
“She wanted you to call her personally and let her know you had a new main squeeze.”
Oz laughed. “Sweetie, if I had to personally call all of those hoes I’d been fooling with, that’s all I’d be doing!”
Jordan laughed.
“Did I say hoes? I didn’t mean to say hoes. They’re lovely women. I’m the hoe!”
Jordan laughed again. Oz smiled and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”
Jordan pushed his glasses up on his handsome teenage face. “I wondered if you wanted to go downstairs to the gym and shoot some hoops with me.”
“Would love to, darling, but I have a ton of work I need to be doing.”
“But you aren’t doing it,” Jordan pointed out.
“Smart ass,” Oz said with a smile, causing Jordan to laugh again. “But I need to be doing it is the point. If I stay in my office, I’ll get around to doing everything I need to do. If I leave my office, I definitely won’t get it done.”
His intercom buzzed. “Mr. Drakos?” It was his secretary.
“Ah, come on, Unc, it’ll only take a half-hour tops,” said Jordan. “Then you can come right back up here, kick your feet up, and continue to do nothing.”
“Smart ass,” Oz said again. Then he pressed one of the buttons on his chair. “Yes, Mae?”
“Miss Sinatra is here to see you, sir.”
“Send her in,” Oz said. Then he looked at Jordan. “Maybe next time, Champ. Why don’t you go ask your father?”
“He’s busy,” said Jordan. “Unlike you, he actually does his work.” But then Jordan’s look turned serious. “So, you like this girl?” he asked his uncle.
“You sound like your father.”
“Do you?”
Oz nodded. “I do,” he said.
“Or is like too strong a word?” Jordan asked.
Oz looked at his smart nephew. “Not strong enough,” Oz said, and then the door opened and Gloria, along with Mick, walked in.
“Hey, babe!” Oz said cheerfully as soon as he saw Gloria’s face. But when he saw Mick walk in behind Gloria, he immediately leaned forward, dropped his feet from off of his desk, and stood up. He was stunned.
“Hello, Jordan,” Gloria said with a smile.
“Hey, Miss Gloria. You look very pretty today.” Jordan already had a crush on Glo.
“Ah, you’re so sweet. Thank you,” she said and Jordan beamed. “This is my father,” she added. “Dad, this is Oz’s nephew Jordan.”
Mick extended his big hand. “Hello, Jordan.”
“Sir,” said Jordan as he shook Mick’s hand.
“And this is Oz,” Gloria said to Mick.
“Mr. Sinatra,” Oz said. He started to extend his hand, but he knew Mick probably wouldn’t shake it.
“I’ll take to you later, J,” Oz said to his nephew.
“Yes, sir,” Jordan said, said his goodbye to Gloria, and then left the office.
“Have a seat,” Oz said to Mick, and Mick began sitting in one of the two chairs in front of Oz’s desk. “Gloria, come here,” Oz then said.
Gloria walked around the desk to Oz’s side. He gave her a peck on her lips and placed his arm around her waist. And then he began moving her toward his desk chair. “Sit here,” he said to her.
She sat in the chair behind his desk as Oz walked from around his desk and sat in the chair next to Mick Sinatra. Gloria was impressed. Most men cowered around her father. Oz seemed determine to deal with him as an equal.
“So,” Oz said with that charming smile of his, “what can I do for you, Mr. Sinatra?”
“How much do I owe you?” Mick asked.
Oz and Gloria both were confused. “Owe me?” Oz asked.
“How much do I owe you for that automobile you purchased for my daughter?”
“You don’t owe me a thing,” Oz said.
“Oh, but I do,” Mick said. “My daughter will not be beholden to any man.”
“Good. Because I’m not any man. I’m her man. And she’s my lady. And I purchased that car for my lady. Nobody’s paying for it but me.”
Mick stared at Oz. “How’s the Ghost Mafia?” he asked him.
Gloria looked at Oz. If he was concerned that Mick would go there, he wasn’t showing it.
“Perhaps you should answer that question,” Oz said to Mick. “How is the Ghost Mafia?”
“Gloria,” Mick said, still staring at Oz, “go get us something to drink.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Oz said, still staring at Mick. “My secretary can send a girl.”
Gloria could tell that her father didn’t expect that blowback.
“In the Sinatra household,” Mick said, “we don’t discuss these matters around our women.”
“In the Drakos household,” Oz shot back, “we do.”
Mick continued to stare at him. Gloria was getting concerned. She wondered if Oz realized just how angry her father could get. She’d seen him nearly knock Teddy through a wall and she knew very few men stronger than Teddy. But despite her father, and his reputation, and the reality of his harshness, Oz didn’t blink. Gloria was proud of him.
But Oz knew he couldn’t show any weakness whatsoever or Mick would do everything in his power to pull the plug on Oz’s relationship with his daughter. He didn’t know a lot about Mick the Tick, but he was certain he was a man who didn’t want some chump in his daughter’s life. Oz was a lot of things, but a chump, he knew, wasn’t one of them.
“You aren’t afraid,” Mick said, “that she’ll hear the truth?”
“What truth?” Gloria asked.
“That your boyfriend is at war with your father,” Mick said.
He wasn’t sure it was you, Gloria wanted to blurt out, but she decided against it. She left it up to Oz.
“I think the more appropriate fact,” Oz said to Gloria, “is that your father is at war with your boyfriend. My guys didn’t start that shit. Your guys did.”
Mick studied Oz. “Who told you that lie?”
Oz studied Mick. “Your men started taking over territory that my guys owned.”
“Wrong,” said Mick. “They were taking over my territory.”
“They were under the impression,” Oz said, “that your west coast reach didn’t reach that far north.”
“They were wrong. I have territory all over this country, irrespective of the coast.”
Oz exhaled. “And then your men killed Madinis, one of the most beloved heads of the families.”
“That’s what they told you?” Mick asked.
Oz hesitated. “What’s that supposed to mean? Isn’t it the truth?”
“No,” said Mick. “I do not go around taking people’s territory. Thugs do that. I don’t sanction that ever. But when your families started taking my territory, I got involved.”
“What are you saying? Are you saying that your men didn’t kill Madinis?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying,” said Mick. “We took out Morpheus. We definitely took him out. But my men didn’t kill Madinis. Your men did that. Why do you think I haven’t killed you yet, after you took out two of my guys?”