Gloria looked at Oz. She hadn’t heard that before! But war was war. She understood that. There were never any heroes.
But Oz was still reeling by the information Mick had just dropped on him. “Why would my own men take out one of our men?”
“To rope you in after they realized I owned that land they wrongly grabbed. They needed a cover story when I came for them. They needed a strong man to blame. You were going to be their cover story.”
Oz leaned his head back and ran both hands through his long hair.
“You seem surprised,” said Mick, “but not entirely shocked. Why?”
Oz exhaled. “I had my suspicions,” he said.
“About Madinis?”
“No. Not about him. That is shocking. But about those fuckers turning on me. I suspected they were the ones who called that hit on me that night.”
“The night you had my daughter in that car with you,” said Mick.
Oz nodded. “That night, yes.”
“The night you nearly gave me a heart attack,” said Mick.
Gloria and Oz both looked at him as if they both were surprised at how much he cared for his own child. “That night,” Oz said. Then he frowned. “Shit!” he said in anger, thinking about the betrayal.
Then Oz looked at Mick. “What are you going to do about it?” he asked him.
“Eliminate the threat. What else? I was waiting for you to handle it,” Mick added, “but you haven’t. I’m not waiting any longer.” Mick stood to his feet. Oz and Gloria stood up too.
“They’re my guys,” Oz said. “Now that I know the truth of what went down, I’m going to handle it.”
Mick stared at him. “You aren’t going to confirm what I just told you?”
“You told me. If I know anything about your legend, I know that you’re not a man who plays games. Your word confirmed it for me.”
And Gloria saw it. She saw respect in her father’s eyes as he stared at Oz. Her father respected her boyfriend. That was a first.
“You can handle it,” Mick said, “but I’ll have to have a piece of that action. Two of my men were killed. I have to answer for them.”
Oz nodded. “Understood,” he said. “I’ll let you know when and where I’ll strike.”
To Oz’s shock, Mick extended his hand. Oz gladly shook it. “I’ll wait for that call,” said Mick.
“May I ask you something?” Oz asked him.
Mick looked at him.
“Why didn’t you retaliate when I took out your men? With all that you knew, over this past month you could have taken out two of mine easy.”
Mick nodded. “Yes, I could have.”
“Then why didn’t you?”
Mick hesitated.
“Sir?” Oz asked.
“You made my daughter happy,” Mick said.
Oz and Gloria both looked at him. “What do you mean?” Oz asked him.
“My men kept me posted,” Mick said. “They said they’d never seen her happier than she was this past month. I was still getting my facts straight. I wasn’t making any moves until I was certain.”
“But you didn’t make a move. You came to me.”
“You’re winning over my daughter’s heart,” Mick said. “I felt that was the least I could do.”
Gloria was floored. Was this her father? Did he really love and care for her that much that he would hold back on a retaliatory strike?
“Let me know the day and the time,” Mick said to Oz as he began heading for the exit. “And I mean it had better be soon.”
“It will, sir,” Oz said as he and Gloria began heading toward the exit too. “I’ll walk you guys out.”
But after Mick walked out of the office door, and as he and Gloria hooked up at the door, Oz smiled and gave her a squeeze. It was as if his biggest fear, that Mick the Tick would exert his considerable influence over Gloria to break them up, wasn’t going to materialize. And he was happy.
They both smiled as they made their way out of the office, downstairs, and through the massive lobby. And when they made it outside, that burst of sunshine made Oz feel like he fought a mountain lion and won. He managed to hold his own with Mick Sinatra. He felt great.
A valet deposited the Maserati at their feet. Mick and Oz were shaking hands again as Gloria began walking around toward the driver side of her car. “Thanks for giving me that consideration, sir,” Oz said.
“Nasty business, this,” said Mick. “Because it’s your men, I can only hope you’re up for the job.”
“Are you joking?” Oz asked. “When they bring that shit to me, I absolutely love taking it back to them. I’m going to enjoy it, sir.”
Mick smiled. Oz actually reminded him of how he used to be once upon a time. “Your cocky ass,” he said, causing Oz to laugh, as Mick began getting into the car.
But just as Oz turned away from Mick, he saw a car suddenly drive parallel to Gloria’s Maserati, and then he saw the dark tinted windows press down. When he saw the shotgun lift up out of that window and take its aim in typical mob assassination fashion, he jumped into that car, over Mick, and pushed Gloria down onto the seat. He placed his body on top of her body as the bullets rang out.
Oz’s dramatic movement had knocked Mick over, too, or he would have surely taken some of those bullets as people started screaming and running and the gunman fired off as many rounds as he could before they heard no more bullets. He had run out of ammunition.
As soon as Oz and Mick realized it, they got up. “You okay?” Oz nervously asked Gloria.
“I’m okay,” Gloria said, even though her stormy eyes betrayed her. But the two men didn’t delay. They both jumped out of the Maserati, pulling out their own weapons, and ran toward the car as the gunman was attempting to reload. When he saw them coming, his driver began to speed off.
Oz and Mick began firing on that car as it drove off. They ran down to the end of the entrance circle to The Drakos Hotel and Casino, still firing away. But the car got away.
When they turned to run back to the main entrance, to retrieve an automobile of their own, they saw where Gloria was driving the Maserati toward them. “Get in!” she yelled.
They got in, and she took off. Their security details had driven up, too, and was following the Masi.
The getaway car was barely visible by the time they made it on the street, and that Apple Valley traffic around The Drakos made it damn near impossible for them to fire off any shots. But Gloria kept driving. She drove and drove until the getaway car made a sharp left that took them onto the backroads. And that was when Gloria accelerated.
“That’s right, baby,” Oz said, smiling. “Show those bastards how it’s done!”
But Mick was serious as a heart attack. “Be careful, Gloria!” he said.
Gloria was both. She was careful, but she was determined. And when she was able to get close enough to the fleeing vehicle, her father and her boyfriend began firing shots out of the window. They fired and they fired.
But this time, they hit their target. The car did a spin-out, and then it slowed and slowed until it came to a complete stop on a quiet, back road.
“Wait here,” Mick and Oz said in unison as they jumped out of the car and ran toward the wrecked car. Although it appeared lifeless inside of that getaway car, both men treaded very carefully, with their weapons still drawn.