Until they saw that both men inside of the car were dead. And Mick was already looking around, just in case.
But it was final. They villains were dead.
Mick looked at Oz. “Recognize them?” he asked him.
Oz was staring at the bodies of the two men. He nodded his head. “Oh, yeah,” he said. “They both belong to the family of Andreas Survarlis.”
“One of your men.”
Oz nodded. “One of my men,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
When Alex and Kari made it to Oz’s apartment inside of The Drakos, they were astonished by the number of men inside of that space. Mick Sinatra was there, and he was in conversation with his men. Oz and his men were there, in conversation too. Gloria sat alone on the sofa, a glass of wine in her hand, as all of the men made their plans. Not only had those bastards attempted to take out Gloria and Oz, they had very nearly taken out Mick Sinatra too. It was a big deal.
Kari made her way over to Gloria. Alex made his way over to Oz.
Kari sat down. “Hey.”
Gloria, who respected Kari tremendously, was about to stand up.
“No need for that,” Kari said, and sat beside her. “Are you really okay?”
“I am,” said Gloria. “A little shook up, I’ll admit. But I’m okay.”
Kari placed an arm around her and squeezed. “Good,” she said.
Across the room, Alex placed his hand on the small of Oz’s back when he made it to his brother’s side. Oz looked at him.
“You alright?” Alex asked.
“Yup,” said Oz.
“A damn close call.”
“Yes, it was,” said Oz. “Too close. That’s why Mick with his men, and me with mine are going over protocols for protecting Gloria. Neither my men nor Mick’s men were at the angles they were supposed to be. Away, yes, but not so far away that they couldn’t see that car drive up and that shotgun appear. But they were too far away to stop it. That’s unacceptable.”
“Damn right,” said Alex.
“Hello, Alex.”
Both brothers turned to the sound of Mick’s voice. He had walked over and was extending his hand.
“Mick Sinatra,” Alex said as he shook his hand. “How are you?”
“I’m okay. Good to see you again.”
Alex could barely remember where he saw him before, but he knew he saw him a few times before. “How’s Reno?” Alex asked.
“He’s doing well,” Mick said as his cell phone began ringing. “I saw him a couple weeks ago.”
When Mick saw the Caller ID, he glanced at Oz. “Your people,” he said.
Oz was surprised as Mick answered the call. “Yes?”
“It’s about Odysseus.” It was Andreas Survarlis on the phone. “Don’t trust him.”
“Oh, yeah? He said the same thing about you.”
“He’s lying. If you care for your daughter, you’d keep her far away from that animal. You’ll understand when we meet.”
“Meet?” Mick asked, and Oz and Alex stared at him. “Meet where?”
“There’s an old building, used to be a chicken factory, on the outskirts of town. A place called Monfort’s. Meet us there at ten tonight. When we meet, you’ll understand what I’m talking about when I say don’t trust him.” Then he ended the call.
“What did he want?” Oz asked.
“A meeting,” said Mick.
“Why wouldn’t they let you handle that?” Alex asked.
“Did he say what the meeting was about?”
“He said so, yes,” said Mick.
“What’s it about?”
Mick looked at Oz. “You,” he said.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
The heads of the Greek families, along with their underbosses for added protection, were already there when Mick walked into the building alone. They were in the middle of the room, standing nervously, anxiously, as Mick walked up to them.
“Hello, Mr. Sinatra,” said Andreas. “It’s an honor to finally meet you, sir.”
“The honor is all yours,” said Mick. “What do you want?”
Andreas was attempting to be cool about it. He didn’t want this man to see him sweat. But he was sweating like a pig. Him and the other heads. “We need you to understand our innocence in this affair.”
“Innocence?”
“Yes, sir,” said Holt Denasis. “We didn’t realize what Oz was doing.”
“Tell me what you know,” Mick said.
“Odysseus came to us,” said Andreas. “He said he had this plan to expand our base of support with him as our leader. We were all onboard with that idea. In Greece, he was a good leader for us. And then he started acquiring territories, and assigning them to us. Which we loved. We didn’t ask questions. We should have. But we knew Odysseus. We believed he knew what he was doing. But then, he casually mentions that the territories he’s been acquiring belongs to you. To you, Mick Sinatra! We were stunned, to say the least.”
“So stunned,” said Denasis, “that we knew we had to get out of the mess Odysseus dragged us into. But then he killed Madinis, the head of one of our most faithful families. He claimed it was your men. He also claimed your men took out Morpheus.”
“I thought you took out Madinis,” Mick said.
“Me?” Andreas asked.
“Your organization.”
“No, we did not do any such thing. Why would we take out our own man? That was all Oz. And then, just when we were going to get out, and contact you personally, he killed two of your men to keep us in. That was all Oz too. He wanted a turf war with you. He wanted to elevate his name by coming for you, and, by the way, for your daughter. Well, when it all came to light, we knew we were in trouble then.”
Mick stared at them. “What makes you think you’re no longer in trouble?”
“We don’t think that,” said Andreas. “But when we saw Odysseus ingratiating himself into your daughter’s heart, we knew what he was up to.”
“He was going to blame everything on us,” said Denasis. “That’s why, when our men on the ground informed us that you were in town, we hurried back to Florida too. To warn you.”
Mick shook his head. “Do I look like I’m a foolish man to you?” he asked them.
Andreas stared at him. “No. We would never claim that.”
“Do I look like I’m a stupid man?”
“No,” Andrea replied, wondering why he would ask such a question. “We would never think that Mick Sinatra is a stupid man.”
“But that’s exactly what you’re claiming if you think you can tell a bullshit story like that to me, and I’ll believe it.”
Andreas looked at Denasis. Then he looked back at Mick. “What are you saying?” he asked him.
“I’m saying I wasn’t born at night,” Mick said, “so I couldn’t possibly have been born last night.”
“Neither could I.”
They heard the voice, and knew the voice, but they didn’t see the man.