Monk Paletti: Commanding Love, page 16
“I told him he was barking up the wrong tree,” the Don said, “but what could I do? These young people.”
“What young?” Raymond asked. “He’s a man in his thirties. He should know better.”
But Monk wasn’t interested in settling scores with his old man. He was only interested in the matter at hand. And he was not a tactful man. He got to the point. “You remember Too Tall Pastroni?” he asked his godfather.
Bonaducci looked at him. “Yeah, I know Too Tall with his tall ass. And I mean he literally has a tall ass. You ever checked out his butt, Ray? Longest motherfucker I’ve ever seen!” Raymond and his men laughed. Then the Don looked back at Monk. “What about him?” he asked.
“He says you’re the one behind all the shit that’s been happening lately. He says you paid him to shoot up my place. What say you?”
The Don was floored. Raymond shook his head. “Now you see what I mean, Godfather? Now you see? He’s accusing you now! You of all people. That’s what he does. He besmirch the reputation of good men.”
“Shut the fuck up, Rain Man!” Mick said angrily. “There’s nothing good about your ass.”
Raymond gave Mick a hard look. He wanted to lash back. But he was a sensible man too.
“Why would he say such lies about me?” the Don asked Monk. “What’s his angle?”
“Have you had any dealings with the guy at all?” Big Daddy asked the Don.
“Me? Never! I mean, back in the day I used to get him to run some errands for me. Do some favors. But not in years.”
“He knew the code word,” Monk said.
That surprised the Don. “He knew it?”
“He knew the word was migraine.”
Raymond frowned. “What are you saying? That’s not the code! That’s not the word.”
But the Don and Monk knew it was their code. It was their word. And the Don was floored. “I don’t understand how that could have happened.”
“But that’s not the code!” Raymond declared.
“Shut the fuck up!” Mick declared. And Raymond shut it.
“What was his aim?” the Don asked. “What did he do? I hear your house was shot up, but that was it?”
“They were going after Ashley,” Monk said, which caused him to place his arm around her waist. Big Daddy had already been told by Mick and Teddy. But it was still tough to hear. And this was the life she wanted?
“I hope you took care of that bastard,” the Don said.
“I took care of him. I’ve got a crew tracking down the other guys that were with him, and they’ll take care of them.”
The Don nodded. “Good.” Then he looked at Monk. “On my wife’s life,” he said, “I didn’t have anything to do with that. You know I wouldn’t betray you like that.”
“I know, Godfather.”
“And if somebody else had that code word,” the Don said, “they were eavesdropping on our conversation.”
Big Daddy frowned. “You mean like the Feds?” he asked.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” the Don said.
“Shit,” Teddy said. “You think Too Tall Pastroni was working for the Feds?”
Everybody looked at Mick. He was the one with all the connections. “Could be,” Mick said. “Maybe the Feds wanted to get intel on who was behind that hit at the house. But I don’t know that. And I haven’t heard that. All I know is I want these fuckers caught, whoever is behind it, before they try to harm my niece again.”
Ashley was touched by her uncle’s concern, but she was also gravely concerned by her uncle’s concern. Because if he was worried about it, she knew there was serious cause for worry.
“Anyway, I need rest,” said the Don. “Let me rest and think about this here situation we’re in. Just don’t go spreading these rumors around to the rest of the family, Frankie. Everybody’s already shellshocked after what happened at the house. They don’t wanna hear no more bad news.”
“I’ll check around,” said Mick. “See what I can find out.”
“Thank you,” the Don responded.
And then Monk and the Sinatras said their goodbyes, and left.
Raymond and his men hung around.
But even when Monk and the Sinatras made it downstairs, with one of Monk’s bodyguard crews walking beside them as if they needed to provide added protection, Monk kept feeling as if he missed something.
“You don’t think it’s the Feds,” Teddy said to Mick as they walked out of the hospital. “Do you, Pop?”
“I don’t know,” Mick said.
“But?” asked Teddy.
“But I rather doubt it,” Mick admitted.
They all stopped at the curb. Mick’s Escalade and the SUV that would transport the bodyguard team was parked at the curb, ready to go. And they were all looking at Mick.
“But what other explanation is there?” asked Teddy. “The Don wouldn’t betray Monk like that. I don’t even think Raymond would betray Monk like that. What other answer is there?”
“I don’t know any more than I knew before. We’ll have to wait and see,” Mick said as he walked around and got in behind the wheel of his Escalade. Charles got in on the front passenger seat.
The head of Monk’s bodyguard crew opened the door as Monk, Ashley, and Teddy got in the back. His crew got in the front SUV. “Where are we headed, Boss?” he asked Monk.
“Home for now,” Monk said. “And then I’ll see.”
The bodyguard nodded, and he got in the SUV in front of the Escalade too.
“Is all this extra security necessary?” Charles asked Monk.
“To me? No,” said Monk. “Bonaducci set this shit up.”
Teddy smiled. “Protecting his cash cow,” he said.
Monk smiled, too, as he moved to put on Ashley’s seatbelt. But then he noticed out the side window an old, familiar face. At first he frowned. He knew him, but he didn’t know him. And then he realized who it was.
“Don’t crank up!” he suddenly said to Mick. “Don’t crank up!”
Mick was miffed. “I’m not cranking up!” he yelled back at Monk.
And Monk jumped out of the SUV, leaving the door wide open, and began running toward the SUV that contained his bodyguards. “Don’t crank up!” he was yelling. “Don’t crank---”
As soon as she said that word, the driver of the second SUV pressed the Start button, and the entire SUV seemed to bow out and then explode all at once.
“Ah, shit!” Mick yelled as the impact of the blast rocked his Escalade and caused it to lift up on two wheels, and then slam back down.
Mick, Charles, and Teddy began hurrying out of the car, with Charles looking back to make sure Ashley was getting out too. Monk had run back to the Escalade, to get Ashley out, but she had already gotten herself out.
Monk looked around, in search of the guy he had seen. He didn’t know his real name, but they called him Goldberg, and he was an expert with explosives. That was why Monk knew something was up. That was why Monk yelled for Mick, and tried to yell to his bodyguards, not to start those vehicles. But Goldberg, like any semblance of that SUV, was gone.
And any hope of saving anybody in that second SUV was dashed right away as the SUV burst into a fiery red shock of flames that kept moving upward.
Mick leaned all the way down from his muscular frame and looked beneath his Escalade. When he saw that a bomb was planted beneath it, too, he ordered them all further back. His heart was hammering at how close a call that had been. A rarity for Mick.
But as Monk watched in horror as his men were trapped in that truck and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do, it was as if that fire crystalized the whole thing for him. And he realized what he was missing.
He grabbed Ashley’s hand and began running back into the hospital.
“Monk, what are you doing?” Big Daddy asked. “Monk, where are you going? Where are you going with my daughter? Monk? Monk!”
But Monk couldn’t even hear Big Daddy. He and Ashley took the stairs that led up to the fourth floor where the Don’s hospital room was located. Ashley didn’t even bother to ask him what he was doing. She saw that devastated look on his face. She knew he knew what he was doing. She followed his lead.
As soon as they arrived on the fourth floor, Raymond and Boozer were heading for the elevators. But then they saw Monk and Ashley coming out of the stairwell and hurried to them.
“We heard an explosion that rocked the room,” Raymond said. “Are you alright? What the hell happened?”
But Monk still couldn’t talk. Still holding Ashley’s hand, they ran into the Don’s hospital room. Raymond and Boozer, confused, ran back in there too. And Charles, who had run behind Monk and Ashley when he didn’t respond to his calls, was just getting off of the elevator on the fourth floor too. He assumed that was where they were heading. He ran into the Don’s room too.
But Monk was remembering what the Don had said. Over his wife’s life, he said, when he was trying to get Monk to believe that he had nothing to do with it. That old broad was a handful, but Monk knew the Don loved her. Monk knew the Don told her everything!
“Where’s Greta?” Monk asked the Don as soon as he ran in the room. Greta Bonaducci was the Don’s wife.
“What was that explosion about?” the Don asked Monk.
“Where’s Greta?” Monk asked him again.
“Home. Where else is she gonna be? What’s wrong with you?”
“Why isn’t she here?” Monk asked.
“What she need to be here for?” the Don said. “And what are you asking me that for? She was here, last night. I told her to go home and get some rest. They cleaned up the place, so she could go home and rest. She’s traumatized.”
“She knew the code word,” Monk said.
The Don frowned. “Who knew the code word?”
“Your wife of forty years. Greta knew the code word.”
“Yeah, so what?”
“You told her, didn’t you?”
The Don had to think about it. “Probably. But so what?”
“You tell her everything.”
“She’s my wife. What’s your point, Frankie?”
“And she has a reason to hate me.”
The Don was puzzled. “What reason?”
“DeGarno,” Monk said. “Sammy the Ox DeGarno.”
Ashley looked at Monk. “Isn’t that the mob boss that kidnapped that French heiress? The one you had to . . .”
“That’s him,” said Monk. “The guy I killed. Why didn’t I see it before? She used to love that asshole!”
“Used to?” the Don asked. “Still did. I was glad when you offed that bastard. But you’re talking as if she would have . . . She wouldn’t have done that, Frankie.”
“That’s why you were only grazed in that gunfire,” said Monk. “She ordered them not to kill you. But Ashley and me? She figured we were the main targets.”
“But she wouldn’t do that, Frankie!” the Don said.
“She’ll have to tell me that herself,” Monk said. Then he thought about something else. “Did you tell her about Pop?” he asked.
“What about me?” Raymond asked.
“Did you tell her I was planning to put Pop in the woodshed behind my house when my guys found him?”
By the look on the Don’s face, it was obvious that he had mentioned it to his wife.
And Monk, still holding Ashley’s hand, turned to leave.
“Monk!” the Don called out. “Frankie?”
Monk didn’t’ want to stop, but he stopped and turned.
The Don gave him a hard look. “Don’t you forget. That’s my woman,” he said.
“And Ashley’s my woman,” said Monk. “Don’t you forget.”
And then Monk and Ashley walked out, that determination driving Monk as if it was his second skin. Charles walked out behind them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
“Keep going,” Monk said as Charles drove Mick’s Escalade past the Don’s house. “Turn here,” he then instructed and Charles complied again, turning down what appeared to be a narrow pathway on the side of the Bonaducci house. He kept driving, until they came to what looked like a dead end of overgrown forest.
“Stop here,” Monk said, and Charles stopped where they were.
Monk looked at Charles. It was obvious to all of the Sinatras that he was staying back to protect Ashley, and also to drive the getaway car if need be, but Monk, still unfamiliar with how real families worked, seemed to need reassurance.
Charles couldn’t believe he would even question it, but he gave him what he needed. “I’ll stay with Ashley,” he said to Monk.
Monk nodded, satisfied, and then he looked at Ashley. “If you see a motherfucker,” he said to her.
“Kill a motherfucker,” Ashley responded. “I know already. You just be careful,” she said to him.
He squeezed her hand, and finally let it go. “Turn this bucket around, Big Daddy.”
The nerve he’s got, Charles thought. He looked over his shoulder at Monk. “Do I look like I need you to tell me what to do?” Charles asked him.
Monk smiled. “No, sir.”
“Then go handle your business, son. We’ll be ready.”
Ashley smiled at Monk as he, Teddy, and Mick got out of the SUV. “He loves you,” Charles said to Ashley as they watched them. “I’ll give him that.”
“I’ll give him a lot more than that,” Ashley said, and Big Daddy quickly looked at her through the rearview. She laughed.
And then they watched as Monk, Teddy, and Mick walked through that overgrown forest.
But it was deceptive. It was only inches thick. As soon as they were two steps in, they were on a sidewalk that led up to the side entrance of the Bonaducci house. And they all had their weapons drawn, not knowing what to expect from the woman, as Monk easily jimmied the lock, and they walked on in.
As they made their way to the front of the house, they could hear somebody running down the stairs. Monk stopped in his tracks, and motioned for Mick and Teddy to stop too. And then all three moved to the side of the wall.
And that was when they saw Greta Bonaducci, with a semiautomatic assault rifle in her hand, hurrying to the front door. She stood there, with the gun pointed and ready, as if she was about to surprise the man her husband had phoned and told her was on his way.
But Monk knew her. That was why he entered through the side door.
He removed his cell phone from his pocket, leaned back, and threw his phone as hard as he could. It worked. It hit the front door with a hard thump.
And as soon as Greta heard that thump, she began firing. Shot after shot after shot. And she was a good shot.
But her nerves had taken over, and she was firing without thinking. Her rage was driving her. She emptied the chamber.
And when she came to herself, she realized nothing had happened. She realized she had been firing, not at Monk Paletti, but at a cellphone. And that was when Monk, Teddy, and Mick delicately made their way toward her.
“What the fuck?” she was saying as she stared at the phone on the floor. By the time she realized somebody was behind her, and as she began furiously turning around, Monk had already grabbed her from behind, and was taking that rifle out of her hand.
“You bastard!” she yelled as she wrestled with him. But he easily confiscated her weapon. And then she yelled in Italian: “Dovevi essere morto!” (You were supposed to be dead!).
“It’s over, Greta,” Monk said. “Your scheme didn’t work.”
But her rage was still her guide. “They killed the wives,” she said. “They killed capos. But the people I told them could not live, they did not touch! You and your bitch, they did not touch. That is not right.” She began shaking her head. “After what you did to Sammy, that is not right!”
Mick and Teddy both knew that Sammy was Sammy the Ox DeGarno, the man Monk iced some weeks earlier, because of his father’s greed.
“Who did you hire to pay Too Tall to take me out?” Monk asked.
“What difference does that make? He just dropped off the up front money. But you don’t deserve to live!”
“Probably not. But that won’t be your call,” Monk said.
And when he said it, they could suddenly hear sirens in the far distance.
And they looked at each other. “Who called the cops?” Mick asked.
“I did,” said a voice that didn’t belong to any of them.
And that was when they saw him, behind Teddy, with a gun to Teddy’s head.
Monk frowned. “Goldberg?”
“Who the fuck is Goldberg?” Mick asked.
“He’s the asshole who planted those explosives. I saw him at the hospital. That’s how I knew something was going down.”
“Drop your weapons,” Goldberg ordered. “Or Golden Boy is dead. And you can ask, Frankie. I say what I mean.”
Mick and Monk immediately dropped their guns.
“What’s your beef in this?” Monk asked him.
“Not a big one,” said Goldberg. “Unless you count the fact that I have a big issue with the man who killed my father.”
Monk frowned. “Your father?”
“Oh, yes,” said Goldberg. “Haven’t you heard? Sammy DeGarno had a lot of kids around town. I was one of those kids. When Greta asked for help, well, you know. I had a horse in the race, so I agreed.” Then he looked at Greta. “Get Monk’s gun,” he said. “We’re blaming this whole shebang on you, Monk. You broke into the Don’s house, see, and ended up shooting your own companions thinking you were shooting us. Then we had no choice but to kill you. Greta jumped the gun by running downstairs and firing as soon as she thought you had entered. But that was understandable. Nothing else had worked out and she wanted you gone. But I was her backup. And I have plenty of tools in my bag of tricks. I always have an alternative.”
Greta smiled at Monk, even as the sirens were getting nearer. “You wanted to know who paid Too Tall? You wanted to know who paid those boys in Jericho? You wanted to know who paid those men at the drycleaners? You wanted to know who paid those servers? There’s your man,” she said proudly.
