TEDDY SINATRA 2:
HER PROTECTOR
BY
MALLORY MONROE
Copyright©2018 Mallory Monroe
All rights reserved. Any use of the materials contained in this book without the expressed
written consent of the author and/or her affiliates, including scanning, uploading and
downloading at file sharing and other sites, and distribution of this book by way of the Internet
or any other means, is illegal and strictly prohibited.
AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING
IT IS ILLEGAL TO UPLOAD THIS BOOK TO ANY FILE SHARING SITE.
IT IS ILLEGAL TO DOWNLOAD THIS BOOK FROM ANY FILE SHARING SITE.
IT IS ILLEGAL TO SELL OR GIVE THIS eBOOK TO ANYBODY ELSE
WITHOUT THE WRITTEN CONSENT OF
THE AUTHOR AND AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING.
This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living
or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not
meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the
story’s sake.
TEDDY SINATRA SERIES:
TEDDY SINATRA
CHAINS FOR LOVE
***
MICK SINATRA SERIES
IN ORDER:
1.MICK SINATRA: FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE
2.MICK SINATRA: LOVE LIES AND JERICHO
3.MICK SINATRA: HIS LADY, HIS CHILDREN, AND SAL
4.MICK SINATRA: IF YOU DON’T KNOW ME BY NOW
5.MICK SINATRA: THE HARDER THEY FALL
6.MICK SINATRA: NOW WILL YOU WEEP
7.MICK SINATRA: BREAKING MY HEART
8.MICK SINATRA: LOVE AND SHADOWS
9.MICK SINATRA: NO LOVE. NO PEACE.
10. MICK SINATRA: HEAT WAVE
VISIT
www.mallorymonroebooks.com
OR
www.austinbrookpublishing.com
for more information on all titles.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
EPILOGUE
Visit
www.mallorymonroebooks.com
or
www.austinbrookpublishing.com
for more information.
CHAPTER ONE
The outer door was jammed, but with his broad shoulder and brute strength he forced it
open anyway. And then he ran.
Up one flight of stairs. Two flights of stairs. The third flight. He couldn’t get up those stairs
fast enough. A baby was crying on one level. A couple were arguing on another level. Two
teens mooching: another level. But Teddy kept hustling. He kept running up flight after flight
after flight. The elevator had been too slow in coming, now he regretted not waiting. But he
didn’t regret his speed. He had to get there. He had to get to Nikki before . . .
Before what?
Before another man took her? But Nikki wasn’t that kind of girl.
Then why in hell was he doing this?
What the hell was wrong with him?
He made it. He was at her door. Any thoughtful man would have knocked. This was what
she wanted, and she had that right. But Teddy wasn’t thoughtful that night. He didn’t give a
shit. He leaned back and kicked it open with his expensive Ferragamo shoe, a dress style he
emulated from his old man, but they didn’t live up to the hype because he felt the pain of that
kick in every bone of his foot. But the door gave way. It flew open. And he went inside.
Nikki ran out of the bedroom when she heard the intrusion, and then she just stood there
when she saw it was Teddy.
He looked like a wild man to her. He wasn’t smiling. He wasn’t pretending to be sorry for
busting in like that. He looked mad as hell. And that only angered her.
But Teddy couldn’t believe how she ran out of that room, as if she wasn’t expecting him. As
if her decision to leave his place and get her own wasn’t going to anger the shit out of him. She
knew it would. She had to know! So why the fuck was she surprised to see him?
But that wasn’t her question when he broke in. Why was he surprised that she had left him,
was.
But Teddy didn’t answer her question. He looked around the tiny apartment. He even
walked past her to the bedroom, as if she might have some man in her bed. He knew he was
being provocative. He knew even the thought that she would be cheating on him would rile her
up. And when he stopped his cursory investigation and bothered to look at her, he saw just
how riled up she really was. Nikki was the kind of woman whose big eyes couldn’t conceal her
contempt. And she was full of it that night.
“You’re the one who told me we might not have a future together,” she said. “Didn’t you
tell me that? You’re the one who told me to do what I had to do. But now you’re the one
running over here like some crazy man all surprised because I did it? Because I wasn’t about to
live with a man I had no future with? What’s wrong with you, Teddy? Where do you get off
being angry at me for doing what you told me to do?”
But he didn’t mean those words! Didn’t she realize he was just saying that shit to cover
himself in case their relationship went south? That was what Sinatras did. They covered their
asses! They learned it from their old man, a man who wasn’t worth a damn when it came to
women either. That was why his old man left Teddy’s mother high and dry when Teddy was
just a kid. That was why he left his kid brother Joey’s mother, and his sister Glo’s mother, and
his deceased brother Adrian’s mother too. His father left all his baby-mothers, except for Roz,
the mother of his young twins. It also wasn’t lost on Teddy that Roz ended up being the only
one his father actually bothered to marry. That stung a little too.
But Teddy had his old man’s genes. He’d been told all his life he was just like his old man.
Leaving women in the dust to fend for themselves was in his blood too. That was why he was a
man past thirty who wasn’t married yet. That was why he was a man past thirty with one
serious relationship to his name, and Nikki was the one. But she asked a good question. Why,
he wondered too, was he so damn angry?
Just because she left his place and got her own?
Just because s
he refused to go along with his bullshit and needed her own space?
Just because . . . why? She didn’t need him?
Was that it?
But that was crazy!
So what if she didn’t need him. Why the fuck should he care? Was his punk-ass that needy
now?
And when she pushed him back out of the door he had kicked open, and slammed the door
in his face, why was he so stunned?
“Teddy? Teddy? Teddy! You still there, man? Teddy!”
Teddy suddenly opened his big, tired eyes again. The phone was still resting between his
neck and his shoulder, with his head cocked sideways to hold it to his ear, but he had dozed-off
into memory-land almost as soon as he had answered the call. “I’m still here,” he said, forcing
himself back awake. “What’s up?”
“You heard what I said, right?” The voice belonged to Joey Sinatra, his half-brother.
“Say it again,” Teddy said.
“I said it again already! What’s wrong with you? I said he’s ready to meet.”
Teddy frowned. “He’s ready?”
“That’s what I told your ass, Teddy!”
“When?”
“Now.”
“Now? What are you talking? It’s three in the morning!”
“You know how Lizard is. He’s flaky like that. That’s why I don’t like this idea of doing
business with a man like him. I just don’t like it! But who listens to me?”
“Just tell me what he said,” Teddy said.
“He says he’s ready to meet right now. That’s what he said. That’s what I already told you
he said.”
Shit, Teddy thought. This time of morning? It felt as if he’d just gotten into bed, and now he
had more shit to do. He closed his eyes once more. Was he ever going to get a good night’s
sleep ever again? He hadn’t had one since Nikki left. “Where?” he asked.
“The old bakery on Hansen.”
Teddy’s eyes flew open. “Why the fuck over there?”
“Maybe he likes the place. Maybe he owns the place. I don’t know, Teddy. How should I
know? He has the right to pick the time and place, since you gave him that privilege, and this is
the time he picked and that’s the place he picked. Get some facts and wake your ass up.”
“Get smart with me again and I’ll wake your ass up,” Teddy angrily responded. “Got that
fact?”
Joey let out a harsh sigh over the phone. They used to work side-by-side before their old
man elevated Teddy to underboss. Now their position in the family, and their relationship,
were worlds apart. “Yeah I got it,” Joey said.
“Pick up Gio.”
“Gio?”
“I didn’t stutter. Swing by here after you get him. I’ll be ready.”
There was a hesitation on Joey’s part, which Teddy knew meant he didn’t like that decision
one bit. But that was tough. Gio Savarino was a longtime capo in the Sinatra crime family and
was promoted, by Mick Sinatra himself, to a rank almost equal to Joey’s, although Joey hated
the idea. To Joey, nobody should be that close to him in rank. But Teddy had been crowned
their father’s undisputed heir-apparent, and nobody questioned his authority. If he told Joey to
pick up Gio, Joey had to pick him up. “Sure thing, Boss,” Joey said.
Teddy knew his kid brother was being smart-ass again, but he didn’t have the energy to fight
it. He’d deal with that shit later. He ended the call.
He laid his head back onto his sweat-filled pillow and placed the phone on his nightstand.
Nikki’s picture was on that nightstand and he caught a glimpse of it as he sat the phone down.
Then he looked at it full-on. She was standing at the new car he had purchased for her, dressed
beautifully as she always was, with her full-figured body and her gorgeous smiling face
everything he wanted physically in a woman. But it was her vulnerabilities, and her smarts, and
her mental toughness - Nikki was tougher than most men he knew, including most of his capos,
that won him over. And his dumbass blew it. He flat-out blew it!
He had to make it right, he thought, as he got out of bed. His life and happiness, and the
final end of that debilitating loneliness that was already creeping back into his day-to-day,
depended on him righting the wrong he had done to Nikki’s heart, and winning her back. And it
wasn’t up for debate; he didn’t give a fuck how many women were insisting he was better off
without her. He didn’t want their asses. He wanted Nikki. And he was going to win her back.
He just hadn’t figured out how.
CHAPTER TWO
Nikki Tarver could barely focus her big, brown eyes when she turned over her cell phone
and looked at the time. It was three am, which made her want to toss that phone back onto
the nightstand. Somebody calling her at three am? Seriously?
But when she glanced at the Caller ID and saw that it was her mother, she knew she
couldn’t toss it then. She answered quickly. “Hey, Ma. Everything okay?”
“You need to talk to him,” her mother responded.
Nikki wondered if she had missed an entire conversation. “Excuse me?”
“Your father. You need to call and talk to him. He says you won’t answer his calls and I’m
tired of him calling me.”
Nikki, lying on her back in bed, rubbed her forehead. No she didn’t wake her up, this time of
morning, for that. “Anything else?” she asked.
“Are you going to call him?”
“Ma, this could have waited until a reasonable hour. It’s three in the morning!”
“And he’s been calling me since two! Now I’m tired of it, Nicole. You’ve got to call him and
tell him to keep me out of it. I divorced his butt all those years ago for a reason. But he still
calls me complaining about all those years he spent in prison and how his second wife died
while he was locked up. And I’m thinking no this bastard ain’t telling me this shit. He cheated
on me with that second wife before she became his second wife! Why should I care that her
ass died while he was in prison?”
“Ma, it’s three in the morning,” Nikki reminded her. She didn’t want to hear that tired old
song about her parents’ tumultuous relationship. “I’ve got to go to work soon.”
There was a pause. “Your ass just like him,” her mother then said. “Call him,” she added as
if she still had the power to order Nikki around, and then ended the call.
Nikki just laid there. The last time she called her father for help, he hung up in her face.
Now her mother expected her to just act as if that earth-shattering moment never happened?
Or that her earth-shattering past with her father never occurred? Nikki tossed her phone back
onto the nightstand, and turned over.
But going back to sleep would be a challenge, since she wasn’t exactly sound asleep when
the call came in. Teddy had been on her mind. And still was, if she were to be honest. He was
yet another man who had let her down. Yet another man who had promised her the moon, but
as soon as she reached for it; as soon as she decided to give love a chance once again, had given
her his ass to kiss. She should be used to it by now. Her father’s behavior alone had taught her
to never expect too much out of men. Except she thought Teddy was different. She thought he
was the one man who understood what she was about, and would handle her with care.
S
he thought wrong.
Because he didn’t handle her with care, but however he felt like handling her. And care
wasn’t the issue.
Just as it wasn’t with her father, nor her ex-husband, nor any of those other men who had
been in a relationship with Nikki. Teddy wasn’t different at all, or they wouldn’t be separated.
He was just more of the same.
But why did her pain feel differently, and so much more painful, than it felt all those other
times?
She turned over again and closed her eyes. But she didn’t see darkness. Nor sleep. All she
saw was Teddy.
CHAPTER THREE
The Dodge Charger came to a rolling stop across the street from the old bakery shop. It was
almost four in the morning and the street lighting was poor as hell in that entire area of town,
but Teddy could see all he needed to see. He was on the front passenger seat in Joey’s car.
Joey was behind the wheel. Giovanni Savarino was in back.
“Spooky as hell,” Joey said. “It looks worse than I remember around here. And he wants to
meet here? You think he’s toying with us?”
But Teddy wasn’t answering questions. “Go see if he’s there,” he said to Gio.
“But for real, Teddy,” Gio was saying as he unbuckled his seatbelt. “Hook me up, man.”
They had been talking about Gio’s crush on Gloria Sinatra, Teddy and Joey’s half-sister. Or,
at least, Gio had been talking about it. “Why don’t you hook me up?” he asked again.
“We hooked you up once before,” Joey responded, “and your ass couldn’t keep her. Why
would he hook you up again?”
“This is an A and B conversation,” Gio said to Joey.
But Joey wasn’t about to take that slight lying down. “And I’ll C your ass in the street,” he
shot back. “Who the fuck you think you’re talking to? I’m your boss!”
“And Teddy’s all our boss,” Gio said. “I was talking to the boss.”
“Joey’s right,” Teddy said, to Joey’s delight. “You had her once. It was your job to keep
her.”
But Gio frowned. “You know how Gloria is,” he said. “She doesn’t know what she wants
yet. But she respects you like she respects the big boss. If you put in a word for me, I think
she’ll come around.”
“In your dreams, Gio,” Joey said. “You’re not good enough for my sister. Face facts, boy.