Mick Sinatra 3: His Lady, His Children, and Sal by Mallory Monroe Page A

that dumb-ass son of his himself,
he didn’t really have time for this meeting.   He had contemplated phoning Roz and canceling it.   But he thought about her former lover putting
on the charm, trying to seduce her, trying to get some again.   It wasn’t happening.   Roz was not that kind of lady.   But he wasn’t going to take any chances with
the man.   This was a meeting he had to
make.
    “The point I was making,” Hamilton said, “is that I
greatly appreciate the fact that Roz is giving me this opportunity.   She’s always been a fighter.   And, as I told her before you arrived, that’s
exactly what I need.”
    “You do not currently have an agent?” Mick
asked.  
    “No, I don’t,” Hamilton said.
    Mick stared at him, waiting for an explanation.   But Hamilton redirected the subject.   “I’m just happy to be working with Roz.   She’ll deliver for me.”
    But Mick wasn’t so easily misdirected.   “Why not?” he asked.
    “Why not what?” Hamilton asked with a smile.
    Bad move, Roz thought, as she looked at
Hamilton.   With Mick, it was always
better to just answer the question.
    Hamilton did.   “My agent decided that he wanted to take his agency in a different
direction.   He therefore didn’t feel an
association with me was what his agency, given that new direction, needed.”
    “Why not?” Mick asked him.
    Roz wanted to step in.   She wanted to steer Hamp toward the truth
before it bit him in the butt.   But she
knew Mick.   She stayed out of it.
    “I just told you why,” Hamilton said, giving Mick
his best charming smile.
    Mick stared at Hamilton.   He was an actor doing what he did: acting.
Mick took a sip of Roz’s wine.   He didn’t
have time for this.   “I’ve got to go,” he
said to her as he sipped.
    Roz looked at him.   “Now?   But Mick, you haven’t had
anything to eat.”
    “I’ll get something later.”
    Something was up, Roz could tell.   And if her instincts were right, whatever it
was had nothing to do with Sinatra Industries.   Which meant, she knew, it was not only bad but was probably dangerous.   “I understand,” she said.   “Just take care of yourself.”
    Hamilton felt triumphant.   He apparently didn’t find anything to really
object to.   “Well, I’m certainly sorry we
couldn’t talk more,” he said.
    “Nothing to talk about,” Mick said, placing Roz’s
drink back in front of her.   “My wife
will not be representing you.”
    Both Hamilton and Roz looked at Mick.   Roz was floored.   “What are you talking about?” she asked him.
    “I thought it was a done deal,” Hamilton said.
    “It wasn’t a done deal,” Roz corrected him, and then
looked at Mick again.   “That’s my
decision to make, Mick.”
    “I made it for you,” Mick said firmly.   “You will not be representing him.”   Mick looked at her as if he was daring her to
dispute his authority.
    Roz wanted to lash out.   She couldn’t believe Mick’s nerve.   She knew she was taking a risk by inviting
him to have an opinion about one of her clients to begin with.   And had it not been for the fact that she and
Hamilton had that history, she would have never considered such a thing.   But he promised to give his opinion, not make
the decision for her!   She was livid.
    But she was also his wife.   She would fight him vigorously on this.   But not in this public place.   Mick leaned over to kiss her goodbye.   Hamilton thought it instructive that she
offered her cheek, not her mouth.
    It wasn’t lost on Mick either.   But that only meant she was pissed with
him.    If it meant keeping creeps like
this Hamilton guy out of her life, she could be pissed with him all day
long.   He kissed her cheek anyway, stood
up, and began to walk away.   When he
glanced back, and saw Hamilton smiling such a delicious smirk at Roz, as if
they shared some inside secret, he doubled back.
    “On second thought,” Mick said to Roz, “get