“Easy Max Capone,” Phil said.
Sal frowned. “Capone? Are you shitting me?”
“That’s his name,” Phil said. “I’m telling you his name!” Then Phil smiled that devil may care, reptilian smile. “You let a fucking boy scout outsmart your stupid ass. And he pays great too.” Phil was drunk with so much pain that he was becoming numb to it. “He put me on his payroll while I was still on yours. Easy Max outsmarted Mad Max. And Easy’s a fucking nigger!” Phil began laughing a maniac’s laugh, as if he’d just said the most hilarious thing.
But Sal was done. He couldn’t bear the sight of him any longer, and to use that word in Sal’s presence? Sal grabbed Phil by the catch of his hair, leaned his head back, and slashed Phil’s throat. Phil’s unrestraint laughter turned into a dead silence. Sal released him, and he fell dead too.
Then Sal looked at his men, his blood-stained knife still drawn. “Anybody else on that fucker’s payroll?” Sal asked.
They all insisted that they were not.
“If I find out that any of you are,” Sal said, and then looked at Phil again, “see your fate.”
All of his men, even the underbosses, swallowed hard.
Sal then looked at his underbosses. “You know this character? This Easy Max character?”
“I don’t know him personally,” Vinnie said, “but I’ve heard of him. Nasty piece of work, I heard.”
“Find him,” Sal ordered.
Vinnie nodded. “Will do.”
“And what about Fast Eddie?” Sal asked. “Why haven’t we tracked him down yet?”
“We’re working on it,” Frank said. “He’s suddenly not as visible as he used to be.”
“You think there’s a connection?” Vinnie asked Sal.
But Sal wasn’t there to answer their questions. “Find those motherfuckers,” he said to everybody. “Fast Eddie, Easy Max, and Billy Minoche too. Nobody is off the clock until all three of those assholes are found. Do I make myself clear?”
They all said that he did, and promised to find them all. Sal wasn’t satisfied anymore. This shit was too crazy for him to find satisfaction. But at least now they knew that all of this talk of a distracted Sal Gabrini was bullshit.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The security gate opened and Sal sped through in his Bugatti and didn’t stop speeding until it had circled the driveway to its peak. Security was still tight around his estate, as his men guarded every inch of the compound, and would remain tight until the war was over. And Sal realized tonight that they were at war. His men, to his shock, just didn’t seem to realize it.
He didn’t see Gemma’s Aston as he parked, but assumed it had already been garaged. It was late, after all. Night had descended. It had been a long day.
He sat still in his car even after the footman waiting at the front door had hurried down the steps and over to the driver’s side door. But he was still unnerved. His organization was in tatters. Territories were being ceded with very little fight back. His capos were being proven incompetent in the extreme, and one was proven a turncoat. Fran’s son, a son he didn’t know she had, was coming for him. And fuckers left and right were treating him as if he didn’t have his act together. Because he didn’t. And that, Sal knew, had to change.
He got out of the car, and the footman welcomed him back home. Sal grunted and headed across the sidewalk, up the steps, and into his home. There was a peace that always met his spirit whenever he entered his home. Mainly because Gemma was usually there to greet him in the foyer. But even though she didn’t greet him tonight, he still felt that peace when he walked in. He headed to the nursery, where he assumed his wife and child would be.
Lucky was in bed and began grinning when he saw his father. “Daddy!”
Sal smiled that grand smile for the first time today, and lifted his beautiful boy out of his bed. “Hey, my son.” He was bouncing him and kissing him. “How are you, my son?”
Sal managed to tear his eyes away from his grinning son to look at the nanny, who moved away from the bed when he arrived. “How are you?”
“I’m very well, sir,” she said. “Thank you for asking.”
She was one of many in the nanny rotation (they always wanted the nanny fresh and ready), and she was no beauty queen, Sal noticed as he held his baby. But Gemma told him she didn’t play that. No bombshell nanny was coming up in her house to sleep with her man and take him away from her. Such reasoning was ridiculous to Sal. Arnold Schwarzenegger was prime example number one. His nanny or housekeeper or whatever she was wouldn’t be considered a beauty queen. Far from it. But he impregnated her anyway. It was the proximity, not the beauty, was Sal’s argument. But Gemma still wasn’t taking any chances. Their son’s nannies were all competent. They were all smart, kind, and considerate. But none of them would win any beauty awards, and none of them were under forty.
But just thinking about Gemma reminded him. “Where’s my wife?” he asked the nanny.
“She hasn’t made it home from work yet, sir,” the nanny responded.
Sal stopped shaking Lucky and frowned. “She’s not home?”
“No, sir. Not yet.”
And just as the nanny responded to him, they heard the front door open. Sal quickly handed Lucky to the nanny, and Sal hurried out of the nursery and around to the foyer.
Gemma had just arrived and was sitting her briefcase and purse on the foyer table, and was taking off her high heels when Sal rounded the corridor. She could tell immediately that he was pissed.
“What are you doing?” he asked her angrily. His hands were held away from his body, and his eyes were filled with fear and rage.
“Good evening,” Gemma said, determined to keep the temperature low.
“Where the fuck have you been?”
Gemma looked at him with surprise in her eyes. “Don’t talk to me that way,” she said offended.
But Sal didn’t give a damn. “Against everything I stand for, I allowed you to work outside of the home while this shit is going down. And this is how you repay me? Coming home this late at night when you know that’s off the table?”
“I was in court, and then I was doing work on behalf of the campaign. We had so much to work out, Sal, that I forgot about the time.”
“You have to come home on time, you hear me? None of that night shit you love to pull. Not now. Too much is going on!”
Sal was in a state, an awful state, and Gemma felt terrible. She knew he had his meeting with his organization today, but it had apparently not gone as well as he had hoped. She moved closer to him. “I’m sorry, Sal. I didn’t mean to create any confusion. I lost track of the time.”
She placed her arms around his neck. He placed his arms around her waist. She could tell he was cooling off already. “It was partly Robby’s fault, too,” he said. “He knows better.”
But Gemma was shaking her head. “Robby had nothing to do with my decision to work late. That was my call. My decision.”
Sal loved the smell of Gemma, and those wonderful, sincere eyes. “Don’t make excuses for his ass. He knows what he’s supposed to do.”
“He’s supposed to be my bodyguard,” Gemma said, “not my boss. Right?”
Sal knew she would never have agreed to any security at all if it meant his men could control her every movement. Although, if they felt her life was in danger, he privately told them they could. “Right,” he said.
Gemma placed her hand on the side of his face. “You don’t need to worry about me, Sal. I keep telling you that.”
Sal thought about what Tommy told him when he told Tommy the same thing. That went triple for Sal.
“I won’t do anything foolish,” Gemma said. “Know that.”
“It’s those idiots out there who think they can come at me who might do something foolish. That’s what keeps me up nights.”
Gemma looked at him. “What happened today?” she asked.
But Sal wasn’t about to draw her into his nightmare. He didn’t say anything.
> But he didn’t have to. His expressive eyes said it all. And Gemma gave up. Sal wasn’t about to stop worrying, and she knew it. It was her job, she decided, to stop giving him added reasons to worry. “It won’t happen again,” she said to him, heartfelt, and he pulled her to him, and gave her the kind of kiss he wanted to give her earlier, at her campaign headquarters. Now he was making up for lost time.
It took no time for his welcome home kiss to turn so passionate, and so hot, that Sal found himself backing Gemma out of the foyer and into the powder room off from the foyer. He quickly slammed the door shut, slammed his back against the door, and began kissing her even more passionately. He was moving from her lips, to her cheeks, to her neck, and back up to her lips. He was rubbing his lips against her lips, enjoying the feel, the smell, the closeness of her. And he couldn’t stop himself. All he had to deal with. All he had to worry about. All he had yet to do, all flew out the window whenever he was with Gemma.
He lifted her blouse completely off of her body, lifted her bra, and his penis throbbed when he saw her big, beautiful dark chocolate breasts. He licked them like chocolate, and then sucked long and hard. Gemma was feeling all kinds of sensual when Sal sucked her.
She began removing his suit coat and shirt, and unbuckling and unzipping his pants, as he sucked her. He dropped his pants and sat her on the vanity. He fingered her, realized she was already wet, and didn’t hesitate.
He entered her with a hard thrust, and began fucking her without any regard for gentleness. Gemma wanted it this way too, and sat up, with her hands around his neck, and enjoyed every second. Sal fucked her long, and he fucked her hard. And when they came, they came together. Sal squeezed and she pulsated and they leaned against each other, as they came.
After they came, Sal continued to lean against her, holding her tight. His lips were against her ear. But instead of whispering sweet nothings in her ear after such an emotional love connection, he closed his eyes. “I’ve got problems, Gem,” he said to her.
Gemma’s body went completely still. Sal rarely ever admitted that there were issues in his business. Especially in his other business that was now his main business. She knew she had to be cautious or he would shut down on her. “Concerning?” she asked.
Sal hesitated, but answered her. “Fran,” he said.
Gemma leaned her head back and looked at him. “Fran? But she’s dead, Sal. What about Fran?”
“She has a son,” Sal said. “And her son is gunning for me.”
Gemma’s heart sank. Sal had to take out his own mother, who turned out to be Fran’s mother. Could that be the reason? “You knew she had a son?”
Sal was shaking his head. “I didn’t know shit about it. No. Nothing.”
Gemma’s eyes filled with sympathy. “Oh, Sal!” she said. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll have to let Reno and Tommy know, that’s for damn sure. And I’ve got to find him.”
“And do what after you find him?”
Sal exhaled. “I don’t even wanna think about it.”
Gemma didn’t either. Not after all of the awful choices Sal had to make before. She pulled him against her, and held him even tighter than he had ever held her.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Early that next morning, on Saturday morning, Sal and Gemma decided to sleep in later than usual. They both had had a long day yesterday, and needed the extra rest. But was awakened by a very familiar voice: “Uncle Sal! Uncle Sal!” Then Sal could hear him running up the stairs. “Uncle Sal!”
Sal was lying on his side with his arm around Gemma, and frowned as he became more fully awake. “What the fuck?” he asked with concern in his own voice.
Then knocks were heard on his closed bedroom door, waking up Gemma, too. “Uncle Sal? Uncle Sal?”
Sal looked over at his wife, saw that she, like him, was still naked and her breasts were exposed, pulled the silk sheet up to her neck. “Come in,” he said.
Jimmy Mack Gabrini, Reno Gabrini’s eldest son, entered the bedroom excitedly. Sal was not his uncle, but his cousin. But the younger generation in their family called all of the older men and women uncles and aunts. It was a tradition that didn’t begin with Jimmy, and wouldn’t end with him. But when Jimmy saw his aunt and uncle still in bed, he stopped in his tracks. “You guys were still asleep? I didn’t expect you to still be sleeping.”
“What time is it?” Gemma asked as she rose up, holding the sheet against her body, and looked at the nightstand clock beside Sal. When she saw that it was after nine, her eyes widened. “It’s that late? We overslept, Sal!”
But Sal was still concerned about the young man standing before them. “What’s going on, Jimmy?” he asked. “What’s happened?”
“I just got the word from Uncle Tommy, and I hurried over to thank you in person.”
Gemma looked at him. “What word?”
“Uncle Tommy says he’s going to put me in charge of his Vegas office, Aunt Gem. I’m going to run his Vegas office! Well, not at first. He’s going to put me in as VP, and groom me for the top slot.”
Gemma smiled with a grand smile. “Jimmy, that’s great!”
“I’m so happy I don’t know what to do! And it’s all because of you, Uncle Sal. Uncle Tommy said he’s giving me this shot based on your recommendation alone. He said I can sink or I can swim, but this is going to be my only shot.”
“That’s right,” Sal said. “So your ass better swim.”
Jimmy smiled. “I will, don’t you worry. I won’t let you down. You’re the only one who’s ever had this level of faith in me. To put me in charge of something this big? I’ll never let you down!”
“Don’t pull that New Hampshire shit with Tommy,” Sal warned him. “Don’t go around hiring your friends or some pretty lady you like or he’ll fire your ass without giving you a second thought. He almost fired me for a similar reason and I’m the second largest stakeholder in the company. So you know your ass will be out. Keep it strictly business. Run everything by him until you get your footing. Whoever he puts in charge of your grooming, you listen to him or her. And don’t becomes friends with your employees. Never do that. They won’t respect you if you do.”
Gemma inwardly smiled. Sal used to date many of his female employees before they were married, and now he was lecturing Jimmy? But she held her peace.
“What did your father say about all of this?” she asked Jimmy. “How does Reno feel about you leaving the PaLargio?”
Jimmy hesitated. “He doesn’t know yet,” he said.
“Well, he’s coming over today,” Sal said as he got his naked body out of bed. “Stick around. You can tell him then.” He began walking toward the bathroom. “If he says no, it’s not going to happen. Tommy is not going to go against Reno’s wishes.” Sal glanced back at Jimmy. “You know that, right?”
Jimmy nodded. “Yeah. I know. But Pop won’t say no.”
“But if he does,” Sal said from the bathroom, “that’s going to be the end of it.” He began peeing a loud, long-lasting, first-thing-in-the-morning pee in the toilet. “I’m not going against your father, either. We Gabrini men don’t pull that shit. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said. “I understand.” Then, as Sal continued to do his thing in the bathroom, Jimmy looked at Gemma. “Why’s Pops coming over here?” he asked her.
“Some business Sal has to discuss with him. Want some breakfast?”
Jimmy smiled. “I’d love some breakfast!”
“Wait downstairs. I’ll get dressed.”
“I’ll go check on Luck,” Jimmy said as he began to leave the bedroom. “Poor kid’s probably wondering where in the world are my lazy parents.”
Gemma laughed. “You’re probably right about that. How’s Maddie?” she asked as he began leaving.
“She’s good. She’s with Mom today.”
“Heard from Val?”
Jimmy stopped at the doorjamb. Gemma could tell it was still a sore subject with him. “Nope,” he
said. “She has supervised visitation, but it’s usually her father who gets Madison more so than she does. But what can you do?” he added, and left the room.
Gemma understood the young man’s anguish. But what could she do, she thought. She got out of bed and headed for the bathroom, too.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Reno Gabrini was one of the few people allowed entry onto Sal and Gemma’s property without in-house permission, and as soon as his Porsche drove up, the security gate opened and Reno was cleared for entry. He drove up the long driveway and stopped behind a limo that had apparently just pulled up too. When he saw the chauffeur open the limo’s backdoor and Tommy Gabrini stepped out, he smiled. I’ll be damn, he said aloud, and got out, too.
Reno buttoned his suit coat as he made his way over to the limo. As always, Reno thought as he walked, Tommy looked dapper. Suit pristine. Hair pristine. Smile pristine. Whereas Reno, on the other hand, knew he looked as if he’d slept in his suit. Although he didn’t. But it was Saturday morning, he’d been up all night putting out all kinds of fires all over his ultra-busy casino, and hadn’t had time to change. But seeing his cousin and best friend again made his morning. “What are you doing in Vegas?” he asked Tommy with a big smile on his face, as he approached him.
“Sal asked me to come,” Tommy responded. “What are you doing at Sal’s house?”
“Same,” Reno said. “He wanted to run something by me. He didn’t mention you were coming, however.”
When he arrived at Tommy’s side, the two men hugged vigorously. I love you, man, Reno always wanted to say whenever he saw Tommy. But he didn’t go there. They didn’t go there. “What do you think that brother of yours want?” he asked, instead, when they stopped embracing.
“He wouldn’t say over the phone,” Tommy said. “But I’m sure it has to do with those hit attempts.”
They began heading for the entrance. It was only then did Reno realize his son’s Dodge was also parked at Sal’s house. “I didn’t know my son would be here, too,” he said. “Wonder why Sal would want Jimmy in on whatever it is he wants us in on with him? I know he’s getting ready to go full-time in his other business.” Then Reno frowned. “He’d better not drag Jimmy Mack into any of that.”
Sal Gabrini: Love And War Page 11