Rory looked horrified. “What do you mean somebody took her? You mean kidnapped her?”
Sal nodded. He hated that word. “That’s what I mean,” he said.
“Oh, my,” Rory said. “Well what is being done about it? Has the authorities been alerted? What are they saying? Who would want to do Gemma harm? What is the police saying? What about the FBI?”
Sal shook his head. “We aren’t alerting any authorities, and you aren’t either.”
Rory frowned. “No authorities? Mr. Gabrini, that is not a wise decision. The police---”
“Will only get in our way,” Sal said, “and they will not be alerted. Not by us. Not by you.”
“Because if they are alerted,” Reno said, moving closer to the desk, “only one person would have done the dastardly deed, and that would be you. Then we’ll be coming for you.”
“I used to be a federal judge, sir. Are you threatening me?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you used to be,” Reno said, “and yes, I’m threatening you.”
“Your name?”
“Reno Gabrini,” Reno said, and even Rory knew that name.
“I see,” he said. “You own the PaLargio.”
“Among other things, that’s right.”
There was also rumors swirling around about his mob affiliation just like with Sal.
“So you see why, Mister Used-to-be-a-federal-judge, we don’t give a damn about what you used to be,” Reno said. “Button your mouth and let us handle this situation.”
“But is Gemma going to be all right?” Rory asked. “I’m only thinking about her welfare.”
“And I’m not?” Sal said with guilt in his voice. “You think I want my wife in jeopardy? Just keep your mouth shut and let us locate her.”
“And if you start mouthing off,” Reno added, “we’ll locate you.”
“But---”
“But what?”
“What can I do?” Rory asked. “Perhaps I can be of assistance. I still carry some clout. What can I do?”
Sal saw the sincere distress in Rory’s eyes. He exhaled. “Sit tight,” he said. “Don’t call anybody or ask too many questions around that courthouse. Just let us handle it.”
Rory understood. And both men were satisfied that he understood.
But when they made it outside, and back inside of Reno’s Porsche, they felt deflated again. “So much for that,” Sal said, disappointed.
“What about his back story?” Reno asked as he cranked up.
“What about it?”
“Did you check it out? Did it add up?”
“Of course I checked it out,” Sal responded. “I checked it out the first time I saw him talking to Gem.”
“And everything added up?”
“Everything. His wife did die last year. He did step down from the bench to go into private practice, and there was no scandal that forced him to quit or anything like that. And from what my people could gather, he’s a respectable, older, lonely man. No red flags at all.”
Reno exhaled. “So where does that leave us?” He looked at Sal.
“To me,” Sal said, and looked back at Reno. “As usual.”
Alfie Farino’s widow didn’t even want to let Sal in her house. That was how deep her hate for him ran. But she had no choice. When Sal Gabrini came calling, she knew she had no choice.
She let him in, along with Reno, whom she also knew. But she wasn’t going to pretend she liked having scum like them in her home, she didn’t care how powerful they were.
“State your business and state it quick,” Rose Marie Farino said. Ever since her husband was killed during that hotel shootout, and Sal left him behind, even used him as a human shield, she’d been hating on him. She wasn’t about to go to the cops with her hate, because she was no fool, but she wallowed in her disdain for him.
“Nice seeing you again, Rosie,” Reno said. “I hear you and Alfie have been living the good life on Sal’s money.”
Rosie looked at Reno. “What Sal money? I won’t take a dime from that creep!”
“That’s because you already took it. Living in this lap of luxurious home. Who do you think paid for it? Alfie? His ass was shoving shit at the landfill when Sal gave him a shot, and in that short period of time he didn’t go on nearly enough jobs to pay for something like this. And your broke ass certainly didn’t pay for it. So cut the act and treat my cousin with the respect he’s due. He didn’t kill your husband. That prick Marty Dim in that hotel room killed your husband, and you need to start facing truth.”
“He left him behind!” Rosie shot back. “He used my Alfie as a human shield!”
“He didn’t leave Alfie behind,” Reno said. “He left Alfie’s dead body behind. He used Alfie’s dead body as a human shield because his ass was dead! You would have used him too to get out of there! So stop twisting this shit for your own pleasure.”
Rosie rolled her eyes. She didn’t want to hear logic, she didn’t care how much Reno spewed it. She wanted justice for her husband. He was dead. Sal was fine.
“Where’s my wife?” Sal asked her.
She looked at him. “Your wife? What you lost your wife, Sal? Can’t even keep up with that black bitch?”
Sal wanted to kick her ass right then and there, and Reno wanted to join in, but they both knew not to take the bait. If she had any intel whatsoever, they needed it. Because as of right now, they had nothing. Their men were checking in, but they were giving them nothing. They had nothing.
“Have you seen her, Rosie?”
“No, I haven’t seen her! We don’t exactly run in the same circles.”
“If you mean Gemma Gabrini doesn’t run with the trailer park trash crowd like you do,” Reno said, “no truer words have ever been spoken.”
“Kiss my ass, Reno!” Rosie said. “And you too, Sal.”
“Have you heard anything about anybody planning something like this?” Sal asked her. He wasn’t expending an ounce of energy on Rosie’s hate. He didn’t have an ounce to expend.
“Planning something like what?” Rosie asked. “A snatch? No. I ain’t heard anything. And I wouldn’t tell you if I had. I don’t care nothing about saving your wife. You didn’t care about saving my Alfie!”
“Let’s go,” Sal said. He knew this would be a waste of time.
“Yeah, ya’ll better leave,” Rosie said. “Take your chump ass out of my house!”
And they were about to do just that, until Reno doubled back, hurried behind a confused Rosie, and gave her a swift kick in the ass. “I won’t kiss it,” he said as she fell against her couch, “but I’ll kick it all day long!”
Sal was stunned. “Reno, she’s a widow, what’s your problem?”
“Forget her!” Reno said, leaving.
Rosie fought to get back up, but her bulk kept her down. “Assholes!” she yelled repeatedly, and Reno was about to double back again, but Sal forced him out the door. He slammed it behind them. Wasting energy on a nobody like Rosie Farino would get them no-where. They needed answers. He needed his wife!
It was after nine p.m. by the time they made it back to Sal and Gemma’s home. To Sal’s relief, Tommy had arrived and was waiting there, along with Trina and Jimmy, for them to return. Tommy stood by the fireplace, in a yellow cardigan sweater and blue slacks, looking like an elegant and handsome version of Mister Rogers, talking with Jimmy. Trina was curled up asleep on the sofa.
“Tommy!” he said as if the name itself was an exhale, and he hurried to his big brother. He fell into Tommy’s arms, his eyes squeezed shut.
Tommy held his brother with a grip that kept both of them holding on for dear life. Not all that long ago, Tommy had been through hell and back, nearly dying himself in a hail of gunfire. And now this. If it had not been for his lady Liz, he would not have been alive today. Now the love of Sal’s life was in trouble.
“Did you guys find out anything?” Jimmy asked Reno as Reno headed toward his wife.
“Nothing,” Reno said regret
tably and lifted Trina’s curled body into his arms, sat down, and sat her cradled on his lap. Jimmy went and sat next to his parents.
“How long has she been asleep?” Reno asked.
“About an hour,” Jimmy said. “She looked so peaceful, I didn’t want to wake her.”
“Good boy,” Reno said, and looked at his beloved wife. Katrina Gabrini. He knew the anguish Sal had to be feeling.
When Sal and Tommy finally stopped embracing, Tommy continued to squeeze his brother’s biceps. “You still have men out there?” he asked.
“Every man I know. And Reno’s army too.”
“But nothing?”
“Nothing,” Sal said with distress. “It’s nightfall now, and I don’t know where she is.” A frown appeared on his face. “Why don’t they call me, Tommy? Why don’t they ask for my life in place of hers? I’d kill myself right in front of them if it’ll free Gemma. They need to tell me something! But there’s no word, no chatter, nothing.”
Tommy squeezed Sal’s arm harder, and Sal appreciated his closeness. All their lives Tommy had been the favored son. From his movie star great looks, to his intellect, to his great body, he was always thought of as the golden child. Sal had the strength, people would declare, but Tommy had everything else. But they were wrong. In times like these, Tommy was a rock to Sal.
“Why don’t you get some rest, Sal. Go lay down. You won’t be any good to her exhausted like this.”
But Sal was already shaking his head. “I can’t sleep,” he said, heading for a chair beside the sofa. “There’s no way Gemma could be out there somewhere, needing me . . .” He couldn’t continue his thought. The thought itself was too painful to utter.
Tommy sat on the arm of the chair beside Sal. “So what do we do?” Sal asked Reno and Tommy, the two older men he viewed as wiser than himself.
“We figure out what’s next,” Tommy said. “Where did you and Reno go tonight? Jimmy said something about Gemma’s mentor?”
“Yeah,” Sal said. “We checked him out first.”
“Blanks?”
“Big time. He was more interested in calling the FBI to offer assistance than anything we had to say.”
“Well do you think he’ll do that?” Tommy asked, concerned. “Do you think he’ll call in the Feds?”
“He cares about Gemma,” Sal said, “that’s for sure. But I think Reno made it clear enough to him that we can do a better job of finding her. The cops will only be in the way. I think he got the message.”
“That’s the only person you guys could come up with?”
“On her side?” Sal asked. “Yeah. I don’t know why we even started there. Reno thought it would be a grand idea.”
“I thought we should begin with the person kidnapped,” Reno explained. “It’s not always all about you, Sal. Gemma is a defense attorney. It could have been all about some case she tried, anything, and since this Rory Calhoun hadn’t been in town long, I thought he was worth exploring.”
Tommy looked at Sal. “What about that case you were telling me about? The tape and Taiwan and all of that?”
“That got resolved in Taiwan,” Sal said. “It was bloody, but it got resolved.”
“You got the tape?”
“We got it.”
“Could there be somebody out there seeking revenge for what happened in Taiwan?” Tommy asked. “For the way you went about getting that tape?”
Sal was shaking his head. “I had men listening for chatter for nearly a month after it happened. They couldn’t turn up any noise anywhere. This isn’t about that.”
“I didn’t even know about that,” Reno said, feeling left out.
“We aren’t exactly best buds, Reno,” Sal pointed out. “Come on.”
“Yeah, but when one member of the family is in trouble, we all answer the call. You could have asked for my help. My reach goes further than yours.”
“That’s a gotdamn lie!” Sal shot back. “Your reach is extensive in Vegas, but you can’t touch my operation nationwide.”
Both Tommy and Reno looked at Sal. They had suspected him of being some kind of mob boss for years, but he always denied it. They wondered if they’d just boxed him into a confession. “What operation is that?” Reno asked Sal.
Sal was in agony, but he wasn’t that far gone. “None of your fucking business,” he responded.
Reno and Tommy smiled, they almost had him, but it was a very ephemeral moment. Because they thought about Gemma, and the jeopardy she was undoubtedly in, and all smiles were gone.
“What about you, Sal?” Tommy asked. “Who are your enemies?”
“You got a couple hundred phone books?” Sal responded.
“Who are your enemies over the past few months?” Tommy rephrased his question.
Sal exhaled. He’d already thought about that. “Marty Dim’s people,” he said. “But my men are already checking every one of them out.”
“What about Alfie’s widow?” Tommy asked. “I heard she was talking trash about you.”
“We saw her already.”
“Nothing there either?” Tommy asked.
“She’s still talking trash,” Sal said, “but nothing. She don’t know anything either.”
“And Gemma’s parents will be here soon,” Tommy said. “I was hoping we would have better news by now.”
“How do you know about her parents coming?” Sal asked. “You called them?”
“They called me. Just after you did.”
“They called you? What did they want with you?”
“They were just informing me---”
“What did they want, Tommy?” Sal asked again.
Tommy didn’t want to go there, but Sal wanted the truth. “They asked me to find their daughter.”
“They asked you to find her?” Reno was disgusted. “Why those assholes!”
“They aren’t assholes, Reno,” Tommy said. “They’re concerned about their daughter.”
“And Sal isn’t? What are they talking? There’s nothing Sal wouldn’t do to get Gemma back, and they have to know that!”
“They blame me for her turning up missing in the first place,” Sal said, rising. “They don’t want me to get her back. They don’t want me to have anything to do with her. Excuse me.” He headed upstairs.
“Where are you going?” Reno asked. “Where is he going?” Reno asked Tommy.
“He needs a break from the pressure,” Tommy said. “Give him a minute. He’ll be okay.”
But when a minute turned into more than several minutes, Tommy excused himself from Reno and his family, and made his way upstairs too.
Tommy stood outside Sal’s closed bedroom door and could hear his brother sobbing. He leaned his forehead against the door and waited. When Sal continued to wail, he knocked, and then walked on in.
Sal turned his back to Tommy, wiping his tears, and walked over to the window.
“You okay?” Tommy asked as he closed the door behind him.
“I’ll be okay when Gemma’s okay,” Sal said.
Tommy walked up to the window beside his brother. But instead of looking at him, he looked out of the window at the beautiful well-lit waterfall garden in the back of Sal and Gemma’s property. And they stood there, speechless, for a couple minutes.
“Where’s Liz?” Sal asked Tommy.
“Dubai,” Tommy responded.
“Dubai?” Sal looked at him. “Don’t you think you ought to pull her in from the field until we know what we have on our hands here? If they went after my woman, they might go after yours too.”
But Tommy shook his head. “Liz can take care of herself,” he said.
“And Gemma can’t?”
“It’s not an either-or proposition, Sal. Of course Gemma can. Liz is a war correspondent by trade. She has a lot of experience. She can take care of herself.”
Sal shook his head. He wouldn’t risk it if he had Gemma by his side right now. He’d do everything in his power to protect her.
Tommy
sensed his concern. “I already requested that she come stateside until this is over.”
“What did she say?”
Tommy smiled. “She turned down my request.”
Sal shook his head. “She’s a hothead, I told you.”
“Don’t worry,” Tommy said confidently. “If this situation takes on a more international feel, I’ll bring her in, whether she wants to come or not.”
Sal knew he would do it too. Liz was tough, but she wasn’t tougher than Tommy. Tommy ran that relationship, war correspondent be damned, Sal thought. But then he thought about Gemma, and the danger she was in, and keeping Liz in or out of the field didn’t matter a twit to him.
“So who’s up next?” Tommy asked his brother. “Your men are handling the gangster side of the equation. What about everybody else? Regular, law-abiding citizens. Any of them have a beef with you or Gemma?”
Sal shook his head. “I can’t think of anybody.”
“So you’re Mr. Wonderful to everybody except gangsters. Is that what you’re telling me? Is finding a non-criminal enemy for you as elusive as finding any video anywhere around that courthouse with Gemma’s kidnapping on it?”
And that was when it hit Sal. He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of it before. He looked at Tommy.
“You thought of somebody? Who?”
“Santino,” Sal said.
“Santino Druce? Didn’t you hire him as your new security chief in the office building you just had built?”
“I fired him a couple months ago. Well, first I beat his ass, and then I fired him.”
This was news to Tommy. “Why would you fire Santino? He’s been one of your go-to guys for years. Why would you fire him?”
“I fucked Gemma in my private elevator one day, and instead of his ass turning off the video feed, he fed on it. He watched the entire episode. I fired his ass.”
“Damn right. You couldn’t trust him.”
Sal was nodding. “Right,” he said. “I can’t trust him. No telling what he’s capable of.”
Sal and Tommy looked at each other. And then began hurrying out of his bedroom.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Santino Druce jumped into his Ford Mustang and burned rubber getting away from his house. Sal, Reno, and Tommy jumped into Sal’s Porsche, and with Sal driving they took off after the former security chief.
Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 Page 14