The race was on. Santino drove as if he was an experienced stock car driver, but Sal drove equally as deadly. All he saw was a guilty man, a man who very well might hold the key to freeing Gemma, and he wasn’t about to lose this opportunity. Why else would he run? Why else would he only have to see Sal’s face, and take off like some bat out of hell?
“That beat down could be one reason,” Reno suggested. He was on the passenger seat, with Tommy in back, as they swerved around yet another corner and continued to follow Santino.
Sal knew that could be the reason too, but Santino was a tough guy. He would have wanted to beat Sal’s ass seeing him again, especially since he was no longer depending on a paycheck from Sal, not run from him. But whatever the reasoning, Sal wasn’t stopping until he caught him.
And they drove, straight out of Vegas. It was only a miracle that no cop was around to slow their asses down. Santino’s Mustang was fast, but Sal’s Porsche was faster, and Sal ended up moving beside Santino, with both Reno and Tommy pulling out their guns and pointing them squarely at his head.
“Pull over you cocksucker,” Reno said, “or your ass is dead!”
Santino pulled over.
Reno and Tommy quickly stepped out, their guns still on their target. Sal remained behind the wheel of the Porsche, in case Santino decided to make another run for it. But he knew even his Mustang wasn’t going to outrun those bullets. He got out of the car.
“Let’s go,” Tommy ordered, and Santino got into the backseat of Sal’s car. Reno got in beside him, and Tommy got up front, this time, in the passenger seat. And Sal took off.
“Where’s the nearest one?” Tommy asked him.
“Couple miles ahead,” Sal replied.
“Think we need some backup?”
“Hell no,” Sal responded, and drove even faster.
Tommy looked at his brother as he drove. He was so focused, so singularly minded, that even Tommy could feel his chill. Santino was in trouble.
When they drove down a dirt road that led to one of the numerous safe houses they owned around the Vegas region, Sal got out of the car, grabbed Santino out of the backseat, and informed Tommy and Reno to wait outside. He pulled Santino along, used the master key that unlocked every one of their safe house doors, and entered the house with Santino still in his clutches.
As soon as the door closed, Sal pulled out his gun and began to pistol whip his former chief with the certainty of a man who was going to get his own brand of justice tonight. Santino tried valiantly to fight back, even to the point of him and Sal falling onto and breaking the coffee table inside the small home. But Sal overpowered him. And continued to beat him senseless. Santino was screaming woman-like screams, as if Tommy and Reno would hear him and intervene. But no such intervention occurred.
They heard him, but they weren’t about to intervene. Reno, however, was concerned.
“Why is he beating on him already for?” he asked. “He’ll kill him before he gets the information we need.”
“No, he won’t,” Tommy assured him.
“But he’s beating his ass already, Tommy.”
“If Trina was missing, and he might know something about it, you’d be beating his ass too. And after you beat him down, you’d get your information.”
That was exactly how Sal played it. After he beat Santino so decisively that Santino wrongly concluded that Sal could not possibly inflict any more pain on him, Sal grabbed him by the hair and sat him on the sofa. Then he took his gun and sat the barrel of that gun directly on Santino’s swollen eye. Santino flinched with pain, but Sal was undeterred.
“When we arrived at your house, why did you run?” Sal asked him. “And if you lie to me, I will shoot your fucking eye out. You know me. You know I’ll do it. Why did you run?” Sal cocked his gun. Santino leaned back, as if he could escape the blast, but Sal kept the pressure on. “Why did you run?” Sal asked again.
“I knew,” Santino started. “I knew why you came. I heard about Taiwan. I knew it was a matter of time.”
Sal didn’t expect to hear that response. “A matter of time before what?”
“Before you found out. But he came to me, Sal. What you expected me to do?”
Sal had no clue who he was talking about. But he wasn’t going to let Santino know it. “He came to you?” Sal asked.
“He came. And you know how demanding he can be. He had shit on me that went back twenty years, Sal. But it was legit shit that even you couldn’t get me out of.”
“Like what?”
“Stuff, all right? I’m not telling that shit to nobody! It would have gotten me on Death Row if he exposed me. I had to videotape that hit. He didn’t give me a choice, Sal. He made me do it. I was a freaking nobody compared to the great Ted Coggan! I didn’t stand a chance!”
Sal was floored. Ted Coggan? The lawyer? “You videotaped that hit?” Sal asked Santino. “You were the one who did that to me?”
“I did it because he made me do it, Sal! It was either I do it or I get locked up for good.”
“Why would Ted Coggan need some video of me icing some loser? What’s in it for him?”
“He said he needed dirt on you just like he had on me. He called it insurance.”
Sal was still processing what he had just heard. Santino seized on his hesitancy to beg for his life. “I’m not your enemy, Sal. We go way back. What I look like picking a fight with you? Coggan is the enemy. That motherfucker crazy. He’s out to get you. You’ve got bigger problems to worry about than me.”
Sal looked at Santino. Being disloyal to Sal was the worst thing any man could do to him. Santino didn’t seem to understand that. “Where’s my wife?” Sal asked him.
Santino looked puzzled, as if Sal had just asked him to explain molecular biophysics. “Your wife? What does she have to do with this? I don’t know nothing about your wife. Are you trying to say she had an affair with Coggan, and that she’s with Coggan? What would I know about his love life?”
“Who has the tape now?”
“I thought you had it. I heard about what went down in Taiwan. I gave it to Coggan. I guess he gave it to those Asians. I don’t know what he did with it. But I know this ain’t about me.”
“It’s not about you?” Sal asked, amazed at the disloyalty of some men. “You gave Coggan that videotape of me handling my business. You, one of my most trusted men, stabbed me in the back and twisted the knife. But this ain’t about you?”
“It’s not about me, Sal! It’s not! Ted Coggan is the man you want. He’s the enemy, not me. What are you wasting your time on me for? You have bigger fish to fry than me!”
Sal nodded his head. “You’re right,” he said. And then he took that little fish called Santino Druce, and shot him dead.
Outside, when Tommy and Reno heard the gunshot, they drew their own weapons and hurried into the house. They saw Santino, slumped over on the sofa. Sal, his smoking gun still in his hand, was standing there watching him.
“What did he say?” Reno asked him.
“Ted Coggan was behind the video.”
Reno frowned. “What video?”
“Sal on a kill run,” Tommy said. “But I thought Rabina Chen and those Asians were behind that,” Tommy said to Sal.
Sal agreed. “I thought so too,” he said.
“But what does that tape have to do with Gemma?” Reno asked.
Sal shook his head. “I don’t know.” He rubbed the back of his hand over his weary eyes. He was becoming unhinged right before their very eyes, and Tommy and Reno felt powerless to do anything about it. Because Sal was just like them. Nobody was telling him how to run the show, when it was his woman on the line.
“None of this shit is making any sense,” Reno said. “It’s like we’re spinning wheels.”
Sal began leaving. Nobody had to tell him that they were running into brick wall after brick wall. He was the one feeling the impact of the blows.
“Where are you headed now?” Reno asked him.
Sal was so filled with rage he didn’t hear Reno. All he could think about was Coggan, and if he was behind Gem’s abduction all along. Did he rope her into the Chen trial as a diversion, when he really wanted her for other reasons that were even bigger than a murder trial? Was that tape a diversion too? Santino said it was all about insurance. Insurance for what? What other sleight of hand was Coggan pulling before Sal’s very eyes? What sick game was that bastard playing?
“Where are we headed next, Sal?” Reno asked him again.
“Ted Coggan,” Sal said.
“Where is he?”
“Phoenix.” Sal walked out of the safe house.
“Phoenix?” Reno asked, looking at Tommy. “None of this shit is making sense, Tommy. He’s groping in the dark. He’s got us chasing ghosts. You need to get out there and get your boy before I have to. He’s not thinking straight!”
Tommy headed out of the door behind Sal. Of the three Gabrini men, Sal was the least affectionate of all three, but the most emotional when it came to Gemma. And Tommy understood that passion. But Reno was right. He wasn’t thinking clearly. “Sal?” Tommy called after his brother. But Sal continued to head toward his Porsche.
Tommy hurried up behind him, grabbed him by the arm, and turned him around. “Sal?”
“What?”
When Tommy saw the anguish in his kid brother’s eyes, his heart went out to him. “You can’t keep going like this, bud. It’s after midnight. We need to regroup. We’re chasing people that have only an outside chance of knowing anything at all about Gemma’s whereabouts. We aren’t getting any closer to figuring anything out.”
“But I’ve got to make sure,” Sal said. “I’ve got to check out every lead I can check out and make sure it’s not the piece of that puzzle we need to figure it out.”
“But you’re practically dead on your feet. You need some rest, Sal. You need to regroup.”
This angered Sal. “You rest, Tommy. You and Reno regroup! But I am not about to go home and get some sleep while my wife is in some dark hole somewhere scared and lonely and wondering why I haven’t found her yet. And I’m trying with every fiber in my being to find her, to rescue her, before she hates the day she ever met me. Before she hates me. Before she dies alone and scared and I never see her again! And you want me to rest and regroup? I’m going to Phoenix. You and Reno can go to hell.”
They didn’t go to hell. They went to Phoenix. Which was one in the same thing, as far as Reno was concerned, as they sat in the Van Sal’s men had provided them at the airstrip when their plane landed. They were outside of a quiet-looking brothel on a quiet, dead-end street after paying the receptionist to give them intel on Coggan. He was there, she told them, and would be coming out soon. But it had been an hour.
“We could be sitting ducks,” Reno said, looking around at the darkness around them. “She might have tipped him off.”
“She’s dead if she did,” Sal responded.
“Is that him?” Tommy asked, and Sal and Reno looked too.
When Sal saw that it was indeed Ted Coggan exiting the building, buttoning his gabardine coat, he sat erect in his seat. “That’s him,” he said.
Ted walked out of the white picket fence that surrounded the brothel, and began heading down the street, presumably toward his own parked car.
But Reno, the driver, cranked up and began driving slowly behind him. Sal looked around, to make sure the coast was clear.
“Say when, Sal,” Tommy told him.
Sal looked around again. The coast was clear. “Now,” Sal said, and Tommy slid open the Van door, Reno stopped the Van, and Tommy and Sal hurried out.
By the time Ted Coggan had turned around to see what the noise was about, they were already upon him.
“What the hell?” Ted asked, but he was wasting his breath. Sal and Tommy hurried him to the Van, threw him inside, and got in themselves. Reno was already speeding off even as they were sliding the door shut.
As soon as Ted looked up from his tumble on the floor, and got a layout of the Van and its occupants, his terrified eyes settled on Sal. “Are you out of your mind, Gabrini?” he asked him. “What’s the meaning of this? Is Gemma aware---?”
“Keep her name,” Sal said, “out of your fucking mouth.”
“What do you know about her disappearance?” Tommy asked him.
“I know you will not treat me this way and expect no return fire. I know . . .” Ted frowned. “Whose disappearance?”
Sal studied him. Not another brick wall, he thought. “My wife’s disappearance,” he said. “What do you know about it?”
Ted shook his head. “So she came to her senses and left you, and you want to pretend that I had something to do with that? You’re more ridiculous than I thought! Who the fuck do you think you’re dealing with?”
Sal leaned back and shoved his shoe so hard into Ted’s face that the force of the blow knocked Ted back against one of the side seats. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking too?” Sal asked him.
Ted sat back up and immediately felt the side of his mouth in horror, as it began to draw blood. He looked at the man seated beside Sal, a man who looked more like a legitimate businessman rather than some thug like Sal, but Tommy wasn’t about to intercede on his behalf. Tommy was wondering why he would even think that he would. Then Ted looked back at Sal.
“Now get your head out of your ass,” Sal said to him, “and tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know anything about Gemma’s disappearance!” Ted was upset now. “I didn’t know she had disappeared! I’m a lawyer, I’m no kidnapper! If that’s what this is about, you are truly barking up the wrong tree right now. I don’t have your wife, I don’t know who has your wife, I don’t know what happened to her! I haven’t spoken to her since the end of Rabina’s trial a month ago. You have the wrong guy, Gabrini.”
Reno, still driving the Van, looked through the rearview mirror at Sal. He didn’t want to say he told him so, but he told him so. He was going off halfcocked all over America without any strategic game plan. And Tommy, the only man with any real influence over Sal, had too much love for his kid brother, and hated to see him in so much pain, that he wasn’t stopping him. But after this excursion Reno was going to put a stop to it. For Gemma’s sake if for no other reason. Somebody had to take charge of this train wreck.
Sal, in fact, looked so defeated to Tommy that Tommy took over the questioning. But not about Gemma. He had already figured this guy didn’t roll like that. “What about Santino Druce?” Tommy asked Ted.
It was only then did Ted show any sign of weakness. Even Sal in his dejected state saw it. “Santino Druce?” Ted asked.
“Cut the I know nothing crap,” Tommy said to him, “because you know plenty on this one. We’ve already paid Santino a visit. He was very specific with what he knew.”
Ted was calculating that his intellect was far superior to all three men in this Van, and he therefore could multiply his own chance of getting out alive by dividing them. “You’re a reasonable man,” he said to Tommy. “Why would you care? You have places to be and things to do. You don’t want to ruin your entire life by hanging out with guys like this.” He motioned at Sal when he said it. “You’re a man of means. You aren’t the scum of the earth like him.”
Tommy leaned back and kicked Ted in the face. But unlike Sal’s kick, Tommy kicked him just beneath his chin as if it were an uppercut punch, causing double the pain. Ted fell against the seats again, in agony, then looked at Tommy stunned that a man who looked like him could be capable of such violence.
“That’s my brother you’re talking about,” Tommy said to him. “Watch yourself.”
Tommy’s blow left Ted so woozy and in so much pain that he knew he had miscalculated the man badly. He had to come clean, because Santino had undoubtedly already spilled the beans. He had to hope that Sal was too broken up about his wife’s disappearance to give a damn about some tape that he already retrieved months ago in Taiwan.
/> Ted sat back up. And got serious. “Santino videotaped you killing some people,” he said, “and I paid for that tape. Yes, I did.”
“Why?” Sal asked him.
“Because Rabina killed her boyfriend while in Vegas and she fled the scene and called me. A warrant for her arrest was to be issued soon, and I knew everything would hinge on our connections in Vegas, of which I had none. At least not the kind of connection I would need. The only connection Rabina had in Vegas was a gangster called Santino Druce, who used to be a bouncer in one of her houses in Beverly Hills. ‘Santino was dirty as dirt,’ she said, ‘and always money hungry. He now worked for Salvatore Gabrini, and he was a badass with a badass reputation. If he had some dirt on Sal,’ she told me, ‘Sal could be our man.’”
Tommy looked at Sal. He knew how much he hated disloyalty. But Sal was staring at Ted.
“That was what Rabina told me,” Ted continued. “It was Santino who told me about your wife, and how she was a Vegas attorney. He thought she would be the perfect foil. She would be the perfect cover if we needed one. But first Rabina had to set up that initial meeting with you, and show you the tape. Which she did. But it nearly backfired. You almost killed her. But she convinced you that if she died, that tape would go public. She claimed the people who had it would be in touch with you over the next several months and let you know exactly what they wanted. And with that seed planted, she turned herself into the Las Vegas authorities to face charges in the murder of her longtime boyfriend, Lester Llewellyn.”
“Your ass lying,” Sal said. “That kill run I conducted didn’t happen after Chen murdered that man. It happened before she murdered him.”
“That’s right,” Ted said. “What’s your point?”
Sal studied him. “Are you telling me Santino already had that videotape?”
“Hell yeah, he already had it,” Ted said.
“Fucking bastard!” Reno said. He hated disloyal people even more than Sal did.
Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 Page 15