Neeco couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe it!
But Sal could believe it. Because Gemma was tied up in that room. And Lucky was on the bed asleep in that room.
But there was one problem with Lucky. They all saw it right away.
Reno stopped Trina’s progression when he saw it. “Get the fuck out of here,” he ordered her.
Because Lucky wasn’t just lying on the bed asleep. Lucky had a bomb strapped to him!
Reno’s heart dropped. It brought back memories. It brought back memories of the absolute worse time in his life: the time there was a bomb, too, and his own son Nicky died in that blast. He left Trina for nearly a year because of his guilt. He almost didn’t make it back to her. “Get the fuck out of here now!” he yelled again to Trina, terrified, and then pushed her out of the room.
The bomb squad, three-person strong, hurried to the baby while Sal untied Gemma. “Help our baby,” was all Gemma could say as soon as the tape was removed from her mouth. “Help our baby, Sal!”
The bomb squad was trying to. But after only a few seconds, the leader was shaking his head. “We can’t,” he said. “There’s no wire. No connections. We’ve never seen a bomb like this before. We can’t, Sal. We can’t!” And they saw that timer, too. They took off out of the room.
Sal looked at his baby boy. He looked at the timer attached to the bomb. It was seventy-two seconds left.
Gemma was untied and ran to her husband and child. And Sal made the decision right then and there. “Everybody out,” he said as he began hurrying Gemma out.
“No, Sal,” Gemma said with panic in her voice. “I’m staying with you and Lucky. No, Sal, don’t make me leave!”
“Get her out of here!” Sal yelled to Tommy and Reno. “Get her ass out of here!”
“Nooo!” cried Gemma. “I’m staying with my family! Nooo!”
But Reno and Tommy knew what they had to do. They saw that timer too. The light came on. They were inside a minute.
Fifty-six.
Fifty-five.
Fifty-four seconds.
Reno grabbed Gemma, picking her up, and forced her out of there. Gemma was screaming and reaching for Sal. She was sobbing unconsolably as she was carried out. There wasn’t a dry eye to be found. But Reno did what he knew he had to do.
But Tommy couldn’t leave Sal either.
Sal knew it too. They looked at each other.
Sal was going to miss him. And he was going to make certain he didn’t die too.
That was why he pushed Tommy away so hard that Tommy almost fell backwards. “Go!” Sal cried. “Just go!”
“I can’t,” Tommy yelled. “I’m not leaving you!”
“You have a wife and children. You can’t leave them. You can’t leave them! Go! Take care of Gemma. Treat her like she was your own flesh and blood. Take care of Gemma!” Then Sal used his considerable strength and pushed Tommy all the way out of that room, and closed that fake wall door.
Robby Yale and a full crew of men ran in, on Reno’s orders, and dragged a belligerent and grieving Tommy Gabrini away from that cottage.
Robby Yale and a full crew of men ran in, on Reno’s orders, and dragged a belligerent and grieving Tommy Gabrini away from that cottage.
Sal had cleared the room, but Reno had to get Gemma and Trina, Tommy and Neeco, as far away from that guest house as he could. He had to fight Neeco – he didn’t want to leave Sal. He had to fight Tommy – he didn’t want to leave Sal. But Reno was stronger than both their asses and with the help of an army of guards, got both of them out of there.
Gemma was another story. She had broken free of Reno twice and was running back toward the cottage. Reno and three guards had to force her away from there. Her grief was unbearable to all of them.
Neeco eventually relented, too, but he kept Bruce in his grasp. He was disappointed in his little friend. Everybody knew Bruce was a simpleton. But he wasn’t about to let him get away. Not after what he’d done!
But Reno managed to get them all, workers and guards and everybody, away from that cottage. The cake was baked now. There could be no heroes that could swoop in and save Sal and his son. It was too late for that.
They waited.
And they waited.
They prayed. They waited.
And then . . .
Inside that room, Sal went to his beloved son, got on top of his body, and waited execution for all the crimes he’d ever committed in his life. That was how Sal saw it. The death of his son was because of him. Because of his biggest crime of all: marrying a great woman like Gemma, and bringing a wonderful son like Lucky into this world.
This was what he deserved, Sal felt.
It wasn’t what his son deserved. But that was his punishment too.
He laid on his son, covering his son’s entire body, as the timer went to ten seconds.
And then to five seconds.
Four seconds.
Three seconds.
Lucky, as if he could sense impending doom, too, started crying.
Two seconds.
“I love you, son!” Sal cried and then squeezed his eyes shut! “Daddy loves you!”
He held onto his crying son as if he was holding onto life itself.
And then . . .
Time was up.
Just like that.
It was over.
Outside, everybody held their collective breaths. They knew he couldn’t leave his child to die alone, and not one of them were going to force him to do so. Sal would kill himself violently rather than live with that pain. Tommy knew it. Reno knew it too. Trina, and even Robby Yale knew it.
But Gemma knew it most of all. It was her child in that building. For all those hours she had to sit there and watch her child lay with a bomb strapped to him. She didn’t know what the timer was reading. She didn’t know anything! And now her husband was in there too. And Gemma wanted to be there with them.
Reno held her with one hand, and Tommy with his other hand. The guards onsite were taking commands from Reno this time, and he was ordering them to keep Tommy and Gemma back.
And it was breaking Gemma’s heart.
She leaned against Trina. Trina held onto her. “It’s too hard, Tree,” she said in tears. “It’s too hard to bear!”
“I know,” Trina responded, in tears too. What if it was one of her children? She wouldn’t be able to bear it either. “I know.”
But Tommy was confused. Time was up. But nothing was happening. No explosion. No sound. Nothing!
Tommy broke away from Reno’s grasp and ran to the cottage. “Tommy wait!” Reno yelled. “There may be a delay in it!”
But Tommy wasn’t hearing him. He ran.
Then Gemma, incredibly, got away too and ran toward that cottage. Neeco, dragging Bruce along with him, ran toward the cottage too.
Reno looked at Trina. His look was undeniable: one of them had to stay alive for the sake of their children. “Stay here, Tree,” he ordered her. And Trina stayed. She would have pulled Reno back, too, if it was any other way. But it wasn’t. It was Sal. She let him go.
And Reno ran to that cottage too.
But before any of them could make it all the way to the entrance, Sal came walking out. With Lucky in his arms!
Everybody rejoiced as soon as they saw the sight. Tommy stopped running and had to bend over, his hands on his knees, so that his heart could catch up with his body.
Gemma outran them all, and ran to her husband and son. Could it be true, she wondered? The bomb didn’t blow?
It was true. Sal and Lucky were right there, in the flesh. And when Sal saw Gemma coming his way, his heart leaped with joy. Even more joy than he’d already experienced.
When the timer went off, he closed his eyes and held his son as tightly as he could. When nothing happened, he thought it was a dream. He thought he had died already. And in his dream Lucky, being Lucky, was still crying.
When Sal realized it wasn’t a dream, and his son’s voice was still
penetrating the silence in that room, he looked at him. He looked around. He stood up.
He was alive.
His son was alive.
His wife had gotten out and was alive.
Sal couldn’t believe it. It was a miracle to him.
And right then and there, Sal fell down to his knees and thanked God Almighty.
And then he grabbed his son, removed that gadget off of him, and got out.
“Oh, Sal,” Gemma was saying in tears as she rubbed his face and kissed his face. And she kissed Lucky too. He was still crying, but he wasn’t so far gone that he couldn’t wipe his mother’s kiss off of his face. To Lucky, that kissing was for babies. Which he, he often reminded his parents, most certainly was not!
When Sal and Gemma saw Lucky wipe away the kiss, they laughed. He was the same kid he always was. He was theirs!
And the entire clan surrounded Sal and Gemma and Lucky. Even Trina, when she saw Sal and Lucky emerge from that cottage, made her way to the group too. Reno pulled her into his arms.
Everybody was crying with joy. Everybody was happy beyond measure.
EPILOGUE
“That’s why they call him Lucky,” Reno said to Dommi. “His ass gets out of shit nobody else stands a chance of getting out of. But that ain’t your name. Your name is my name: Dominic Gabrini. And luck has nothing to do with it. We ain’t lucky, Dommi. We’re good, but we ain’t lucky. That’s why your ass got sixty days.”
Sal, Gemma, Lucky and Neeco were staying at Reno and Trina’s house on the outskirts of Vegas while their own home, that had been nearly destroyed, was being repaired. They were all in the backyard: barbecuing ribs on the grill; listening to music over the stereo; while the grownups talked and the children played games in the massive backyard. And the grownups were also trying to school Dommi.
“When you aren’t lucky,” Sal said, “you have to be smart. Putting yourself in a position for the cops to slap a sixty-day sentence on you wasn’t smart.”
“But it was a suspended sentence, Uncle Sal,” Dommi said.
“Those sixty hours of community service weren’t,” Trina said. “Don’t forget that.”
“Every kid in that courtroom did worse things than I did,” Dommi said. “I was just protecting my sister. They did worse, but they didn’t have to do any community service at all. But that judge makes me do it. That wasn’t very fair.”
“Get used to it,” Reno said.
Dommi looked at Reno. “You’re saying that to say what, Pop?” he asked his father. Already he had changed. Even his voice was stronger, Reno thought.
“I’m saying that to tell you to watch your back. You aren’t getting any breaks in this world.”
“But Lucky will?” Dommi asked. “Is that what you’re saying? Because you have to admit,” he added with a smile, “that he’s one lucky kid. I mean dang, Pop. It didn’t explode! That shit didn’t explode! I’m still amazed at that.”
“Stop cussing,” Reno said. “Your mother doesn’t like you cussing.” But Reno was amazed too. It was a remarkable thing.
“That bomb squad said it malfunctioned,” Reno said. “They call it a major malfunction.”
“I call it a miracle from God,” Sal said. “They can call it anything they want. That’s what I’m calling it.”
“Amen,” said Trina.
“Amen,” said Gemma.
“Is the food ready yet?” asked little Lucky, and everybody laughed.
Lucky wondered what was so funny, but when Trina tried to reach out and kiss him, he tore away and ran back onto the playground where the children were, causing them to laugh even more.
“Kids,” Dommi said, as if he wasn’t one himself.
“Speaking of kids,” Trina said, “you go play.”
“Ah, Ma,” Dommi said, then looked at Reno. He got up quickly and went out onto the playground too.
“What’s going to happen to Bruce?” Trina asked.
“That’s up to the cops,” said Neeco. “He participated in that kidnapping. The only reason he befriended me, and came to the states with me, was to do what Bartholomew Garbo told him to do. He was the one who suggested I go and get breakfast that morning. He knew what was going down.”
“Hell yeah he knew,” Sal agreed.
“He knew that was the day they were going to snatch Gemma and Lucky and put them in that hole in the wall he constructed with the tools they provided for him,” Neeco continued. “He knew how to smuggle them in out of camera view. He knew how to use them only when we weren’t around to hear him. One time I thought I heard banging and he told me he was making himself some bookshelves.”
“He was also the person who tipped off those guards at that junkyard,” Sal said. “That’s why they were trying to get away when we arrived.”
“I bought his act lock, stock, and barrel,” Neeco said. “It’s a shame.”
“The only reason he’s still alive today,” Sal said, “is because Pop didn’t want us to harm him. His ass has to pay for what he did.”
“But what if you guys don’t press charges?” Trina asked.
“Why wouldn’t they press charges?” Reno asked.
“Because he’s so . . . you know. Childlike.”
“No child built that tunnel in that guest house,” Sal said. “He had more sense that he was letting on. That’s how I read it.”
“That’s how I read it too,” said Neeco. “No, Tree, he has to pay.”
Then old school music came on over the stereo: Anita Baker singing Sweet Love. “Ah, shit!” Trina said, rising to her feet. She was balancing her beer can in one hand, and waving her other hand. “That’s my song. That’s my song, y’all!”
“Sweet love . . .
Hear me calling out your name
I feel no shame
I’m in love!
Sweet love . . .”
Trina got up, and Gemma got up, and Sal got up too.
Sal began dancing his way over to Gemma and then he took Gemma into his arms. They began slow-dragging together.
Reno was reading a text on his phone at the time, and before he could react to anything, Dommi saw his opening. He left the kids area, hurried over to his mother, and pulled her into his arms.
Trina was dancing with herself at the time, but she allowed Dommi to give it a go.
“I’m sorry I allowed myself to get in trouble, Ma,” Dommi said to her.
“Well I’m glad you’re taking responsibility for it, Dommi. I’m glad to hear that.”
“Yes, ma’am. Because it’s my fault. I should have taken out his ass after school, in an alley, where there wouldn’t have been any witnesses.”
Trina stopped dancing. She was mortified. She stared at her son. Who raised this boy? Wolves?
Then Dommi bust out laughing, causing everybody else to laugh too. “I’m playing with you, mama!” he said joyfully. “You know I wouldn’t do something like that!” Then he pulled Trina back into his arms.
Trina, at first, was still blown away, but then she smiled and laughed too.
Dommi looked over at Reno, and winked.
But that wink was unnecessary. Because Reno knew he wasn’t kidding. Reno knew he meant that shit.
He went over, and pushed Dommi away from Trina. “It’s a man’s world, boy,” he said just as playfully, although he meant it too. “Get the fuck out of here!”
“Yes, sir,” Dommi said with a smile, and Reno and Trina clasped hands, and began a beautiful slow drag too.
And Dommi left the two couples alone, and went back to lord it over the kids.
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Reno and Sal Gabrini: Fire with Fire Page 17