Sal Gabrini: Just The Way You Are

by Mallory Monroe

  And he was right to be concerned. Rodney wasn’t celebrating at all. His handsome face was serious, almost austere.

  When Gemma and Cassie stopped embracing, Gemma looked at her father too. She could feel his pain. She placed an arm around his waist. “It’s a good thing, Daddy,” she said.

  “A good thing?” Rodney responded. Sal could tell he was ready to fire. “Bringing a baby into your world is a good thing, Gemma? Really?”

  “It’s what we want, yes,” Gemma responded. “And we feel that it’s the right decision.”

  “Then I question your decision-making judgment,” Rodney said, and rose to his feet. “I truly do.” He began to pace the room. It was obvious he was angry, and trying with all he had not to display it. Gemma looked at Sal.

  “I understand you have concerns about my lifestyle,” Sal said to Rodney.

  Rodney looked at Sal. “Concerns? That’s a very dismissive way to put how I feel. Concern doesn’t capture it at all! I told Gemma having children with a man like you is not a wise thing to do. I told her I would question her judgment forevermore if she did something like this. I told her she should never go down that road!”

  “That’s not your call to make,” Sal fired back. Everybody looked at Sal. “You don’t question shit about what me and my wife decides to do.”

  “Sal,” Gemma said, knowing his father had nothing on her husband in the anger department.

  But Sal didn’t heed. “Having a child is our decision,” he continued. “That’s for us to decide. Not you, not Cassie, not anybody else.”

  “Don’t act as if my response wasn’t expected,” Rodney said to his son-in-law. “You had to know I wouldn’t approve!”

  “We aren’t asking for your approval,” Sal said. “Yes, I knew it would be a tough thing. It is a tough thing. But it’s our tough thing. We’re going to be the ones to have to deal with this.”

  “And what do you think we are?” Rodney asked. “Strangers? Gemma is your wife, that’s true. But she was my child before you knew she existed, Salvatore, and I want what’s best for her.”

  Sal wanted to make clear that he wanted the same thing, but he knew Gemma would want her father to have his say. So Sal remained silent, and let Rodney speak.

  “Think about Gemma,” Rodney said. “Think about what has transpired in my daughter’s life since she married you. I mean the danger she’s been in. The horror she’s seen. And I’m certain we don’t know the half of it because she doesn’t tell us everything.”

  Sal and Gemma both knew that was nothing but the truth. But they remained silent.

  “And now a baby is going to come into that world,” Rodney continued. “Our grandchild. How can you expect me to be happy about that? I lost my other daughter in the most tragic of circumstances.”

  Sal knew about that too. He was there when it happened. Cassie, remembering that hellish time too, looked down.

  “And everything else my wife and I have had to go through. My wife and I were nearly killed because of our association with you and your family. And now our grandbaby will be caught up in this web too. An innocent child that should never have to bear those kind of burdens. I don’t know what you expect me to say, or how you expect me to feel. This can’t be good news. I’m sorry. But this is not good news!”

  Sal and Gemma both were thrown by Rodney’s emotional display. He was not an emotional man, but he was shaking with rage. They expected objections. They expected recriminations. But nothing like this.

  Then her father added, looking at Sal: “This was all your doing. Wasn’t it, Salvatore?”

  Sal frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You finally got Gemma exactly where you want her. Barefoot and pregnant. Knocked up. Now she’ll have a reason not to leave you when your world becomes too much for her.”

  Gemma looked angrily at her father. “Daddy, what are you talking about?” That’s not true and you know it!”

  “It is true!” Rodney responded with even more firmness. Then he looked at Sal again. “I expected better from you, son,” he said.

  Sal didn’t know how to respond to that. A part of him wanted to lash out. Rodney, he wanted to say, didn’t know what the hell he was talking about. But a bigger part couldn’t lash out. Because Rodney, he knew, was hitting the nail on the head. Sal was always afraid of losing Gem. Always. He didn’t get her pregnant because of that fear, but the fear was there.

  But Gemma had a different view. “You can’t put this all on Sal, Dad,” she said to her father. “It’s on me too. I want to have his child. I want to be the mother of his baby. We’re a family, and we want to have someone that’s a part of both of us. I want that just as much as Sal does. If not more.”

  Sal felt better. He looked at Gemma.

  “But is it wise to want it, Gemmanette?” Rodney asked her. “That’s all I’m asking. Is it wise?”

  “No,” Sal responded for his wife. “It’s not wise. But it’s us. It’s what we want. I want your daughter to be the mother of my child.”

  “What about Rudy?” Rodney asked. “You have a child.”

  “He’s my son, that’s true. But I didn’t raise him. I didn’t shape any part of him. I barely know him. That won’t be the case when we have our baby. That baby will be me and Gemma through and through. And I know you’re worried about his safety, Rodney. But not more than I am. I’ll protect him just like I protect your daughter. Nobody’s fucking with either one of them. I promise you that.”

  There was an awkward pause, but then Cassie smiled. “Then you guys made the right decision,” she said. “Sal’s word is enough for me.”

  Gemma and her mother hugged.

  But Sal and Rodney kept their eyes on each other. It was going to be a long haul. It was going to be difficult. It could be the best decision or the worst ever made.

  Both men were terrified of which way it was going to go.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Seven Months Later

  Damn, Sal thought as he stepped out of the shower. They were blowing up his cellphone again. Although the months had come and gone and the Gabrini Corporation was humming right along without any major hiccups, his other business dealings were not so settled. There had been no more crew chiefs killed for several months and then, last night, it happened. Another execution. Another one of Sal’s Chicago people gunned down in the street. Pressure was building for Sal to do more than he’d been doing. His wife was eight-and-a-half months pregnant, but they didn’t give a fuck. Another one of their crew chiefs fell. Another one of their men got iced. They wanted retaliatory action even if they still didn’t know who to retaliate against.

  Sal understood their frustration. He knew a war was going on, but they couldn’t fight because nobody told them the location of the battle. But damn, he thought again as he walked over to the marble-top vanity and looked at the Caller ID. They weren’t giving him a break to scrub his own ass, and he was getting tired of it. And when he read the subsequent text message that followed the unanswered phone call, he became even more upset. This time it was Scorsese texting him. They wanted to meet with him today. There was trouble. It couldn’t wait. Sal tossed the phone back onto the vanity. Get in fucking line, he thought.

  He grabbed the thick towel off of the rack and began drying his wet body as he made his way into the adjourning bedroom. When he saw his wife still stretched out in bed, he frowned. “What are you doing?” he asked her. “I thought you said you had court today.”

  Gemma opened her big, brown eyes and looked at her husband. “What time is it?” she asked groggily. She couldn’t help but look down his muscular, tanned body to his muscular, pink rod.

  “It’s late. That’s what time it is. You feel okay?”

  “I’m okay,” Gemma said as she threw the sheet off of her naked body, slid her feet onto the floor, and sat on the edge of the bed. She knew how overprotective Sal could be if he even suspected she didn’t feel well.

  Sal’s penis bega
n to react as soon as he saw her naked body. He never would have imagined that a woman could turn him on the way Gemma did. Even as she sat on the edge of their bed, with her stomach perturbed like a dark brown beach ball in front of her otherwise sleek brown body, he wanted to fuck her. He began stroking, rather than drying, his penis. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.

  “A little tired,” Gemma said, raking back with both hands what was now her shoulder length straight hair, “but I’m okay.”

  Sal studied her as he stroked. She’d just woken up, but still had that look of exhaustion he saw last night when he finally made his way home and came to bed. He told her to give up her caseload this late in her pregnancy. He wanted her to just take it easy. But she refused. Now he wondered if he was going to have to put his foot down and make her give it up. “Come here,” he said to her.

  Gemma looked at him. It was her natural instinct to never jump at anybody’s command. Except when that command came from Sal. She knew, above any human being on the face of this earth, he always had her best interest at heart. She stood and walked over to him.

  Sal tossed the towel aside and pulled her into his arms. She had the belly, so there was a physical distance between them, but not an emotional one. “Why don’t you stay home today? You can call in sick. You’re eight-and-a-half months pregnant for crying out loud.”

  “But I’m okay, Sal. I have to be in court. There’s a lot of people who want to get this case over with. Not least of which is my client.”

  “Forget about what other people want from you. Everybody wants something from you. It’s up to me to say no if you won’t. So telling me what everybody else wants don’t mean shit to me.”

  “I know that. But I’m okay, Sal. Truly.”

  “I’ll feel better if you take a few days off. Or at least stay home today until I get back in town tonight.”

  Gemma looked into his eyes. “You’re still going to Seattle?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got to officiate at the annual shareholders meeting while Tommy’s handling business in Calcutta.”

  Gemma smiled. “Calcutta?”

  “Calcutta of all places. But you know Tommy. He’ll take new acquisitions wherever he can find them. That’s why the Gabrini Corporation thrives. Tommy keeps feeding it meat. But if you need me here I can do a videoconference instead.”

  “No,” Gemma said, shaking her head. “It’s only for a day. You’ll be back tonight. But they don’t call it Calcutta anymore, Sal. It’s Kolkata now.”

  “For real?”

  “For real,” Gemma said.

  “Well, whatever it’s called, that’s where Tommy is. But I can still do a videoconference if I have to.”

  “It’s just a day trip,” Gemma said. “I’ll be fine. Besides,” she added, “shareholders want to see either you or Tommy in person, not on some video. They want that reassurance. Which proves my point.”

  Sal frowned. “What point?”

  “I have to be in court to defend my client. That’s what I have to do. You have to be in Seattle to reassure your stakeholders. That’s what you have to do.”

  “Don’t compare what I have to do with what you’re doing,” Sal said bluntly. “You don’t have to do shit but be my wife and the mother of our child when that child gets here. I take care of you. I look out for you. You don’t have to work for the rest of your life. You don’t have to be anywhere or do anything you don’t want to do, and don’t you forget that. Nobody has a hold on you like that but me.”

  Gemma smiled and touched her stomach. “And Sal, Junior.”

  Sal smiled. When they found out they were having a son, he was overjoyed. “Yeah, and him,” he admitted.

  Gemma kissed Sal on the lips. “But I’m fine, babe,” she said as she left his embrace and headed for the bathroom. “Don’t worry about me.”

  How could he not, he thought as he followed her. She was his life. He had all this craziness going on around him, all of this bullshit on top of bullshit, and then there was Gemma. His rock. His soft bed when every bed he ever laid in, especially those of his own making, was hard.

  “What’s it about?” Sal asked as he leaned against the bathroom’s doorjamb.

  “What’s what about?” Gemma asked as she turned on the shower water tap.

  “The case.”

  “Oh. Insurance fraud.” She began walking toward the vanity. “It should wrap up today.”

  “At least it’s not a murder case.”

  “I’m not taking any more of those until after the baby comes.” Gemma began brushing her teeth. “You left your cell phone,” she added when she glanced down and saw it on the countertop.

  “Yeah, on purpose,” Sal said, his arms folded, as he looked at her tight black ass. “Some of my guys from back East have been blowing up my phone.”

  Gemma almost stopped brushing when Sal mentioned his unmentionable East Coast operations. But she continued. And decided to push the envelope. “What do they want?” she asked.

  “A meeting.”

  “Did they say why?”

  “Routine stuff,” was all Sal had to say. They mentioned there was trouble, but he wasn’t about to worry Gem about anything like that.

  “You’re going to meet with them?”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “Before you leave town?”

  “They’ll have to meet me in Seattle,” Sal said. “Before I come back home. The last time they brought that shit to Vegas a car exploded outside of our front gate. They either meet me in Seattle or wait until I can get to them. And I won’t be getting to anybody until after the baby comes.”

  “But Sal if they’re blowing up your phone like that, it probably can’t wait until after the baby comes. Get them to meet you while you’re in Seattle. I don’t want you making bad business decisions because of me and the pregnancy.”

  “I’m handling business,” Sal said. “They don’t think so because they don’t know what the hell their doing. They want to declare war when they don’t even know who the enemy is. But I’ve already declared it.”

  Gemma was pleased that he was confiding this much in her, even if the subject matter was unnerving. “How can you fight a war if you don’t know who’s the enemy?”

  “I know,” Sal said with a harsh exhale. “I just haven’t shared this knowledge with them.”

  Gemma looked at him through the vanity mirror. “Why haven’t you told them?”

  “Because the enemy is from within,” Sal said. Then he added sadly: “And we haven’t figured out which one of them it is.”

  “Ah, Sal,” Gemma said, turning to him. She knew how much he hated disloyalty. “A betrayal?”

  Sal nodded. “Unfortunately yes. It’s a power grab, is what I figure, but I don’t know which underboss is doing the grabbing.”

  “Or if it’s all of them?”

  Sal nodded. “Or if it’s all of them, yeah. Every last one of those fuckers are under surveillance. I’m using Reno and Tommy’s men to do that part. We’ll find out what’s going on soon enough.”

  “That’s why you aren’t taking their cries to meet seriously?”

  “That’s exactly why. But we’ll see.”

  Gemma gargled, and then headed for the shower. “Don’t leave before I get out of the shower,” she said as she stepped in. “I want to see you off.”

  But Sal had no intentions of leaving, and she was about to see him off right now. He stepped into the shower behind her.

  Gemma was surprised. “I thought you just bathed?” She had a smile on her face.

  “Yeah, so?” Sal responded. “I didn’t come in here to bathe.”

  Gemma looked at him as he got in behind her. “Then what did you come in here to do, Sal?”

  “To fuck. To make love to my wife. What else? The doctor said up until your water breaks your ass is mine.”

  “He also said within reason,” Gemma added, but Sal didn’t hear that part. And as he sat his dick between her cheeks, and leaned into her, massaging her
ass and kissing her neck, Gemma wasn’t trying to hear it either.

  He moved his hands to the front and fondled her breasts as he rubbed his dick between her dark brown cheeks. His mouth nipped away at her ear, and his body moved hers in a motion that simulated dancing and sex all in one fluidity. He cherished this woman, and wanted her to know just how much.

  He trailed kisses along the side of her face, to the point that he licked her she tasted so good. And as his hand continued to fondle her breast, and his mouth continued to kiss her, his other hand found its way between her legs.

  Gemma quivered when she felt the soft rub of his fingers on her clitoris. She leaned against him as that sweet, gentle feeling began to roll through her body. She lifted her arms up and placed her hands in his silky hair. She pushed her ass even harder against his hardening erection, and their bodies continued to move. The pouring water stream soaked both of them without quenching their fire.

  And when Sal turned her around, facing him, and gave her a long, wet kiss, she thought it couldn’t get any better than this. But it always did with Sal. Because he never stopped. Because as soon as she thought this was it, and she was poised to climax from his kiss alone, his mouth left hers and kissed its way down her body until he was knelt down, between her legs, kissing, licking, and then eating her there.

  Sal’s dick began to ache with engorgement as he ate his beautiful Gemma. Her taste, her smell, mesmerized his senses and caused him to go down on her so hard that she held her breath and pressed her hands against both sides of the stall just to remain upright. She was at the point of orgasm already as he went in deeper, and ate her harder.

  But Sal couldn’t wait much longer either. He was almost at that point himself. Especially when he stood back up and positioned his cock to enter her, and she felt its tip. She squeezed the tip by reflex, and that response alone caused him to shriek in joy.

  Gemma exhaled, as if she was coming up from a long time underwater, when she felt the tip of his penis at her entry. She looked so damned sexy to him with her hooded eyes and puckered lips that he captured her mouth again with his, and then thrust his dick into her with a forceful thrust.