Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch

by Mallory Monroe

  But she didn’t discuss it with her bodyguards. They were only following orders too. She, instead, waited until she made it upstairs and entered the penthouse.

  She knew it was super-serious when, not only was Tommy back in town and at the penthouse, but Reno was there too. And both of them looked gravely concerned, which distressed her as soon as she saw them.

  “Where’s Sal?” she asked. “Is Sal all right?”

  “He’s all right,” Tommy assured her. “He’s upstairs, in the shower. He just made it back. He wanted to shower first.”

  Gemma quickly began to move in that direction.

  “Hey, Gemma,” Reno said, noticing that she seemed so preoccupied with Sal that she didn’t speak to them. Not like her at all.

  It was only then did Gemma look at Reno. She had noted his presence when she entered the house, but then directed all of her attention to Tommy. “Hey, Reno.”

  “How are you, Gemma?”

  “Not so good, Reno,” Gemma admitted, and then hurried upstairs.

  Reno looked at Tommy. “Kid’s in bad shape.”

  Tommy nodded. “I’d say. That’s why I’m determined to keep Grace as far away from the action as I can keep her.”

  “Ah, you baby that girl,” Reno said dismissively. “Grace can handle it. She’s tough enough.”

  But Tommy wasn’t trying to hear that. All he had to do was see that wary look in Gemma’s beautiful eyes to know that he was calling it, for his woman, absolutely right.

  By the time Gemma made it upstairs and entered the master bedroom, Sal was already out of the shower, had dried off, and was standing by the bed just about to put on his underwear. She ran to him.

  “Sal!” she said with relief in her voice. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” he said as she looked all over his chiseled body for any bruising or other injury. But he looked just as concerned for her. “Are you all right?” he asked her.

  Gemma looked at him. To Sal’s dismay, it was obvious that she wasn’t. “I’m glad they didn’t keep you.”

  “Why would they?” Sal asked, as he began putting on his briefs. “I wasn’t involved in those deaths. They weren’t keeping me.”

  “But what did they say? What did they want?”

  “I told you they didn’t want nothing. Just wanted to fuck with me, that’s their stock and trade. Stop worrying. What are you worrying about that for?”

  Gemma couldn’t help it. She was extremely worried.

  “Come here, you,” Sal said as he pulled her into his arms. He stared into her eyes. “It’s going to be all right, Gem. Yeah, this is embarrassing for me, being hauled downtown like that, but it’s nothing.”

  “Nothing?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Then why is Reno here if it’s nothing, Sal? Why did Tommy leave his business meetings in L.A. to fly back here, if it’s nothing?”

  Sal had a firecracker on his hands. Pats on the head and kisses on the cheeks weren’t going to work with her. They stopped embracing, and he began to put on his pants.

  “It’s nothing for you to worry about,” he said.

  Gemma let out a sharp exhale and folded her arms. She was waiting for a fuller explanation.

  Sal looked at her. Somehow he knew when the FBI first appeared at his front door that this was going to be the biggest test of their relationship. And all he could think about was reassuring her.

  He sat on the bed. “Sit down, Gem,” he said to her.

  Gemma hesitated, but then she sat down.

  He placed her hands in his. “I’m okay,” he assured her. “If you don’t believe I can take care of myself, then believe that Tommy will. He’s not going to let anything happen to me. All right? Whenever anything goes down and I’m not around, or the cops haul me in or whatever, you call Tommy. He’ll handle it. And if you can’t reach Tommy, you call Reno. He’ll handle it.”

  That only made her more distressed. “But why would I need to call anybody?” she asked.

  “I’m just saying, Gem. If something ever goes down, don’t you go to the cops or anybody like that. Don’t you ever go to the cops. You go to Tommy. Or Reno. Or Trina if you can’t find either one of them. They’ll handle it.”

  Gemma already knew she wasn’t dating Mister Rogers or Cliff Huxtable. But days like this made it even clearer to her. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll remember that.”

  “You remember that.”

  She nodded. “I will.”

  Sal smiled, and rubbed the side of her face. “Good. Because if I have to deal with certain problems, the last thing I’ll need is to be worried about you too.”

  Gemma rubbed the side of his face too. And they kissed. Then Sal stood back up, and continued to dress.

  “How long have you been back here?” she asked him.

  “Maybe an hour.”

  “An hour?” she replied, astonished. “Why didn’t you call me as soon as you got here, Sal? You had to know how worried I was!”

  “What worry? I told you Tommy would take care of you. I knew you were with Tommy’s people. You were fine.”

  Gemma had a great idea why they wanted to keep her out of the way. “How long has Reno been here?”

  “He just got here,” Sal said. “I didn’t know he was coming until he just popped up.”

  “Tommy called him then.”

  “Yeah.”

  Which, Gemma knew, meant that there was more going on than Sal was really letting on. Reno was a busy man. He wouldn’t just “pop up” for the hell of it.

  She stared into Sal’s eyes. Although they looked refreshed, she could see an undercurrent of concern there too. She decided to rely on his natural propensity to tell it straight, without any sugarcoat. “Sal,” she asked, her face a mask of worry, “is everything really all right?”

  Sal saw the distress all over her face, and he hated that she had to experience this side of his life that was all too familiar to him. He lifted her from the bed and held her by the catch of her hands. “No,” he said honestly. “But it will be. I promise you that.”

  Then he stared at her a moment longer, his heart filled with regret and sadness, and then he wrapped her into his arms.

  When they made it back downstairs, Reno and Tommy were seated on the sofa in the family room, with drinks in their hands, conferring. Sal sat down in the flanking chair to their left, and Gemma sat down in the flanking chair to their right. Tommy immediately suggested that she should excuse them while they talk business, and he suggested it with that disarming smile of his, but Sal said no. Tommy coddled Grace. Sal knew Gemma wasn’t about to let him coddle her.

  Since Reno had a similar type of wife in Trina, he fully understood. He leaned forward and looked at Sal. “So give,” he said to him. “What did the Feds ask about? Patty Pacheco?”

  “They ended up asking about him, yeah,” Sal acknowledged. “But they didn’t start with him.”

  “Who did they start with?” Tommy wanted to know.

  “They wanted to know everything I knew about Will Murelli and Chazz Charski.”

  Reno frowned. “Who the fuck is Will Murelli and Chazz Charski?”

  “What do you mean who are they? They’re my people. You got a problem with that?”

  Reno apparently did. “I never heard of them before in my life!” he blared.

  “So what if you never heard of them? What’s that supposed to mean? I’m making them up? They can’t possibly exist because you don’t know them? You’re full of yourself, Reno!”

  “Fuck you, Sal!”

  “Fuck you!” Sal shot back.

  “I’m here to help your ass, all right?”

  “Then help, motherfucker! All I see you doing is questioning everything!”

  “What am I questioning?” Reno wanted to know.

  “What do you think?” Sal was eager to tell him. “Who’s Will Murelli? Who’s Chazz Charski? Who do you think they are?”

  Reno was now beside himself. “I never hea
rd of the motherfuckers! What’s so wrong with that?”

  “Who cares what you never heard of, Reno? It’s not about you! Every time---”

  “Knock it off!” Gemma yelled so decisively that it caused Sal, Reno, and Tommy to lean back in shock, and look at her.

  She looked at Sal. “Tell us what the FBI wanted, Sal,” she ordered.

  Sal wasn’t used to this Gemma, but he smiled. He could get used to it. “They were asking if I knew anything about their deaths.”

  “Their deaths?” Reno asked. “So they’re dead?”

  “There you go with the questions again,” Sal said.

  “Yes, their dead,” Gemma answered Reno. “But why would they think you would have anything to do with it?” she asked Sal.

  Tommy and Reno looked at Sal. It was a good question. His activities, and the company he kept, was oftentimes a mystery to them also.

  “I can’t worry about why they think what they think,” Sal responded, not willing to get into it that deep. “I know I wasn’t involved, I know that.”

  “But they worked for you, Sal,” Gemma said as if it were a fact.

  Reno looked at her. “What would you know about that?”

  “They came to my house,” Gemma said.

  Reno and Tommy looked at each other. Then Tommy looked at Gemma. “Will Murelli and Chazz Charski came to your house?

  “Yeah. They came to see Sal.”

  Tommy looked at Sal. “And you let them?”

  But Sal didn’t see the problem. “What are you talking? She went to work. She didn’t hear anything we discussed.”

  “But why would you let them come to her house?”

  “Because they work for me! And they were fucking up. They told me about Danny Bronco, but that’s all they told.”

  “Danny Bronco?” Tommy and Reno said in unison.

  “What about him?” Tommy asked.

  “Chazz said he’s still alive.”

  Reno frowned. “But we iced . . .” Then he realized Gemma was in the room. “But he’s dead,” he said.

  “I know that. And you know that. But they claim otherwise. So I’m looking into it. Got Zoo looking too.”

  “Zoo?” Reno asked, frowning. “Who the fuck is Zoo?”

  “Scotty Zumpano. Friend of mine.”

  Reno shook his head. Sal and his “friends.”

  “That’s exactly why,” Tommy said, “letting Chazz and Will come to Gem’s house wasn’t a great idea.”

  “It wasn’t a problem at that time.”

  “It’s a problem now,” Reno said. “They’re both dead after having visions of a dead man themselves. This shit going sideways fast, Sal, and your shady friends aren’t helping. And what about Patty Pacheco? The Feds think you had something to do with his prison break?”

  “Sure they think so,” Sal said. “They want me to bring them Patty, and they’ll take me out of the Chazz and Will equation.”

  “In other words,” Reno said, “they won’t pin murders you didn’t commit anyway on you?”

  Sal smiled. “Right.”

  “Lousy fuckers. I hate cops!”

  “Watch it, Reno,” Tommy said with a smile of his own. “Sal and I used to be cops.”

  Sal’s cell phone began to ring. “And I couldn’t stand y’all asses when y’all were,” Reno said to laughter from Tom.

  “It’s Zoo,” Sal said as he looked at the Caller ID.

  “Put it on Speaker,” Reno ordered, and Sal obliged. Gemma was still in the room, but they all seemed resigned to the fact that she was in it now. The fact that she had the balls to tell them to knock it off, something they would normally not ever tolerate, put her in the mix.

  “Hey, Zoo, what’s up?” Sal asked. “Any word?”

  “It’s gonna cost you,” Zoo said.

  “You know I’m good for it.”

  “Five thousand, although it’s worth more, but you’re my friend. You was there for me when nobody else was, Sal. You get what I call my Sal Discount.”

  Reno rolled his eyes.

  “Fine, Zoo,” Sal said, “now what you got?”

  “Nothing on Danny Bronco. And I mean nothing. I don’t know where Chazz and Will got their intel from.”

  “But you have something?” Sal asked.

  “Yeah. Patty Pacheco.”

  Sal glanced at Reno. “What about Patty?” he asked.

  “Patty’s working for Fab Menza.”

  When Gemma saw the shocked expression on, not just Sal’s face, but Tommy and Reno’s, she knew the entire dynamic had changed. Sal stood up. Tommy and Reno moved to the edge of their seats.

  “Fab Menza?” Sal asked, astounded.

  “Fab Menza,” Zoo said.

  “Don’t fuck with me, Zoo!”

  “You know I wouldn’t do that to you! But I’m telling you straight, Sal. He’s the one who orchestrated Patty’s prison break. And get this: Patty’s the one who iced Will and Chazz.”

  Reno fell back in his seat, amazed. Although Tommy looked acted calm, Gemma could see the concern on his face too.

  “I’m still digging,” Zoo said. “Soon as I get more, I’ll call you.”

  “Okay, Zoo, thanks. We’ll hook up.”

  “Word,” Zoo said, and hung up.

  Sal clicked off too. He looked at Reno first, and then Tommy. “What the fuck,” he said. “Fab Menza?”

  “Who’s Fab Menza?” Gemma asked anxiously.

  It was only then did they remember she was in the room too. Sal sat back down. “Bad news,” he said. “He’s real bad news.”

  “But who is he?”

  “Our uncle,” Reno said. “Fabio Menza Gabrini.”

  Gemma couldn’t believe it. “Your uncle?” She looked at Sal. “Your father’s brother?”

  Sal nodded. “Yep.”

  “But I don’t understand. That should be good news, shouldn’t it? That means that he’s on your side. Doesn’t it?”

  Reno looked at her incredulously. “On our side?” he asked her. “That asshole isn’t on anybody’s side but his own! He hate our guts and we hate him! Even my old man, and my old man was a ruthless sonafabitch, thought Fabio was too evil for him. On our side my foot! He’s a sadistic pile of shit! That’s what side he’s on!”

  Gemma couldn’t believe the emotion that name was eliciting from all three Gabrini men. But she needed to know more. If she was going to walk down this road with Sal, she needed to know more. She looked at him. “He’s a mob boss then?”

  Sal understood, too, that she had to be informed. With a woman like Gemma, it wasn’t going to work any other way. “You can call him that, yeah. Officially? He’s a car salesman.”

  “So why would he get Patty out of prison? What would be in it for him?”

  Tommy and Reno both looked at Sal. They knew the answer, but it was Sal’s place, they felt, to tell her.

  Sal leaned back and rubbed his hand across his mouth. Then he looked at his woman. “Revenge is in it for him, Gem. He wants revenge.”

  Gemma’s heart began to flutter. “Revenge on. . . you?”

  Sal nodded. “Yes.”

  “But why? What did you do to him?”

  “Not to him,” Sal said. “To his brother.”

  “His brother?”

  “My father.” Then he looked at Tommy. “Our father.”

  Gemma shook her head. “I don’t understand.”

  “He got Patty out of prison as a way to loop me in. Will and Chazz, you see, used to work for Patty back in the day. They were loyal to him. When he went away, I kept them around, throwing odd jobs their way every now and then. When Patty got out, he claimed he wanted money, so he could get lost.”

  “And you gave it to him?” Gemma asked.

  Sal wasn’t going to lie to her. “Yes,” he said.

  Gemma stared at him. She was taken aback. She was an attorney, yet her boyfriend was just admitting to her that he had aided and abetted a fugitive from justice. A fugitive that had the FBI on his trail!
/>   “I never dreamed he was hooking up with the enemy,” Sal went on.

  “Which means,” Tommy said, “Will and Chazz were probably working for Fab Menza too.”

  “And Fab undoubtedly set up that ambush to see how you would react to one,” Reno added.

  What ambush, Gemma wanted to ask, but she didn’t. It was already too much.

  “They were trying to claim Danny Bronco sat it up,” Sal said, “but that was just shiny object they threw my way to distract me.”

  “But I still don’t understand, Sal,” she said instead. “Why would your uncle want revenge on you?”

  “He’s avenging my father’s death. That’s the only thing it can be. That’s the only way he would be involved in this.”

  Now it was even more confusing to Gemma. And she hated being so confused like this. “But I thought your father was the victim of a random act of violence. At least that’s what you told me.”

  Sal glanced at Tommy.

  “That’s the official version,” Tommy said.

  “But not the true version?” Gemma asked.

  Sal nodded. “Not the true version,” he said.

  Gemma knew this was going to be bad. She could feel it in her bones. “What’s the true version?”

  Tommy stood up and walked toward the window. He remembered it as if it happened an hour ago. Grace, his wife, a woman he did everything in his power to shield from the dark side of his life, witnessed it too.

  Gemma saw Tommy get up, and he saw the concern on Reno’s face. This was bad. “What’s the true version, Sal?” she asked him.

  “Truth is,” Sal said, “I had to ice my father.”

  Gemma’s heart dropped. Her entire countenance changed. “What?” she asked, completely dumbstruck.

  “I had to kill him, Gem. And I couldn’t tell you about it because it wasn’t just about me.”

  “It was our old man,” Tommy said, turning toward her, “or me. That was the deal and there were no two ways about it. Sal either had to kill our father, or let our father kill me. That’s what it came down to.”

  “And I’d ice that motherfucker again,” Sal said boldly, “if I had to.”

  But that bold pronouncement only made Tommy feel worse. Sal bore so many burdens. Now he had to bear that one too. Tommy turned back to the window.