“When do you expect him back?” Trina asked Gemma.
“He said he’s going to try to make it home in a few days,” she responded. “I can’t be any more specific than that.”
Reno snorted, as if that only proved his point.
Gemma was ready to fire back, but Trina interrupted her. “We’ll get together when he returns,” she said. “We’ve already discussed our strategy. We already know what we need to do to keep that witch out of any partnership with us. All we have to do now is settle on the best approach. We’ll discuss that when Sal gets back. Unless,” Trina said, looking at Gemma, “you want to make that decision without him?”
Reno looked at Gemma too, as if to see if she had the intestinal fortitude. But it wasn’t about being tough and brave for Gemma. It was about Reno respecting Sal’s authority when it came to Sal’s domain. Namely, her. “He’ll be back in a few days,” Gemma responded. “We’ll make a decision then.”
Trina smiled. If Reno had been the absent party, she would have responded the same way. “Suit yourself,” she said to her business partner, and gave her a hug. “I’ll call you later, hon,” she added.
Reno moved over to Gemma and they hugged too, in what appeared to be a reluctant truce. He usually kissed her also, he always kissed her goodbye. But not this time. Then he and Trina left.
After they did, after she heard the door close behind them, Gemma sat back down at her conference table and exhaled. “Sal, where are you?” she asked out loud, to an empty room, with anguish in her voice. And then she threw her pen onto the table and slouched down in her chair. If truth be told, she was as frustrated as Reno about Sal’s absences.
Only more so.
The New Jersey strip joint was jumping when Sal Gabrini walked inside. Many of the strippers became even more excited because Sal always made it rain. And he rained down big bills, with not a George Washington in sight. But he headed for the bar instead.
“Say, boss,” the bartender said to Nunzio, the club’s owner. “Look.” He nudged his head toward the entrance.
Nunzio was sitting at the bar reading over a stack of papers. He looked in the direction his bartender was motioning. When he saw Sal walking his way, looking splendid in his ten-thousand-dollar suit, he smiled. “Well if it ain’t the invisible man!”
“How are you, Nunz?” Both men shook hands.
“Where the hell have you been, Sal Luca?”
“Vegas, where the hell else?” Sal threw his legs across the barstool and sat beside the owner.
But Nunzio was still smiling and staring at him. “Sal Luca’s in the house. I’ll be gotdamn. It’s been too long, man. What the hell have you been up to?”
“Living, fucking, staying away from you.”
Nunzio laughed. “Yeah, I got your staying away. What do you want to drink?”
“Beer,” Sal said.
“Beer,” Nunzio said to his bartender, and the bartender went to prepare the drink.
“I haven’t seen your ass since forever, Sal,” Nunzio said. “You used to come around all the time. The girls miss you. I miss you. Why haven’t you been hanging around like the old days?”
“What do I look like hanging around a tittie bar? I’m a married man now. I don’t play that shit on my wife.”
“Sure you don’t,” Nunzio responded. “I know your ass, Sal Luca.” Sal smiled. “We miss you. You used to come around.”
Sal continued to smile as he looked over at the stage. One of the topless strippers looked over at him and started massaging her breasts and shaking her ass. Gemma had bigger breasts, he thought, and a tighter ass.
“You’re in town on business?” Nunzio asked him.
“Something like that.”
“On other matters, not just Freddy?”
Sal hesitated. That wasn’t Nunzio’s business. “I hear he’s been talking.”
“More like threatening,” Nunzio said. “He called you, right?”
“He called,” Sal acknowledged. “He had a right to call. Don’t mean I’m pulling him back in, but he had a right to call.” Sal looked away from the stripper and back at Nunzio. “He’s here?”
Nunzio nodded. “He’s here. He’s in back.”
The bartender returned with a glass of beer and placed it in front of Sal. Sal took a long gulp.
“He’s a very bitter man, Sal Luca,” Nunzio warned. “You know how he is.”
Sal nodded. “I know how he is.”
“Then why are you bothering with a guy like that? You’re a big shot. He’s nobody!”
“He used to be one of my crew,” Sal said. “And now he’s running his mouth. I have to deal with that.”
“He’s a loser and a cheat. He doesn’t deserve to be in the same room with a man like you. He went against everything you stand for that night. Killing that man in cold blood, then lying about it even to you. If I were you I’d tell him to go fuck himself.”
Sal looked at Nunzio. He used to be in Sal’s crew too, and Sal knew he meant well. But right was right in Sal’s eyes. “He’s one of my men,” he said as if that said it all. Then he got up, and headed toward the private room in the back of the club.
Nunzio hesitated, he wanted no parts of this, but he got up and followed Sal anyway. Mainly as muscle. Mainly to ensure that that fool waiting back there didn’t turn his beloved club into the place where Sal Gabrini got iced. Because Nunzio knew what that would mean. He knew the full force of the Gabrini power machine would come down on him like a ton of bricks for allowing it to happen. He’d have to deal with Reno Gabrini power. He’d have to deal with Tommy Gabrini power. He’d have to deal with all of those wise guy mobster-types with sworn allegiance to Sal. No club owner could survive that kind of heat.
When they entered the private room, Freddy Credo was sitting on the edge of a table. He was a big, bulky Italian made bulkier from his years in the joint. Sal noticed the change right away.
Sal walked up to him. Freddy stood up and they half hugged/half shook hands. “Welcome back,” Sal said. “It’s been a long time.”
“Nine years,” Freddy said. “Nine long years. Man can go crazy locked up that long. You know how it is inside. But then again, you don’t know, do you, boss? Because you’ve never been inside. Because, when it’s you, you always find a way to weasel out of it.”
“Watch your language, Freddy,” Nunzio warned. “That’s Sal Luca you’re talking to.”
“I know who the fuck I’m talking to,” Freddy fired back, but he was still staring at Sal. “I’m talking to the man who was supposed to look out for me.”
Sal frowned. “What are you talking?”
“You sold me out, Sal. You was supposed to look out for me and you didn’t.”
“I paid for you one of the best lawyers in this country. I paid for an investigation team. I did everything I could do to keep you out of the joint. But make no mistake about it, Fredrick. Your ass iced that man. You did that. You fucked that up all by yourself. You wasn’t on any assignment of mine when that shit went down. Don’t you forget that.”
“You had the power,” Freddy responded, as if Sal had said nothing. “You’ve got the power, Sal Luca. You could have protected me. You could have kept me out of there, I know you could have. But you didn’t even try!”
“You killed a man with five motherfucking children!” Sal fired back. “You killed an innocent man who didn’t do shit to you. You can’t just go around offing innocent people and expect no punishment. If it wasn’t for that lawyer it would have been over for you. You’d better be glad they didn’t give your ass Life!”
“They wouldn’t have given me anything if you would have fought harder for me! I know where the bodies are buried, Sal Luca. Don’t you forget that! You owe me and you owe me big. I could have gone to the Feds on your ass if I wanted to. And if you don’t look out for me now the way you should have before I went to prison, who’s to say I won’t sing my head off?”
Nunzio couldn’t believe it. Did this fool
realize what he had just done? He’d just signed his own death warrant. But Sal didn’t make a move. He just stared at him. He just let him dig his own grave.
And Freddy continued to dig. “If you would have looked out for me,” he said, “we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But you let me rot in that cell and forgot I existed. But I know shit, Sal Luca. I know a lot of shit. Take that wife of yours, for instance.”
Nunzio was beyond stunned. That fool has lost his mind, he thought. Nunzio looked at Sal. Sal’s heart was beating so fast he could barely contain his fury. “What did you say?” Sal asked Freddy.
“I hear you got married while I was away,” Freddy responded. “I hear she’s this hot black chick. I hear you’ll cut off your dick for her. Well guess what? If you don’t do me right I’m going to cut out her pussy for you.”
Sal grabbed Freddy, lifted him up by the catch of his coat, and began slinging him around that room as if he was a piñata. “You’re threatening me?” Sal asked with clenched teeth. “You’re threatening to harm my wife? You’re threatening me?”
Freddy felt as if a hurricane had just rained down on him. He expected blow back. He expected anger. But nothing like this! He tried to fight back. He tried to get out of Sal’s grasp. He had been counting on Sal’s honor. Sal would never harm a man who used to be in his crew. Everybody knew that. But now he wondered if he had severely misjudged.
“Just give me what I want then I keep my trap shut,” Freddy said boldly. “You don’t have to worry. That’s all I’m saying, Sal Luca! But if you don’t give me what I want then you got a lot of worry.”
“You fool!” Nunzio yelled as Sal began punching Freddy in the face so hard that his licks sounded like belt whips in the room. Blood began pouring from Freddy’s nose, from his mouth, and his eyes were swelling. And he tried to fight back. He tried to hit Sal’s muscular arms, to ease his blows, but Sal’s muscles felt like steel. He was hurting his own fists hitting Sal.
Then Sal grabbed him again, and slung him until his back was against the wall. He held him up by the catch of his coat. “Threatening my wife?” Sal asked again. “You’re threatening me?”
Then Sal looked at the bar owner. “Give me something, Nunz,” he said, breathing heavily, and Nunzio headed for a safe in the room. “Give me something before I don’t care who hears this motherfucker take his last breath!”
Freddy’s eyes grew even larger because he knew what Sal meant. And now his arrogance and sense of entitlement turned to pure fright. He began to fight to get away from Sal. He began to beg for his life. “You’re misunderstanding what I’m saying, Sal Luca,” he pleaded. “You know me. You know I would never do anything to your wife. You know I would never do anything like that!”
Nunzio pulled a revolver from his safe. Then he grabbed a silencer and began putting it on the gun. He tossed it to Sal.
“You have to believe me,” Freddy continued pleading as he looked at that gun. “You’ve got to hear me out, Sal. You know I didn’t mean it like that! You know that!”
“Your ass threatened my wife,” Sal said. “Your ass threatened to bring me down. That’s all I need to know.”
“But I was just talking,” Freddy implored. “I was just talking! If I was gonna snitch on you I would have done it when I was inside. I don’t even know what your wife looks like. I was just talking, Sal Luca. I was just talking. I need your help!”
“Then I’m about to help you,” Sal responded as he kicked Freddy’s legs from beneath him and then body-slammed him to the floor. Freddy opened his mouth to continue to beg, but Sal put a knee on Freddy’s chest and placed the revolver inside of his mouth. “No motherfucker threatens to harm my wife,” Sal said angrily, “and live to tell about it. No motherfucker alive is going to have that kind of power over me.”
Freddy was screaming but the revolver in his mouth was muting the sound. Freddy was shaking his head as if Sal had it all wrong. He was kicking his feet and pulling on Sal’s big arms as if he just knew this was one big misunderstanding if only Sal would let him explain. But Sal understood perfectly. Freddy’s big mouth had just made him a huge liability. He sealed his own fate.
Sal pulled the trigger and shot Freddy Credo dead.
Sal stood back up, angry that Freddy took him there. “Motherfucker threatening my freedom?” Sal had pain in his voice. “After all I did for his sorry ass, he’s threatening me?”
Nunzio felt Sal’s pain. He’d never known a man who gave so much of himself to his crew, even those like Freddy who didn’t deserve it. Freddy killed that innocent man. Any other boss would have left him twisting in the wind. But not Sal. He got him a top lawyer. He got him an investigator who tried to find something that could clear him. Sal even attended that fool’s trial. And this was how he repaid him? By threatening to go to the Feds on him? By threatening the man’s wife?
“I told you a guy like him doesn’t deserve your time of day,” Nunzio said. “Didn’t I tell you? You don’t owe him shit.”
Sal didn’t need anybody to tell him that. He already knew that. It was the gall of Freddy that was still angering him.
“I’ll get rid of him, Sal,” Nunzio said. “You can shove off.”
But Sal didn’t leave loose ends for somebody not currently on his payroll to clean up. He got on his cell phone and called his local guys to get over there. And they came when Sal Luca called. They were there in less than twenty minutes.
And then Sal gave them the gun to lose and headed for the exit. But not before glancing back at Freddy’s lifeless body again. He used to be one of his best men. But the way he blamed Sal for shit that wasn’t even his fault, and to come at him like that. One of his men threatening him like that? Freddy made himself a sworn enemy. He did that.
Sal buttoned his suitcoat and left. He did not look back.
CHAPTER TWO
The Porsche drove through the gates and up the circular driveway of the big, posh Gabrini home. Gemma grabbed her briefcase and got out of her husband’s car exhausted from a day too long, and climbed the wide steps to the front door. But when she opened the door, and saw that familiar set of luggage in the foyer, she got her second wind.
She closed the door, dropped her briefcase beside the luggage, and hurried up the spiraling staircase of their big, beautiful home. “Sal?” she yelled as she hurried up.
Sal was just stepping out of the shower and grabbing a towel when he heard her voice. He smiled. He wasn’t due home for a couple more days, but he was home already. After Freddy and all the shit he had to deal with in Jersey, he needed to be around something good. He couldn’t wait to see her pretty face again.
Gemma entered the bedroom, but was disappointed when she didn’t see him. Had he dropped his luggage and left? Had he gone to his office without even calling and letting her know he was back in town? He’d done it before.
But when she looked toward the bathroom and saw Sal standing there, naked and wet and the most beautiful man alive in her eyes, she smiled. “Sal,” she said, as she went to him. He gladly dropped his towel, and pulled her into his arms.
Sal lifted her up and kissed her. He closed his eyes. “You make it worth it,” he said to her, although she didn’t understand what he meant. And he kissed her even harder.
When they stopped kissing, he leaned back. “Let me look at you,” he said.
Gemma smiled. “You act as if you haven’t seen me for ages.”
But Sal was serious. “That’s how it feels whenever I’m away from you. Like a lifetime.”
Gemma stared into his big, blue eyes. She could see agony there. “It wasn’t a good trip?” she asked.
Sal shook his head. “No.” Then he looked at her pretty face again and smiled. “That’s why I’m glad it’s over and I’m glad to be back home with you.” He sat her back on her feet.
“I didn’t expect you back this soon at all,” she said. “I’m happy, don’t get me wrong, but I never would have thought you’d be back this soon.”
&
nbsp; Sal pushed his ever-hardening cock against her and continued to keep his arms around her narrow waist. “I’m full of surprises, right?”
“I only wish you would have been here in time for the meeting,” she said.
Sal frowned. “What meeting?”
Gemma stared at her husband. This was a problem. Reno was right. “The one at my office, Sal. The one where we figure out how we’re going to beat back Liz Mertan’s lawsuit. She’s suing me and Tree for revoking her partnership in Champagne’s. Remember?”
“Oh, that,” Sal said dismissively. “I took care of it.”
Gemma’s expression was a combination of shock and befuddlement. “You took care of it? What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I took care of it. I met with rat-face Mertan, her weak-ass husband, and their fat-faced attorney separately. After I presented all the shit I had on all three of them, all the affairs and shit like that, they got together and agreed to drop the lawsuit and move the hell on. I thought for sure your girl would have phoned and told you about it.”
But Gemma was still amazed. “When did all of this happen?” she asked him.
“Just before I left town. I knew I wouldn’t be back in time for any meeting, so I settled it.”
“But why didn’t you let me know you took care of it, Salvatore?” But what was she thinking? Sal rarely phoned her. He just didn’t. But still. “You could have phoned and told me,” she added.
“I did phone and tell you. I left a message on your cell phone.”
“But I didn’t get any. . .” It was only then did Gemma remember she had been in court this morning, had to turn off her cell phone, and forgot to turn it back on after court.
“You forgot to turn it back on,” Sal said. “Didn’t you?”
Gemma nodded. She hated to admit it. “I forgot,” she said. But the fact that he had handled Liz Mertan and her foolishness was the real story. “But you took care of it, Sal? Really? I’m impressed.”
Sal Gabrini: His House of Cards Page 2