Sal Gabrini: His House of Cards

by Mallory Monroe

  “That’s what I thought too,” Gemma said. “But that’s why I left him, Tree. He lied to me.”

  Trina didn’t expect to hear that. “What did he lie about?”

  “The fact that he owns that house in Chicago.”

  Trina nodded. “Yeah, he has a house in Chicago. More like a mansion, really. I’ve been there.”

  “I’ve been there too!”

  “When Tommy got shot, right?” Trina asked. “His girlfriend saved his bacon and Sal told her to drive Tommy to his house there in Chicago. We’ve all been there. What, he denied it?”

  Gemma nodded. “He denied it existed, and he denied it to my face, Tree. He forgot I’d been there. He forgot all about it.”

  “He was in shock that day, that’s for sure. Tommy nearly died. You know how close they are.”

  “But he lied about it, Tree. He knew he owned that house. He didn’t have to lie about it. Why should I believe anything else he says if he could lie so easily about something like that?”

  “You have a point,” Trina agreed. “You catch a man in a lie like that, it usually means he’s lying his ass off about a lot of other things too.” Then Trina looked at her. “What about her claim that he’s the father of her child?”

  Tears began to appear in Gemma’s eyes, and anguish was in her voice. “He says that’s not true, and that it’s impossible and all of that, but I don’t know. I just don’t know!”

  Trina stood up and hurried to her. She could feel her pain as she held her.

  “I believe in him so much!” Gemma cried. “I love him so much. But he lied to me. What else is he lying about? It’s just so painful, Tree. It’s just so painful!”

  Trina held Gemma tightly as tears appeared in her eyes. She loved Sal and Gemma as if they were her blood brother and sister. But if Sal was cheating on this good woman, this classy lady, Trina was going to personally cut off his balls and shove them down his throat. Then, and only then, would she even consider forgiving him.

  Little Sophia Gabrini had been playing her game on the tablet, but now she was too busy watching her distressed mom and aunt.

  Tommy Gabrini flew into town on his private jet as soon as he got the call. Now he was sitting on the edge of the bed in Sal’s big, quiet home while Sal laid in the middle of the bed. Sal was fully clothed, in his double-breasted suit and spit-polished shoes, with one leg lying down and the other one kneed up. He looked like hell to Tommy. He looked as if he was so upset that he couldn’t blink anymore. He was staring at his ceiling.

  Tommy exhaled and folded his arms. “So you lied to her?” he asked.

  Sal’s strong jaw tightened. And he nodded. “I lied,” he said.

  “But she’d been to that house before Sal. She knew it existed.”

  “I forgot.” His voice was filled with anguish. “God help me, I forgot!”

  Tommy had never seen Sal quite so defeated. And Tommy was worried too. He’d already had a failed marriage. He couldn’t bare for his kid brother to have one too. “What else did you lie about?” he asked him pointblank. “Did you have an extramarital affair with this Blanche person?”

  Sal shook his head. “No. Hell no, Tommy. I wouldn’t do that to Gem.”

  “Then why did you lie about the house?”

  “Because I didn’t want to lose Gemma! Blanche was telling her that she was my kept woman and that I fathered some child and all that kind of bullshit. If I told her Blanche was staying in that house, everything else Blanche said would have seemed plausible. I would have been doomed.” Then he scrunched up his face. “Only to be doomed anyway.”

  “All of those different houses and female house sitters,” Tommy said. “I told you that shit was going to catch up with you.”

  Sal closed his eyes, but his face could not hide his distress. “You can’t tell me anything that I haven’t told myself. You can’t be more disappointed in me than I am in myself.” He looked at Tommy. “It’s not possible,” he added.

  Tommy’s handsome face was distressed too. Because he loved Sal so much. His girlfriend Liz had his heart completely. And Destiny, his daughter, was his life. But Sal had a special place in his heart. Sal was the one who would always put himself in harm’s way to protect Tommy. Sal was the one who used to allow himself to be physically abused by their sadistic father so that Tommy wouldn’t continue to be sexually abused by him. He killed to protect Tommy. He was the best human being Tommy had ever known in his entire life. And although Sal was younger, and everybody used to call him Tommy’s shadow, Tommy knew better than that. They were one. But Sal was the glue.

  He unbuttoned his Armani suitcoat and laid on the bed beside his brother. It was an awkward thing. He knew Sal was a man who hated touchy-feely situations, but that was too bad. Tommy pulled him into his arms.

  Sal, at first, resisted, but then he allowed it. Because he knew he needed it. Because he couldn’t bear the thought of what Gemma’s absence meant. And he found himself sobbing in his brother’s arms.

  “I can’t lose her, Tommy,” he said as he sobbed. “I can’t lose Gemma.”

  Tommy held him tighter. And allowed him to shed his tears. And then, when the sobbing ceased, he eased his grip so that Sal could move out of his embrace without feeling imprisoned by it.

  And they just laid there. Until Sal looked over at his big brother. “You look exhausted,” he said.

  “I am exhausted. I’ve got to be in Japan tomorrow.”

  “Goodness, Tommy. And here I am bothering you.”

  “You can’t bother me.”

  “How’s Destiny?”

  Tommy smiled. “Sweet as ever.”

  “When are you and Liz going to give her a playmate yourselves?”

  “We’re too busy fucking to have a kid right now,” Tommy said half-jokingly. “But it’ll come. Just not right now.”

  But then silence ensued, as Sal thought again about the gravity of his situation. Gemma left him. He was in a grave place.

  Tommy looked at him. “A lot’s been going on,” he said.

  “What, with you and Liz?”

  “With you and Gemma,” Tommy said. “That discrimination lawsuit. That incident at the courthouse. Blanche.”

  “And that tape showing my crazy ass acting like a hateful idiot,” Sal said. “Yeah, a lot’s been going on. And I haven’t figured out shit about why.”

  “Maybe it’s getting to be too much for her, Sal,” Tommy said. “Maybe it’s starting to take a toll. You know our lifestyle can do that to women.”

  But Sal was shaking his head. “Gemma has a spine of steel,” he said. “She’s a tough lady. She didn’t leave me because of that. She left because I lied. She was sitting down, she was allowing me to explain, but then my slick ass had to lie. If I wouldn’t have lied, she would still be here.”

  Tommy felt for his brother. But he also felt helpless. What the hell did he know? He was no expert on women either. “So what are you going to do?” he asked.

  Sal was definitive. “I’m going to get my wife back,” he said.

  “And?” Tommy asked. He knew his brother too well.

  “And find that bitch who tried to take her away from me in the first place,” he added.

  Tommy nodded. “That’s more like it,” he said. “Any word on where she might be?”

  “My men are on it. Nothing yet. But they’ll find her.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  The SUV stopped in the alleyway that led to the restaurant’s kitchen door. Victor Grotski was leaned against the wall taking a smoke break. As the manager of the small greasy spoon, he could take breaks whenever he liked. Which was often to smoke. What he didn’t like was for customers to drive up in his alleyway, usually young people trying to make out, and block his view. When the SUV drove up and stopped, he was about to tell whoever was inside to keep it moving. Until the passenger window rolled down, and he saw Sal Gabrini sitting on the passenger seat. His heartbeat quickened. “Fuck,” he said beneath his breath.

&nbs
p; Sal waved him over. Victor wanted to run. He wanted to get the hell away from there. But he knew it was hopeless. He dropped his cigarette, smashed it with his shoe, and walked up to the vehicle. “What’s up, Sal?” he asked.

  “Where’s Blanche?” Sal asked.

  “Blanche? I haven’t seen her in years. Why would you ask me about Blanche?”

  “Where’s Blanche?” Sal asked again.

  “I haven’t seen her in years. I told you. What, you think I’m lying?”

  Sal grabbed Victor by the back of his neck, shoved his face into the SUV and put a gun up to his mouth. “Sing that tune again and I blow your face off,” Sal said angrily. “Where the fuck is Blanche? You’re her old man. Now stop fucking with me. Where is she?”

  “Clayton’s,” Victor said quickly. “I heard she’s been hanging around Clayton’s. But I haven’t seen her in years, Sal, honest.”

  Sal knew better than that. The only reason he was there at all was because his men had tracked him down as the person most likely to know where Blanche might be. And what she was up to. “Get in,” he said. “If she’s not at Clayton’s, you’re a dead man.”

  Victor’s heartbeat slammed against his chest. He knew Sal. He used to work for him. He knew how mean that asshole could be. “I don’t know if she’s there right this minute,” he said. “I’m only telling you where I think---”

  “Get in,” Sal ordered. “Nobody cares what you think!”

  Victor gave in. Or at least pretended to. He moved toward the back of the truck, to get onto the back passenger seat, but then decided to make a run for it. Sal saw it before his driver could, and he jumped out of the SUV and took off after Victor.

  They ran and they ran. Sal was older, but he was in better shape. He eventually overtook Victor just as he was about to climb a fence. Sal grabbed him down by the catch of his jeans and knocked him to the ground. Then he placed his expensive shoe on top of Victor’s slender frame.

  “You’re a fucking loser, moron,” Sal said. “Losers always get caught. Now tell me where that bitch is, and you tell me the truth!”

  Sal’s driver finally ran up to the two men, since driving in that field wasn’t possible. But he was in worse shape than Victor. He was bent over.

  Victor knew he was in trouble. He knew he had to come clean or he was going to die a horrible death. But coming clean didn’t ensure Sal would let him live either.

  “Talk!” Sal demanded.

  “She didn’t . . . She was. . . She didn’t go to see your wife because she wanted to. She didn’t want to. But he made her.”

  Sal frowned. “Who made her?”

  “I don’t know,” Victor said. “She wouldn’t tell me who.”

  “You’re lying!” Sal said.

  “I swear to you I don’t know, Sal! Why would I lie?”

  Sal grabbed Victor again and was about to beat him down until he was willing to talk, but shots suddenly rang out. Sal and his driver dropped to the ground, pulling out their own weapons as they did. Sal was on his back firing a volley of shots as the car was speeding away, but he doubt if he hit so much as a hubcap. But at least he nor his driver were hit.

  But Victor Grotski, they quickly discovered, was gone.

  Reno and Trina and their two youngest children, Dominic and Sophia, were just sitting down to dinner when their doorbell rang.

  “I’ll get it,” Dommi said quickly, and was about to stand up, but his father just as quickly ordered him back down.

  “You aren’t getting shit,” Reno said. “Sit your ass back down.”

  “Reno,” Trina said with umbrage as she tossed her napkin onto the table and began to rise. “The language! He might behave as if he’s a grown man, but he’s still just a little boy.”

  “While you were working late at Champagne’s last night, this little boy was around my casino pinching old ladies asses,” Reno said. “One even threatened a lawsuit. Your little boy found it amusing, and said all I had to do was destroy any tapes and she wouldn’t have a leg to stand on in a court of law. That’s what your little boy said.”

  Gemma was mortified. “Why you little fucker,” she said to her son, and even Dommi covered his mouth.

  “The language, Katrina,” Reno said, mocking his wife. “What about our sweet little boy here?”

  “Sweet my ass,” Trina said, prompting Reno to laugh, as she made her way to their front door. She knew it was somebody they knew, somebody who did not have to be announced, or the front gate guards would not have let them through.

  When she looked through the peephole, she saw that she was right. She opened the door. “Hello, Sal,” she said as he stepped in.

  “How are you, Tree?” They hugged.

  “I’m good. How are you?”

  That was a rhetorical question even to Trina. Because he looked awful. Unshaven, a suit that looked as if it had been slept in, bloodshot eyes. Sal was a man who prided himself on having himself together. Not tonight. “She’s not here,” Trina informed him.

  He nodded his head. “I know. She’s staying at her old house.”

  Trina was puzzled. “How did you know that? She said she didn’t tell you where she was going.” Then she shook her head. “Never mind. What am I thinking? You and Reno always know me and Gemma’s every move. But when we need to know where y’all keep y’all slick asses, we have to damn near put spy planes in the air.”

  Although it was funny to him, Sal couldn’t even manage a smile. He had weightier matters on his mind. “Reno here?”

  “He’s here. He’s at dinner.” Trina closed the door behind them. “Come on back.”

  “Thanks, Tree, but I’m not hungry. I’ll wait for him in his office.”

  Trina couldn’t recall the last time Sal turned down a meal when he came to their house. This breakup was serious. “Suit yourself,” she said, and began walking back toward the dining room. Sal headed for Reno’s home office.

  He was sitting on the leather couch, leaned back with his legs spread out across the floor, thinking about Gemma, when Reno walked in. He came within minutes. As soon as Reno saw his cousin, and the wretched state he was in, he closed the door behind him. Whatever differences he had with Sal, and he had many, he still loved him like a brother. That was absolute.

  He walked slowly toward the sofa and sat down beside him. Only he sat on the edge and looked back at Sal.

  “You look like shit,” Reno said.

  “Oh, nice, Reno. You’re a very comforting man. Thanks.”

  “I heard somebody was playing target practice on your ass today.”

  “More like warning shots to spring some thug I was running down, but yeah.”

  But Reno wasn’t buying his cavalier attitude. “First shots ring out around Gemma, now around you. What’s going on, Sal?”

  “Damn if I know.” Sal leaned up. “I don’t know. It’s a bunch of shit going down and I can’t connect the dots. Then Blanche shows up.”

  Reno frowned. “Who the hell is Blanche?”

  “Blanche Delilah. She used to live in my house in Chicago.”

  Reno smiled. “Oh, you mean the blonde?”

  Sal hesitated. “Yeah.”

  Reno studied Sal. “Gemma found out, didn’t she?”

  “Trina didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?” Reno asked.

  Sal leaned back. “Gemma left me, Ree.”

  Reno was shocked. “Left you? Because of Blondie?”

  “Because I lied to her.”

  Reno’s heart dropped. “You lied about what?”

  Sal still felt foolish. “The house.”

  Reno frowned. “The house? What house? The one in Chicago?”

  “I told her I didn’t own a house in Chicago.”

  Reno was floored. “But wasn’t she there before? That night Tommy got shot? Wasn’t she there?”

  Sal nodded. “She was there.” Anguish was in his voice. “My dumb ass forgot she had been there!”

  Reno couldn’t believe it. “S
o you lost your wife because you lied about a house she already knew you had?”

  “I was trying to keep her. I didn’t want anything Blanche said to her to be the truth, so everything Blanche said to her had to be a lie. Including that house.”

  “What was Blanche lying about?” Reno asked. “Fucking you?”

  “She told Gem she was the mother of my son.”

  “Get outta here!”

  “That’s what she told her.”

  “A lie, right?” Reno asked.

  “What kind of question is that? Of course it’s a lie, Reno! I would never do that to Gem.” Then he exhaled. “I fucked up. I keep fucking up with her. What’s wrong with me?”

  “That’ll take too long to answer,” Reno responded. “Let’s stick to things we can realistically change.”

  “Fuck you,” Sal said halfheartedly.

  “So you have this major-ass problem,” Reno said. “Gemma’s left and you’re not okay.”

  “No, I’m not okay. I’ll never be okay until I get her back.”

  Reno couldn’t agree more. “Damn straight,” he said.

  “I blew it, Reno,” Sal said with even more pain in his voice. “I blew it big time. I lied to hold on to her. I called myself holding onto my wife. And she caught me red-handed. Why do I always fuck it up?”

  Then Sal looked at Reno. They were eyeball to eyeball. “How do you do it, Ree?” he asked.

  Reno stared at his cousin. “How do I do what?”

  “Keep your woman happy. How do you keep Trina after all these years? How do you have this perfect marriage?”

  “First of all,” Reno said, “there’s no such thing as a perfect marriage. Trina’s left my ass countless times.”

  “But she always came back.”

  Reno nodded. “Always.”

  “Why?”

  Reno frowned. “Love. What else?” Then his heart went out to Sal. He’d rarely seen him so devastated. “Love,” he said, “and a lot of hard work on my part. You are going to have to work to win her back, Sal.”

  Sal listened to him.

  “There are no shortcuts,” Reno continued. “Gemma Jones is not one of your men. You can’t make her do shit. You’re going to have to get off your ass and fight for her.”