Sal slammed on brakes when the van finally came to a stop, and then he and Tommy jumped from the SUV. “Stay inside, Grace,” Tommy ordered as they ran to the van.
Grace stayed put as Tommy ordered her to do, but she also looked around, making certain there were no ambushes awaiting her. And then she watched her husband and her brother-in-law pull open the jammed driver-side door of that van, and drag the driver out.
But Tommy and Sal immediately realized the driver was dead. The impact of the violent flip had killed him instantly. Sal ran to make sure nobody else was inside of that van, and then he ran back up to Tommy. Because Tommy was staring at the deceased driver.
“What is it?” Sal asked him.
“I’ll be gotdamn,” Tommy said.
“What?” Sal asked.
“It’s Vin,” Tommy said, and then looked at his brother. “That’s Vincenzo.”
Sal didn’t know Tommy’s security guy that personally, but he recognized him as soon as Tommy identified him. But it couldn’t be! “I thought Jules said Vin was dead,” Sal said. “I thought he said they killed Vin almost right away.”
“He did say it,” Tommy said, staring at the man he had entrusted to lead Destiny’s protection team. “He said they killed Vin.”
Then Sal looked at Tommy. “They set this shit up, Tommy. Those motherfuckers set this shit up!”
And then he and Tommy, convinced now that they had an active participant in the disappearance of Grace and the kids, still in their custody at this very moment. They ran back to the SUV, jumped in, and took off.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
After taking Grace back home and under Reno’s protection too, Tommy and Sal hurried to the Safe House where they held Jules Matteo. Tommy presented a brave front to Grace. Everything, he told her, was going to be just fine.
But as soon as Tommy entered that Safe House and was escorted, by Branson Nash, to the prisoner they held in the basement downstairs, he lost all pretense at cool. As soon as he saw Jules sitting in a chair in that unfinished basement, he jacked him up, dragged him across the room, and slammed him against the wall so hard that Jules gasped for breath. “What kind of game do you think you’re playing with us?” he asked him, and then grabbed him and slammed him again. “What kind of game you think this shit is?!”
“What are you talking about, sir?” Jules asked, his face filled with confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Like you don’t know,” Sal said.
“I’m talking about Vin,” Tommy said. “I’m talking about we were just in a gunfight with a dead man. With a man your ass said was dead. That’s what I’m talking about!”
It was clear to Tommy and Sal that Jules was shocked that they had found Vincenzo as quickly as they had. He shouldn’t have been surprised. The Gabrinis always found a way to come out on top. But he was very surprised. “How did you find him?” he asked.
“What the fuck difference does that make?” Sal yelled.
“Grace remembered some details that led us to where he was,” Tommy said.
“Grace?” Jules was shocked. “Mrs. Gabrini’s alive? You heard from her? She’s back?”
Tommy nodded. “She’s back.”
“And the kids?” Jules asked anxiously.
“Why should you care?” Tommy asked. “When we needed intel from you, your ass lied to us!”
“The kids are okay, Boss? Just tell me that, please.”
He looked like a man genuinely concerned. Although Sal thought it was all an act, Tommy just wanted, and needed, intel. “My children are okay too,” he said.
Jules sighed relief. “There’s hope then,” he said.
“What kind of hope?” Tommy asked.
Jules rubbed his forehead. “I don’t understand why they would release her, though.”
“Just tell us what you know, Jules,” Sal said. “What are you going on and on about? Just tell what your ass knows! Why did they want Tommy to think Vin was dead?”
Jules looked at Tommy. “I had to tell you that, sir,” he admitted.
“Lie to us this time, motherfucker,” Sal said, “and it’ll be your life.”
“I’m not gonna lie, alright?” Jules was getting agitated too.
“Why did you have to tell me Vin was dead?” Tommy asked. “What was the reason for you to come back here and tell me a lie like that?”
“They needed you to believe Vin was dead.”
“Who needed me to believe it?” Tommy asked.
“I don’t know who. I told you they blindfolded me.”
“You also told us Vin was dead,” Sal shot back. “What the fuck you telling me about what you told us? Like we’re supposed to believe you now?”
Tommy opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips. He knew, at that moment, what Jules knew was all they had. He needed to hear him out. “Why would they want me to think Vin was dead?”
“Because he was their inside guy,” Jules said. “He was their feeder. He knew the logistics. If you thought Vin was dead, you would work from a different angle. I just don’t know what the angle they didn’t want you to work from is supposed to be.”
“What are you saying?” Tommy asked. “They planned to still use Vin?”
Jules nodded his head. “Yeah. They had some elaborate schemes. Maybe that’s why they released Mrs. Gabrini and the kids. They weren’t doing it the regular way. I heard one of them say so.”
“But what were they doing?” Tommy asked. “What were they up to?”
“They were talking general shit around me, sir. They kept me blindfolded, and I could only hear what was within earshot. But after they kicked my ass real good, they told me I had to get to your house and tell you Vin was dead. That was my assignment. They figured you would keep me in custody for a day or two, to debrief me, but then you’d let me go. They were going to pick me back up after you let me go.”
“They weren’t through using your ass either,” Sal said.
“That’s right,” said Jules. “And don’t ask me what they wanted me to do next because I don’t know. I don’t know what they were using Vin for either.”
But Tommy was staring at him. “Why?” he asked him. Tommy and Bran might have missed cues that could have made them know that Vin was a sellout. But did he miss cues about Jules too? “Why would you do what they asked you to do? Who are these fuckers? Why would you let them pick you back up, instead of just coming to me?”
A look of anguish appeared in Jules’s eyes.
Tommy knew what would cause that kind of pain in a man’s eyes. “They threatened to harm your family?” he asked Jules. Although Jules was divorced, he had two sons who lived nearby.
When Jules looked at Tommy, Sal and Tommy both knew Tommy had hit the nail on the head. “They have my sons,” Jules admitted.
Both Sal and Tommy were shocked. “They have them?” Tommy asked.
“They kidnapped them too,” said Jules. “They’re dead if I don’t do exactly what they tell me to do. But now with Vin dead, and Mrs. Gabrini back, I don’t know what’s gonna happen to my sons! I don’t know what they want me to do! That’s why you’ve got to release me, Mr. Gabrini. You’ve got to let me help my sons!”
Tommy might have considered releasing Jules and following him, but he had lied to him once already. He claimed he was instructed to do so, but that didn’t mean he had to do so. He would have stood a better chance getting his sons back, Tommy knew, had he come clean with him.
That was why Tommy wasn’t buying it. Somehow his whole story seemed like another sideshow, another distraction, to Tommy. He had no doubt that those kidnapers had Jules’s sons, too. Tommy figured Jules wouldn’t lie like that about his own kids. But for Tommy to release him and find out what was next, was a no-go on every level. That would be exactly what those kidnappers would want, Tommy felt.
“Do they have Vin’s family too?” Tommy asked him.
Jules nodded. “They got his wife, yeah,” he said. “And these people
, whoever they are, aren’t playing with us. I don’t know what they’re gonna do next!”
“Shit,” Sal said. “What the fuck is going on here? They’re snatching people’s families like it ain’t shit to do. What the fuck is wrong with that bastard DeLuca? A real mob boss doesn’t act like this!”
“If it’s DeLuca,” Tommy said, sounding doubtful that it was.
And that, to Sal, was a terrible thought.
Because if it wasn’t Joe DeLuca, who in this world could it be?
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
It was nearly five am by the time they made it back home, and Tommy was dead on his feet. The emotional toll the last twenty-four hours had put on him had drained every ounce of energy within him, and all he wanted to do was get some rest.
Reno was asleep in a chair, and the children were asleep upstairs, but Grace, he was pleased to find, was wide awake and sitting on the sofa. She was waiting for him.
“Hey,” she said happily when she saw that he and Sal had returned without battle scars.
“You stayed up,” Tommy said with a small smile on his face. It took all he had, but he lifted her up, laid down on the sofa, and laid her down on top of him.
Grace was on her stomach on top of him, and she saw the exhaustion in his eyes. “Oh, baby,” she said. “You look like you can barely keep your eyes open!”
“You mean like Old Man Reno over here,” Sal said as he kicked Reno’s shoe.
Reno jumped up from the chair, pulling out his gun as he jumped up.
“Now he’s all big and bold,” Sal said, and they all laughed.
When Reno realized he had just been awakened from his sleep, he sat back down. “Fuck you,” he said to his cousin, causing Sal to laugh again.
“The kids okay?” Tommy asked Grace.
“They’re fine,” Grace replied. “I just checked on them literally two minutes ago. They’re still fast asleep.”
“Good,” Tommy said.
Reno looked at Tommy lying there, with Grace on top of him. He was missing his own wife in that moment. “How did it go?” he asked him.
“Grace told you about Vin?”
Reno nodded. “Yeah, she told me. That was some shocking shit. I didn’t know him like that, but his background was sterling. And I know what I’m talking about. I had my guys check his ass out as soon as Grace and the kids went missing.”
“But you can’t go by that shit anymore,” Sal said, sitting in the other chair that flanked the sofa. “I don’t know an organization in this country that haven’t had turn coats in the ranks. Even Uncle Mick has fucking rats in his organization.”
“If you can’t go by their records, or recommendations, what can you go by?” Reno asked.
“That’s what I’m trying to tell your ass,” said Sal. “If it ain’t family, don’t trust’em. That’s what it’s coming down to.”
“What did Jules say?” Reno asked.
“They’ve got his kids,” said Tommy.
Grace frowned. “Oh, no, Tommy!”
“They’ve got Vin’s wife, too,” said Tommy.
“It’s like that?” Reno asked.
“If we can believe Jules, yes.”
“Damn,” said Reno. “These fuckers mean business. But why did they let Grace and the kids come back home if they’re snatching families? What kind of sense does that make?”
“Jules said they’re being unconventional,” Sal said.
“Whatever that means,” said Tommy.
“Which won’t help,” said Reno. “And there’s still no sign of DeLuca. I got a status update from our guys in the field and they haven’t turned up shit on him. Nobody knows where his ass went.”
“Tommy’s not even sure if DeLuca’s behind what’s happening,” Sal said.
Grace looked at Tommy. Reno did too. “If not him,” Reno said, “then who? Henry?”
“No,” said Tommy. “Not Henry.”
“He’s still got faith in that fucker,” said Sal. “We haven’t heard a word from him. Nobody can find him. But he stills holding out hope that Henry’s just taking a break.”
“Or,” Tommy said, “they have Henry too. And his girlfriend. She’s missing as well.”
Sal and Reno looked at each other. “You think they’ll use him like they used Jules and Vin?” Sal asked.
Tommy exhaled. “It’s possible,” he said. “We have to work from the proposition that everything’s possible, and if he shows up, we can’t trust what he tells us.”
“Why didn’t he just come to you?” Reno asked.
“The same way Jules couldn’t,” said Sal. “They kidnap and torture. They keep family members for security. Jules wasn’t risking the lives of his sons like that.”
Then Tommy sat up, with Grace in his arms, and kept her on his lap. “But right now,” he said, about to stand up, “Grace and I are going up those stairs and getting some sleep. She needs some rest.”
“And you don’t?” Sal asked.
But then Tommy’s cell phone rang. Because it could be some new information, they all were anxious. But when Tommy looked at the Caller ID, he frowned. It was Unknown again. The same way it had been when he received those two prior phone calls asking for money. He placed the call on Speaker as he answered. “Yes?”
“Is this Tommy Gabrini?”
That same monotone. That same disguised voice. “What do you want?”
“You have thirty seconds to deposit fifty million dollars into account number 6662357.”
Tommy and Grace, along with Sal and Reno, stood on their feet. “What the fuck,” Sal said.
“If you don’t deposit the money right away,” the caller said, “we will have no choice but to kill you and your family.”
“Kill us?” Tommy asked. “What kind of bullshit is this?”
“Twenty-five seconds left.”
Everybody was confused. “This house is guarded like it’s Buckingham fucking palace,” Sal said. “And everybody’s accounted for. What’s he talking?
“Twenty-two seconds,” the caller said.
“He’s talking like he can kill by remote control,” Reno said.
And that was when it hit Tommy. “A bomb,” Tommy said, and it wasn’t that impossible because it happened to Reno not all that long ago! “A bomb!” he yelled, and they sprang into action.
“The children,” Grace was crying, but Tommy and Reno were already running toward the stairs; running in that direction.
“Sal, get Grace out of here!” Tommy cried as he ran up those stairs. “Get her out of here!”
But Grace was right behind them, running toward those stairs too. Sal had to grab her, all but tackle her, and force her toward the exit. “They got it, Grace,” he said, hurrying her out of harm’s way. “You’re getting out of here. Tommy’s got it!”
But Tommy and Reno knew their time was limited. It was almost up already! “Nine seconds,” the caller said into Tommy’s phone by the time they made it upstairs.
They ran into the master bedroom, where the children were still fast asleep, and Tommy grabbed Destiny while Reno grabbed TJ and they took off.
“Four seconds.”
They ran down the stairs as fast as they could.
“Three seconds.”
They ran down the long hallway that led to the foyer.
“Two seconds.”
They ran out of the front door just as the caller was saying that there was one second left.
And with grounds security aiding them, they ran with the children across the lawn. They made it up to Grace and Sal.
Then . . .
Nothing happened.
Nothing.
Then the caller laughed. “Sorry about that. My terrible. It was a test run.” Then his voice went hard-edge. “But it won’t be a test the next time, motherfucker.” And he ended the call.
“What the fuck!” Reno yelled, his heart still pounding.
“What’s happening, Daddy?” Destiny asked, as Tommy sat her on her own two feet
. “Mommy?”
Grace pulled Destiny against her. She’d already picked up TJ. “It’s alright, baby,” Grace said with anguish in her eyes. “Daddy’s got it under control.”
“Who’s pulling this shit?” Sal asked. He felt as confused as Destiny!
But Tommy wasn’t looking confused. He was looking as if he was trying to remember something.
Grace saw it too. “What is it?” she asked him.
“Those words,” he said.
“What words?” Reno asked.
“I’ve heard them before.”
“What words, Tommy?” Grace asked.
“My terrible. When he said, not my bad, the way everybody else says it. But he said ‘my terrible.’ I’ve heard that phrase before.”
Grace stared at Tommy. Because she’d heard that phrase before too. But she couldn’t place it.
But Tommy suddenly could. And he realized the connection. “That’s it!” he cried.
“What’s it?” Sal asked.
“Reno, stay with my family,” Tommy said and began hurrying for one of the SUVs. “Sal, come with me.”
Reno laughed. “I see he’s still ordering your ass around,” he said to Sal.
“At least I’m going with him,” Sal fired back. “Where your ass going? You got to stay,” he added, and then hurried behind Tommy.
Reno’s smile was gone. He could handle a gun as well as Sal, if not better than him. Why the fuck did Tommy keep leaving him behind?
“You okay, Uncle Reno?” Destiny asked him.
And that was when he realized why. Tommy wanted the best to guard his best. “Come on,” he said to Grace and the kids, gathering them closer around him. Then he looked at the grounds detail chief. “I want an explosives sweep of the house,” he ordered, “before we go back in.”
“Yes, sir,” the chief said, and hurried to do just that.
Grace looked at Reno. “You think there could still be something inside?” she asked him.
“I don’t know if there is or not,” Reno said. “But Tommy put me in charge of his most precious possessions. I’m making certain it’s not, before any of you go back inside.”
Tommy Gabrini: A Family Man Page 15