This time Trina and Reno looked at Jimmy. Trina was convinced that Jimmy Mack was going to follow, one hundred percent, in Reno’s footsteps. And it scared her.
“You just fix those sandwiches and shut the fuck up,” Reno said harshly to his son, because it scared him, too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
They walked slowly along the Vegas Strip, hand in hand. Tommy knew she was having second thoughts about hooking up with a man like him, and he wanted to give her time to work out those feelings. But he also wanted to plead his case.
They stepped into a sidewalk café and Grace took a table by the window. While Tommy went to the counter to get sodas, Grace stared at the swirl of activity around her. A woman committed suicide, she thought. Was it because of her love for Tommy? Or was she murdered the way her boyfriend had claimed? And what about Tommy’s connection to Reno? He said he wasn’t into the mob life, but whenever Reno needed him, did Tommy help him?
Those were questions she knew she had to ask. And those were questions she was beginning to dread the answer to.
She looked over at Tommy as he stood at the counter, waiting for his drinks. She saw the looks other females were giving to him, even as he ignored all of them. Loving a Gabrini wasn’t going to be a walk in the park, Trina had already warned her. And she was now beginning to understand just what Trina meant. Tommy might not have the mob drama that Reno apparently had, but he had female drama. And plenty of it. And she had to decide if she was willing to live with that drama, or if she wasn’t.
As she casually looked around the room, and saw the looks females who didn’t even know Tommy were giving him, she could only imagine what those many females, who’d shared his bed before, felt about him. Could she handle it, was really the only question, in the end, that was going to matter most.
Tommy returned to their table with two lattes. He gave Grace one and sat down beside her.
“Thanks,” she said.
Tommy took sips of his coffee while staring as Grace took sips of hers. Then he exhaled. “Disappointed in me?” he asked her.
“I just don’t understand,” she said.
“What don’t you understand?”
Grace searched for the right words. “Why do you have to have so many women?” she asked him.
“I haven’t had another woman since I slept with you, Grace.”
And that, Grace realized, was the real crust of her concern. “But why haven’t you slept with another one?” she asked him. “You’ve had plenty of women before me. You were Mister Open Relationship, remember? What’s changed?”
Grace stared at him as she waited for his answer. She prayed he didn’t say, I met you, that’s what changed, because she wasn’t going to buy that. It had to be more than the fact that he met her. A lot more.
Tommy leaned forward, cupping his latte. “I changed,” he said. “That’s what changed. Me.” He thought about it. “When I talked to you at that dinner party, and you exposed me for what I really was, it alarmed me.”
Grace was stumped. “What did I expose?”
“You exposed my hypocrisy, that’s what. All of my sleeping around wasn’t about my sparing all of those women, it was about having my cake and eating it, too. I was using people for my own gratification. There was nothing noble about that. Yeah, those women may have been using me, too, but that didn’t exonerate me. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and I was turning that truth on its head.”
He looked at Grace. “You made me see the truth, Grace. After I slept with you on your birthday, and left your apartment, I couldn’t stop seeing that truth. You were about to be yet another one of my conquests. Yet another woman I had in the bag.” He frowned. “And it sickened me.”
Grace stared at him.
“I’m pushing forty and still living like some gotdamn teenager. When everything I really wanted was what you had told me you wanted, too.”
“But why didn’t you call me? It was two months later, Tommy, and it took your seeing me in your office with Jillian before you called me.”
“I know,” Tommy said, nodding his head.
“Why didn’t you call me before then?”
Tommy hesitated, and then sipped more coffee. “I don’t know,” he said truthfully.
Grace stared at him. Complicated my ass, she thought. Loving Tommy Gabrini was going to make complicated seem easy.
But she did love him.
The next day, while Tommy and Reno were together somewhere around the massive PaLargio, Grace was in the PaLargio’s ballroom holding baby Dominic and watching Trina discuss the baby’s upcoming birthday party with Eve, the party planner. Trina’s main concern seemed to be the decorations and the fact that Eve, a short, heavyset white woman with small eyes, had her own ideas. It seemed like a battle more than a discussion to Grace, so she therefore turned her attention away from the women, and to Dominic.
She loved holding babies, and was pleased when Trina put Dommi in her arms. He was a fluffy baby who was curious about everything. Everywhere her eyes roamed, his eyes attempted to follow. And he smiled all the time and lifted his little feet.
Just holding him made Grace think about Tommy, and what their child, if they ever had one, would look like. And she didn’t mean outwardly, either, but inwardly. Would he have his father’s propensities? Would he break girls’ hearts, too? Or would he be sensitive with his gorgeousness? And she was certain he’d be gorgeous. She couldn’t imagine a man who looked like Tommy having any child that wasn’t ultra-beautiful.
But even if he wasn’t beautiful at all, it wasn’t his outward look that concerned Grace.
“This is too much,” Trina said as she plopped down in the chair next to Grace’s. “I have too much work to do than to be entertaining Miss Sunshine over there.”
Grace laughed.
“I’m serious,” Trina said. “She wants what she wants but I had to remind her that this was my child’s birthday party, not hers. I hate going there with people, but she left me no choice.”
“Did you hire her?”
“Reno did. He just loves her. But she has no love for me.”
Trina and Grace laughed. Trina reached for Dommi, but Grace asked if she could continue holding him.
Then there was a pause. A long pause. And Trina looked at Grace.
“You okay?” she asked her.
“I should be asking you that question,” Grace said. “You’re the one who got hauled down to the police station yesterday.”
“Ah, I’m used to those clowns. They don’t bother me none. I’m talking about you and Tommy.”
Grace attempted to smile. “We’re getting there.”
“Tommy’s worth it, Grace. I know sometimes it might not seem like he is, but he is. He’s a good man.”
“You mean good like Reno?” Grace dared to ask.
“He’s nothing like Reno,” Trina made clear. “And he doesn’t need to be. One Reno in this world is quite enough, thank-you.”
Grace laughed.
“No, Tommy makes love not war. Until you cross him,” Trina said with a smile. “Then he turns war upside down. But you’ve got a good one.”
“A good looking one, certainly.”
“That too,” Trina said and they laughed.
Then, another pause.
Grace looked at Trina. “It’s a hard life, isn’t it?”
“What is?”
“Loving a Gabrini.”
Trina hesitated, and then nodded. “Yes,” she said. Then she looked at her party planner and frowned. “Balloons on the stage where the bands will be?” she asked as she hurried over for more battles with the planner. “Are you kidding me?”
Grace huddled Dommi close. And sighed.
Her mood didn’t lift when she was on her way back up to the suite she shared with Tommy and was stopped by the desk clerk. He handed her an envelope. He said it had come for her about an hour ago.
Grace accepted it and made her way upstairs. When she got into their suite, and open
ed the envelope, a frown enveloped her face. And then she fell against the door, tears puddled in her eyes.
“Grace!” Tommy called as he and Reno entered his suite. Tommy was already heading for the bedroom, when Reno saw it.
“Tom,” he said to his cousin. Tommy looked. Reno was picking up a pile of photographs that were scattered on the floor.
“Geez,” Reno said, looking at the photos.
Tommy hurried to Reno’s side and grabbed them. When he saw what was portrayed, his heart squeezed.
“No,” he said out loud.
“What are they? Some old photos of you and Shanks?”
“Photos, yes,” Tommy said, reviewing each one. “But not old. These were taken a few weeks ago, when I was in Sydney.”
“Australia?” Reno asked. “But I thought you were with Grace then, Tommy. I thought you and Shanks were finished a long time ago.”
“We were,” Tommy said. “We are.” Then he exhaled. “She came to my hotel room.”
“In Australia?”
“Yeah. She bribed one of the cleaning crew or something and was naked in my bathroom when I got out of the shower.”
“That bitch,” Reno said, shaking his head. “So what happened? Please don’t tell me you fucked her, Tommy, please don’t tell me that.”
“I kicked her out. But these photos, of me naked and coming toward her, and lifting her from her chair, and slamming her against the door, looks so damning.”
“Yeah,” Reno said. “They look like you’re in the throes of passion with that witch.”
“But I’m not. These pics don’t capture my anger. I was throwing her out of the room, not keeping her in.”
Reno shook his head. “Shanks is the best button I’ve ever seen. Great on the field of battle. But as a human being, I wouldn’t trust her as far as I could throw her.”
But Tommy was in deep thought. “She knew about Lindsey,” he said.
Reno looked at him. “Shanks knew?”
“Yeah. We were dating not long after I ended it with Sheila.”
“And you told Shanks about her?”
“After she went missing, yes. I told her.”
“That’s why your people turned up nothing on Herns. It was Shanks rehashing the case. Shanks was the feeder.”
Tommy exhaled. “Damn,” he said. “What could she want now?” he asked.
“Oh, Tommy, please,” Reno said. “She wants you. You threw her out of that hotel room in Sydney. You told her no. She’s another bitch who can’t take no for an answer.”
Tommy shook his head. “And Grace saw these pictures,” he said, not giving Shanks a second thought.
He and Reno then hurried to the bedroom, but Grace wasn’t there. Then Tommy looked in the closet. Her luggage, all of it, was gone.
Reno grabbed the phone off of the nightstand and called downstairs.
“Eddie, hey.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Gabrini, how can I help you?”
“Did Miss,” Reno snapped his fingers.
“McKinsey,” Tommy said.
“Did Miss McKinsey call for a car?”
“A cab, yes, sir.”
“How long ago?”
“About an hour or so, I think.”
“Where was she going?”
“Airport,” Eddie said.
Tommy hurried for the exit.
“Ready the limo for Tommy,” Reno said, Eddie said that he would, and Reno hung up the phone. He then shook his head just thinking about Shanks.
“That bitch!” he said again.
Grace sat her carrying case on her lap and exhaled. She was seated in the McCarran International Airport and the activity was bustling. But she wasn’t people watching at all. She was too consumed in her own thoughts.
They had dates, she kept thinking. If only those pictures would not have had dates on them then she would have given Tommy a chance to explain. But they were dated. And the date was that same day Tommy arrived in Australia.
Alone.
Supposedly on business.
But, instead, he had a beautiful naked woman with him, who decided, for her own reasons, to snap pictures of their encounter. And if her goal, by sending those pictures to Grace, was to scare Grace off, then she succeeded mightily. Grace was sufficiently spooked. She couldn’t get away from Tommy fast enough.
But the pain of her decision was wrenching. She gathered her carrying bag again, more out of nervousness than necessity, and exhaled again. Her plane didn’t board for another hour, and she couldn’t wait to get onboard and get back home.
Then she thought about her life back home without Tommy. Without his laughter and his sex and his presence. And it was a dreadful thought. But she’d rather be alone and even lonely than stuck with a man she couldn’t trust. She’d rather be an old maid for the rest of her life than settle for a man who couldn’t be faithful if his life depended on it.
She didn’t realize that very man was standing right in front of her, until she looked down at her carrying bag again, to push it closer against her, and she saw those shoes, those expensive Italian leather shoes, that Tommy always wore. She looked from the shoes up to his face.
“If I was a snake,” he said, looking serious, “you would have been bitten.”
“You are a snake,” she replied, serious too, “and I have been bitten.”
Tommy’s heart squeezed with anguish. He reached out his hand. “Let’s go talk about it,” he offered.
But Grace refused. “There’s nothing to talk about,” she said.
Tommy’s anger rose. “There’s plenty to,” he practically shouted and then, looking around, settled back down. And sat down beside her. The sweet smell of her, and the fact that he might lose her, made him began to panic.
“There’s plenty to talk about, Grace,” he said, his voice lowered to reach her ears only.
“I know,” Grace said. “Those pictures were photo-shopped, right?”
“No,” Tommy admitted. “They were real.”
Grace’s heart plunged. Any hope she had at all of reconciliation went flying out the window. “At least you don’t lie,” she said. “You cheat, but at least you don’t lie.”
“I didn’t cheat on you, Grace,” he said.
“Who’s the woman in those pictures? Shanks?”
Tommy paused. “Yes,” he said.
Grace stared at him.
“I went to Sydney, alone, and was in the shower. Somebody from my office, undoubtedly, had told Shawnie about my trip and she paid me a visit. She apparently bribed somebody on the hotel staff to let her into my room. When I got out of the shower, she was sitting there naked and offering me a ride.”
“So you decided if you can’t beat’em, join’em, right?” Grace was dripping with sarcasm, which he knew meant that she was deeply hurt.
“What those photos showed was that I was throwing her out, not trying to make love to her. And I did throw her out.”
“So it’s the pictures’ fault? The pictures are lying, right?”
“The interpretation of the snapshots she chose to send to you are, yes.”
“So like Sheila Lindsey, she wants you back, too?”
Tommy gave Grace a chilling look. He almost told her to kiss his ass. He almost just got up and left. He didn’t need this aggravation. He didn’t have to explain himself to her or anybody else.
But he couldn’t do it. Not to Grace. And he would have fallen on his face in explanation if, at the end of the day, she’d come back to him.
“If those pictures are true,” he said, “why didn’t she show snapshots of us in bed? Why didn’t she show snapshots of me actually fucking her? Hun, Grace? Why didn’t she show the real show, if it existed?”
Grace stared at him.
“Because it didn’t happen,” he said. Then he frowned, his blue eyes weary. “I love you, Grace. Nobody else. You. I didn’t cheat on you in Sydney or at any other time in our relationship. I kicked her out of my hotel room. Please believe me. I kicked her
out.”
Grace couldn’t hide her anguish any longer. “But why didn’t you tell me about it?” she asked him. “I could have been prepared for this if you would have told me.”
“I didn’t think there was anything to tell.”
“A naked woman in your hotel room was nothing to tell?”
“Nothing happened between me and that naked woman, is what I mean,” he said. Then tears appeared in Tommy’s eyes. Grace was so stunned, she didn’t know how to take such a sight.
He wiped his eyes. “Please believe me,” he said to her.
He looked so dignified sitting there, yet so vulnerable to Grace. And at that moment she wanted to believe him. She wanted to believe every word he was saying to her. But the evidence. . .
She didn’t know what to say. Then she looked at him. “Do you want her back?” she asked him.
“No,” Tommy said, his eyes tired. “Absolutely not.”
“But she wants you back?”
“It’s never that simple with Shanks. But it’s for certain she’s out for revenge. That much I’m certain about. Maybe because I threw her out of that hotel room, or maybe because I dumped her months ago. It’s always hard to tell with Shanks. But I also think she was the person who’s been feeding intel to the Feds about Sheila Lindsey.”
“She knew about her?”
Tommy nodded. “She knew.”
“But why would she be the feeder?” Grace asked.
“Accumulation,” he said. “Between a woman who committed suicide in my past, and the accusations that I might have been involved in her death, and then those photos, all it was together was designed to overwhelm, and to give you second thoughts about our relationship. She wants you to run, not walk, but run away from me.” Tommy exhaled and wiped his eyes again. “And she seems to have succeeded,” he added.
More than one or two people were now noticing their emotional conversation. And it bothered Grace. The idea that a man like Tommy would be sitting here, in this airport, making a spectacle of himself just to win her back, was unnerving. But what was she supposed to do? Go back to him and accept his wild explanation? Or believe the obvious and fly away fast?
ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI Page 22