“Damn right about that,” Sal said. “Keep me posted.”
“I will, boss,” Neeco said, and Sal killed the call.
“What was that about?” Jimmy asked.
“Nothing,” Sal said. Then he leaned forward. “So what is this advice you need from me? What’s going on?”
Jimmy stopped eating and leaned back on his banquette seat. “It’s Val. She’s been on my case about my commitment to her. She says I treat her like she’s not number one in my life.”
Sal studied the face of Reno’s handsome son. “What did you say to her?”
“I told her she was nuts. How could she say she’s not number one in my life? I married her. She’s my wife!”
“So that’s how you played it? And you expected her to go along with that?”
Jimmy frowned. “Go along with what?”
“With your bullshit. Come on! She’s a smart girl. She’s no airhead. You answered a question she didn’t ask.”
“I told her she was my wife,” Jimmy explained.
“She didn’t ask if she was your wife. Her ass knows she’s your wife. She asked if she was number one in your life.”
“But that’s the thing, Uncle Sal. She’s my wife. Of course she’s number one.”
“And that’s the bullshit.”
Jimmy’s anger flared. “It’s not bullshit, and I don’t appreciate you saying it is.”
“Like I give a fuck what you appreciate,” Sal said. “You’re my heart, Jimmy, you know that. After Gem and Tommy, you’re it, boy. You know how I feel about you. I’m not going to steer you wrong. I’m not going to go along with whatever you say because I know you’re talking crap.”
“What’s crappy about what I’m saying? It’s as if you’re suggesting I don’t love my wife.”
“You love Val.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“You love her, but she’s not first in your life.” Sal looked Jimmy in his hazel eyes. “Not by a longshot.”
Jimmy stared at his uncle and then leaned forward and started eating again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Is Val number one over your old man? Over Reno?”
Jimmy didn’t respond to that.
“What about over Tree? What about over me? She number one over me?”
Still no response from Jimmy.
“What about your Uncle Tommy? What about your Aunt Fran? Well, not Fran. Forget I mentioned her.”
Jimmy smiled weakly.
“But what about us, Jimmy? If Reno was drowning, and Val was drowning, which one would you save?”
“Could you change it to Fran and Val?” Jimmy asked half-seriously.
“No, I cannot,” Sal replied. “Which one would it be, Jimmy?”
Jimmy didn’t respond. He couldn’t.
Sal nodded. “Yeah. I thought so. And that’s why Val has a problem with you. Instead of telling her the truth, you’re telling her bullshit. And she’s smart enough to realize it.”
“But why isn’t she number one?” Jimmy asked. “She’s my wife! I’m not number one in Dad’s life. Trina is. I can guarantee you that.”
“So can I,” Sal agreed. “But that took time, Jimmy. They had to build to that kind of love. You’re married, but it’s a new marriage. It’ll take time.”
“And then she’ll be number one?”
Sal thought about it. “Maybe,” he said. Sal noticed the first guy. He walked in earlier, and sat in the booth all the way across the room. But he noticed him. Now a second guy was walking in. He sat across the room too, but on the opposite side of the room.
“Why would you say maybe?” Jimmy asked. “What’s maybe supposed to mean?”
“It may not get that strong,” Sal responded. “Your bond with Reno is super tight. And your bond with me is tight like that. It’ll take a lot of love to get to that point with Val.”
“But you’re there already with Miss Jones,” Jimmy said. “Aren’t you?”
Sal wasn’t going to lie. “Yeah.”
“So if Uncle Tommy and Miss Jones were drowning, and one person had to be sacrificed, which one would you sacrifice?”
“I’d sacrifice myself,” Sal said. “And let the two of them live. What are you asking me crazy-ass questions like that for?”
Jimmy smiled. “But you asked me that same question!”
“Listen, Jimbo,” Sal said, leaning forward, “I need you to do me a favor.”
Jimmy didn’t understand. That came out of the blue. “A favor?”
“I need you to get up right now and go out of the front door of this establishment. When you get out front, I want you to get in your car and drive around to the cut. Know what cut I’m talking about?”
“The one a couple blocks up on Broad?”
“That’s the one,” Sal said. “Keep your engine running, and I’ll be there.”
Jimmy’s heart was pounding. He wanted to ask a thousand questions. He wanted to look around to see what had suddenly changed that his beloved uncle had to plot some subterfuge. But he didn’t ask anything. He didn’t check out anything. He got up and began heading for the nearest exit.
Sal got up too, as if he was heading for the restroom. But instead of going down the hall, he went into the kitchen.
“You again,” the chef said impatiently. “May I help you?”
But Sal didn’t bother to answer. He walked swiftly to the back door, went out of it, and was prepared to run.
But as soon as he stepped out of the back door, six different guns, held by six different men, were pointed directly at him.
The gig was up.
He felt cornered unlike he’d ever felt cornered in his life.
“FBI,” one of the men proudly yelled. “Freeze motherfucker!”
Gemma stepped out of the courtroom, carrying her overstuffed briefcase and turning on her cell phone. After checking her messages and finding nothing pressing that needed her attention, she began looking around the crowded courthouse. To her pleasant surprise, she saw Reno and Tommy downstairs, looking around too.
She smiled and began hurrying downstairs to greet them. They were undoubtedly looking for her. But then, as she thought about it, she stopped in her tracks. A woman bumped into her because of her sudden stop, but then walked around her, looked angrily at her, but kept going.
But Gemma remained still. Reno and Tommy were looking for her? These men were far too busy running their respective corporations to come down to the courthouse just to see her. Unless they had no choice. Unless something awful had happened. Unless something awful had happened to Sal!
Gemma’s heart pounded as she began rushing down the stairs. Reno saw her first, and then Tommy, and they met her on the bottom stair.
“Is he alright?” she asked nervously, breathlessly. “Tell me he’s alright!”
“He’s alright,” Tommy said, unable to hide the great frustration on his face. “But there’s problems.” Then he exhaled. “Let’s go.”
And Reno and Tommy both escorted her out of the courthouse, put her in their waiting limousine, and the limo dashed off.
But they got into a separate car. They had secured Sal’s woman, but they still had work to do.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The penthouse was pin-drop quiet as Gemma and Trina sat on the sofa and waited for that door to open. It had been nearly four hours since Gem was deposited at the penthouse, and not a word had come down yet.
Yet another hour came and went as they waited. And Gemma couldn’t bear it. On three separate occasions, Gemma was going to go find out what she could herself, but Trina stopped her.
“You’ve got to let them handle this,” she told her. “If you don’t think Tommy and Reno want to get to the bottom of this, you aren’t thinking straight. Nobody alive, not even you, wants it more than those two men.”
Gemma knew it was true. But the waiting was torturous.
Until the front door finally opened, and both Gemma and Tree jumped up.
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But it wasn’t Reno nor Tommy. And certainly not Sal. It was Jimmy.
“They aren’t back yet?” he asked.
Gemma and Trina both sat back down. “No,” Trina said to her stepson. “What did you find out?”
“Nothing,” Jimmy said as he plopped down in the chair, flustered and worried too. “Absolutely nothing. I went out with a crew of Dad’s men, and we hit the Strip hard. But nobody knew anything. Tommy’s men and Uncle Sal’s men hit the rest of the town, but they haven’t found out anything either.”
“This is crazy,” Trina said, equally concerned.
“It’s nuts,” Jimmy agreed. “Even those witnesses at the restaurant said those men were with the FBI. They said they were wearing blue jackets with FBI written on them and everything. But the Feds are playing dumb. They claim they had nothing to do with it.”
“This is maddening,” Trina said. “What in the world is going on!”
Gemma stood up and began pacing again. “It’s unbearable,” she said, her face anguished and frustrated.
“They’ll find him, Miss Jones,” Jimmy reassured her.
“Yeah, but when?” she wanted to know. “When he’s at the bottom of the river? When he’s down there with his hands tied and he’s fighting for his life?”
“Don’t say that, Gemma!”
“Or will they find him when he’s six feet under, in a cement grave? Isn’t that one of the mob’s techniques too?” Tears were in her eyes.
Trina hurried to Gemma, to hold her. But Gemma pulled away. She wanted no comfort. She wanted Sal! “Is this the life I can expect, Trina? Is this it? Will I walk around wondering if my man is in a watery grave or a cement grave? Are those my choices? Is this what I can expect?”
Jimmy covered his face with his hands. The thought of his uncle in either of those situations scared the shit out of him. It scared Trina too, but she wasn’t going to sugarcoat this either.
“Yes,” she said to Gemma. “This is exactly what you can expect. Yes!”
Gemma stared at her. Her heart was racing, but growing faint too. It was the oddest feeling!
“If you want to be a Gabrini, then this is what you can expect. So get used to it, Gem. If you want to be with the big boys you’ve got to put on your big girl panties and deal with it.” Then a hardness came into Trina’s eyes. A hardness Gemma had never seen before. “This is not, on any day of the week, an easy life.”
Gemma needed to understand. “Then why do you live it?” she asked her.
“Because I’m with Reno. That makes it a good life. Not easy, but good. The absolute best life I could have ever had. Because Reno’s in it.”
Gemma exhaled. “But where is Sal?” she asked.
Trina rubbed her arm. “I don’t know, baby,” she said. “But Reno and Tommy will find out. You rest assured of that. They’ll find him.” Then Trina looked at Gemma’s worried face, and Jimmy’s worried face, and she sighed. “Come on guys, we aren’t helping. Let’s get something to eat.”
She headed for the kitchen, and Jimmy followed her. And Gemma was about to. But her original question haunted her. Was it a watery grave, or a cement grave? Were they going into the kitchen to eat while Sal was dying, and he could be saved if they would only think outside the box? This was her man. He always talked about how she was his responsibility. He even had the audacity to tell her own father that. But she felt the reverse was true too. Sal was her responsibility. Not Tommy’s. Not Reno’s. Hers.
She hurried to her handbag, grabbed her cell phone, her keys and her wallet, and took off.
Reno and Tommy walked out of the backroom of the pool hall and headed back for Reno’s Porsche.
Once inside, Reno sat behind the wheel and Tommy sat in the front passenger seat. Reno pulled out the DVD.
“How the hell did Mooney get that tape?” Tommy asked.
“He owns the restaurant,” Reno said. “When he heard Sal Gabrini had been arrested there, he ordered his manager to hide it from the cops and then get it to him. They got it to him. And he contacted me.”
“And even Mooney, who hears everything, hadn’t heard of any heat on Sal.”
“None,” Reno said. “Nobody’s heard a damn thing. Fucking radio silence everywhere.”
“But why?”
“Who knows with your brother. He don’t tell us about the shit he’s got going. He don’t tell nobody nothing. Now his ass is missing and we have little of nothing to go on.”
Tommy ran his hand through his hair. He was normally the pristine one, but on this day his hair was as ruffled as Reno’s. “Let’s see what we’ve got,” he said. “Let’s see if we recognize any of these fools.”
Reno put the DVD in his car player and he and Tommy watched the video. And the witnesses they talked to were right. Six armed men, all with guns waiting at the backdoor of the restaurant. And they all did have on FBI jackets, just as the witnesses said. As soon as Sal stepped out that back door, they pointed the guns at him. They apparently identified themselves as law enforcement because Sal placed his hands in the air and was frisked, cuffed, and driven away. The last anybody had seen of him.
“Recognize any of them?” Tommy asked Reno as they studied the faces of those so-called agents.
“No. Not one of’em.”
“Blanks again. We keep firing blanks!”
“I don’t get it,” Reno said, watching the replay. “Why would they pretend to be FBI? Why the ruse?”
“And they didn’t try to disguise their faces,” Tommy said. “It’s as if they knew we wouldn’t know them.”
“Or anybody else in Vegas,” Reno said. Then he and Tommy looked at each other.
“They aren’t locals,” Tommy said. “And they aren’t any crews I know of in Seattle. Jersey either.”
“Out-of-towners alright,” Reno agreed. “But who sent them? What the fuck do they want with Sal?”
Reno’s cell phone rang. “It’s Tree,” he said and answered quickly. “What’s wrong?” he asked her.
“Gemma’s gone,” Trina said.
Reno frowned. “What do you mean Gemma’s gone?”
Tommy snatched the phone from Reno. “Gone where, Tree?”
“Put it on Speaker!” Reno said. Tommy placed the phone on Speaker as Trina responded that she didn’t know where Gemma went.
“Jimmy and I went into the kitchen,” she said. “We thought she would be in soon enough. I know how she needed some space. Some quiet time to pray for Sal. I knew that. But when she was taking too long, I came to look for her. I saw where her purse had been rifled through. And she was gone.”
“How did she get away?” Reno asked. “Who took her?”
“A cab, Reno. There’s a thousand out there waiting to take the hotel and casino guests wherever they need to go. She took a cab.”
“Did you find out where the cab took her?”
“Yeah. Jimmy got in touch with the cab driver. He dropped her off on Ames Street.”
Tommy’s heart dropped. He and Reno looked at each other. “What the fuck?” Reno asked. Then he spoke into the phone. “How would she know about Ames Street?”
“How should I know?” Trina responded. “I don’t even know about Ames Street! What’s so special about Ames Street?”
“Where’s Jimmy?” Reno asked.
“I’m here, Pop,” Jimmy’s voice was heard in the background.
“Stay with your mother and siblings,” Reno ordered.
“Will do,” Jimmy promised.
Reno ended the call. And looked at Tommy. “I’ll be damn,” he said.
And Reno took off, swerving the car several times as he gained full control, and sped toward Ames Street. It was barely in Vegas, since it was on the edge of town, and it wasn’t much of a street either, but more a small private strip of pavement that led to a dead end. But it was a deadly place.
Reno drove his Porsche slowly onto the narrow street. To say it was in the hood would be an understatement. Reno once joked that people gladly
ran to Dodge to get off of Ames Street. Every building on it was vacant and condemned. Every person on it was hiding out. That was why no-one was ever seen. But by Reno’s own estimation, hundreds of people lived there.
A testament to that fact was when Reno and Tommy stepped out of the car. A group of badasses came out with guns, surrounding them. Until one of them, one of the leaders, realized who it was.
“Fuck, it’s Reno Gabrini,” he said, astounded. “It’s Reno Gabrini y’all!” he said louder.
And every weapon that had been drawn, was pulled back.
The leader: a short, muscular black man, walked up to Reno. “You want something?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact,” Reno responded. “Gemma Jones.”
The man continued to stare at him. Then he looked across the car at Tommy. “Who’s he?”
“Tommy Gabrini.”
The leader recognized the name. “I heard about you,” he admitted. “Never seen you before, but I heard about you. Dapper Tom, they call you. Don’t they? With your fancy clothes and your supposedly great beauty. But that’s just your cover, isn’t it? I heard about you. Unlike Reno here and your brother Sal, who everybody knows, you’re one of those closet badasses. You’re slick with your shit alright, but you’re full of shit too.”
Reno moved toward the leader, because of his insult, but the leader did not back up. Reno liked that. This was no chump he was dealing with. “Where’s Gemma Jones?” Reno asked him.
The man continued to look at Tommy. Then he looked at Reno. “Don’t know her.”
“A cab bought her here. Now where is she?”
“I said I don’t know her though! Never heard of her. What you gonna do about it? I give you respect. Because of your reach, I know taking you out is more than just taking you out. But you don’t run this. You aren’t gonna disrespect me. I said I don’t know the female. No cab driver brought her here. You’re wasting your time thinking I got time to play games with your ass.”
Reno and Tommy looked at each other. They both inwardly concluded that this guy had to be telling the truth. Why would he lie? He couldn’t afford a fight with the Gabrinis. Not even Ames Street was that crazy.
Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) Page 12