Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor

by Mallory Monroe

  TOMMY GABRINI 5

  The Grace Factor

  By

  MALLORY MONROE

  Copyright©2015 Mallory Monroe

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  This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the story’s sake.

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  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  EPILOGUE

  PROLOGUE

  It felt like an intervention. His first cousin and best friend, Vegas Casino owner Reno Gabrini, was there. Sal Gabrini, a gangster in his own right and his kid brother, was there. Even Mick Sinatra, his uncle and the most feared mob boss on the east coast, sat in that dressing room a mere hour before the ceremony and asked him again if he was certain he was making the right decision.

  Tommy Gabrini leaned back in his chair as the three men sat in front of him. His legs were crossed, his hands were folded over and resting in the lap of his pearl-white tuxedo, but the strain on his handsome face was evident. His thick brown hair flapped around his forehead, making him appear ageless, but he was no kid anymore. He no longer had the luxury of time on his side to continue to play games with his heart. He knew what he wanted, and he was going after it.

  “Yes,” he said. “I’m certain.”

  “But why her?” Sal asked. Besides his wife, Sal loved his big brother above any human being alive, and wanted the best for him. But he wasn’t nearly as certain that she was the best he could do. “Why would you want the woman that left you? Why would you want the woman that divorced you? She already showed what she was made of as far as I’m concerned. Why would you want her back?”

  Tommy heard the arguments against his decision for months on end. He was making the mistake of his life, they told him. Remarrying his ex-wife would be like un-breaking his heart: the damage was already done. Some of his friends, many of whom he’d known for years, were even harsher. Liz was prettier, and savvier, they told him, and had more going on in every direction than Grace would ever have. Why would he choose Grace? Why would he choose a woman who couldn’t hold up to the pressure of being a Gabrini and went so far as to divorce him, when he could have a woman like Liz who lived her life in the pressure cooker? Why choose hamburger when he could have steak? Liz, like almost all of his previous girlfriends before her, was a strong-willed and career-focused lady. She was the personification of independence, sophistication, and daring. Grace was a good mother and businesswoman, but she was yesterday’s news, they told him. Why was he turning back?

  But Tommy was as firm as the ground he stood on. “I’m not turning back,” he said. “I’m moving forward. But I’m moving forward with Grace. I love her and I want her. I want my wife back. I want her heart, and her imagination, and her decency that would rival any human being’s alive. I want to be with the mother of my daughter.”

  Mick studied him hard. “But all of your friends,” he said to him, “appear to be against this. They are all wrong, yes?”

  “My friends are blinded by their loyalty to me. All they can see is how Grace wronged me. What they can’t see is how I wronged Grace. It took a long time for me to admit it, long after the divorce, but I saw how I married her and thrust her into a world she was ill-prepared to handle, and then left her to figure it out for herself while I traveled the world handling my own business interests. She’s tougher than they give her credit for, but I knew going in she was fragile too. It was that fragility, that vulnerability that drew me to her in the first place. How could I want her to be totally unlike all the other women of my past, and then blame her because she isn’t like all the others? Now my friends were blaming her. You guys, my family, blamed her too. But you can blame Grace until the cows come home, but I know better. I should have been there for her. I should have understood her anguish. I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.”

  Sal was pleased to see how confident Tommy was, but he still wasn’t certain that he was making the right move. He couldn’t bear anybody breaking Tommy’s heart again.

  He looked at Reno. Mick looked at Reno too. Of everybody in the family, Reno was the only one who had not voiced his opinion one way or the other. It was high time, it seemed to Sal. “What about you, Reno?” he asked him. “You’re awfully quiet. What do you have to say about this marriage? You have a lot to say when it’s about me, but you always give Tommy a pass. He can do no wrong in your eyes. But what about this situation? Don’t you think he can do better than Grace?”

  “Hell yeah, he can do better than her,” Reno said without hesitation. “And she can do better than him. And Lord knows Gemma can do better than you. But that’s not what this is about. It’s not about better. The grass is always greener on the other side. There’s always better. But this is about the heart of the thing. And I say his heart is with Grace. He didn’t do her right when they were married, and he knows it. He didn’t do right by her. They’ll be okay this time around.”

  But Sal frowned. “He didn’t do right by her? He treated her like a fucking---.” Sal realized where he was and caught himself. “He treated her like a freaking queen! What are you talking?”

  “I’m talking what I’m talking,” Reno said, not backing down, “and if you don’t like it, tough. Grace was an innocent when Tommy first had her. A sweet girl. She needed nurturing. She still does. Tommy didn’t give her that.”

  “But why would he want a chick he has to nurture,” Sal asked, “when he can have a woman who knows how to nurture herself? All of these powerful women out here. All of these larger-than-life women out here. Why wouldn’t he want one of them?”

  “Perhaps it’s because larger-than-life women,” Mick said as if he knew what he was talking about, “have to lead larger-than-life lives. Every man does not need, nor want, that kind of lady.”

  “Right,” Reno said, nodding. “And Tommy’s one of those men, Sal. He’s not like you and me and Micky. He doesn’t want a she-woman. He’s been through hell and back again, beginning in his childhood with that perverted piece of shit y’all called a father. He’s been through hell. He doesn’t need a woman who’s been there too. He wants a dainty
lady.”

  Even Tommy had to laugh at that one.

  But Reno was serious. “I kid you not,” he said to Sal. “He needs a dainty lady who’ll be satisfied to be a wife and a mother, and won’t have some great need to be a she-woman too. That’s Grace. Say what you want about her, but that’s Grace.”

  Sal didn’t know what to say. He looked at his big brother, who seemed pleased by Reno’s vote of confidence. And maybe Reno was right. Reno, after all, was closer to Tommy than Sal ever was. Reno was the man Tommy shared his innermost thoughts with. Sal had to believe that Reno, when it came to Tommy, knew what he was talking about. But still. “She dumped him because of his lifestyle,” Sal said. “He still has the same gangster lifestyle, I’m just going to put it out there. What’s changed?”

  “She has,” Tommy said. “She can handle it now.”

  “But what if she can’t, Tommy? She can talk the talk now, but what if she can’t walk the walk later?”

  “Then I’ll have to pick her up and carry her,” Tommy said, “until she’s able to walk it again.”

  Sal appreciated what he was hearing. He even nodded. “I just don’t want anybody breaking your heart again,” he said with such uncharacteristic emotion that it caught all the men by surprise. “You’ve been through enough,” he added.

  Tommy stared at his kid brother. “Thank you, Sal,” he said, heartfelt too. “But I’ll be okay.”

  “And why can’t people change?” Reno asked.

  “Did I say people couldn’t change, Reno?” Sal asked.

  “What I’m saying is maybe Tommy’s changed too. Maybe Liz and women like her have always been the kind of women Tommy wanted, but maybe Grace is the kind of woman he needs.”

  Tommy smiled. “I want her too, Reno,” he said. “Believe that.”

  “Then it’s settled,” Reno said, rising to his feet. “Grace, in my opinion, is the one for you. But what the hell do I know. Right?”

  Less than an hour later, as the four men showed a united front in front of the cathedral crowd, all standing there in their tailored white tuxedos, Tommy felt as if Reno had it exactly right. The organist began playing Wagner’s Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride), Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, Mick’s big brother and Tommy’s uncle, also stood up front as a member of the groom party too, and Grace began walking down the aisle.

  She was dressed in a beautiful gold gown in white lace, a gown that highlighted her beautiful dark skin. And she looked so enchanting to Tommy that his heart began to palpitate. She walked her name. She was grace in motion. They’d been through a lot over the past several months. Getting back together wasn’t as simple as getting together. But they endured it, became the better for it, and now felt as if they had searched around the world to get around the corner and back into each other’s arms. They felt as if they had come full circle.

  Little Destiny, Tommy and Grace’s daughter, walked in front of her mother tossing flowers with great abandon, hitting guests in the face, in the head, but still throwing as if she was a flower-tossing girl from way back. Trina Gabrini, Reno’s wife, and Gemma Jones-Gabrini, Sal’s wife, walked beside Grace in a show of unity that pleased their men. They were a united front too. They understood, not just the backstory, but the full story.

  And when they walked the beautiful bride up to her gorgeous husband-to-be, and Tommy took over and took her hand, placing her beside him, he, too, was ready for that full story.

  And the ceremony began.

  It was a lovely ceremony on a lovely Seattle afternoon. Tommy and Grace stood before God and man and said their vows. The minister pronounced them husband and wife again, causing their family and friends to rise to their feet in rapturous applause. And Tommy gave Grace a long, passionate kiss. They wouldn’t take nothing for their journey now. Because it had been a long road. As they kissed, they thought about it all. They thought about what happened with Tommy and Liz, and what happened with Grace and Ed. They thought about what almost didn’t happen because it nearly went completely south on both of them. And just as they were thinking about what could have been, and how grateful they felt that it turned out this way and they were husband and wife once more, the doors of the church burst open with a forceful clap, and men with guns entered shooting.

  As bullets sailed and the wedding guests started screaming and jumping over pews in a mad dash for cover, the instincts of the Gabrini and Sinatra men took over. Tommy jumped on top of Grace and Destiny, shielding them with his own body. Sal jumped onto Gemma, shielding her. Reno jumped on top of Trina, shielding her. Mick Sinatra, whose wife Roz was also in attendance, didn’t jump on anybody. He pulled out the two guns he always kept on his person and began firing back. Nobody, including his wife, was getting out of there alive if somebody didn’t start firing back. He fired back. He walked boldly toward the shooters and fired with such force and precision that the men retreated, to the back of the cathedral, and then gave up altogether and began running back out.

  Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, along with his oldest son Brent and his other sons at the gathering, and Reno’s son Jimmy Mack, along with Mick’s grown sons, all pulled guns too and started rounding up the Gabrini and Sinatra women and children and hurrying them into the back room away from the violence. These were the young guns, and Big Daddy made sure they knew their role. It was a Gabrini wedding. They came prepared.

  Once Tommy, Reno, and Sal knew their women and children were in good hands with Big Daddy and the boys, they pulled their guns too and followed Mick. They chased after the gunmen. Mick even ended up with a pump action sawed off shotgun one of his men, one of his bodyguards in attendance tossed to him, as they moved against terrified patrons who were running toward the front of the cathedral as they ran, against the tide, toward the doors. They ran down those long aisles in their expensive white tuxedos, each man bearing the kind of hardware unthinkable in any ordinary wedding. But this was a Gabrini wedding. They came prepared.

  But as they headed toward the exit to demonstrate just how prepared they were, and saw that their guards out front had all been shot down, undoubtedly with silencers sneaky gangsters knew how to deploy, Backdoor Tommy broke off from the foursome, made his way along the side aisle that led to a side exit, running as fast as he could with a gun in each hand, to launch his own sneak attack.

  But the sneak attack was already on. Mick ran out first, followed by Reno and Sal, as the gunmen jumped into their getaway car and tried to get away. The threesome ran out into the street, firing after the car as if their lives depended on their accuracy, angry that any motherfucker would be crazy enough to take them out all at once. Mick hit one. Reno and Sal hit a couple. They even took out a tire. But two other men, including the driver, was still alive and getting away.

  But then the side door to the massive church sprang open, and Tommy ran out with both guns blazing. His tuxedo coat blew in the wind, his thick hair puffed up, as he fired on the getaway car that was quickly getting out of Reno, Mick, and Sal’s range. Tommy hit the two additional gunmen inside of that getaway car, including the driver, causing the car to careen wildly, flip once, and then crash into a utility pole. But just as it was crashing, just as it seemed as if victory was in their grasp, a second car came up behind Reno, Sal, and Mick. Tommy turned just as the tires began to squeal, and he saw it coming. He began running toward his brethren and waving his gun.

  “Get down!” he yelled. “Get down!”

  Reno, Sal and Mick all knew that if Tommy was telling them to drop, they had better drop and ask questions later. They dropped, and rolled onto their backs, their guns at the ready to take out any new motherfucker who thought they were going to outsmart men like them. But they returned fire too late.

  Tommy was running toward the car, firing both of his weapons all at once. Their bodyguards that had been inside the church were running down the steps of the church, stepping over their downed fellow guards, and were firing too. All trying to give cover to the three bosses that were being ambushed. />
  But Tommy was the surprise factor. The gunmen didn’t expect him to be out of place. And as he fired unrelentingly the car started reversing, speeding backwards in a swerve that was one swerve away from losing total control. The mastermind behind this attack was in that car, Tommy concluded, and he became even more determined to stop them. His hail of bullets chased after that car. One of the men inside of the car was hit, but it wasn’t the driver. The car spun around wildly, nearly out of control, but then corrected itself and took off around a corner, going so fast that nobody could catch it.

  But when the dust cleared, and Tommy ran up to his family members, those hit-and-run asshole gunmen were the least of his worries. Reno Gabrini had been hit and was down. Sal Gabrini had been hit and was down. And Mick Sinatra, though he didn’t realize it at the time, was hit too. And it was serious. The pain took him to his knees. He was down too.

  And Tommy couldn’t believe it. The only thing kept him standing was knowing that he had to stand. He knew Big Daddy Sinatra and his sons, and Jimmy Mack and Mick’s sons had the women and children safe and sound and out of harm’s way. He knew Grace and Destiny were in good hands.

  But as sirens could be heard in the distance, as help was on its way, Tommy stood guard over the three downed giants, watching his back, his sides, and instructing their bodyguards who hadn’t been hit to do the same. Reno and Sal were both unconscious. Both had been hit multiple times. Blood poured from both of them as if they were riddled with holes. Mick was hit too, but his consciousness had not yet faded. But he would soon be out too.

  Tommy felt all kinds of warring emotions as he stood before the carnage. But mainly he was angry. He was mad as hell. What crazy fuck, he wondered, was crazy enough to hit Reno Gabrini and Sal Gabrini? What fool of fools was fool enough to shoot them down like dogs in the street? And to try to take out Mick Sinatra? To try and take out Mick the Tick too? What stone cold fuck did they have on their hands?