Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor

by Mallory Monroe

  Grace had filed for divorce, even though Ed apparently didn’t realize it, and she was upset with Ed now. But he couldn’t dismiss the fact that Ed had been her husband. He couldn’t dismiss the fact that Ed had been her lover. He couldn’t dismiss the fact that Grace was going to miss him in the days ahead just as he had once missed Liz.

  But when he got out of the shower, and dried off and put on clothes that he kept at Sal’s place, he just wanted to get home. He felt better now. Not good. But better.

  And when he finally made it home, it was well after midnight. He went to Destiny’s room first, to check on her, and was surprised to find that Grace was in that room, asleep in bed with Destiny.

  He stood there when he saw them there. Mother and child. The mother of his child. And he was in his feelings in a way that seemed to characterize the day. He placed his hands in his pants pockets as he looked at them. Grace was lying on her side, with her arm protectively around Destiny, and Destiny’s tiny hand was holding onto one of Grace’s fingers. Tommy smiled when he saw how tightly she was holding on.

  And then he sat in the chair beside the bed, crossed his legs, and watched over his family all night long.

  CHAPTER TEN

  The next morning, as Tommy was sitting at the head of the breakfast table sipping coffee and reading the Wall Street Journal online, a call came in. He looked at his cell phone’s Caller ID. It was Liz. Surprised, he answered. “Hey,” he said.

  “You phoned?” she responded.

  Why in the world would he have phoned her? “No,” he responded.

  “I mean, I’m phoning you,” Liz corrected herself. “I wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  Suddenly, even as she spoke, Tommy could hear all kinds of gunfire and bombs blasts in the background. “Doesn’t sound okay where you are.”

  “I’m fine,” Liz said in a hyper-voice that defied her words. “This just erupted. It sounds close, but it’s not.”

  “Sounds as if you’re on the battlefield.”

  “That’s not far off,” she said. “Ask him,” she said to somebody else. “Yeah. Tell him we’ll pay if he’ll take us to him. Ask him, Raj!”

  “Any more threats on your life?” Tommy asked her.

  “No, Tommy, and it won’t be. Adabi was just a bitter little man who thought he could score some points by killing a journalist. He was a joke.

  A joke? She was the joke, Tommy thought, if she thought that terrorist wasn’t real.

  “He’ll do it,” Tommy heard Raj say.

  “I’ve got to run,” Liz said into the phone. “We’ve got somebody willing to hook us up with Mamoof, and he seems credible.”

  “He seems credible?” Tommy couldn’t believe the chances she took. “What if he’s not credible, Liz?”

  “He’ll do. I’ve got to run. Bye!” She hung up before Tommy could urge her to be careful. Which was fine by Tommy. That was a broken record from long ago.

  By the time Grace and Destiny woke up that morning, bathed, dressed, and made their way downstairs, Grace was surprised to see that he was up and dressed and ready to go. Grace saw him before he saw them and to the naked eye he looked like the gorgeous man he was in his expensive, tailored suit. But Grace could see the stress on his face. Whatever he did last night, whatever he had to do last night when he left the house, had affected him mightily.

  “Daddy,” Destiny said happily when she saw her father sitting at the dining room table. She broke away from Grace and ran to him.

  Tommy smiled when he heard his daughter. He sat his phone down and lifted her into his arms. “There’s my angel,” he said as he held her.

  He also observed Grace as he held Destiny. Grace was dressed marvelously, he thought, in a Carolina-blue skirt suit and red heels that made her look more feminine than bossy, but left no doubt that she was the boss. Her long hair was pushed back, with a bouncy underthrow, and that face Tommy had always admired was unobstructed for his view. Many people didn’t seem to get Grace’s beauty because it wasn’t a flaunted beauty, but Tommy got it. He got it loud and clear. Grace, to Tommy, was inside and out the most attractive woman he’d ever known. Her heart showed on her face. Her decency and pride showed in her walk. Her unwavering moral core showed in the twinkle deep within her expressive big eyes. That was why he never got over her. That was why he still felt he picked the right one to be the mother of his child. It was the one thing, Tommy felt, that he got exactly right. “How are you this morning, Grace?” he asked her.

  “I’m well rested,” Grace said. “How about you?”

  Tommy nodded. “I’m good,” he said in a less-than-enthused way that only confirmed Grace’s concern.

  But she knew there was nothing that could be said in front of Destiny. “Are you going to take her to school,” Grace asked, “or am I?”

  “Neither,” Tommy said. “Sally’s taking her.” The threat had been neutralized. Tommy still had security on Destiny, and Grace too for that matter, but the immediate threat had been dealt with.

  Grace nodded her understanding, although a chill ran down her spine because she knew, if Tommy was allowing Destiny to go anywhere without either one of them at her side, that Ed was no longer a threat. That Ed, in all probability, was dead.

  “Do you want breakfast at school,” Grace asked Destiny, “or do you want Mommy to prepare you something?”

  “School,” Destiny said excitedly. “I get to be with all of my friends at breakfast.”

  “Then breakfast at school it shall be.”

  Tommy sat Destiny back on her feet. Sally came in from outside as Grace double-checked Destiny’s book bag, and double-checked her lunchbox. Then she gave Sally the go-ahead. Destiny kissed both parents goodbye, and then she and Sally headed out.

  “Be good,” Tommy said.

  “You too,” Destiny said, as they left.

  Tommy laughed. “I’ll try,” he said.

  Grace refreshed Tommy’s coffee, poured a cup for herself, and then sat at the table with him. She knew they needed to talk.

  And Tommy didn’t hesitate. “He’s dead, Grace,” he said bluntly.

  Grace stared into her coffee mug. Then she looked at Tommy. “It couldn’t be helped. Could it?”

  Tommy shook his head. “No,” he said. “He sat a trap for me and my men at the cabin where we found him.”

  “A trap?” Grace asked. “What kind of trap? And what cabin?”

  “Some cabin he owns deep in the woods. Guns were rigged to go off at the push of a button. If my men had not checked out that place in search of some kind of a trap, he would have killed every last one of us.”

  Grace’s heart fell through her shoe. “Including you?”

  “Including me. Especially me. Every one of us. That fucker didn’t care. My men even found two bodies in a storage shed on the property.”

  Grace was floored. “Two bodies?”

  Tommy hated to tell her, but she had to understand the level of man she had been dealing with. She had to understand that Ed Jefferson did not deserve her tears. “Two small-time hit men, Mike Dobson and Narly Fann, had gone missing on the day of Destiny’s party. Word was that Ed was looking to hire them to take me out, and then suddenly they went missing. Of course everybody thought I had something to do with their disappearance, but I didn’t. It was all on Ed. He killed them, and then stashed their bodies in that shed until he had time to bury them.”

  “Geez,” Grace said. “And you’re certain Ed killed them?”

  Tommy nodded. “I’m certain. It wasn’t his first time either, Grace. He used to take out women on the operating table if they didn’t share their fortunes with him.”

  Grace frowned. “How did you find that out?”

  “Deep investigations. It can’t be proven, but that’s the conclusion I’ve reached and apparently the Detroit hospitals that revoked his privileges concluded too. They forced him out. Quietly.”

  Grace shook her head. The depth of depravity of that man was endless. “And there
’s two bodies on his property. At some cabin I didn’t even know he owned.”

  Tommy nodded. “That’s right. But don’t worry about those two bodies. My men moved them to an entirely different location. I don’t want Ed’s death tied to their deaths at all.”

  Grace didn’t understand. “If Ed killed them, why wouldn’t you want the authorities to know?”

  “When the cops find Ed, we want it to be an open and shut case of a robbery gone wrong. My men will move his body off site too. That’s how they’ll set it up. If the cops discover that Ed owned that cabin, and they find those dead bodies on the premises, it’ll only prolong the investigation. And I want it shut down quickly. I don’t want that hanging over your head.”

  That wary look was in Grace’s eyes, and it scared Tommy. Because he remembered it. It was the same look she had when they first started down that road to divorce. “I know what I’m saying sounds cold and cruel,” he said.

  But Grace cut him off. “No, it doesn’t,” she said firmly, surprising him. “Ed was a bad man who tried to take you out. So you took him out. And he murdered two men? What else was he capable of? Once he got control of Destiny’s money, if that was his aim, he could have turned around and killed me and Destiny too! I’ll be the fool of fools to grieve his loss. I’m glad you took care of him. For our child’s sake, I’m pleased you took him out, Tommy.”

  But Tommy saw her eyes. They didn’t match her talk. “Then why are your eyes filled with unshed tears, Grace, if you’re so pleased?”

  “I’m pleased he’s gone, and trust me, I’m not shedding any tears for him. But there’s a terrifying truth I have to live with, Tommy. I fell for Ed. Before I found out what kind of man he truly was, I loved him deeply once. If you would not have had him investigated, if you hadn’t told your men to make sure that cabin was safe, what would have happened? He could have killed you and your men and then came for Destiny. Then what protection would she have had? I have to protect her,” Grace said with such conviction that it warmed Tommy’s heart.

  “For our daughter’s sake,” Grace said, “I have to be there when you can’t be there. She’s Tommy Gabrini’s daughter, she will forever be a Gabrini, I have to stand up for her. So, no, Tommy. Don’t you dare think I’m shedding a solitary tear for that bastard. My tears are for Destiny, and how my actions put her in such peril and I didn’t even know it!”

  And Grace couldn’t help it. The tears flowed. Tommy wanted to grab her in his arms, but he was too pleased to see her strength. He was too pleased to see that she now fully understood what Destiny, as his daughter, was going to be up against. And she was up for the challenge of protecting her too. But he did reach over and squeeze her hand. “Ed caused his own downfall, Grace,” he said. Her anguish anguished him. “None of this is your fault.”

  But Grace was no apologist. She was shaking her head. “Don’t say that,” she said. “It is my fault. There was a part of me that knew there was something wrong with that joker early on, but he seemed like such a great guy that I thought it was just fear. I thought it was just the fact that I’d had nothing but failed relationships in my life and didn’t want to go down that road again. But I fell for a monster. I put our baby in such danger, Tommy!”

  Strength be damned, Tommy thought, as he quickly stood up and hurried to Grace. He lifted her from her seat and pulled her into his arms. “It’s alright, darling,” he said as he held her. “It’s alright now.”

  She sobbed in his arms. She was a totally different woman now, but her past was still her past. “All of the decisions I’ve made,” she said when her sobbing eased and she was able to look at him again. “I’ve made such awful decisions!”

  “You fell in love with the wrong man, Grace,” Tommy said. “That happens every second of every day. Don’t you beat yourself up about that.”

  “I fell in love with a monster,” she said again. “That’s worth at least one lick, Tommy.”

  Tommy smiled. Even at a time like this, Grace still could make him smile. “Not even one lick,” he said.

  Then she smiled a smile that was more sad than joyous. “I kept the one I should have thrown away,” she said, “and I threw away the one I should have kept.”

  Tommy smiled too. But his smile was mixed with sadness. They should have never parted. Deep down, with truth serum, they both knew it. They stared into each other’s eyes. And their sad smiles turned into an acute awareness.

  Tommy placed both his hands on either side of Grace’s pretty face. He saw in her all of the hurt and anguish and pain that embodied their relationship even before their divorce. Because they both had grown so much. Because they both realized that the grass was never greener on the other side. They both realized that everybody had baggage, and none of it, not ever, was easy to carry.

  But Tommy realized so much more. His awareness was not just about their past, but about their present. He realized, staring into Grace’s eyes, being totally alone with her for the first time since their divorce, that that ache he still felt in the midnight hour, that ache that would not quit even after all these years, had a cure. It didn’t start until he left Grace. It won’t end until she was back in his heart again. Grace, of all people, when all people thought she was the least among them, was the cure.

  He leaned down, and was about to kiss her on her beautiful lips, but Grace flinched. She pulled back. And Tommy knew why. It was fear. It was that debilitating fear of giving their hearts again when it didn’t work the first time around. Why in the world would they assume it could work now? Why in the world would they risk it?

  Tommy didn’t know why. This was no intellectual exercise for him. All he knew was that he wanted Grace. Right here and right now. He wanted his woman back!

  And he leaned down again with no resistance. Because Grace wanted her man back too. They knew the timing was awful. They knew they both were literally just getting out of relationships and were risking yet another rebound affair. This might be a terrible mistake, and they knew it. It was a risk. But it was also a risk they were ready to take.

  When Tommy’s lips met Grace’s lips, and when Tommy’s hands moved around her neck as they opened their mouths, they both knew they were about to fly. Their hearts were heavy, they might have been too fat to fly, but they were going to take off anyway. They wrapped their arms around each other, and kissed with their lips, with their tongues, with their teeth. They moaned and groaned as they kissed. They moved their mouths in sensual circles, as they kissed.

  Grace hadn’t felt this good since Tommy last kissed her this way all those years ago. It had been so long it was obscene. It had been so long she felt desperately in lust with the man in front of her. And she pushed into him. She clung to him as he held her up, and kissed her even harder.

  Tommy was desperate too. He was desperate to feel that feeling he’d only felt with Grace. Liz was great in bed, and so were many of his other ladies, but Grace was still his special one. She was still the one who made his toes curl whenever he kissed her. She was still the one who made him forget every problem he’d ever had whenever he held her.

  And he lost control. He hadn’t had this woman in so long, he couldn’t wait another second. Add to that the fact he hadn’t been with a woman in months, and he wanted her even more desperately. He snatched her panties completely off in cool Tommy fashion, sat her on the edge of the table, and knelt down.

  When his face was between her legs, and he licked her, his heart began to pound. She tasted oh so sweet to him, like vintage wine on the rim of his glass, and he sucked it up. He licked her and sucked her until she was having spasms and nearly fell off the table. But that didn’t matter either. Tommy was holding her up. He wrapped his arms around her waist and mouth-fucked her until he was nearly ejaculating himself. It happened before with Grace. Not with any other woman. But he came before while giving Grace head. That was what this woman did to him. That was what she was about to do to him now, if he didn’t stop it.

  He stopped it. Grac
e’s entire body was clenched in sensual delight when he stopped it. A part of her was very disappointed. She was so near an orgasm. But when she saw the size of his erection, and saw that look in his eyes that made clear he was going to give her plenty of orgasms, she didn’t complain.

  Tommy took her by the hand, she grabbed her discarded panties in case Destiny came home and they were still there, and he hurried her toward the stairs. Grace’s heart was pounding with excitement as they hurried across the living room. Tommy was in charge. Tommy was running this show. She wouldn’t have it any other way.

  “Call your office,” Tommy ordered, as he pulled her up the stairs. “Tell them you won’t be coming in today.”

  Grace was stunned. She knew he wanted to fuck. She knew they were going to get down mightily. But surely it wasn’t going to take hours upon hours. “All day?” she asked him.

  Tommy looked back at her, and then down at that body he was craving. “All day,” he responded, and pulled her faster.

  And without any further comment, Grace pulled out her cell phone, and made the call.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  They were naked in his bed. She was laying on her back, and he was lying on his side. He was feasting on her breasts. He remembered them. He remembered those two brown mounds and those two dark nipples. His eyes were hooded, where his eyelashes nearly covered his eyes, as he fondled her. And when he leaned down, and covered a nipple with his mouth, and sucked, Grace had an intake of breath that caused her to shiver. It felt that good.

  And he couldn’t get enough of her breasts. He was feasting. The mounds, the nipples, one and then the other one. Grace loved the way he was squeezing and sucking her. And then his mouth moved up, to her mouth, and he pulled her in his arms as he kissed her.