“Get the fuck out of here! That’s not what I’m saying at all!”
“That’s what you’re saying,” Santino said again with that firmness in his voice that his second-in-command knew not to challenge. Then they both returned their attention to the elevator monitor as Sal finally pulled his dick out of his wife’s undoubtedly overworked pussy, pulled up her panties, and then put his beet-red rod back into his pants, and zipped up.
He restarted the elevator, causing it to jerk before it took off again. He looked at his wife, to make sure she had it all together, and then turned back on the monitors inside the elevators. It was only then did Sal remember that the monitor inside his head of security’s office was on. And he had forgotten the kill switch that was separate from all the others. But Santino and Jody would never know that Sal knew because Sal never outwardly acknowledged anything. He simply waited for the elevator doors to finish taking them to the top floor, and then he and Gemma exited as if they had had an uneventful ride up.
Santino and Jody smiled at how cool they could play it after such a hot time in that old elevator they’d just had.
Santino even laughed. “I wanna be just like Sal,” he said.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Sal and Gemma entered Sal’s suite of offices on the top floor, Gemma hesitated at the entrance as soon as she saw his extensive staff. They were still unpacking boxes and setting up office equipment, but she noticed an undeniable trend. She looked at her husband as they stood there. The staff was far enough away from the entrance that she could speak, and not be overheard by any of them. But right now, she just looked at him.
At first he thought she was admiring how big and luxurious his office suite actually was, and that was why she was looking at him. But he was wrong.
“Really Sal?” she asked him.
Sal was surprised by her sudden tone, and he truly didn’t understand that oh no you didn’t look on her face. “What?” he asked her.
Gemma didn’t respond. He had to know what was going on. But she was wrong.
“What?” he asked again. “What are you talking?”
“Your staff.”
“What about my staff?”
“All female. All blonde. All young and pretty. Is this Hooters, or is this your business office?”
Sal looked at his staff. And she was right. Every member of his personal staff was a blonde beauty. Every one of them. He hadn’t even noticed it, or realized what he had done, until now. He looked at Gemma. “It’s not like you think,” he said, “so let me correct you right there. It’s not as if it was some scheme or conspiracy on my part, because it wasn’t. It just happened.”
But Gemma wasn’t buying it. “It just happened?” she asked him. “Of all the people in this town, blonde bombshells were the only ones you could find qualified enough to hire? Is that what you’re telling me, Sal?”
“I’m telling you it didn’t cross my mind. I’m telling you I don’t get your point.”
“Stop it, Sal,” Gemma said with irritation in her voice. “Just stop it!”
A few staffers glanced their way when they heard Gemma’s elevated voice. And Sal cut the crap. He conceded the point. “Okay,” he said, “they’re all female, all right? And they’re blondes, so what?”
“They aren’t just blondes,” Gemma said. “You didn’t hire a staff filled with ugly blondes, you didn’t hire a staff filled with plain blondes. You hired pretty blondes. Period.”
“Okay, they’re pretty too. But so what? Who the fuck cares? I don’t want any of these women, come on!”
“And none of these heifers better not want you, either,” Gemma made clear. “Or they will answer to me.”
Sal smiled. “I don’t believe it. You’re jealous!”
“Oh, please,” Gemma said as she began heading for his office in the back of the large suite. Sal followed her, feeling ten feet tall. Gemma Gabrini was jealous of him! The strongest woman he ever met in his life could be petty too. He loved it!
But when he saw how some of the ladies on his staff were looking at Gemma oddly, as if she didn’t belong there, he reached out, grabbed Gemma by the hand, and pulled her back to his side.
Gemma was, at first, annoyed that he had pulled her back. The idea that he would minimize her very real concern with a joke about her being jealous was irritating in the extreme. But Sal didn’t even look at her. He was too busy looking at his staff. “Everybody, listen up,” he said in a loud voice that was necessary given the size of the room.
The ladies didn’t hesitate. They knew who buttered their bread. They listened up.
“I want every one of you to meet my wife,” Sal said.
As soon as he said it, Gemma could see surprise and defeat appear on many of the faces staring back at them. They had been smiling gaily when he first got their attention, as if he was simply going to introduce a new member of his staff. They continued to smile after he mentioned that she was his wife, but their smiles now seemed fake and forced.
But Sal was undeterred. “She is the co-owner of this entire enterprise. So she’s your boss just as much as I am. Fuck with her and you’re fired. Disrespect her as my wife, as the most important human being on this planet to me, and you just might not live to see another day.”
They couldn’t even fake or force a smile after Sal made that declaration. He saw it too. “And yes, I said that. Because I’m not fucking with y’all. Her name is Gemma Gabrini. Mrs. Gabrini to all of you. And you will respect her.”
You could hear a pin drop in that room. Even Gemma could feel the tension.
But Sal was determined to make himself crystal clear. “So if any of you think the reason I hired your pretty asses is to fuck those asses, think again,” he said. “If you think I hired you for anything other than doing your work and getting it done, then you need to leave now. I prefer blondes. That’s obvious. Look around. But I don’t prefer anybody alive over my wife. Understand me? I want to make sure everybody in this office understands that. Because if you have a problem with what I’m saying, or if you thought your good looks were going to win me over, you need to leave now. You’re in the wrong fucking place. Leave now.”
As Gemma suspected, nobody went anywhere. Not one so much as moved an inch. Sal paid top dollar. And besides, Gemma was certain, many of them still probably didn’t believe him and would try him whenever they could.
But Sal was satisfied enough that he placed his hand on the small of Gemma’s back, and began escorting her into his office.
Gemma wasn’t crazy about the fact that he had such a weakness for pretty blondes, a weakness that was so pronounced that he could hire a staff full of them and not realize what he had done. But it was a fact: her gentleman preferred blondes. But she wasn’t about to dye her hair or do some other ridiculous thing to supplement that weakness. Because she believed him when he admitted that he had a weakness for beautiful blondes, but he had a greater weakness for her. Any other man, and she would be concerned. But Sal was her man. She believed he was strong enough to know the difference.
The door to Santino Druce’s office flew open and slammed shut, and Sal began walking toward his desk so fast it looked as if he was running. Santino’s heart fell through his shoe as he stood up. Jody, who was still in the office, stood up too.
But Sal hurried right past Jody, with Sal’s designer suit flapping around his muscular frame as if he was moving so fast even his clothes couldn’t keep up. And he had eyes only for his chief, not his chief’s lieutenant.
“Mr. Gabrini,” Santino said nervously. “Everything okay?”
Sal grabbed him by the catch of his collar and slung him against the floor-to-ceiling window, rattling the window. “You think you’re smart, don’t you?” Sal asked him. “You think your ass is smarter than mine? Think you can play me and get away with it?”
“What are you talking about, sir? I don’t know what you mean!”
Jody knew what he meant. He even began backing up, wondering if he sh
ould make a run for it. He knew who they were working for. He knew what Sal Gabrini was capable of!
But Sal wasn’t thinking about Jody. His entire venom was being spewed at Santino. “You saw me fucking my wife, didn’t you?” he asked him. “You sat your fat ass in this office and watched me fuck my wife? Didn’t you?”
“No sir! Why would you believe something like that? I just got in my office.”
“You lying motherfucker! I saw your ass!”
That stopped Santino cold. “But how?” he had the nerve to ask. Even Jody knew that was the wrong question.
And Jody was right. Sal slammed Santino harder against the window, rattling it to a near breaking point. “There’s a separate kill switch in that elevator for your monitor, and I forgot about that. I forgot all about it. That’s on me. But what your stupid ass didn’t realize is that I never leave my fate in the hands of somebody else. Not even my head of security, a man I’m supposed to trust. I have a kill switch for your fucking kill switch. I have a monitor monitoring your fucking monitor!”
This was news to Santino and Jody, and their facial expressions showed just how surprising that news was to them. But Sal didn’t give a damn about their surprise. He was still fuming. “After my wife left my office a few minutes ago, I took a look at the tape. Just to make sure. And I saw your ass! I saw you sitting in here watching me make love to my wife. I saw you get a hard-on watching my wife! My wife! And you think I’m going to let you see my wife’s bare breasts and her naked body and there be no retribution? Who the fuck do you think you’re dealing with? Who the fuck do you think I am?”
And Sal began the beat down. He beat Santino in his face so many times that Santino, who tried to fight back, didn’t stand a chance. Jody knew he was doomed too; he knew he was going to be next; but he also knew he couldn’t run. If he ran, boss would hunt him down like a mangy dog in the street and do worse to him than he was doing to Santino. He had to take it here and now and could only hope to get out of it alive.
Because Sal Gabrini wasn’t playing. Blood was spewing from Santino, and populating the big picture window with every lick as if a painter was splattering it onto a canvas. By the time Sal was done, and he stepped back, Santino slid like a lifeless piece of trash onto the floor. Sal clutched his knuckles. They were aching from the blows. Then he began to leave.
Jody stood still. He was going to take this like a man. But when Sal stopped as soon as he got parallel to Jody, Jody flinched.
“Get me that tape,” he said to the younger man.
“Yes, sir,” Jody said without hesitation and hurried to retrieve all recordings from Sal’s private elevator. While he did so, Sal picked up Santino’s desk phone and called downstairs. “Come to Sannie’s office,” he said to his front desk chief. “And bring some muscle with you. There’s a mess I need cleaned up.”
“Yes, sir, boss,” the chief said on the other end of the phone, and then Sal hung up.
Jody handed Sal the tape. “Here’s the day’s recordings from the elevator, sir.”
“Was a copy made?”
“Yes, sir. I included that too.”
Sal nodded, and accepted the tape. “Now get your ass out of my building.”
Jody’s heart sunk. “You mean I’m fired, sir?”
Sal couldn’t believe he asked such a question. “No. I’m giving you a paid vacation. Of course your ass fired! You weren’t in charge, Sannie was, and that’s why you’re still standing. But I don’t ever want to see your face again.”
“Yes, sir,” Jody said, and then he took off.
Sal looked back at the unconscious, beaten body of Santino Druce again. He wasn’t dead, he was going to pull through, but it was going to be a painful recovery. Then Sal shook his still-aching knuckle. “Fucking head harder than a fucking rock,” he said angrily, and then left too.
Two days later and he and Gemma were at the Fern, a restaurant in Vegas, waiting for Ted Coggan and his client to arrive.
“Where are these people?” Sal asked as he tossed another handful of nuts into his mouth. They had been waiting for nearly half an hour.
Gemma sent a text to Ted ten minutes ago, explaining to the man that she might have time to waste, but her husband absolutely didn’t. It was a miracle that he could make it at all. Ted text her back, stating that he understood and they were on their way.
“They should be here in a few minutes,” Gemma responded.
“It better be a few minutes,” Sal said, “or we’re leaving. Who does he think he is?”
“He’s a renowned attorney who’s accustomed to people waiting on him.”
“We aren’t those people,” Sal made clear.
“Agreed,” Gemma said.
She was pleased that Sal could come at all, and now for Ted to be this late was upsetting. She even considered leaving now, just to prove to him how much they weren’t those people, but it didn’t matter. He arrived.
“Here he comes now,” Gemma said when she noticed his presence in the restaurant.
When Sal saw him he nodded his head. Then looked at his wife. “And you have the nerve to talk about me.”
Gemma was confused. “What do you mean?”
“Me and my weakness for blondes is no different than you and your weakness for muscular black guys. Guys like him.” Sal nodded toward the approaching Ted Coggan.
Gemma couldn’t help but smile. “I may have a thing for muscular black guys,” she admitted, “but nothing like the thing I have for you.”
Sal laughed. He had a smart wife. Smart enough to throw back at him the very same explanation he had thrown at her. “So what are you trying to tell me? Two can play that game?”
Gemma liked that reasoning. “Two can play that game,” she said.
And then Ted was upon them.
“Hello, folks,” he said as he arrived. “Sorry I’m late.” He extended his hand to Sal. “You must be Gemma’s better half?”
Sal stood to shake his hand. “She’s my better half,” he said, “but I get your joke. Sal Gabrini,” he said as they shook.
“Ted Coggan, Sal. Nice to meet you.” Both men sat down.
“Where’s our client?” Gemma asked him.
“She slipped away to the restroom.” Ted sat down across from Gemma. Sal sat down too, and took the measure of the man. Good looking. Accomplished. Muscular like Gemma liked her men. Sal kept his eyes on Ted Coggan.
“Is she still unconvinced?” Gemma asked Ted.
“In a word? Yes. She doesn’t believe anybody can represent her better than I can.”
“But did you explain to her your dilemma?”
“I did,” Ted said.
“What dilemma is that?” Sal asked.
“Jurors tend to use my previous consultation work on the O.J. trial as some kind of stain against my character,” Ted explained. “Sometimes they can overlook it, but other times they can’t. We included some questions regarding that aspect of my resume during voir dire, which is a fancy French word for to speak the truth, but is the process we call jury questioning and jury selection. The answers that came back made it clear to me that I cannot be first chair at the upcoming trial, or my client is doomed. That’s why I asked your wife to be lead counsel.”
“But why her?” Sal asked. “If it’s all about a victory for your client, there’s got to be a ton of lawyers in this town with a better win-loss record than hers. So why my wife? If it’s not because of her skills, what exactly is it? Her looks, her body, what?”
Gemma didn’t like that Sal was going down this road, but it wouldn’t be him if he didn’t. He was convinced that every man this side of living wanted her and no matter how ludicrous that was to Gemma, she could not dissuade his belief. Besides, she didn’t exactly stand mute herself when she saw the makeup of his personal staff. Her hands weren’t clean either.
Gemma could also tell that Ted was more than a little perturbed by Sal’s accusation. “I selected your wife,” Ted said, “because I felt she was the best
fit for this case.”
“Meaning?” Sal asked him.
“She’s smart, she’s sharp, and she’s ethical. She, in fact, is known around town for her high moral standards. That tipped the scale in her favor.”
Sal nodded, and then smiled. “Good answer,” he said, and Ted laughed.
After the waitress arrived at their table and took drink orders from Ted, who also ordered for his client, the client finally arrived. Sal was responding to a text message from his office when Rabina Chen, a very small, but very attractive Asian woman, arrived at their table. Gemma knew she was small, but she didn’t know how attractive she was. “There she is,” Ted said, rising to his feet to greet her, and Sal looked up from his phone.
When Sal looked up, his heart fell through his shoe. He frowned. It couldn’t be, he said to himself. He kept his eyes on Rabina as Ted introduced her to Gemma and then turned to introduce her to Sal. But Sal didn’t even hear the introduction. He was too busy staring at the Asian beauty. Gemma looked at him when he didn’t respond, and was stunned by what she saw. Sal looked as if he had just seen a ghost. Or a lover.
“Did you hear me, Sal?” Ted asked him. “I want you to meet Rabina Chen, my friend and client.”
Sal managed to grunt out a dry how are you as she sat down beside Ted. But it was obvious to everybody at that table: Sal and Rabina knew each other. Which was a surprise more to Gemma than to Ted. She waited for an explanation.
But none came. Rabina began talking about how much she loved gambling in Vegas, and Ted began talking about the case. Sal didn’t volunteer anything by way of conversation, and Gemma was too unsettled to contribute much herself. But the end of the evening did surprise her: Rabina wanted her on the team.
“But I want to make sure you understand,” Gemma said to her. “I won’t just be on the team. During trial, I’ll be the lead attorney. Ted will give me insights and direction, most certainly, but the final trial decisions will be mine to make. I want to make sure you understand that.”
“I understand,” Rabina said. “You will be boss. I understand.”
Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 Page 8
