Reno was known as the most powerful man in Vegas who didn’t take a backseat to anybody, but because this situation involved Gemma, Sal’s wife, he was going to take a backseat to Sal. “What do you want us to do?” he asked him.
Sal could hardly think straight, but he knew he had to. “I already contacted every man under my authority. I told them to drop everything and get on it. They’re hitting the streets, checking contacts, busting down doors as we speak.”
“I’ll get every man under my authority out here too,” Reno said, which was very reassuring to Sal. Vegas was Reno’s territory. Sal had a battalion of men stationed there, but Reno had an army.
“Thanks, Ree,” Sal said.
Then Jimmy’s voice came onto the line. He had apparently taken the phone from his father. “Hey, Unc,” Jimmy said. Sal was Reno’s cousin, and therefore Jimmy’s cousin, but he always called him his uncle. They were as close as father and son.
And Sal was pleased that he was with Reno. “Hey, sport,” he said.
“We’ll find Aunt Gemma,” Jimmy said. “Just know that, Unc. We’ll find her.”
Sal smiled weakly. “I know you will, son. Thank-you.”
Then Reno was back on the line. “Like Jimmy said,” Reno said, “we’ll find her, Sal. I want to tell you not to worry, but I won’t because if it was Trina in this situation no motherfucker better tell me that either. But don’t worry yourself nuts. That’s won’t help her.”
Sal had a sudden thought. “Check all the businesses around that area, Reno,” he said. “Check their cameras. Somebody had to have seen something. But backdoor it. We don’t want the cops involved. They’ll just be in our way.”
“Understood,” Reno said. “Do you want me to call Tommy?”
“No,” Sal said. “He’s been through too much already. Keep him out of this until we can get a better handle on it ourselves. He stays dark, until we have no choice.” And they said their goodbyes, and Reno and Jimmy got on with the plan.
Sal leaned back. He was grateful to have Reno and Jimmy in town to do the heavy lifting in his absence, but it still didn’t ease his mind. He’d already called every friend and associate of Gemma’s that he could think of, to see if they heard from her or saw her, but nobody had. Not even the staff at her law firm. She was out there, undoubtedly in serious danger, and his ass was in fucking Chicago! He could kill himself for not being where he should have been when she needed him most. He could kill himself for that!
But Reno was right. He had to keep it together. Falling apart wasn’t going to help anybody. Especially Gem.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Sal Gabrini hurried off of his private plane and ran toward the fleet of SUVs waiting for him. His men surrounded him, and escorted him to the SUV near the front.
“Any word?” he asked his security chief.
“No, sir,” his chief responded.
Sal felt that sense of dread all over again as he got into the truck and the convoy quickly took off.
When he arrived at his mansion, piles of cars littered his driveway. His Porsche was there, and so was Reno’s. Jimmy’s Camaro was there, and Trina’s Mercedes. Every car that should be there in a time of family crisis was there. Except Gemma’s.
Not that it was still at the courthouse either. It wasn’t. Sal had ordered his men to pick it up, take it to one of their garages, and have it dusted for prints. He was leaving no stone unturned. Until Gemma was safely back to him, nothing, not even the simplest detail, was slipping past his radar.
The SUV stopped at the steps, Sal jumped out, and hurried inside. Reno and his wife and son were seated on the sofa in the living room, with a handful of the most senior members of their security teams near the back of the room, at the bar, working the phones. Trina and Jimmy got up and hurried to Sal. Trina kissed him on the mouth and they hugged vigorously. Jimmy hugged him also.
Reno was on the phone, getting info, barking out more orders. By the time Tree and Jimmy sat back down on either side of him, and Sal sat down on the flanking chair, Reno was ending his phone call.
“Anything?”
“Nothing,” Reno said.
“What do you mean nothing?” Sal’s frustration was showing.
“I mean nothing. Nobody knows squat. Nobody’s seen squat. Nothing. We got nothing.”
“You’re telling me that my wife just dropped off the face of this fucking earth and nobody noticed? What about the cameras?”
“I went through every one of them, Unc,” Jimmy said. “But there was nothing to see.”
“What about the camera at the courthouse?” Sal asked. “Were you able to get a copy?”
“It took some doing, and some serious cash, but we got it,” Reno said.
“And?”
“Nothing.”
Sal frowned. “What do you mean nothing, Reno? It happened in their parking lot!”
“I know that. But their cameras are in intervals, they don’t run in a continuous loop. They show her walking toward her car, then, at the next interval, she was at her car, then at the next interval there was absolutely no sign of her. So yeah, something undoubtedly went down. But the cameras didn’t catch it.”
Sal leaned back. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t fucking believe it! Then he stood up, and began to pace. He ran his hands through his hair. “I expected more news,” he said. “Why don’t they contact us? What good is holding my wife if you don’t clue me in on it? If you don’t tell me why?”
“What about her folks, Sal?” Trina hated to ask, but she knew she had to.
Sal stopped pacing.
“Have you phoned them?” Trina asked.
He shook his head. “No. I was hoping she’d be here when I got back.”
Trina felt his pain. But right was right. “They have a right to know, Sal.”
“Not the way they treat him, they don’t,” Reno said. “They even accused him of killing their daughter, when they knew it was my bullet that took her out. But they blame him. They blame him for everything.”
“But it’s their daughter, Reno,” Trina said. “They still have a right to know.”
Sal exhaled. His body was so tense it felt as if he was carrying around a pound of lead. “Trina’s right,” he said. “I’ll go give them a call.”
“What about Tommy?” Trina asked.
“After all that shit Tommy’s been through,” Reno said, “he doesn’t want to involve him just yet.”
“But we need him, Sal,” Trina said. She was the voice of reason and they knew it. That was why everybody in that room respected her. She didn’t pull punches. “We need his brainpower,” she continued. “He comes up with shit none of us could even think about coming up with. I know he’s been through a lot, but he can help us.”
Reno agreed. “He’d never forgive us if he knew Gemma had been snatched and we didn’t even tell him about it. And Trina’s right. We need him, Sal.”
Sal nodded. He had already, reluctantly, reached that conclusion himself. He had to pull out all the stops when it came to Gemma, even at his brother’s expense. “I’ll call him too,” he said, and headed upstairs for the privacy, and sanctuary, of his and Gemma’s bedroom.
But before he called anybody, he got on his knees on the side of their bed and called on the name of the Lord.
At first he just stayed there, with his head bowed, his eyes closed, and said nothing. What could a man like him, a chief sinner among sinners, say to the Almighty? To the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? He felt too dirty to even call upon his name. He had too much blood on his hands to even consider asking for help. But Gemma needed help and he knew only God Almighty could help her. But he didn’t just pray: he didn’t know how to pray. He begged.
“Almighty God,” he said, “my name is Salvatore Luciano Gabrini. Some people call me Sal Luca. Most just call me Sal.” Sal scrunched up his face. “But you already know that.” He felt like a jerk. He didn’t even know how to pray!
He started over. “Almigh
ty God,” he said, “help my wife. Help Gemma. Unlike my . . . unlike my butt, she’s a praying woman. She prays all the time and goes to church. She sometimes have me going too. I used to think the church would burn down if my slick . . . butt stepped in it, but guess what? It didn’t burn. And I actually enjoyed myself. Because I know you’re real, Lord. I know you’re God Almighty. And I need you to help my wife. I’m just an old sinner who don’t even know how to pray, so I’m not asking you to do it for me, I wouldn’t dare. But please do it for her. She loves you. I love you too. I mean, I don’t act like it, not the horrific things I’ve done, but I do love you. Please keep Gemma safe. Please bring her back home to me. Please Lord. Please.”
He remained on his knees for several minutes, unable to move from the spot. But when he did stand up, he felt oddly better. The dread was still there, but that weight, that burden wasn’t. He should talk to the Lord more, he thought. And then he phoned Gemma’s parents.
Cassie Jones answered the phone, and it would have been easier on Sal if he could have told her and hung up, since she wasn’t as harsh as Rodney could be. But he never was a man to take the easy way out. It was his responsibility to tell the man of the house: her father. He asked to speak to Rodney.
“What is it now?” Rodney asked as soon as he got on the line. He knew Sal Gabrini would not be calling him just to chat, and he was correct.
“Gemma’s gone missing,” Sal said, as bluntly as Rodney had been.
“What?” Rodney responded in a voice so faint Sal knew it was the voice of panic. “What do you mean she’s missing?”
“She was leaving the courthouse and something happened. We believe somebody snatched her.”
“Somebody?” Rodney asked. “You mean one of your mob people?”
“We don’t know anything yet. We don’t know anything like that yet.”
“But who else would harm Gemma? She never had an enemy in this world until she met you. Now those mobsters have kidnapped my little girl! All because of her ties to you, and you know it so don’t play with me, Sal. Don’t try to pretend it’s not your fault, because it is! Good Lord. They took my little girl!”
Then there was a pause, as Sal knew Rodney was trying not to fall apart the way Sal had to do when he heard the news. “We’re coming to Vegas,” Rodney finally said, and then ended the call.
Sal held his cell phone in his hand a moment longer. Rodney was right. This was all Sal’s fault. If his wife was any other woman, he would fear, not only her kidnapping, but what was going to happen when she returned. She could tell him this life was too dangerous and she wanted out, and she could leave him. But he knew Gemma. He knew his wife was made of tougher stock than that. She would agree it was a dangerous life. She would agree it was fraught with all kinds of hazards. But she would not want out. Not Gemma. Sal therefore stopped obsessing on stupid stuff, and focused on bringing her home alive.
Tommy Gabrini was in a board meeting at the Gabrini Corporation in Seattle when the call came in. When he saw on the Caller ID that it was his younger brother Sal, he didn’t delay. Because he was Chairman of the Board, he didn’t have to say a word either. He just got up and left the boardroom.
“Hey,” he said into the phone once he was out in the corridor.
“How you doing?” Sal asked him.
“Good. Matheson’s making another pitch for us to get into the boating business.”
“Not again. Is his latest idea any better than the last one?”
“Hell no. But I let him have the floor.”
“I don’t know why you even bother.”
“Because he’s still a fucking genius. He just goes off the rails every now and then.”
“I’ve got trouble, Tommy,” Sal said abruptly.
Tommy’s heart began to pound. Not more trouble. “What kind?”
“Somebody’s snatched Gemma.”
“God, no, Sal!”
“And we don’t know who.”
“How long ago?”
“This afternoon at the courthouse parking lot. I was in Chicago. I’m back in Vegas now.”
“Has any one contacted you?”
“Nobody. That’s what makes it worse.”
“What about the cameras? Did you secure cameras around the area?”
“We did. But they turned up nothing.”
Tommy exhaled. “I’m going to call my pilot and get over there.”
As Sal knew he would. “Thanks, Tommy.”
“And Sal?”
Sal listened.
“It’s not your fault, so don’t go around blaming yourself.” Then Tommy frowned. “Gemma wouldn’t want that.”
Sal agreed, and they ended the call. It was only then did Sal realize Reno was standing at his room door. “You called the Joneses too?” he asked him.
Sal nodded. Then he looked at Reno. “Where do we begin? I don’t even know where to fucking begin!”
Reno pushed off of the doorjamb and made his way further into the room. He sat on the bed beside Sal. “We begin at the end. With the new stuff. And we begin with Gemma. Who had a beef with Gemma?”
Sal shook his head. “Hell if I know. I asked Curtis and Barb, her assistants, but they turned up blanks too. They didn’t know either.”
“Get them to pull her files. See if somebody she defended who got convicted and recently was released from prison. Or recently got convicted.”
Sal nodded. “They’re on it. I told them.”
Reno was surprised. He expected Sal, given how deeply he felt about Gemma, to fall apart by now, with no good clarity to his actions. But he was surpassing expectations. He was hanging on. “And you can’t think of anybody either?”
“There’s this one guy, this Rory Calhoun, who came to town a couple months ago. He’s this judge who’s getting ready to retire and relocate here to Vegas. He was her mentor while she was still in law school, and when she first began her profession. They hadn’t been in touch for years.”
“And he suddenly appeared in town a couple months ago?”
“Yep. He bought her a Bentley for her birthday.”
“A Bentley?” Reno was stunned. “Get the fuck out of here!”
“He claim it was because of their prior father-daughter kind of relationship, and he had nobody else to spoil. But when she went to return it---”
Reno nodded. “You made her take it back?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn right. Gemma should have known better.”
“The guy was her mentor. He lost his wife last year and was just a lonely old man in Gemma’s eyes. She didn’t want to make him feel bad. But when she went to return it, I think he tried to hit on her, and that kind of devastated her.”
“Wait a minute. He tried to hit on her?”
“Yeah, I think so. She wouldn’t say, but I had a feeling he gave it a try. But I nipped that in the bud right then and there.”
“But you think he could have been obsessed with her?” Reno asked. “Gemma’s that kind of woman, you know.”
Sal frowned and looked at Reno. “What kind of woman?”
“The kind that can drive guys nuts with her exotic looks. Not to mention that smoking body. The kind that could have some retiring judge relocate to Vegas, just to be near her.”
Sal nodded. “You’re right. I tried to tell Gemma time and time again she had that effect on guys, but she never believed me. She doesn’t think she’s all that pretty.”
“Get out of here! Gemma?”
“She knows she’s attractive, I mean she has to know that. But she doesn’t understand just how drop dead attractive she is.”
“But some old lonely guy like this judge would know.”
“Hell yeah,” Sal said. “Let’s go.” He rose from the bed, prompting Reno to rise too. “It’s a longshot, but since our guys are checking into every thug and criminal from the East Coast to the West, it’s a good place for us to start.”
“He’s going to wish he never met her,” Reno said as they walk
ed out of the bedroom, “if we find out he’s hiding something.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The law office of Rory Calhoun was not in the more luxurious Gabrini Office Complex the way the judge had originally planned, but was further south, in a smaller, not nonetheless prestigious office building. His office was on the fifth floor, and his secretary had Sal and Reno waiting far longer than either one of them were accustomed to, but they didn’t complain. Until the secretary returned to the waiting room from Rory’s office and told them that he would not be able to see them today.
“He won’t see us?” Sal asked as he and Reno stood up. “Who the fuck do he think he is?”
“Or who the fuck does he think we are?” Reno asked as they headed for the office.
“But sirs,” the secretary said, but neither man would listen. They kept walking. “Call Security,” the secretary then said to another assistant in the waiting area, who immediately picked up her desk phone.
Sal didn’t bother to knock. He flung the door open and he and Reno entered. Rory stood to his feet. “Now just a minute here,” Rory said angrily. “You can’t barge into my office like that!”
“Wanna bet?” Reno said.
“What do you want?” Rory asked Sal.
“Where’s Gemma?” Sal asked him.
Rory frowned. “Why would I know where your wife should be?”
“Do you know where she is?”
“No, I do not know where she is.” Then Rory’s look turned to concern. “What happened?” he asked.
“You tell us,” Reno said.
“What am I supposed to tell you? I haven’t seen Gemma in months. You told me to stay away,” he said to Sal, “and I stayed away from her. Why would I suddenly know where she could be?”
“Somebody took her from the parking lot of the courthouse,” Sal said, “and we don’t know who.”
Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 Page 13
