She smiled, and with a surge of tears coming to her eyes, she threw herself into his arms. He held her tightly, and pulled her on top of his exhausted body. Liz, Liz, Liz. Just when he thought it was better to stay out of the water, Liz Logan decided to swim by.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Liz was up, had put on her bathrobe, and was heading downstairs to make coffee before she was willing to admit how disappointed she was. Tommy didn’t strike her as the type to tip out in the middle of the night, especially after he’d promised to spend the night with her, but that was exactly what he had done. She woke up to find he had gone. No note, nothing. Gone. Which was fine if they had already had their proper goodbye. And he was off to Denmark for God only knew how long. When would she see him again? Would he even bother to phone her at her? She hated to admit it, but she very much wanted to see him again. She was missing him already.
She was about to say her familiar his loss refrain when she entered her living room area and heard voices outside of her front door. She first walked up to the bay window, saw, to her shock, Tommy standing on her driveway signing papers from a clipboard. A tow truck was in the yard, and Tommy handed the clipboard to the driver.
“What in the world,” Liz was saying as she made her way around her Queen Anne table and out of her front door. She was so happy to see that Tommy hadn’t just took off that she didn’t realize a Maserati was parked on her driveway until she was walking by it. A dark green, 523-horsepower Maserati Quattroporte GTS. She also didn’t realize the truck that had apparently delivered this hotrod of a car was backing up and leaving. She was too busy staring at the car, and then at Tommy.
“What is this?” she asked him. I can’t take a gift like this, she was about to say.
“It’s the car I’ll use when I’m in town,” Tommy said.
Liz was glad she didn’t go there, but she was still confused. “The car you’ll use while you’re in town?”
Tommy knew he was revealing more of himself than he would have liked, but after last night, he wasn’t pretending any longer. He was falling and he was no longer trying to get up. “It’ll be housed at the airport,” he said. “I’m renting a hangar there.”
“And when you’re in town?”
“I’ll drive it. And when I’m not in town, either you can drive it if you like, or it’ll remain in storage.”
But Liz still couldn’t wrap her brain around it. “And when did you decide all of this?”
Tommy looked squarely into her eyes. “Last night,” he said. “While you slept in my arms. So, while you slept, I phoned my man in Seattle, who phoned the owner of a Maserati dealership here in Chicago, told them the specs I wanted. They delivered it off of their lot.”
“And you paid for it and that’s that?”
Tommy nodded. “That’s that.”
“So when we go out together,” Liz said, “there’ll be no question who’s driving?”
Tommy laughed. “That didn’t figure into it, trust me. I’m not that bossy! But listen, that’s a good solution don’t you think?”
Liz couldn’t help but shake her head and smile. “Lifestyles of the rich and famous. I can’t even begin to relate to this.”
Tommy walked up to her and put both of his arms around her. He looked so serious that it unnerved Liz. “Just know,” he said, “that I wouldn’t go through all of this trouble on a whim. I truly want to see where we can go with this.”
Liz was getting happy, but she was experienced enough to know how to temper it. “Where we go with what?”
“Our relationship,” Tommy said. And he thought about that kid at the club, and the guy on the Voice mail, and all of these other men who wanted her. “Our exclusive relationship,” he said.
“Exclusive?”
Tommy pulled her closer. “Very exclusive.”
“Meaning?” Liz knew, but she had to be certain he knew.
“No more guys,” he said. “Random or otherwise.”
Liz studied him. “That’s what it means for me. But what does it mean for you?”
“No more ladies.”
“Random or otherwise?”
“Random or otherwise,” he said.
Liz loved the sound of that. But her look became as serious as his. “That sounds good, Tommy.”
He kissed her long and hard on the lips. “I want you, Liz,” he said, rubbing his lips against hers. “In every way.”
“I want you too, Tommy. In more ways than one.”
He smiled when she said that. “You’re nuts, you know that?”
“Oh, I’m nuts? Says the man who buys a car for every city he visits.”
Tommy laughed. “I do not!” he said. He realized how happy this lady made him feel!
“I’m exaggerating,” Liz admitted. “But not by much.”
“By miles,” Tommy said, still smiling.
When they repartee ended, both of them turned serious. They understood the stakes. “So what, exactly, does this exclusive arrangement really means?” Liz asked him. She knew he’d already said what it meant, but she needed him to make it even plainer. She had to make sure they were on the same page.
Tommy was experienced enough to know exactly what she needed to hear. “It means that you’re my lady now,” he said. “And I’m your man. I don’t need anyone else, and neither do you. And we’ll see where it goes. Okay?”
She nodded. “Okay.” Then she rubbed his hair. He was so adorable to her! “When will I see you again?” she asked.
“In a few days,” he said.
This surprised her. “Really?”
“I’ll take care of business in Copenhagen and finish up there, and then I’ll swing back through here. I’m not crazy about long distance relationships, but it’s the best we can do right now.”
“Agreed.”
“Sounds good then?”
Any kind of relationship would have sounded good with him. “Sounds great,” she said. “And thrilling actually.”
Tommy smiled. Kissed her again. “Now, young lady,” he said, as he began walking her toward his car. “I’d better get to work.”
“You can’t wait to try that bad boy out, can you?”
Tommy laughed. “I feel like a kid in a candy store.”
“Just don’t be a happy fool in that candy store. Drive carefully.”
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I already know you’re my girlfriend.”
Liz looked curiously at him. “Why do you know that?”
“Because you’re acting like an old lady already!”
She punched him on the arm, he laughed again, kissed her again, and then got in his expensive toy of a ride and took off down her driveway, burning rubber purposefully as he went.
Liz shook her head, still smiling, and went into her home.
But she wasn’t in and fixing coffee five minutes before the doorbell rang. Thinking it was Tommy forgetting something, she hurried out of the kitchen, up to the front door, and flung it open. When she saw Mathew Tennyson standing at her front door, she attempted to close it back. But his shoe stopped her, then he pushed it on open and walked on in.
“Now, now,” he said, closing the door, “is that any way to treat your lover?”
“You’re not my lover,” Liz said pointedly.
“But I’ll bet you’re his. Who is that guy anyway? I saw that Maserati leave when I turned the corner.”
Liz folded her arms. “What do you want, Matt?”
“What do you think I want? Why wouldn’t you answer my phone calls? You made me look like a fool begging you.”
“I didn’t ask you to beg me. I told you to leave me the hell alone.”
Matthew stared at her with a look that chilled her. “Not possible,” he said. And then he began walking around her room. “So who was the guy?” he asked. “Did he stay all night? Or did he just fuck you and run?”
“Get out!” she yelled.
Then he saw her panties on the floor. He reached down and picked them up. Liz hurrie
d to him, and tried to snatch them out of his hand, but he snatched them away from her. “I see,” he said as an odd expression appeared on his face. “It was a fuck and run. I see.” Then he looked at her.
“You need to leave, Matt.”
“I’m sure you think so.”
“Don’t you have a city to run?”
“Don’t you worry about what I have to run! What about you? Who is he?”
Liz headed for the front door.
“Who is he, Liz?” Matthew responded, following her.
“None of your business,” she said, opening her door. “Now leave.”
He slammed the door back shut. And threw her panties aside. “I’ll leave,” he said, walking closer to her. “But not before I get what you gave to him!”
“Don’t you dare, Matthew!” Liz yelled, backing away, but Matthew closed on her. “I’ll bet you’re still wet. Aren’t you?” He grabbed her and began untying her bathrobe. “Aren’t you, Liz? You’re still wet, you little bitch! Aren’t you?”
But Liz was too busy fighting with all she had to get away from him. She was pushing back on her ass, she was kicking her legs, she was doing everything within her power. But he was winning the battle. Easily. He slung open her bathrobe, revealing her naked body, and then he gaped open her legs and shoved his fingers up her vagina. It was still wet.
It was a turn on for him. And she knew it. That was why she waited. She stopped fighting. She pretended his finger shove turned her on too. It was the only way. And when he did it, when he shoved his fingers into her again, and then put his wet fingers into his mouth, she made her escape. She jumped up and ran. He grabbed for her, but all he grabbed was the robe off her body.
But she ran up those stairs faster than she’d ever run in her life. He was right behind her, closing in on her, but she knew exactly what she was running to. If she could only get to her nightstand. If she could only get to her drawer! But he closed in too fast. As soon as she entered the bedroom, he was upon her. She had no choice but to grab the next best thing: the baseball bat she kept beside her bed.
She grabbed it and turned around swinging. She knocked him back, and then knocked him down. She kept swinging and he kept ducking until it was she, now, who was overtaking him.
“Crazy bitch!” he was yelling, but he was running as he was yelling. And Liz would not stop. She beat him and she beat him. They beat the fire out of him. The idea that he thought he could just waltz into her home and rape her, made her beat him even harder.
By the time he made it down the corridor, she had stopped. Her arms had given out. “Get out of my house and get out now, you pervert!” she yelled.
And he kept going. He ran like the coward he truly was. But he ran down the stairs too fast. He tripped, stumbled, and then fell. He fell down stair after stair after stair. Liz ran to the railing, watching him fall. He landed at the bottom.
By the time Liz ran down there, her bat still in her hand just in case it was act, she realized there was no more game in him. He was too lifeless for games.
Dana handed Tommy another document to sign. “How many more?” he asked.
She smiled. “Lots, I’m afraid,” she said. “ About twenty or thirty more. And since you read every word before you sign, this could take the whole trip.”
Dana was Tommy’s assistant. One of a handful he was taking with him to Denmark. Of all of them, she was the most senior. “Were you able to get in touch with the Copenhagen office last night?” he asked her.
“Finally, yes, sir. They keep some early hours there, sir.”
“How did they respond?”
“They were royally pissed, sir. In their own proper way. But they know you’re the boss. There’s nothing they can do about it.”
Tommy’s decision to stay overnight in Chicago delayed them in more ways than one. The crew and the small army of assistants he had traveling with him to Denmark had to sleep overnight on the plane, and every one of the meetings once they arrived in Copenhagen had to be rescheduled. Gabrini Denmark had pulled out the stops to welcome the boss, and rescheduling wasn’t as easy as changing a time. It required layers upon layers of notifications and cancelations and revamps. But Tommy inwardly smiled. He loved being with Liz. It was worth every headache.
He was so into his night with Liz that Dana was shocked when he signed the document in front of him without reading it first. He handed it back to her.
“I don’t believe it,” she said. “You didn’t read it first, sir.”
When Tommy realized his error, he smiled. But took it back from her, and began reading every word.
“That’s more like it,” Dana said, as she smiled.
She was seated across from him, on his luxury jet, and they were preparing for takeoff.
Not that she was complaining. As the senior aide on the plane, she slept in Tommy’s bed last night. The silk sheets and his sweet cologne smell all over the pillows made it one of the best sleeps she’d ever had. She’d sleep on that plane any day of the week!
Tommy’s cell phone rang as he read. Dana picked it up from beside him and looked at the Caller ID. “It’s says Liz Logan, sir,” she said.
Tommy immediately stopped writing and took it. Dana was surprised. He usually shook his head no when she told him it was some female calling. But this Liz Logan? Was she the reason for this layover? It was unlikely that a man like Tommy would allow some random lady to interfere with his business plans, but this decision to come to Chicago in the first place, and then to stay overnight, was odd in the extreme for him too. She wasn’t laying bets against any of it.
“Step out for a minute, Dana,” he said before he answered the phone.
Dana quickly stood and left the cabin. Then Tommy answered. “Liz?”
“Where are you?” she asked.
“I’m on the plane.”
“Are you still in Chicago?”
“Yes. Why?” He detected strain in her voice. “Liz, what’s wrong?”
“After you left, Matthew came over.”
“Matthew?”
“Matthew Tennyson. This creep I used to know. The one who was leaving me those voice mail messages.”
“Matthew Tennyson” But isn’t he the mayor of Chicago?”
Liz paused. “Yes.”
“You were dating the mayor of Chicago?”
“I wasn’t dating him. It never got that far. But he came over today, and thought I was going to let him have his way with me. When I wouldn’t, and things got crazy, he fell.”
Tommy frowned. “He fell? What do you mean he fell?”
“He tried to rape me, Tommy. I beat the crap out of him. When he was getting away from me, he fell down the stairs.”
Tommy was already standing up. “He tried to rape you?”
“Yes.
“Is he still alive?”
“I think so. I called an ambulance. They’re on the way. I’m sure the cops are too. But he fell down those stairs, Tommy. I didn’t push him.”
“I believe you,” Tommy said bluntly and grabbed his suitcoat. “Do not give any statements until I get there.”
“I won’t.”
“Have you contacted your attorney?”
“I’m calling her next.”
“Good. I’m on my way.”
“Tommy?”
“Yes?”
“Drive carefully, but hurry.”
Tommy let out a harsh exhale. For Liz to want him that badly meant she needed him even worse. “I will,” he said, and got in a hurry.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The ambulance swerved out of the driveway and headed down the street just as Tommy’s Maserati turned onto the street. What surprised him wasn’t the fact that an ambulance was rushing away from Liz’s house. What surprised him was that it was rushing away with no sirens blaring. Which made it all the more clearer to Tommy that they had a special patient onboard that they didn’t want everybody to know they had, and that Liz Logan, by virtue of the man the silent ambulance
carried, was a player in the big leagues.
Police cars were already on the property when Tommy arrived. He parked within the circle, got out, and made his way to the front door.
Inside the house, Liz was sitting on the sofa with a police captain hovering over her. The police officer pulling door duty yelled across the room. “Cap’n,” he said, “guy here to see Miss Logan.”
“Who?”
“Tommy Garini.”
“Tommy?” Liz asked, and stood up.
“Back down,” the captain said as if Liz was a dog. Liz remained standing. “Sit back down,” the captain said. Liz sat down then. “Who’s Tommy Garini?”
“Gabrini,” Liz said. “He’s my boyfriend.”
The captain looked at his subordinate. “Send him in,” he ordered.
Liz felt relief wash over her when Tommy entered her home. And he looked so cool, as if scenes like these were no big deal to him.
“Mr. Gabrini?” The captain said and extended his hand.
Tommy shook it.
“I understand you’re Miss Logan’s boyfriend?”
Tommy looked at her. “You okay?”
She nodded.
“Have a seat if you like,” the captain said.
Tommy sat down beside her. “Where’s Annie?”
“On her way,” Liz said.
“Have you given a statement?”
“No,” the captain said. “That’s the problem. She either tell me what happened here, or she’ll be going downtown to tell me what happened.”
Tommy looked at him. “She has a right to remain silent.”
“If she’s under arrest she does. Who said anything about arresting her? I just need to know the facts. Now the victim fell down the stairs.”
“He was no victim,” Liz said.
“What was he then?”
Liz ignored him.
“So she’s not under arrest?” Tommy asked the cop.
“Not yet,” Liz said. “We’re waiting on Matt’s handler: the police commissioner.”
“Not funny,” the captain said. “Did you push the mayor down those stairs, lady?”
“No,” Liz said with confidence.
“Then how did he get from up there, to down here? What happened? And how did he get all of those fresh bruises on his body?”
Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again Page 14
