Outside, in the corridor, Tommy pulled Sal aside.
“So what’s it about?” Sal asked his older brother.
“I wanted them to meet Liz.”
“Liz? Who’s Liz?” Then it registered with Sal. “That’s who she is! I thought I recognized her. She’s the chick who was at Gemma’s parents’ anniversary party.”
“Right.”
“She came with Gemma’s sister Chelsey.”
“Right.”
“What is she doing here?”
Tommy hadn’t revealed his relationship to anyone except his cousin and best friend Reno. “I’ve been dating her,” he said.
“You’ve been dating her? What do you mean you’ve been dating her? You mean like you’ve been dating those women in that room? They said you asked them to come here, and they knew all of your other open relationship women would be here too. Is Liz one of them?”
“No,” Tommy said firmly. “I called them together to let them know Liz is not one of them. She’s somebody I have an exclusive relationship with. I need them to understand that.”
Sal was stunned. “An exclusive?”
Tommy nodded. “Yes.”
“But Tommy, after Grace and everybody else you’ve ever had, you think that’s a good idea? I mean, you haven’t exactly had a great track record.”
Tommy frowned. “I know. And it’s hard for me to believe I’ve gone down this road again. But I’ve gone down this road again.”
“She’s rocked your world, hun? Miss Big Mouth?”
Tommy smiled. “Yes, Sal. Miss Big Mouth has rocked my world.”
To Tommy’s delight, Sal actually smiled. “You sly rat,” he said. “Backdoor Tommy at it again. Never let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. Sly rat! You ran to your hole with your piece of cheese.”
Tommy laughed. “I see why you and Liz didn’t hit it off. Your sense of humor is about as nuts as hers!”
But Sal’s look turned serious. “So you really like this girl?”
Tommy looked his brother dead in the eye. “Yes,” he said. “Very much.”
Sal continued to stare at him. “You love her?”
“Early days still. We’ll see.” Then Tommy nodded. “Yes,” he admitted.
“Well,” Sal said, running his hand through his hair, “she ain’t no Grace, that’s for sure. You don’t have to worry about her punking out on you the way Grace did. She’s no little princess like Grace was. More like an ice princess if you ask me.”
Tommy took exception. “I’m not asking you.”
“Okay. I was out of line. But damn, Tommy. You’re serious, aren’t you?”
Tommy nodded. “Yes,” he said.
“Okay. Just as long as you know what you’re doing.”
Tommy squeezed Sal’s arm and then turned to head back to Liz. When he saw that she had gone, he frowned.
Sal smiled. “See what you’re getting into? Her bossy ass is gonna try to boss you.”
Tommy disregarded his brother’s snide remark and headed for the boardroom. Sal shook his head and left. If Tommy’s relationship lasted another month with Liz Logan, he’d eat a bowl full of that nasty-ass salsa Gemma loved to make. And he’d die before he ate that!
Tommy, however, wasn’t privy to Sal’s wager. He was too concerned for Liz. He entered the boardroom looking, not at the faces that he knew so intimately, but for Liz. When he saw her lining the wall along with some of the other ladies, he relaxed. Then he looked at the ladies at the table. At Freda, his Nigerian beauty. At Menira. At all of the ladies he currently had open relationships with. His friends with benefits, although he hated that term.
Tommy stood at the head of the table. “Hello, ladies,” he said.
They spoke to him.
“Liz, come here,” he said and Liz made her way to the head of the table with him. He held her hand.
“What is this about, Tommy?” Freda asked him.
“I asked you ladies to meet me here because I needed to make something perfectly clear. I have been in an open relationship with each one of you.”
“Common knowledge, Tommy,” Menira said. “I don’t know these ladies, but I assumed that was the common thread here.”
A smart one, Liz thought. She could be trouble.
“And you’re right,” Tommy responded to Menira. “Your assumption is correct.”
“When you stopped returning my calls,” Freda said, “I figured something was up. Is she that something?
“Yes,” Tommy said. “I want each of you to meet Liz Logan.”
Menira smiled. “Welcome to the club, Liz Logan. Tommy doesn’t usually throw his ladies a meet and greet, but there’s a first time for everything, right?”
“She’s not one of my ladies,” Tommy said. “I’m currently in an exclusive relationship with her. She’s The Lady. It will remain exclusive. I wanted to make sure each and every one of you understood that.”
“Because of what happened with Grace?” Menira asked him.
“Yes. I want there to be no doubt about my commitment to Liz. None. And even if you disbelieve me, I would not suggest you try me. Our prior relationship will not mean shit to me if you try me.”
The women knew all sides of Tommy, including Tommy the Terrible and they weren’t about to test him that way. They asked few questions, got straight answers, and that was it. Liz was amazed at how understanding the women were. They were disappointed, she could see that even through their smiles, but they behaved as if he was just one last fish in the sea.
But when they began leaving, she realized that it wasn’t that at all. He was still the king fish in their eyes. It wasn’t that he was no longer on the market. For them, it was more about how long it would take before he was back on the market.
“Six months,” Liz heard one of them say as they were leaving.
“Not even,” said another. “I say three, knowing Tommy. He’ll be back in three.”
Tommy heard it too. He put his arm around Liz’s waist. “Disregard that,” he said.
“They may very well be right, Tommy,” Liz said. “I’m not going to disregard anything. We may not last that long.” Then she looked him in the eye. “But thank-you for putting yourself out there like that. At least they all know. At least not one of them can say they didn’t get it. You made it clear. That made it worth it for me.”
Tommy smiled and hugged her. He looked at her. “Then it was worth it,” he said.
And then, if that scene in the board room wasn’t surreal enough for Liz, she made it to Tommy’s house and finally, after dating him exclusively all these months, she met his Destiny.
She was seated in an oversized chair in the living room, dressed beautifully, Liz noticed, in a pretty pink dress with a big white sash. She was a brown-skinned beauty already. Liz stood slightly behind Tommy. This was not like meeting his ex-lovers where they were her equals and she could give as good as she could get. She was out of her element here.
After the nanny, a middle-aged woman, introduced herself, she left out of the room. Tommy asked Liz to have a seat on the sofa, he sat beside Liz, and then he called Destiny over.
What Liz loved about this entire situation was how simple it was. He didn’t introduce her at a family cookout or some other major event where lots of other people were around to influence the situation. He introduced her one on one. Woman to child. As if this was one of the most important moments in their relationship. Meeting his ex-lovers paled by comparison.
He sat Destiny on his knee, facing Liz. “Destiny,” Tommy said to his daughter, tightening her sash, as nervous as Liz had ever seen him, “I want you to meet Liz Logan.”
“Hi,” Liz said to her.
She waved her hand. Then she looked at her father. She was precocious for a two-and-a-half year old, and Tommy realized that, but he also realized that she was still only two-and-a-half. “Do you remember what I told you about her?” he asked her.
She nodded her head.
“What d
id I tell you about her?”
“You told me,” Destiny started saying, and then, as if she couldn’t quite explain it, she hesitated. Tommy waited. He knew his daughter. Then, sure enough, she started talking again. “You told me that she’s your special friend.”
“That’s right.”
“And you told me that she is nice.”
“Yes.”
“And I asked you if she was fat, and you said no.”
Liz was mortified. Tommy smiled. “You think she’s fat?”
“No, but I asked you if she was small, and you said yes.”
Tommy was puzzled. “She’s small.”
“But she’s not, Daddy. She’s this much bigger than me!” Destiny lifted her hands as far up as they could go.
Tommy and Liz both laughed. “Yes, that’s true,” he said. “Compared to you, she’s in the giant range. I’m sorry, baby,” he said, kissing her on the cheek. “I was comparing her to me.”
“To you?” Destiny asked. “Compared to you everybody’s small. Even Uncle Sal.”
Tommy laughed. “Oh, he’ll love that!”
Then Destiny looked at Liz. “I have one question,” she said.
Liz sat erect. “Ask away,” she said, impressed with the child’s mastery of the language.
Destiny thought about what she was going to say, then she looked at Liz again. “Be good to my daddy,” she said. “I have mommy and Ed, and mommy has me and Ed, but Daddy only has me. He should have an Ed too. Will you be his Ed?”
Liz knew that Tommy’s ex-wife’s husband was named Ed, so she completely understood the import of the question. But the meaning behind it warmed her heart. And she took Destiny off of Tommy’s knee and put her on her own lap. And she nodded her head. “Yes, Destiny,” she said. “I’ll do everything within my power to be your daddy’s Ed.”
Destiny smiled, and hugged Liz’s neck. Liz looked at Tommy. He smiled too. She could tell he was pleased. They had a long road of trust to go, but both of them, that night, felt as if they were getting started in the right direction.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Sunday
September 28, 2014
That fateful night
Tommy and Liz arrived in Chicago late that Sunday night. Tommy couldn’t stay; he had to be in Spain Monday morning. And he had every intention of dropping her off, and then heading back to the airstrip.
But when they entered her quiet home, and began kissing goodbye in the foyer, his grand plan flew out the window.
“Um,” he said as he kissed her. Liz knew Tommy well enough now to know that whenever he started with the moans while he was only kissing her meant that more was to come. More came. Much more. Tommy began rubbing her ass as he kissed her. Then he was lifting her skirt, tearing the seat of her panties, pulling it out and entering her before they left the foyer. He had her back against the wall, her legs were wrapped around him, and he was fucking her hard as he continued to kiss her.
For several minutes they remained in that foyer as Tommy pumped into her and she rubbed his hair and held onto him. She came, and her clenched muscles caused him to cum, and he poured into her before they could fully enter the home.
But Tommy still didn’t leave. He carried her upstairs, they showered together, and then he put her to bed. But instead of putting on his clothes and leaving then, he lingered. He didn’t want to leave her, not for a day, not for an hour, and it was a powerful feeling.
He got in bed with her. After she fell asleep, he told her, he would then go catch his plane. She smiled and welcomed his presence. And eventually, she did fall asleep. But as she lay on top of him, and as he continued to rub her ass, he couldn’t help himself. He did her one more time.
When he put it inside of her, she was barely awake. But Tommy was wide awake. He fucked her with slow, lingering strokes. He didn’t want to disturb her rest, but he needed to cum again before he left. And he came. He shoved into her deepest pocket, released, and felt the chills he always felt in his climax. The white overflow came out between her legs.
After pulling it out and allowing the last of his cum to leak, he got out of bed and headed for the bathroom.
Outside, Liz’s home was hidden from view by tall hedges and a long driveway. But on the street, in front of her home, Luke, Joey, and Sonny had been watching Tommy Gabrini make love to his woman from the comfort of their automobile. While Liz was in Dubai, and then later in Seattle meeting Tommy’s little girl, they entered her house and was installing the video feed they needed to keep tabs on their subject.
Now they were ready. Tommy returned to the bedroom dressed in his fine suit. He cleaned his lady’s vagina with a cloth, put her naked body on one of the dress shirts he kept at her home. Then he kissed her goodbye on her sleepy forehead and left. When he eventually made it outside, got into his Maserati, and drove out of Liz’s elongated driveway, the three men were prepared. They fired on him as if he and his automobile was their target practice.
Inside the house, Liz’s eyes flew open as soon as she heard the first shot. Then she jumped out of bed, ran to her window, but she could see nothing. But she continued to hear the gunfire.
Outside, Tommy was hit. Luke, the driver, saw it first when Tommy’s long body went limp and he slumped against the steering wheel.
“We got him!” Joey was screaming and pumping his fist into the air. “We got that motherfucker!” Then he nodded his head. “Now that’s getting somebody, you hear me? That’s getting somebody!”
But Luke knew they had to make sure. Just shooting Tommy Gabrini was not their mandate. They were instructed to kill the bastard. And to make sure he was dead.
“Let’s go,” he said to his partners, and all three slowly got out of their vehicle with their weapons drawn. Liz’s home was the only home in that section of the street, so there were no eyewitnesses. But they knew they did not have a wealth of time. They picked up some speed.
When they approached the car, and looked in and saw Tommy still moving slightly inside the car, Luke knew he had made the right call. The bastard still had some life in him. And all three of them saw it. They moved in closer, raised their weapons, and was about to let go a fantastic volley of outgoing fire.
But they didn’t realize they had incoming fire. Liz, in nothing but the big shirt Tommy had put on her before he left, was standing bare feet in the middle of the street, with her gun drawn too. And she fired in rapid succession before they could get off their first shot. Luke was the first one hit, and then Sonny, and then Joey. All three were down. All three of their weapons were out of their hands. But she was no fool either. They would not only finish off Tommy if she didn’t take them completely out, but they would take her out as well.
She took them out instead. Another round into them just to be certain. And then she hurried to Tommy’s car. She could hear the police sirens already.
Tommy was slumped over the steering wheel, but she could tell he was still alive. She knew it had to be Matthew Tennyson and his flunky police commissioner behind this attack, so she knew she couldn’t call 911. If she was right, the commissioner would order his men to cart Tommy off somewhere and finish the job. She wasn’t about to let that happen.
She used every bit of strength she had to push Tommy’s body over into the passenger seat. He had some strength left, saw what she was trying to do, and moved with her push. Then she got in behind the wheel, put his fast car into gear, and took off.
She didn’t know where she was going, but she drove as far away from the sound of those sirens as she could go. She wasn’t panicking, but she was close.
“What do I do, Tommy?” she cried as she drove. “Where do I go?”
Tommy could barely speak. “Call Sal,” he managed to say in a voice so drained of energy she could barely hear him.
But she heard Sal’s name. She pressed the phone button, said “Call Sal,” to the computerized operator, and the operator did as she was told. Liz continued to drive through the streets of Chicago, kno
wing she needed to get Tommy to a hospital, but also certain the powers that be would not let him live through it. So she drove aimlessly, but she drove. When Sal’s voice came onto the car phone line, she at least felt she had some help.
“Do you realize how late it is?” Sal voice asked as soon as he got on the line.
“He’s been shot, Sal!” Liz yelled out as soon as she heard his voice. “Tommy’s been shot!”
“Who is this?”
“Liz! Tommy’s been shot!”
“Where is he?” Sal asked with sudden hysteria in his own voice. “Where’s my brother?”
“In the car with me. In Chicago. I’m driving his car. He needs a doctor, Sal, but I think the mayor and police commissioner were behind this attack. He won’t survive if I take him to the hospital.”
“You see his GPS keypad?”
Liz looked on the dashboard. “I see it.”
“Type this address in. Are you ready?”
“An address?”
“Type it in,” Sal said.
“Okay,” Liz responded.
“Type in 15414 Amhurst Drive. Got it?”
“Yes,” Liz said, attempting to drive and type, and succeeding at both.
“Take him there,” Sal ordered. “ Take him there right now.”
“But he needs a doctor, Sal.”
“I’ll have him a doctor there. Just get him there!”
“Okay,” she said, and began following the GPS prompts.
“I’m on my way,” Sal said, and she could tell he was getting out of bed, “but I’m going to stay on this phone until you get him there.”
Liz was reassured by that. And she drove like a bat out of hell to the address Sal had ordered her to go, but she drove carefully too. The last thing they could afford was to be stopped by police.
As a line of black SUVs waiting across the tarmac, one private plane arrived at the Chicago airstrip, and then a second private plane arrived just behind it. Sal got out of the first plane, and Reno Gabrini and his African-American wife Trina, and his biracial son from a previous relationship Jimmy Mack, got off of the second plane. Sal’s wife Gemma got off of Reno’s plane too. They all hurried to the waiting SUVs, jumped in, and were quickly whisked away.
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