They drove in a convoy of SUVs to a big, secluded house near the outskirts of Chicago. Reno and Sal were up front, Trina and Gemma in the middle seats. Jimmy in the back. The driver was flooring it.
“Who is this Liz again?” Trina asked, leaning forward.
“Tommy’s old lady all I know,” Reno said.
“You haven’t met her?” Trina asked her husband.
“No.”
“What about you Sal?”
But Sal couldn’t speak. He couldn’t say a word until he saw that his brother was okay.
Gemma, as he knew she’d do, spoke for him. “Sal met her at my parents’ anniversary party,” she said. “I’ve known her since childhood.”
“Really?” Trina asked. “What kind of person is she?”
“She’s a firebrand alright, but she’s loyal and trustworthy and a sweet person beneath her tough exterior.”
Trina leaned back. “She’d better not be behind this attack,” she said. “That’s all I have to say about it.”
“Amen,” Reno agreed.
Sal couldn’t hold back any longer either. “Amen,” he said too.
When they arrived at their destination, the security gate opened and their SUV drove up toward the massive home. Reno frowned. “Well damn,” he said. “Who owns this? Sal, who owns this?”
“I do,” Sal said.
Reno looked at him. “You own it?”
Sal looked at Reno. On their best day they did not get along. “Yeah, I own it. You got a problem with that?”
“Why do you own a fucking house this big in a town you’ve never lived in?”
“I don’t live here, but I have business interests here.”
“So you bought a house?”
Sal nodded. “Yeah, so?”
Reno stared at his cousin. He always suspected Sal was a mafia boss, although he denied it, and buying a house in a town he barely visited didn’t ease his suspicions. But he, like Sal, was too worried about Tommy to even debate the issue.
Just as the SUV was rolling to a stop at the front door, the car doors opened and Reno and Sal, Jimmy, Trina and Gemma jumped out, and hurried into the home. When they entered the foyer, they saw Liz coming down the stairs.
“Sal, Gemma,” she said as they hurried to her.
“How is he?” Sal asked.
“The doctor wants to sedate him because of the pain he’s in, but Tommy refuses. He wants to see you guys first. But the doctor says he’s going to be fine.”
“Thank God!” Sal said, and hurried up the stairs.
Jimmy, Trina, and Gemma followed him. Reno followed too, but not before giving Liz a second look. He was impressed. She had to be one of the best looking ladies he think he’d ever seen. Lucky dog, he thought. All Tommy had to do was walk out the door and great looking women fell in his arms. But that kind of admiration was for another time. Right now he had to eyeball Tommy too before he could relax. He hurried on up the stairs.
The door flew open and Sal stood there, expecting the worse. When he saw Tommy lying there, bandaged around his upper torso, looking pained but alive, he let out an exhale of relief. Jimmy, Gem, and Reno entered the room and saw Tommy, and were relieved too. Although tears appeared in Trina’s eyes, she was relieved too. She was as close to Tommy as Sal and Reno were.
The doctor, who was also present, seemed exhausted. “He’s okay, Sal,” he reassured Sal. “He took three bullets.”
“Oh no,” Trina said.
“But none hit any vital organs,” the doctor quickly said. “I got them all. He’s a very fortunate man.”
Sal walked up to the bed. Gemma and Reno followed him. Trina was still too upset to move.
“Hey,” Reno said.
Tommy was in so much pain he was barely able to speak. The doctor had wanted to sedate him, but he needed to let his family hear firsthand that he was all right. He knew how they would react, especially Reno and Sal. They were as bad as nervous old ladies when it came to his wellbeing. “Hey yourself,” he managed to say. “Where’s Trina?” he asked. “Trina didn’t come?”
“Yeah, she’s,” Reno started saying, and looked for his wife. When he realized she was still in the doorway, with tears in her eyes, he went to her. He placed his arm around her and then escorted her to the bed.
“He’s going to be alright, honey,” he said as he escorted her.
“You better not be crying,” Tommy said, and it took all the strength he had to say it.
Trina smiled through her tears and placed her hand on the side of his face. “You don’t tell me what to do,” she said.
Tommy smiled too, as best he could. “That’s better,” he said. Then he looked at Sal. Nervous Nelly number one. “Hey, bubba,” he said.
“You feel like shit, don’t you?” Sal asked.
Reno rolled his eyes. “No, Sal. He feels like going to the opera. Or maybe out on the tennis court. How do you think he feels?”
“Fuck you, Reno.”
“Fuck you!” Reno shot back.
“Ah knock it off, both of you,” Trina said. “This man doesn’t want to hear that nonsense, and neither do I.”
“Neither do I,” Jimmy echoed his stepmother.
Gemma smiled and squeezed Tommy’s hand. “I’m glad you’re okay, Tommy,” she said.
“How did you get here?” Tommy asked. “I thought Sal was still in Seattle.”
“He was. I hitched a ride with Reno and Tree.”
“But I thought you had a trial?”
“What’s a trial compared to coming and seeing about my brother?” Sal asked.
“He was talking to Gem,” Reno said.
Gemma smiled. “I do have a trial. It resumes tomorrow afternoon. I’m going to have to fly back in the morning because a man’s life is on the line and I have to be there to defend him.” Then she frowned. “But I had to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine,” Tommy said. “And thanks for coming.”
“Trina’s going back with you,” Reno said, “now that she can see for herself that Tommy’s okay. I told her she didn’t need to come, but she had to see it to believe it. We’ve got babies at home. One of us needs to be there.”
“Val and the nannies are there,” Trina said. Jimmy was Reno’s son from a previous relationship, and Val was Jimmy’s young wife. When Reno didn’t respond to that, Trina said it again. “Val and the nannies are there,” she said.
“And all of them together don’t make one Mommy. You’re going to be there.”
Trina looked at Tommy and shook her head. Tommy smiled. “Bossy as hell,” he said, and Jimmy laughed.
“Thank-you!” Trina said, as if she’d been vindicated.
Tommy looked at Sal. “What about Destiny?”
“I spoke with Ed,” Sal said. “They have her on lockdown.”
“Did you send some of my men over?”
“My men, your men, everybody’s over there. Grace and Ed’s house are more fortified than Fort Knox.”
Tommy nodded. “Good. What about Liz? Where’s Liz?”
“Liz?” Reno asked. “You mean that black bombshell downstairs?”
Tommy smiled weakly. He knew Reno would approve. “Yeah.”
“You told me you were dating this Liz person,” Reno said. “You didn’t tell me she looked that good.”
Sal looked at his brother. “You could tell Reno you were dating her, but you couldn’t tell me? Your flesh and blood?”
“I’m his flesh and blood,” Reno said.
“What happened, Tommy?” Gemma asked. “You have any idea who would do this to you?”
“The only thing I know,” he said. Then he swallowed hard.
The doctor gave him water from a straw. “Just a few more minutes, folks,” the doctor said, “and then I’m going to have to insist he gets his rest.”
“I was leaving Liz’s house,” Tommy said, “and the next thing I know I was ambushed. They got out of their car and were about to finish me off, but Liz shot all three
of them.”
“Liz?” Reno asked. “What the fuck?”
“Get out of here!” Sal said.
“Liz shot all three?” Gemma said.
“And made sure they were dead, yeah.” Tommy looked dead at his brother. “My lady did that.”
Sal nodded. He was impressed. He had to admit he was impressed.
But as Tommy’s eyes began to glaze over, and the pain caused him to cringed and slump to the side, the doctor stepped in. He needed his rest, he said, and ordered everybody out. The doctor prepared the morphine.
“But why isn’t he in a hospital?” Reno asked as they sat in the spacious living room. Reno and Trina sat together, while Sal, Gemma and Liz sat across from them. Jimmy remained upstairs with Tommy. “And why aren’t the cops out here investigating this crime? Tommy didn’t do anything wrong.”
“That was my call,” Liz said and everybody looked at her.
“Your call?” Reno asked.
“Tell him what you told me,” Sal said, “about the mayor and the cops.”
Liz was a little uncomfortable going into her personal business with people who were virtual strangers to her. Especially this Reno character, who seemed even more bombastic and hard-edged than Sal. But Tommy had total confidence in him. He had told her so many times that if anything ever happened to him, she was to call Reno or Sal. They would take care of the rest.
“I had a previous relationship with Matthew Tennyson,” Liz said.
“Matthew Tennyson,” Reno said. “Should I know him?”
“He’s the mayor of Chicago,” Liz said.
“The mayor?” Trina asked, surprised.
“Damn girl,” Reno said, surprised too. “You shoot for the fucking stars, don’t you? The mayor. Tommy.”
“He may have the title,” Liz said, “but there’s nothing high-class about Matt Tennyson. Nothing.”
“Yet you dated him?” Sal asked her.
She started to say she didn’t date him, but she didn’t bother. “The point is,” she said, “he’s crooked as they come and his police commissioner is even worse. Snakes both of them.”
“Go on,” Trina said.
“One morning, after Tommy left my house, Matt came over and tried to have his way with me.”
“What are you talking?” Sal asked with a frown. “He tried to have sex with you?”
“He tried to rape me,” Liz said.
“Ah. Rape. How convenient,” Sal said.
“Yeah, how fucking convenient,” Trina said. “She’s just making it up as she goes along, is that what you’re trying to imply, Sal?”
“Just keep going,” Reno said. “Don’t mind him. He can’t help himself.”
“Fuck both of yous,” Sal said in his still strong Jersey accent.
“I beat him with a bat,” Liz continued, looking mainly at Trina, “and he fell down a flight of stairs.”
Reno smiled. “How convenient,” he said.
“It may seem convenient to you, but I didn’t push him. He fell. I just want to set the record straight.”
“But so you figure he wanted revenge on you,” Reno said, “because you beat him with a bat? Or did he think you pushed him down those stairs?”
“He wanted revenge because Tommy took revenge on him.”
Sal frowned. “Tommy? When?”
“A few days after he fell down those stairs. Tommy went to Matt’s apartment and beat him until his balls bled.”
Sal and Reno looked at each other and shook their heads. “Backdoor Tommy strikes again,” Reno said. “And he never even mentioned it!”
“He didn’t mention it to me either,” Liz said. “I found out through Matt’s maid, who still kept me posted about his goings-on. That’s how I found out Matt was fooling around with other women.”
“What did his maid tell you about the hit on Tommy? ”
“Nothing. She said the mayor was highly pissed and angry as hell about the fall and the pain he was in, and that he and the commissioner said they had to keep it quiet. She never mentioned any talk of any revenge attack. But then I’m sure they wouldn’t have discussed that around her anyway.”
Sal nodded. “If they weren’t total fools,” he said.
“That’s why I couldn’t call the cops or have an ambulance take him to a hospital,” Liz said. “They would have made sure he didn’t survive the visit.”
“Good looking out, Miss Liz,” Trina said. “You made the right call.”
Of all of them, Liz found Trina the nicest. Reno was okay, she decided, but he could sometimes be as flip as Sal, and Gemma was Gemma. She was more thoughtful than talkative. But Trina seemed as in charge as Reno and Sal.
She also knew that Reno’s deceased father was a mob boss and Reno and Sal both had been linked to mob activity. Both men constantly denied such activity, according to press accounts, but the rumors persisted. But in a time like this, Liz wasn’t trying to deal with choirboys. For Tommy’s sake, she was glad they were badass. They had to get to the bottom of this. She wasn’t going to rest until they caught those bastards and brought them to justice, in whatever form that took.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
That next day Jimmy remained at the compound with Liz while Reno and Sal put Trina and Gemma on a plane back to Vegas: on Reno’s plane. After the plane took off, they next traveled to a safe house in town and met at length with Sal’s Chicago “people.” They ordered them to find all they could about the hit, and to check out the mayor and the commissioner while they were at it. When they arrived back at Sal’s Chicago house, they discovered that Tommy was awake, the doctor had gone into a separate room to get some rest himself, and that Tommy wanted to talk.
Reno and Sal headed back upstairs. Tommy was awake, but still looked pained. But his voice was a little stronger. Jimmy was sitting in one of the chairs. Liz sat on the bed beside Tommy. They were holding hands.
“Did you know Sal owned this place?” Reno asked Tommy.
“Sal owns what?” Tommy asked.
“This house. He owns it.”
Tommy looked at Sal. “You own this?”
“Yeah, so?” Sal asked defensively. “What’s the big deal?”
Reno shook his head. “You and Sal are two of the craziest motherfuckers I have ever seen,” he said. “You buy cars in every city you hang out in, and Sal buys houses. That’s some weird shit,” Reno added.
Tommy looked at Sal. “Since when have you owned this place?”
“Since years ago,” Sal said. “I have a lot of business interests in Chicago. When I come here, I stay here.”
“And when you’re not here?” Reno asked.
“A friend of mine stays here and keeps an eye out on it.”
“A friend?” Tommy asked. “You mean that great looking blonde that let us in when we first got here, and then took off?”
Sal hesitated. “Yeah, her.”
Reno looked at him. “Does Gemma know about this friend, and about this arrangement?”
Sal looked at him. “That’s none of your business,” he said.
“If you fuck around on Gemma, I’m going to make it my business,” Reno warned.
Sal was about to fire back, but the bedroom door opened, and Munzino walked in. Munzie, as they called him, was one of Sal’s men.
“What you got for me?” Sal asked as Munzie made his way to the foursome.
“The mayor and commish involved?” Reno asked him.
“We think so, yeah,” Munzie said. “It’s got to be them.”
“How do you figure that?” Sal asked him.
“Guess who has the mayor, the commissioner, and almost every other public official in this town in his pocket?”
“Who?” Sal asked.
“Marelli.”
Sal and Reno both were shocked. “Rizzo Marelli?” Sal asked. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
“You sure?” Tommy asked Munzie.
“I’m positive. Rizzo runs this town. And he didn’t just start yesterday either.�
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“But why would Rizzo want to knock Tommy off?” Sal asked. “Yeah he screwed up the mayor’s sexual pipes, but so what? Rizzo wouldn’t risk war over that.”
“But he’ll risk war over somebody interfering with his cash cow,” Munzie said.
“What do you mean?” Sal asked.
“The mayor has been approving contracts that have benefited every business Marelli owns in this town. I mean every single one of them. We’re talking millions and millions of dollars. Mayor Tennyson is Marelli’s piggy bank. He’ll gladly go to war with anybody who tries to break that bank.”
Sal and Reno looked at each other with flustered looks on their faces. Sal got up, walked over to the window, and ran his hand through his hair. Reno leaned back, frustrated too.
Liz looked at Tommy. She could tell it was worse news than any of them had expected. “So it’s bad news then?” Liz asked.
Tommy squeezed her hand. “To put it mildly,” he said.
“Thanks, Munze,” Reno said, and Munzie left the room.
Then Reno looked at Liz. “Could you excuse us for a minute?”
Liz looked at Tommy. She’d leave, but only if he told her to.
He nodded. “Wait downstairs,” he said. “And Jimmy?”
Jimmy stood up. “Sir?”
“Go down with her.”
“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said, and he and Liz left the big three alone in the room.
Reno and Sal moved closer to the bed. If Reno was the muscle of the outfit, and Sal was the heart, Tommy was the backbone. He was the oldest, the smartest, and the one the other two turned to for advice when they were in tough spots. “How do you wanna play this, Tommy?” Reno asked him.
“It’s sensitive,” Tommy said. “Rizzo has reach.”
“Damn right,” Reno agreed. “That fucker could take us out, that’s the kind of reach he has. He’s one of those bastards I could worry about. And that’s saying something. We snatch him, we can’t give him back.”
Tommy exhaled. “Even if he’s not involved?”
“Even if,” Reno said.
“But that’s damn unlikely,” Sal said. “You heard Munze. Tommy almost killed his cash cow. He can’t stand for that.”
Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again Page 17
