Tommy Gabrini: Every Which Way But Loose

by Mallory Monroe

  “We thought we had her cornered, sir,” Mason responded. “I had men on one end of the block, Steph here had men on the other end of the block, and Pack and his men were in the middle. We got to her as fast as we could.”

  Tommy frowned. “Fast? You call that fast? The guy had time to get in his car and drive the fuck away, and you think you got there fast?”

  “As fast as we could, sir,” Mason responded. “We thought we had it covered. But we were too far away.”

  “But that’s unacceptable, Mace,” Tommy said angrily. “That’s unacceptable! You’re supposed to blanket her, not stand on some fucking corners checking for some sniper attack! Some fool could have put a knife in her and kept walking and you wouldn’t realize she’d been hit until she was down!”

  “I know, sir. We know. We feel awful about this.”

  Tommy couldn’t believe it. “You feel awful? You think I give a fuck how you feel? They almost snatched my daughter. My wife nearly died saving her. The assholes who attempted this shit got away. And you feel awful?”

  Mason’s eyes rolled over into a regretful and pained expression. “We’re so sorry, sir. We promise you it won’t happen again. We’ve already apologized to Mrs. Gabrini. Our plan and execution were horrible, and we take responsibility for that.”

  Tommy didn’t give a shit about their apologies and sense of responsibility. They dropped the fucking ball. End of discussion. Besides, Grace had suffered enough for one day. She shouldn’t have to listen to Mason’s bullshit too. “Get out of here,” he ordered, and all of the men rose.

  “I take it we’ll be reassigned,” Mason said.

  Tommy looked at him. “What the fuck do you think? Yes! Every one of you.”

  Mason nodded. Guarding Mrs. Gabrini was a plum job. Tommy paid them top dollar to prove it. And they screwed it up. Mason could not have felt any worse.

  But after they left, Tommy turned his attention to his family. “I take it TJ’s asleep,” he said.

  Grace smiled. “You know it. And we’d better put Destiny to bed too.”

  Tommy took Destiny from Grace’s arms and placed her in his arms. “In a minute,” he said, as he placed one arm around Grace too. Because first he wanted, and needed, to hold his family. Destiny’s head was laying on his shoulder, and Grace laid her head on his shoulder too. And he held them as tightly as he could.

  The remarkable thing about the evolution of Tommy Gabrini was that his beloved company had just been sold right under his nose, his beloved company was in danger of distinction right before his very eyes, and that monumental fact didn’t mean shit to him at this very moment. It would later. It would command his attention in the same way tracking down those attempted kidnappers would. But not right now.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Las Vegas casino owner Reno Gabrini bust into Sal Gabrini’s office without giving his cousin’s secretary the time of day. She didn’t object, because it was Reno, but she wanted to. But Reno kept going. He had a copy of a Wall Street Journal prelim article in his hand and didn’t stop his stride until he was standing in front of Sal’s desk, and throwing the article on the desk. “You think I like being told of this shit in the blind like this?” he asked angrily.

  “Told of what shit?” Sal Gabrini asked. He was seated behind the desk. “What’s your problem, Reno?”

  “So this is how I’m treated? I find out the same way the rest of the world finds out?”

  “Find out what?”

  “Treating me like my opinion doesn’t matter,” Reno continued. “Treating me like I’m some fucking nobody. I would never do you and Tommy like that!”

  Now Sal was hot. “Reno, what are you talking about? What are you coming to my place of business with this bullshit about?”

  “So it’s bullshit now? That’s how little you guys think of me? Bullshit? Okay. I got your bullshit, Sal. I got your bullshit!”

  “Reno?”

  “What?”

  “Sit your ass down and tell me what’s going on.”

  Reno Gabrini wasn’t accustomed to anybody talking to him that way. And especially not Sal. But Sal looked genuinely confused as if he didn’t know shit either. Could there be some mistake? Reno sat down.

  “Now what are you talking about?” Sal asked him, his face frowned and puzzled.

  “You and Tommy decided to pack it up and didn’t let me in on it. What if I wanted to buy it? What if Mick wanted to buy it? We could have kept it in the family, Sal.”

  “Kept what in the family? What are you talking about, Reno? You’re talking in riddles!”

  Reno stared at Sal. “GCI has been sold,” he said.

  Sal continued to stare at Reno. He smiled, knowing this had to be some joke, but then he realized Reno was not that kind of man. He didn’t joke about business. Sal frowned. “Who says GCI has been sold? Who told you that?”

  “It’s all over the news, Sal. I got a beforehand article from the Street because they wanted my comments before they went to press. And you’re telling me you didn’t know it happened?”

  Sal picked up the copy of the article. When he saw the headline, Gabrini Capital No Longer in Gabrini Control, he jumped from his desk. “What the fuck?” he asked with amazement in his voice.

  Reno stood too. “You didn’t know?”

  “Hell no! Why would we sell our business?”

  “Tommy didn’t tell you either? How could he do that? You own half the company!”

  “Tommy owns half,” Sal said. “I own forty-five percent. He could do it without my knowledge or permission.” Then Sal frowned. “I just never thought he would.”

  Reno never would have thought it either. He looked at Sal.

  Then Sal looked at Reno. “What do you think we should do, Reno?”

  It was a heady thing to hear a strong man like Sal ask anybody for advice. But Reno was the big cousin who’d seen it all. He was always a steady hand. “We wait for Tommy to call,” he said, “and then we get our asses to Seattle.”

  “And if he doesn’t call?” Sal asked.

  “He’ll call,” Reno said. “He knows we heard the news by now. He knows he has some serious-ass explaining to do. He’ll call.”

  Sal knew it too, but the waiting was what he didn’t like. GCI no longer in Tommy’s hands? And no heads up from Tommy? No way Tommy knew about it. No way. Because if he did, and Sal was left out of the loop, Sal would be devastated. “No,” he finally said, as if he had been thinking out loud. “This is not my brother’s doing.”

  “Sure about that?” Reno was sure about it. He wanted to see if Sal was.

  “Tommy wouldn’t do this to me,” Sal said.

  Reno stared at Sal Luca. And then he nodded. “Yeah,” he said. “He wouldn’t. But wait for that call. It has to be Tommy’s call.”

  Mason and his two lieutenants, Stephacelli and Packling, finished their meal and headed out of the restaurant. Their entire mealtime conversation had been about that attempted kidnapping and their subsequent demotion. They brought that same conversation into the restaurant’s parking lot with them.

  “I say he split us up,” Stephacelli said. “That’s his style. He’ll give you another cushy job, Mace, because he’s known you the longest, but me and Pack? Forget about it! I wouldn’t be surprised if he had us on nanny guard duty.”

  Mason laughed. “I don’t think you’ll sink that low. But it won’t be the same for any of us.”

  “Nowhere near the same,” Packling said, as they made it to Mason’s Cadillac. “I’m expecting a hard hit too. Like watching the nanny who’s watching the kids, like Steph figures it’s going to be. Or gate guard duty, which ain’t no picnic either.”

  Just as Mason pressed his key fob and unlocked his car, and just as he was about to reach for his car’s doorknob while Stephacelli and Packling walked around to the passenger side of the car, they suddenly heard the sound of a gunshot. All three men, two on the passenger said and Mason on the driver’s side, ducked down quickly and frantically rea
ched for their weapons. They were certain they were under attack!

  But when they realized it was only an older model Subaru backfiring in the parking lot, as it backfired again, they exhaled and stood back upright. They also re-holstered their weapons.

  “Gotdamn heart attack that motherfucker almost gave me,” Stephacelli said angrily. “Old ass car!”

  Mason and Packling laughed, as Mason opened the driver’s side door and got into the car, and Packling opened the front passenger side door and got onto the front passenger seat. Stephacelli opened the back passenger side door and got onto the backseat. But Stephacelli was in for an additional shock when he turned and saw Tommy Gabrini sitting in the backseat too.

  Steph jumped from the unexpected shock and hollered like a female, and his screech caused Mason and Packling to turn and look too. But all three were stunned too late.

  Tommy had a hunter’s knife in one hand, and a Glock in the other hand. He shoved the knife through the back of Mason’s throat, killing him instantly, while simultaneously shooting first Packling, and then Stephacelli, even as all three men had attempted to retrieve their own firepower. The blood squirted on the windows of the Cadillac. And within mere seconds all three were dead.

  Tommy leaned back in the car for a few seconds of his own, exhaling in the quiet of the luxurious car. He hated this shit, but he knew he had to do this shit. His daughter nearly kidnapped. His wife nearly killed. And he was paying these fuckers? He couldn’t allow them to get out of this alive. He couldn’t allow them to think they could work his security detail, fuck up royally, and walk away scot free, with nothing but some sorry-ass demotion as punishment. No way. Not on Tommy’s watch.

  He leaned forward and pulled his knife out of Mason’s bloody throat, twisting it as he pulled it out. He wiped off the blood with a handkerchief he carried and then tossed both the knife and handkerchief in a gym bag at his feet. He tossed his gun in the same bag. Then he got out of the car, carrying the gym bag as if it were a briefcase, and made his way perpendicular to Mason’s Cadillac, and up to his own Ferrari. He tossed the gym bag in the trunk, got in, and drove away. The men in his personal security detail had already made sure the cameras weren’t rolling in that restaurant, nor in any other business within eye view. But the way Tommy felt it wouldn’t have even mattered. He would do them here, or do them someplace else. But Backdoor Tommy, at some point in time, would have found a way to enter their backdoors.

  When Justin Carboni turned over in bed and opened his eyes, he realized that his backdoor, too, had been breached. But unlike the three men an hour earlier, he didn’t reach for any weapon. He jumped, because seeing Tommy Gabrini standing in his bedroom was a strange sight to see, but he didn’t have the same worry. He knew he hadn’t done anything wrong. He knew Tommy was ruthless in his dealings with men, but he was fair too. He only gave what was deserved. What happened at GCI today, Carboni knew, had nothing to do with him. But he’d made an allegation. That was why Tommy was there.

  But seeing Tommy, nonetheless, was frightening. “Mr. Gabrini,” he said when he jumped upright in his bed. “Geez.”

  Tommy just stood there, with a distressed look on his face. The reality that his company was no longer in his possession was now taking its toll.

  “Are you okay?” Carboni asked his boss.

  But Tommy wasn’t there to answer his questions. He had a big one of his own. “Show me your evidence,” he said to his CFO.

  “My evidence, sir?”

  “You implicated my brother. Show me your evidence.”

  Carboni, understanding that Tommy was not in the mood for any hesitations or unfounded accusations, hurried out of his bed and escorted Tommy to his home office downstairs.

  Once downstairs, Carboni sat behind his desk and pulled up what he had named the X File. Tommy stood behind him. And he did as Tommy had asked him to do. He showed his evidence.

  “In Finance, we were always taught to follow the money. That’s the general rule of thumb no matter what problem we face. And I followed that rule here. I followed the shares in this case.”

  Tommy didn’t respond. He just looked, and listened. Of all the Gabrinis, he had book smarts along with his street smarts. Carboni knew it too, and didn’t attempt to dumb down his presentation.

  “It began when the McClatchey Group acquired five percent of the Gabrini stock from some of your board members. Guess who runs McClatchey?”

  “Who?” Tommy asked.

  “According to papers filed with the SEC,” Carboni said, pulling up the papers on his computer, “Salvatore Luciano Gabrini owns the group. That’s his signature right there.”

  Tommy looked closer. Sal had a unique signature, where his t looked like a 2 and his i’s looked like ts. It was Sal’s signature or a damn good copy.

  “Then these new buyers, called the Erotavlas Group, which I, at first, thought was some Eastern European group, turns out to be Salvatore spelled backwards.”

  Tommy frowned at that news. “What the fuck kind of game is this?”

  “I know, right?” Carboni said. “It was as if they wanted us to easily figure this out. But get this, sir. The Erotavlas Group lists Salvatore Luciano Gabrini as its head also. With signature also,” Carboni added as he showed Tommy Sal’s signature.

  “This group, then, didn’t have to buy up McClatchey’s stocks to solidify their takeover beyond fifty percent,” Carboni went on, “because they already owned them. Which means, if this evidence is correct, Sal Gabrini now owns 100 percent of GCI, and you own nothing.”

  Tommy was floored. Not because he thought his brother was up to some dirty trick foolishness like this. He knew he wasn’t. But that somebody was so hell bent on destroying Tommy that they didn’t try to claim his company for themselves, but gave it to his kid brother, as if to rub it in, was stunning. As if they wanted to make clear to Tommy that whomever he was dealing with had the kind of power that meant what every man feared: that they could do whatever the hell they wanted to do. And they had the money to do it, because even the mammoth Gabrini Capital, Incorporated was apparently peanuts to them.

  “I have other evidence,” Carboni said, “but it all points in the same direction.”

  “To my brother Sal?”

  “To your brother Sal,” Carboni said. “Yes, sir.”

  And Tommy let out a harsh exhale. This craziness had somehow managed to rope in his wife, his child, and now his baby brother all in one damn day. And it left Tommy beside himself with anger. If they wanted a fight from Tommy Gabrini, they just got one. This shit was joined now.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  After dropping by Sal’s old penthouse and taking a long shower, to wash the kill off, he changed clothes and made his way back home. When he arrived back home, he went into the Nursery and checked on Destiny and TJ. Both were fast asleep, but he lingered on Destiny. He knew just how close those bastards came to ending his daughter’s life. And he knew that was the end result they were after. Not money. The way they were handling the hostile takeover proved money wasn’t the issue. They wanted to kidnap his daughter to kill her. That had been their plan. And if Grace had not been there . . .

  Tommy exhaled. He shuddered to think what would have happened if Grace had not been there. He kissed both of his children on their foreheads, looked at the nannies on duty, and then made his way upstairs.

  And as he made his way upstairs, he was thinking about Grace. Women called her common, or plain, or whatever derogatory term they cared to use. But there was nothing common, or plain, about Grace. Every time Tommy looked at her he saw her specialness. And today, when it mattered most, when their daughter’s life was on the line, she proved just how special she truly was. She was the kind of woman who rose to every occasion, who came through in a pinch, who would ride or die for their children, or for him. Those other women could go fuck themselves as far as Tommy was concerned. In Grace he’d found his life partner. In Grace he’d found the woman of his dreams. In Grace he’d found
what he’d always wanted: a devoted mother for his children. A devoted wife for himself. A family of his own.

  She also was a woman who could hang. Because she wasn’t asleep when he made it to their bedroom. She, instead, was sitting on the daybed by the window looking out over their estate. She was naked, with her legs drawn up and her hands clasped beneath her knees, her brown, lithe body so sensual and powerful it took Tommy’s breath away. And he felt a chilling depth of emotion he’d never felt before. Because this one moment materialized it all for him. She wasn’t just waiting up for him. She was waiting for him, to be with him, to be there for him. And he needed her after this crazy day like he needed air to breathe. That was Grace.

  Grace, too, felt a swell of emotion when Tommy entered their bedroom. He was the kind of man who would live and let live, until they messed with him. Then that Dapper Tom persona was gone. He could be vicious.

  “Glad to have you back,” she said to him.

  “Glad to be back,” he said as he closed and locked the door.

  “I would ask you how did it go,” she said, looking down the length of his body, “but since I see where you went somewhere and changed clothes, I think I already know.” She looked into his eyes. “Am I going to have to get a new security team?”

  Tommy loved her perceptiveness. “All new,” he said. “This time, Branson Nash will head the team.”

  Grace nodded. She knew they were on war footing for real now if he was pulling Branson off of overseeing all security to shadowing her. It had felt real before. It felt really real now. But it had to be done. Those fools could have cost them their daughter. They could not allow that to stand. He did what he had to do. “Okay,” she said to him. But the way she said it, in a voice that contained a note of sadness yet unmistakable determination all wrapped up together, made him feel that chill again. And he wanted her. He wanted to be inside of her. He suddenly wanted to be as close to Grace Gabrini as he could possibly be. And he got in a hurry.