“He did what he had to do,” Reno said to Gemma. “We Gabrinis, the three of us here, we aren’t cold blooded killers, Gemma. That ain’t us. But we’ll kill with the best of them if they force us. Uncle Benny forced Sal. He had to do it. Like Tommy said, there’s no two ways about that. He had to do it.”
“But why?” Gemma asked, looking at Sal now. “What did your father do that would cause you to have to go there?”
“He pulled a gun on Tommy,” Sal said, “when Tommy told on him.”
Gemma hesitated. “Told what on him?”
Sal looked at Tommy, which caused Gemma to look too. Tommy didn’t turn around.
“About his love for me,” Tommy said and then turned around. He was actually trying to smile it off. But it was a smile filled with pain.
Tommy continued. “I told Sal all about our father’s great, wonderful, inappropriate, wrong, hateful, evil love for me.”
Gemma stared at Tommy. At first, she only heard the word love. But then she realized the other words. Wrong, hateful, evil love. And tears suddenly appeared in her eyes. She could see little Tommy back then. He was so beautiful now, she could only imagine how beautiful he looked back then. She could see that beautiful blonde boy with the sometimes green, sometimes blue, always beautiful eyes. She could see all kinds of predators preying on him. But his own father?
“And our father couldn’t bear it,” Tommy continued. “So he tried to silence me. Just as he had silenced me my entire life. But Sal,” Tommy said, looking at his brother with an undying love, “saved my voice. He wouldn’t allow our father to get the last word.”
Gemma looked at Sal. Oh the burden of that, she thought. And she went to him, got on his lap, and held him. She knew he should have told her when it first happened. It was Tommy’s story, she knew, but it was Sal’s too. Sal had to do the dirty work. As usual.
Tommy turned back toward the window. Reno headed for the bar, wiping away a tear as he did.
And that was the last they said about that.
And then two hours later, they got the call from Patty Pacheco.
SEVENTEEN
“I can’t see why I have to go back to Vegas, Sal,” Gemma said to him as they stood on Reno’s plane. Reno was also on the plane, making phone calls. Tommy was waiting at the car. He and Sal were remaining in Seattle, to await the call back from Patty.
Sal had her in his arms. “I have to know you’re safe,” he said, holding her tightly. “With Reno, at the PaLargio, you’ll be safe.”
“But why does Patty Pacheco want to meet with you?”
“He says he knows who iced Will and Chazz.”
“But I thought Zoo said Patty killed them.”
Sal almost smiled at how easily she was adjusting to his other life. She was even remembering the names. “I know that,” he said. “But Patty don’t know I know it. I have to keep it that way.”
Gemma still felt uneasy. “But what if Zoo is working for Patty too, just like he’s claiming Will and Chazz worked for him?”
“Zoo don’t work for Patty. For Fab Menza either.”
“But how do you know that, Sal? He could be double-crossing you like Will and Chazz did. How do you know he’s not?”
“Because I know it. Zoo’s the slime of the earth to guys like them, and Zoo feels likewise about them.”
“Why would they think he’s the slime of the earth?”
“Because. He’s different.”
“Different how?”
“Different. Maybe one day you’ll meet him. But right now, I want you to forget about all of that, go back to Vegas, and wait until I come to get you.”
Get her, Gemma wondered. And take her where? She lived in Vegas.
He kissed her. “Behave yourself,” he said.
Gemma smiled. “I’m going to have three men, waiting on me hand and foot, if you take too long.”
Sal slapped her on the behind. Very hard. Reno smiled, but didn’t look up. “They’d better not let me see them,” he said. Then his look turned serious. “I love you, Gemma Jones,” he said.
“I love you, too, Sal Gabrini,” she said.
Powerful words, for both of them.
And then Sal left the plane and made his way to Tommy’s waiting Corvette.
When he got in, Tommy began pulling off. “She’s okay?” he asked as he left.
“She’ll be okay.” Sal, however, was looking toward the plane as it continued to warm up on the runway.
“I take it there’s no word from Patty,” Tommy said as he drove.
“No word. Nothing.”
Then Tommy looked at his brother. “What do you think he’s up to?”
“He’s fronting for Fabio. They’re cooking up some scheme.” Then Sal’s phone began to ring. He put it on Speaker as he quickly answered. “This is Sal,” he said.
“I want three million,” Patty said.
Tommy and Sal looked at each other. “Then go get it,” Sal replied.
“I want it from you, asshole. You have one day to get it together. I’ll call you back.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Sal asked. “On what planet would I give you that kind of dough? I already gave you all I’m giving you, Pattyboy. I’m not giving you a dime more.”
“Yes, you are,” Patty said confidently. “And I have two reasons why.”
“Oh, yeah? And what would those two reasons be?”
There was a long pause.
“What?” Sal asked.
“Rodney Jones, and Cassie Jones.”
Sal’s heart dropped through his shoe. Tommy frowned. Who the hell were Rodney Jones and Cassie Jones?
“Yeah,” Patty said, laughter in his voice. “I’ll bet that got your attention.”
Sal held the phone with two hands. “What are you saying, Patty?”
“I’m saying I have your woman’s parents, Sal.”
Tommy’s heart pounded against his chest. Sal immediately motioned for Tommy to turn the car around. Tommy slammed on brakes and turned his Corvette so fast that they swerved before course correction.
“You expect me to believe something like that?” Sal was asking, to stall Patty.
“You asked me a question,” Patty said. “I gave you an answer.”
Tommy pulled out his cell phone and began to call Reno.
Sal took his own cell phone off of Speaker. “But what kind of answer is that?” Sal said to Patty. “You expect to tell me you have the Joneses and you just expect me to believe it? How do I even know they’re with you?”
“Still grounded?” Tommy asked Reno when he came on the line.
“Yeah. Why?”
“Stay there. We need Gemma.”
“Answer that, Patty,” Sal was saying as Tommy killed his call. “How do I know you have them?”
“Because I told you so!” Patty responded. “Why would I lie about a thing like that?”
“Because you’re a liar and you lie about everything!”
“Yeah, you’re right. I lied for your ass, didn’t I?”
“Proof of life, Patty. I gotta have proof that they’re with you and are alive and well. Proof of life, or you get nothing from me.”
There was a long pause on Patty’s end. Tommy was turning into the airstrip like a bat out of hell. Reno and Gemma were already off of the plane and were hurrying across the tarmac.
Patty came back on the line. “I’ll call you back in two minutes.”
“With proof of life?”
“Yeah, bitch, damn! Give me two minutes!” And Patty’s line went dead.
Sal and Tommy got out of the car just as Gemma and Reno ran up to them. “What is it?” Gemma was asking. “What happened?”
Sal’s heart was still pounding. He hated with all that was within him to tell her this. Even Reno was looking concerned. He looked at Tommy. Tommy shook his head in distress.
“Sal, what is it?” Gemma asked. “Just tell me!”
“They have your folks, Gem,” he said, with agony in
his voice.
Gemma nearly fainted where she stood. Sal and Reno both reached for her. But she was able to stand. “My parents?” she asked. “What are you talking about? Who has my parents?”
“Patty. And Fab Menza no doubt.”
“But,” she was looking around, searching for the reasons.
“Patty wants three million dollars. He claims to have your parents in his custody, as his bargaining chip.”
“But that’s not true. That can’t be true!”
“You spoke to them?” Tommy asked, hopeful.
Gemma realized she hadn’t spoken to them since she and Sal left Indiana. She quickly pulled out her cell phone and called them. Father first. His phone went to Voice Mail. Sal’s heart was still pounding as she phoned her mother next. Her phone too, went to Voice Mail. Then Sal’s phone rang.
“Yes?” he said, answering it quickly. It was Patty. Sal put the phone on Speaker.
“Say hello to Rodney and Cassie Jones,” Patty said.
Gemma was holding onto Sal so tightly that she was squeezing the life out of him.
“This is Rodney Jones,” a voice said. All three Gabrini men looked at Gemma. Her reaction alone made it absolutely clear that that was indeed her father’s voice.
“Daddy?” she said, her face crushed with pain.
“They have me and your mother, sweetheart,” Rodney Jones said. “They broke into the house and forced us to come with them.” Gemma covered her mouth.
“Have you or your wife been harmed, Mr. Jones?” Sal asked.
“Physically, no. Is this Salvatore?”
Sal’s heart was breaking. “Yes, sir,” he said.
“Friends of yours?”
Sal nearly buckled. Rodney was concerned about his associations when they spoke in Indiana. Now it was obvious that he knew what he was talking about. He had every right to be concerned. “Yes, sir,” Sal said.
“You keep my daughter safe,” Rodney ordered, but the phone was apparently snatched from his hand.
“Satisfied asshole?” Patty asked. “Have the money ready by tomorrow morning. I’ll call you back with the particulars. And it goes without saying: No cops. No Feds. No nobody.” Then Patty killed the call.
And Gemma, drained as if life itself had just seeped out of her, slumped against her man.
Sal got in bed with Gemma and held her in his arms. She had been in tears ever since they returned to the penthouse, but she finally, after nearly three long hours, fell asleep. Now Sal was making sure she was in her deepest sleep, before he got up.
He stared at her as she slept. What he loved so much about her was the way she didn’t ask him any questions. He knew she had many. From how in the world was he going to get her parents out of such a jam, to where would the three million dollars come from. But she didn’t ask any of that. She was relying on him now. This was too big now, too terrifying to even think about. She had to rely on him.
When they made it back to the penthouse, she only had five words to say to him. Don’t let them die, Sal, was all she said.
Don’t let them die, Sal.
And if it took his last breath, he was going to do exactly what she told him to do. Her parents were not going to die. Not on his watch. Not because of his associations.
He eased out of bed as she continued to sleep. She was in a deep sleep now. It didn’t hurt that he had slipped a micky, a sleeping pill, in her drink, but he couldn’t bear to let her experience all of that pain in total consciousness. Now she was sleep. Now he was downstairs, getting ready to go.
After getting strapped in, with guns on the back of either calf, guns on either side, guns in either pocket, then he opened the briefcase. The money was there, delivered to him by Tommy himself, just in case they had misread Patty’s reasoning and the money, not revenge, was, in fact, what this was about. They couldn’t come up short. Sal suspected it was a little of both, but he was willing to guarantee it was revenge that was driving Fabio.
“According to Patty’s call-back,” Reno said, “he’s supposed to send a car for you tomorrow morning at eight a.m. Although there’s a tracker in the lining of this briefcase, and in the lining of your suit, your pants, and even your fucking underwear, we still aren’t taking any chances. We’ll have our men position on every block near the Wingate by six a.m.”
“Not good enough, Reno,” Sal said, shaking his head. “This is Gem’s parents we’re talking about. I say put the men on those corners now.”
“Now?” Reno asked.
“Yes, now!” Sal declared. “Just in case. And I want men in the four corners of this town too, men who can see where the car that picked me up is tracking and get to the scene before I get there. We’ve got to cover this thing as if you were the Secret Service and I was the gotdamn president. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can happen to Gemma’s parents.”
Tommy nodded. “I agree with him, Reno.”
“Okay,” Reno said. “This is your dance. You want more, I can put more out there.”
And Reno immediately got on the phone.
Tommy looked at his brother. The stress in Sal’s eyes were devastating. “Fab Menza isn’t going to take a shot right away, so don’t you start firing either,” he told Sal. “You’re ramped up, but you’ve got to play it cool. He’s the kind of prick that will want you to know exactly why he’s killing you. So don’t jump the gun. You’re going to need backup no matter what.”
Sal’s cell phone vibrated in his hand. That was now the plan, so that they wouldn’t wake up Gemma. All cell phones were on vibration.
“Hello?” Sal said into his. It was Patty.
“Go now,” Patty said on the phone. “The car is in front of the Wingate. Get in it now.”
Sal was astounded. Patty had said the car would arrive at eight tomorrow morning. He knew it would come sooner, but this soon? “Now?” he asked, looking at Tommy and Reno. “The car’s out front right now?”
Tommy and Reno immediately took off, running down the hall to the back elevator. They had an escape route, one that would get them in a non-descript car so that they could track Sal should all of their tracking devices fail.
“Go now asshole!” Patty yelled into the phone. “Go now! If you aren’t downstairs and in that car in five minutes, I’ll kill Pappy Jones, and I’ll torture your girl’s mammy. Now get, Sal! Like the good little dog you are: get!”
Patty hung up.
Sal already had guards all over the Wingate, and a select group of his men and Tommy’s men guarding the penthouse itself. Sal insisted on the mix of men, so that they could police each other and thereby ensure that no double-cross would occur and jeopardize Gemma.
Sal went to the bedroom again and looked at Gemma. It was going to take a miracle to get out of this alive, he wasn’t going to pretend otherwise. But as he looked at Gemma, he prayed. He believed in miracles. He believed.
He left. He took the elevator, hurrying downstairs, and walked out of his apartment building. When he got into the waiting Van, he was placed in the middle seat. Beside him was a muscle man and there were two additional men seated behind him. The driver and a passenger rounded out the package of tight security that Sal had already expected.
What he didn’t expect was when the muscle man seated next to him ordered him to strip.
“Strip?” Sal asked. “What for?”
But they weren’t there to answer Sal’s questions. While the muscle man seated next to Sal grabbed the briefcase, the two men in the back of the Van began removing Sal’s suit coat, shirt, pants, and underwear in a violent takeover of his person. Sal struggled against it, but not so effectively that he would incur a gun-butt to the head before he even saw the Joneses. The briefcase was emptied, with the money tossed into a burlap bag. Then Sal’s clothing and the briefcase were tossed out of the Van’s window. Sal was thrown a pair of jeans and an oversized shirt to put on. But it was a fact. All of the tracking devices were gone. And Sal knew then that the only reason he was still alive was because of Fa
bio’s revenge. Fab Menza wasn’t about to let Sal off that easily.
Tommy and Reno were able to follow the Van at a safe but reasonable distance. The tracking was working, even though they didn’t have time to put all of their men in place. But then suddenly, Reno squinted his eyes.
“They just tossed something,” he said.
“Briefcase?”
“I think so, and clothes,” Reno said.
Tommy looked. And sure enough, the GPS was showing stationary movement.
Tommy angrily hit the steering wheel, but kept his wits about him. He knew he had to get closer, he had to keep that tail on that Van.
“The tracking is down,” Reno said. He was already on his cell phone teleconference notifying the men they were able to scramble and put in place. “If you see the Van, follow it now. No matter what. Follow it now!”
Tommy’s car flew past the tossed empty briefcase and Sal’s clothing, as he kept his eyes on that Van, moving in and out of traffic, trying to get even closer.
But once he turned a corner, following that Van, and ended up on a little-traveled, back road, his closeness took a hit. In the form of an SUV coming out of no-where and slamming the side of the car Tommy was driving. The car swerved around and swerved around as Tommy fought to maintain control of the wheel, and Reno held on for dear life. The car ultimately didn’t flip, and they were both okay, but they knew Fab Menza wasn’t going to stop there. If he was sophisticated enough to strip Sal, he wasn’t about to let a simple sideswipe be his only stopgap.
Two SUVs showed up, men jumped out with guns, and the ambush was on.
Tommy backed up the car fast and furiously, swerving wildly as he darted backwards down the narrow, dark street, and Reno began shooting back. Reno had two guns in his hands, as he fired without mercy at the men, but there were so many guns firing back that he was badly outmatched. Yet Reno’s expert marksmanship, and Tommy’s expert backward driving, proved enough. They were able to get away.
Then Tommy made it back onto the main road, drove down further, cut across other side streets in an attempt to pick back up the fleeing Van, but it was no use. The Van carrying Sal, carrying Tommy’s heart, had already fled.
Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch Page 17
