Sal Gabrini 3: Hard Love

by Mallory Monroe

  “They let her go. What else were they supposed to do? You were the one with the guns. You were the one who claimed to be the shooter.”

  Sal stared at him. “What do you mean I claimed to be the shooter?”

  Brent looked his stark green eyes into Sal’s stark blue eyes. “You shot Craig Morsen?” he asked him.

  Sal hesitated. He was no natural liar, not even when it was vital. “Yeah, so?”

  “Why?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “Anything that happens in Jericho is my business, pal,” Brent made clear. “You may run Seattle, or wherever else you lay your head, but you don’t run anything here. This isn’t Gabrini country.”

  “You got that right!” Sal proclaimed.

  “This is Sinatra country. You don’t run anything here.”

  Sal frowned. “Like what the fuck would I wanna run anything here? You can have this shitty town. I came here for answers, and I’m not leaving until I get those answers.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Brent asked. “And may I take a moment out of running my shitty town, as you call this wonderful community, to ask you a question?”

  Sal had to smile. He couldn’t dislike Brent Sinatra, no matter how much he wanted to. “Ask away.”

  “How do you expect to get answers behind prison walls? Especially when we’re talking cold-blooded murder. Especially when we’re talking twenty years to Life. This may be a shitty town, Sal Luca, but we abide by the rule of law.”

  Sal felt defeated. He felt as if his life was spiraling out of control and he had no handle on it at all. He hated the feeling.

  He walked over to Brent’s desk and sat on its edge. He looked at his cousin. “You know what you know,” he said.

  “I’m glad you give me that much credit.”

  “So what do you know?”

  “I know you didn’t kill Craig Morsen.”

  “And how do you know that?”

  “Because your gun has not been fired. Neither had the one you took from Aunt Sprig.”

  Sal stared at Brent. “What are you talking?”

  “You thought your mother had pumped those bullets into Craig. You thought this was all about some lovers quarrel. But it wasn’t. At least not like you thought. Aunt Sprig didn’t shoot Craig. Somebody else was in that house. Somebody else shot Craig and they left when you showed up. A neighbor reports seeing what appeared to be a white male fleeing the scene through the backdoor.”

  Sal was thrown. “I’ll be damn,” he said. Then he frowned. “Who is my mother protecting?”

  “I don’t know that she’s protecting anybody.”

  “Then who’s this mystery guy? Who’s the shooter?”

  Brent shook his head. It was a puzzle to him too. “Damn if I know,” he said. “She had Craig and a few female friends, and that’s it.”

  “But she’s been in Maine for years. Did she remarry?”

  “She never remarried. She never had any more kids. Nothing like that, Sal. When she left your father she stayed in Seattle for a while, then she moved back to New Jersey where they first met. But he kept hounding her there too, so she came back home, to Jericho. He wasn’t going to even attempt to hound her here, and she knew it. But she came back here nearly fifteen years ago. And she’s been here ever since.”

  Sal shook his head. “Then what the fuck is going on here, Brent?” The intercom buzzed. “If she’s not protecting anyone, what is she up to?”

  Brent pressed the button. “Yeah?”

  “A call just came in, sir. There’s been a shooting at the B & B.”

  Sal jumped from the desk and took off running, calling Gemma on his cell phone as he did. Brent was behind him, but Sal didn’t know or care. All he knew was that there was only one B & B in town, and Gemma was at that B & B. He called her cell phone, Ace’s cell phone, his other men cell phones, but no-one answered. They all went to Voice Mail.

  It looked like a massacre. The tenants were huddled outside of the Bed and Breakfast in their bathrobes and gowns, but there was no sign of Gemma. Sal and Brent hurried inside.

  Sal’s outside man, the one who was on guard inside the lobby, was dead at the stairs, as if he was trying to get upstairs to Gemma. Sal hated to see a man down, but he couldn’t deal with that right now. He had to get to Gemma. He ran past him and took the stairs two at a time until he was on the second floor landing. Guard number two, the one guarding the room itself, was down on the landing, as if he was running to see what the commotion downstairs was about, but was gunned down.

  But when Sal saw that the door to his room was open, and Ace was lying at the entrance of that room, and was dead as well, his heart plummeted. He dreaded going into that room. He dreaded with everything within him. But he had to go. He had to know.

  He pushed open the door, with Brent right behind him. And that’s when he saw an empty bed. But blood was on that bed.

  He took off.

  “Sal?” Brent yelled, looking in the room too. “Sal?”

  But Sal had a maniac’s speed. No way was Brent stopping him. He grabbed the keys out of Ace’s pocket, ran downstairs and out of the B & B, jumped in his Maserati, and took off. Brent yelled for an officer to follow him, but by the time the office got into the patrol car to do just that, Sal was long gone.

  They had no idea where.

  Sprig grabbed the gun from under the mattress in her bedroom, grabbed her car keys, and took off out of her house. They had to get it done. Everything was going sideways. Every plan she had was backfiring. They had to do it now. Sal would ruin everything. He was swifter than she ever gave him credit for, and he could ruin it all.

  She ran up to her Ford Focus, got in behind the wheel, and was stunned when Sal, seemingly out of no-where, jumped inside of the car, onto the passenger seat, and slammed the door. His car was parked in front of the house next door, but when Sprig came out of her house, she hadn’t notice it.

  He originally had three guns in the glove compartment of his Maserati. One was still at the police station. One was still in the glove compartment. And one was now pointed at his mother. “Take me to him,” he ordered.

  But she wasn’t about to let on that easily, even with a gun in her face. “To him? Who’s him?”

  Sal didn’t know who he was, but he now knew somebody was working with her. Craig’s body proved that. She had an accomplice. And that accomplice had Gem. “Take me to him or I blow your fucking head off right here and right now! Take me to him!”

  Sprig stared at her son. She could dare him to do it, because she knew he wouldn’t. But she also knew, if he got away from the cops and came here, the cops weren’t too far away. She drove.

  “Where is she?” Sal asked. He was so worried that he could hardly breathe. But he couldn’t let her know his inner terror.

  “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  “Where’s Gemma? Don’t fuck with me! Where did he take her?”

  Sprig hesitated. “I’m taking you to her now.”

  “No tricks or I shoot and ask questions later. Got me?”

  Sprig kept driving.

  “Why did you let it happen?” Sal asked. “I thought Craig was your man?”

  Sal could see a stormy look appear in her eyes. “Don’t you worry about Craig,” she said. “This isn’t about him!”

  “Why was he killed?”

  “He wasn’t supposed to be. But that’s what he does for a living.”

  “Who?” Sal asked.

  “He harms people,” Sprig said, as if she was in a conversation with herself. “That’s what he does for a living. That’s why I called you. He found out Craig had jumped on me a few times. I told him I caused it, but he didn’t want to hear that. I needed you to take him out. But when I told him I called you, thinking that would be enough to scare him off, he said he wanted the confrontation. He wanted you to come after him. He harms people for a living. He knew what he was doing. He said the Noose had problems with you anyways, and Noose was t
alking about taking you out. Maybe he’d beat the Noose to the punch and get something for it, he said. I didn’t know who the Noose was from Adam, but he knew him. So I used that name to get you out of town. I thought he had left too, but he didn’t. He stayed. As soon as you returned, he tried to take you out.”

  “Who is he?” Sal knew the answer to that question was crucial. Whoever he was, he had Gemma now. That changed everything. And just the thought of it made him feel unhinged. He had to know who he was dealing with. “Who is he?” he asked again.

  But she wouldn’t respond. Sal became so infuriated with her that he grabbed her, causing her to swerve the car.

  “What’s wrong with you?” she screamed, as she regained control of the wheel. “Are you crazy? Gonna kill both of us!”

  “Who is he?” Sal asked again. “Tell me and tell me now!”

  But Sprig still wouldn’t respond. She continued to drive.

  Sal shot a bullet past her, shattering the glass. She swerved again, shocked, and regained control. She looked at him. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she yelled.

  “Who is he?” he asked again. That look in his eyes made it clear to Sprig: she was underestimating him. Big time.

  She exhaled. “My youngest,” she finally said.

  “Your youngest? Your youngest what?”

  “Son,” she said, and looked at Sal. He was stunned. “You think you know me like that? You don’t know a damn thing about me!”

  But Sal was still reeling. “Your son?”

  “I was pregnant when I left your father’s house. Pregnant with his third son. But he didn’t know about it, and that bastard wasn’t going to know about it. He thought I was still in Seattle, but I wasn’t. I went to Canada and stayed there until my baby was born. Then I gave the baby to a loving family, a family who knew nothing about any Gabrinis anywhere, and I moved back to Jersey. But your father had too many friends in Jersey. He started having me followed. He started harassing me about coming back home. For years he harassed me. He didn’t want me, he just knew it didn’t look good for his blossoming career. So I came to Jericho. I knew his ass wouldn’t even think about coming here.”

  “And what about your son?” Sal asked her, still stunned. “What became of him?”

  “Violence, what else? Your father was his father, it was in his bloodline. He got hooked up with the wrong people in Canada, couldn’t keep himself out of trouble. When he tracked me down here in Jericho, he decided he was going to be my protector. He killed one man I was talking to, they never did find that body, and he started acting as if anybody who did anything to me had to answer to him. He scared me and I knew Brent wasn’t equipped to handle that Gabrini brand of crazy.”

  “But he wasn’t a Gabrini. At least, nobody in the states knew he was.”

  “That’s right. And I kept it that way. But he’d go and do his dirt in Canada, then he’d come back here bothering me. That’s why I called you. But when I told him, thinking he would leave out of fear alone, he laughed. He wanted to take you out. I never told him you were his brother.” She frowned at the thought of the twisted lives she created.

  “He thought his father was some random man I had sex with but never had a relationship with,” she continued. “At least that’s what I told him. And then me and Craig were arguing last night when Darse called. He overheard Craig talk about kicking my ass, and how he didn’t care that you were back in town again. He was still gonna kick my ass. And Darse overheard that conversation and he headed this way. Because you were in town again, and because Craig was talking noise, he headed this way. He got here late last night. I didn’t even know he was coming. But then he called me from Craig’s house. I talked to him while I drove over to Craig’s. To reason with him. Then he took Craig out as soon as I got in the house, as if he wanted me to see what a tough man he was.”

  “What about Gemma? What did he do to her?”

  “I don’t know anything about that. I don’t even know if he did anything to her.”

  “Bullshit! There’s no such things as a coincidence and you know it! Wherever he is, Gemma’s there too.”

  Sal then leaned his head back. She was pregnant, that was why she left his father’s house so suddenly. He’d been abusing her for years, but suddenly she couldn’t take it anymore? That was what he and Tommy had thought at the time. But she was pregnant, and she had decided to give her child a fighting chance.

  “You did the right thing,” he said to her.

  She looked at him. “What?”

  “Getting him away from Pop. You did the right thing.”

  “All the good it did,” she said as she turned down a long dirt path. “He still ended up violent. It’s in his genes. Just like it’s in yours.”

  They ended up at a house in the woods. “Drop down,” she said, as they drove up to the porch. Sal slid down to the floor.

  “You stay in this car and wait until I get inside. I’ll distract him enough for you to come in through the front door by surprise. Because he’s good. If he suspect the cops are here or anybody else, that’s it. Game over. And if he has that girlfriend of yours, she’s done for.” She looked at Sal. “But you better not harm a hair on his head, you hear me? You may not know him, but he’s your brother and my son. And you will not harm my baby.”

  Sal looked at her. He wanted to lash out at her, but he wasn’t thinking about her right now. All he could focus on was Gemma. And getting her out, if she was even in there, and getting her out alive.

  Sprig left and headed for the porch. Sal waited until he heard the door open and then close. But he wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t about to trust her enough to come barging in through the front door. He ducked his way out of the car and made his way around back. He looked inside the various windows. Only one window, all the way on the opposite side of the house, gave him a view. He saw Sprig, talking with a man, and then he saw Gem. She was tied up hands and feet, and her mouth was gagged, and she was lying on the sofa. To his relief he saw movement. She appeared to be alive.

  He had to play this just right. Sprig and her son were in the living room, he surmised, and appeared to be arguing. So the backdoor would have to be his point of entry. And he knew, based on the escalating nature of their argument, that time was running out.

  He made his way back toward the door, his gun unlocked and loaded. And then he kicked the door in and bum rushed himself inside, rolling down to avoid the bullets.

  He expected gunfire, and plenty of it, but none came.

  Not one bullet was fired.

  Only silence.

  When he looked up, Gemma was being held up, at gunpoint, by Sprig, and the young man, his biological brother, was staring him in the face. And Sal saw nothing. No Sinatra. Certainly no Gabrini. Nothing.

  “Go now, Darcy,” Sprig said to the young man. “Take my car and go. I’ll call you later.”

  Darcy looked at Sal again, and then at Sprig, and then he ran out of the front door.

  But Sal was looking at Gemma. She was alive, but she had been harmed. There was a cut on her forearm, but that was the only physical damage that he had seen.

  Sprig was looking at Sal. When he finally turned his attention to her, she smiled. “You walked right into it, Sal. Right into it! You fell for it hook, line and sinker.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You fell for it. The long lost son. The violent streak in him. I was pregnant when I left your father, now that part was true. But I aborted that baby faster than they could say domestic violence. I couldn’t get that monster out of me fast enough!”

  She paused. Sal was transfixed.

  “Then I saw you,” she continued. “After all these years. I saw you at NASCAR. At the Indy 500. I was in the parking lot with Craig and a few other friends, and you walked right by me as if I was a stranger to you.”

  “You are a stranger to me.”

  “And you were so arrogant,” she continued. “And so full of yourself. Like we were nothing. And I
realized how much I hated you. I really hated you. Because you were the one who told on me.”

  Sal stared at her. “What are you talking about? I told on you? I told what on you?”

  “You saw me with that man from the neighborhood, and you told your father. And that’s when the real abuse started. That’s when he had an excuse to beat me until I bled and to knock me around and treat me as if I wasn’t even human anymore. Because of you!”

  Sal was dumbstruck. He had zero recollection of ever telling anybody anything. “I never told---”

  “Don’t you dare lie to me, you did! You ruined my life! And when I saw you in that parking lot, so full of yourself, it all came back to me as if it had happened yesterday. I realized how much you destroyed my life. It was you. You started my nightmare. And that’s when I decided to give you a call.”

  “For revenge?”

  “That’s right.”

  “For something I didn’t do?”

  “You did it,” Sprig said firmly. “He told me it was you. Tommy wouldn’t have done something like that to me, but you would have. You did it.”

  Another pause.

  “I used the Noose because my sources in Jersey were telling me that he had a beef with you.”

  “What source you got in Jersey?” Sal asked.

  “Plenty,” Sprig said. “I always did, even after I left there. So I called you, used the Noose as an excuse, and set up the drive-by to take you out. That’s why it didn’t happen until after you came back. I had planned to do it before you left, but Darcy wasn’t in town yet.”

  “Who’s Darcy, if not your son?”

  “Don’t you worry about that. He’s somebody I can turn to.”

  “He’s reckless,” Sal said, his eyes continually darting from Sprig to Gemma. “He nearly took you out too, with that drive-by of his.”

  “He wasn’t going to take me out. He was aiming at you, and his aim is expert. But what I realized was that killing you wasn’t going to hurt you. I know that sounds crazy, but that’s what I saw. When you threw your body on top of hers. Killing Gemma, I realized, is what would hurt you. Because you were willing to throw away your life to save hers. You loved her more than life itself. Killing you wasn’t enough. You had to feel the destruction the way I had to feel it. Killing her will do that.”