“So am I,” Gemma said, and she and her mother continued to prepare.
But she was reminded, when she looked out of the window and saw two of Sal’s men guarding the house, that her fun would be confined to indoors. Sal made certain of that before they even touched down on Indiana soil. He had strict orders that Gemma nor the baby were allowed to leave the home during their entire stay in Indiana, and if Gemma objected, he would, as he put it, “pack the whole shit up and take it back to Vegas.” Gemma smiled at the way he phrased it. But she didn’t object. She was just happy to be with her folks again.
“You hear that, Gem?” Sal yelled from across the room.
“Hear what?” Gemma responded.
“I’ve never played Bridge a day in my life, but that’s what Pop says we’ve got to play tonight. Fucking Bridge. And you’re going to be my partner. You know how to play, though, right?”
Gemma smiled. “Not really,” she said.
Sal was floored. Rodney laughed. “What do you mean ‘not really?’ We’re gonna lose our shirt over here!”
They all laughed.
“Stop being so dramatic, Sal,” Gemma said. “I’ll partner with Dad and you’ll partner with Mom. Problem solved. Bridge is their life. Especially Mom’s. She’s the best player in their group. She’ll teach you the ropes.”
“She’ll teach you the ropes,” Rodney said as he took another swill of his beer. “But you won’t be winning this night. Cass made a bad move that caused us to lose last time. She’s lost a step.”
Sal and Gemma laughed. Cassie gave her husband the eye. “Believe that if you want,” she said.
“You aren’t helping, Pop,” Sal said to his father-in-law. “Cool the negativity before you throw my partner completely off of her game. I didn’t come to Indiana to lose. You’re just trying to get into her head.”
“It’s not her head I’ve been trying to get into, Sal,” Rodney said. “Believe that.”
Sal and Rodney laughed again, but Gemma scrunched up her face. Her parents and sex? “Yikes,” she said. “Too much information, Dad. Far too much!”
They all laughed. But Sal and Gemma ended their gaiety abruptly when Sal’s cellphone rang. Any call could be THE call. When Sal saw that it was Robby, he answered quickly. “Talk to me,” he said.
“We got him, Boss,” Robby responded.
Sal pumped a fist in the air and Gemma, her heart racing, hurried to his side. “Where did you find him? Was he still in Vegas?” He placed a hand around Gemma’s waist when she came up alongside his chair.
“He was nowhere near Vegas, Boss,” Robby said. “We tracked that joker all the way to Nova Scotia, of all places.”
“Nova Scotia? Damn. I bet he thought his ass had gotten away.”
“That’s what I figured, too. He lives a very lowkey life there.”
“As what?”
“A fucking Mortician,” Robby said.
“A mortician?”
“A reputable one too, if you can believe it. I guess he was trying to bury your ass. But from what we could tell, he’s been plotting this shit for years, Boss. Had too. Nobody would have ever suspected him.”
Sal shook his head. A fucking mortician was the mastermind. A mortician was the genius who thought he could take Sal Gabrini down. Who would come for him next? A boy scout leader? A choir director? A librarian?
But Gemma didn’t care what the guy did for a living. She was just glad they had him. Rodney and Cassie were pleased too. Sal wouldn’t give them any details about what was going on, but they found out a lot on their own. They knew there had been another shooting. They knew whomever was responsible had not yet been found.
“Where is he now?” Sal asked Robby over the phone. “You’re hauling his ass back to Vegas?”
“Since we tracked him down on the east coast,” Robby said over the phone, “it was easier to bring him to you. He’s closer to Indiana than he is to Vegas. And you’d have to cut your trip short too, which wouldn’t be fair.”
Sal nodded. “Good looking out, Robby. You guys are in route?”
“We’re here now. In Rosemont.”
Sal couldn’t believe it. “Already?”
“I didn’t want to call you until we delivered the package,” Robby said. “And we have. He’s at the house.”
The house was a house Sal bought in Rosemont after he and Gemma married, simply because Gemma’s parents lived in the town and he never knew when it might come in handy. It just came in handy. “I’m on my way,” Sal said.
“Yes, sir,” Robby said, and killed the call.
Sal looked at Gemma. “We have him.”
Although Rodney and Cassie clapped in celebration, Gemma and Sal were far more somber. Because they knew what having him meant. Interrogations. Recriminations. Violent retribution. A moment where anything could happen, and where everything could go sideways in a hurry.
Although Rodney was happy, he sensed it too. And he wanted to step up. “I’ll go with you,” he said, as he rose from his seat. He was a banker, not a fighter. But he knew how to take care of himself.
But Sal wasn’t having it. “No way, Pop,” he responded, rising too.
“Tell me where,” Rodney said, grabbing his hat, “and I’ll take you there.”
But Sal was already shaking his head. “No way,” he said.
“Oh, come on, Sal Luca! This is me, remember? After all I’ve seen, after all my wife has seen, after all my daughter has seen, you’re still trying to shield your way of life from us? Come on! I know what’s up. You’ve found the mastermind behind all of that craziness you and Gem have been going through. He was behind that shootout that nearly killed you and Gem. I have a stake in his capture too.” He looked at Sal. “Say where. I’ll take you there.”
But Rodney was playing on Sal’s field. There was no way he was going anywhere near that safe house. “I need you to stay here, Pop,” he said. “One of us need to stay here.”
“Okay, and that’s a reasonable need,” Rodney said, to everybody’s relief. But when he added, “Then I’ll go and you’ll stay,” everybody looked at him.
“Just kidding,” Rodney said, and they all managed to smile.
All except Gemma. She was staring at Sal. He pulled her aside.
He pressed his forehead against hers. “I’ll be okay, babe,” he said.
“Take a few of the men outside with you,” Gemma suggested.
Sal frowned. “No way. Why?”
“Because this could be a setup, Sal. They found him so fast! How did they track him down this fast?”
Sal smiled and placed his hands on the side of her arms. “It’s what they do, babe,” he said. “And as far as I’m concerned, given the money I pay their asses, this wasn’t fast enough.” He kissed her. “You just stay put,” he said.
But then the doorbell rang. Everybody looked at Sal. How did Security let somebody through without getting permission first? It could be that their dinner guests had started arriving early, but permission was still supposed to have been granted.
Sal pulled out his Glock and made his way to the front door. When he looked through the peephole and saw who it was, he was surprised. And put his gun away. He quickly opened the door. “Robby?” he asked.
Robby Yale stood at the door, wiping his feet. “I figured you’d want your strongest muscle here,” he said, “to guard your wife and child.”
Sal’s heart swelled with gratitude. Robby was the best muscle he’d ever had. “Thanks, Rob,” he said, and let him in. “But damn. You must have been around the block when you phoned.”
“I was. But trust me, the subject is well guarded.”
“Good.”
“Mrs. Gabrini,” Robby said, nodding toward Gemma. “Hi folks,” he said to Rodney and Cassie.
“How are you?” Cassie asked.
Rodney looked at Sal. “Now am I allowed to go?”
Sal appealed to Cassie for help. But Cassie knew her husband. “If he wants to play cops and robbe
rs, let him,” she said. “I won’t hear the last of it if you don’t.”
Sal would not have ordinarily allowed any such thing, he didn’t care what his father-in-law wanted. But for some reason he felt he was going to need him. It was a gut thing. His head was telling him something altogether different. But Sal always went with his gut.
Besides, Robby was there. And there was no other man whose last name wasn’t Gabrini or Sinatra that Sal would have preferred to guard his family.
“Let’s go,” he said to Rodney.
What struck Rodney Jones when Sal’s Bugatti pulled up at the safe house was how ordinary it looked. Just a small house on a street of small houses in a regular old Rosemont neighborhood.
“This is it?” Rodney asked.
Sal looked at him. “Not what you expected?” he asked. “Not quite?”
“Not hardly,” Rodney said honestly, and Sal smiled as they got out of his car.
But Sal was all business when they walked through that door.
Herbert Leftwich sat in a chair in the middle of the otherwise empty house. He wore glasses and actually looked the part of a mortician. Sal’s men were standing around the side wall inside the house, guarding their detainee. But their detainee, as he pushed his round-rimmed glasses up on his round, pink face, hardly seemed worth the manpower.
“You know who I am,” Sal said, not as a question, but a fact.
But Herbert dissented. “No, sir, I do not,” he said.
“Oh, so we’re gonna play it like that?” Sal asked.
“Why are you holding me captive? I have no money. I have no enemies. What is this about?”
He seemed so convincing, even Sal began to have his doubts. Did they have the right man? “You’re Herbert Leftwich?” Sal asked.
“Yes, I am,” the young man replied.
“Herbert Leftwich?” Rodney asked. Then he frowned. “That’s not Herb Leftwich.”
Sal looked at Rodney. “What are you talking about?”
“I know Herb Leftwich. He’s the guy who wants to open up that Japanese restaurant I was telling you about. He’s the guy who wants me for his partner.”
Sal looked at the pipsqueak they had before them.
“My father,” he said slowly, “is Herb Leftwich, Senior. I’m Herb, Junior. But I don’t see how---”
“Where is he?” Sal asked. “Where’s your father?”
“I have no idea,” Herbert said. “I never had much of a relationship with that man ever.”
“Was that your kid who died in that fire?” Sal asked.
“My kid? No. I have no kids. That was my sister’s son.” Then his looked changed. “She and my dad were close. They got along really well. But he had no dealings with me.”
Sal couldn’t believe it. They had the wrong man! But then he looked at Rodney. The right man was in Indiana too? “You know where he lives?” he asked him.
“Herb?” Rodney asked. “Of course I know. We were going to be partners, remember? But he won’t be there. He’s probably heading to the house right now. I told him to come early to talk with you about the restaurant. He might already be there.”
Sal took off running as if he didn’t have a second to lose, and half of his men, with the exception of a couple staying back to guard their detainee, took off with him. Rodney was confused as hell. How could Herb be involved in this? But he ran out too. He knew he had to stay close to Sal!
Sal was calling Robby Yale even as he jumped in his car. “He’s on his way there!” he yelled. “You detained his son, not him. The man we want is on his way there. Notify Security and put that house on as tight a motherfucking lock down as you can put it under. I’m on my way.” And Sal tossed his phone aside, as Rodney jumped in, and his men jumped in their car. Sal shifted gears, and floored his Bugatti.
Sal had spoken so loud on Robby’s phone that Gemma heard the conversation. And although Robby seemed to hesitate, Gemma didn’t. She was doublechecking the locks on every door and every window inside the house. But that was when she heard the gunfire.
“What’s happening?” Cassie asked hysterically as the gun battle erupted outside.
“Get down, Ma!” Gemma yelled, and Cassie dropped to the floor.
But Gemma wasn’t dropping anywhere. She was running up the stairs.
“Mrs. Gabrini!” Robby yelled as he pulled out his gun.
But Gemma wasn’t thinking about him. She was running up the stairs to get her baby. “My baby’s upstairs!” she yelled. “I’ve got to get my baby.”
Robby ran upstairs after Gemma, with his gun drawn. He knew what he had to do, and he was going to get it done.
Gemma ran across the upstairs landing into the bedroom where Lucky was sleeping. But when she ran through the door, she didn’t see him. Her son was not there. She was the one who put him to bed. And he wasn’t on the bed! Her hammering heart dropped. Lord, no. Lord, no. Don’t let it be so!
And then she saw him. A strange white man. Standing at an open window with her child in his arms. Gemma stopped in her tracks. Her heart squeezed in unimaginable agony.
When Robby ran into the room, and saw the man holding the Gabrini child, he raised his gun to fire. “Put the child on the bed!” he yelled.
But the man held the child closer to the open window. “Don’t try it,” the man said. “Or he’s dead.”
But Robby knew what he had to do. He was trained for moments like this. His job, his entire focus, was to protect Sal Gabrini’s wife and son, and he aimed to do it. That was why he couldn’t join the battle outside, or worry about Gemma’s mother. His job was to keep Sal’s family safe. He knew how to hit his target, and miss what they called ‘the collateral.’ And he didn’t hesitate. Surprising the man who held Sal, Junior, he pulled the trigger. Before the man could even attempt to toss that child out of that window, he shot the man through the forehead, and missed the child. He did what he had to do.
But as the man began to fall, so was the baby about to drop out of his hands.
Gemma ran across that room as if her life depended on it. She ran to catch her son. And she caught him. He didn’t fall. He was crying unconsolably. But he was okay.
But Robby wasn’t okay. Because as soon as he fired his weapon, a man from behind the door, a man with a cane, knocked Robby’s gun out of his hand with the cane’s bunt head.
Gemma didn’t realize what was happening until she heard the thump sound of Robby’s gun hitting down.
She turned quickly, and saw the man she was now convinced was Herbert Leftwich, Senior. And he not only held a cane, but a gun as well. And he was pointing it at Gemma and Robby.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Gemma didn’t know what she was going to do. But she held her baby as close to her body as she could, as he escorted them downstairs.
By the time they made it downstairs, the gun battle outside was over, and four men were rushing inside. It was obvious to Gemma that they weren’t Sal’s men.
“Get the kid,” Leftwich ordered.
Cassie looked up from her floor position when she heard that voice. “Herb?” she asked, astounded that he would be involved in this.
“Her too,” Herb ordered his men, and while one man grabbed Cassie, and one man grabbed Robby, a man held Gemma while the other one attempted to take Lucky out of her arms.
“No!” Gemma cried, and fought with all she had. Cassie and Robby tried to help, but the gunmen pointed their guns.
“You don’t want to try them,” Herb said.
And the strong man finally took the crying baby away from Gemma, and laid him on the sofa.
“What’s our count?” Herb asked his men.
“Just the four of us left,” he said. “You’ll have to be fast. All the rest of our men, along with all of Gabrini’s men, are dead.”
“Take them outside, and do it,” Herb ordered, but Gemma was still fighting. They weren’t about to separate her from her baby.
“What are you going to do?” she asked. �
��Take me, but please let my child go free. Please!”
“My child didn’t go free,” Herb said.
“But it wasn’t his fault,” Gemma tried to make him understand. “Sal didn’t kill that baby. He didn’t even know he was in that house!”
Herb looked at her with faraway eyes. “What are you talking about? I didn’t give a damn about that kid. He was probably going to be no good like his daddy anyway. It’s my daughter your husband ruined. After her son died in that fire, she died too. She turned to drugs. To prostitution. To anything and everything. I tried all my life to help her. But she kept going back to that day. To that house fire. To the death of her child. And then she died.”
Tears were in his eyes.
“My daughter died. She was so young, and she used to be so smart and beautiful. But your husband ruined her life. He killed her, not those drugs. Not that overdose. He killed her! Now it’s his time to understand what that feels like.”
And Herb nodded to his men.
And no matter how much Gemma fought, cried, and complained, they took her, Robby, and Cassie out.
Police sirens could be heard in the distance, but they still seemed a long distance away. And instead of Herb’s men shooting them right then and there, as Gemma expected, and running away, two of Herb’s men stood guard over them, while two more began pouring gasoline around the front of the house. And when Herb opened the front door, and just stood there, it was eerily similar to the story Sal told about seeing that child in that window as that house went up in flames.
But Gemma’s baby was inside this house with that fool. And Gemma fought. She clawed and bit and did all she could to get away. Cassie fought too. And even Robby tried to break free. But they knew they would be shot as soon as they tried.
But Gemma didn’t care. Her child was in that house! She still had to try. She broke away anyway and ran toward that house. She was determined to get inside. And Herb even smiled and held up his hand when one of his men were about to shoot her down. Because as soon as Gemma neared the front door, Herb lit a match, and tossed it onto the gasoline. A side of the porch went up in flames. Herb stepped back, inside the house, and smiled.
Sal Gabrini: Burning Love Page 15
