“Six.”
He switched his main phone to CTS.
“Five.”
“What’s the account number?!” he yelled.
“8882357. Four.”
Tommy entered the account number.
“Three.”
He entered his PIN.
“Two.”
He entered the five-million-dollar amount requested, and pressed SEND. “It’s done!”
“One.”
“It’s done!” Tommy screamed again. “Don’t harm my family! It’s done!”
And then, just like that, the line went dead.
Tommy’s heart fell through his shoe. “Hello? Hello? Answer me, gotdammit! Hello?”
But there was nobody there. No one was on the line.
“Sir, what’s happened?” the onsite security chief asked anxiously. “What was that about?”
But Tommy couldn’t answer him. He was too busy calling Grace’s phone number. And as it began ringing, he was praying. “Let her answer,” he was praying. “Please, let them be alright!”
But it went to Voice Mail.
Then they heard the front door open. Tommy reached into his drawer and grabbed a loaded gun even as his security detail, some ten men strong inside the house, hurried toward the front door with guns drawn, too. But when they arrived at the door, they relaxed.
Tommy was the last to make it, as they would not allow him to go in front of them, given that it was their job to protect him. But he pushed through them when he saw that they were no longer aiming their weapons. When he saw who was at the door, that it was Grace and the children, and they looked perfectly fine, his heart soared. He broke through his team of guards and hurried to them.
“Are you alright?” he asked Grace anxiously.
Destiny had her arm around her baby brother, and was leaned against Grace. Those men with guns were scaring them. Until they saw their father. TJ broke away from Destiny and ran to his father.
Tommy lifted him into his arms. But Grace was the one surprised. “What’s happening?” she asked Tommy. “Why are they in here with guns on us?”
Was it a hoax? Tommy wondered. Was it a five-million-dollar hoax just like that? “Where were you?” Tommy asked her.
“We went to lunch at Chuck E Cheese in Bellevue. It’s not a quick trip. But what happened, Tommy? Are you alright? Why did you ask if we were okay?”
Tommy turned to the onsite security chief. “Get my CFO on the line,” he said to him. “Tell him I just made a five-million-dollar CTS transfer into account number 8882357. Tell him to trace and stop if he can. And increase security immediately.”
“Yes, sir,” the chief said, and was calling the CFO even before Tommy finished speaking.
Tommy took his family, with his arm around Grace, with Destiny’s arm around him, and with TJ in his other arm, and walked them into the back parlor, their private haven, and closed the door. He knew the children didn’t need to hear this, but in his heart he’d just gotten them back. He wasn’t letting them out of his sight. Not right now anyway.
Besides, they were Gabrinis. Tommy tried to shield Grace once from the inevitabilities of being a Gabrini, and it turned out horribly for both of them. He was out of the shielding game.
They all sat down on the couch, with Tommy in the middle, Grace and Destiny on either side of him, and TJ on his lap. This was his family. This wasn’t the family he was forced to have, when he and Sal lived under the roof of abusive, uncaring parents. This was the family he chose.
He could tell Grace was worried sick. So he didn’t delay in explaining. “There was a phone call. A man said he had my family.”
“Your family?” Grace asked.
“Us?” Destiny asked.
Tommy placed his arm around Destiny. “Yes, baby. The three of you.”
“And they wanted the five million?” Grace asked. She had heard his conversation with his onsite security chief.
“That’s what they wanted, yes.”
“And you gave it to them?” Destiny’s already big eyes were even larger.
Tommy nodded his head. He wasn’t holding anything back from them. “Yes.”
Destiny seemed in awe. “Wow, Daddy,” she said. “You must really love us!”
Tommy looked at her. Sometimes he knew, he was so busy, that it might have seemed as if he loved his businesses more than his family. But nothing could be further from the truth.
He kept his arm around Destiny, put his other arm around Grace, and leaned back onto the couch. TJ already had both of his arms around his father and was leaned against his chest. And the four of them, that family unit with a baby in the oven, leaned against each other.
“From now on,” Tommy said, “instead of driving wherever you need to go, I’m going to have your detail chief drive you and the children. They’ll stay with you all day, and drive you and the children back home.”
“For how long?” Grace asked.
“For however long it takes to figure out what’s happening,” Tommy said.
Grace nodded. She wasn’t arguing with Tommy’s security decisions.
“I hope you get your money back, Daddy,” Destiny said. “But I’m glad it was a prank.”
Tommy kissed Destiny on the top of her head, and pulled Grace even closer against him. His heart was still hammering from that thirty-second ordeal. But he had his family back. And as Destiny said, he, too, was glad it was a prank. She’d never know how glad.
But he and Grace looked at each other. Tommy was a Gabrini, and Grace had been a Gabrini long enough to know that nobody pranked the Gabrinis just to secure money. They were risking their very lives and the lives of all they held dear by pulling that kind of prank, and with that kind of money. Something more was at work here. Tommy knew it, and Grace knew it too.
But that was all they knew.
Later that same day, Tommy phoned his brother Sal and told him not to leave town as Sal had planned. There was a hoax phone call, he told Sal, but five million of his dollars were gone. Sal agreed to remain in town.
But then a second phone call would come in when Sal, along with Jimmy Gabrini, arrived the next day at Tommy’s office. And that time, it would be no hoax. And that time, money would not be the issue.
Sal would get on the phone and contact Jules Matteo, Grace’s security detail chief, and Jimmy would get on the phone and contact Vincenzo Reye, the children’s security detail chief. They would be desperate to make sure Tommy’s men had eyeballs on Grace and the kids. But both chiefs had been roped into whoever was after the Gabrinis. Both chiefs ended up lying to them about eyeballing Tommy’s family. And then they both got on the phone and laughed about it.
And although there had been joy that the first call was a hoax, that joy was completely gone by the time of that second call the very next day. The second call that came into Tommy’s office, with Sal and Jimmy as witnesses, was the real thing. Shots were fired, too, which made a bad situation all the more dire.
Tommy Gabrini’s pregnant wife, and their two children, were officially missing.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The two air traffic controllers sat inside the control tower at the private airstrip, on the outskirts of Seattle, wondering what was going on. They didn’t know what it could be, but they knew it was going to be big. Partly because a fleet of twenty big, black Chevy Tahoe SUVs suddenly drove up and parked, all in a row, and men dressed like secret service agents stood outside of the SUVs waiting. They hadn’t had that kind of activity at that particular airstrip except once, the time Air Force Two, carrying the Vice President of the United States, made a pitstop there.
But they mainly knew it was big when they found out who was coming in.
The first plane requested clearance. When the first controller heard the name through the headphones he wore, he looked at his colleague with a look of surprise on his face.
“Who is it?” the second controller mouthed. He couldn’t hear the conversation on the other end of the
headphones, but he could see the first controller’s face.
“Clearance for Mr. Reno Gabrini’s plane to land granted,” said the first controller to the pilot making the request.
The second controller wasn’t as savvy as his colleague, and frowned. “I know that name,” he said when the intercom button was disengaged by the first controller. “Do I know him?
“Hell yeah you know him. You know of him anyway. He’s the guy that owns the PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip.”
“Right! But didn’t it catch fire or burn down or something?”
“Something like that, yeah,” the first controller said. “I don’t know the details, though, or if it’s been rebuilt.”
“What’s he doing here?”
“What do you think? Tommy Gabrini lives here, remember? They’re cousins.”
“Get out of here!” said the second controller. “I didn’t know they were related.”
“They are,” said the first controller, and then his attention turned to the plane as it was landing. “Nice plane,” he said.
They watched after the plane landed, too, when Reno and his wife Trina Gabrini alighted the plane. But they weren’t alone. Sal Gabrini’s wife Gemma Jones-Gabrini was with them.
They looked flustered and mortified, even to the air traffic controllers, as four of the men from the first two SUVs hurried across the tarmac towards them. Reno placed his hand on the small of both ladies’ backs and all three were blanketed by the four men as they escorted them to the first SUV. Reno and the ladies got in, along with the four men guarding them, and the SUV, followed by four of the other SUVs, took off.
And even as they were driving off, a second request for clearance came in. When the second controller heard the name of the gentleman, he knew they were in for a treat. “Clearance for Hamilton Reese’s plane to land granted,” the second controller said. When he disengaged the intercom button, he mouthed wow.
The first controller had already mouthed it. “Hammer Reese?” he asked. “The former director of the CIA is about to appear right before our very eyes? Damn. What’s going on here?”
They looked intensely, as the second plane landed, the doors opened, and Hammer Reese himself, along with Amelia Sinatra, emerged out of the plane and hurried down.
“He’s bigger-looking in person,” said the second controller. “And who’s the woman with him? I didn’t know he was married.”
“I don’t know if he’s married or not,” the first controller said, “but that ain’t his wife.”
“Then who is she?”
“How should I know?”
“Then how do you know she’s not his wife?”
“She just doesn’t look like his wife.”
“Why?”
“Because he was my hero when he was director. That man knew how to take care of business. I remember even the president was scared of his ass.”
“And because he was your hero, he can’t have a black wife?” the second controller asked pointblank. “Is that it?”
“Why do you liberals always bring up the race card? Why does it always have to be about race?”
The second controller smiled. “Because I know how you are, that’s why,” he said.
They also watched as Hammer Reese and Amelia Sinatra were blanketed by another group of four guards as they made their way to the next SUV in line. When they got in, along with their guards, that SUV, along with four others, took off too.
Then the first controller wondered who the next two planes would be. “Maybe a movie star and a sports star. Like Sandra Bullock and Wayne Gretzky,” he said gleefully.
“What makes you so certain it’s two more planes?” the second controller asked.
“Because it stands to reason. Each guy got five SUVs to escort their crew out of here. There are ten SUVs left. Do the math, man. Do the math!”
He laughed. And then the next request for clearance arrived. But when the first controller heard who it was, he corrected himself. “My bad,” he said to his partner before he gave approval.
“Your bad about what?” the second controller asked.
The first one smiled. “You’re see,” he said, and then he pressed the intercom button. “Clearance for Mr. Mick Sinatra’s plane to land granted,” he said.
And when he said it, the second controller smiled too. “Nine will get you ten he gets all of the remaining bodyguards.”
“Like hell.”
“Wanna bet? Fifty bucks say I’m right.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” said the first controller. “But I’m probably going to lose. And it’s a shame.”
“What’s so shameful about it?” the second controller asked. “It’s just a friendly wager. What’s the shame in it?”
“A filthy, rotten man like that, the so-called boss of all mob bosses, a man like Mick the Tick Sinatra gets the red-carpet treatment, while a law enforcement giant like Hammer Reese just gets regular treatment. That’s what’s wrong with this country today,” he added.
“Then why don’t you get out of this tower and tell Mick the Tick your feelings about his special treatment?” the second controller suggested. “Go on, I dare you. I’ll handle your calls. You go tell him to his face like the conservative champion you are.”
The first controller looked at him, and then both men laughed.
But neither were laughing when they saw that Mick Sinatra, just like Reno Gabrini and Hammer Reese before him, had a black lady on his arm too.
“Damn,” said the first controller. “They’re worse than the Kardashians! What’s wrong with these people?”
The second controller smiled as Mick Sinatra, with his hand around his wife’s waist, also had Mick’s big brother Big Daddy Charles Sinatra with them. And all three were blanketed by no less than six men. And all three Sinatras were grim-faced too. Whatever had happened, the controllers decided, it was apparently very bad news.
And when they got into their SUV, and the remaining nine SUVs followed Mick the Tick and his wife and brother, the second controller reached out his hand.
“What?” the first one asked.
“We made a bet that there would be only one more plane. Now pay up, buddy. Pay your ass up. It’s only fair.”
The first controller didn’t find it fair at all, but he paid up anyway.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
They knocked down doors and tore down barriers. Every member of the Gabrini and Sinatra families that had arrived in Seattle hit the streets with their security details. They talked to vicious drug lords and FBI snitches. They met with crooked law men and lawless mobsters. They visited the underworld and the underground. They blanketed Seattle, Washington, unlike it had ever been blanketed before. Three Gabrinis were missing, and they would leave no stone unturned.
But for all their outsized efforts, they turned up nothing. Nobody had heard anything. Nobody knew anything. They had nothing.
Now they were all back at Tommy’s house, in his living room, and the mood was gloomy bordering on downright depression. They made round after round after round and came up empty. Not even one single clue was uncovered.
Hammer Reese had never seen anything like it. “Usually there’s some chatter,” he said, “when a big event like the kidnapping of Tommy Gabrini’s wife and children goes down. But all my guys are turning up are blanks. Nobody saw this coming. Nobody knows a damn thing.” Hammer was standing next to a chair occupied by his girlfriend and Mick and Big Daddy’s half-sister Amelia.
Amelia Sinatra, a beautiful biracial woman, agreed with Hammer. They had hit the streets together, but came back emptyhanded too. “What this reminds me of,” she said, “is when a drug lord is snatched.” Everybody looked at her. She was once a drug lord herself, before her big brothers and Hammer Reese made her find a different profession. They knew she knew what she was talking about. “Everything goes silent,” she said. “Nobody will talk to anybody. Nobody knows a damn thing. Nobody saw a thing. Nobody wants to get involved.”
“Are you saying some of these people we’ve all been talking to are lying?” Reno Gabrini asked her. Reno was Tommy’s first cousin, but also his best friend, and he was worried sick too.
“What I’m saying is that somebody has to know something. But nobody’s telling what they know.”
“Which usually means?” Hammer asked her.
“That whoever has Grace and the kids is a very powerful individual.”
Hammer nodded. “That’s what I’m thinking too,” he said.
“But who?” Big Daddy asked. “We agree the person is most likely powerful. What nobody knows is who this person could be. I heard Joe DeLuca’s name bandied about. I’ve heard a few other names. But those people don’t rise to the level of power Millie’s talking about. We need to find out who it is.”
“We don’t even have a ransom note,” Reno said. “And the phone calls can’t be traced.”
“And they won’t make any more phone calls,” Sal said. “What the fuck are they after?”
That was the million-dollar question that nobody was able to answer, and didn’t try to answer.
They all had dropped everything to come and help Tommy as soon as they got the news. Big Daddy left his three oldest sons Brent, Tony, and Bobby Sinatra in charge of his big household, while Mick left his second-in-command Teddy Sinatra in charge of his family and enormous turf. Jimmy Gabrini returned to Vegas, so that he could take charge of his younger siblings and Sal and Grace’s son Lucky. Neeco, Sal’s father, was left in charge while Jimmy flew back, but Sal and Reno knew, given that Reno’s son Dommi was one of the kids Neeco was in charge of, that Neeco would need backup. Hammer and Amelia left their child in the care of Hammer’s brother Trevor Reese before they flew out to Seattle. It was all hands on deck, and they all showed up, but it was little comfort to Tommy because Grace, Des, and TJ were still nowhere to be found.
There was also no such thing as putting every available man on the case. Every man period, whether they were available or not, from everybody’s army of men, were on the case. Hammer Reese even had law enforcement, in the form of his covert special ops’ teams, on it too. Tommy didn’t want to call in official law enforcement for fear that they would only get in the way, and even Hammer agreed with that.
Tommy Gabrini: A Family Man Page 11
