Tommy Gabrini: A Family Man

by Mallory Monroe

  Grace nodded her agreement. That was what she loved the most about the Gabrini men: family meant everything to them.

  But she was still worried. Whenever Tommy had to take care of that kind of business, she worried.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Branson Nash was waiting on the outside of the safe house when the SUV was waved through the security parameter, and the driver drove Tommy and Sal toward the entrance.

  Sal looked at Tommy. “I’ve been leaving you to your thoughts,” he said, “because it looked like you were trying to figure shit out in your head. But I think you need to clue me in before we go inside.”

  Tommy, buried in his thoughts, finally looked at Sal. “What’s that?” he asked.

  “What the fuck’s going on, Tommy?” Sal answered. “Why are we back here?”

  Tommy realized he hadn’t told Sal anything. “Remember the night Pauley was killed?”

  “Yeah, I remember it. What about it?”

  “Remember the guy who was with him?”

  “Dale B? Yeah, so?”

  “Dale Birch,” Tommy said. “I didn’t put two-and-two together until I heard that phrase.”

  “You mean when that fucker on the phone said ‘my terrible’ instead of my bad, after he tried to trick us again?”

  “Yes.”

  “What about the phrase?”

  “It was a phrase Jillian would sometimes use.”

  That was a name Sal hadn’t heard in a long time. “Jillian?” he asked. “Who the fuck is . . .” Then Sal realized who. “The bitch who used to own Trammel Trucking?”

  Tommy nodded. “Her. Yes.”

  “And her name was Jillian--”

  “Birch,” Tommy said, finishing Sal’s thought. “Her name was Jillian Birch.”

  “And you think Dale Birch is related to her?”

  “It’s a wild shot, I know,” Tommy said, getting out of the now stopped SUV. “But it’s the only shot we have.”

  “Damn, Tommy. Jillian Birch. I thought that bitch was dead,” Sal said, getting out too.

  “She took off. She left Seattle a long time ago. But I never heard she had died.”

  “Damn,” Sal said again. “She hated your guts when you gave your shares in Trammel to Grace, which made Grace the majority stockholder and her boss all of a sudden. And Jillian was always crazy as a motherfuck too? Oh yeah. She absolutely would have a motive to terrorize your ass.”

  Tommy knew it too. That was why he hurried up to Branson Nash, and then inside the safe house. He couldn’t get to Dale fast enough.

  And to his surprise, they didn’t have to strongarm or beat the truth out of Dale. He was waiting for them, not in the basement where Jules was being held, but upstairs, in a back room. And he was ready to talk.

  “I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” he said as soon as they walked in, “if you guarantee I can get out of this alive.”

  “Who the fuck are you to lay down conditions?” Sal asked.

  “I’m talking to you, Tommy. Not Sal. You. Will you guarantee I’ll get out of this alive?”

  Tommy wasn’t in the mood to give any guarantees. And especially not to that fucker. But hope was a mighty motivator. And he needed the truth and the whole truth this time. He sat down in front of Dale. Sat down because his adrenalin could take him just so far. He was still dead tired. “Yes,” he said, and crossed his legs. “Now talk.”

  “She’s my mother,” he said.

  Tommy knew who he meant, but he had to make sure. “Who’s your mother?”

  “You know who. Jillian. Or Jilly as you used to call her. You fucked her, then you fucked her up.”

  “Shut the fuck up!” Sal said.

  “Who’s your father?” Tommy asked.

  Dale hesitated, but then he answered. “Joe DeLuca,” he said.

  Sal and Tommy both were shocked. “I’ll be damn,” said Sal.

  “Where’s Jillian now?” Tommy asked him. “Where’s DeLuca? Are they together right now?”

  Dale shook his head. “I don’t know that.”

  “What are they planning?”

  “To take you down. What else?”

  “Why?” Sal asked. “Because of Trammel?”

  “Trammel?” Dale shook his head. “You don’t know shit, Sal.”

  “Why do they want to take me down?” Tommy asked him.

  “Mom moved away, and married another rich man. That’s the only kind she bothered with. And it was all good. Until the Feds came around, and raided his businesses. Until he would rather kill himself than go to prison.”

  “She lost everything?” Tommy asked.

  “Everything,” Dale said. “Now she wants what was rightfully hers to begin with. She wants Trammel back, and GCI while she’s at it.”

  “And how the fuck they plan to pull that shit off?” Sal asked.

  “You’ll have to ask them that,” said Dale. “I want no parts of it. DeLuca gave me a job in his organization strictly because Mom asked him to. He doesn’t even acknowledge me as his kid, and that’s fine too. I don’t acknowledge that fat fuck as my father either.”

  “Where are the happy couple?” Sal asked.

  Dale wouldn’t respond.

  “Where are they, asshole?” Sal asked again.

  But Dale still wouldn’t say.

  “Where?” Tommy asked.

  But Dale didn’t seem prepared to go that far. Tommy, tired, but also tired of his shit, jumped up and grabbed Dale by his shirt, pulling him up too. “Where?” he yelled. “I’m not fucking with you! Where are they?”

  “I don’t know where DeLuca is.”

  “What about your mother? Where’s Jillian?”

  “Home,” Dale said. “She’s home.”

  “Where the fuck is home?” Sal asked angrily.

  “Home,” Dale said. “Where it’s always been. When she came back to Seattle, she went home.”

  Tommy couldn’t believe it. Sal looked at him. “Did anybody even think to search that bitch’s house?” Sal asked.

  “Why would they?” Tommy asked. “We had no idea she was involved.”

  Sal realized it too.

  “And DeLuca’s staying there with her?” Tommy asked Dale.

  “No. I don’t know where he’s staying.”

  “But they got back together?” Sal asked.

  “No. Not like you mean. They aren’t together because of love. They’re together because of my mother’s hatred of you,” he said, looking directly at Tommy. “DeLuca wants to rule the Seattle market. That’s why they’re together. DeLuca has the manpower and Mom knows you like she knows the back of her hand. They’re together because they both want to take you down, and take what’s yours.”

  But Tommy didn’t give a fuck what they wanted. There was hope now. They had names, they had motives, and, most importantly, they had a place.

  But he also knew he had to play it right. Not with an army of people, but with a precision team. People like Jillian Birch wasn’t going to just let him walk up on her and destroy her well-laid plans.

  When he and Sal got back into the SUV, he didn’t hesitate. He called Mick and Big Daddy Sinatra.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “I don’t like the plan.”

  “There’s no other way, Sal.”

  “But for Tommy to be exposed like that,” Sal said. “I can’t go along with that. I can’t believe you’re going along with it, too, Reno. And you, Big Daddy.”

  “You didn’t mention Mick,” Big Daddy said.

  “Because he’ll go along with any shit,” Sal said, and they all laughed. “He lives dangerously like that. We aren’t trying to do that with Tommy!”

  “Stop worrying like some old lady, Sal,” Mick said with a crooked smile on his face. “We’ll have his back. We always do.”

  Sal exhaled. He knew it too. His stress level had been, the whole time, as high as Tommy’s, and he knew he was being overprotective. “Where is he, anyway?” he asked.

  Tom
my was upstairs, in the master bedroom, with Grace and the children on the bed. He was sitting on the dressing table stool, facing them and pulling his expensive dress shoes out of their leather enclosure.

  “Why are you dressing up so pretty, Daddy?” Destiny asked.

  “He has an appointment,” Grace said.

  “To do what?” TJ asked.

  “To meet somebody we used to know.”

  “A woman?” Destiny asked.

  Tommy and Grace glanced at each other, and then looked at Des. “Why would you ask if she’s a woman?” Grace asked.

  “Because I don’t like how women look at Daddy.”

  “What?” Tommy asked with a smile. “How do they look at me?”

  “The way Mommy looks at you,” Destiny said. “Like they’re the gravy and you’re the steak.”

  Tommy and Grace laughed. “What do you know about that?” Grace asked.

  Destiny smiled too. “I don’t know anything about that,” she said. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to go to school today!”

  “Go downstairs, guys,” Tommy said, “and talk with your uncles. I need to talk to Mommy.”

  “Without us?” TJ asked.

  “Without you, champ,” Tommy said.

  “Yes, sir,” said TJ, and he and Destiny got up and left the room.

  Tommy looked at Grace. He saw the apprehension in her sweet, round eyes. He started putting on his shoes. “It’ll be alright, babe.”

  “But it’s so bold, just walking up there,” Grace said. “What if they start shooting? You know how Jillian can be.”

  “Yes, I do know. Remember, I knew her longer than you did. I know how she thinks. If her plan is to destroy me for giving my shares in Trammel to you, then shooting me isn’t going to be good enough for her. She wants your company and mine too. She wants satisfaction in seeing me suffer while she’s at it. That’s what that kidnapping was about. Not to kill you and the kids, but to torment you and me. I know how she thinks.”

  Tommy stood up. Grace did too. He went to her and pulled her into his arms.

  “Promise me you’ll be careful,” Grace said to him.

  “I promise,” he said to her.

  Grace straightened his tie. “I know you will then,” she said. “You never break your promises.”

  Tommy laughed. “Except when I do.”

  Grace smiled too. “Right.”

  “But don’t worry, Grace.” His look turned serious. “I have to come back home. Me, you, and the kids, and our soon-to-be newborn are a five-man band. I won’t dare break up the band.”

  Grace laughed. “You’d better not!” she said.

  Then both their looks turned serious, and Tommy kissed her. Hugged her again. And then left.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  An SUV drove up to the huge estate that belonged to Jillian Birch. It was far more isolated than Tommy remembered it, mainly because many homes in that area were boarded up, abandoned, or otherwise bank-owned and empty due to the recession. Even Jillian’s home was a shell of what it used to be.

  Tommy got out from behind the wheel and made his way up to the front door. He remembered attending all sorts of parties at that very residence. He met Grace for the first time at that very residence. But those days, he knew, were gone.

  But there was a time when Tommy and Jillian were equals. But he kept moving up, and she, mainly due to her own actions, started sliding down. Now she wanted to drag him down too? He knew what that meant. She was about to drag her own ass down!

  He walked up to the glass double doors and rang the bell. He was dressed to perfection, in a black Cucinelli suit, on purpose. Jillian had to believe that he was there to talk.

  It took long enough, but Jillian finally answered the bell. She seemed surprised to see him, as if she had no idea he would be on to her this fast. But Tommy knew her. It was an act.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked him.

  It had been quite a few years, but she looked substantially the same. “It’s been a long time, Jilly.”

  “Yes, it has. That’s why I wonder why you’re here.”

  “I heard you know somebody I’m looking for.”

  “Me? Who?”

  “May I come in? You used to always ask me inside your home when I visited you.”

  Jillian hesitated, but allowed him inside. As Tommy closed the door, he placed a Velcro bracket on the door.

  After they both took a seat in the living area, Tommy got down to business. “Where’s Joe DeLuca?” he asked her.

  She stared at him, as if she was trying to figure out how to play this. “Why would you want to know that?”

  “He kidnapped my family.”

  “Joey? That’s ridiculous! Why would he?”

  “I thought you could tell me that.”

  “Me? I barely know the man!”

  “Not according to your son.”

  Jillian frowned. “What is this? My son is dead and you know it. He committed suicide, thanks to your Grace. Remember that? Cameron is dead!”

  “But Dale isn’t.”

  Jillian stared at him. “Dale?”

  “I have him in my custody,” Tommy said.

  Jillian jumped up shocked. “What? You have him? Where?”

  Tommy stood up too. He buttoned his suit coat. “Now you want to tell me about Joe DeLuca?”

  “Joe DeLuca?”

  “Yeah. Dale’s father. The man you teamed up with to take me down. The man you teamed up with to kidnap my family.”

  Jillian frowned. “Your family. It’s always all about you, isn’t it, Tommy? What about me!” She screamed it out. “You in your fancy suit, living the high life, and I can barely keep this place open! What about me, Tommy?”

  “Your fate has nothing to do with me,” Tommy said. “You made that bed yourself. I was never in it.”

  “You took my company away from me,” she said, “and gave it to that bitch Grace.”

  “I gave my shares in Trammel Trucking to the woman I love. Which I had every right to do. You ran that company in the ground. Grace built it back up. And you hated her for it.”

  “It was my company! And yes, I hated her. She didn’t deserve to have anything. Who was she? Some black bitch nobody gives a damn about! How dare you put her up on a pedestal like that!”

  Tommy exhaled. “Jealousy will only get you just so far, Jilly,” he said. “Because when you run out of excuses, and run out of people to blame, you’ll still be right where you are. Wherever you go, there you are. You can’t run away from yourself, Jilly.”

  But just as he said those words, Tommy saw Jillian’s eyes look slightly to the left of him, as if somebody was behind him, and then she winced as if she anticipated something was about to happen and she had to be prepared for it.

  Something like an attack.

  Something like an ambush.

  Tommy kept talking. He kept asking her about DeLuca. But he was getting prepared too.

  And as soon as Jillian’s body moved slightly to the right, as if the time had come, Tommy didn’t hesitate. He knew his motions had to be as simultaneous as her motions, or faster.

  That was why he was pulling out his Magnum at the same time he was turning his body. And as he was turning his body he was also leaning backwards, just in case a bullet came before he could react.

  His instincts were right. Because as soon as he turned, he saw a man behind him; a man with a gun aimed directly at him. But before the man could pull his trigger, Tommy, with more experience in split-second decision-making than most human beings alive, pulled his trigger. He fired. A flashback of that innocent boy in that abandoned building flashed through his mind, but he tossed it right back out of his head. And fired again.

  The man dropped his gun, and then his entire body dropped dead.

  But Tommy didn’t allow himself to focus on that man. He immediately turned back around to a stunned Jillian, just as she was backing up, and he aimed his still-smoking gun at her. “Who do you thin
k you’re fucking with?” he asked her angrily, as he got back on his feet.

  Jillian, realizing who, placed her hands in the air in total surrender.

  But as soon as the gunfire inside had ceased, gunfire outside erupted. And that was when Tommy heard the sound of movement upstairs.

  He looked at Jillian. “He’s here?” he asked her.

  “Who? No. Nobody’s here.”

  But her denials made Tommy more, not less, suspicious. He went to his former friend, grabbed her and placed the back of her body against the front of his, and placed his gun to her head. “Not one word,” he warned her, and then began walking with her up her winding staircase.

  Outside, Mick, Sal, and Reno arrived at the backside of the property just before gunshots could be heard inside the home. It was a risk. Their calculation was based on what Mick knew about Joe DeLuca and his propensity to ambush rather than fight head-on. That was why Mick, Sal, and Reno moved along the edges, just behind the massive hedges, of the property.

  Mick’s calculation was right. The backside of Jillian’s property was loaded with armed men. And they all were huddled along the backdoor entrance. To Mick, it was DeLuca’s style. To Sal and Reno, it made no sense.

  “Why would everybody be right at the door?” Sal asked. “Why aren’t their asses spread out?”

  “Joe DeLuca’s old school,” Mick said. “He doesn’t want the likes of me picking his men off one by one. If Tommy launched a counterattack, which DeLuca figures he will, he wants to know it when it first starts happening. Because if the backup battle is in one location, many of his men will be able to get away and enter the home to aid him.”

  “That’s why we’re attacking from more than one location,” Reno said.

  “Right,” said Mick. “You go around front, Reno. Tommy bracketed the front door so that it wouldn’t lock. You’ll be able to enter that house and be in position to either help Tommy, or kill every motherfucker back here who runs inside.”

  Reno nod. “Got it,” he said.

  “Me and Sal will take care of the back end.”

  But as soon as Mick said those words, they heard the gunfire from inside the house. Mick panicked, because he knew what that meant. The men outside of the house would suddenly rush in, overwhelming Tommy, before they had a chance to offer backup.