He held his fire even as he saw William greet him in the lobby, got on his private elevator, and made his way to the top. But as soon as the doors opened and he entered his living area, and Kate Pacheco stood up from his imported couch, he let it out.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked angrily as he made his way toward her. “I told you don’t eve bring that shit here!”
“I had to bring it here!” Kate replied with equal fire. “We had to leave town. I wasn’t going to sit back and let them kill my child! I called you. I called you repeatedly, but you wouldn’t answer my calls! What was I supposed to do?”
Gemma was also in the room, standing next to Kate, and Sal hated that she had to witness any of this. He went to her, and pulled her in his arms. “Hey, babe,” he said as he kissed her.
“Hey,” she said, but he could see the confusion in her eyes. He wondered how much she knew, but by that look in her eyes he suspected not much.
“If you would have returned my calls,” Kate went on, “I wouldn’t be here!”
Sal frowned. “What the fuck you keep bringing that up for? I didn’t return your calls gotdammit. That’s over! Whatta you gonna do about it now?”
Gemma didn’t appreciate how harshly he was talking to this woman, but she was equally certain he had his reasons.
“Now tell me what it is that you had to come all this way about? I handled that thing the last time.”
“It ain’t about that,” Kate said. “I wish it was, but it’s not.” For the first time Gemma could see concern in Kate’s eyes.
Sal, however, Gemma thought, still wasn’t buying it. “What is it?” he asked her.
“Why are you treating me like I’m a piece of scum? You wasn’t vilifying me when you was fucking my brains out!” She yelled this and Sal took his hand and slapped it hard across her face, causing her to stumble backwards.
“Sal!” Gemma screamed as he moved to the woman, grabbed her by the arm, and slung her into a chair. Gemma pulled him back away from the woman. He was pointing at the woman now. “Don’t you try that shit with me! You hear me, Kate? Don’t try that shit with me!”
Kate was nursing the side of her face and staring at Sal with equal parts pain and hatred. Sal stood erect. He was breathing heavily as he refused to take his eyes off of his houseguest.
“This is my woman,” he said to Kate. “This is Gemma Jones and she’s my lady. Now you tell her the last time I touched your ass, and you tell her now. Nobody’s messing up my relationship with this lady. Nobody! And especially not you! Now you tell her, Kate. You tell her!”
“A long time, all right?” Kate said. “Satisfied?”
“How long?” Sal asked her.
“What difference does that make?”
“How motherfucking long?” Sal blared. “You tell her how long!”
Kate hated when Sal was like this. Yeah, she was trying to make his so-called girlfriend jealous, but so what? He didn’t have to hit her and treat her like crap over something that didn’t matter anyway. “How should I know how long?” she asked. “It’s been months. It’s been something like six-seven months ago. Who cares?”
But Sal knew Gemma cared. He knew he had sworn that he hadn’t been with another woman since he reconnected with her in Vegas some five months ago, and no two-bit piece of shit like Kate was going to insinuate anything different. He was working his ass off to make this relationship work. He wasn’t letting anybody mess this up.
And he was right about Gemma. She was very pleased by the revelation that he hadn’t been with Kate in at least as long as they’d been together. But it wasn’t just the sex for Gemma. It was his entire dysfunctional relationship with the woman that had her uneasy. Because she didn’t see the taste factor. How could Sal have seen anything in a woman like her? And Gemma was no innocent. She knew Sal dated some doozies in his day. But damn! This woman had easy and hooker and whore written all over her. Was that what Sal liked?
“Now why is it that you had to leave Jersey and come all this way?” Sal asked. “What was the big deal now?”
If that was Gemma, and Sal had just slapped the shit out of her, she wouldn’t think about answering any of his questions. But this woman, this Kate, seemed as if slaps in the face were nothing new to her. Which, to Gemma, was kind of sad.
“It’s Mikey,” the woman said.
“It’s always Mikey,” Sal said. “What about him?”
“He got himself hooked up with drug dealers.”
“He’s always been hooked up with drug dealers, Kate, you aren’t telling me anything new!”
For some reason Sal’s anger woke up hers. “They have a contract out on his ass!” she yelled. “Is that new enough for you, motherfucker?!”
Gemma looked at Sal, stunned. And what was even more stunning to her was Sal’s reaction. He seemed stunned also.
“A contract?” he asked.
Kate shook her head and took her long hair and draped it out of her face. Tears appeared in her eyes. “I kept calling you but you wouldn’t answer the phone.”
“Who has a contract out on him?”
She shook her head, as if the reality was unspeakable.
“Who, Kate?” Sal asked with an edge that caused Gemma to touch him on the arm. The woman was obviously in pain. He didn’t have to throw salt on her wounds.
And it worked. Sal settled back down. “Who has a contract out on Mikey?” he asked, this time more civilly.
Kate exhaled. “He says it’s Danny Bronco.”
Sal frowned. “Danny Bronco? What the fuck? Danny doesn’t deal drugs. He does a lot of other crazy shit, but he doesn’t deal drugs.”
“But that’s who Mikey says it is. I told him he had done it now. I told him Danny Bronco kills people for sport, how could he get mixed up with the likes of an evil man like that? Now he’s got a contract out on my child and all of those fools are gunning for him. So I grabbed him and took off. And came here. To you. Because you promised Patty---”
“Shut the fuck up!” Sal yelled. “That has nothing to do with you!” Then he settled back down. “Where’s Mikey now?”
“I left him at the motel.”
Sal frowned. “What motel?”
“The Super 10 on Fine Street. Room 29. I couldn’t risk letting him come with me.”
Sal ran his hand through his thick, blondish-brown hair. Gemma could feel his pain. Then he headed for the stairs.
“Excuse us,” Gemma said to Kate and then followed Sal as Sal took the stairs, two at a time.
He was in the master bedroom heading for the massive walk-in closet when Gemma entered the room. By the time she made it to the closet, a back wall of the closet was opening and an arsenal to rival a survivalist stash was seen.
She couldn’t believe her eyes.
Sal grabbed one of the weapons, a .32, and placed it in the small of his back.
“What are you doing?” Gemma asked him as he grabbed a leg holster, lifted the leg of his pants, and began tying it around his own leg.
“I’m going to pick up Mikey,” he said.
“You need guns to pick him up?”
Sal hesitated, and then grabbed a smaller weapon, a .22, and placed it in his leg holster. “Yes,” he said as he stood back up.
It was only then, when he stood back up, did he see the fullness of the distress in Gemma’s eyes.
He placed his arm around her waist and walked her back into the bedroom. They sat, side by side, on the bed. Then he placed her hand in his hand. “You have to trust me, babe,” he said.
“But what’s going on, Sal? Why do you need weapons?”
“I told you what’s going on. I’ve got to go and get Mikey.”
“But who’s Mikey?”
“A kid. Her son.”
Gemma braced herself. “And yours?” she asked.
Sal frowned. “Hell nall. Who told you that?”
Gemma could hardly believe her ears. “He’s not your son?”
“No. Who
told you that?”
Gemma frowned. “What difference does it make who told me? You don’t have any children?”
“Of course I don’t have any kids! Don’t you think I would have told you by now if I did?”
Of course she thought so, but she had that additional information of that voice mail message the woman, she now believed to have been Kate, had left. And there was Kate in the flesh, who had told William that her visit was about Sal’s son.
But even those inconsistencies didn’t trump the fact that her man, the man she loved, was about to leave this apartment armed to the max.
“If he’s not your son,” she asked, “then why do you have to be the one to go pick him up?”
She could see a cloudiness cross Sal’s expressive big blue eyes. “I promised his old man,” he said. “That’s the bottom line. And I need you to trust that I know what I’m doing. I could kick the crap out of Kate for bringing this to our home, but it’s done now. It’s here. So we’ve got to deal with it. Because I promised his old man that I’d look out for him.”
“But I’m sure he didn’t expect you to risk your life looking out for him. Even if you promised him on his death bed, I’m sure he didn’t expect you to have to go that far.”
“He’s not dead,” Sal said. “He’s in prison.”
“But I’m sure the man doesn’t expect you to risk your life to protect his son.”
“He’s in prison because of me,” Sal admitted, with pain now in his eyes.
Gemma looked at him. “Because of you?” she asked.
Sal stood up, ran his hand through his hair, and began to pace the room.
“Why would he be in jail because of you?” She watched him as he paced. “Did you testify against him?”
Sal leaned against the wall, his hands now in the pockets of his expensive suit. “No,” he said. “I wish it was that simple.”
Gemma stared at him. “Then why is that man in prison because of you?”
Sal didn’t speak for a long time, and Gemma allowed him that time. “His name is Patty Pacheco. It’s Patrick, but we call him Patty. He’s been my best friend since we were kids growing up in Jersey together. Even when my old man moved us to Seattle, me and Patty were still tight. I was in Jersey one weekend and we were hanging out together at this club. Well, later, as we were leaving to check out some other sets, Patty sees this guy he knows. Says the guy owes him some money. So Patty heads across the street and I do too, only I move counter to Patty as if we weren’t together, to keep that element of surprise should he need backup.”
Sal hesitated again, staring straight ahead as if he was reliving it again. “So Patty catches up to the guy and the guy starts giving him this bullshit story about how he forgot about the money and he doesn’t have it right now but he’ll get it to him next week. Well Patty wasn’t trying to hear that. So he force the guy into this alley. So I go in behind them. The guy’s back is facing me. Patty’s one of those guys who talk too much. You put a few beers in him and he can go on for days. He had a few beers in him and was reading the guy the riot act. He went on and on. I thought it was amusing myself. But then,” Sal started, but he stopped.
Gemma continued to stare at him. She could see the heightened pain in his eyes.
“But then I saw the guy pull a gun from his pocket. Patty didn’t see it, because he didn’t expect it, but I saw it. And just as he was about to aim it and fire it at Patty, I pulled my own weapon and aimed and fired at him.”
Gemma’s throat constricted. She had a hard time breathing again, but she managed it.
“He went down,” Sal said. “Patty looked at him, saw the gun too, but I had to grab him and tell him that we had to go. People heard the shot and were beginning to look in the alley, so we took off through the back side of the alley, away from all those prying eyes. I thought that was the end of it. The guy’s gun was right there. Maybe the cops would see what the guy was up to and not look too hard for the shooter. I don’t know. I didn’t care. I was heading back to Seattle anyway.”
There was another long pause. “But the guy didn’t die right away,” Sal said. “He lived long enough to tell the cops that the shooter was Patty. He didn’t know me, and didn’t even know I was in that alley with them. So later that night, after I had already left town, they arrested Patty for the guy’s murder.”
Gemma’s heart was pounding. “His murder?” she asked.
Sal nodded. “Yup,” he said. “The guy died that same night.” Then he looked at Gemma, to make himself clear. “He had it coming. It was going to be him or it was going to be Patty. And Patty’s my best friend. It wasn’t going to be Patty.”
Then Sal hesitated, ran his hand across his face. “Patty, he’s a stand-up guy, you know? He take the fall for me. Never mentions my name not one time to the cops. He try to claim that some other guy shot him, and he gives the cops some bogus name, but they wasn’t falling for it. And Patty knew it wasn’t going to matter anyway. He was going to do some time for murder for just being there, even if he didn’t pull the trigger.”
Sal hesitated again. “The cops found out from witnesses that I had left the club with Patty. So they knew I was involved. And they wanted me. I was a Gabrini, I was the nephew of mob boss Paulo Gabrini, and they wanted me bad. So they agreed to go easy on Patty, give him just a few years, but that was only if he snitched on me. But Patty, he’s a stand-up guy. He wouldn’t do it. Yeah, he would have had to do some time regardless. But I doubt if it would have been ten years.”
“But the guy was the aggressor,” Gemma said. “The guy was going to shoot Patty.”
“And what the fuck would those cops care about that? I was a Gabrini. They would have nailed me hard if they could have. All Patty had to do was say the word. But he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.”
Sal then pushed away from the wall and headed back toward Gemma. “The only thing he asked me to do, through his lawyer, was to take care of his son as if he was my own kid. He didn’t give shit about the kid’s mother, about Kate, since they never were together anyway. She was just a piece of Jersey ass everybody got to taste, including Patty. But he loved his son. And he needed my promise that I’d take care of the kid since he wouldn’t be able to. That was four years ago. The kid, Mikey, was thirteen at the time and a pretty good kid. It was an easy promise to make. Until the last year or so. That kid has been outrageous, as if he was starved for attention and was getting involved in everything. From one thing to the next. And I would come and clean up the mess, get on Kate’s case for not being there for the boy, and that would be that. Until the next screw up. I told Kate that maybe the boy should come to Seattle, and spend some time away from the element there, but she would have none of it. The kid wouldn’t either. Until this new shit apparently.”
“This contract out on his life?”
“That’s the new shit,” Sal said. Then he stood there, staring at Gemma. And then he stood her up from the bed and pulled her into his arms. “So I’ve got to make sure Patty’s boy is okay. I have no choice. He’s doing the time I would have been doing. Watching out for his kid is the least I can do.”
Gemma touched Sal on the side of his face. She hated that it had to come to such a terrible crossroad, but she understood it. And she already knew how important loyalty was to Sal. She kissed him on the lips. Her plan was to give him a kiss to relief some of the stress and send him on his way. Her plan was to tell him to be careful, to not be a hero, to be safe.
But she should have known Sal Luca better than that.
It went from him returning her kiss, and kissing her long and hard, to him removing her clothes and fucking her long and hard. Despite the situation, despite the fact that Kate was still right downstairs, he turned her chaste kiss into a hard one, placed his hand down her panties massaging her, and then unzipped and set free his aroused penis.
He put it in even as he was crawling on top of her on the bed, and he began a steady fuck-rock as he continued kissing her. Gemma loved it too.
It had been another full week without him, and she loved it even more when they first came together after an absence. And even with this craziness around them; even with Kate Pacheco downstairs; even with both of them fully dressed except for the exposure of her pussy and his penis, she wrapped her arms around Sal and enjoyed every second of his love.
And they didn’t cum right away either. They’d had stress relievers in the past and it usually was a pretty quick coupling. But this time, Sal took his time. She didn’t know if it was because he didn’t want to face what he had to face, or because he simply loved fucking her so much.
He loved fucking her so much. It had been a full week for him too. He had been looking so forward to this moment again, to seeing her again, to being with her again in every sense of the word. That was why he took his time.
After about ten minutes of pure, sweet sex where Sal kept his strokes steady and never attempted to pound, and where all they could hear was the slouching sound of his sex and her sex mixing together into great sex, they came. First Sal for a change, and then Gemma. He plowed in deeper and began pulsating. She took him in full and clamped around him. She was throbbing too. She loved Sal. With every fiber of her being she loved this man. And she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he loved her.
He looked at her when the last of their cum began to ebb. He placed his hand on the side of her face and looked deep into her bright brown eyes. “I love you for so many reasons,” he said to her. “But I love your strength too. You’re strong, Gemma. And I need you to stay strong, okay? Will you promise me?”
He was scaring her. The look in his eyes, the words he spoke, scared her. But she knew he had to do what he had to do and she wasn’t going to add to his stress. “Yes,” she said. “I promise.”
Sal smiled a smile so laced with anguish that she pulled his face down to hers and kissed him hard again. Then she looked into his eyes. “If there’s a fight,” she said, “you’d better win it. Promise me that.”
Sal nodded his head. He understood what she meant. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I never lost one yet.”
She smiled and allowed him to wrap her tighter in his arms. When she looked over toward the door, however, after seeing something in her periphery, she pushed him off of him. Kate Pacheco was standing at their bedroom door.
ROMANCING SAL GABRINI Page 17
