But something in her was changing. She did feel she needed Sal. And although she wouldn’t say she was clingy, she certainly wanted to be with him all the time! They had things to work out, and a wedding to plan. And what about the super-major matter of their living situation? She lived in Vegas and he lived and ran several businesses out of Seattle. They hadn’t even discussed how they were going to manage that.
It was mainly because of their busy schedules. She returned to Vegas the day after his proposal, not because she wanted to. She had to appear in court with some of her clients, and he had his own businesses to run. Then something apparently went down in Baltimore that demanded his attention. And he’d been away handling that situation for the past week.
The door of her office opened and Curtis Kane, her secretary, walked in. Gemma slowly eased her hand to her side, to shield her ring from view, and turned toward the door.
“Yes, Curtis?”
“Mrs. Katrina Gabrini is here to see you, boss.”
Oh, great, Gemma thought. Trina! The woman with the golden eye for anything diamond. “Send her in,” she said and walked over to her desk. She stood behind the desk and calmly, but quickly removed her ring and slipped it into her desk drawer. And not a moment too soon as Trina Gabrini walked in. She was a gorgeous woman with a curvaceous shape, long hair, and an awesome combination of dark-brown skin and cute, hazel eyes. She was removing her gloves and talking, all at the same time.
“I told Curtis he could work for me at Champagne’s. He has the personality for it. But he turned me down cold. No way is he leaving Jones Law Firm, he said. ‘Law Firm,’ I said. ‘So it’s firm now?’ Used to barely be an office. But you go girl!” Then Trina shook her head with a smile. “I’m just messing with you.”
“It’s after five, Tree,” Gemma said as she sat down behind her own desk. “How did you know I’d still be here? I thought you said you were coming at three.”
“I couldn’t get away at three.” Trina sat down in front of the desk. “Business is actually picking up. You should try working in the store yourself sometimes.”
“I’ve been in court on cases all this week. You know that.”
“Speaking of court,” Trina said. “I also want a divorce and need your expert advice. Reno is driving me nuts!”
Gemma smiled. Reno Gabrini, who happened to be Trina’s husband, was Sal’s cousin. “I’m an attorney,” she said, “but I’m not a divorce attorney on any day of the week.”
“You ought to be! That’s where the money is, honey. I’ll divorce his butt and take him for every dime he’s worth. And he’s worth a lot of dimes. I’ll take him for every one.”
“Yeah,” Gemma said. “I don’t believe that.”
“I don’t either,” Trina said. “But it sounds good, doesn’t it?”
Gemma leaned back. “It must be bad. For you to come to my office. For you to refuse to discuss it while you were still at Champagne’s. It must be bad.”
Trina nodded and stopped with the joking around. “It’s bad. It’s Liz.”
“Liz again?”
“Liz again, girl. It’s not working out. She keeps pulling this shit, and we can’t keep standing back and letting it happen. Do you realize that woman had one of our customers in tears yesterday?”
Gemma frowned. “In tears? What happened?”
“The woman was looking at some of our sexy lingerie, right? Minding her own business. Doing what a customer does. But Miss Liz Mertan, that heifer, tells the woman that maybe she should go down the street, to the plus-size shop.”
Gemma was floored. “Oh, Tree! She didn’t!”
“Oh, yes, she did! She did! That’s the what? The third time she’s embarrassed our customers that way?”
“That we know of.”
“Right!” Trina agreed. “She thinks her skinny ass is the norm!”
“But we have plus-sized lingerie,” Gemma said. “Why wouldn’t she want to sell it to the lady?”
“Because she would rather embarrass the lady. They had apparently got into some verbal kerfuffle that day, mainly because the woman claimed the store smelled like mothballs and Liz claimed she needed to have her nose examined. Stupid stuff.”
“Very stupid,” Gemma agreed. “Liz knows the customer is always right. Just say sorry about that, and move the hell on. You don’t get into any verbal back-and-forth with a customer.”
“Right? But not Liz. She got into it with the woman. That’s why she wanted to embarrass her. That’s why she wanted to put the lady in her place, so to speak. Oh, and did I mention that the customer was black? They all are. The ones she harasses all are.”
Gemma exhaled. “We can’t have that. We’re a minority-owned business. Liz is white, but she’s only one-third of the business. You and I are two-thirds. And how can a black-owned business allow racism and size-ism and whatever other kind of ism she’s practicing?”
“I know!”
“But the problem,” Gemma said, “is her ownership. We can’t bar her from working in her own store. As long as she co-owns it, she has ownership rights.”
“I say we buy her out,” Trina said. “That’s why I’m here. What say you?”
“Buy her out? Trina, I can’t afford to buy that woman out.”
“Oh, come on, Gem! You own this office complex. You collect rents on three of these offices.”
“And every dime of that rent collection is going to my retirement. I’m not spending it on something frivolous, like buying Liz out of a high-end clothing store! I can’t afford to do that right now.”
Trina shook her head. “You are so special,” she said.
“And what is that supposed to mean?”
“Newsflash, Gemma Jones. Sal Gabrini is your boyfriend. Hello?”
He was more than that now, Gemma thought. But Sal had sworn her to secrecy. Trina would be told, but not yet. “He’s my boyfriend,” she said. “So what?”
“I don’t know if you truly realize it,” Trina said, “but Sal is a very, very, did I say very, wealthy man, Gem. It’ll be nothing for him to give you the money.”
But Gemma was already shaking her head. “Nope,” she said.
“Gemma!”
“No, Tree. He’s given me more than enough. He paid off my house, he paid off my car, and he paid off this building and gave each one of those deeds to me. I’d feel like a moocher, like a freeloading leech, if I were to go to him and ask him for more money. No way.”
“You didn’t ask him for any money to begin with,” Trina reminded her. “He paid off each one of those properties because he wanted to do something special for your birthday. You never asked him for shit. And because you’ve never asked him for anything, he owes you!” Trina said this with a smile.
Gemma smiled too. But she was firm. She wasn’t going to put herself in a position where she was totally dependent upon her man. She loved Sal, and was anxious to be his wife, but she had to be herself too. Not just his wife. Not just his.
Her cell phone rang. When she lifted it from her desk and looked at the Caller ID, she smiled. Sal calling her was always a treat for her.
“I know what that smile means,” Trina said.
Gemma, embarrassed that Trina witnessed her obvious excitement, toned it down. But quickly answered the call. “Hello?”
Sal was on his private plane, reading over documents, with his legs crossed. When he heard her voice, he smiled. “Hey babe,” he said.
“Hey. Where are you?”
“Up and away. Flying. I’ve got to get to Seattle to handle some business.”
“But you’ll be here tomorrow?”
“To pick you up for the trip to Indiana? I wouldn’t miss it for the world. Of course I’ll be there! We’ll visit your parents, give them the news, and then we’ll tell everybody else.”
Gemma looked at Trina. “I was hoping you could come in today.” She hated revealing her disappointment, but she couldn’t help herself anymore. She missed him!
“Same here. But I need t
o eyeball the office. Tommy’s still in Lisbon and neither one of us have been there all week.”
Tommy was Sal’s big brother, business partner, and best friend. “What’s he doing in Lisbon?”
“Business. What else? And Grace is working her ass off at her own company, she hasn’t had time to check on ours. It’s been a crazy week.”
“Yes it has,” Gemma said. Then she hesitated. “Nothing’s changed, though, right?”
“No. Nothing. What are you asking that for?” Then Sal had a thought. “Nothing’s changed with you, has it?” It was Sal’s greatest fear. That she’d change her mind.
“No,” she said quickly, glancing at Trina again. “If anything, it’s much better.”
Sal smiled. “Good. For me too.” It was a glaring admission for both of them, since neither one of them were the touchy-feely types.
“So how long’s your flight?” Gemma asked.
“Five-six hours. We’re just leaving Maryland.”
“Accomplished what you went there to do?”
Philly’s terrified eyes flashed through Sal’s head. He hated the thought of Gemma knowing anything whatsoever about the things he sometimes had to do. Even the city where he had to do them in. “Somewhat,” he said.
Gemma was accustomed to his caginess regarding his business dealings. He made it clear to her that that part of his life would always be his business and his business alone. And she accepted it before she accepted his proposal. But that didn’t mean she liked it.
There was a knock at her door and then Curtis, once again, walked in. “Sorry to disturb you, boss, but a person is here and she’s demanding to see you and see you now.”
Trina smiled at his phrasing. A person, he said. As opposed to what, Trina wondered.
“Hold on,” Gemma said to Sal, and then looked at her secretary. “A person? What kind of talk is that, Curt? Of course it’s a person!”
“What I mean,” Curtis clarified, “it that a rude individual is here to see you. I would call her a woman, but she doesn’t act womanly. I would call her a lady, but she’s hardly ladylike. A person is here to see you.”
“Does this person have an appointment?”
“No ma’am.”
“Does she need representation?”
“No ma’am.”
“Then what does she want?”
“From what I can determine, given her seriously challenged speech, she wants you to leave her man the hell alone.”
Gemma frowned. “Her man? What man?”
Curtis smiled. “Apparently yours,” he said.
Gemma hesitated. This was hardly a laughing matter to her. “Send her in,” she said.
“Should I pat her down first?”
“Curtis!”
“Sending her in,” he said swiftly, and left the office.
“What’s that about?” Sal asked. He was still on Gemma’s cell phone.
“Seems I have a female admirer of yours visiting me today.”
“A female of mine?” Sal removed his reading glasses and leaned back. “Who?”
“I’m about to find out.”
The door opened and a medium-height blonde woman in leather pants, with tats all over her toned, bare arms, a woman who could easily be construed as a biker chick, came hurrying in. Gemma kept her eyes on her. So did Trina. “May I help you?” Gemma asked.
“You’re Gemma Jones?” She didn’t stop walking until she was up to Gemma’s desk.
But Gemma wasn’t about to answer this woman’s questions. Who was this woman, was the ultimate question. “And you are?”
She stared at Gemma. Then she shook her head. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Not in a million years, lady.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Not in a million years, not in a zillion. Pigs over moons, all of that first? Not happening.”
Trina was perplexed. “What in the world are you talking about?”
And Sal was asking Gemma what was going on. But Gemma was still staring at her animated visitor. “Pigs over moons? I don’t understand,” she said.
“Salvatore. Understand that? Salvatore Luciano Gabrini. Sal Luca. Understand that? You can’t have him. You can’t have Sal.”
Sal was still on the phone. “Gem, who the fuck is that? Who is it? Put her on the phone.”
“Who are you?” Gemma asked her again.
“Who gives a shit!” the woman said. “Just leave my man alone!”
“Your man?”
“That’s right! My man! I’m his woman and he’ll always be my man!”
“Oh, please,” Gemma said dismissively. This was too high school for her. “Just leave my office, and leave right now. I don’t have time for your foolishness.”
“Foolishness?” Her anger was heightened now. “You’re calling me a fool? Why you black bitch!” The woman jumped over the desk like some ninja, slapping Gemma back down in her chair just as Gemma was standing up. Trina grabbed her and slung her off of the desk, causing her to crash against the wall, and Gemma stood back up and hurried from around her desk.
“What’s going on there?” Sal was rising to his feet on the plane. “What the fuck is going on, Gem!”
The woman stood up and began backing away just as Gemma and Trina were coming toward her. “Leave Sal alone,” she said to Gemma. “Or I’ll mess you up good.” She continued to back up. “I’ll mess you up for all times.”
And then the woman hurried out. Curtis hurried in. “Are you okay, boss?” he asked, looking back at the fleeing woman.
“Gemma!” Sal was yelling into the phone. “Gem!”
Gemma put her cellphone back to her ear. “Your. . .” She had to hesitate, to regain her composure. “Some woman came into my office and told me to leave you alone.”
“What woman? What the fuck is her name?”
“She didn’t leave a name.”
“Describe her.”
Gemma didn’t see the point. “It’s done, Sal.”
“Describe that bitch and describe her now!”
Gemma looked at Trina. “He wants a description.”
“Put him on Speaker,” Trina said.
Gemma did.
“Straggly-haired, ugly-ass blonde,” Trina said. “Medium height, bull tattoo on her forearm, and a rose on the back of her hand. Biker-looking chick. Mean as a junkyard dog. Your type once upon a time, Sal.”
Sal didn’t appreciate the snide remark, but it was true, once upon a time. “What happened? What was all of that commotion about? What did she do?”
“Other than slap the shit out of Gemma? Nothing. Her ass is gone now.”
“She slapped her?” Sal asked. “She slapped you, Gem?”
Gemma found it all so juvenile. “Yes.”
“And what did you do?”
Gemma frowned. “What do you mean what did I do?”
“Just what I said, gotdammit! What the fuck did you do?”
“I didn’t have time to do anything! Trina grabbed her and slung her off of my desk.”
Sal exhaled. “Good. Thanks Tree. And she’s gone now?”
Gemma was already exasperated. “Yes, Sal, she’s gone.”
“Good. But next time, Gemma, it better be you doing the slinging. Any woman put a hand on you, you’d better kick her ass.”
That angered Gemma. “Yeah, right. I’m only a thirty-year old attorney with her entire career on the line. Of course I’ll kick her ass. Of course I’ll roll in the dirt with her. I may get disbarred. I may lose my livelihood. But I’ll roll in the dirt with her any day of the week.”
“What are you getting all flip with me for?” Sal asked. “What are you telling me? You won’t roll? She can slap your ass around like a gotdamn piñata and you’ll sit back and let her?”
“No! No, I’ll roll. I’ll fight back. I’m just saying.”
“Stop saying!” Sal admonished her. “Bitch hit you, you’d better hit her back. Attorney or no attorney. Thirty or fifty. You’d better hit back.”
G
emma exhaled.
“You hear me, Gemma?”
“Yes, Sal, I hear you.”
“I know you don’t like it, but it is what it is. Welcome to my world, baby.”
And it didn’t sound like a welcome at all to Gemma. It sounded like a warning.
“Anyway,” she said, still upset by the display, “I’d better get back to work.” She didn’t want to continue this conversation. She had just been slapped by a woman, and she got away before she could get her claws into her. That was stressful enough.
But after they hung up, Sal was still concerned. No marriage announcement had been made, but already somebody was harassing Gemma. Why all of a sudden? And if that description was of the woman he thought it was, why her? She was just a jump-off hoe, and she knew it. Why this sudden Fatal Attraction shit?
He pressed the intercom button on the arm of his chair. “Change in flight plans, Bobby,” he said to his pilot.
“A change, sir?”
“Yes. Take me to Vegas. We’re going to Vegas.”
“Vegas it is,” the pilot said, and proceeded to notify Air Traffic Control of the change.
CHAPTER THREE
It was almost eleven at night when the cab drove up to the small, suburban house. Sal got out and buttoned his suit coat. “Wait here,” he ordered. The cabdriver, knowing the meter was running, gladly obliged.
Sal walked up to the door of the frame-styled house and rang the bell. He was tired and didn’t have time for this shit, but he’d learned long ago, from his cousin Reno no less, to leave no stone unturned. Fucker fuck with you, you’d better fuck’em back.
After several more rings, the door was finally unlocked and opened.
“Damn, Teri,” Sal said. “What the hell took you so long?”
Teri Burk, the same tattooed young woman who had been in Gemma’s law office, smiled. This visit was no total surprise to her. She’d been expecting him. “Hey Sal Luca. What’s shaking, man?”
“What’s up?” He didn’t wait to be invited in. He walked on in.
She loved it. It was late at night; she hadn’t seen him in a while; maybe they’d hook up. She knew he was going to be upset about her little visit today to that chick’s office, but she also remembered Sal well. He was going to want some. Whenever they were together in the past, they ended up fucking.
Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) Page 2
