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The next day and Gemma Jones-Gabrini, in her heels and her power skirt suit, and with her thick briefcase at her side, had just gotten out of court.

She’d lost the case, her first loss of the new year, and she wasn’t happy about it.

Not because she thought she had it going on like that.

She was never that girl. But because she honestly felt that her client, a poor kid that she believed in so much that she took his case pro bono, was innocent.

“You’ll get’em next time, Tiger.”

She had just walked out of the courtroom when she heard his voice. She looked and saw that Brad Patrick, the new D.A., had leaned against her and whispered in her ear. Although a very flirty man, she put him down as an overall good guy. “Winning next time won’t help my client this time.”

He stopped his progression and looked at her.

That was his gift: he could show empathy at the drop of a hat.

With a cup of coffee in his dark-brown hand, she could tell he was on his way to his office rather than a court appearance.

“It was a tough one, Gemma. Appeal it. You have some valid points.”

“What points? Ineffectual counsel? Poor representation? Because that’s how I feel. He’s a good kid, Brad. I don’t believe for a second he would have broken into that woman’s house and held her down at knifepoint.”

“She identified him.”

“He supposedly slammed her face down before she even realized he was in her bathroom but yet she could identify him? Come on, Brad.”

“I hear you. You know I do. The only thing my prosecutors had was her eyewitness testimony.”

“Which both of us know isn’t worth a damn,” Gemma interjected.

“And which both of us know is the kind of testimony that jurors prefer to hang their hats on. They eat it up every time.”

“But if you know that,” a flustered Gemma said, “why did you allow your prosecutors to bring the case to trial?”

“Just as strongly as you’re advocating for his innocence, they were advocating for a trial. They’re convinced of his guilt. He has a record as long as your arm, Gemma.”

“He did a lot of bad things in his past, yes he did. But they doesn’t mean he broke into that woman’s home. They didn’t prove it at all and you know it.”

“It’s not what I know. It’s what the jury knows. The jury begs to differ with you.”

Gemma exhaled. “I know, I know. The jury is always right in the eyes of the State. But not in my eyes,” she said firmly.

He paused, staring at her. “That’s why I adore you,” he said in all seriousness, and then he kept on walking.

Gemma watched him leave. Another brand-new D.A.

They never lasted long in Vegas, but at least he won by more than a few votes.

Maybe he’d break the mold. And a very attractive D.A.

, too, if she were to be honest. Somebody that gave her a warm feeling every time he came around.

She wasn’t proud of that feeling, but it was there.

And sometimes, when Sal was pulling his disappearing acts, which were getting more and more common lately, she wondered what it would be like to have a man like him.

Who understood the struggles of an attorney.

Who would empathize with her no end. Who would appreciate her and be there for her.

Who wouldn’t uphold rather than break the law.

But who was she kidding? She knew like everybody with a pulse knew that there was no way she would ever trade in Salvatore Luciano Gabrini, Senior for anybody else. She didn’t care how great a match they seemed to her. Sal, his flaws and all, was her person.

But then she thought about her client and how he could rot in jail given that he was looking at thirty years on such flimsy evidence, and she quickly came back down to earth.

What kind of justice system did they have?

She wanted to rail against the criminal justice system she was a part of.

But she knew the truth. It wasn’t the system that failed her client.

She failed her client. And she had to make it right.

That was why, when she turned to leave and suddenly saw her best friend and business partner sitting in the hallway further down from the courtroom she had exited, she wasn’t feeling it at all.

“I can’t do lunch today, Tree,” she said as she walked up to her.

“I just lost what should have been a winnable case. I need to get back to my office and get to work on the appeal. I didn’t think we were going to need one, that’s how out of touch I was. ”

Katrina “Trina” Gabrini, the wife of Vegas casino mogul Reno Gabrini and the woman considered the matriarch of the Gabrini clan, stood up in her flawless Christian Dior high-neck dress with a belted waist and matching purse, and with that earnest look on her face that made clear this was no casual visit. “You need to come with me, Gem.”

That look did it for Gemma. “What’s wrong?”

“Sal.That’s what.”

Gemma stood there. In her navy-blue skirt suit she purchased specifically for her trial days, and her thick lawyer’s briefcase held in front of her, she was not in the mood to hear anything negative about her husband.

And the way Trina said his name made clear that oh it was going to be negative. “What did he do this time?”

But Trina wasn’t going to explain it. “You got to see it for yourself. That’s the only way you’ll believe it.

Come with me.” And then Trina reached out her hand to her business partner (they owned a chain of clothing boutiques together) and took Gemma by the arm.

The fact that they were both married to Gabrinis when it was an impossible task most days helped their bond too.

Gemma knew, with that still-earnest look in Trina’s beautiful hazel eyes, that it was different this time.

It wasn’t the run of the mill Sal problem this time.

She allowed Trina’s hand to rest on her arm and two of the most successful black women in all of Vegas made their way down the hall, onto the elevator, and out of the courthouse altogether.

But as Trina drove Gemma, in silence, Gemma looked at Trina. “Where are we going?”

“Where did he tell you he was going?”

“He said one of his capos were killed, one that was really close to him, and he needed to personally notify his widow.”

That sounded shady to Trina. Mainly because her husband Reno grew up in the mob and had been a mob boss himself. And bosses rarely gave the death notification. She knew for a fact because their family (the Gabrinis and the Sinatras) were overrun with mob bosses. “ He had to notify the widow?”

“Don’t make it sound like it’s that unusual.”

“It is unusual!”

“Not for Sal. A lot of times he’ll take that burden on himself. Especially if it’s a capo really close to him.”

“When did he go to tell this widow?”

“Last night.”

Trina was floored. “ Last night ?” She glanced at Gemma again. “Girl you lying. It took all night and half of the day for him to say your husband died, I’m sorry to some widow?”

Gemma knew it was unreasonable. All night to do a death notification?

And she hadn’t heard from Sal since he left last night, which didn’t help at all either.

But she wasn’t going there in front of Trina.

The whole family would know about it and be all up in her and Sal’s business, and give all their opinions, if she showed her true feelings in front of Trina.

They were a huge, very close-knit family.

But then she suddenly remembered she had an excuse! “I was in court,” she said, quickly pulling out her phone. “My phone was off while I was in court.”

But when she turned on her phone and checked her missed calls and text messages, there was nothing from Sal.

When she said nothing, Trina knew the deal.

And her heart went out to her. “I’m married to a Gabrini man too, remember?

” she reminded Gemma. “They claim all of this not calling when they’re out in the field is an Italian thing but I know better than that.

It’s a Gabrini thing. A terrible Gabrini thing. ”

Gemma couldn’t disagree with that. She put her phone back in her pocket and they drove in silence all the way to a lake house on the outskirts of Vegas that was off the beaten path by nearly two miles.

“He’s back here?” Gemma asked her.

“He’s here girl.” Then Trina looked at her. “Out in the boonies like this. Off any main road. And don’t let him claim it’s one of his safe houses because it’s not. It’s a nice place to cheat is what it is.”

Gemma’s heart dropped. “What’s that supposed to mean, Tree? And how would you know he’s here?”

Trina looked straight ahead as she stopped her car near the entrance to the house, but surrounded by trees. Then she looked at Gemma again. “You wouldn’t do it, so I did it.”

“I wouldn’t do what? And what you did?” Then she realized what. “ You followed Sal around ?”

“I hired an investigator to follow him around, yes I did. And not just anybody either. I know better than that. This P.I. works for Millie’s company.”

Millie was Amelia Sinatra, the half-sister of Mick Sinatra and Big Daddy Sinatra, and the only member of the family that owned a private investigations company.

But Gemma still didn’t understand. “What would possess you to hire one of Millie’s people to follow my husband?”

“Because your ass wouldn’t do it. Every time we talk he’s out of town, he’s here, here’s there, he’s everywhere but home.

So you’re damn right I hired a P.I. And he followed him here last night.

When Sal was still here this morning, the P.I.

called me. You were in court, your phone was off, so that’s why I went to the courthouse.

You’re low key, Gemma, and always has been.

You’re chill. You’re never too high and never too low like the rest of us.

But that lowkey shit ain’t working out. Sal is taking advantage of that.

You need to take care of this shit and you need to take care of it once and for all. ”

Suddenly rapping was heard on the driver side window and Gemma jumped at the sound. That was how unhinged she felt. A tall black man was standing at the car door. Trina smiled. “It’s just the P.I.,” she said as she pressed down the window.

“Ready?” he asked Trina.

“He’s still here?”

“Yes, ma’am. He spent last night here with the same woman.”

Gemma looked at the private eye. Why was he saying it like that? She knew Sal wouldn’t do this to her. “Maybe the widow lives here and she needed him to stay the night.”

But Trina was shaking her head and throwing cold water on that theory right away. “No, girl, no. We aren’t doing that.”

“Doing what?”

“We aren’t playing that there must be an innocent explanation bullcrap. That’s what! The P.I. checked out this place. Sal owns this shit, not some widow of one of his capos. Sal picked her up from her house and brought her here.”

Gemma felt deflated. But she still couldn’t believe Sal would be this blatant. “Maybe he needed to hide her, Tree.”

“Then why didn’t he hide her and take his ass home to his own family? To you! And if he was hiding her, where the guards at? Ain’t no car around here but Sal’s.”

“I checked that too,” the P.I. said.

Gemma felt sick to her stomach. “Maybe she was in a bad way and needed Sal to stay with her.” She was grappling at straws.

“And he couldn’t call you and tell you that if it’s so innocent?” Trina shook her head. “You let Sal get away with all this crap too many times, Gemma. He’ll straighten up for a minute, then he’s right back to his old ways.”

“And Reno’s not like that too?”

“Hell yeah Reno is. But Reno be wide open with his bullshit. Sal be slick with his shit.”

Gemma knew that wasn’t Sal at all, but it was the image Trina wanted to have of him. “You’re suspicious about everything,” she said to Trina. “But I’ll admit,” she added sadly, “this don’t look good.”

Trina grabbed her hand and held it with both her hands. “We’re not talking break up time, Gemma. You just need to see for yourself what he’s up to and then you can stand more firmly in your truth. But we aren’t talking about it leading to divorce court here.”

Gemma looked at Trina as if she’d lost her mind. “What are we talking about then? Your investigator is making it seem as if my husband just spent the night romantically with another woman. What you think that’s going to lead to? I’m not staying with an unfaithful man, are you nuts?”

Trina realized how uncompromising Gemma could be once she did find out the truth.

There was no way she would ever want Gemma and Sal to break up.

They had to work it out like everybody else in the family did, whatever it was!

“No man is perfect, Gemma,” she reminded her, “and especially no Gabrini man.”

But Gemma wasn’t trying to hear it. She snatched her hand from Trina and was unbuckling her seatbelt.

She knew that Trina was good at calling Reno out when he did his dirt, but she wasn’t good at following up on her threats.

Gemma didn’t call Sal out as vociferously as Trina did Reno, and not nearly as much, but she was great at following up on her threats. She got out of the car.

If it was true, and according to the P.I. it was looking that way, Trina knew Gemma was going to need all the support she could get. And somebody to keep her from taking their fractured marriage over the cliff. That was why Trina unbuckled her seatbelt quickly, too, and hurried out behind her.