Page 14

Sal had showered and changed into a pair of jeans and a sweat shirt and had laid on the sofa still waiting for Gemma.

After calling everybody he could think to call, he had his guys staking out her girlfriend groups (she was a member of many different ones) and at clubs and bars too.

But nothing had turned up. And then he fell asleep.

It was Lucky, who had fallen asleep in the game room, who came up front and saw that his father had done the same.

First he looked around for his mother, hoping she had made it home.

But nobody was home but the two of them and Tee-Tee and Marie.

The baby’s nanny had already gone for the day.

He sat on the edge of the sofa by his father and braced himself. Then he shook his father.

Sal woke up on his side with both his arms folded and his son staring at him. Which made him damn uncomfortable. “What are you looking at me like that for?” Then he frowned. “What time is it?”

“Almost midnight.”

When Lucky said the time, Sal suddenly realized why he felt so on edge. And that sense of dread returned. “Is she home?”

Lucky hated to tell him the news. “No sir. That’s why I woke you up.”

“Did she call?”

“No sir.”

Sal’s heart began to ache as he sat up and placed his feet on the floor. Lucky sat in one of the chairs as Sal ran his hands through his hair. “Where the fuck is she?” he said angrily. “Why hasn’t she called and checked on her own children?”

Then Sal looked at Lucky. That didn’t even sound like something Gemma would do. “She called you though, didn’t she?”

“No sir. I told you she didn’t.”

“Where’s Marie?”

“She’s in her room.”

“Tell her to come here.”

“Even if Ma called her, you shouldn’t make her betray Ma’s confidence.”

Sal gave Lucky a look that could melt his skin. “I’m getting her, dang,” Lucky said reluctantly as he went out of the living room.

He returned right away with his big sister because Marie knew like Lucky knew what Sal was like when he was impatient. When he summoned her, there was no getting out of it.

“You wanted me, Daddy?”

Marie was a gorgeous girl with too many friends of the male persuasion if you asked Sal, but he knew she was still finding her way. “Did your mother phone you?”

Marie could see the distress their father was in. But she promised her mother.

“Answer my question. Did your mother phone you?”

“She called, but I can’t tell you where she is.”

“Like hell you can’t,” Sal said as he stood up. “Now tell me where she is or I’ll knock your ass through that wall. Where is she, Marie?”

Marie looked at Lucky. But Lucky knew it was hopeless. Their father didn’t play. He would literally knock them both through that wall as if they were feathers. She had to tell. She had to.

But she didn’t get a chance. Sal’s phone rang. It was Robby. He knew where Gemma was.

When Sal realized where, he frowned. “That motherfucker told me she wasn’t there!” he said as he began running for the front door. He didn’t tell his children a thing.

It didn’t matter to Marie. She had dodged a serious bullet and she and Lucky knew it. She sat down on the sofa just to regain her composure. Her brother brought her a glass of water.