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“He was waiting at my house knowing you would show up. And he told me to go with you, but to take that drug and find a way to spike your drink. Then he’d come in and do the rest.”

“What did he do to me?” Sal asked her. His face was a mask of rage.

“After I spiked your drink and you fell asleep, he was the one that undressed you and put you in that bed. He was the one who made it look as if you had a wet private part. He was the one that did all that.”

“So it was all a scam?” asked Trina. “Sal never even touched you.”

Alice started the tear works again and nodded her head. “He never touched me. It was Markie who made me make that video.”

“Where’s Chainsaw now?” Reno asked her.

“I don’t know,” she said. Then she really began crying. “But he made me do it. I didn’t know about it until he killed Zam. Zam was the love of my life.”

“The love of your life when you wasn’t in bed with Chainsaw Pete,” said Sal. “Yeah lady, that’s real grand of ya.” Then he spoke with clenched teeth. “You disgust me,” he said. “You almost cost me my marriage, you selfish bitch!”

Then Sal’s phone rang. He pulled it out and saw that it was Robby Yale. Robby and a security detail was out front. They had followed the Gabrinis to Alice’s house. “Yeah?” Sal asked him.

“We got company, Boss.”

“Where?”

“Back of the house. They just went back there.”

Sal quickly ended the call and grabbed up Alice. “Reno, take care of Gemma and Tree. We got company around back,” he said as he rushed with Alice toward the kitchen.

“Sal, be careful!” Gemma yelled out to him as Reno tried to round her and Trina up and move them to a room downstairs where they could wait while he went to help Sal. But Gemma pulled out her own weapon, cocked it, and hurried toward the kitchen as backup for Sal.

“You go,” said Trina, pulling out her own gun. “I can protect myself!”

But there was no way in hell Reno was leaving his wife alone. He hurried her toward a room. He was going to lock her inside if he had to. But everything began unfolding so quickly that Reno didn’t have time to do even that.

As soon as Sal and Alice made it into the kitchen, the backdoor flew open and Chainsaw Pete, along with three of his men, came rushing in.

Sal flung Alice in front of him because they came in shooting.

Chainsaw shot his lover Alice before he could stop himself and Sal, using her as his shield, shot Chainsaw and two of his men.

But the third man was able to get close enough to push the bullet-ridden Alice back against Sal and both of them fell to the floor, with Alice landing on top of Sal.

But when the final gunman saw Gemma rounding that corner coming to her husband’s aid, his attention moved away from taking out Sal to taking out Gemma first. Sal pushed Alice off of him with a violent shove, turned onto his stomach as fast as he could, and fired on that gunman with nearly every bullet left in his chamber.

Gemma fired too, but her shot wasn’t needed.

The gunman dropped to his knees from the impact of Sal’s quick action, and then fell on his face.

When Reno heard shots being fired, he shoved Trina into a room and closed the door, then he ran into the kitchen too, his gun aimed for action. That was when he saw the carnage. That was when he saw that Sal and Gemma were the only two still alive.

Reno knelt down just to catch his breath. Then Trina, being Trina, ran into the kitchen too. “Is everybody alright?” she asked.

Reno looked at her. “Didn’t I tell your ass to stay in that room?”

But then Robby and his two-man crew ran in through the backdoor. And his late presence angered Reno too. “Where the hell have you been, Robby? You saw them coming around back and your ass still gets here last?”

“We were out front, Reno,” said a flustered Robby. “I figured you guys would have the inside covered. I wanted to make sure there wasn’t a second wave coming in from a different direction. We got in here as fast as we could.”

“Always excuses,” Reno said. “Your ass better tighten up.”

“Stop blaming Robby,” said Sal. He was crouched down attempting to regain his composure as well. Gemma was beside him, crouched down too. “He did it the way I taught him to do it. This shit not his fault.”

“Let’s just get out of here,” said Gemma. She was shaken too. “Let’s just go.”

And they hurried out, hoping it was late enough that everybody were asleep and nobody heard the shootings.

But before they left, they confiscated Chainsaw and Alice’s cellphones to make sure they had control of her false video, and hurried into Trina’s Bentley.

Only Reno drove his wife’s car this time.

“Toy my ass,” he said as if Sal was going to remember the conversation they had when they first drove up.

Gemma only vaguely remembered Reno talking about how Sal was driving Trina’s very expensive Bentley Bacalar, a car Reno purchased for Trina, as if it was a toy.

But her mind was still on Alice. That was why, from the back seat where she and Trina were sitting, she pulled out her phone and handed it to Sal.

“What’s this?” Sal asked her.

“Alice’s confession. I taped it,” Gemma said.

And they all smiled. With Reno looking through the rearview at Gemma, they all laughed. It was a welcome relief after a very hectic day and early morning.

But by the time both couples made it to their respective homes and showered and went to bed, both men were on top of their wives humping as if they weren’t drained at all.

Especially Sal. Who went back for seconds. But only because he knew how he and Gemma had dodged a massive bullet in more ways than one, and he felt a need to reestablished his territorial control over the wife he almost lost. To mark her again.

By the time Gemma woke up stiff and sore hours later, after the break of dawn, she had no doubt whatsoever that she was more than sufficiently marked. She was Sal’s again in every way possible. And she would have it no other way.