Page 29

Three days after Lucky was released from the hospital, Tommy Gabrini and his wife Grace were waiting at an upscale supper club for Sal and Gemma to arrive.

They wanted to have dinner with them before they returned to Seattle, but Tommy had a more pressing reason.

He wanted to make sure, now that Lucky was back home and progressing well, and things were trying to get back to normal, that Sal and Gemma were going to be okay.

“And if they’re not okay?” asked Grace. “We may stick around?”

Tommy didn’t want to admit it, but he nodded. “Maybe for a day or two. That won’t cause a hardship for you, will it?”

“I’ll have to move some meetings around, but that’s no big deal. I own the company,” she said with a smile. “Thanks to you.”

Tommy smiled too. It was a rare feat for a man to be declared the undisputed head of his family with no opposition, but he had managed to pull it off.

That was not to say that he and Grace had no problems. They had plenty of problems. But not in who ran what.

Tommy ran the whole shebang and his wife and children knew it.

And accepted it. And, to a person, preferred it.

“ Tommy Gabrini ?”

A shocked-sounding voice was heard just beyond them. They both looked and saw a gorgeous, very tall, very thin black woman come up to their table. “I can’t believe it’s Tommy Gabrini!”

Tommy always felt uncomfortable when a female from his past recognized him around his wife, but he knew this one too well to pretend he didn’t remember her. He smiled and stood up. “Hello Kiana,” he said as they hugged each other.

Grace used to feel extremely uncomfortable whenever one of Tommy’s past girlfriends came up to him.

Mainly because she had more going for her in the brains department rather than in the great looks department, but also because she was at that stage in her life when she was listening to the naysayers and started wondering, just as they were, why Tommy would have chosen her over them.

But over the years Tommy made her feel so comfortable in her own skin, and he demonstrated his love for her in ways that fed rather than drained that comfort level, that now she just brushed it off.

She no longer felt she could lose Tommy to any of them.

“It’s been so long,” Kiana said when they stopped embracing. “How have you been, Mister Tommy still the most handsome man in the world Gabrini?”

Tommy hated any conversation about his looks. Thos supposed good looks had been more of a cure to him than a blessing. “I’ve been well. How about you?”

“You know me. You know I find a way,” she said with a charming smile on her face.

“I want to introduce you to my wife Grace,” Tommy said as he placed his hand on Grace’s small shoulder. “Grace, this is Kiana. Kiana, this is my wife, Mrs. Tommy Gabrini.”

Grace could see Kiana’s smile diminish just enough to let her know that she had been hopeful of another roll in the hay with Tommy, perhaps for old times’ sake.

But by the way Tommy introduced his wife to her with total ownership, using his name instead of Grace’s own, he was making it clear that such fantasies were not coming true.

Which warmed Grace’s heart. She was a cautious person by nature who was rarely certain about anything, but she was certain Tommy loved her.

“Nice to meet you,” Kiana said with a nod of her head. Then she grinned. “I don’t know why I assumed she was one of your employees or friends. You know the type? You may love them as a friend but could never ever ever be in love with them? That’s what I assumed she was to you.”

Tommy was not the kind of man that dignified insults with responses, but he did this time. “No, no,” he said with a serious look on his face. “ You could be in that category, or at least you used to be. But never Grace. She’s my wife.”

This time Kiana didn’t front. Her smile was gone. “Well,” she said to him, as she looked down fondly at his midsection. “It is definitely your loss.” Then her big eyes looked back up.

But Grace immediately saw that in her response she revealed her true intentions. But in Tommy’s response, she felt he revealed his intentions toward the woman too: Not interested . Keep it moving . That was what Tommy was saying. And Grace loved him for that.

And Kiana kept it moving. She made her way over to a table near the back, where a gentleman was waiting for her, and she gave him a long, sloppy kiss as if she wanted to make Tommy Gabrini jealous.

But Tommy wasn’t even looking at that woman. He sat down as soon as she began walking away, and he didn’t give her a second glance nor thought.

And then Sal and Gemma walked in, sat down, the waitress who escorted them over took their drink orders, and then the couples relaxed.

“This is our first time out in I don’t know how long,” said an upbeat Gemma. “This was a good idea, Tommy. But I’m sorry you guys have to leave.”

Grace was going to say that decision depended on how she and Sal were doing as a couple, but she let Tommy handle that. “We’re just so thrilled to see Lucky doing so well,” she said instead.

“Yes,” Tommy agreed. “That was the best news ever when that surgeon walked into that waiting room.”

“Well, not the first one that walked in,” Grace said and they all laughed.

“And the way he’s such a motormouth, you would think nothing ever happened to him,” Tommy added.

Sal and Gemma laughed. “It’s a miracle if you ask me,” said Sal. “My baby was in bad shape.”

“You better not let Lucky hear you call him that.”

“Lucky would love it,” said Gemma. “Not around his football team or baseball buddies,” she said as they laughed. “But around the family? Oh he’ll eat it up. He thinks the world of his father. Just like TJ thinks of you, Tommy.”

Grace could feel Tommy stiffen beside her.

Tommy Gabrini, Junior, called TJ, was going through a phase, and their daughter Destiny was going through yet another phase as well, all involving their father and some woman’s allegations.

But Tommy and Grace were a united front and weren’t even entertaining those ridiculous lies.

But Tommy’s children had put him on such a high pedestal that any kink in his armor unsettled their sense of self and sense of family and caused disruption in their lives.

But when Lucky was shot, even their children put their own problems on the backburner to be there for their beloved cousin.

“My old man flew back to Italy this morning,” said Sal.

Although he and Tommy were raised to believe they had the same father and mother, it was later discovered that they did not have the same father.

But it was a capital offense if anybody ever called them half-brothers.

They were brothers. Period. “He couldn’t wait to go either.

As soon as he saw that Lucky was fine, he was out of here. He’s living his best life now.”

“That’s so good to hear, Sal,” said Grace.

“So what about Bianca?” Tommy asked. “Do we have any new leads on where she might be?”

Sal’s eyes widened when Tommy mentioned Bianca’s name. Gemma was confused. It was the first time she’d heard that name before. “Who’s Bianca?”

Tommy looked at his brother with shock in his eyes. He couldn’t believe he’d done it again. Even Grace knew about Bianca because Tommy had told her. But Sal hadn’t told Gemma? “You didn’t tell her?” he asked his younger brother. “You can’t be serious, Sal.”

“Who is she?” Gemma asked again. When Grace looked at Tommy, she knew Grace knew more than she did. “Who is she?”

“She’s somebody we’re looking for in connection to the ambush,” Sal felt compelled to say.

Gemma was puzzled. “But I thought you said you were looking for Dickie Lamm.” She once represented Dickie Lamm, before she married Sal, in a murder case.

“I am looking for Dickie.”

“Then what does this woman have to do with it?”

“She’s his girlfriend.”

Tommy and Grace waited for Sal to say more than that. Gemma waited too.

He didn’t want to go there, because he knew Gemma would bend it all out of proportion, but he went there. “She did time for one of my capos,” he said, “and I paid her back.”

“Paid her back how?”

“The usual. I got her a car, an apartment, and put cash in the bank for her.”

Gemma knew this was going off the rails. “How much cash?” she asked him.

“She did six years in prison, Gemma.”

“And some people did twenty years in prison for your guys. And I know how much you paid them. How much did you pay her?”

Sal frowned. “What difference does it make? I gave her some cash.”

“How much, Sal?” Gemma knew her husband. She knew the amount would determine what he truly felt for the person, not just what the person did for one of his guys.

Sal was so reluctant he considered changing the subject. But Gemma didn’t play that misdirection shit and he knew it. “A couple million,” he said.

Gemma’s mouth flew open. “You gave that woman two million dollars ?”

Even Tommy and Grace were shocked by the amount.

“What is she to you?” Gemma asked him.

Sal decided to blame his brother. “Thanks a lot, Tommy.”

“I thought your ass told her,” Tommy fired back. “I told you to tell her three days ago.”

“What are you jumping all over me for? I was protecting my wife, just like you do Grace. Your ass don’t tell her half of the shit you be into, but you’re jumping all over me?”

In that instant, Sal had been so upset by the consequences of his own behavior that he had forgotten that Grace was sitting right in front of him.

And he was revealing more about Tommy’s life than he ever planned on revealing.

Because he knew, if truth be truly known by Grace, she’d find out that her perfect Tommy had boatloads of secrets too.

Grace was nobody’s fool. She already knew Tommy kept a lot from her in the name of “protecting” her. But like Gemma, she needed no protection. But that was the nature of being married to a Gabrini.

And Gemma put up with a lot of Sal’s secrets too, but she had to have an answer to her question. She wasn’t putting up with this. “What is she to you, Sal?” she asked him again.

“She’s nothing to me. Why are you even asking me something like that? She was one of my street informants. She gave me good intel. That’s it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

When Gemma went there, Tommy knew it was time for them to give the couple some space. “Let’s dance, Grace,” he said to his wife as he stood up and held out his huge hand to her. She gladly accepted it.

But as he helped Grace to her feet, Tommy looked angrily at Sal.

All of this public display could have been avoided had he told Gemma sooner.

But that was his problem now. They all had secrets.

Tommy had more than his share too. But this one could have been handled in private. He took his wife to the dance floor.

Gemma was still staring at Sal. “You heard me, Sal Luca. Is that all she is to you?”

“Yes!Dammit, yes!”

“You never gave any of those other people anywhere near a million dollars. But yet you give her two?”

“She was a girl with nobody. She had no criminal record. Those other men that did time for my guys were crooks and thieves from way back who were going down for other crimes too. It’s a big damn difference.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me about it, Sal?” She had anguish in her voice. “Why did you keep that a secret from me?”

“Because I don’t involve you in that side of my business and you know it.”

“That side of your got damn business almost took the life of my son!” She was hot too. “I didn’t involve myself in your business. Your business involved me! And you knew about her even as I’m still getting those horrible text messages about you and her.”

“What her? There’s no proof Bianca sending you that shit.”

Gemma frowned. “Who else would be sending it? You gave her two million dollars. She got a taste of that kind of money, she figured she should go for the whole damn thing. But you can’t see that, can you?”

Sal leaned his head back. “No. She’s not that kind of girl. At least, I didn’t see her like that.”

Gemma shook her head. “Because you were too busy thinking with the wrong head,” she said, and began grabbing up her phone and purse.

Sal looked at her. He was offended by her comment.

“I’m going home,” she said.

“Then take your ass home,” Sal said, unable to get out of his own defensiveness to see her pain.

Now she was offended too. “Move,” she said angrily to him as he stood up to let her out of the booth.

She slid across the booth seat, stood up, and took off. She didn’t look back.

Sal would normally race after her. But he didn’t this time. He was tired of being accused of things he didn’t do. But mostly he was tired of himself, and all those poor decisions he was making. One of which almost got his son killed.

He sat back down.

Grace was going to go after Gemma, to make sure she was okay, but Tommy stopped her.

He pulled her closer against his body as they slow-dragged.

“Let her be,” he said as he looked over at his brother.

He was never more worried about the future of Sal and Gemma than he was in that moment.

Because he knew, like the time he and Grace actually divorced, hooked up with other people, and then ultimately remarried again, what it felt like to have what seemed like a little thing at the time nearly destroy your entire life.