Page 30

When Sal, Tommy and Grace made it back to the house, they opened the door to Lucky’s bedroom only to find that many of the Gabrini and Sinatra young people were spread all around his room asleep on the floor.

Marie and the baby were asleep in bed with their beloved brother.

Big Daddy Sinatra, their supposed bodyguard, was asleep in the recliner.

It was to Sal, Tommy, and Grace a beautiful sight.

The family coming together. And since Tommy had already decided at the club that he and his family were going to stick around for a couple more days given the state of Sal and Gemma, not to mention the fact that Dickie Lamm and Bianca Norichi were still out there too, they made their way to the downstairs guest room while Sal made his way upstairs.

Only Sal was walking as if he had a thousand tons of steel on his back.

Because that was how he felt. His son was nearly killed.

His marriage was in a perpetual state of falling apart.

His underboss was implicated. His judgement was so suspect that even he was questioning himself!

It was getting to be too much for even a strong man like Sal.

And he couldn’t blame Gemma. He kept so many things from her, trying to protect her, that even that had gotten out of hand too.

Because the truth of the matter was that he did do a lot of shady things behind her back.

But it was an executive decision he often made because he knew she would never approve of any of it.

But he always felt that he had to look out for his people, some of whom were women.

Many of whom were women. Now he was questioning if he had ulterior motives even there. Something he never questioned before.

When he got into his bedroom, Gemma was in bed lying on her side. And she wasn’t pretending to be asleep. She was wide awake.

Sal had both hands in his pants pockets when he entered their bedroom and Gemma could hear him moving around the change in those pockets, or they could have been keys in his pockets: she could never tell the difference.

All she knew was that they were at another crossroads.

And she was praying that they’d take the right road for both of them.

He sat on the edge of the bed beside her. He crossed his legs and rested one hand across and on the other side of her small body, as if he was corralling her in without touching her. Then he looked into her huge, pained eyes.

For more than a few seconds he didn’t say anything. It was as if he didn’t know how to say it.

But in those few seconds, Gemma began to panic. Maybe he was ready to call it off. Maybe he felt she didn’t understand him enough. Or didn’t go blindly along with his complicated decisions enough. Or maybe loving her was too much for him to take too.

Maybe he had daydreams of that unencumbered life without her as much as she had daydreams of that kind of life without him.

He could have any woman he wanted. Why be saddled down with her?

She could have any man she wanted. Why be saddled down with him?

Maybe she wasn’t the only one tired of the turmoil.

But when Sal opened his mouth, it wasn’t defiant at all. His face cracked into a mask of pure agony. She hadn’t seen him that way since he was at the hospital waiting for word about their son. And his voice was cracking too. He was fighting back a wave of emotions.

“I’m slipping, Gemma,” he said to her.

This man, this powerful, strong man, looked so beaten down that it broke Gemma’s heart. Just like that. Those three words broke her.

And as tears entered her eyes, she reached out her arms and pulled Sal into them.

She’d had boyfriends before that would have said those words to her and she would not have believed them for a second.

But Sal was not that kind of man. If he said he was slipping, he was slipping.

And from the way he looked and from the way he sounded, he’d already slipped.

She held his big, muscular body as tightly as her small body could.

He removed his shoes and then his ten-thousand-dollar suit coat, dropping it to the floor. He crawled under those covers with her as if his life source were beneath them. She was naked, which only comforted him even more.

And for what seemed like five minutes straight, they just held each other.

Sal was strong enough to not shed tears, but it was a herculean battle for him.

Because when it all came down to it: Gemma was all he had.

Their children would grow up and have their own families and lives.

Tommy and Reno and the rest of the Gabrinis and Sinatras had their own families and lives.

But Gemma was his family. Gemma was his life. She was all he had.

When they stopped embracing, he lifted her chin so that they were face to face. Her beautiful, no-nonsense eyes always made him feel so inadequate. She deserved so much more than he could ever be to her. But she kept coming back to him. She kept forgiving him. She kept on believing in him.

“I don’t mean to put you through so much crap, Gemma,” he said to her. “You’re the last person on earth I’d hurt on purpose.”

She didn’t say anything. She was tired of talking about it. She was tired of him apologizing about it. She just looked from his tortured eyes to his lips and she kissed him. She knew him. She knew he needed that in that moment more than any words could ever say to him.

And she was right. Sal removed all of his clothes even as they were kissing. by the time she came up for air, he was completely disrobed. And was kissing her neck and her chest and her breasts and kept moving downward.

When he made it all the way down, she immediately began contorting her body with every minute he spent down there. She was completely captivated by his every lick and suck and everything within her was enthralled with his masterful skill.

And when he moved all the way back up, and entered her, it was as if she was lost in his love. And couldn’t break free because she didn’t want to break free.

They made love for so long that both of them were amazed by their ability to keep going, get on the verge of cumming, and keep going for an even bigger payout.

They held onto each other and kept going, in a slow, steady pace that could not have felt better because perfection had already been reached, for over forty minutes.

Until Sal’s control completely broke down and he began cumming hard inside of Gemma.

Which made her cum hard right back at him.

And they were moaning and groaning and grunting their way through the longest cum they’d ever experienced.

He didn’t mark her again. She was already marked. But they solidified their bond. No matter what. They were bonded together.

Afterwards, Gemma fell asleep on top of Sal.

It was the best release Sal had had in a long time. It made him feel as if all those burdens had been removed all at once, and the joy of that feeling rendered him incapable of sleeping even if he tried. And he was too happy to try.

As Gemma slept, he grabbed his phone and searched his playlist searching for the right song. That was when he stumbled across Kenny Rogers singing the Steve Gibb-penned She Believes in Me . He needed to hear that song. And he played it in a repeated loop, over and over again:

“And she believes in me.

I’ll never know just what she sees in me.

I told her someday,

if she was my girl,

I could change the world

with my little songs.

I was wrong.

But she has faith in me.

And so I’ll go on trying faithfully.

And who knows maybe

on some special night,

if my song is right,

I’ll find a way.

Find a way.

While she lays.

While she waits.

For me.”

It was about to loop around yet again, but his phone rang, ending the music. And waking up Gemma because of his loud ringtone.

He grabbed his phone and looked at the Caller ID.

“Who is it?” she asked. She knew how late it was.

“It’s Reno.”

She knew that meant news about Dickie Lamm. Or that woman. Or both. “Put it on Speaker.”

Sal did. “What’s up, Reno?”

“We found Bianca.”

When he said those words, Gemma sat up on her elbows, her breasts bouncing as she did.

“Found her where?” asked Sal.

“She’s at Robby’s house. We traced that car you gave to her to Robby’s house, Sal. She’s there right now.”

Sal was floored.

“Still believe his ass has nothing to do with it?” Reno yelled out. Then he settled back down, knowing how this had to hurt Sal. “Me and Uncle Mick are on our way to get you,” he said, and ended the call.

Sal knew Mick was still in town and staying at Reno’s hotel, so he understood why they would be together. But he couldn’t begin to understand why Bianca would be at Robby’s house!

He threw the covers off of him.

“I’m going with you,” Gemma said as she began getting out of bed too.

He would normally object. But he knew why she wanted to go.

She wanted to hear, see, and judge for herself what this woman was all about.

And ultimately if Sal wasn’t once again holding something back from her, namely his feelings for this woman she’d never met.

She trusted Sal with her life, but not with females.

When it came to Sal and these women, she was in the trust-but-verify business from this day on.