Romancing Sal Gabrini 2: A Woman's Touch (9 page)

“They
know better than that,” Sal said, licking her with longer strokes.
 
When he began to eat her, she arched.
 
When he ate her deeper and deeper, and took
one of his sensual bites into her, she screamed.

Two
hours later, at her law office in North Vegas, Gemma leaned back in the swivel
chair behind her desk.
 
After that
session with Sal this morning, she ended up bathing again, putting on her
outfit - a light blue skirt suit, and hurrying to her office, leaving him in
deep discussion with his two visitors.
 
Now she was on the phone, and the conversation was on the verge of
contentiousness.
 
Her paralegal, Barbara
Jiles, was standing beside her desk.
 
Marsh Denning was seated in front of her desk.

“I
understand you’re a busy man,” Gemma said to her phone mate.
 
“I’m a busy woman.
 
But my secretary has phoned requesting
payment, my para has phoned requesting payment, and promises were made.
 
But we still haven’t received a single
payment.”

She
listened.
 
She even rolled her eyes,
prompting Barbara and Marsh to smile.

“I
understand that, Doug,” she said.
 
“But
this is a business too.
 
We can’t
keep---”
 
And then another round of
listening, this one longer than the previous one.

“I
understand . . . No, it’s true, there are times . . .”
 
Then Gemma had it. “You have five days,” she
interrupted the man on the phone.
 
“If I
do not receive a payment for my services rendered within that time, be prepared
to hire more lawyers and owe even more money because you will be sued.”
 
And instead of waiting for his heated
response, she hung up the phone.

“Don’t
you hate when it comes to that?” Marsh asked.

“Hate
it,” Gemma admitted.

“Thanks
boss,” Barbara said.
 
“We were getting
nowhere fast with him.”

“Mark
the calendar,” Gem ordered her para.
 
“Five days and five days only.
 
Our word is all we have in matters like this. Once he realizes we mean
business, hopefully he’ll pay up.”

“Yes,
ma’am,” Barbara said, and began leaving.

“And
if he doesn’t pay up?” Marsh asked.
 
“You’ll take him to court?”

“I’ve
done it before.”

Marsh
laughed.
 
“You’re a better
man
than I am.
 
I just give up.”

“Well
maybe you can afford to give up.
 
I
can’t.”

“That’s
not what I heard.”

That
sounded odd to Gemma. Why would he hear anything about her state of
finances?
 
“Excuse me?” she asked.

“Little
birdy told me that you were having a little something-something with Salvatore
Luciano Gabrini.”

For
some reason Gemma hated to have Sal’s name tossed around like that.
 
“Oh yeah?”

“Oh
yeah.
 
That’s what I heard.”

“And
who exactly did you hear this from?”

“Courthouse
gossip.
 
What else?
 
I asked if anybody knew you when I first hit
town, and a few people mentioned that they did.
 
But then one or two mentioned that weren’t you the lawyer dating Reno
Gabrini’s cousin.
 
I said who the heck
was Reno Gabrini.
 
They said he owned the
PaLargio.
 
When I heard that, it was like
‘nuff said.
 
Gemma done good.
 
She’s rolling in the dough, right?”

“Wrong,”
Gemma said.

“So
that guy you were kissing on yesterday right there in the courthouse lobby wasn’t
Salvatore Luciano Gabrini?”
 
Marsh
smiled.
 
“I did my homework, you see.”

“Right.
 
Well.
 
Let’s get one thing straight right here and right now.”

“Uh-oh,”
Marsh said.
 
“Sounds like
Come to Jesus
meeting time.”

But
it was no laughing matter to Gemma.
 
“I
agreed to meet with you, although you showed up without an appointment, because
you needed the consult.
 
But what I am
not interested in is anything beyond a professional relationship with you or
anybody else.
 
Is that clear, Marsh?”

“Completely,”
Marsh replied.
 
“Perish the thought that
I could ever want anything more than that with you.”

“Sure
buddy, and you were just playing around at that convention in Seattle.”

“No I
wanted to fuck you then,” Marsh said with a laugh.
 
“You turned me down twice.
 
That was good enough for me.”

Gemma
looked at him.
 
At least he didn’t deny
it.
   
She leaned back in her chair,
studying
 
him.
 
“So what is it that you need from me?”

Marsh
reached into his briefcase, pulled out a thick file, and tossed it onto her
desk.

Sal,
still at Gemma’s house, had showered and dressed, in Versace head to toe, as he
sat on her bed and made a phone call.
 
When his big brother Tommy answered the phone, he smiled.

“Hey
there,” he said.

“Hey,
love,” Tommy replied jovially.
 
“Where
are you?
 
Still in Jersey?”

“No,
I’m in Vegas now.”

“With
Gemma?”

“Certainly
not with Reno.”

Tommy
laughed.
 
“I miss you, but if you’re
spending time with Gemma, that’s all right then.”

Everybody
in Sal’s circle loved Gemma, and everybody was convinced that Gemma was great
for Sal.
 
Sal agreed.
 
“How’s that wife of yours?
 
How’s Grace?”

“She’s
good.
 
She’s turning Trammel into a very
successful company, although she still struggles, as a female business owner in
such a male-dominated trucking industry, to get the respect she deserves.
 
But she’s fighting the good fight.”

“Good
for her.”
 
Then Sal paused.
 
Ever since their abusive father recently
died, and died in such a dramatic, heart-wrenching fashion, he’d been worried
about his big brother.
 
“What about you?”
he asked him.
 
“How are you?”

   
There was a pause on Tommy’s end.
 
It had been tough enough.
 
Then he spoke.
 
“I’m okay,” he said.
 
“I miss you,” he said again.

“Miss
you too,” Sal said, although it wasn’t easy for him to speak so
affectionately.
 
He and Tommy had always
been close, with people even calling him, wrongly, Tommy’s shadow.
  
But that was how close they were.
 
Yet after their father’s death, it was Tommy
who seemed to be clinging to Sal.

 
“How did it go in Jersey?” Tommy asked him.

“Terrible.
 
I got ambushed when I was trying to pay some
of my guys.”

“Ambushed?
 
You wasn’t hit or---?”

“Me?
 
No.
 
They took out two of mine though.”

“Damn,
Sal.
 
Do you know who called for it?
 
Or was it random?”

“Nothing’s
random when it comes to a Gabrini, you know that.
 
And I don’t know yet.
 
Some of my men are on it, including
Chazz.
 
If he doesn’t fuck that up too.”

“I
know you aren’t going to tell me,” Tommy said, “but I’m asking anyway.
 
What was the payoff for?
 
Why were you paying off some guys?”

“I
owed them for a job they did for me.”

“What
job?” Tommy asked and got nothing in return, as he suspected he would, but
radio silence.
 
Sal didn’t discuss the
other side of his life with anybody, not even Tommy.

“So,”
Tommy said, moving on, “when do you think you’ll be back here in Seattle?”
 

“Not
right away, that’s for sure.
 
Gemma’s
still . . .” Sal ran the back of his hand across his eyes.

“Still
what?”

“She’s
still hesitant.”

“About
the fact that you live in a different state?”

“That’s
part of it, yeah. And the fact that I have another side of my life that’s still
murky to her and not, in her view, on the up and up.
 
She’s a good girl, you know?
 
She’s not used to a guy like me.”

“She
should thank her lucky stars she has you, Sal.
 
And don’t you forget that.
 
Stop
selling yourself short.
 
You’re the best
around.”

Sal
smiled.
 
Of course his brother would
think so.
  
But he also knew that Tommy
was really the only person he felt he could share his innermost feeling
with.
 
He could talk to Gemma too, but
not when it concerned Gemma. “I don’t know,” he finally said.

“You
don’t know what?” Tommy asked.

“I
had to handle some messy business in Jersey.
 
As usual.”

“Other
than the ambush?”

“Yeah.”

There
was a pause of concern on Tommy’s side.
 
“What kind of messy business?”

Sal
hesitated.

“What,
Salvatore?”

“Patty
busted out.”

Tommy
frowned.
 
“Patty Pacheco?”

“Yeah.”

“He
busted out of prison?”

“That
idiot busted out.
 
And he tracked me
down.”

“Well
what did he want?”

“Money
to get lost.”

Tommy
hesitated.
 
“You didn’t give it to him?”

Sal
didn’t respond.

“Oh,
Sal!”

“Don’t
you
oh, Sal
me!
 
What was I supposed to do?
 
That man served five years in prison for
me.
 
Was going to serve ten years if he
wasn’t able to break out.”

“Yeah,
and you saved his life,” Tommy pointed out.
 
“You shot that guy because he was going to shoot Patty.
 
I call that even.
 
You don’t owe him shit.”

“Yeah,
well, he thinks so.
 
And you know
what?
 
I think so too.
 
They would have thrown the book at me if he
would have snitched.
 
He didn’t
snitch.
 
I owe him, Tommy.”

Tommy
exhaled.
 
“That’s my Sal.
 
Always looking out for everybody else.”

“That’s
a fucking lie,” Sal said and Tommy laughed.
 
“Making me sound like I’m some do-gooder or something.
 
Some good Samaritan.
 
I ain’t none of that.
 
So don’t even try it.”

Tommy
was still laughing.
 
“Yes, sir,
Salvatore.
 
I won’t even try it.”
 
Then his laughter eased.
 
“So what about Patty?
 
Did he get lost?”

“Too
lost.
 
I had that fucker Chazz and his
men tail him, but Chazz lost him.”

“That’s
not like Chazz.”

“He
wanted me to throw more jobs his way, so I threw him that job.
 
Real simple.
 
But he blew it.
 
I had to call
Will in, but he hasn’t made much difference either.
 
They met with me this morning.”

“And
the fact that you had to deal with Patty is affecting Gemma’s relationship with
you?”

“Not
because of Patty, no.
 
She don’t know
what went down, and if I can help it she won’t know.
 
But . . .
 
It’s not fair for me to want her.
 
A good, honest, hardworking woman like her.
 
Sometimes I wonder if I should just . . .”

“Call
it quits?”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Yeah.”
 
Then he frowned.
 
“But I can’t. That love thing, you know?”