TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART (20 page)

“What’s
wrong?” she found herself asking.

Sal
looked at Tommy.
 
Tommy walked over to
her and kissed her on the lips.
 
“You
haven’t heard?” he asked her.

“Heard
what?” she asked him.

Tommy
sat down beside Grace at the table.
 
Sal
walked over and sat down behind her desk.

“What
it is, Tommy?” she asked him.

“The
story just broke.
 
Apparently some guy’s
claiming that, while you were in college, you were the driver in a car accident
that claimed a woman’s life.”

Grace’s
heart pounded against her chest.
 
Both
Tommy and Sal were staring at her, to see her reaction to the news.

Tommy,
especially, couldn’t blink an eye.
 
“Is
it true?” he asked her.

“Who
said this?”

For
some reason this irritated Tommy.
 
“What
difference does it make who said it?
 
Is
it true, Grace?”

“No,”
she said quickly, and then just as quickly backtracked.
 
“I mean yes.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“No, you mean yes?
 
What kind of answer is that?”

“Sal,”
Tommy said, looking over at his brother.
 
“Stay out of this.”
 
Tommy looked
at Grace again.

“But
what did he say?” she asked Tommy.

“He
said you were the driver, driving drunk, and that you hit a Van.
 
He said when he came to in the hospital, your
father and another man, a white man, paid him to say a third man had been
behind the wheel but he fled the scene before the cops could arrive.
 
He claim he was told to make up a name of
this friend, a nickname, and the DA was unable to find him.
 
No-one, therefore, was ever prosecuted.”

Grace
shook her head.
 
“I told you about that
accident, Tommy.
 
I told you about it a
long time ago.”
 
This was news to
Sal.
 
He looked at his brother.

“Yes,
Grace, you told me about the accident,” Tommy admitted.
 
“But you also told me that you weren’t the
driver.”

“I
wasn’t the driver!”

“But
that guy on the news today said you were the driver.”

“No,”
Grace said, shaking her head.
 
“I mean,
yes, I was there, but not like that.”

Sal
stared at her.
 
She was acting guilty as
hell, he thought.

Tommy
placed his hand over the back of her chair.
 
He hated to see her so distressed, but he had to hear the truth.
 
“Tell me what happened,” he said.

Grace
sat her pen on the table and leaned back.
 
She folded her arms.
 
Tommy was
seated so close to her that she could smell his sweet cologne, but she didn’t
feel that usual warmth his body generated.
 
There was a chill there.
 
He
looked almost as distressed as she suddenly felt.
 
“It was my freshman year,” she said.
 
“I was eighteen.
 
It was my first time away from my father’s
authority and I guess I cut loose a little.
 
Foolishly.”

There
was a long pause.
 
“Go on,” Tommy said.

“Me
and this guy, Rait Rawlings, were friends.
 
We became fast friends.
 
He liked
to party and I enjoyed his company, he always made me laugh, so I started
partying too.
 
We apparently got drunk
one night at some house party or something and so we got this guy to drive us
home.
 
And then there was this terrible
accident.”

“What
was the name of the driver?” Tommy asked her.

Grace
shook her head.
 
“I don’t know.
 
He was a friend of Rait’s.
 
I don’t even remember another guy, I don’t
remember anything about that night.
 
Except what I’ve been told.”

“Your
friend, this Rait Rawlings, is now saying that you were the driver of that
car.
 
That you caused that accident,
Grace.”

“But
that’s not true!
 
I wasn’t driving!
 
That’s why they never charged me.
 
Somebody else was driving.”

“But
it was your car?” Sal asked.

Grace
looked over at Sal.
 
“Yes, it was my
car.
 
It was my father’s high school
graduation gift.
 
But,” she looked at
Tommy.
 
“But I wasn’t the driver.”

“And
you don’t remember who was?” Sal asked.

Grace
shook her head.
 
“No.
 
After I woke up, it was something like five
days after the accident, I tried so hard to remember things.
 
But I couldn’t.
 
It was all gone.
 
The latest I could remember was even before
we even made it to the party.
 
I remember
I was driving and Rait was on the passenger side and I remember how happy we
were to be getting away from campus.
 
I
even remember him telling some stupid joke about Michael Jackson doing the
moonwalk on the moon, or something silly like that.
 
I even remember him slapping his knee and
laughing so hard.
 
But I don’t remember
where we went, or the other guy, or anything like that.”

Tommy
exhaled.
 

“I’m
sorry, Tommy, but I don’t remember it.
 
I
even asked Dad, at the time, to take me to a hypnotist or somebody like that,
but he wouldn’t hear of it.
 
That part of
my life was over, he told me, and he told me to move on.”
 
Then she looked at Tommy.
 
“I didn’t kill that woman, Tommy.
 
I was in the car, but I didn’t kill that
woman.
 
I wouldn’t have.
 
Even Rait said I wasn’t driving that car.”

“That’s
not what he said today,” Sal said.

Grace
looked at Sal, then she looked at Tommy.
 
“There’s no way I could have done something like that.
 
I wouldn’t
 
have done something like that.”

Tommy
pulled her into his arms.
 
“I know that,”
he said.
 
But he also knew that this kind
of story, of the head of Trammel driving drunk and killing an innocent woman,
and never even being charged, could get out of hand fast.
 
He glanced over at Sal as he held Grace.
 
He knew Grace was innocent of the
charges.
 
But what he couldn’t figure out
was why this Rawlings character would suddenly start claiming otherwise.

When
he stopped hugging her, he looked at the files on the table.
 
“What are those?”

“Departmental
dossiers.
 
I was just reviewing them.”

“Put
them up,” Tommy said, rising to his feet.
 
“Let’s call it a day.”
 
He knew a
thing or two about damage control, and he knew Grace and Trammel was going to
need a lot of both.

Grace
would normally have a problem with leaving work before late night, but not
today.
 
This news blindsided her.
 
She didn’t see this coming.
 
She hadn’t thought about that accident in years,
and it was purposeful neglect.
 
She
therefore had to regroup.
 
She got up,
took the dossiers and locked them away in the file cabinet, and then she walked
just ahead of Tommy, as Sal led them out.

The
looks on the faces of her employees as she made her way to the elevators was
one thing.
 
She knew some were probably
judging her erroneously and others were probably enjoying her distress.
 
But she could handle the folks at
Trammel.
 
Trammel was one thing.
 
But when she, Tommy, and Sal made it
downstairs and walked through the exit, and she saw the contingent of press
people with clicking cameras waiting to get a comment from her, she realized
that this was another thing altogether.

Although
Tommy used his body to shield her as they hurried across the sidewalk toward
his limo, which was waiting out front, Sal moved in front of them as if he were
their bodyguard. He even motioned to Albert, the limo driver who was holding
the door open, to get back behind the steering wheel so that they could leave
in a hurry.
 
None of them had expected
this.
 
Tommy, however, was already
whispering to Grace to say nothing to the aggressive reporters.

And
they shouted questions freely and loudly.

“Miss
McKinsey, are the allegations true, Miss McKinsey?”

“Will
you step down as CEO of Trammel, Miss McKinsey?”

“Have
you reached out to the woman’s family, Miss McKinsey?”

“What
about you, Tommy?
 
Did you know your
fiancée was a murderer?”

Sal
purposely shoved that particular reporter with his muscular body.
 
“Ah, fuck you!” he said to clicking
cameras.
 
“Asking a question like
that.
 
What about your old lady?
 
Did you know your old lady is a whore?”

The
reporter grinned.
 
They loved it when Sal
got feisty.
 
But this was no kidding
matter for Sal.
 
He slung open the limo,
Tommy and Grace and then Sal jumped in, and the limo driver sped off, leaving
the paparazzi in their wake.

Grace
looked at Tommy.
 
Tommy leaned his head
back, and closed his eyes

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“Did
you see it?” Lootie asked as he entered the parlor of Jillian Birch’s expansive
home.
 

Jillian,
who was seated on her English leather Chesterfield sofa rubbing her poodle,
smiled at her brother.
 
“Oh, yes,” she
said with great satisfaction.
 
“I saw the
entire interview.
 
Repeatedly.
 
It was brilliant.
 
Just brilliant, Lootie.”

Lootie
sat across from her on the Tufted ottoman.
 
Alvin, her French poodle, growled.

“I
thought it was genius too,” he said.
 
“I
want to see her ass squirm out of this one.”

“The
shame alone should run her away from Trammel,” Jillian said.
 
“Can you imagine how the board is going to
react to this?
 
Or how Tommy’s going to
react?”

Lootie
looked at his sister.
 
She always had a
soft spot for Tommy, even though Lootie could never stand him.
 
“You think it can change Tommy’s mind about
her?” he asked.

“Of
course it can!
 
Even Tommy has better
sense that to marry a murderer.
 
Even he
knows better than that.”
 
She said this
and laughed.
 
After Cam’s death she never
dreamed she could find joy again.
 
But
she was finding it.
 
Through Grace’s
undeniable pain, she was finding it.

Lootie
laughed too, but not nearly as maniacally as his sister.

Grace
handed Sal a glass of wine and kept a glass for herself, as she walked over to
Tommy.
 
He was lying down on her sofa and
talking on his cell phone.
 
Sal was
seated in the flanking chair in her living room where they’d been parked since
arriving from Trammel.
 
Both Sal and
Grace were anxious to hear what Tommy’s people had to say.
 
He’d been in communication with them all
evening long, as they were doing all they could to find out what exactly was
going on.

Grace
sat, Indian-style, on top of Tommy as he continued to talk on the phone.
 
Tommy’s eyes were closed but she could see
him grimace when she sat on top of him.
  
But when she moved to get off, he placed his hand on the side of her
thigh and prevented her from getting down.
 
She then realized he had probably grimaced because she had kneed him,
not because of her weight.
 
She therefore
relaxed again, sipped wine, and waited.
 

Tommy
eventually ended his call and opened his eyes.
 
The concern in his greenish-blue eyes concerned Grace.
 
She and Sal both were staring at him.

“What
did they say?” Sal eventually asked.

Tommy
moved to get up, as he held Grace on his lap.
 

“No
news yet,” he said as he sat up.
 
“But
everybody’s on it.”
 
He took Grace’s
glass of wine, and took a sip.
 
“I spoke
personally to each one of them.
 
I wanted
them to understand that I want answers immediately.
 
This was priority number one.
 
I told each one of them to report back to
Milt, and Milt will report to me.”

“What
do you think the fallout will be?” Sal asked him.

“If
we can get this Rawlings character to correct the record, then it could be
minimal.
 
But if it stands, who
knows?
 
Some companies may not want to do
business with Trammel unless Grace steps down, but that’ll be their
problem.
 
Because Grace will not be
stepping down.”

“Damn
straight,” Grace said, and Sal laughed.
 
She was even beginning to sound like them.
 
But Tommy was too invested in making this
right for Grace to even smile.

And
he was right to keep it somber because, within minutes of his hanging up the
phone, the phone was ringing again.
 
Grace answered it.
 
It was Jamie.

“Turn
on the news,” he said anxiously.

“Why?”
she asked.
 
“What’s going on?”

“Just
turn it on!” Jamie yelled, told her what channel, and Grace immediately grabbed
the remote and turned on the TV.

“What
is it?” Sal asked.

“I
don’t know,” Grace said.

But
it didn’t take long for them to see what it was.
 
It was Jared Graham, with Nayla and a team of
attorneys standing beside him, as he addressed the press in what appeared to be
an attorney’s office.

Tommy
shook his head.
 
What the fuck now
, he wondered.

“For
how long has this been happening to you?” a reporter asked.

“It
was happening before she became CEO,” Jared said, “but after she got that job
it really took off. It really escalated.”

“What
escalated?” Sal asked angrily to the screen, but Grace and Tommy were too
pained to answer him.

“She
said she like blond men especially, and that I was her type, and it became
impossible for me to do my job.
 
Jus
impossible.
 
She would feel on me in her
office, ask me on dates anytime her boyfriend Tommy Gabrini was out of town,
and even in front of coworkers she would be telling jokes about my body and how
magnificent she was certain I was in bed.
 
When I told her I was uncomfortable and her behavior was making me
physically ill, she got upset and demoted me.
 
When I confided in her best friend, she even went to Grace and told her
she needed to cut it out.
 
Grace then had
the nerve to demote her best friend Nayla Santiago too.
 
But what really angered me was when Grace
continued to seek sexual favors for me and Nay went to her again.
 
That’s when Grace fired Nayla.
 
She fired her best friend!
 
I knew then I had to speak out.”

Tommy
wanted to throw up.
 
The bastard!
 
But Grace was too stunned.
 
She looked at Tommy.

“What
in the world is going on here?” she asked him.

“In
the world of revenge,” he said like the pro he was in that world, “it’s called
a one-two punch.”

And
that was what it felt like to Grace.
 
A
punch in the gut.
 
Especially when Nayla
started telling her lies about witnessing her behavior and going to her about
how inappropriate it was.
 
Then the
attorneys took over.
 
They both were
suing, the attorneys said, not for the money but for the principal of the
thing.
 
One was suing for harassment, and
the other one for wrongful termination.
 
But it wasn’t about the money, the attorneys kept insisting.

“Oh,
they plan to get paid,” Sal said, watching the freak show too.
 
“I don’t care what those lawyers say.
 
That’s all this is about.”
 

“They’ll
get paid all right,” Tommy agreed.
 
“But
it’ll only be over my dead body.”

After
a long, sleepless night, where all Grace could think about was how angry it was
making her, she woke up determined to not let anybody run her under some
rock.
 
She was dressed for work, and
ready for battle too, when Milton Alderman, Tommy’s longtime personal attorney,
entered her apartment.

“Have
a seat,” she said as he entered.
 
“Make
yourself at home, Milt.
 
I’ll get Tommy.”

Tommy,
she knew, was still sound asleep in her bed after a long night of even more
phone calls when the second story broke, but he would be more upset with her if
Milt showed up and she didn’t wake him up right away.
 
So she walked to her master bedroom, looked
at her man covered by a sheet but otherwise naked in her bed, and she woke him
up.
 

Tommy,
who was lying on his stomach, his hair tousled and his face unshaven, opened
his eyes with a quick lift.
 
When he
realized it was Grace, he closed them back.

“Hey,”
he said in a voice filled with drowsiness.

“I
hate to disturb you, baby, but Milt’s here.”

Tommy
opened his eyes again this time, waited a second, and then he got out of
bed.
 
He sat on the edge of the bed and
yawned, and looked at Grace.
 
“What time
is it?” he asked her.

“Almost
ten,” she said.

He
glanced down at her outfit, a beautiful pantsuit, and then he stood and began
walking toward the bathroom.
 
“Where do
you think you’re going?” he asked as he walked.

Grace
braced herself.
 
“I’m going to work,” she
said.

“Not
today, Grace,” he said firmly as he went into the en suite bathroom and began
peeing.

“I
can’t sit around here all day, Tommy.
 
I
have to do something.”

“You
have plenty to do.”

“No,
I don’t.
 
But at work I have meetings
scheduled that I can’t just cancel.
 
Trammel isn’t like Gabrini, Inc.
 
People aren’t clamoring to join up with us when they can just as easily
use FedEx or UPS.
 
I have to really sell
them on what we have to offer.”

Tommy
jiggled his dick, to get the last of the urine out, flushed the toilet, washed
his hands, and then headed back into the bedroom toward the closet.
 
“You have enough to do here, Grace.”

“Like
what?”

“Like
trying to prove your innocence,” Tommy yelled.
 
“What the fuck you think?!”

Grace
was stunned by his outburst.
 
And he
didn’t let up.
 
“You saw those vultures
yesterday,” he blared.
 
“They’re out for
blood, Grace, and you’re behaving as if it’s no big deal.
 
Well, sweetheart I’m telling you right now
it’s a big damn deal!
 
Nobody’s calling
my woman every name in the book and think they’re going to get away with
it!
 
No fucker is going to sit back and
scandalize your good name and expect me to just ignore it!
 
You wasn’t abusing any employees, and you
wasn’t driving that
got
damn car!
 
You wouldn’t have gotten behind a wheel
drunk, and especially not as plastered as that Rawlings guy was claiming you
were.
 
But as unfair as all of this is,
we’ve got to prove you didn’t do it, Grace.
 
Nobody else is going to do that for us.
 
We’ve got to prove the negative.
 
The burden is on us.
 
That’s what
you need to worry about here and now.
 
Fuck Trammel right now.
 
Concentrate on Grace!”

Grace
knew Tommy had a temper, she’d seen it unleashed before, but she’d never seen
it unleashed like this.
 
She knew there
were things Tommy had to do in his past, terrible things, when it came to his
family’s honor.
 
But now it was her honor
they were trampling on.
 
She never
realized, until this very moment, just how super-serious he took his responsibility
toward her.

As he
grabbed the pair of pants he had taken off last night, she ran and threw her
arms around him.
 

“I’m
sorry, Tommy,” she said.
 
He looked down
at her.
 
“I hate what’s happening too.”

Tommy
pulled her into his arms.
 
“We’ve got to
stay focused,” he said.
 
“I don’t ever
want you to underestimate your enemies.
 
Not ever.”

Grace
held him tighter.
 
It wasn’t that she
underestimated them at all.
 
She just
knew she couldn’t let things she couldn’t control disturb her.
 
But Tommy, it seemed to her, had a more
proactive view.
 
He believed, once he had
more facts, that events weren’t going to control him, but he was going to
control them.
 
She decided, then and
there, to stop putting herself in the way, and trust Tommy to steer this ship.

Tommy
made his way into the living room a few minutes after Grace had already been
there.
 
She had prepared and was now
giving to Milt Alderman a cup of coffee.
 
Milt sat the cup on the cocktail table and rose to his feet, when Tommy
walked in.