Gemma's Daughter Read online

  “Sal!” they were yelling as they ran up behind him. “Sal!”

  But Sal didn’t break his stride either. He wasn’t trying to hear anybody’s voice but Gemma.

  Robby Yale was already on scene, and he looked almost as frantic as Sal looked. He hurried over to the boss too.

  “They won’t let me in, Sal,” he was saying. “Curtis is in there. They won’t let me in!”

  Tommy grabbed Sal by the shoulder as soon as he made it to his brother’s side, and turned him toward him. He started to ask him if he’d heard from Gemma at all, but when he saw that devastated look on Sal’s face, he already knew the answer. Instead of asking him anything, Tommy protectively placed his arm around his brother’s waist.

  Reno came up beside them, but was distracted by Robby’s harried look. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked him.

  “Curtis is in there too,” Robby was saying frantically. “Curtis is in there!”

  Reno frowned. “Who the fuck is Curtis?” he asked, unable to think straight. But nobody was answering questions. Sal continued to hurry toward the entrance, where the police presence was heaviest, and the crew were right on his heels.

  Trina and Marie arrived just after the men were hurrying toward the entrance. As they got out of Trina’s Mercedes, they were as floored as they were scared. Who in the world could have survived this kind of destruction, was what both ladies were thinking.

  “There’s Dad!” Marie cried as soon as she spotted Sal, and she left Trina in the dust as she ran to Sal.

  “Dad!” she was crying as she ran. “Dad!”

  For some reason, Sal took note of Marie’s voice and turned when he heard her. They all turned when they heard her. When Sal saw her, he quickly moved toward her, wrapped his arm around her waist, and hurried with her toward the entrance too.

  “Is Mom okay?” she was asking him as they hurried.

  “I don’t know,” Sal said. His face looked so anguished it broke Marie’s heart. “She’s not answering her cell phone. I can’t get anybody to answer their phones!”

  Marie already knew it too. She’d been trying to call Gemma ever since she and Trina left the PaLargio. “What about the courthouse?” she asked. “She said she had a case today. Maybe she’s at the courthouse.”

  “I already checked that,” Sal replied. “They said she wasn’t there.”

  But unlike Sal, Reno was shocked when he saw that his beautiful wife was at the scene and was running toward them too.

  “Tree, what are you doing here?” he asked her when she made it up to him, his hands outstretched as if she committed some crime just by being there. He never liked her anywhere near a bad scene like that one, and she knew it.

  But Trina wasn’t interested in explaining herself. “Heard anything?” she frantically asked him.

  “No,” he said. “We haven’t heard a thing. What are you doing here?”

  “What do you think I’m doing here, Reno?” Trina was irritable too. “Gemma’s my best friend. I’m not sitting this shit out. I’ve got to make sure she’s okay!”

  Reno suddenly remembered the bond Trina and Gemma had even beyond the fact that they were related by marriage and were business partners. He placed his arm around Trina, too, and hurried behind the others.

  But Sal already knew he was getting in. There was no question in his mind about it. He was going to find his wife! The fact that the man in charge, the police captain onsite, also happened to be on Sal’s payroll. That didn’t hurt his chances either.

  And as soon as the captain saw Sal and his crew approach the police tape, he hurried over. “You don’t wanna go in there, Sal,” he said to him.

  “You don’t tell me where the fuck I don’t wanna go,” Sal said angrily. “Move this gotdamn tape!”

  The captain glanced around. Sal should have known not to make their relationship that obvious. A cop being on the take in Vegas wasn’t anything unusual, but it was damn unusual to broadcast it!

  But the captain did as he was ordered. He lifted the tape. Then he escorted Sal and his family into what remained of the structure.

  “Good Lord!” Trina said for all of them when they entered that building. People were still trapped and being rescued. They could still hear groans and moans from survivors. They could see the blood everywhere and the magnitude of the destruction. Whoever pulled that shit, and Sal already had a great idea who, wasn’t pulling any punches. And to pull it on Gemma’s first day back at work, as if they were waiting on her ass to get back there, sealed it for Sal.

  “Curtis!” Robby yelled, and everybody looked where Robby suddenly ran to. Curtis Kane was being carried on a stretcher out of the building, along with Ed Dowdell on a separate stretcher. Both men were badly bruised and battered, and both were unconscious. Robby tried to take Curtis’s hand, to comfort him, but the paramedic pushed him away.

  Although Sal was too distressed for words, he looked at the captain. “That’s my man Robby’s boyfriend,” he said. “Order those fuckers to let him ride to the hospital with him.”

  The captain, when he realized where Robby was, went to do as he was told. And Sal, with Marie refusing to let go of his hand, got busy. “Gemma!” he started yelling. “Gemma!”

  He was tossing rocks and moving further and further into the building. Tommy and Reno and Trina and Marie were calling Gemma’s name too, and moving rocks, too, and following Sal’s lead even though they all knew it was a hopeless mission. But Sal was bulldog determined!

  Marie saw it too. Sal had already snatched his hand from hers, as he needed both hands to remove the larger rocks and bricks, as he searched for his wife as if he’d die if he didn’t find her.

  Marie was in tears searching, too, because she knew it was all her fault. Marco did this to Gemma. Nobody had to tell her who caused all of this destruction and death. Sal rescued her from Marco’s sadistic clutches, and now the woman Sal loved was paying with her life. That was why Marie was searching too. That was why Marie was turning over those bricks as frantically as Sal was. Because she knew it was all her fault!

  But as they toiled through the dust and debris, and as they all kept calling her name, Marie suddenly heard a voice behind them, and everything changed.

  Marie was the first to turn around when she heard somebody call Sal’s name. Sal was too anxiously tossing bricks to hear anything. But Marie heard it. And when she saw who had entered the building, she could hardly contain herself. “Mom!” she cried and ran.

  When Sal heard Marie yell that name, he finally turned around too. Tommy, Reno, and Trina had already turned around. And they could hardly believe their eyes.

  But when Sal saw Gemma standing there, looking flustered because of the carnage around her, but otherwise all in one piece, his heart soared with joy.

  “Gemma,” he said in a voice that could barely speak the word. And he dropped the bricks that were in his hand.

  It looked to Gemma as if Sal was going to collapse right before her very eyes. That was why she went to him. Marie was still in her arms, but she was making her way to her man. To Sal. Because she realized he was searching for her. Because she realized he had not given up on finding her despite the hopelessness around them.

  Tears were in Sal’s eyes as he looked at his wife. He was so emotionally spent that he couldn’t even go to her. But that was why she was coming to him. That was why Marie stepped aside, and Gemma, as soon as she got to him, pulled her beloved husband into her arms. And they held each other with all they had.

  When they finally broke free from the other clutches, Gemma placed her hands on the side of Sal’s rugged face, and looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m okay, Sal,” she said to him. She knew how hard he loved her. “I’m okay.”

  But Sal still looked devastated. “Where were you?” he asked her.

  “I was in court.”

  “But I called down there,” Sal said. “They said you weren’t there.”

  “I probably had already left when you call
ed.”

  “But what about your security detail?” Sal asked. “Where were they? They weren’t answering either.”

  But Gemma had no answer for him. She thought they were purposely staying out of sight the way they usually did. She had no answers because she was still too saddened, and overwhelmed by the scene. She was looking around. She could hear the moans and groans of those not yet rescued too. She could see the blood. She was devastated too.

  But that didn’t lessen her resolve. She removed her suit jacket, tossing that expensive coat to the ground, and started removing bricks too.

  “These are my employees,” she said. “Let’s help as many as we can!”

  And all of the Gabrinis, and Marie, who already felt as if she was one, too, kept digging for any forms of life.

  But it became a futile effort. Although they were allowed to assist in the rescue, as they needed all hands on deck, there was no good news to be found. Gemma and Sal and everybody else were working themselves to exhaustion. But the authorities weren’t pulling out people. They were pulling out bodies. Badly destroyed, dead bodies.

  It became so bad that Sal had to force Gemma to stop. He had to make her stop. Because the moans and groans they had been hearing weren’t being heard anymore. When they stopped digging, in fact, all they heard was a very eerie silence.

  But Gemma refused to quit. She felt responsible for every one of those people who had been working in that building. They were on her payroll. They were her people. She tried to keep going.

  But Sal had to pull her away. “It’s done, babe,” he said to her. “You can’t keep punishing yourself. It’s done.”

  Sal could hardly stand up himself, but he was holding Gemma up. And Tommy pulled Marie in his arms, because he was impressed with her tenacity too. She worked as hard as any of them there. He appreciated her.

  Reno held onto Trina, as she was doing all she could too. But it was all for naught. They were all dusty and worn and too tired to even stand up. But they took their cues from Gemma. It was her business. It was her employees. If she said it was a wrap, then it was a wrap.

  But Gemma broke away from Sal and kept digging. Just as he didn’t give up on her, she wasn’t giving up on them. And Sal and Tommy and Marie and Reno and Trina all kept digging too. They dug and they dug. But their efforts turned up no one.

  When all was said and done, sixty percent of Gemma’s workforce, including all but two of her attorneys, had died that day. A message was sent, loud and clear, when Sal had thought the war was over.

  But he realized, equally loud and clear, that it had only just begun.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  While the ladies were upstairs resting at Sal and Gemma’s house, Sal, Tommy, and Reno were downstairs, in Sal’s home office, plotting their next move. Sal was seated behind his desk. Tommy and Reno were seated in front of his desk. And they were all mad as hell.

  “Those fuckers weren’t playing,” Reno said. “They planned to take out Gemma and as many of her people as they could manage. Those fuckers weren’t playing.”

  “But who does that?” Tommy asked. “You don’t target civilians. Not in a war, you don’t.”

  “That shit they pulled ain’t fair,” said Sal. “In our world, it ain’t fair. In our world, you target the target, not their wives. Not some innocent bystanders who didn’t have shit to do with this. But we aren’t dealing with fuckers from our world. We’re dealing with Marco Cardoza.”

  When they heard that name, all of their jaws tightened. “We’ve got to hit back,” said Sal. “And I mean harder than those fuckers hit us.”

  “What about Uncle Mick?” asked Tommy.

  Sal frowned. “Fuck Uncle Mick! You think I’m gonna let this stand?”

  “He’s on his way from Europe. He said to wait until he gets here.”

  “Yeah, I’m waiting alright. Just like he’ll be waiting on me if somebody nearly killed his wife.”

  The intercom buzzed. The guard at the front door said Robby Yale had arrived.

  “Let him in,” Sal responded. “I’m in my office.”

  When Robby entered the office, with a briefcase in hand, Sal’s heart went out to him. He looked horrific. He looked like death itself.

  “How’s Curtis?” Sal asked him. “And sit down.”

  “Yeah, Robby,” Tommy said, standing up so Robby can sit down. “Have a seat.”

  Robby sat where Tommy had been sitting. Tommy sat on the edge of Sal’s desk.

  “He’s still in ICU,” Robby said. “But he’s expected to survive. Ed Dowdell too. They were the lucky ones.”

  “They’re blessed, that’s for sure,” said Tommy.

  “Did you get those plans?” Sal asked him.

  Robby nodded, sat the briefcase on his lap, and opened it.

  “What plans?” Reno asked.

  “Plans,” said Sal.

  “Did you find out what happened to our men, Boss?” Robby asked Sal.

  “No. Not yet.”

  Robby handed Sal what looked like blueprints. Tommy and Reno stood up and walked around beside Sal, looking at those blueprints too.

  “Beautiful,” said Sal. “Those assholes won’t know what hit them.”

  Sal’s cell phone began ringing. He answered quickly, placing his phone on Speaker. “Yeah?”

  “We found them, Boss.” It was Pauley.

  “Dead?”

  “All four of them, yes, sir. Ambushed in their car, and then driven into the woods off Steinhurst.”

  “Motherfuckers,” said Sal.

  “But they had to be killed outside of the courthouse,” Pauley said. “There’s no way they could have just commandeered this car like that.”

  “But why would they kill Gemma’s bodyguards,” Tommy asked, “but not Gemma?”

  Sal leaned back, thinking about that.

  “Damn, that is odd,” said Reno.

  “Why would they do that?” asked Robby.

  “They had to use silencers on every gun they used,” Tommy said, “to pull it off at a busy courthouse without cops being called in.”

  And Sal leaned up. “That’s it,” he said.

  “What’s it?” asked Reno.

  “Silencers.” Sal looked at Robby. “They used silencers.”

  Robby got it right away. “They used the same method those fuckers who killed Kamill at that safe house used.”

  Sal was nodding. “Right,” he said.

  “But if you’re thinking Marco Cardoza is behind the bombing of Gemma’s office, and the killing of her security detail,” Robby said, “then are you saying Cardoza was also behind Kamill’s death too?”

  Sal nodded. “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “But why?” asked Robby. “How’s Kamill and somebody stalking her, and this new shit related?”

  “I don’t know,” said Sal. “But it’s related. Somehow, all this shit related.”

  “Are you saying Marco Cardoza has had this scheme in the works before you snatched Marie?” Reno asked.

  Sal was nodding. “That’s what I’m saying,” he said. “And that’s why they killed Gemma’s bodyguards, and not Gemma herself. Because it wasn’t about killing Gemma. It was about proving something to me. It’s about settling scores.”

  “But why would they bomb her office and kill all of those innocent people?” Robby asked.

  “To prove that they can,” said Tommy.

  “Right,” said Sal. “Same theory.”

  “Motherfuck,” said Reno. “What the fuck’s he up to?”

  “Whatever he’s up to,” Sal said, “I’ve got to send a message that he picked the wrong motherfucker to get up to it. Get the family, everybody, over here. All of the Gabrinis need to be in the same place. Because I’m about to send a message,” he said again. “With a motherfucking blowtorch.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Two o clock in the morning. The warehouse was filled with Marco’s workers packing up Marco’s dope.

  It had to be a
hundred people in that warehouse. Working through the night. Packing up that dope to move to a safer location. Until the heat was off.

  But the heat was already on.

  Sal’s men were five football fields away. But they aimed their rocket-propelled grenades, and fired. In rapid succession they fired.

  They hit their target on the first try. All seven landed in the heart of that warehouse. And the screams were immediate.

  When the dust cleared, not a worker was still standing.

  Not even the warehouse.

  At the exact same time another crew, this time three football fields away, aimed at Marco’s second location: an apartment complex on the outskirts of Vegas. It was loaded, too, with Marco’s men.

  Sal’s men lined up, aimed, and fired too.

  Six of the seven hit their target. But one would have been enough.

  The complex went up in flames. A few got out alive. But only a few.

  Third location. A storefront that also housed a lot of Marco’s product, along with his street hustlers. And at the exact same time as the first two hits. Only this time, it was a drive by. Only this time, the bombs were lobbed, not fired.

  But the result was the same. The storefront, Marco’s dope, and all of his street dope pushers, went up in flames too.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Gemma was naked and lying flat on her back. Sal was naked and down between her legs, sucking the life out of her. She was rubbing his hair, guiding his head, and enjoying every second of his skills. It was a sweet release. Because it was exactly what both of them needed after a day like yesterday. And, for Sal, after three retaliatory hits like the three he ordered in rapid succession. Although Gemma didn’t know anything about those hits, it was all the same. She was giving him what he needed, and he was giving it right back to her. Gemma, especially, he felt, needed it badly.

  It was seven in the morning. Everybody was downstairs having breakfast. And Sal and Gemma were making long, slow, passionate love.