Gemma's Daughter Read online

  But Sal was stupefied. He looked at Mick and spoke before Mick could finish his sentence. “Darcy?” he asked.

  Mick looked at him, and saw the shock in Sal’s eyes. “That’s his real name, yes. Marco Darcy, or some shit like that. What of it?”

  “Who’s his mother?” Sal asked.

  Mick frowned. Everybody frowned. “His mother?” Mick asked. “Who gives a shit?”

  Sal pulled out his cellphone and began frantically searching for that photograph he was sent before they captured Marie.

  “Sal, what is it?” Tommy asked.

  But Sal kept searching.

  “Sal?” asked Reno.

  Then Sal found the photo. And he rose to his feet, staring at that photo. “It’s him,” he anxiously said.

  Tommy and Reno stood too. “It’s who?” Tommy asked.

  Sal looked at Mick. “It’s him,” he said again.

  “Who?” Mick asked.

  “Darcy. Marco Darcy is Darcy. He’s the man Ma said was his son. She denied it afterwards. But he did her dirty work for her.”

  Mick frowned again. “What are you talking about? Ma? Your mother?” Sal’s mother was Mick’s deceased sister Jacqueline, a woman they used to call Sprig.

  And Mick rose to his feet too. “What are you telling me?” he asked. He knew the backstory. He knew that horrific day when Sal was caught between a rock and a hard place: he either had to let his mother kill Gemma, or he had to kill his own mother. Like Mick when he had to choose between taking out his own son or letting his son take out his wife, Sal, too, chose his wife. Sal saved Gemma’s life. But Darcy, at that time, had been working with Sal’s mother. Darcy tried to kill Sal too.

  “Ma told me that Darcy was her son. It wasn’t true. He was an assassin from Canada that she hired. He was the man who nearly killed me that time when I went to help Ma out. That time I nearly died.”

  Gemma was stunned. She remembered that time like it was yesterday. Sal was badly injured. She remembered how he nearly died, and then how his mother almost killed Gemma too. She stood up and snatched the phone from Sal’s hand, and looked at that picture herself. But she didn’t recognize the man in that photo. Until she looked harder.

  She looked at Sal with shock in her eyes. “It’s him,” she said.

  Sal nodded. “Yes, it’s him,” he said. “He had this all planned out.”

  “Are you saying Marco Cardoza wanted to start a war with you?” Tommy asked.

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

  “But why now?” Reno asked.

  “Because he discovered who Marie really was,” Sal said. “That’s why Sylvia Pendle ended up dead in her jail cell. Because she told him about Marie. A while back, Robby Yale spoke with one of the private eyes that worked for the woman who was trying to get Pendle arrested for her baby-snatching scheme. That private eye said Pendle visited Marco Cardoza just before the authorities arrested her. That’s why the private eye called in the authorities when he did. He was afraid Cardoza might kill her and they would have no case. Cardoza’s people apparently killed her anyway.”

  “But why?” Trina asked.

  “Because he discovered that the woman he loved and was so obsessed with belonged to the wife of Sal Gabrini,” Reno said. “And that, if found out, Sal Gabrini might try to take her away from him. That’s why!”

  “Right,” said Sal. “That has to be it. And he was afraid it was all going to come out. That was why he hired a hit man, and used Kamill to try to take me out in that diner.”

  Gemma frowned. What diner, she wondered. And who in the world was Kamill? But she knew now was not the time nor the place. She didn’t interrupt her husband.

  And Sal kept going. “But after we took Marie from Cardoza,” he said, “he knew just killing me wasn’t going to get her back. He had to play mind games with me. Taking out my wife’s security detail with silencers on their guns. Bombing her office building when they knew she wasn’t there. Doing everything he could to distract me away from it being about Marie. But all he was doing was making it clear to me that it was all about Marie. And how he was going to eventually try to take her back.”

  Then Mick had a thought. “Go get her,” he said. “Get the girl. Maybe she has some part in all of this.”

  “She doesn’t,” Gemma said firmly, “and I don’t want you accusing her of having anything to do with this.”

  Mick almost lashed out. I don’t give a fuck what you don’t want, he almost said to Gemma. But he respected her too much.

  But that didn’t mean his direct order wasn’t going to be obeyed. “Go get her,” he ordered Gemma.

  Gemma looked at Sal. Sal nodded his head. And Gemma went to go and get her daughter. As much as she wanted to shelter her, she knew there was just so much she could do.

  But as soon as Gemma got upstairs good, they heard her scream a blood-curling scream. “Sal!” she cried. “Sal!”

  Although Dommi ran ahead of everybody in the room because he was the youngest and swiftest, Sal was close on his heels. They all ran upstairs to help Gemma!

  But when they got upstairs and went into Marie’s room, they realized it wasn’t Gemma that needed the help.

  She was standing there, waving a note in her hand. “She’s gone,” Gemma said.

  Sal frowned as Mick grabbed the note. “What do you mean gone?” he asked her. Tommy and Reno ran out of the French doors and looked down at the guards on duty. “Bring your asses up here!” Reno yelled. The two guards nervously hurried up the back stairs that led up to the balcony.

  Inside, Sal was asking Mick about the note. “What does it say?” he asked him.

  Mick read the note. “I will not break up this wonderful family. God bless all of you. Marie.” Then Reno and Tommy pushed those guards through the open French doors and into the bedroom.

  “They let her leave,” Reno said.

  Sal frowned. “You let her leave?”

  “Yes, sir,” said one of the guards.

  “Why the fuck would you do that?” Sal yelled.

  “She said she was going for a drive.”

  “And you let her?” Sal asked.

  “You never told us she couldn’t go for a drive, sir,” the second guard said. “We didn’t know that wasn’t allowed. We thought we were there to keep people out, not to keep people in.”

  Sal realized he was getting upset at the wrong people. Because they were right. “Just get back to your post,” he said, and both guards, relieved, hurried back out of those French doors.

  “Let’s go,” Mick said, heading for the bedroom exit.

  “Where?” Sal asked.

  “To Marco’s hideaway.”

  “ Marco? You think she went there?” Gemma asked.

  “You always go back to the familiar,” said Mick. “She’s going there.”

  “You know where his hideaway is?” Sal asked as Reno and Tommy were already hurrying behind Mick.

  “Yes,” Mick responded.

  Gemma was hurrying behind Sal. But Sal stopped her. “Not this time,” he said with a look so stern that Gemma didn’t even argue with him.

  “Just bring her back safe, Sal,” she said.

  Sal squeezed her arms. “I will, babe,” he said. Then he looked at Dommi. “Take care of the family,” he ordered.

  “You know I will, Unc,” Dommi said.

  And Sal hurried behind the other Gabrini men, and Mick Sinatra.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  As soon as Marie drove Gemma’s Bentley onto the grounds of the two-story compound at the end of the road, she knew what was going to happen. She knew the house looked plain and uninviting on purpose. She knew it was the one of only three houses on the entire street for a reason. She also knew that Marco wouldn’t be there. He never stayed at that compound. But she knew his men would see her, and go and get him.

  It had taken her a long time just to find the place. She was working from the memory of spending time there with him years ago, but she
knew it was his only Vegas getaway. It took her a while, but she eventually found it.

  And she was right about his men. Because as soon as she drove onto the property, men came running out with guns in hand and were pointing every one of those guns at her.

  “Get out,” Arturo, one of Marco’s men, ordered, “with your hands in the air!”

  Marie slowly got out of the car and placed her hands up.

  “Check the car,” Auturo ordered, and some of the gunmen hurried to make sure nobody was inside of the car. They grabbed the keys and opened the trunk too. But Marie was alone.

  But before they could do anything else, commotion was heard near the front of the house and Marco himself came running out, with Ruiz, his second-in-command, running right behind him.

  “Marie!” Marco was crying as he ran. “Marie!”

  “Not so fast, Boss,” Ruiz was saying. “It could be a setup, Boss. Boss!” he yelled, but Marco wasn’t listening. He had his woman back. He had his M & M back.

  When he got up to her, he placed both hands on her small arms. “I knew you’d come back to me,” he said, and pulled her into his arms.

  Marie didn’t hug him back as he hugged her vigorously. But she allowed him to hug and kiss her passionately.

  Marco was so engrossed with having Marie back, rather than the dangers she might pose to him, that he didn’t even notice when a convoy of SUVs turned onto the street and began heading straight for the compound.

  But his men noticed it.

  “Boss look!” Auturo cried out.

  Marco was just about to turn to look. He tore his attention away from Marie and was just about to look. But Marie had already pulled the gun from beneath her blouse. And she pressed that gun against Marco’s stomach, and fired.

  She fired once, and then twice, and then a third time too. His men couldn’t believe it.

  As she was firing, the Gabrini/Sinatra convoy were speeding onto the property and Mick and Sal and Tommy and Reno jumped out of the first SUV. Their men jumped out too. Everybody was armed and aimed at Marco’s men.

  But Marco’s men were armed, too, and aimed at Mick the Tick and the Gabrinis even as their boss was dying. Even as Marco was still standing there staring at Marie, with total shock in his eyes, and then he slowly slid down, still trying to clutch onto her. But his hands slid right off of her, and he crumbled to the ground.

  Marco Darcy Cardoza was dead.

  And his men were torn.

  They could fight to a certain death and try to take out the legendary Mick the Tick while they were at it. Or they could decide it was Marco’s battle, not theirs, and walk away. It was a true Mexican standoff. Mick knew it, and the Gabrinis knew it, and Marco’s men knew it too. They all were at a crossroads.

  But Marie was staring at Marco. She wasn’t about to let him kill her mother nor her stepfather. She wasn’t going to let him disrupt her new life no matter how hard he tried. That was why she stole Gemma’s car, and one of her guns. She wasn’t about to let anybody harm those good people. M & M was no more. And she knew she had to see to that.

  But Sal knew she was in a dangerous position standing there. She was at the center of the action. That was why they hadn’t fired on Marco’s men as soon as they arrived. Because they knew the position she was in.

  But when Marco’s men began to back away, as if they realized they didn’t stand a chance, Marie felt a flood of relief.

  But Sal didn’t. He wouldn’t trust Marco’s men as far as he could throw them.

  And he was right to be mistrustful because, as soon as they were retreating, Sal saw one of them, Ruiz, attempt to squeeze his trigger and was going to fire even as Mick and the Gabrinis were supposedly relaxing.

  But the problem was in the relaxing. If that was what Marco’s men had expected them to do, they had expected wrong. Nobody on Sal’s side of the ledger relaxed.

  “Get down!” Sal yelled to Marie just as he fired the first shot at Ruiz as soon as he saw him attempt to fire at them.

  Marie fell to the ground and began crawling on her belly underneath Gemma’s car as Mick, Tommy, and Reno took their cues from Sal and began firing too. Their men started firing as well. And Marco’s men were right about one thing: they didn’t stand a chance.

  When the dust cleared, only two of the Gabrini men were down. But all of Marco’s men had fallen.

  And Sal, worried about Marie, ran to the car where she had taken shelter. He fell on his knees in the dirt and reached for her. When he felt her small hand in his big hand, his terror evaporated. And he pulled her from beneath the car.

  To his relief, she was just fine. And she fell into Sal’s arms.

  But for Marie it was more than just being okay. She was satisfied beyond words just by knowing that Marco Cardoza and his twistedness could never torment her, nor her brand new family, ever again.

  She held onto her father.

  EPILOGUE

  Dommi picked up Marie and threw her in the pool, then he dived in after her. His girlfriend, Mariah, sat on the edge of the pool laughing. Marie came up for air and was laughing too. But then Dommi, being Dommi, swam up to Mariah and grabbed her too.

  “Dommi, no!” Mariah said, unable to shield her joy. “I’m pregnant, you dope! Don’t you dare!”

  But it didn’t matter to Dommi. He tossed her in too. When she came up for air, she couldn’t help it. She loved Dommi, even when he acted like some big kid. She could never be mad at him for long. She started laughing too.

  “She’s showing now,” Tommy said as he sat at the patio table and watched the kids horse around. He was at the table with the grown up Gabrinis: Reno, Trina, Sal, Gemma, and Tommy’s own wife Grace. All of their smaller kids were in the pool, too, along with their friends. Sophie and Destiny, however, were not in the pool but were walking near the basketball courts talking, undoubtedly, about boys.

  Even Rodney and Cassie Jones were there and sitting at the so-called adult table too. Although Marie still kept her distance from Cassie, she at least could be cordial with her. But Gemma already made it clear to her mother that it was going to take time. And Gemma made clear to Marie that her mother was wrong as she could be to have schemed with that horrid woman to take Marie away the way they did, but Cassie was still Gemma’s mother. She was going to always be a major part of Gemma’s life. Which meant she was going to be in Marie’s life too. It was going to take time, a lot of time, she told both women, but they had to eventually come to terms with that reality.

  Robby Yale and Curtis Kane were there, too, sitting alongside Ed Dowdell and his date, a gorgeous blonde Reno kept taking peeps at. Both men were fully recovered from that blast that day, although Gemma had a couple of her attorneys still recovering at home, and they were enjoying the day, too, as their lives were trying to get back to normal.

  Further over, at the pits, were Jimmy and his lady Oprah. They were laughing and drinking beer, and overseeing the cooks.

  It was the annual Gabrini Fish Fry, this time at Sal and Gemma’s, and everybody came.

  “Yup, she’s showing now,” Reno said in answer to Tommy’s comment about Mariah. “She’s taking good care of herself and the baby.”

  “So she’s definitely keeping the baby now,” Tommy said.

  “She’d better keep the baby,” Trina said. She was drinking beer and was a couple gulps away from being tipsy.

  “I know that’s right,” Reno agreed with her. “That’s not just her baby anymore. It’s my baby. And Tree’s baby. And oh yeah, Dommi’s baby, too,” he added, and they laughed. “There’s no question she’s keeping that baby.”

  “How does Mariah’s family feel about her pregnancy?” Gemma asked. “Since she’s so young, I mean? Marie lost touch with her adopted family when she took up with Marco, and she really doesn’t want to reconnect.”

  “I think that’s because she feels it’ll upset us,” said Sal. “I told her it won’t, but she doesn’t want to do anything to rock the boat. She’s a sweetheart like tha
t.”

  “But I’m not going to let her just kick her adopted family to the curb,” Gemma said. “She admits they were wonderful to her. I’m going to encourage her to reconnect with them as soon as things settle down around here. But what about Mariah’s folks?” she asked Trina and Reno. “Are they onboard?”

  “We have no idea,” Trina said. “She won’t talk about them except to say that she no longer communicates with them. Dommi moved her into this fancy apartment, and she seems to love it that way.”

  “These young people nowadays,” Grace said, “can so easily distance themselves from their family of origin. Destiny tried that foolishness when she was so in love with a new boy every month. She thought we didn’t matter.”

  “I’ll bet Tommy put a stop to that shit,” Reno said.

  Grace smiled and nodded. “Oh, he did. She may talk about boys all the time. But he’s got her right under his thumb. All she’s doing is talking,” Grace said, and they laughed. Trina noticed Reno taking yet another peep at Ed Dowdell’s date one more time, as they laughed.

  But before she could tell him about his behind, the inside doors opened and Mick Sinatra, along with his big brother Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, walked out onto the patio.

  “Oh, good,” Trina said with a smile. “Gorgeous is here!”

  Most of the ladies of the family often referred to Charles Sinatra as Gorgeous. Mostly because he was a very attractive man. But also because he was a very good man with a big heart. They believed Sal took more after his Uncle Charles, in that respect, far more than he took after his Uncle Mick. But they were happy to see them both.

  They all rose and gave the two men big hugs or, in Mick’s case, handshakes. “Where are your wives?” Grace asked as she and Big Daddy stopped hugging.