Sal Gabrini 3: Hard Love Read online

  “The way he treats her. The way he, in my humble opinion, uses her. It’s wrong on every level.”

  Trina looked at her. “Liz, what are you talking about? Who uses her?”

  “Salvatore Gabrini. Your husband’s cousin? The way he treats Gem is a crying shame.”

  “Oh, leave it alone, Liz, will you please!

  “I’m only telling the truth,” Liz said as she jerked her blonde hair out of her narrow face. “It’s wrong and I’m going to say it’s wrong.”

  “Why are you saying anything at all? Why are you so concerned about somebody else’s business? What Gemma and Sal are doing has nothing to do with you. Me neither.”

  Liz looked at Trina. She and Gemma were fashion mavens, with Trina wearing her red-hot pantsuit to perfection and Gemma in her business blue skirt suit that fit like a second skin, but sometimes she wondered about their choice in men. Both of them were beautiful black women who could have their pick of the litter, but both of them fell for these oily Italians who, in Liz’s opinion, were both up to no good. “She’s our business partner,” she said. “That makes it our business too. When he mistreats her, we’ll be the ones who will have to pick up the pieces.”

  “There won’t be any pieces to pick up,” Trina said, trying on a pair of sunglasses. “So drop it, all right?”

  “I will not drop it.”

  “Stay out of it, Liz,” Trina warned her, looking over the top rim of her glasses. “Gemma does not play that and you know it.”

  “Well she needs to start playing it,” Liz said. “He’s using her.”

  Trina frowned again. “Why do you always go to the lowest denominator? Why does he have to be using her?”

  “He takes advantage of her then,” Liz said. “Is that better? Come on now, Tree. Think about this. Why isn’t he here? On her birthday no less?”

  Trina had asked herself that same question, but because it wasn’t her business she didn’t broach the subject with Gemma. “She doesn’t seem bothered by it.”

  “But I’ll bet you she is. Wouldn’t you be?”

  “Hell yeah I would be. But I’m not Gemma. I’m not in a long distance relationship. People have to make sacrifices in those kinds of relationships. But I know one thing: they love each other.”

  “Love my eye,” Liz said in her sometimes British accent that often only reared itself when she became heated. “Then why doesn’t he move to Vegas, or move her to Seattle where he lives? If he loves her so much?”

  “Because it’s not as simple as that. She has her own life here in Vegas, and he’s running a major corporation in Seattle. He can’t just pack up and move, and neither can she.”

  “Oh, so marriage isn’t in the cards for them? Is that what you’re telling me? That our Gemma is thirty years old today, but she’s staking her claim with a man she doesn’t intend to marry?”

  “They’ll get married,” Trina said, “but it won’t be because we want them to get married. That’s up to them.”

  “So you’re saying she shouldn’t be upset with him for being away so much, and for not calling the way he should? She should just accept it and get used to it? Is that what you’re telling me?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying at all,” Trina said with a frown. “She better not get used to ill-treatment. But I know Sal. He’s no user. That’s all I’m saying. And she’s not alone on her birthday, as you’re so quick to declare. She’s with us. We’re about to take her to dinner, since you seem to have forgotten that little bit of information.”

  “As I said,” Liz said, “she’s alone on her birthday.”

  Trina laughed. “Forget you,” she said.

  “No, now, Katrina, you come with your own bias on this, when I don’t have that same bias. You think very highly of Sal. He can do no wrong in your eyes. But I’m not seeing out of those eyes. And in my view, he’s using her as if she was some jump-off, and he’s as wrong as he can be.”

  “Who’s as wrong as he can be?” Gemma asked as she walked up to the threesome, her Louie Vuitton bag in hand.

  “Where’s Sal, Gemma?” Liz decided to ask outright. “Doesn’t he know it’s your birthday? Doesn’t he know a woman with a man in her life shouldn’t have to be alone on her birthday? Doesn’t he get it?”

  “Okay, now wait a minute,” Gemma said firmly. “Just step off right there. What he knows or doesn’t know and what he does or doesn’t do is none of your business, Liz.”

  “I’m thinking about you, dear. I’m trying to help you.”

  “And I appreciate that. But criticizing Sal and what he should or shouldn’t be doing isn’t helping me.”

  “Excuse me,” a voice across the store yelled. All three women looked toward the check-out counter. Their store manager held a phone in her hand. “Sorry to disturb you guys, but Mrs. Mertan, your husband is on line three.”

  Liz rolled her eyes. “Why doesn’t he ever call my cell phone?” she asked, and hurried for the counter.

  “That’s the man she needs to be concerned about,” Trina said with a smile. “That unfaithful ass husband of hers. He even propositioned me.”

  Gemma was shocked. “Get out,” she said. “You have got to be lying, Tree.”

  “If I’m lying I’m flying,” Trina responded.

  “That would be so uncomfortable. Your business partner’s husband. What did you do?”

  “I cussed his ass out, that’s what I did. I would have told Reno, but I didn’t want my man in prison because of that fool.”

  “Did you tell Liz?”

  Trina nodded her head. “I told her. Hell yeah I told her.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She declared that I was mistaken, that her husband could not have possibly came on to me, and then she went on talking about other stuff. That’s why her minding your business, when she’s not interested in minding her own, rings too hollow for me, girl. I’m sorry.”

  Gemma smiled, but it barely reached her eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” Trina asked her. “Don’t tell me that woman got to you.”

  “She wasn’t making it up, Tree,” Gemma admitted, “even though it pains me to say so. What she said, about Sal not being here, makes sense.”

  Trina considered her. “Not even a phone call?”

  “Not even. And the terrible thing about it is that I was expecting him to call me just after the clock struck midnight last night, when I officially became thirty years old. Or the big 3-O as he calls it. And I think that’s the part that’s getting to me.”

  “The expectation?”

  “Yeah. The fact that I was laying there waiting for his call as if I was some teenager waiting for her prom date to call. And it depressed me when he didn’t phone, can you believe it? I was literally depressed.” She shook her head. “I am not that girl, but you wouldn’t know it the way I’ve been behaving lately.”

  Trina smiled. “It’s no big deal, Gem. Every woman goes through it like that. It’s called being a woman. It’s called being in love.”

  “Oh, please,” Gemma said dismissively.

  Trina laughed. “I’m telling you it’s no mark against you to have expectations for the man you care about. You love to project this image of the tough attorney who doesn’t take gruff from any man alive, and I get that’s who you are. But you’re also tender and sweet and deeply in love with Sal Gabrini whether you’re willing to admit it or not.”

  “But it’s not healthy, Tree.”

  “What’s not healthy?” Trina asked. “Being in love?”

  “Depending on some man to make you happy. Because that’s how it feels to me now. I celebrated twenty-nine birthdays without Salvatore Luciano Gabrini or any other man determining my happiness. Twenty-nine of them. But then, on my thirtieth one, I’m depressed because a man didn’t call me at the stroke of midnight and wish me a happy birthday?”

  “That’s the way love goes, Gem.”

  “And then,” Gemma said, not willing to relent at all, “after the call di
dn’t come in, I’m lying there thinking about why he didn’t phone. And I find myself, not just depressed, but wondering if the reason he didn’t phone was because he . . .”

  Trina could feel her pain. She loved Gemma, viewed her as one of her closest friends. She hated when she was in a bad state. “Because he what, Gem?”

  Gemma never shared her feelings with anyone this way. But Trina was married to a Gabrini. If she couldn’t discuss it with her, who could she discuss it with? “It made me wonder if he loves me enough,” she said.

  Trina nodded her head. “I know,” she said reassuringly.

  Gemma looked at her. “You know what I’m saying?”

  “I know exactly what you’re saying. When I was dating Reno, I sometimes had those same feelings. But that’s just the Gabrini way, Gem. They don’t mix business with pleasure. When they’re handling their business, they’re handling their business.” Then Trina smiled. “And when they’re handling us, they’re handling us.”

  Gemma smiled too. Leave it to Tree, she thought. “You need to get your mind out of that gutter,” she said.

  “What gutter?” Trina asked. “I’m just telling it like it is.” But then all jokes aside, she turned serious again. “What about marriage?” she asked. “He still hasn’t gone there?”

  “We both agreed to take it slow. So I’m okay with that part. There is still so much I don’t know about Sal, especially all of those so-called business activities that have him going all over the country at the drop of a hat.”

  Trina considered her friend. “And you will never know the full story either,” she made clear.

  “But that’s the thing,” Gemma said, unable to dismiss what she said. “I’m beginning to realize that I have to know, Trina. I have to know before I commit my entire life to him. And that’s what marriage is to me. A lifetime commitment. Just like the kind of marriage my parents have.”

  “Speaking of your parents,” Trina said, “have they advised you on this at all?”

  “Have they,” Gemma said with a smile.

  “So what are they saying?”

  “They’re saying I need to take my black ass down somebody’s altar with the quickness, and marry that man!”

  Trina laughed. “See? See how extraordinary Sal is? Now even your parents are Sal fans, when they used to have their doubts too.”

  Gemma nodded. “I know. And you’re right. He is extraordinary. But so am I! That’s why I want to make sure I get this right. I want to make sure I don’t make it so easy for him that he forget my worth and falls right back into his old ways.”

  Trina shook her head. “No danger of that,” she said. “That man loves you.”

  Gemma considered her. Trina always gave it to you straight, even when she was discussing her own husband’s shortcomings. “So you don’t think Sal has been with any other woman since he’s been with me?” Gemma asked her. “Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Do I look like Miss Naïve to you? No way am I saying that! I can’t say that about my own husband! But if I had to put money on any Gabrini man being totally faithful to his woman, I’d put my money on Sal.”

  That warmed Gemma’s heart, because she knew Trina wouldn’t say it if she didn’t believe it. “Yeah,” she said, nodding. “Me too.”

  Trina put on a different pair of sunglasses. “What do you think?” she asked.

  “Nope,” Gemma said.

  “Sorry about that ladies,” Liz said as she returned to their ranks.

  “What did he want?” Trina asked her as she tried on yet another pair of sunglasses.

  “He wanted to tell me that my cell phone was off.”

  Trina laughed. “You were so busy up in somebody else’s business that you wasn’t handling your own. That’s what you get, Miss Busybody!”

  Liz smiled. “Point taken,” she said. “But I still stand by every word I said.”

  Trina pushed the sunglasses up on her face. “What do you think?” she asked Gemma.

  Gemma shook her head. “Nope. Not your style.”

  Trina looked at them in the mirror at the display. “I agree,” she said as she began removing them.

  “Well excuse me,” Liz said half-jokingly. “You didn’t ask my opinion.”

  Trina looked down at Liz’s woefully old-fashioned green jumpsuit with blazer. “I wonder why,” she said, and Gemma laughed.

  Even Liz, who knew she was no slave to fashion, had to laugh too. And then all three partners headed out of their store.

  But as soon as they got out into the cool evening air, ready to enjoy a nice birthday dinner, Gemma got a treat of her own. Nobody else saw him, but she did.

  And when Gemma did see him, she was so shocked and so happy that she dropped her handbag where she stood, and took off running.

  “Well damn,” Trina said, looking across the parking lot to see what in the world had spooked her. It was only then did she see Sal Gabrini, leaned against Gemma’s BMW, standing in the parking lot.

  “Wow,” Liz said, astounded. “He certainly brings out a different side to her.”

  Trina knew it too, as she picked up Gemma’s handbag. Gemma was usually a no-nonsense, serious attorney who didn’t take crap from anybody. She was, in fact, the least emotional of all three of the business partners. Unless it involved Sal.

  Sal’s heart soared when he saw Gemma’s reaction to his presence. He smiled, uncrossed his legs, and began moving toward her as she ran to him. She would never know how unbelievably wonderful she made him feel. After all the shit he had to deal with, day in and day out, it was Gemma Jones, not his wealth, not his businesses, not even his side business that kept many a powerful man in mortal fear of him, who made him feel like king of the mountain. She made him feel as if he could conquer the world, just by her ability to smile so genuinely and be so happy to see him. He was more accustomed to people frowning and never wanting to have anything to do with him other than to use him and get what they could get out of him. But his sweet Gemma, he thought, as he began hurrying toward her too, was the genuine article.

  When she finally reached his side, he opened his big, muscular arms, and she jumped into them. And that feeling, of Sal holding her and lifting her, and then kissing her, took her to that place. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and ran her hands through his thick, brown hair, as she felt those lips on hers for the first time in weeks.

  “Oh, Sal,” she said with joy in her heart. “I knew you wouldn’t forget about me.”

  When Sal heard those words, he stopped kissing her and looked at her, with one hand around her narrow waist, and his other hand holding the back of her head. “Forget about you?” he asked. “How in the world could I forget about you?”

  Gemma felt suddenly exposed. She loved this man, but she wasn’t accustomed to being so blatant about it.

  He could sense her vulnerability. He smiled that gorgeously rakish smile she loved so much, and his blue eyes sparkled. “I’ll never forget you, all right?”

  Gemma couldn’t help it. She felt so protected in his arms, and so needy too, that she felt a need to explain. “When you didn’t call me at all,” she said, “I thought you’d forgotten.”

  “Your birthday?”

  She nodded.

  “You know better than that. Why would I forget my sugar’s birthday? She’s the big 3-0 now. How could I forget that?”

  “You said you had to go to Chicago, then you had to stop through Indiana. And then after midnight, when you didn’t call . . .”

  “I was working around the clock so that I could get on my plane in time to get my ass to you tonight. Now which would you prefer? I call or I come?”

  She smiled. “What do you think?” she asked, and kissed him herself. He took over, and they locked lips hard and the kissing became passionate again.

  By the time Trina and Liz made it up to the couple, Liz was amazed. She had known Gemma longer than she knew Trina, but she had never, not ever, known Gemma Jones to behave with such emotion and
animation.

  Trina cleared her throat, forcing the couple to stop their coupling. Sal sat Gemma back on the ground, but he kept his arm around her waist.

  “Hello Sal,” Trina said. Sal wore his usual imported, tailored suit and looked like the business tycoon he was, but she also saw that gangster part. She also saw that bad boy part of Sal that wasn’t going anywhere. “Welcome back to Vegas.”

  “Good to be back,” Sal said.

  “Hello, Salvatore,” Liz said. She once had her eyes on Sal herself, as a potential bedmate even though she was a married woman, and Sal barked like he might have been interested too. But he never bit.

  “How are you?” Sal asked.

  “I’m perfectly fine, thank-you,” Liz said.

  Sal found her as phony as a three-dollar-bill, but for Gemma’s sake, he kept it to himself.

  “Here’s the purse you dropped,” Trina said, handing Gemma her handbag.

  Sal frowned. “You dropped your purse? What’s wrong with you, lady?”

  Gemma smiled. “You,” she said, and kissed Sal on the cheek. Sal smiled too and pulled her closer against him.

  Trina and Liz exchanged a glance. Neither one of them were used to Gemma the vixen. But Trina liked it. Gemma worked her ass off at that courthouse and in her law practice. She worked her ass off at Champagne’s. It was good to see her cut loose and have some fun every once in a while.

  Sal, too, loved when she was affectionate toward him. He wanted to return that affection by kissing her yet again, but he wasn’t comfortable revealing that side of himself in front of an audience. He, after all, had his tough guy reputation to uphold, and he had every intention of upholding it. But he also had every intention of doing her again, when he had her to himself.

  “So what’s going on, Sal?” Trina asked him. “We were just criticizing you.”

  “Criticizing me? What were you criticizing me for?”

  “Your absence on Gemma’s birthday.”

  “Yeah? That’ll teach you to mind your own business now, won’t it?”

  Trina smiled. “I mind my own business.” Then she waited for Liz to put in her two cents, since she was the real busybody here, but Liz didn’t say a word. Like most people when it came to Sal, she was full of big talk behind his back. Not a word in front of his face. “Anyway, folks,” Trina said, “Liz and I will get out of your hair and let you two do your thing.”