Sal Gabrini: Love And War Read online

  “What do you want?” Sal asked him.

  “My old lady. Von? She says you raped her tonight.”

  Sal didn’t even want to dignify that bullshit with a response. But he knew he had to. “She’s a gotdamn lie,” he said.

  “But you fucked her tonight?”

  Sal could see the hurt in Fast’s eyes. Rumor was he loved the bitch. But rumor was also that she fucked any strong man she thought could take her away from Fast. “She gave me some head,” Sal admitted, “but I didn’t fuck her.”

  Sal could see that Fast was steaming inside. “Did she tell you where she gave me head?” Sal asked him.

  Fast scowled. “What damn difference does that make?”

  “She came to me. At the PaLargio. I didn’t go looking for her. She came looking for me. So, yeah, bro, you’ve got a problem, alright. But it ain’t me.”

  Fast knew it too. And he was tired of it. Besides, Sal Luca had a reputation. He owned his shit. If he did it, he’d say he did it. Fast believed him. “Okay, man,” Fast said. “Sorry to inconvenience you.”

  Sal wasn’t going to argue the point. He wasn’t going to start some war over some bitch he already knew wasn’t worth it. Besides, Fast never gave him any trouble in the past. “No problem,” he said, and headed back to his car, while Fast headed back to Yvonne.

  But just as Sal reached his car, and turned to make sure it was over, he saw Fast pull out a gun and put a bullet through Yvonne’s head.

  Sal flinched when he heard the shot, and yelled “damn” when Yvonne fell to the ground. She gave him a little head. That was no dying offense in Sal’s book! All Fast had to do was beat her ass and then kick her to the curb. But he, instead, killed her?

  But she was his woman. She was his problem. They weren’t saints. They were killers and thugs. And every woman who wanted to be with men like them had to understand that. Which brought Sal right back to thinking about Gemma. What would a girl like her do with a thug like him?

  He got in his Mercedes, and drove away. But his heart ached for Yvonne, and squeezed in agony, because he could have told her no. He could have told her that he was going to have drinks with Gemma Jones and didn’t need her affection. A good man would have said that. But Sal knew, as he drove away, that he bore no resemblance to anything good.

  Sal also knew, as he drove away, that he was not good enough for Gemma. Yvonne fell because of his selfishness, and countless other women who got their hearts broken because of his slick ass. He wasn’t taking Gemma down too.

  CHAPTER ONE

  PRESENT DAY

  The Aston-Martin parked in one of the two empty slots in front of the showroom entrance and Gemma Jones-Gabrini pulled down the overhead mirror and freshened her lipstick. She’d already had a long day in court, and had gone home hoping for an early dinner and an early night in bed. But her husband phoned. He was back in town, after a business trip that had him out of town for nearly a week, and would meet her at the dealership. The car, he said, had arrived.

  Cab Coleman, the big, beefy black bodyguard her husband assigned to her, got out of the passenger seat of her car, walked around to the driver-side door, looked around, and then opened the door. Although there was a time when Gemma would have viewed such a show of force as an unnecessary intrusion into her life, she didn’t feel that way anymore. She was a mother now. She had a son. She was all onboard with whatever security measures her husband deemed essential.

  With Cab shadowing her, she got out of her car, walked around, and opened the back-passenger door. She lifted their son, Salvatore Luciano Gabrini, Junior, known to everyone as Lucky, out of his car seat. The threesome made their way up the steps toward the entrance to the posh dealership.

  The owner of the dealership, Jerry Reston, was almost never onsite. But the vehicle Sal Gabrini had ordered had arrived, Sal said he would be there to retrieve it this evening, and the owner wanted to be the one to give him the keys. But when the door to his office opened, and Kurt Wannis, his General Manager, peered inside, it wasn’t the news he was expecting.

  “He’s here?” Jerry asked. He was there only because Sal was coming.

  But Kurt shook his head. “She’s here instead.”

  Jerry frowned. “Who’s here instead?”

  “Mrs. Gabrini. She’s here instead of Sal.”

  When Jerry heard the name Gabrini, it was all he needed to hear. He stood up from the ham sandwich he had been chomping on, grabbed his suit coat off of the back of the chair, and with his GM made his way toward the showroom floor. Sal Gabrini was their most prominent client on a slate filled with prominent clients, and his wife, although the owner had never met her, was automatically in the same category.

  But when he made it into the showroom and only saw a couple of white guys talking with salesmen, and a black couple with a baby looking through the window of one of their models, he looked around, and then looked at his GM. “Where is she?” he asked. “I thought you said she was here already.”

  The GM was surprised he didn’t know. “That’s her,” he said, motioning toward Gemma.

  The owner looked at the black woman with the baby again. He was surprised. “Her?”

  The GM smiled. “You didn’t know?”

  “How should I know?” His voice betrayed his inner irritation as he made his way toward her. “I knew about Reno and Tommy. I didn’t know Sal went that way too.”

  “Well now you know,” the GM replied in a manner that made the owner glance at him. He needed to be onsite more often, he thought. His GM was getting ahead of himself.

  But there was no time for Jerry to set him straight. His customer’s wife was in front of him. “Mrs. Gabrini, good evening,” he said.

  Gemma and Cab turned toward the sound of the voice.

  Jerry extended his hand. “I’m Jerry Reston. The owner of this sorry excuse for a dealership. How are you this evening, ma’am?”

  Gemma smiled and shook his hand. “I’m well, thank you.” And then she shook the GM’s hand. “Hello, Kurt.”

  “Great seeing you again, Gemma. And that little man right there must be Sal, Junior.”

  “That’s him,” Gemma said with a smile as both men attempted to dote on Lucky. Lucky, however, turned his face away and laid it on his mother’s shoulder.

  Kurt laughed. “Some impression we’re making!” Then both men looked at Cab.

  “This is Mr. Coleman,” she said, without further explanation, and both men shook his hand too.

  “So, how’s the campaign going, Gem?” Kurt asked.

  Jerry looked at them both. “Campaign?”

  “Yeah.” Again, Kurt replied to his superior in a way that annoyed his superior. But this was not the time nor the place. He didn’t interrupt. “Mrs. Gabrini is running to become our next District Attorney,” Kurt said.

  “Oh, I see,” Jerry replied. Then explained: “I live a good three hours from Vegas. I don’t keep up with local politics. Is everything going according to plan?” he asked Gemma.

  “Early days still,” Gemma responded. “But we’re slowly but surely putting our team together.”

  “So, I take it you’re an attorney if you’re running for DA?” Jerry asked.

  Kurt laughed. “I don’t think they’ll let a non-attorney be the district attorney. Just sayin’.”

  Even Cab found him a bit obtuse, and Cab and Gemma glanced at each other.

  But Jerry didn’t give Kurt a second thought. He was too busy thinking that maybe the fact that she was a lawyer was the reason Sal Gabrini married her, given his reputed mob ties. But Jerry also admitted, as he glanced down the length of Gemma’s tall, sleek body, that there were probably reasons of the physical variety at work as well. “I take it you’re here for the unveiling?” he asked her.

  “That’s the purpose, yes. My husband said he’d meet me here.”

  “Excited to see your new car?” Kurt asked. “He ordered me not to so much as tell you the color of the car. It’s supposed to be a big reveal.
Excited?”

  “I was still pretty excited about my current car, to be honest with you,” Gemma said. “But we’ll see.”

  “Mr. Gabrini said your current car has some frame damage,” Kurt said, “and needed replacing.”

  The “frame damage” was actually a few bullet holes after an attack by Sal’s enemies some months prior, but Gemma felt it was repairable. Why throw the baby out with the bath water, was her logic? But Sal wasn’t interested. He was a superstitious man. Once a car was damaged, it would always be damaged, as far as he was concerned.

  “Wait until you see what he bought for you,” Jerry said. “You’ll be excited. Trust me on that.”

  They all laughed.

  “Just wait and see,” Jerry assured her.

  “She doesn’t have to wait long,” Cab said as he looked out of the floor-to-ceiling showroom window. “He just pulled up.”

  Gemma, Jerry, and Kurt looked too. When they first heard Sal’s revved-up red and black Bugatti Chiron, and then saw it drive up and park, illegally behind his wife’s Aston, both salesmen perked up. They both had an inkling about Sal Gabrini. They’d heard the rumors of mob ties and illegal shipments and underhanded dealings. But they both liked the guy. Say what you want, they decided, the man had style. And his wife, Jerry thought as he glanced at the classy black woman yet again, proved it.

  “Mr. Gabrini,” he said jovially as Sal walked through the door. He and Kurt moved slightly ahead of Gemma, Lucky, and their bodyguard. “Welcome to Reston Motors!”

  “How are you?” Sal asked as he shook Jerry’s hand.

  “I’m great. How are you? And I’m sure you know my GM.”

  Gemma was all smiles now that Sal was there. She looked at their son. “There’s Daddy,” she said as she bounced him in her arms. “There’s our daddy.”

  “What’s up, Kurt?” Sal asked as he moved over and shook Kurt’s hand. Lucky leaned his head up from his mother’s shoulder when he heard his father’s voice.

  “Jerry, right?” Sal asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Jerry said as he extended his hand. “Good to see you again, sir.”

  But even Jerry could see that Sal’s attention was almost exclusively on his wife and child. When he came into Lucky’s view, Lucky grinned and started flapping his hands. “Daddy!”

  It brought a huge smile to Sal’s face. “Hey, son!” He happily took him from Gemma’s arms. “How’s my big boy?”

  Lucky grinned even grander as Sal kissed him and held him. He loved the smell of his child. He loved the feel of his child in his arms. Gemma’s heart warmed at seeing father and son. And when Sal leaned in and kissed her on her lips, placing his hand on the small of her back as he did, she felt the warmth of his touch and nearness in a way that made her close her eyes in response. There was a time Sal would not show any affection in public. Those times were gone.

  Those times left mainly because Sal couldn’t hide his feelings any longer. Gemma was his woman, and he wanted the world to know.

  When they stopped kissing, he nodded at Cab, and then looked over at the owner. “You haven’t shown it to her yet?” he asked.

  “No, sir,” Jerry said. “We understood we were to wait for you.”

  “Let’s do it,” Sal said as if he, not Jerry, ran the place.

  Still holding his baby, and with his hand still on the small of Gemma’s back, Sal and Gemma followed the men across the massive showroom floor to a section near the backside wall where a car, with a covering over it, stood.

  “What do you think it is, Mrs. Gabrini?” Jerry asked her.

  “Since this is a Mercedes dealership,” she said, “I’m willing to go out on a limb and say it’s a Mercedes?”

  All three men laughed. “Some limb to go out on,” Sal said.

  Kurt looked at Sal. “Ready?” he asked.

  Sal smiled and nodded. “Ready,” he said.

  And Kurt and Jerry gladly removed the cover. When Gemma saw the almost futuristic-looking car, she couldn’t help but smile. “Sal!” she said. “It’s gorgeous!”

  “It’s a Maybach Exelero,” Jerry said. “One of the few in this world.”

  It was team too much for Gemma. Way too much! The idea of her driving around Vegas in a car that had to cost millions upon millions of dollars made no sense to her. She wasn’t flashy like her husband! But it made perfect sense to Sal. “I’m not about to drive in a better car than my own wife drives in,” he once told her. “Since I’ve got the Bugatti, you’ve got to have the best too. And I don’t wanna hear any lip. That’s how it goes with me.”

  Gemma looked at her husband. She smiled, and kissed him. “Thank you, babe,” she said.

  “Get in it,” Sal said. “Try it out. It’s an impressive machine.”

  He opened the door for Gemma to get inside. But as soon as he did, what was a straight up and down celebratory event suddenly went sideways.

  Another car, this one a big Chevy Caprice, came flying through the window of the vast showroom, shattering the glass. Its’ wheels touched down on the slick showroom floor and began swerving and swerving into expensive car after expensive car until it came to a screeching halt.

  As soon as Sal realized what was happening, he pushed Gemma into the Mercedes, handed her their son, and pulled out his gun. The other patrons on the showroom floor began running for cover, too. Jerry and Kurt began running toward the back exit, but as men jumped out of the Chevy with guns and began firing bullets with no names on them, they ducked behind whatever desk or car they could get behind.

  But Sal and Cab weren’t hiding anywhere. They began firing back, with Sal walking toward the gunmen as he did, while firing in rapid succession. He moved away from the Maybach so that the gun battle would be away from his family, as he and Cab took out one, and then another one, and then another gunman with their precision shooting. The fourth gunman, understanding what his fate more than likely was about to become, tried to make a run for it.

  But while Cab remained with the family, Sal ran after the fourth guy. Nobody was endangering his wife and son and lived to tell about it. But it was a difficult pursuit. The cars the Chevy ran into were now blocking lanes and Sal had to slide over the hood of car after car until he managed to be in range of the gunman. The fourth gunman was just about to clear the side exit when Sal, on top of yet another blocked car, aimed and fired. He shot him in the back, and then in the back of his head. The gunman’s knees buckled, and he fell down dead.

  When the smoke cleared, and the salespeople and their customers showed their faces again, they were amazed by the bloodshed. But when they saw Sal, and the gun he still held in his hand, they ducked back down and tried to make a run for it yet again.

  But Sal wasn’t thinking about them. He slid back off of the car, and ran back to the Maybach to check on his family. “Gemma?” he yelled. “Gemma!”

  Gemma was just getting out of the Maybach, to make sure Sal was okay too. Cab was still doing his job and shadowing her. “I’m fine, Sal,” she assured him. “I’m fine.”

  “And Luck?” Sal asked anxiously.

  “He’s fine, too,” Gemma said quickly, understanding his fear. She grabbed Lucky from out of the car so that his father could see for himself that his son was okay. Sal stopped when he saw that his wife and child were fine, and leaned down, with his hands on his knees. He was emotionally spent.

  But his emotion wasn’t because he had been in a gunfight. He’d been in too many gunfights to still be affected that way. But the fact that somebody would fear him so little that they would be bold enough to attempt an assassination with his wife and child by his side, amazed him. It stunned him. It had to be an extremely desperate and reckless enemy to pull a stunt like this.

  And in Sal’s world, desperate and reckless always added up to dangerous.

  CHAPTER TWO

  When Gemma opened the door of the nursery, she saw Mia, one of their nannies, rocking in the rocking chair and crocheting, while Lucky slept in bed. She smiled at th
e nanny and closed the door back. And then she made her way to Sal’s home office.

  Sal, with his phone at his ear, was pacing the floor. His lieutenant, muscular Robby Yale, was there, and so were three of his security chiefs: his caporegimes. Gemma walked further in and leaned against his desk. The capos were leaned against the walls, waiting for instructions.

  She didn’t know who Sal was talking to on the phone, but she knew it was a contentious conversation. “I don’t wanna hear that shit, you hear me?” Sal yelled. “I don’t wanna hear it! My family was with me. You understand that, motherfucker? My family was with me! And you’re talking to me about process? I’ll tell you what you do. You process your ass in my office first thing tomorrow morning! I don’t care if your ass has to fly all night, you get here! You hear me, Frank? Tomorrow morning. And bring Vinnie with you! That’s what you process, you dumb motherfucker!” And Sal angrily ended the call. “Motherfucker!” he yelled again.

  Everybody remained silent until Sal himself was able to calm back down. Nobody, not even Gemma, wanted to feel his wrath.

  Once he settled himself back down, he looked at Robby. “What do you know?”

  “They were all family members,” Robby said. “It was a family hit.”

  “What family?”

  “The Bonaduce family. The Bonaduces.”

  Sal frowned. “Who the fuck are the Bonaduces?”

  “One of our rivals,” Robby responded. “Mainly out of Jersey. A family of big talkers, but until today they never backed it up. From what we could find out,” Robby went on, “they wanted to take you out because one of our men got in a beef with their baby brother and killed him. So, they decided to skip the middle man and take their revenge out on you.”

  “On me?” Sal couldn’t believe. “Those fuckers try to ice me because some knucklehead iced their baby brother? Are you kidding me?”

  “I can’t believe it either. But the Bonaduces have never been considered any type of Brainiac. They’re small time all the way. They didn’t know any better. We’ll school them.”