Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) Read online

  She looked out of the door before shutting it, and saw the cab waiting. She also knew Sal well enough to know to stay on guard. He might try to browbeat her a little for making that visit, but she would have to make certain that was all he did to her. And she was prepared for that. She closed the front door.

  And turned toward him. He was dressed in his usual style. Armani suit this time, imported shoes, but tonight she noticed he also wore leather gloves. She thought he looked more like a gangster than the businessman he claimed to be, but that was alright too. She knew he was a little of both. “Long time, no see, Sal Luca,” she said to him. “I miss you.”

  “Yeah?” Sal glanced down the length of her. She used to be good. Not the best. Gemma was the best. But not bad either. He used to hit it. He used to hit it repeatedly.

  She saw his eyes trailing down her body. She unlatched her robe, revealing her white breasts, her flat stomach. The narrow snatch of pubic hair between her legs. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you,” she said. “No man has been able to do me better. And I mean none.”

  She was wasting her time, Sal thought, as he glanced at her now exposed body, but then began looking around, surveying his surroundings. Clasping his gloves together. “You visited my woman,” he said.

  Teri didn’t like his sudden disinterest. She tied her robe once more. “I visited your whore,” she said. “You’re right about that.”

  Sal looked at her, fighting to contain himself. “My whore?”

  “Your black whore, yes. Gemma Jones, I think is her name? I was told to serve her notice, and that’s what I did.”

  “You were told to what?”

  “To serve her notice.”

  Sal frowned. “What the fuck kind of notice?”

  “That marrying you is not going to happen.”

  How would she or anybody else know about their decision to get married? That wasn’t public knowledge. His family didn’t even know yet, and Gemma’s either. “And who told you to serve her this notice?” he asked.

  “Don’t know and don’t care. It was a blind job, and I took it.”

  A blind job, Sal thought. Meaning whoever hired her didn’t want to be known. But before he could ask another question, Teri pulled a switchblade from her robe pocket, flung it open, and pointed it at Sal.

  “Just so you know who you’re dealing with,” she said. “I’m not the girl you used to fuck and leave and throw a few dollars to keep her quiet. I’m not that girl anymore. I know your ass now.”

  But Sal looked at her, and then that switchblade as if she was still very much that girl. As if she was playing little girl games with a grown-ass man. And without warning, he grabbed her wrist with one hand, debilitating her ability to manage the knife, and then took the knife from her with the other hand. Then he twisted her small body around until he was grabbing her from behind, and had his arm around her neck.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, stunned by his swiftness.

  “You had the audacity to point this knife at me?” Sal asked. “You had the audacity to threaten me and my woman?”

  “I wasn’t threatening you, Sal! I was protecting myself. I wasn’t going to use it!”

  “You went to see my woman,” Sal went on, as if she had not said a word. “You threatened her.” He tightened his grip on her, causing her to wince in pain. “Do you realize how fucking stupid that was?”

  “But it was a warning! They paid me to warn her.”

  “Who paid you?”

  “I don’t know! They called me, told me what to do, and then somebody put the money in my mailbox. I never dealt with anybody in person. I never saw anybody. I never even had a phone number! They told me to warn Gemma Jones. That’s all I went over there to do. To warn her.”

  But his grip on her tightened even harder, and he placed that blade to her face. “But you did more than that. Didn’t you, Teri?”

  “I warned her!”

  “You slapped her.! You had the audacity to put your hands on her, Teri! You think I’m going to let you get away with that shit?”

  Teri’s heart began to pound. “But I didn’t touch her, Sal!” she insisted. “She’s lying to you, what are you doing?” The blade sunk down into her cheek. Her small eyes were now staring at that blade, and then over at Sal. “Let me go, Sal. You aren’t gonna hurt me and you know it. You know me. Stop playing now! You won’t hit a woman and you know it!”

  “I won’t hit a woman,” Sal said. “You’re right about that. But I’ll cut a bitch.”

  And he did. He frowned angrily and sliced Teri deep down across her pretty face as if he was slicing an apple. She screamed out with severe pain and began buckling against him so hard that he let her go. She hurried away from him, falling against the wall, and placed her hands on the side of her face, trying to staunch the blood flow. Astonished that he would do such a thing to her.

  “Whoever hired you,” Sal said calmly as he pulled out a handkerchief and began wiping the blood off the blade, “had better understand one thing.” He looked at her, so that she would understand it too.

  She wanted him away from her, she wasn’t trying to understand anything. She had already underestimated him beyond any underestimation she’d ever demonstrated in her life. Why should he care about some black bitch when he never cared about her? That was her estimation when she first entered Gemma Jones’ office. Sal didn’t care about this bitch. But he cared. She couldn’t believe how much he cared!

  When he wouldn’t continue talking, she egged him on. She wanted him out of her house. She wanted him out of her life forever. “What do they need to understand?” she asked him.

  “They need to know,” Sal said, “that they’d better not fuck with me.” He was so calm that it chilled her to her core. “If they’re thinking about it, they’d better think again. If warning my woman was some kind of opening salvo, they’d better shut the shit down now. And if any other female decides to come anywhere near my woman and warn her, they’d better take a good look at your ugly-ass face. It will not be pretty. And I’ll do worse with the next fucker who tries it.”

  Sal stared at her. She was staring at him, still holding her face, still stunned that he could be so cruel.

  But he could be.

  She knew it now.

  And then he walked out of her life.

  After giving the cabdriver Gemma’s address, he leaned back in the seat, closed his eyes, and tried to bring it back down again. He tried to calm back down from yet another visit to the unsavory part of his life. But then his cell phone rang.

  He looked at the Caller ID. It was Angela, the mother of the child Rip and Philly had snatched.

  “Sal, I’m so glad I caught you,” Angela said as soon as he clicked on.

  “Save it, Ang,” Sal responded. “There’s nothing new to report. We still haven’t found Rip.”

  “He’s home, Sal,” she said with excitement in her voice. “He’s home!”

  Sal frowned. “What are you talking? Who’s home?”

  “My son!”

  Sal sat up in his seat. “He’s home?”

  “Yes! He wasn’t snatched after all, Sal. He was with his uncle. Can you believe it? His uncle thought Jace had told me where he was going. Isn’t that something? Isn’t that wonderful news? Jason is fine, Sal. My boy’s fine!”

  Sal was motionless. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He’s fine? A man was dead, an innocent man in this matter, and the boy was fine?

  “Is this some sort of joke?” he asked her.

  Her voice changed. “A joke?”

  “Is this some fucking joke?”

  “What are you talking, Sal? I thought you’d be happy!”

  “Why would you claim Rip snatched him, Ang, if you had no proof?”

  “Because Rip said so! He called and told me so! And I called the police.”

  Then a thought occurred to Sal. “Why did you call me?” he asked. “After you called the cops, why did you call me?”


  “I told you why. They were taking too long.”

  “Bullshit! Why did you call me, Ang?”

  Angela hesitated.

  “Why, Ang?”

  “Because he told me to, alright? He told me to!”

  “Who told you? Who told you, motherfucker!”

  “Rip!” she yelled. She calmed back down. “Rip told me if I wanted to see my boy alive again, I had to get in touch with you.”

  Sal’s mind was in overdrive. What the fuck was going on here? “Rip,” he said, still unable to digest it. “Rip was the one who . . .” He shook his head. “I know better than this, Ang. I know better than this. Your ass played me?”

  “What was I supposed to do, Sal? He said he had my kid!”

  “Why the fuck didn’t you tell me it was him, Ang? Why the fuck didn’t you tell me!”

  The cabdriver looked at Sal through his rearview, but Sal didn’t give a shit. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  “He told me not to tell you,” Angela fired back. “I couldn’t say a word or he was going to hurt my child! So excuse me for looking out for my kid! I didn’t know if he had my house bugged, or my phone, or whatever! So I did like he told me to do for the sake of my child. And now he’s back home. That’s what should matter. What’s the big damn deal?”

  Sal looked at his phone as if he was looking at her. And then he clicked it off. He wanted to throw it across the cab and shatter it into pieces. But he contained his fury. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe he could be played so easily like that. That crazy-ass Johnny Ripperton had played him and his boys like gotdamn instruments! Like a gotdamn string quartet!

  He exhaled, tried with all he had not to think about what they did to Phil Meretti, and why the Rip was even bothering. And then he called Tommy.

  “You work too hard,” Sal said to his big brother when Tommy finally answered the phone.

  “That’s certainly not your flaw,” Tommy replied. “At least not when it comes to Gabrini, Incorporated. Where are you?”

  “In the backseat of a smelly-ass cab. In Vegas.”

  “Vegas? I thought you were going to check on the home front first. You do have a company to run, you know.”

  “You’re one to talk. Your ass is in Lisbon.”

  “My ass was in Lisbon. I’m on a plane heading home now. So what’s up? Why Vegas instead of Seattle which, I thought, was the plan?”

  “I wanted to check on Gem,” Sal said.

  “Check on her? Why?”

  “One of my ex’s decided to pay her a visit today.”

  “One of your ex’s? That doesn’t sound like the kind of woman you’d date.”

  “You’ve got that right. They didn’t give a damn about me, and I didn’t give a damn about them. But I need to check it out. She was paid to go to Gem’s office and warn her.”

  “Paid?” Tommy asked. “Who paid her? And to warn Gem about what?”

  “She was paid on the blind and she wanted to warn Gem to stay away from me.”

  Tommy sighed. “My beloved brother. You and your connections.”

  “I need you to do me a favor,” Sal said. “I need you to check around. See if there’s any chatter out there.”

  “About Gemma?”

  “About anything.”

  “You know I will,” Tommy responded. “But you don’t think Gemma’s in any danger, do you?”

  “Danger? No. Somebody’s trying to get my attention, all right, but I don’t think it’s about harming her.”

  “Then what do you think it’s about?”

  “Scaring the shit out of me,” Sal said. “I think somebody’s toying with me.”

  “And you think this because some female showed up at Gemma’s job?”

  “Remember I told you about Angela and her boy?”

  “They snatched him, yeah. And you went to Baltimore to look into it. At least that’s where I thought you were all week.”

  “That’s where I was. But it never happened.”

  “What does that mean? The kid was never taken?”

  “Affirmative. And you know the reason why his mother, why Angela called me to begin with?”

  “She knew her old man got iced while he was on your payroll. She figured you owed her.”

  “And she figured right,” Sal agreed. “I do owe her. But that wasn’t the reason. She called me because Rip told her to.”

  This surprised Tommy. “Rip? Johnny Ripperton? Are you serious? Rip’s back?”

  “If his ass ever went anywhere, yes. Apparently. I haven’t been able to find out shit about him. Neeco tracked them down, and was able to snatch Phil Meretti.”

  “Old Philly?”

  “Yeah. But Rip and his crew got away.”

  “But who is that asshole to be toying with you? Trying to get a name for himself?”

  “That’s where it’s headed,” Sal agreed. “That’s why I need you to check around. And I need you to have your boys sweep my penthouse. I think there might be a bug there.”

  “A bug?”

  “Of the listening variety, yes.”

  “You think somebody bugged your place?”

  “I think so. That female knew too much. But I don’t want any of my boys involved yet.”

  “Not even Neeco?”

  “Not even Neek. Not yet. Not until I’m satisfied this shit is about me, and not Gemma. Because if it’s about Gemma, we’ve got a problem.”

  Tommy sighed. They were such selfish men to pull such wonderful ladies into their crazy-ass world, he thought. But he didn’t share his thoughts with Sal. Because Sal, by taking it slow with Gemma, was the least selfish of them all. Tommy admired him for that.

  “You just stay safe,” Tommy said to his younger brother. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Gemma’s beautiful home was pitch-black as Sal stepped out of the cab. He didn’t like it. He had told her countless times to take care of it. Keep the porch light on at least, he had told her. Or the living room light. When you go to bed keep something on! But not Gemma. She didn’t see the point. If somebody wanted to break in, she told him repeatedly, a burning light was not going to stop them. Sal knew it too, but he just didn’t like her in the dark like this.

  He paid the cab driver and then made his way across the lawn to the front porch. He could have phoned Reno to have a car meet him at the airstrip. He knew that. But he didn’t want all of the fuss, and any of the questions. He just wanted to handle business, see Gemma, and then, on what might become the most important mission of his life, go and see her parents.

  After ringing the bell again, he saw the upstairs light come on. Then, shortly thereafter, the downstairs light. Within seconds the front door opened and Gemma, thrilled, swung open the screened door and ran into Sal’s arms.

  “Oh, Sal!” she yelled as he lifted her up. “I thought you said you’d be here tomorrow afternoon!”

  “I thought it would take that long,” he said, carrying her into the house. “But it didn’t.”

  When he closed the door and locked it, he placed his hands on the side of her gorgeous black face and looked at her. From her dark lips to her sultry brown eyes, and then back down to those lips again, he loved this woman. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately on those luscious lips.

  As they kissed their sighs could be heard as if it were background music throughout the silence of the home. But it was in the forefront now. Because their sighs became passionate groans when Sal moved his hand beneath her robe, and began massaging her bare ass.

  When they stopped kissing, he looked at her as if he was studying her every feature. Her short, black, natural hair. Her fresh, perfumed scent. Her sincere, intelligent look. Her sleek, slender body. Everything about her was a turn-on for him. Including her eyes. Those smoky, chocolaty-brown eyes. “I miss you,” he said.

  Gemma felt overcome with emotion, and it felt awkward for her. “Me too,” she said.

  But Sal,
knowing her awkwardness concerning all things emotional, took her response as a way to needle her. “Me too?” he asked. “What the hell is that supposed to mean? I say I miss you and you say me too. What does that mean? You miss you too?”

  She smiled. “No silly,” she said. Then she turned serious, as she stared into his blazing blue eyes. “I miss you,” she said heartfelt.

  Sal could feel her heart. Almost as starkly as he could feel her ass. And her ass was feeling awfully good.

  He began kissing her again, passionately, and he began carrying her upstairs. His fingers moved down, from her ass to her pussy, and was massaging her as he carried her. And the thought of her loveliness became too great. His penis was throbbing with too much desire. And he had to have her with a desperate need. By the time he made it to the top stair, he laid her down, opened her legs, and couldn’t wait. He ate her.

  His tongue licked her clitoris, and then his mouth opened her folds wider and enjoyed the rest of her. Her robe was completely untied now, and her bare black body was exposed, as his thick, white hands squeezed the color out of her breasts, and his mouth ate the life out of her pussy.

  She moaned and moved around with restless deliciousness as he ate her, and as every fiber in her being felt the sensation of his prowess.

  “This is the best,” Sal was saying, as he lifted her higher and wrapped her legs around his neck. He had full access now, and was taking full advantage of it. “You’re the best.”

  Her vagina was wet with saturation, and was fire red with desire. He was going down on her so hard that she could feel the texture of his tongue against the ridges of her vaginal walls. And that feeling heightened her desire, and lifted her body higher, and made him want her even more.

  And he had her. He ate her until she was in tears from the intensity. He ate her until she had arched and moved and squirmed so far away that they were now across the landing, against the wall. And he was still eating the shit out of her.

  His dick was so hard that it felt like steel between his legs. And he wanted her in full. He found the strength to lift her, and carry her to the bedroom, where he sat her on the edge of the bed and quickly began to undress.