Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor Read online

  “You think he will actually allow you to see Mamoof?”

  Liz nodded. “Yes. I think so. But be prepared. He’s probably not going to let you come along.”

  “And that is okay with you?”

  “I’d rather have my own photographer, certainly,” Liz said. “But I know Adabi. We’ve worked together before. He’s good too. Besides, this is going to be the interview of a lifetime. An exclusive with an ISIS informant. I’m not passing this up.”

  Tommy leaned back in the musky cab as it lumbered through the bustling streets of Damascus. He didn’t have time for this, he had too much on his plate as it was, but he knew he had to make this journey. This was come to Jesus time for him and Liz, and it was a long time coming. Long overdue. And as he looked out over a city he’d never visited before, he tried to think how it all went off the rails for them. But he couldn’t say. He couldn’t pinpoint when it all changed. But he did remember what he didn’t think was then, but now believed to be, the defining moment.

  It happened two months ago. They were at a horse ranch owned by a friend of Tommy’s in northwest Seattle. It was a family day for Destiny. Her mother was there, Tommy’s ex-wife Grace, and Grace’s husband Ed. Tommy invited Liz along, and she accepted.

  Destiny was up on her pony, with an experienced rider at her side, while Tommy, Liz, Grace and Ed were on individual horses. But before they could even begin to trot along, Ed decided to give his horse an unnecessarily harsh slap, and the horse lifted up on his hind legs, screeching, and then tossed Ed to the ground. Grace’s horse, and Liz’s horse, reacted to Ed’s horse and took off running down the slope. The women were terrified, crying for help.

  Tommy immediately ordered the trainer to watch Destiny, and then he gave his horse a swift kick and galloped toward them. He wasn’t a great rider, but he was an experienced one, and was able to catch up with the wayward horses within seconds. But he knew he had a decision to make. Either he was going to save Liz first, or save Grace first. He couldn’t get to both. He kicked his horse into high gear, and made his decision. He went for Grace. He didn’t know why he made that decision, but he did know he would have died if anything would have happened to Grace.

  When he made it up to Grace, he corralled her horse, grabbed the reins, and stopped the progression. Liz, stunned that he would rescue Grace over her, lost her balance before Tommy could get over to her, and fell off of her horse. She wasn’t hurt. But Tommy knew she was pissed.

  “Really?” she asked when Grace and her horse were safely reined in and Tommy was jotting toward her.

  “What are you talking?” Tommy asked. “I had to make a decision!”

  “And you chose Grace?”

  Tommy wasn’t going to deny it. “Yes.”

  “Why, Tommy? And don’t tell me that shit about her being Destiny’s mother. You always use that excuse every time you do something for that woman. Well what about me? You don’t do shit for me!”

  It was a major blowup that riled everybody that day, with words being tossed around that shattered all peace. Tommy couldn’t remember what words they exchanged, but what he never forgot was his decision, and the fact that he didn’t regret that decision. He didn’t regret it for one second. But that fact alone, the fact that he rescued Grace over Liz, made him all the more aware that he and Liz, and their relationship, were in trouble. And that was even before she decided to inject herself into this brutal war.

  The cab stopped in front of the Baroche Hotel and Tommy stepped out. He reached back in, grabbed his overnight bag, placing the strap over his shoulder, and paid the driver. And then he walked into the hotel’s lobby. He had no intention of being in the Middle East tonight, let alone in some dinky hotel, but that was where he found himself. In a war-torn country in the middle of the night. And with the ten-hour time difference between Seattle and Damascus, he was barely functional.

  But he wasn’t going to let this matter linger. She wanted this life, she could have it. But he wasn’t participating. He was, in fact, thinking about just how much he wasn’t having this when he saw her in the hotel’s lounge. She was sitting at the bar and laughing and talking with a middle-eastern man. And Tommy stood there, watching her. She seemed so different to him. She seemed as if this life, this place, was where she was in her element and whenever she was with him she was out of her element. It was a reality he’d known for some time now, and it was a troubling truth. The fact that his woman would be more relaxed, more in her element when she was away from him, was another nail in their coffin. This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. He thought he had seen the last of this kind of life when he broke up with Shanks. He thought those days of worrying about his woman, and wondering where in the world she was, were so far in his past that he would never dream of allowing a comeback. But it came back. It came back in the name of Liz.

  Before Tommy could make a move, the bartender behind the counter came over to Liz and Raj with a phone in his hand. “Liz Logan?” he asked.

  “Yes,” Liz said excitedly.

  “For you,” the bartender said and handed the phone to Liz.

  “Adabi, hey,” Liz said as soon as she grabbed the phone and answered it. “A few minutes? Okay, sounds good. Yes, I’ll be at the curb. I’ll be there. I’m bringing Raj, my photojournalist. He can be an extra hand.”

  Raj looked at her as the man on the other end of the call responded. Liz looked at Raj and began shaking her head.

  “Okay, okay, I get it. I’ll be alone. Yes. Yes. Alright, bye.” Liz handed the phone back to the bartender. “He’s nervous,” she said. “He doesn’t want anybody else around. He feels Mamoof will change his mind and maybe even avenge him if you or anybody else came along.”

  “So what do I do while you’re out there having all the fun?” Raj asked.

  “Just wait here. Go to your room and get some needed rest. I’ll come see you as soon as I get back.” Liz began to sip the last of her beer, and that was when she saw him through her periphery. Shocked, she removed her glass from her lips, and turned his way. When she turned was when he began walking toward her. But Liz still couldn’t believe it. Tommy was here? Right now? In Syria?

  “Tommy?” she asked, as he approached her, as if she still wasn’t sure if he was real.

  Raj looked too. And he was stunned by what he saw. Not by the fact that a man was coming toward them. But he was stunned by the beauty of the man who came.

  So this was Tommy Gabrini? This was the man who phoned too much? As he walked toward them, Raj was staring as hard as Liz. And what he saw was impressive even to him. He saw a tall, muscular man, a man with a thick head of light-brownish, nearly blondish hair, and big odd eyes that looked as blue as they looked green. He wore a gray, pullover sweater that crisscrossed at the chest, and a pair of dress pants and shoes that rounded out a nicely wrapped package. He was beautiful. Even Raj would admit that. And it was a deflating experience for Raj. Because now he knew. If this runway model looking guy was Liz’s type, he didn’t stand a chance.

  Liz smiled, stood up, and hurried into Tommy’s arms as he approached. Tommy swept her up, holding her, and then kissed her with all he had. He hadn’t seen her in nearly a month. He missed her.

  When they stopped kissing, and she was able to pull back from him, she looked at him. “What in the world are you doing here?”

  Tommy glanced at Raj, and then looked back at Liz. She looked tired, and flustered. Dark circles were beneath her eyes. “I came to see you,” he said.

  “But why?” Liz asked. “I told you I was fine.”

  Tommy was offended by her cavalier attitude. “Fine in a war zone?” he asked. “I don’t think so.”

  “Well I know so,” Liz said, gathering up her backpack and bottled water. As she hoisted it onto her back, she introduced the two men. “Tommy, this is Raja, my photographer. Raj, Tommy.”

  The two men shook hands. “Nice to finally meet you, Tommy.”

  Arab guy. Tall, thin. Handsome in a rugged sort of way
. “Nice to meet you, too,” Tommy responded.

  Liz handed Tommy her hotel room’s keycard. “Here’s my room key,” she said to him. “I’ll be back as soon as I can get back.”

  “You’ll be back?” It was the middle of the night. “What do you mean you’ll be back? Where are you going?”

  “I’ve got an exclusive interview.”

  “Why can’t it wait until daybreak?”

  “It can’t wait,” Liz said. “It’s an exclusive with an informant. An ISIS informant.”

  Tommy couldn’t believe it. “ISIS?” he asked. All he could think about were the kidnappings and beheadings that organization were known for. “Liz, are you out of your mind?”

  “It’s an exclusive, Tommy.”

  “Fuck that! Let somebody else handle it.”

  “Liz, you’d better get going,” Raj said. He understood Tommy’s concern, but he also understood how big a “get” Mamoof was. “Adabi should be out there now.”

  Liz leaned over and kissed Tommy on the cheek. Tommy couldn’t believe it. It was almost as if the role had reversed. He was always the one giving his ladies a nice little kiss on the cheek as he went away to handle grown-folks business. Now she was kissing him? She was leaving him? He didn’t like the feeling. He didn’t like this shit one bit.

  And when Liz turned to leave, thinking her cute little kiss was going to be enough to appease him, Tommy took her by the arm and pulled her back. “Let somebody else handle it,” he said firmly.

  Liz looked at him. This was and would probably always be their bone of contention. “There is nobody else,” she said to him. “I’m the one he agreed to meet with. I’m the one who worked my butt off to get this exclusive. I have to handle it.”

  Then she tore away from Tommy, and left.

  Raj watched Tommy as Liz walked away. But instead of showing the hurt and embarrassment most any other man would have shown, all Raj saw in that guy’s eyes was anger. And not at all to Raj’s surprise, Tommy walked out of the lounge, up to the front desk counter inside the hotel’s lobby, and handed the desk clerk the key. And then began heading toward the front exit. Raj laughed. A man like that, he knew, wasn’t used to playing second fiddle. Especially when he was second, not to another man, but to a career!

  “Good,” Raj found himself saying, his head nodding. “Those white Americans think they rule the world. Good,” he said again, sat back at the bar, and drained down, with great satisfaction, the last of his beer.

  But outside, Liz was in a different place, and satisfaction wasn’t a part of it. She felt some kind of way about Tommy coming all this way to see her. Because she knew it wasn’t just because he missed her. That was a small part of it. The larger part, she felt, was because he didn’t have her exactly where he wanted her: under his thumb. He wanted a tough lady, and he got one. But was that really what he wanted, Liz wondered. Tommy always seemed to live his life in extremes, when, she was beginning to believe, he was more like a man in the middle.

  Her car drove up, with Adabi in the backseat, just as Tommy, further down and in front of the hotel, walked out. The door of the sedan opened, and she was about to get in the backseat beside Adabi. But then she saw Tommy standing there, as if he was waiting for a cab. Was he leaving? Was he that upset? He flew fifteen hours to just turn back around?

  “Give me one minute,” Liz leaned in and said to Adabi.

  “One minute?” Adabi said. “I don’t have one second to waste!”

  “I know, but I need to take care of this.” Liz placed her backpack in the car and then began walking away, heading toward Tommy.

  Adabi was angry. His driver looked through the rearview. “What are we to do now, Adabi? What are we to do now? She is getting away!”

  Adabi was angry that it would have to come to this. He would rather a secluded place. But he pulled his weapon from beneath the car mat, cocked it, and then got out of the car.

  Tommy, on the other end of the sidewalk, waiting for a cab to arrive, saw Liz coming toward him. It was in the middle of the night in Damascus but the streets were busy and well-lit in the area surrounding the hotel. He could see her easily. But Tommy was a trained observer. He also saw the man getting out of the car behind her, and heading toward her back.

  Tommy quickly removed his carrying bag from his shoulder and sat it down. Then he calmly began walking toward Liz, walking directly in front of her, careful to make her body a shield for his as he pulled his own gun from out of the waistband of his trousers. When he saw Adabi raise his arms and aim his gun directly at the back of Liz’s head, Tommy increased his steps and pushed Liz down, just as Adabi was about to fire. But Tommy fired first, hitting the hitman between the eyes. Adabi fell down dead.

  People started screaming and running for their own lives, and Adabi’s driver, realizing that his passenger was down, attempted to speed away. But Tommy ran toward the car and began firing. He got the driver in the back of the head. The driver’s face hit the steering wheel as the car’s momentum carried it further, and then to a rolling stop.

  Liz was still on the ground, looking at Adabi’s dead body, looking at the car Tommy had just riddled with bullets. And then she looked at Tommy.

  Tommy put his gun away and began walking toward her. If he had not been there Lord only knew what would have happened to Liz. But it didn’t please him that he was her rescuer. It didn’t please him one bit. It angered him that she would put herself in a position to have to be rescued at all. She didn’t have to be in this madness. She chose to be in this madness! Tommy was seething with anger.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Kassab Khan, the head of the Damascus Metropolitan Police, sat in the hotel room in front of Liz and Tommy. Raj was in his own hotel room, waiting for the questioning to end. But even without the additional body, the atmosphere felt crowded and tense.

  “It is a most unfortunate thing,” Khan said. “A most unfortunate thing. You were going to meet up with an informant, a very important informant, and Adabi would attempt such a slaughter.”

  “Any idea what the motive might be?” Tommy asked.

  “Radicalism.”

  “But Adabi is no radical,” Liz said.

  “He does not present as a radical, no. But he has been radicalized. Yet his motive is not religion. His motive is money.”

  “Money?” Tommy asked.

  “Money,” Khan replied. “He was to get Miss Logan out of the city and hold her for ransom. He knew of her wealthy boyfriend, of you, sir, and as near as we can decipher, he had no idea you had arrived in the country.”

  “But why would he want to kill her,” Tommy asked, “if his plan was to hold her for ransom?”

  And just that easily, Khan was stumped. Tommy couldn’t believe it. It felt as if the head of police was winging it. It felt as if he was making it up as he went along.

  “Perhaps money was not the motive,” Khan admitted, “but he was a radical. Of that we are certain. Perhaps he was merely interested in taking out an American. An infidel, as he would call her.”

  But Tommy wasn’t buying it. And after the head of police and his speculation stood up to leave, and Tommy and Liz stood too, he still wasn’t buying it. There were hundreds, if not thousands of Americans in Damascus. Why target just Liz? But he kept his thoughts to himself.

  “I will give permission for you to leave the country, sir,” Khan said.

  “Thank you,” Tommy responded, and the two men shook hands.

  Khan then turned to Liz. “You may also leave the country,” he said. “I take it that is your wish?”

  But Liz did not hesitate. “No,” she said.

  Tommy looked at her. Khan did too. “No?” he asked. “But madam, there was an attempt made on your life. One that would have surely been successful had it not been for the James Bond-like skill and acumen of Mr. Gabrini. Surely you would want to leave until this matter is resolved.”

  “I have work to do here,” Liz said. “There’s no way I can pack up and leave right
now. But thank you,” she added.

  Khan was lost, and looked to Tommy for guidance. But Tommy was staring at Liz. After Khan said his goodbyes and left, he was still staring at Liz.

  “What do you mean no?” he asked her.

  “Not now, Tommy,” Liz said, sitting back down. “It’s been traumatic enough.”

  But Tommy stood there, with his hands in the pockets of his pants. He could appreciate a tough lady trying to handle her business. He could admire her, in fact. But he did not appreciate any lady who would dare to try and handle him. “I’m leaving this place tonight. I’ve already alerted my pilot to ready my plane. You will be returning to the States with me.”

  Liz looked up at him, at that gorgeous man that stood before her. It felt like the clash of titans to her because she viewed herself as Tommy’s equal. She didn’t take a backseat to him when she first met him, she was not taking a backseat to him now. She stood to her feet. “No,” she said, “I will not be returning with you. I came here to do a job and I intend to finish it. I’ll hire security. Yes, I’ll do that. And Raj will look out for me too. But this is where the action is. The Middle East. This is why I started that magazine to begin with. It’s a foreign affairs magazine. I deal in wars and rumors of wars. This is where it’s at, Tommy. I’m not about to leave this kind of action.”

  “You’re passionate about your career,” Tommy said. “And I appreciate that passion. But you’re taking this shit too far, Liz. You have got to learn how to balance it.”

  “Balance it how?” she asked, a puzzled look on her face. “By jumping every time you snap your finger? By leaving my post just because you don’t like the danger?”

  “By understanding that you aren’t in this alone! I have your best interest at heart, and I’m not going to let you put yourself in any danger.”

  “You aren’t going to let me?” Liz asked angrily. “That’s mighty white of you!”

  Tommy couldn’t believe she said that. “What?”

  “You put yourself in danger every day of the week,” Liz kept talking, “but I don’t complain about it. I don’t track you down and make you come home! You put yourself in dangerous situations all the time!”