Gemma's Daughter Page 8

  The men looked at Ruiz for help. He had to reason with the boss. “But Marco,” Ruiz said. “We aren’t talking about some regular drug dealer. We aren’t even talking about a rival cartel. You’re talking about going to war with Sal Gabrini.”

  “I don’t care!” Marco yelled. “He killed my men and he took my woman. And I want her back! You tell those motherfuckers we are at war. We’re at war with Sal Gabrini!”

  “And if his uncle intervenes?” asked Ruiz. Everybody knew about Mick the Tick Sinatra. But did Marco?

  “I don’t care who intervenes,” Marco said.

  “But we’re talking about Mick Sinatra, Marco!”

  “I don’t give a fuck! Marie is mine. She belongs to me. And I will get her back. You call the cartel. Tell them to get me men and to get me hardware and to get them to Vegas now. I am at war, which means they are too. Call them. Call them now!” he yelled with such violent rage that Ruiz immediately pulled out his cell phone. And Marco, just thinking about no longer having Marie by his side, picked up another chair and threw it too.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  She had showered and changed into one of Gemma’s outfits: a pair of jeans and a UNLV t-shirt. She looked younger than her years, but world-weary too. Sal and Gemma both knew they had to tread lightly. But Sal needed intel. All she told him so far was her name. Her adopted family did not change it when they adopted her.

  “Did you find everything you needed okay?” Gemma asked her.

  “Yes, Miss, thank you,” Marie said.

  “I know you have a lot of questions for us,” Gemma said, “but my husband, Sal, has a few for you. To make sure you remain safe. If that’s alright?”

  “Yes, of course,” said Marie. “It’s quite alright.”

  Sal was a little surprised by her sweetness. Given the murderous thug her boyfriend was, he expected her to be a bitch on two legs. So far, he thought, nothing could be further from the truth.

  Gemma and Marie looked at Sal. He and Gemma were seated on the sofa in the living room of their estate. Marie was seated in a chair.

  Sal leaned forward. “Marco Cardoza. Tell me about him. How close is he to the Valdez Cartel?”

  “Very close,” Marie said. “I found out, after I realized I wasn’t just his girlfriend, but his prisoner, too, that his uncle heads that cartel.”

  “How did you meet such a man?” Sal asked her.

  Gemma thought it was a judgmental question to ask that soon, but Marie seemed to understand why he would phrase it that way. “I thought he was who he said he was.”

  “Which was?” Sal asked.

  “A businessman. He said he sold plastics for a living. For a very good living. And I believed him. Or, no, maybe I didn’t believe him entirely. I knew something more was at work with Marco than a mere nine to five type of job. I think I wanted to believe him, so I did.”

  Gemma found her to be very insightful. And smart. But her heart was heavy.

  Marie’s heart was heavy too. Because she still didn’t know just exactly who Gemma was. And she was afraid to ask.

  “Will he come after you?” Sal asked her.

  “His uncle? No. He couldn’t care less. But Marco will absolutely try. That is, if he’s still alive.”

  “Which would you prefer?” Sal asked her.

  “Dead,” Marie said with a hardness in her eyes. “I saw what he did to a wife I didn’t even know he had. I don’t ever want to see that monster again.”

  Sal glanced at Gemma. That was good news. He needed her to be honest with him. He looked at Marie again. “I’m sure you have questions for us,” he said.

  Marie hesitated. These strangers were all she had to remain a free woman. She didn’t want to rock any boats right now. But she needed to know.

  She looked at Gemma. “Who are you?” she asked her.

  Gemma braced herself. It was still shocking to her too. “My name is Gemma Jones-Gabrini,” she said. “Sal is my husband. We believe, I am certain that you are my daughter.”

  Marie’s breath caught, and she inhaled. When she breathe again, it was labored. “You’re my . . . my mother?”

  Gemma nodded, as tears appeared in her eyes. “Yes. But please don’t think I abandoned you. I didn’t. I was sixteen when I became pregnant, and it was a very traumatic pregnancy.” She didn’t feel the time was right to mention the rape. “I was told, when you were born, that you didn’t survive. I thought, all these years, that you didn’t survive. I only found out a few days ago that I had been lied to; that it wasn’t true.”

  Marie had tears in her eyes too. “You didn’t know?”

  Gemma shook her head. “No. I would have been there for you had I known. I would have never left you had I known. I planned to keep you, and raise you despite my youth. I would have never abandoned you, Marie.”

  Tears dropped down Marie’s small face. “ I was hoping I’d find you one day,” she said as Sal handed her his handkerchief. “I was praying I’d find you one day.”

  Gemma stood up when she saw her daughter in tears, and Marie stood up, too, and mother and daughter hugged mightily for the first time ever. DNA tests would come later, they both knew, although their lineage was obvious. But right now, they were just too overwhelmed with emotion to care about the technicalities.

  Sal wiped away a tear himself as he rose to his feet too. But he knew he had to keep a level head. He had to manage this crisis with his family coming out okay on the other side. That was why he sent his plane to fly in Gemma’s parents. Until they got a handle on what Marco’s next moves would be, he sent his men to ensure their safety and escort them to Vegas. But he was angry with Cassie. She should have told Gemma the truth. She should have never allowed any one to take that baby in the first place when she knew Gemma wanted the child, he didn’t care what the circumstances were.

  Gemma should have told him the truth, too, he thought. But he’d handle that another day.

  When Gemma and Marie stopped hugging, they sat down side by side. And it was Gemma’s time to ask questions. But not about Marco. But about Marie’s life away from her. “Were you adopted?” she asked her.

  Marie nodded as she wiped her tears with the handkerchief she had been given. “Yes. Yes, I was.”

  “By what family?”

  “The Washington family.”

  “Were they good people, Marie?”

  Marie nodded her head again. “Yes. Very kind. They were very kind to me. They adopted me when I was a baby and treated me as if I was their flesh and blood from that moment on.”

  “Thank God,” Gemma said as relief flooded her soul.

  “But what happened?” Sal asked, and Marie and Gemma both looked at him.

  “What do you mean?” Marie asked.

  “Why would you, an obviously smart girl, get yourself hooked up with a loser like Cardoza?”

  Marie blew her nose and then she exhaled. It was obvious that it was complicated, but Sal needed to know who he was dealing with.

  “My family, my adopted family, was very kind to me. They really were. I wanted for nothing as I grew up. But when I turned sixteen, and met Marco, I rebelled against them. Not because they were bad to me, but because I was so in love with Marco. And he was so in love with me. He became my world.”

  She hesitated. Wiped her nose again.

  “I left them and went with him,” she continued. “I moved in with him. And it was wonderful. He treated me as if I was a queen. I had no idea he was married. I promise you I had no idea. I wasn’t that kind of girl.”

  She wiped her eyes. Fumbled with the handkerchief. Sal was watching her as much as he was listening to her. He had to be sure it was no act. He had to be sure that this sudden and new addition to his household was not going to do his family, his wife and son, any harm.

  “I had no idea he was married,” she said again.

  “But you knew he sold drugs?” Gemma asked.

  Marie was shaking her head on that too. “No ma’am. I had no idea he was selli
ng drugs. He kept all of that away from me.”

  “What changed?” Sal asked. “How did you go from his lover to his prisoner?”

  Marie, in truth, was both, but being brutalized by Marco in his twisted name of love wasn’t a conversation she was ready to have. “When I realized he had a wife,” she said, “and I witnessed what he did to her.”

  Tears dropped down again. Gemma placed her arm around Marie. “When I saw what he did, I tried to run away from him. It was so awful. But he wouldn’t let me go. He said I belonged to him, and I wasn’t leaving his side for the rest of my life. That was four months ago. What I witnessed that day still feels as if it was yesterday. And after that, every time I tried to get away from him, he dragged me back. I was no longer free.”

  Gemma felt Marie’s pain. She held her tighter.

  “Was he staying in that complex the entire time you were with him?” Sal asked her.

  “Oh, no,” said Marie. “He only moved us there a few days ago.”

  Sal and Gemma looked at each other. Was it because of Sylvia Pendle’s arrest? “Because of the arrest?” Sal asked Marie point blank.

  But Marie was confused. “What arrest?”

  “Of Sylvia Pendle,” Gemma said. “Do you know her?”

  Marie was shaking her head. “No, ma’am. I’ve never heard of her before. Who is she?”

  “She’s the woman who ran that baby-snatching ring,” Sal said, “that snatched you from my wife.”

  “What do you mean?” Marie asked Sal. “She was your wife when she had me? Are you saying you’re . . . my father?”

  For a split second, Sal wished to God that he was. For some reason that young lady had already won his heart the way a daughter would have. She won it, he believed, the moment he saw her chained like a dog in that room looking up at him with Gemma’s eyes. “No,” he finally answered her. “I’m not your father.”

  Marie’s eyes showed her disappointment too. Sal, her rescuer, had won her heart too. “If you aren’t, then who is?” she asked. It was as if it was a burning question all her life.

  Gemma looked to Sal. Sal nodded his head. She had to know. Now, his eyes seemed to say, was the time to come clean with her.

  “Your father was my teacher at the time,” Gemma said in a way that wouldn’t allow her to be delicate. “He raped me.”

  Marie wasn’t nearly as surprised as Gemma and Sal expected her to be. Gemma, especially, didn’t understand why she wouldn’t be floored. “You don’t seem surprised,” she said.

  Marie shook her head. “I’m not.”

  “Why not?” Gemma asked her.

  “Because you wasn’t that kind of girl. I see it all over you. That’s why I was confused when I first saw you. You look like you would have been a bookworm at sixteen,” she said with a smile, “not a man-hungry kid like I was.”

  Gemma and Sal smiled too. “You got that right,” Sal said.

  “What happened to him?” Marie asked. “My father I mean.”

  “He was arrested for rape,” said Gemma, “and they sentenced him to many years in prison. He died in prison,” she added.

  Marie took all of that in for a moment. And then she nodded. At least she didn’t have to confront that part of her heritage. Although she knew, one day, she’d find out all she could about him and about his family.

  “What about this Pendle woman?” she asked. “You’re saying they just arrested her?”

  “A few days ago, yes,” said Gemma.

  “But what would Marco have to do with her?” Marie asked. “He didn’t meet me until I was sixteen years old and had no contact with any woman named Sylvia Pendle that I ever heard of. What’s the connection?”

  Sal didn’t know. He exhaled. “We’ll find out.”

  Marie leaned back. “I’m just so grateful for what you did for me, Mr. Sal,” she said.

  Sal almost told her to call him Pop, or Dad or something connective, that was how comfortable he already felt around her, but he held his tongue. That had to come naturally. “My wife wanted you with us desperately. I wasn’t leaving that complex until I had you with us.”

  Marie looked at Gemma. “Thank you,” she said.

  Gemma smiled, took her hand, and squeezed it. “I’m just so sorry I didn’t know about you,” she said. “I’m just so sorry.”

  “But it wasn’t your fault. You were a kid, just like I was when I first started fooling around with Marco. I couldn’t be trusted with anything when I was that age,” she added, and they all would have laughed but the moment was too heavy.

  And then, a few minutes later, Robby entered the home.

  They all looked at Robby when he walked in.

  “My parents are okay?” Gemma immediately asked. She was angry with her mother, too, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t concerned.

  “They’re okay,” Robby said. “We took them to Reno’s for now. To be with Lucky. We thought that would be best under the circumstances.”

  Gemma understood what Robby meant. Her mother had a major hand in causing Marie to come into the clutches of Sylvia Pendle’s scheme. It would be problematic at best if she had to be in the same room with Marie.

  “What’s the story with Marco?” Sal asked.

  Robby glanced at Marie. He wasn’t sure if she could be trusted. He wasn’t sure if she would try to get word back to Marco.

  Sal understood his underboss’s concern. But she was in their life now. Trust was now or never.

  “You can talk around her,” Sal said for Marie to hear.

  “He survived,” said Robby. “He wasn’t even hit. And by all accounts, he’s coming after the girl. With the full force of his uncle’s cartel behind him, he want her back.”

  Sal exhaled and placed his hands in his pockets. It was exactly the news he did not want to hear.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  The private jet taxied and then landed in Vegas and Tommy Gabrini began hurrying down the steps and across the tarmac. Waiting for him was his first cousin Reno Gabrini and two additional SUVs loaded with armed guards. Dealing with a drug cartel didn’t exactly require all hands on deck the way dealing with an Italian mafia organization would, but it was close.

  “Bout time your slow ass made it,” Reno said cheerfully as he leaned against the third SUV and smiled at his handsome cousin.

  Tommy, called Dapper Tom because of his impeccable style, smiled at Reno, too, and gave his cousin and best friend a hearty bear hug. They remained hugged longer than expected, as they were that close, and then they stopped embracing.

  “Let’s roll,” Reno said as the bodyguard opened the back door of the SUV and both men got in. Once they started driving, Reno looked at Tommy. “How’s Grace and the kids?”

  “Grace is good. The kids are good. How’s your wife and kids? And Dommi?”

  Reno smiled. “They’re all okay, thank God. And Dommi’s okay too. He and Jimmy’s at the house keeping tabs on Trina and the kids.”

  “How’s the girl? What’s her name?”

  “Mariah. And she’s good. I’m talking to Dom as much as I can about what it means to be a father.”

  “But is he listening?” Tommy asked.

  “It’s hard to tell with Dommi. I told him Gabrini men don’t play that absent father shit. But as soon as I say that, his ass gets smart with me and says what about Uncle Mick.”

  Tommy frowned. “Uncle Mick?”

  “That’s always his go-to person. What about Uncle Mick, he loves to say. I told his ass Uncle Mick is a Sinatra, not a Gabrini. And besides all that, Mick’s trying to do right by his kids now anyway. But you know my Dommi. You have to show him better than you can ever tell him. He’s always been that way.”

  “I hear you,” Tommy said. “But speaking of Uncle Mick.”

  Reno looked at Tommy. “He called you?”

  “I called him,” said Tommy. “I told him what’s going on with Sal and Gemma.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He said for us to wait until w
e hear from him. He’s in Europe so his hands are tied. But he says he’ll look into the matter.”

  “What’s there to look into?” Reno asked. “Gemma’s daughter is in danger, if what I’m hearing about that crazy fuck Marco Cardoza is correct. Sal aims to protect Gemma’s girl.”

  Tommy looked at Reno. “Have you met her?”

  Reno shook his head. “Not yet. When we get there it’ll be the first time seeing her for me too. But let Sal tell it, she’s a sweetheart.”

  “He’s probably in love with her already.”

  “You know it,” Reno said. “You know how Sal has such a big heart for anybody associated with Gemma.”

  “And from what Gemma told Grace,” Tommy said, “that girl looks just like a very young version of Gemma herself.”

  “She’s gorgeous then?” Reno asked, and looked at Tommy.

  Tommy looked at his cousin. Reno always had a hard-on for Gemma and everybody in the family knew it. They tolerated it because they knew he’d never act on it. He loved Trina too much. But there was no denying it: Reno always had a soft spot for Gemma, and Trina, Gemma’s best friend, knew it too. Tommy looked away from Reno as he answered his question. “I guess so,” he said, and then they continued riding in silence.

  But Tommy was thinking about his kid brother. He looked at Reno again. “How’s Sal taking all of this? I mean, even I can’t believe Gemma has a daughter. That’s insane.”

  “I know, right? It’s like slap the hell out of me. Gemma? Straight-laced Gemma? But then he tells me it wasn’t her doing, but some fucked up substitute teacher taking advantage, and I can understand it better when Sal told me that. But it’s still insane.”

  “Has Sal backgrounded this daughter good enough?” Tommy asked.

  “Fuck if I know,” said Reno. “Sal didn’t even tell me there was a daughter until he rescued her from Cardoza and brought her into his home. I’m going what if it’s all a ruse to get her inside the Gabrini crime family? But Sal doesn’t want to hear that shit. She’s legit, he says. I wasn’t there when he rescued her. She’s a sweetheart, let him tell it.”