Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) (14 page)

Tommy
was stunned by Sal’s words.
 
Because they
cut to the core of his very being.
 
Everybody
 
used to think that he
was the fortunate one.
 
Tommy Gabrini,
they thought, was the one who had it all.
 
His kid brother Sal was just a sourpuss to them.
 
A mean, irascible, rough-around-the-edges
tough guy to them.
 
They were both good
looking, but Tommy was great looking.
 
They were both successful cops and then rich businessmen, but Tommy was
more successful, and richer.
 
And Tommy
had their father’s love.
 

That
father was fucking the shit out of Tommy and destroying every piece of his
self-worth inch-by-loving-inch, but they wouldn’t have believed it even if he
would have told them.
 
His success as a
cop was only wafer thin, promoted and pushed by that father of his, but that
wasn’t the issue to them.
 
He became rich
only after he partnered with Sal, but that was beside the point to them.
 
It was all Tommy’s doing.
 
Tommy was the best boy in the Gabrini
household.
 
Sal was the black sheep.
 
That was all they saw.
 
That was all they wanted to see.

And
now, Tommy felt as if he’d been behaving just like
them
.
 
He wasn’t giving his
own brother, a brother he loved with all his heart, credit for shit.
 
He had to grow into his love for Grace, if he
was ever to admit it, but Sal’s love for Gemma was already there.
 
Sal was already there!
 
Sal was their rock, and that strong arm.
 
Sal was the strength.

Worry about yourself
, Sal had said to him.
 
He was completely in love, but he was
nobody’s fool.
 
And Tommy should have
known that.

Tommy
stood up.
 
Sal stood too.
 

“I’d better
get going,” Tommy said.

“Rome?”
Sal asked.

“Rome.”

Tommy
began walking toward the front door.
 
Sal
followed him.
 
He could feel Tommy’s
heaviness of heart even as he walked behind him.
 
And even though he knew Tommy was wrong to
come at him the way he did last night; even though he knew it wasn’t his fault
that Tommy and Reno felt the way they did.
 
It didn’t matter.
 
Tommy was his
brother.
 
His beloved brother.
 
Sal touched him, Tommy turned around, and Sal
pulled him into his arms.
 

Both
brothers embraced vigorously, with their eyes squeezed shut as the weight of
the moment was almost unbearable.
 
They
loved each other.
 
There was a time they
had no one else but each other.
 
Their
relationship, they both knew, was no trivial matter.

“I’m
sorry, Sal,” Tommy blurted out, as the tears appeared in his eyes.

“Me
too,” Sal responded, refusing to point any more fingers, or do any more
blaming.

They
continued to embrace until both of them had their acts together again, and
could face the other one.
 
And when they
did face each other, they smiled.
 
It was
better together, than apart.

Tommy
extended his hand.
 
“I want to officially
congratulate you, Sal Luca,” he said.

Sal
gladly shook that hand.

“And
again,” Tommy said, “I apologize for not realizing a profound truth.”

“Oh,
yeah?” Sal asked, enjoying this.
 
Tommy
was his old self again, and Sal preferred this Tommy.
 
“And what profound truth is that?”

“Reno
and I went to town on you last night.”

“Yes,
you did.”

“We
were criticizing you,” Tommy went on, “when your shit is more together than
ours!”

Sal
laughed.
 
“Yes, it is,” he said.
 

And
he slapped his brother on the back.
 
They
were back.
 
The Gabrini brothers were one
again.
 

And
neither one of them would have it any other way.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Oh,
Sal!” Gemma said as if she were admonishing him.
 
“This is a mansion!”

“Yeah,
so?” Sal parked her BMW in the circular driveway and looked at the huge home
too.

“But.
. .” Gemma was still shaking her head.

“But
what?” he asked her.
 
“What, you think
I’m going to put you up in a hovel?
 
You
think I’m not going to want the best for you?”

“But
it’s so big!”

Sal
unbuckled his seat belt.
 
“Damn straight
it’s big.
 
Nothing but the best for
you.”
 
He got out of the car to walk
around to open the door for her.

And
as Gemma unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car too, she couldn’t help
but smile.
 
It was still kind of unreal
to her that a man would do the many things for her the way Sal did for her.
 
And now this.
 
It was big and beautiful and bold and ostentatious.
 
It wasn’t just a dream home.
 
It was a dream itself!
 
She looked at him.
 
She knew Sal was a wealthy man, but this had
to cost millions.

“You
can afford this?” she asked.

Sal
stared into those sincere eyes of hers.
 
“This and a hundred more,” he said.
 
Then he smiled.
 
“I’m rich,
bitch!
 
Who do you think you’re dealing
with?”

Gemma
laughed at his joke and then threw her arms around him.
 
She didn’t realize that Val Gabrini and Buddy
Wellstone, the owner of Wellstone Realty and Val’s father, was already there
waiting for them.
 
She had seen two
African-Americans standing there, and a car, but she was so busy looking at the
house, she didn’t bother to look hardly at all at them.

“Val!”
she said cheerfully as they walked up the drive and then the steps of the
massive home.

“Hello,
Miss Jones,” Valerie said.
 
“Welcome
home!”

“Not
so fast,” Buddy said with a smile. “We haven’t made the sale yet.”

“Not
yet,” Gemma said, smiling too.

“Hello,
Uncle Sal,” Val said.

Sal kissed
her on the cheek. “Hey there.”
 
Then he
shook her father’s hand.
 
“How are you,
Buddy?”

“I’m
good, Sal, and you?”

“I’m
good.”

“Thanks
for the business,” Buddy said.
 
“I really
appreciate it.”

“Don’t
mention it!
 
You’re family.
 
I’m not going to hold it against you that
you’re on Reno’s side of the family.”
 
Buddy laughed.
 
“You’re family
now!”

“Miss
Jones,” Val said, “I’m not sure if you know my father.”

“We’ve
met before, yes,” Gemma said. “Hello, Mr. Wellstone.”

“Buddy
please,” Buddy said. “I’ve heard a lot of wonderful things about you.
 
This daughter of mine seems to just adore
you.”

Gemma
smiled. “The feeling is mutual.”

Sal’s
cell phone began to ring.
 
He pulled it
out and looked at the Caller ID.
 
He
glanced at Gemma, which she knew meant that the call would be a private one,
and then he walked back down the steps to take the call.
 
Gemma and Val small-talked while he was gone,
but Gemma kept glancing at Sal.

“Where
is she now?”
 
Sal asked his man Neeco,
who was in Baltimore handling the situation and was on the other end of the
call.

“We
put her in a safe house,” Neeco responded.
 
“She’s in a bad way, Sal.
 
She’s a
basket case.”

“They
killed her fucking kid.
 
Of course she’s
a basket case, what are you talking?”

“He
pretended to snatch the kid before, and didn’t,” Neeco said, “so now I don’t
get it.
 
Why would Rip suddenly kill that
same kid he was pretending to kidnap?”

“Hell
if I know.
 
But I know we’ve got to get
to the bottom of this.”

“Something’s
up, Sal.
 
We need you here.”

Sal
exhaled.
 
He looked over at Gemma.
 
She was talking and smiling with Val.
 
“I’m on it,” he said.

“When
can we expect you?”

“What
are you asking me questions for?
 
You’ll
see me when I get there.
 
Don’t you worry
about anything else.
 
You guard Ang, and
find Rip.
 
That’s what you do!”
 
Then Sal ended the call.
 

When
he returned to the fold, Buddy didn’t miss a beat.
 
He rubbed his hands together and smiled.
 
“Ready to take a look at this jewel?” he
asked the couple.

“We’re
ready,” Sal said.

“Everything
okay?” Gemma asked Sal as they entered the home.

“It’s
. . ., yeah, it’s okay,” Sal said noncommittally.

But
as soon as Gemma entered the home, she fell back against him.
 
She thought the PaLargio was palatial.
 
She thought Tommy’s mansion was palatial.
 
She even thought Sal’s penthouse at the
Wingate was palatial.
 
But they all
paled, she felt, in comparison to this.
 

Opulent
in the extreme, she felt.
 
And not just
at the entrance, where the cathedral ceilings and the double staircase that was
so high they looked as if they was meant for Buckingham Palace rather than a
family home, took her breath away.
 

But
as they walked around, and went from room to room to room, it was as if they
were walking into another world.
 
A part
of her was terrified of this place.
 
It
was too much!
 
But another part of her,
the bigger part, was thrilled.
 
This man
loved her and was giving her the best, and she wasn’t about to be some dumb
chick and tell him no, give her less than the best.
 

It
was going to take some getting used to, she thought, as they went outside and
toured the extensive grounds.
  
And it
wasn’t just the house that would take some getting used to, but the generosity
of Sal, and the fact that she was no longer, in many ways, in control of her
own destiny. He was in control now.
 
She
would have a say in everything about her life, she was determined to keep it
so, but he would have the ultimate say.
 
She knew that was what she was signing up for.
 
She knew that was part of the deal.
 
And it was as daunting and as overwhelming as
the house she was now viewing.
 
But was
she having second thoughts?
 
Any cold
feet?
 
Not for a second, she thought, as
she smiled at the size of that pool!

“Wow,”
she said.
 
And she found herself saying
that very word, with every turn of a corner.

By
the time they made it back to the front of the house, Sal was beyond pleased.

“Where
do we sign?” he asked Buddy Wellstone.

“Sal!”
Gemma admonished.
 
“What are you
saying?
 
This is the first house we
looked at.”

“Yeah,
so?”

“But
that’s not how it’s done.
 
It’s not good
to say yes to the first house you see.”

“Why
not?”

“Because!
 
There may be better looking houses out
there.”

“I’m
positive there is.
 
But this is the one
we want.
 
What’s the problem?
 
There were better looking dames out there
when I first saw you.
 
But I wanted you
the first time I looked at you.”

“Ah,”
Buddy said, touched.

“He’s
lying,” Gemma said.
 
“And you know it,”
she said to Sal.
 
“You couldn’t decide if
I was pretty or ugly when you first met me.”

Sal
laughed.

“You
didn’t even call me after our first meeting, so don’t even try that, Sal.”

Buddy
was shocked.
 
“You couldn’t decide if a
woman this stunning was pretty or ugly?” he asked Sal.

Sal
was embarrassed by the man he used to be.
 
“I was blind back then,” he said.

“You
were blind as a bat,” Buddy said, “if you thought this gorgeous girl wasn’t
gorgeous.”

Gemma
looked at Val and her father. “We’ll keep searching,” she said.
 
“But we’ll definitely keep this one on the
list.”

“Ah,”
Sal started, then he began to scratch his head.
 
Gemma knew what that meant.
 
He
was about to unload unpleasant
 
news.
 
“Think you can manage it on
your own for a few days?”

“On
my own?” she asked. “Why?
 
I thought you
said you wanted to participate.”

I
do.
 
And I will.
 
But I’m going to need to take care of some
business for the next few days.”

Gemma
considered him.
 
“That phone call?”

“Yup.”

“Where
this time?
 
Back in Seattle?”

“Back
in Baltimore.”

“When?”

“Tonight.
 
Today.
 
As soon as I can swing it.”

Gemma
knew exactly what kind of business he had to take care of.
 
The kind he couldn’t tell her about.
 
But that was what she was signing up
for.
 
Life with Sal was going to be a box
of chocolates.
 
She never quite knew what
she was going to get.

“I’ll
manage,” she told him.

“I’ll
get Tree to help you,” Sal said.
 
“Despite marrying Reno, she generally has good taste too.”

Over
the next week, Gemma diligently looked at several houses.
 
All were beautiful.
 
All were in great areas.
 
All were postcard perfect.
 
But none of them excited her the way she felt
was warranted.
 
It was by day three, with
Sal still out of town and she had no idea when he would return, did she receive
a call from Val.
 
She’d found one she
thought would be a great possibility for Gem, and she wanted her to take a
look.
 
Gem decided to take Sal’s advice
and let Trina take a look too.
 

First
she showed Tree the big house, as Sal jokingly referred to the first house they
had viewed days ago, and then she and Trina met Val at the new house.
 
It was smaller than the big house by several
thousand feet, but just as gorgeous and almost just as majestic.

Trina
was impressed as they toured the property.
 
She and Val, in fact, were gushing at all of the special features.
 
But as Gemma walked around and looked around,
she was far more circumspect.
 
She didn’t
say much, she just looked and looked and looked.
 
Finally, when they stood in the middle of the
gourmet kitchen, and neither Trina nor Val understood, Tree asked for an
explanation.

“It
is beautiful,” Gemma agreed.
 
“It has
everything I could want or need.”

“And
it’s all you, Gem,” Trina said.
 
“This
house is your style up and down. It has you written all over it.”

“I
agree,” Gemma agreed.
 
“I’m not
disagreeing with you at all.”

“It’s
actually a larger version of the house you have now, Miss Jones,” Valerie
chimed in.
 
“That’s why I wanted you to
see it.”

“And
I get that,” Gemma said. “I agree with both of you.
 
It is my style.
 
It is not unlike my current residence.”

“Then
what’s the problem?” Trina asked her.

“It’s
not just about me.
 
It’s for Sal
too.
 
I have to think about his style and
his wants and needs also.”

“That’s
a fair point,” Trina said.
 
“Although I
still say mama knows best.
 
But I feel
you. So what’s your conclusion?”