Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) (17 page)

Reno
moved toward the leader, because of his insult, but the leader did not back
up.
 
Reno liked that.
 
This was no chump he was dealing with.
 
“Where’s Gemma Jones?” Reno asked him.

The
man continued to look at Tommy.
 
Then he
looked at Reno.
 
“Don’t know her.”

“A
cab bought her here.
 
Now where is she?”

“I
said I don’t know her though!
 
Never
heard of her.
 
What you gonna do about
it?
 
I give you respect.
 
Because of your reach, I know taking you out
is more than just taking you out.
 
But
you don’t run this.
 
You aren’t gonna
disrespect me.
 
I said I don’t know the
female.
 
No cab driver brought her
here.
 
You’re wasting your time thinking
I got time to play games with your ass.”

Reno
and Tommy looked at each other.
 
They
both inwardly concluded that this guy had to be telling the truth.
 
Why would he lie?
 
He couldn’t afford a fight with the
Gabrinis.
 
Not even Ames Street was that
crazy.

Unless
they didn’t realize who Gemma was.
 

Unless
they didn’t realize who Gemma’s man was.

“Any
woman, any black woman, come this way today?” Tommy asked the leader.

“So
she’s black?”
 
The leader smiled.
 
“Why am I not surprised?

“She’s
family,” Reno said.
 
“So you know what
that means.”

“Messing
with her is just like messing with you?” the leader suggested.

“Messing
with her,” Reno corrected, “is
exactly
like
messing with me.”

   
The leader got the message.
 
Reno could see it in his eyes.
 
His bravado was still there, but not nearly
as certain.
 
“Like I said,” he said, “she
never came here.
 
Not today.
 
Not yesterday. Not ever.
 
I don’t know the female.”

Now
Reno and Tommy were stumped.
 
They got
back in their car, and left because they had no choice.
 
But as soon as they cleared Ames Street, they
were calling Jimmy.
 
Jimmy found out for
them just who the cab driver was, and Reno and Tommy paid him a visit: at his
cab.

The
cab was parked outside of at a bar near the Strip, dropping off a fare, when
the Porsche drove in front of it.
 
Reno
and Tommy got out, and got into the backseat of the cab.

“Mr.
Gabrini,” the stunned driver said nervously, looking at Reno.

“You
took a young lady away from my hotel,” Reno said.
 
“To Ames Street today.”

The
driver’s nervousness increased.
 
He
nodded his fathead.
 
“Yes, sir,” he
said.
 
“That’s right.”

“That’s
wrong,” Tommy said.
 
“Where did you take
the young lady?”

The
driver began to breathe heavily.
 
“I took
her to . . . Ames Street.”

“You
need your hands to drive this cab,” Reno said.
 
“Don’t you?”

The
driver swallowed hard.
 
“Yes, sir.”

“If
you don’t want to lose your ability to make a living, you’d better not lie to
us.
 
Where did you take the young lady?”

The
driver hesitated again, but it was obvious he couldn’t keep up the tale.
 
“She told me to tell anybody who asks that I
took her to Ames Street.
 
She paid me
good money.
 
I didn’t know she was
running from you, Mr. Gabrini, or I would have never agreed to help her!”

“Where
did you take her?”

“I
thought she was just a guest in the hotel,” the driver continued.

“Where
did you take her?” Reno asked again.

“The
courthouse,” the driver finally said.
 
“I
took her to the courthouse.”

“What’s
in it for me, Gemma Jones?” The judge stood at the window and stared at
her.
 
Not so much her face.
 
He knew she was pretty.
 
But at her body.
 
Her fine, black body.
 
That was what he was after. And had been for
a very long time.

“I
need this favor, Joe,” Gemma said.
 
They
were in his chambers, inside the courthouse.
 
Coming to a man like him, a man she knew had serious designs on her, was
one of the hardest things she ever had to do.
 
But she did it without reservation.

“I
understand what you need,” he responded to her.
 
“You’ve made your concern for the little thug perfectly clear.
 
But I’m clear too.
 
I don’t hand out favors in exchange for
nothing.
 
What’s in it for me?”

Gemma
exhaled.
 
“What do you want?”

“You
know what I want.
 
I want to have
you.
 
I want to be with you.”

Gemma’s
heart pounded.
 
He wasn’t just a judge,
but was the chief judge in the criminal division.
 
A disgusting pervert, she thought.
 
But she had to get answers, and he had those
answers.
 
“Okay,” she said.
 
“Now tell me.”

He
smiled.
 
“Do I look stupid to you?
 
We fuck first, and then we talk.”

“Do I
look stupid to you?” Gemma asked.
 
“I
fuck you, and you don’t talk, I’m out of my self-respect.
 
We talk, but don’t fuck afterwards, you
maintain your self-respect.
 
Now tell
me.”

The
judge stared at her.
 
He always knew she
was a woman of integrity.
 
That was why
she was always turning him down.
 
“On
your word?” he asked her.

“On
my word,” Gemma said without hesitation.

The
judge exhaled.
 
“Yes,” he finally said.

“You
issued it?”

“I
approved the issue.”

“To
who?” Gemma asked.
 
“Police?”

“No,”
the judge said. “The FBI.”

Gemma’s
heart soared.
  
There was still a chance
Sal was alive.
 
“Okay,” she said, and
then she began to hurry out of his chambers.

But
he grabbed her by the arm.
 
“Where do you
think you’re going?”

“I’m
wired,” she lied, and he quickly released her arm.
 
“So far all you’ve done was ask to sleep with
me.
 
Not great for your relationship with
your wife, but not a crime.
 
Don’t
elevate this into a crime.”

He
grabbed her arm again.
 
“You gave your
word,” he said.

“I
know,” she said. “But there’s a theory in law that we both have to
practice.
 
The doctrine of unclean
hands.
 
You played dirty by asking for
sex to begin with, so I played dirty too.
 
You can’t complain now that I didn’t come clean.
 
I didn’t because you didn’t.”
 
She looked at her arm.
 
“Let me go,” she said.

The
anger was in his eyes, but he let her go.
 
She hurried out of his office.

But
if she thought she was going to take that information and run with it, she was
wrong.
 
In the courthouse parking lot,
Reno and Tommy were waiting at her BMW.
 
They were waiting at the same car she had to leave behind when they
escorted her out of the courthouse hours before, when Sal was picked up.
 
She hurried up to them.

“Any
word?” she asked.

“None,”
Tommy said.
 
“Any word?”

“Yes,”
Gemma said.
 
“But I’ll tell you in the
car.”

She
moved to head toward the driver side of her car, but Reno grabbed her by the
arm.
 
“Not so fast, sister,” he
said.
 
“Tell us what you got.”

“I’ll
tell you in the car.”

“You
aren’t telling us anything because you aren’t going anywhere.
 
Now what do you know?”

“I
know I’m getting in my car and handling this myself,” Gemma said forcefully.

Reno
flung her against the car and made a move as if he was going to slap the shit
out of her.
 
He was already upset by the
wild goose chase she had caused them to take.
 
He wasn’t taking anymore of her lip, nor her schemes.
 
But Tommy got in between them.

“Handle
your brother’s woman,” Reno said to him, as he backed off.
 

Tommy
looked at Gemma.
 
He was angry too.
 
Precious time had been wasted, when they
could have been searching for Sal.
 
“What
do you know, Gem?
 
Don’t bullshit us,
just tell us.”

Gemma
exhaled.
 
She was still shook up
 
by Reno’s display.
 
But he did wake her up to what should have
been obvious all along: don’t mess with the Gabrinis.
 
They were not going to relinquish their
control to her or any other female.
 
She
got real.
 
“I needed time,” she
said.
 
“That’s why I told him to tell
anybody who asked that he took me to Ames Street.”

“What
would you know about Ames Street?” Tommy asked her.

“Clients,”
she said.
 
“Some of my roughest clients
had ties to that area.
 
They told me
about it.”

“What
about Sal?” Reno walked back over and asked.
 
“What did you find out about Sal?”

“He’s
in FBI custody,” she said.

Reno
and Tommy both were stunned.
 
“FBI?”
Tommy asked.
 
“But they denied it.”

“When
Jimmy told me the witnesses said it was the FBI that took Sal, but the FBI was
denying any involvement, I had to check on it for myself.
 
I knew how those agencies lie all the time.
 
I also knew, for them to pick him up, they
had to have a warrant.
 
So I went to the
judge I knew would have knowledge of any warrants issued.
 
The chief judge for the criminal division.”

“And
he confirmed it?”

“Yes.
 
That’s where I’m headed now.
 
To the FBI.
 
They have Sal.
 
They can’t deny it
any longer.
 
I’m going as his attorney.”

“It
makes sense,” Tommy said, looking at Reno.
 
“They can’t deny it with his attorney standing right there.”

“If
they deny it again,” Gemma said, “I’ll mention that the media will be
contacted.
 
Sixth Amendment rights are
still big in the media.
 
They’ll at least
let me see him.”

Reno
hated to admit it, but Gemma was right. “Let’s do this then,” he said.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Gemma
was so nervous her palms were sweating.
 
All she wanted was to see Sal, in one piece, come through that
door.
 
And even then she couldn’t run
into his arms or treat him like anybody but her client.
 
Her perceived super-professionalism, and the
fact that she told them they either file charges or let him go, got him
released in the first place.
 
For his
sake, she had to maintain it.

And
to her inward delight, Sal understood it too.
  
He didn’t come out ready to run into her arms.
 
He came out like a man insulted that he was
put in in the first place.
 
He came out
with swag.
 
And Gemma loved it.
 
That was why she loved him.
 
They could throw manure his way all day and
night, but he wasn’t going to pretend it wasn’t shit.

“Ready?”
she asked when he arrived at her side.
 

“Like
yesterday,” he said, and they left.

And
they maintained that lawyer-client relationship as they got into the backseat
of Gemma’s BMW.
 
Reno was driving, and
Tommy was on the front passenger seat, but as soon as that car door closed,
they didn’t care.
 
Sal pulled Gemma into
his arms and held her tightly.
 
He was so
tired of her having to deal with his shit that he didn’t know what to do.
 
Having none to deal with wasn’t an option,
since it wasn’t him who was stirring the shit up.
 
It was what it was. And as long as he had
enemies, shit would be stirred up.

When
they stopped embracing, Sal kissed her.
 
Passionately.
 
When they finally
stopped, Tommy smiled.
 
“Still breathing,
Gem?” he asked her.

Gemma
smiled embarrassingly, but they could kid all night.
 
She didn’t care.
 
She was too thrilled to have Sal safe and
sound.
 
He had his arm around her.
 
She snuggled closer against him.
 

“How
the hell did y’all swing it?” he asked his brother and his cousin.
 
“Those pricks at the FBI told me nobody would
know where I was for days.”

“That
was their plan,” Reno said.
 
“But Gemma
had a different plan.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“Gemma?
 
What do you mean, Gemma?
 
What, Tommy, you had her out in the streets
looking for me?
 
Doing your job?”

“What
do you take me for?
 
You know better than
that!
 
She went out there all on her
own.”

Sal
looked at Gemma.
 
“You?
 
What did you do?
 
You didn’t stay where they told you to stay?”

“Don’t
get upset, Sal.”

“What
do you mean don’t get upset?
 
They tell
me my lady pulled the strings?
 
I wanna
know how could she swing that?”

Gemma
knew she had to explain.
 
“They told me
to stay at the penthouse, yes, they told me that.
 
But I knew there were certain things only I
could check out.
 
So I left.”

“You
left?”

“Yes.
 
And yes, I got a cab driver to claim he took
me somewhere other than where he took me.”

“And
where did you claim to go?”

Gemma
didn’t want to say.

“What?”
Sal asked.

“Ames
Street,” she said.

Sal
couldn’t believe it.
 
“Ames Street?
 
What would you know about Ames fucking
Street?”

“Why
are you guys acting as if I’m some fragile wallflower?
 
I’m an attorney.
 
A criminal defense attorney at that!
 
I have clients who know all about Ames
Street.
 
They told me.”

“Well
damn.
 
Even I don’t hang my ass around
there.
 
But you knew that would get Reno
and Tommy running.”

“Yes,”
Gemma admitted.

Sal
couldn’t help but smile.
 
“Damn you’re
good,” he said.
 
Tommy laughed.

“Too
smart for her own britches,” Reno said, failing to find the humor.
 
“You need to handle your woman.”

“When
you handle yours,” Sal shot back, “I’ll handle mine.”

Reno,
thinking about Trina, had to smile about that.

Sal
looked back at Gemma.
 
“So what was so
critical that you thought nobody else could check on it?”

“The
witnesses at that restaurant said the FBI had grabbed you.
 
The FBI was denying it.”

“The
Feds!” Sal spat out.
 
“Bunch of freaking
liars!
 
But go on.”

“I
had to make sure that was the case.
 
In
truth, I was hoping it was.”

Reno
frowned.
 
“You were hoping he was in FBI
custody?”

“Yes!
Because then I’d know he still would be alive.
 
At least he would still stand a chance.”

“Oh,”
Reno said.
 
“Right.”

“So I
went to the courthouse, to the chief judge, and asked him if a warrant had been
issued.”

“And
he told you?”

“He
told me.”

“Just
like that?”

“Yes.”

Sal
studied her.
 
She was a beautiful
woman.
 
She had one of the most desirable
bodies around.
 
He knew better than
that.
 
“Not for nothing,” he said.

Gemma
didn’t want to go down that road.
 
“The
point is,” she said, “he told me and with that information I was able to make
them make a decision.
 
Either they had to
release you, or charge you.
 
They had no
real evidence, and they knew it.
 
They
had no choice but to release you.”

But
Sal was still staring at her.
 
“What were
the terms, Gemma?” he asked her.
 
“And
don’t fuck with me.”

Reno
glanced at Gemma through the rearview.
 
Tommy, too, knew a guy dealing with a gorgeous girl like Gemma would
have wanted something in return for that favor.

“He
wanted sex,” Gemma admitted.

“Yeah,
that’s more like it,” Sal said, although he hated some man talking that way to
his woman.
 
“And you told him what?
 
To kiss your ass?”

“I
told him okay, and got the information.”

Sal
frowned.
  
“What do you mean you told him
okay?
 
You wasn’t sleeping with that
prick!”

“I
know I wasn’t.
 
But he didn’t know I
wasn’t.”

“So
you lied?”

“No, Sal,
I slept with him and then got the information.”
 
She looked at Sal.
 
Sal looked
mortified.

“You
would, wouldn’t you?” Sal asked.

Gemma
was surprised he’d say that.
 
Reno looked
through the rearview.
 
“What did you
say?” Gemma asked Sal.

“You
didn’t this time, but if he wouldn’t have given you that information otherwise,
you would have slept with him.
 
Wouldn’t
you?”

Gemma
swallowed.
 
“If it was a situation where
your life was on the line, and I could do something about it?
 
And it was a choice between your life and my
virtue?”
 
Gemma braced herself.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“I would have slept with him easily.”

Tommy’s
heart dropped.
 
Not her too, he
thought.
  
They weren’t even married yet,
and already she was one of them!

Sal
too leaned back.
 
His arm was still
around Gemma, but his grip on her had slacked.
 
Because it was an incredible admission.
 
It was horrible on every level.
 
Sal hated that she would
 
ever be
placed in that position.
 
But it was
awesome on every level too.
 
She loved
him.
 
For a woman like Gemma to say that
she would do such a thing, he knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt.
 
Above any human being alive, Gemma loved him.

But
he still couldn’t have it.
 
He tightened
his grip again.
 
“If it’s between my life
and you sleeping with some sleaze ball, you’d better let me die,” he said, and
Gemma laughed.
 

She
thought he was kidding.
 
Reno and Tommy
knew he was not.

“Tommy
say Rip is at the bottom of this,” Reno said to Sal. “What say you?”

“Rip
is in it.
 
And Neeco.”

Tommy
turned around.
 
“Neeco?
 
Your man Neeco?”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Hell yeah.”

“But
why do you figure that, Sal?”

“They
weren’t asking me about all of the shit I’ve been involved in.
 
They were asking me about Philly.”

“Phil
Meretti?”

“Yeah.
 
They were accusing me of killing him.”

Gemma
looked at him.

“I
didn’t kill him.
 
His ass deserved it,
but I decided to punish him with something short of death.
 
But Neeco, he push the guy on over and kills
him.
 
Yet of all the crimes I’m guilty
of, the one I’m not is the one they’re pressing hard on.
 
I mean they were working it.
 
They were trying to get me to confess to shit
I didn’t do and they wanted that confession like yesterday.”

“You
think Neeco’s behind the bug too?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah,
I do.”

“What
bug?” Reno asked.

“Sal
wanted my men to sweep his penthouse.
 
We
did.
 
Found a few bugs in there.
 

“Bugs
Neeco could have easily placed the couple times he was there,” Sal said.
 
“That was how that woman who came to Gemma’s
job knew about our engagement before anybody else knew.
 
They bugged my house and my balcony.
 
And it had to be an inside job.
 
Nobody could get in my penthouse without
permission.
 
I was fingering the maid or
butler who came in occasionally.
 
Didn’t
act on it yet, thank God.
 
Because I’m
willing to bet now that I was wrong.”

“So
you think the FBI’s covering for Neeco?” Reno asked.

“There’s
a connection, that’s for sure,” Sal said.
 
“He’s their informant now, or there’s some other connection, I don’t
know.
 
But I know he has to be involved.
 
This shit ain’t just about Rip.
 
It’s either Rip pulling Neeco in. Or Neeco
pulling in Rip.”
 
Then Sal became
angry.
 
“
Got
dammit!” he shouted, just thinking about one of his guys being
connected to the Feds.

“You
know what you’ve got to do,” Tommy said.

“Set
up a meeting.”

“That’s
right.
 
Play dumb when you do.
 
Tell him how they picked you up and how the
heat is on you now, and how you need him to cover some evidence for you.
 
Something like that.”

“That’ll
smoke his ass out,” Reno said.

Sal
removed his arm from around Gemma and pulled out his cell phone.
 
As he called Neeco, he could see the
discomfort on her face.
 
He hugged her
again, and kissed her on the side of her face.
 
“It’s okay, babe,” he said to her.
 
She snuggled closer against him.

But
the phone continued to ring.
 
And then Neeco’s
voice mail picked up.
 
Sal did leave a
message.
 
“What’s with the Voice Mail?”
Sal said. “I got heat on me.
 
Need you to
move some things around for me.
 
Give me
a call back.”
 
And then he ended the
call.