Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) (3 page)

“Hey.
 
Where are you?”

“Up
and away.
 
Flying.
 
I’ve got to get to Seattle to handle some
business.”

“But
you’ll be here tomorrow?”

“To
pick you up for the trip to Indiana?
 
I wouldn’t
miss it for the world.
 
Of course I’ll be
there!
 
We’ll visit your parents, give
them the news, and then we’ll tell everybody else.”

Gemma
looked at Trina.
 
“I was hoping you could
come in today.” She hated revealing her disappointment, but she couldn’t help
herself anymore.
 
She missed him!

“Same
here.
 
But I need to eyeball the
office.
 
Tommy’s still in Lisbon and
neither one of us have been there all week.”

Tommy
was Sal’s big brother, business partner, and best friend.
 
“What’s he doing in Lisbon?”

“Business.
 
What else?
 
And Grace is working her ass off at her own company, she hasn’t had time
to check on ours.
 
It’s been a crazy
week.”

 
“Yes it has,” Gemma said.
 
Then she hesitated.
 
“Nothing’s changed, though, right?”

“No.
 
Nothing.
 
What are you asking that for?”
 
Then Sal had a thought.
 
“Nothing’s changed with
you
,
has it?”
 
It was Sal’s greatest
fear.
 
That she’d change her mind.

“No,”
she said quickly, glancing at Trina again.
 
“If anything, it’s much better.”

Sal smiled.
 
“Good.
 
For me too.”
 
It was a glaring
admission for both of them, since neither one of them were the touchy-feely
types.
 

“So
how long’s your flight?” Gemma asked.

“Five-six
hours.
 
We’re just leaving Maryland.”

“Accomplished
what you went there to do?”

Philly’s
terrified eyes flashed through Sal’s head.
 
He hated the thought of Gemma knowing anything whatsoever about the
things he sometimes had to do.
 
Even the
city where he had to do them in.
 
“Somewhat,” he said.

Gemma
was accustomed to his caginess regarding his business dealings.
 
He made it clear to her that that part of his
life would always be his business and his business alone.
 
And she accepted it before she accepted his
proposal.
 
But that didn’t mean she liked
it.
 

There
was a knock at her door and then Curtis, once again, walked in.
 
“Sorry to disturb you, boss, but a person is
here and she’s demanding to see you and see you now.”

Trina
smiled at his phrasing.
 
A person
, he said.
 
As opposed to what, Trina wondered.

“Hold
on,” Gemma said to Sal, and then looked at her secretary.
 
“A
person
?
 
What kind of talk is that, Curt?
 
Of course it’s a person!”

“What
I mean,” Curtis clarified, “it that a rude individual is here to see you.
 
I would call her a woman, but she doesn’t act
womanly.
 
I would call her a lady, but
she’s hardly ladylike.
 
A person is here
to see you.”

“Does
this person have an appointment?”

“No
ma’am.”

“Does
she need representation?”

“No
ma’am.”

“Then
what does she want?”

“From
what I can determine, given her seriously challenged speech, she wants you to
leave her man the hell alone.”

Gemma
frowned.
 
“Her
man
?
 
What man?”

Curtis
smiled.
 
“Apparently yours,” he said.

Gemma
hesitated.
 
This was hardly a laughing
matter to her.
 
“Send her in,” she said.

“Should
I pat her down first?”

“Curtis!”

“Sending
her in,” he said swiftly, and left the office.
 

“What’s
that about?” Sal asked.
 
He was still on
Gemma’s cell phone.

“Seems
I have a female admirer of yours visiting me today.”

“A
female of mine?”
 
Sal removed his reading
glasses and leaned back.
 
“Who?”

“I’m
about to find out.”

The
door opened and a medium-height blonde woman in leather pants, with tats all
over her toned, bare arms, a woman who could easily be construed as a biker
chick, came hurrying in.
 
Gemma kept her eyes
on her.
 
So did Trina.
 
“May I help you?” Gemma asked.

“You’re
Gemma Jones?”
 
She didn’t stop walking
until she was up to Gemma’s desk.

But
Gemma wasn’t about to answer this woman’s questions.
 
Who was this woman, was the ultimate
question.
 
“And you are?”

She
stared at Gemma.
 
Then she shook her
head.
 
“Nope.
 
Nope.
 
Nope.
 
Not in a million years,
lady.”

“I
beg your pardon?”

“Not
in a million years, not in a zillion.
 
Pigs over moons, all of that first?
 
Not happening.”

Trina
was perplexed.
 
“What in the world are
you talking about?”
 

And
Sal was asking Gemma what was going on.
 
But Gemma was still staring at her animated visitor.
 
“Pigs over moons?
 
I don’t understand,” she said.

“Salvatore.
 
Understand that?
 
Salvatore Luciano Gabrini.
 
Sal Luca.
 
Understand that?
 
You can’t have
him.
 
You can’t have Sal.”

Sal
was still on the phone.
 
“Gem, who the
fuck is that?
 
Who is it? Put her on the
phone.”

“Who
are you?” Gemma asked her again.

“Who
gives a shit!” the woman said.
 
“Just
leave my man alone!”

“
Your
man?”

“That’s
right!
 
My man!
 
I’m his woman and he’ll always be my man!”

“Oh,
please,” Gemma said dismissively.
 
This
was too high school for her.
 
“Just leave
my office, and leave right now.
  
I don’t
have time for your foolishness.”

“Foolishness?”
 
Her anger was heightened now.
 
“You’re calling me a fool?
 
Why you black bitch!”
 
The woman jumped over the desk like some
ninja, slapping Gemma back down in her chair just as Gemma was standing
up.
 
Trina grabbed her and slung her off
of the desk, causing her to crash against the wall, and Gemma stood back up and
hurried from around her desk.

“What’s
going on there?” Sal was rising to his feet on the plane.
 
“What the fuck is going on, Gem!”

The
woman stood up and began backing away just as Gemma and Trina were coming
toward her.
 
“Leave Sal alone,” she said
to Gemma.
 
“Or I’ll mess you up
good.”
 
She continued to back up.
 
“I’ll mess you up for all times.”

And
then the woman hurried out.
 
Curtis
hurried in.
 
“Are you okay, boss?” he
asked, looking back at the fleeing woman.

 
“Gemma!” Sal was yelling into the phone.
 
“Gem!”

Gemma
put her cellphone back to her ear.
 
“Your. . .”
 
She had to hesitate,
to regain her composure.
 
“Some woman
came into my office and told me to leave you alone.”

“What
woman?
 
What the fuck is her name?”

“She
didn’t leave a name.”

“Describe
her.”

Gemma
didn’t see the point.
 
“It’s done, Sal.”

“Describe
that bitch and describe her now!”

Gemma
looked at Trina.
 
“He wants a
description.”

“Put
him on Speaker,” Trina said.

Gemma
did.

“Straggly-haired,
ugly-ass blonde,” Trina said.
 
“Medium
height, bull tattoo on her forearm, and a rose on the back of her hand.
 
Biker-looking chick.
 
Mean as a junkyard dog.
 
Your type once upon a time, Sal.”

Sal
didn’t appreciate the snide remark, but it was true, once upon a time.
 
“What happened?
 
What was all of that commotion about?
 
What did she do?”

“Other
than slap the shit out of Gemma?
 
Nothing.
 
Her ass is gone now.”

“She
slapped her?” Sal asked.
 
“She slapped
you, Gem?”

Gemma
found it all so juvenile.
 
“Yes.”

“And
what did you do?”

Gemma
frowned.
 
“What do you mean what did I
do?”

“Just
what I said,
got
dammit!
 
What the fuck did you do?”

“I
didn’t have time to do anything!
 
Trina
grabbed her and slung her off of my desk.”

Sal
exhaled.
 
“Good.
 
Thanks Tree.
 
And she’s gone now?”

Gemma
was already exasperated.
 
“Yes, Sal,
she’s gone.”

“Good.
 
But next time, Gemma, it better be you doing
the slinging.
 
Any woman put a hand on
you, you’d better kick her ass.”

That
angered Gemma.
 
“Yeah, right.
 
I’m only a thirty-year old attorney with her
entire career on the line.
 
Of course
I’ll kick her ass.
 
Of course I’ll roll
in the dirt with her.
 
I may get
disbarred.
 
I may lose my
livelihood.
 
But I’ll roll in the dirt
with her any day of the week.”

“What
are you getting all flip with me for?” Sal asked.
 
“What are you telling me?
 
You won’t roll?
 
She can slap your ass around like a
got
damn piñata and you’ll sit back and
let her?”

“No!
 
No, I’ll roll.
 
I’ll fight back.
 
I’m just saying.”

“Stop
saying!” Sal admonished her.
 
“Bitch hit
you, you’d better hit her back.
 
Attorney
or no attorney.
 
Thirty or fifty.
 
You’d better hit back.”

Gemma
exhaled.
 

“You
hear me, Gemma?”

“Yes,
Sal, I hear you.”

“I
know you don’t like it, but it is what it is.
 
Welcome to my world, baby.”

And
it didn’t sound like a welcome at all to Gemma.
 
It sounded like a warning.

“Anyway,”
she said, still upset by the display, “I’d better get back to work.”
 
She didn’t want to continue this
conversation.
 
She had just been slapped
by a woman, and she got away before she could get her claws into her.
 
That was stressful enough.

But
after they hung up, Sal was still concerned.
 
No marriage announcement had been made, but already somebody was
harassing Gemma.
 
Why all of a sudden?
 
And if that description was of the woman he
thought it was, why her?
 
She was just a
jump-off hoe, and she knew it.
 
Why this
sudden Fatal Attraction shit?

He
pressed the intercom button on the arm of his chair.
 
“Change in flight plans, Bobby,” he said to
his pilot.

“A
change, sir?”

“Yes.
 
Take me to Vegas.
 
We’re going to Vegas.”