Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) (8 page)

And
Cassie broke down in tears, stood up, and hurried to her daughter.
 
Gemma stood up and she and her mother, both
in tears, embraced heartily.
 

It
wasn’t what Sal had hoped for. He knew Cassie was crying tears of pain, not
joy, and she was crying those tears because her daughter was marrying a man
like him.
 
But it still felt
victorious.
 
He still had Gemma, and she
still had her folks.
 
Her folks wasn’t
having him, he thought sadly, but that was just the price he had to pay.
 

And
as the doorbell rang, he smiled anyway.
 
At least he had Gemma.
 
And Gemma,
above any human being alive, was pleased to have him.

CHAPTER SEVEN

“Expecting
anyone, Gem?” Rodney glanced back at his daughter as he headed for the front
door.
 
The doorbell rang again.

“I
told Marv and the gang I was coming to town,” Gemma said, “but they didn’t say
anything about coming over.”
 
She and her
mother were no longer embracing, and she was wiping her tears away.

But
her mother became horrified.
 
“Oh, my
makeup,” she said, hurrying for the back of the house.
 
“I must look horrible.”

Sal
smiled.
 
The beautiful thing about Gemma,
he thought, was that she rarely wore makeup.
 
She didn’t need it.
 
Her mother,
who was a beautiful woman in her own right too, didn’t need it either.
 
But she wore it liberally.

“You
look fine, mother,” Gemma tried to reassure her.
 
“Your makeup isn’t running!”

But
Cassie kept on walking.
 
“All the same,”
she said, as she left.

Gemma
sat next to Sal, and took his hand.
 
She
exhaled.
 
“Not exactly the reaction I was
expecting from my parents,” she said.
 
“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t
be,” he said with a frown.
 
“Forget about
me.
 
Your relationship with them is
intact.
 
That’s what I was hoping for.”

Gemma
knew he was hoping for so much more, like full acceptance for a change, but it
was too painful for her to even discuss.
 
Her parents had let her down.
 
But
she left it alone.
 
Sal would be upset
with her, she knew, if she got into it with her folks.

And
when the front door opened, and her best friend Marvin walked in, along with
Keisha and Penelope, her two girlfriends from high school, she left it alone
completely.
 
She jumped up from the sofa
and ran into their welcoming arms.
 
Sal
stood up too, smiling.
 
He’d met them
once before, when he first came to Indiana to meet Gemma’s parents.
 
They liked him, and he liked them.
 
He felt relieved by their presence.

Marvin,
who enjoyed Sal’s quick wit the last time they hung out, hurried over to Sal
and pulled him into a warm embrace too.
 

“Welcome
back, Salvatore!” he said cheerfully as his dark, slender frame hugged Sal’s
white, bulkier one.
 
And although Sal was
usually very uncomfortable hugging anyone outside of Gemma, especially a gay
guy like Marvin, he was glad for the show of affection.
 
He needed the reassurance.
 
He needed the acceptance.
 
He needed to be around people like Marvin,
whose positive energy and lack of judgmental demeanor was infectious.

“So what
in the world,” Marvin asked after all of the embracing and hellos were over,
“brings you two wonderful, metropolitan people to lil’ old Rosemont?
 
And it better be good.
 
I left work early for this.
 
It better be hot.”

Gemma
looked at Sal.
 
Leave it to Marvin to ask
the exact right question.
 
But Sal looked
at Rodney.

“I’m
going to leave you young people alone,” Rodney said, “but by all means tell
them, Salvatore.
 
They love Gemma
too.
 
Tell her closest and dearest
friends why you came here.
 
Tell them
exactly what this little trip is about.
 
See how thrilled they’re going to be, after you tell them.”

Gemma
looked at her father, with grave disappointment in her eyes.
 
Even after he left the room, she was still
disappointed.
 
He was worried about her,
and felt Sal’s lifestyle could be detrimental to her.
 
She got that.
 
But what she didn’t get was his zeal.
 
What she didn’t get was why he was so determined to stop this marriage
in its tracks, even if it meant using her friends to do so.
 
That wasn’t like her father.
 
He was getting malicious with his concerns,
and she didn’t like it.

But
she and Sal and her friends ended up in the kitchen, drinking sodas and sitting
around the center island.
 
But you could
hear a pin drop.
 
The silence was just
that deafening.
 
Sal had said those three
words.
 
He had informed Gemma’s best
friends that they were getting married.
 
And the reaction was, at first, no reaction at all.
 
Pure silence.
 
As if they weren’t sure if they had missed something.

But
it was Marvin, as usual, Gemma thought, who broke the ice.
 
“Yes!” he said happily, jumped up, and hugged
Gem and Sal both.
 
Keisha and Penn jumped
up too, hugging them and congratulating them also.
 
And this was no fake emotion either.
 
They meant it.
 
Sal could feel their excitement.

But
when they settled back down into their respective seats, Marvin was
puzzled.
 
“I don’t get it,” he said to
Gemma.
 
“Your dad was talking as if it
was going to be bad news.
 
He was talking
as if, given what the news is, that he disapproves of the marriage.”

“He
does,” Gemma admitted.

“But
why?” Penn asked.
 
“Because Sal’s white?”

“Now
that would make no sense whatsoever,” Marvin said.
 
“I know there’s a double standard in your
family,
 
but that would be ridiculous.”

Gemma
frowned.
 
“What double standard?”

“Oh,
come on girl!
 
Your father expects far
more out of you than he ever expects from Chelsey.
 
He lets her get away with everything, but he
won’t let your ass get away with anything.
 
And Miss Chelsey used to fool with white men all the time.
 
That’s all she’s ever dated as far as I can
tell.
 
And I never once heard him
complaining about her.
 
So I can’t
imagine that would be it, even with that double standard.”

“It’s
not about my race,” Sal said.
 
“He thinks
I’m not a good influence on his daughter, that’s what it’s about.
 
And I can understand his feeling.”

“Well
I can’t!” Marvin shot back.
 
“Why
wouldn’t you be a good influence?
 
You’re
kind to her.
 
You’re rich as hell.”
 
They laughed.
 
“And you’re hot.
 
I mean come on
people!
 
You are fine, Sal, I’m sorry but
you are.
 
What more would a woman, or
even a man like me, want?”

“Mob
ties,” Keisha whispered to Marvin.

Marvin
frowned and looked at her.
 
“Mop what?”

Keisha
rolled her eyes.
 
“The allegations,” she
said.

“What
allegations?” he asked.

Keisha
shook her head.
 
“Don’t you know
anything, Marv?
 
Haven’t you heard of
Google ever?
 
Her Dad’s concerned about
the allegations regarding Sal’s mob ties.”

Marvin
looked at Sal, with his hand on his chest.
 
“Mob ties?
 
What mob ties?”

Gemma,
too, was shocked that he hadn’t bothered to Google Sal.
 
“There are allegations out there,” she
admitted, “that claim Sal has some affiliation with the mob.”

This
floored Marvin.
 
“You mean the mob, as in
the Mafia?”

Gemma
laughed.
 
“Yes, Marvin, that’s what it
means.”

“But
why would Mr. Jones think you’re involved with the Mafia?
 
Because you’re Italian?”

Sal
smiled.
 
“No, I think he has a little bit
more reason than that.”

“But
of course it’s not true,” Marvin said with a smile.
 
Then he looked at Sal doubtfully.
  
“Right?”

Sal
didn’t respond as fast as he would have liked.
 
“You’re saying it is true?” Marvin asked.
 
“Oh, my goodness!
 
I don’t like this, Sal.
 
I don’t like this link.
 
They may come after me!”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Why in the world would anybody
want to come after you, Marvin?”

“Because
of the linkage!”

“I’m
not in the mob or anything like that, Marvin,” Sal quickly said.
 
“Rest your nerves, young man.”

Marvin
sighed relief and playfully wipe his brow.
 
“Then why did you hesitate if it’s not true?”

“Because
I don’t want to mislead you either.
 
Not
you.”

Marvin
stopped wiping his brow.
 
“Mislead
me?
 
How could you mislead me?”

“I do
know people who aren’t exactly upstanding citizens.”

“Mob
people?”

“You
can say that, yes.”

“So
you are in the mob?”

“He’s
not in the mob, no,” Gemma said.
 
“He has
friends in the mob, but he’s not in it himself.”

“And
these friends, they won’t let you cut ties with them?
 
Is that it?”

“That’s
not it at all,” Gemma said. “He doesn’t want to cut ties with them.”

“Oh,”
Marvin said.
 
Then he frowned.
 
“Why the hell not?”

“They’re
my friends,” Sal said.

Marvin
waited for more, but no more came.
  
“Oh,
okay,” he said as if he got it, although he still didn’t.

“But
that’s why Dad is against it,” Gemma said.
 
“He’s worried about me.”

Marvin
shook his head.
 
“I say he needs to get a
grip and get over it.
 
Sal is good
peeps.
 
He has to know that by now!
 
And wasn’t there something major about how
Sal saved his life once?
 
Or did I dream
that?”

“You
didn’t dream it,” Gemma said.
 
“It happened.
 
Dad’s the one who told you about it.”

“You’re
right!
 
So what?
 
Sal is good enough to save his life, but not
good enough to marry his daughter?”

“Something
like that,” Gemma said.

“Well,
anywho!
 
I’m just happy for both of you,”
Marvin said.
 
“I don’t know about this
mob connection thing, but I can feel the love the two of you have for each
other.
 
That should be enough.”

Sal
smiled.
 
It should, he knew.
 
But he also knew it rarely was.

CHAPTER EIGHT

In Seattle,
Washington, Grace was on her side just waking up, and was holding her pregnant
stomach, as Tommy’s dick eased into her and began to move.
 
Her eyes became hooded as his hands laid on
top of her hands and the two of them made long, passionate, morning love.
 

Grace
especially loved sex in the morning with Tommy.
 
He had his strokes down in a way that made her feel so in love, and so
loved.
 
He kissed her neck as he fucked
her, and the entire time she kept pulsating with every stroke.
 
She looked across the room at the dresser
mirror and saw herself lying there naked and very pregnant, and saw Tommy, with
his gorgeous self, naked and fucking her from behind.
 
And all she could do was smile at the
beautifulness of it.
 
Her black body
against his white body.
 
Tommy’s big,
strong arms had her enclosed.
 
His biceps
were flexing with every push of his penis.
 
She felt warm and protected.
 
She
felt gratified to be his wife.

Tommy
felt her warmness and tightness as he pushed deeper inside of her.
  
It was a challenge for him to be a one-woman
man, and they, as a couple, continued to have their own challenges.
 
But Grace was the one he wanted.
 
Grace was the woman who made him feel as if
nothing else mattered but their love.
 
He
kissed her neck, and turned her face as far toward him as he could, and then he
kissed her in the mouth.
 

And
when they came, they both let out a loud sensual sigh.
 
It was early morning.
 
They both had to get up and get to work.
 
But nothing felt better to Tommy, or was more
needed at the moment, than wakeup sex with his woman.

And
moments later, after they both came down from the heights of their high and was
just lying there, Tommy regulated his breathing enough to speak.
 
“Sal called,” he said.

Grace
looked at him.
 
“Sal?
 
When?”

“Last
night.
 
Late last night.
 
You were already asleep.”

“He
had you checking around for him, right?”

“Yes,
but that’s not what his call last night was about.”

“What
did he want?”

“He
says he needs to see us.”

“Oh,
okay.

“In
Vegas.”

Gemma
was surprised by that.
 
“Vegas?
 
Why can’t he come home and see us here in
Seattle?
 
Why does it have to be in
Vegas?”

“He
says he needs to see Reno and Trina and Jimmy Mack and Val too.
 
It undoubtedly has something to do with an
incident that happened.
 
At least that’s
what I’m assuming.
 
But you never know
with Sal.
 
I could be completely
wrong.
 
It can be some new crap he’s
gotten himself into.”

“What
incident?” Grace asked.
 
She was CEO of
her own company, thanks to Tommy’s largess, but being boss taught her how to
pay attention.
 
Tommy glossed-over the
fact that there had been some incident, but Grace wasn’t going to.
 
“You mentioned that Sal had been involved in
some incident.
 
What incident?”

“I
don’t know the details.
 
He was, once
again, helping out some friend and it went south on him.
 
He thinks this guy named Johnny Ripperton is
involved.”

“Johnny
Ripperton?”

“Everybody
calls him Rip, yeah.
 
And he’s about as
outstanding as his name.”

“But
is he trouble for Sal?”

“He
wants to be.
 
Sal busted him years ago
when Sal and I were cops.
 
When Rip got
out, he had the nerve to put a contract out on Sal’s life.
 
Well Sal’s friends got wind of it, contacted
Sal, and they arranged for Sal to pay this particular fool a visit and
rearrange his face.
 
Rip left the scene
after that.”

“But
now he’s reappearing?”

“Maybe.
 
I’ve been checking around.
 
Nobody’s seen Rip in years.
 
Nobody’s heard from Rip in years.
 
So I don’t know what the hell is going on.”

Grace
shook her head.
 
“Sal has so much to deal
with,” she said.

“And
it’s all his fault,” Tommy replied.
 
“He
had a lot of unsavory friends in his past.
 
Hell, so does Reno and I.
 
But Sal
won’t let them go.
 
He doesn’t believe in
throwing people away.”

“Yeah,”
Gemma agreed, “but some people can be toxic in your life.”

“That’s
what I’ve been trying to tell him.
 
But
does he listen to me?
 
They were his
friends before they messed up and got in trouble, so he figures it would be
wrong for him to drop them now.”

“Even
though they messed up and got in trouble?”

“That’s
why he feels he can’t dump them.
 
Because
they messed up and got in trouble.
 
It’s
a catch-22 with Sal.”

“He’s
so loyal!” Grace said.

“He’s
loyal to a fault.
 
I used to stay on his
case all the time about it.
 
Dump their
asses, Sal, I used to beg him.
 
They were
always in need, always asking for his help.
 
They’re the scum of the earth some of those guys.
 
But they’re his friends for life, and he
looks out for them.
 
And believe it or
not, they look out for him too.
 
But for
those of us who love him, like me and Reno and Tree and Jimmy Mack, it’s
maddening.”

“But
it’s Sal.”

Tommy
agreed.
 
“But it’s Sal, that’s
right.
 
But it’s my boy.”

Grace
looked at him.
 
“Your boy?”

Tommy
smiled.
 
“I mean my brother, geez.
 
What is wrong with me?”

Grace
placed his hands on her stomach again.
 
“You can’t wait for your child to get here,” she said.
 
“That’s what’s wrong with you.”

But
Tommy swallowed hard.
 
The idea that he
would soon be somebody’s father thrilled him beyond his wildest dreams, but it
terrified him beyond his worst nightmare too.
 
“Yeah,” he said.
 
“That must be
it.”

Back
in Vegas, in Jimmy Mack Gabrini’s home, it sounded as if he was slapping his
wife.
 
They were just that loud.
 
But they were home, in the brand new house
his father purchased for them after they were married, and nobody was around to
tell them to stop the noise.
 

They
didn’t have to stop a damn thing.
 
And
Jimmy Mack Gabrini didn’t try.
 
Valerie
never dreamed a man could be so virile.
 
Every morning he had to have it.
 
If he wasn’t fucking her before she got out of bed, he was fucking her
in the shower or the tub or even in the kitchen as she prepared breakfast.
 
They were young, married, and in love, but it
was still a shock to her system.

“Not
so hard, Jimmy!” she said to him yet again as he pounded her.

“I
can’t help it!” he said in a breathless voice as he held her up, with her back
against the shower stall, and fucked her mercilessly.
 
Her legs were wrapped around his body, and he
held her by the hips, but his young dick would not relent.
  
He thrashed into her with a force that made
her love it and hate it.
 
Pain and
pleasure was how he gave it to her.
 
No
in between.
 
No middle ground.
 
Not because he could help it.
 
He was just so big that her insides were
inflamed every time he pushed further and further inside of her.
 
He was so big that the more he expanded, the
more she screamed out in pain.
 
But once
the initial spurt of pain was over, the feeling of great pleasure took over,
and made it all worth it.
 

And
after they came; after both of them felt the outpour and lost full control of
their muscle contractions, they fell against each other.
 
They were so sweaty and filled with cum that
they knew they would have to shower again.
 
Which they did.
 

And
then got out of the shower and began to dress for work.

“Remember
tonight,” Valerie said as she sat on the side of the bed and put lotion on her
long, dark-brown legs.

Jimmy
was standing at the bedroom mirror, tying his tie.
 
He stopped and looked at her.
 
“Tonight?
 
What about tonight?”

She
looked at his young, handsome face.
 
His
father was Italian, and his deceased biological mother had been
African-American, but he was looking more and more like his father every single
day.
 
Not physically so much: Jimmy had
curly hair, yellow-toned skin, greenish-gray hazel eyes and was more slender
than muscular like his father.
 
But he
had his father’s swag.
 
He had his
father’s natural leadership abilities.
 
He was his father’s son through and through.
 
“You forgot?” she asked him.
 
“How could you forget, Jimmy?”

“I
didn’t say I forgot.
 
Forgot what?” he
asked.

“We’re
having dinner with my dad tonight.
 
He’s
looking forward to it.”

“But
I can’t.”

“What
do you mean you can’t?
 
We promised him!”

“But
Dad called.
 
He said Uncle Sal wants to
meet with us tonight.”

“Meet
with us?
 
You and me?”

“No,
silly!
 
Me, Dad, and Uncle Tommy.”

“What
about?”

“I
don’t know.
 
Some kind of trouble he’s
gotten himself into, is what Dad thinks it is.
 
And I can’t miss that.”

“Why
not, Jimmy?”

Jimmy
looked at his young, beautiful wife.
 
“What do you mean why not?
 
They’re including me now, Val.
 
I’m no longer some kid in their eyes.
 
Dad even said I was his right hand man.
 
You should be glad about that.”

Valerie
frowned.
 
“Why should I be glad about
it?”

“Because
it means I’m a full-fledged Gabrini man now!
 
I’m one of them.
 
No fucker’s
gonna fuck with me! Not ever!
 
Or they’d
have my Dad and my uncles to answer to.”

“They
would have had your Dad and your uncles to answer to before you were a quote
unquote “full-fledged Gabrini man!”
 
In
fact, since you’re Reno’s son, you’ve always been a full-fledged Gabrini man,
Jimmy!”

“You
just don’t understand it.
 
It’s one thing
for them to fight for me because I’m one of theirs.
 
It’s another thing for me to fight for them
because I’m a part of them.”
 
Jimmy
smiled.
 
“It’s like the coolest club in
the world, and now I’m a member!”

“And
what about me, and my family?
 
We aren’t
cool enough for you?”

“Y’all
aw’ight,” Jimmy said jokingly.
 
“But
y’all ain’t no Gabrinis!”

“Thank
God,” Valerie said with a smile of her own.
 
But then she turned serious again.
 
“So are you saying to me that my family, my father, will always come
second?”

“To
what?”

“To
us, Jimmy!”

“For
you, no, he’ll never be second.
 
He’ll be
first.
 
That’s why you’re going to have
dinner with him tonight.
 
But for
me?
 
Hell yeah he’ll be second.
 
My Dad and Mom and my uncles are first.”

“Even
though they aren’t your uncles,” Valerie said.

“They’re
my Dad’s cousins, yeah I get that. But what do you expect me to call them?
 
My cousins?”