Sal Gabrini: Just The Way You Are (14 page)

Gemma stared
at him.
 
She hated to hear it too.
 
She truly did.
 
“But like I said,” she said firmly, “I’ll
take you over all of them.”
 
She ran her
hand through his hair.
 
“Always do what
you have to do,” she said.
 
“Promise me
that.”

And Sal,
grateful to have a woman like Gemma Jones in his corner, pulled her into his
big arms.
  
His eyes squeezed shut.

By week’s
end, the last thing Sal wanted to do was to take Gemma to her parents’ home in
Indiana so that they could break the news.
 
It had been a stressful week for both of them, with business problems on
every side, and it was only their first month of pregnancy.
 
He would have preferred a trip to Jamaica or
to Paris or to any of their favorite vacationing hideaways.
 
But they couldn’t put off this trip to
Indiana any longer.
 
They had to tell
Gem’s parents.

Sal’s
private plane landed at the airstrip in Indiana and they walked, hand-in-hand,
to the waiting limousine.
 
Once inside,
the ride was a peaceful one to the Joneses home in Rosemont.
 
Gemma was leaned against Sal, and Sal had his
arm around her waist, but he could tell she was still unsettled.
 
She was staring out at the cornfields and
farmhouses that populated the Indiana landscape as the limo drove by, as if she
was homesick for that easy life she used to know.

Sal wished
he could give a slower lifestyle to her.
 
He wished he could break all ties that bind him and only keep a string
to Gemma.
 
Reno tried it once.
 
He packed up and moved his family to Georgia
to get away from the madness.
 
But the
madness only followed him there.
 
Sal
knew, given his ties, that the madness would be even more likely to follow him
because his enemies were too numerous, and his responsibilities too
entrenched.
 
He knew walking away, or
even running away, was an impossibility.
 
It was a heartbreaking truth that kept him up nights, but it was the
truth.

He pulled
Gemma closer.
 
He could feel her hold his
hand and absently twirl around the big ring on his finger.
 
There were a thousand things he needed to be
doing right now, workwise, including answering the thousand messages he knew
was on his phone.
 
But he turned off his
phone for a reason.
 
Gemma needed
him.
 
Unlike the past, when he balanced
her needs against the needs of his legit (and not so legit) businesses, this
weekend he was giving himself completely to Gem.
 

But he knew
she was unsettled, and he was not the kind of man to pretend he didn’t know
why.
 
“Worried about your parents’
reaction to the news?” he asked her.

“A little,
yeah,” Gemma responded with equal honesty.
 
“They know we don’t exactly live the Huxtables kind of life.”

“The
Huxtables don’t live the Huxtables kind of life,” Sal said.

“You know
what I mean.
 
It’s only natural that they
would be concerned.”

“I know what
you mean,” Sal said.
 
“And they probably
aren’t going to be all too happy that Reno and Tree heard the news before they
did.”

“That’s why
they don’t need to know that,” Gemma said.
 
“It’s going to be stressful enough.”

Sal hated to
hear that, but Gemma knew her parents.
 
He looked at her.
 
“After this
visit, I’m going to do everything in my power to make your life as stress-less
as possible.
 
But I’m going to need you
to slow down and help me.”

Gemma
nodded.
 
“Don’t worry,” she said.
 
“I want to slow down too.”

Sal
smiled.
 
“Good to know that.”
 
But he also knew her parents were only part
of the story.
 
“Mark’s death is still
bothering you,” he said.
 
“Isn’t it?”

At first she
didn’t respond.
 
She continued to watch
the life she used to know as it passed by her window view.
 
Then she nodded.
 
“Yes,” she said.

“He was
trying to do you in, babe.
 
Don’t shed
any tears for that fucker.”

“But why
would he want to harm me?” Gemma looked at her husband.
 
Her face was within an inch of his.
 
“Why would he get Shaun to pull that
stunt?
 
And why would the DA’s office and
the police department go along with it?”
 

“They didn’t
go along with it.
 
Reno did some
digging.
 
Somebody did murder that girl
Shaun was accused of killing, and they did frame Shaun for that killing.”

“But who
framed him?
 
Mark?”

“That’s what
we figure, yeah.
 
I think your law
partner killed that girl and framed Shaun.”

“But why,
Sal?”

“Because he
needed Shaun to be your client, not just your lover, so that he could put your
career in jeopardy as well as your marriage.
 
He would then present info that would exonerate Shaun, provided Shaun
did everything he said.
 
And then he would
present info that would exonerate you when you went before that judicial
conduct board.
 
He would be the hero in
everybody’s eyes, and would finally win the girl of his dreams.”

“I’m not the
girl of his dreams, Sal.
 
I don’t know
why you keep saying that.”

“You aren’t
now,” Sal said.
 
“That’s for fucking
sure.”

Gemma
exhaled.
 
And shook her head.
 
“And you don’t think Mark was working for
somebody else?
 
You think he did it all
himself?”

“Yeah,” Sal
said.
 
“That’s what I think.”

Only he
wasn’t sure.
 
Mark and that bitch woman
of his made the wrong decision and got their asses killed.
 
Now Sal might never know.
 
But his men, and Reno’s men, were still on
the case.
 
They were determined to find
out.

“Their limo
just pulled up,” Cassie Jones said as she looked out of her living room window.

Rodney
Jones, her husband, walked up to the window just as the chauffeur was opening
the car door.
 
Sal got out first, and
then reached his hand inside to help Gemma.
 
“Say what you want about Salvatore Gabrini,” Rodney said.
 
“That man knows how to dress.
 
That man has style.”

Cassie
looked at Sal as he stood there in his obviously expensive dress pants and
shirt.
 
He wore a cardigan sweater this
time, light blue in color that highlighted his deep blue eyes, and she had to
agree with Rodney.
 
Sal was a very nice
dresser.

But when
Gemma took Sal’s hand and got out of that limousine, she smiled.
 
“Now that’s what I call style,” she said.

Gemma was
dressed beautifully too, both her parents thought, as she stepped out in a pair
of flare-leg Italian silk pants and a thigh-length silk blouse.
 
Her heels were four-inch high as always, and
the short jacket she wore over her shoulders matched those heels.
 
She now wore her hair longer, in a beautiful
mix of big curls and bounciness, that only added to her ability to project the
most professional, elegant persona imaginable.
 
Nobody, her parents proudly thought, would ever confuse their daughter
as anything but extraordinary.

“Wonder what
this visit is about?” Rodney wanted to know.
 
“Sal isn’t the kind of man to just drop by
just to say hello, or to let Gemma drop by.”

Cassie
looked at her husband as Sal and Gemma made their way toward the front
door.
 
“
Let
her?” she asked.
 
“Why
would you put it that way?
 
Gemmanette is
her own person and always will be.”

“And with
any other man on the face of this earth, that’s true,” Rodney said.
 
“But Sal Gabrini is her man.
 
We can pretend it’s not so, but he’s a
mobster.
  
A mob boss, Cass.
 
He runs their household and he runs
Gemma.
 
We can pretend it’s not so, but
it is.
 
She didn’t get a husband, she got
herself a daddy.”

“Oh,
please,” Cassie said dismissively and went to the front door to welcome home
her daughter, and equally important, son-in-law.

After the
greetings and hugs and kisses, Rodney and Sal settled in the family room, while
Cassie and Gemma went into the kitchen to check on the food.

Gemma kept
looking at her mother as she lifted the top of the roaster and checked on the
meat.

“How have
you been doing, Ma?” Gemma asked her.
 
“I
mean really.”

Cassie
glanced at her daughter as she added more seasonings to the roast.
 
“Everything’s going as well as could be
expected.”

“What does
that mean?
 
Not so good?”

Cassie
started to respond, but didn’t.

Gemma hated
to go there.
 
Her mother only mentioned
what was going on with her father in passing, and Gemma knew she did not want
it to be aired publicly.
 
But Gemma had
to know.
 
“Dad still working late hours?”
she asked.

Cassie
hesitated this time.
 
But then she
answered.
 
“Yes,” she said.

“Did you ask
him?”

“Ask him
what?”

“If there’s
another woman, Ma.
 
You know what.”

Cassie
exhaled.
 
“I asked him.
 
Okay?
 
Yes, I asked him.”

“And?”

“And he said
no.”

“Like he
always says,” Gemma added.

Cassie
nodded her head.
 
“Right.
 
And, like always, he was stunned that I would
even ask.”

Gemma stared
at her mother.
 
“Are you stunned that you
felt a need to ask?”

Cassie
looked at her daughter.
 
And then she
shook her head.
 
“No,” she said, as she
placed the top back on the roaster.

Then she
placed her hand on her slim hip.
 
“But
we’re fine, dear,” she said.
 
“Don’t you
worry about us.”
 
Then she smiled, as if
she didn’t have a care in this world.
 
“Now let’s go join our men.
 
Shall
we?”

Gemma wanted
more details.
 
She wanted much more.
 
But her mother, an attorney herself, knew how
to keep her private life private.
 
Even
from her daughter.
 
Since Gemma kept her
private life private from her mother too, she was not in any position to
object.

The two
couples settled down in the Jones family room, with Gemma sandwiched between
her parents on the sofa, and Sal sitting in the chair in front of the sofa.

“So what is
this about?” Rodney asked, looking from Gemma to Sal.
 
“We’re glad to see you two always, but we
know you don’t just drop by.
 
So what’s
the reason for this visit?”

Gemma leaned
forward, ready to tell her parents the news.
 
But Sal interrupted her.
 
If
anybody was going to take the heat, it was going to be him.
 
“We’re having a baby,” he said to his
in-laws.

But there
was no heat from Cassie. She was overjoyed and burst into a huge smile.
 
“A baby?”
 
She looked at her daughter.
 
“Oh,
Gemma!”
 
She pulled her daughter into her
arms, and began to rock her side to side.
 
“We’re having a baby!
 
A
baby!
 
I’m going to be a grandmother!
 
Oh, Gemmanette!”

But Sal
wasn’t looking at the ladies.
 
He knew Ma
would be happy for them.
 
He was looking
at Rodney.
 
It was his father-in-law he
was concerned about.

And he was
right to be concerned.
 
Rodney wasn’t
celebrating at all.
 
His handsome face
was serious, almost austere.

When Gemma
and Cassie stopped embracing, Gemma looked at her father too.
 
She could feel his pain.
 
She placed an arm around his waist.
 
“It’s a good thing, Daddy,” she said.

“A good
thing?”
 
Rodney responded.
 
Sal could tell he was ready to fire.
 
“Bringing a baby into your world is a good
thing, Gemma?
 
Really?”