Sal Gabrini: Just The Way You Are (15 page)

“It’s what
we want, yes,” Gemma responded.
 
“And we
feel that it’s the right decision.”

“Then I
question your decision-making judgment,” Rodney said, and rose to his
feet.
 
“I truly do.”
 
He began to pace the room.
 
It was obvious he was angry, and trying with
all he had not to display it.
 
Gemma
looked at Sal.

“I
understand you have concerns about my lifestyle,” Sal said to Rodney.

Rodney
looked at Sal.
 
“Concerns?
 
That’s a very dismissive way to put how I
feel.
 
Concern doesn’t capture it at
all!
 
I told Gemma having children with a
man like you is not a wise thing to do.
 
I told her I would question her judgment forevermore if she did
something like this.
 
I told her she
should never go down that road!”

“That’s not
your call to make,” Sal fired back.
 
Everybody looked at Sal.
 
“You
don’t question shit about what me and my wife decides to do.”

“Sal,” Gemma
said, knowing his father had nothing on her husband in the anger department.

But Sal
didn’t heed.
 
“Having a child is our
decision,” he continued.
 
“That’s for us
to decide.
 
Not you, not Cassie, not
anybody else.”

“Don’t act
as if my response wasn’t expected,” Rodney said to his son-in-law.
 
“You had to know I wouldn’t approve!”

“We aren’t
asking for your approval,” Sal said.
 
“Yes, I knew it would be a tough thing.
 
It is a tough thing.
 
But it’s our
tough thing.
 
We’re going to be the ones
to have to deal with this.”

“And what do
you think we are?” Rodney asked.
 
“Strangers?
 
Gemma is your wife,
that’s true.
 
But she was my child before
you knew she existed, Salvatore, and I want what’s best for her.”

Sal wanted
to make clear that he wanted the same thing, but he knew Gemma would want her
father to have his say.
 
So Sal remained silent,
and let Rodney speak.

“Think about
Gemma,” Rodney said.
 
“Think about what
has transpired in my daughter’s life since she married you.
 
I mean the danger she’s been in.
 
The horror she’s seen.
 
And I’m certain we don’t know the half of it
because she doesn’t tell us everything.”

Sal and
Gemma both knew that was nothing but the truth.
 
But they remained silent.

“And now a
baby is going to come into that world,” Rodney continued.
 
“Our grandchild.
 
How can you expect me to be happy about
that?
 
I lost my other daughter in the
most tragic of circumstances.”

Sal knew
about that too.
 
He was there when it
happened.
 
Cassie, remembering that
hellish time too, looked down.

“And
everything else my wife and I have had to go through.
 
My wife and I were nearly killed because of
our association with you and your family.
 
And now our grandbaby will be caught up in this web too.
 
An innocent child that should never have to
bear those kind of burdens.
 
I don’t know
what you expect me to say, or how you expect me to feel.
 
This can’t be good news.
 
I’m sorry.
 
But this is not good news!”

Sal and
Gemma both were thrown by Rodney’s emotional display.
 
He was not an emotional man, but he was
shaking with rage.
 
They expected
objections.
 
They expected
recriminations.
 
But nothing like
this.
 

Then her
father added, looking at Sal: “This was all your doing.
 
Wasn’t it, Salvatore?”

Sal
frowned.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You finally
got Gemma exactly where you want her.
 
Barefoot and pregnant.
 
Knocked
up.
 
Now she’ll have a reason not to
leave you when your world becomes too much for her.”

Gemma looked
angrily at her father.
 
“Daddy, what are
you talking about?” That’s not true and you know it!”

“It is
true!” Rodney responded with even more firmness.
 
Then he looked at Sal again.
 
“I expected better from you, son,” he said.

Sal didn’t
know how to respond to that.
 
A part of
him wanted to lash out.
 
Rodney, he
wanted to say, didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
 
But a bigger part couldn’t lash out.
 
Because Rodney, he knew, was hitting the nail
on the head.
 
Sal was always afraid of
losing Gem.
 
Always.
 
He didn’t get her pregnant because of that
fear, but the fear was there.

But Gemma
had a different view.
 
“You can’t put
this all on Sal, Dad,” she said to her father.
 
“It’s on me too.
 
I want to have
his child.
 
I want to be the mother of
his baby.
 
We’re a family, and we want to
have someone that’s a part of both of us.
 
I want that just as much as Sal does.
 
If not more.”

Sal felt
better.
 
He looked at Gemma.

“But is it
wise to want it, Gemmanette?” Rodney asked her.
 
“That’s all I’m asking.
 
Is it
wise?”

“No,” Sal
responded for his wife.
 
“It’s not
wise.
 
But it’s us.
 
It’s what we want.
 
I want your daughter to be the mother of my
child.”

“What about
Rudy?” Rodney asked.
 
“You have a child.”

“He’s my
son, that’s true.
 
But I didn’t raise
him.
 
I didn’t shape any part of
him.
 
I barely know him.
 
That won’t be the case when we have our
baby.
 
That baby will be me and Gemma
through and through.
 
And I know you’re
worried about his safety, Rodney.
 
But
not more than I am.
 
I’ll protect him
just like I protect your daughter.
 
Nobody’s fucking with either one of them.
 
I promise you that.”

There was an
awkward pause, but then Cassie smiled.
 
“Then you guys made the right decision,” she said.
 
“Sal’s word is enough for me.”

Gemma and
her mother hugged.

But Sal and
Rodney kept their eyes on each other.
 
It
was going to be a long haul.
 
It was
going to be difficult.
 
It could be the
best decision or the worst ever made.

Both men
were terrified of which way it was going to go.

Seven Months Later

Damn
, Sal thought as he stepped out of
the shower.
 
They were blowing up his
cellphone again.
 
Although the months had
come and gone and the Gabrini Corporation was humming right along without any
major hiccups, his other business dealings were not so settled.
 
There had been no more crew chiefs killed for
several months and then, last night, it happened.
 
Another execution.
 
Another one of Sal’s Chicago people gunned
down in the street.
 
Pressure was
building for Sal to do more than he’d been doing.
  
His wife was eight-and-a-half months
pregnant, but they didn’t give a fuck.
 
Another one of their crew chiefs fell.
 
Another one of their men got iced.
 
They wanted retaliatory action even if they still didn’t know who to
retaliate against.

Sal
understood their frustration.
 
He knew a
war was going on, but they couldn’t fight because nobody told them the location
of the battle.
 
But
damn
, he thought again as he walked over to the marble-top vanity
and looked at the Caller ID.
 
They
weren’t giving him a break to scrub his own ass, and he was getting tired of
it.
 
And when he read the subsequent text
message that followed the unanswered phone call, he became even more
upset.
 
This time it was Scorsese texting
him.
 
They wanted to meet with him
today.
 
There was trouble.
 
It couldn’t wait.
 
Sal tossed the phone back onto the
vanity.
 
Get in fucking line, he thought.

He grabbed
the thick towel off of the rack and began drying his wet body as he made his
way into the adjourning bedroom.
 
When he
saw his wife still stretched out in bed, he frowned.
 
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
 
“I thought you said you had court today.”

Gemma opened
her big, brown eyes and looked at her husband.
 
“What time is it?” she asked groggily.
 
She couldn’t help but look down his muscular, tanned body to his
muscular, pink rod.

“It’s
late.
 
That’s what time it is.
 
You feel okay?”

“I’m okay,” Gemma
said as she threw the sheet off of her naked body, slid her feet onto the
floor, and sat on the edge of the bed.
 
She knew how overprotective Sal could be if he even suspected she didn’t
feel well.
  

Sal’s penis
began to react as soon as he saw her naked body.
 
He never would have imagined that a woman
could turn him on the way Gemma did.
 
Even as she sat on the edge of their bed, with her stomach perturbed
like a dark brown beach ball in front of her otherwise sleek brown body, he
wanted to fuck her.
 
He began stroking,
rather than drying, his penis.
 
“What’s
wrong?” he asked her.

“A little
tired,” Gemma said, raking back with both hands what was now her shoulder
length straight hair, “but I’m okay.”

Sal studied
her as he stroked.
 
She’d just woken up,
but still had that look of exhaustion he saw last night when he finally made
his way home and came to bed.
 
He told
her to give up her caseload this late in her pregnancy.
 
He wanted her to just take it easy.
 
But she refused.
 
Now he wondered if he was going to have to
put his foot down and make her give it up.
 
“Come here,” he said to her.

Gemma looked
at him.
 
It was her natural instinct to
never jump at anybody’s command.
 
Except
when that command came from Sal.
 
She
knew, above any human being on the face of this earth, he always had her best
interest at heart.
 
She stood and walked
over to him.

Sal tossed
the towel aside and pulled her into his arms.
 
She had the belly, so there was a physical distance between them, but
not an emotional one.
 
“Why don’t you
stay home today?
 
You can call in
sick.
 
You’re eight-and-a-half months
pregnant for crying out loud.”

“But I’m
okay, Sal.
 
I have to be in court.
 
There’s a lot of people who want to get this
case over with.
 
Not least of which is my
client.”

“Forget
about what other people want from you.
 
Everybody wants something from you.
 
It’s up to me to say no if you won’t.
 
So telling me what everybody else wants don’t mean shit to me.”

“I know
that.
 
But I’m okay, Sal.
 
Truly.”

“I’ll feel
better if you take a few days off.
 
Or at
least stay home today until I get back in town tonight.”

Gemma looked
into his eyes.
 
“You’re still going to
Seattle?”

“Yeah.
 
I’ve got to officiate at the annual
shareholders meeting while Tommy’s handling business in Calcutta.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Calcutta?”

“Calcutta of
all places.
 
But you know Tommy.
 
He’ll take new acquisitions wherever he can
find them.
 
That’s why the Gabrini
Corporation thrives.
 
Tommy keeps feeding
it meat.
 
But if you need me here I can
do a videoconference instead.”

“No,” Gemma
said, shaking her head.
 
“It’s only for a
day.
 
You’ll be back tonight.
 
But they don’t call it Calcutta anymore, Sal.
 
It’s Kolkata now.”

“For real?”

“For real,”
Gemma said.

“Well,
whatever it’s called, that’s where Tommy is.
 
But I can still do a videoconference if I have to.”

“It’s just a
day trip,” Gemma said.
 
“I’ll be
fine.
 
Besides,” she added, “shareholders
want to see either you or Tommy in person, not on some video.
 
They want that reassurance.
 
Which proves my point.”

Sal frowned.
 
“What point?”

“I have to
be in court to defend my client.
 
That’s
what I have to do.
 
You have to be in
Seattle to reassure your stakeholders.
 
That’s what you have to do.”

“Don’t
compare what I have to do with what you’re doing,” Sal said bluntly.
 
“You don’t have to do shit but be my wife and
the mother of our child when that child gets here.
 
I take care of you.
 
I look out for you.
 
You don’t have to work for the rest of your
life.
 
You don’t have to be anywhere or
do anything you don’t want to do, and don’t you forget that.
 
Nobody has a hold on you like that but me.”

Gemma smiled
and touched her stomach.
 
“And Sal,
Junior.”

Sal
smiled.
 
When they found out they were
having a son, he was overjoyed.
 
“Yeah,
and him,” he admitted.

Gemma kissed
Sal on the lips.
 
“But I’m fine, babe,”
she said as she left his embrace and headed for the bathroom.
 
“Don’t worry about me.”

How could he
not, he thought as he followed her.
 
She
was his life.
 
He had all this craziness
going on around him, all of this bullshit on top of bullshit, and then there
was Gemma.
 
His rock.
 
His soft bed when every bed he ever laid in,
especially those of his own making, was hard.

“What’s it
about?” Sal asked as he leaned against the bathroom’s doorjamb.

“What’s what
about?” Gemma asked as she turned on the shower water tap.

“The case.”

“Oh.
 
Insurance fraud.”
 
She began walking toward the vanity.
 
“It should wrap up today.”

“At least
it’s not a murder case.”

“I’m not
taking any more of those until after the baby comes.”
 
Gemma began brushing her teeth.
 
“You left your cell phone,” she added when
she glanced down and saw it on the countertop.

“Yeah, on
purpose,” Sal said, his arms folded, as he looked at her tight black ass.
 
“Some of my guys from back East have been
blowing up my phone.”

Gemma almost
stopped brushing when Sal mentioned his unmentionable East Coast
operations.
 
But she continued.
 
And decided to push the envelope.
 
“What do they want?” she asked.

“A meeting.”

“Did they
say why?”

“Routine
stuff,” was all Sal had to say.
 
They
mentioned there was trouble, but he wasn’t about to worry Gem about anything
like that.

“You’re
going to meet with them?”

“Yeah,
maybe.”

“Before you
leave town?”

“They’ll
have to meet me in Seattle,” Sal said.
 
“Before I come back home.
 
The
last time they brought that shit to Vegas a car exploded outside of our front
gate.
 
They either meet me in Seattle or
wait until I can get to them.
 
And I
won’t be getting to anybody until after the baby comes.”

“But Sal if
they’re blowing up your phone like that, it probably can’t wait until after the
baby comes.
 
Get them to meet you while
you’re in Seattle.
 
I don’t want you
making bad business decisions because of me and the pregnancy.”

“I’m
handling business,” Sal said.
 
“They
don’t think so because they don’t know what the hell their doing.
 
They want to declare war when they don’t even
know who the enemy is.
 
But I’ve already
declared it.”

Gemma was
pleased that he was confiding this much in her, even if the subject matter was
unnerving.
 
“How can you fight a war if
you don’t know who’s the enemy?”

“I know,”
Sal said with a harsh exhale.
 
“I just
haven’t shared this knowledge with them.”

Gemma looked
at him through the vanity mirror.
 
“Why
haven’t you told them?”

“Because the
enemy is from within,” Sal said.
 
Then he
added sadly: “And we haven’t figured out which one of them it is.”

“Ah, Sal,”
Gemma said, turning to him.
 
She knew how
much he hated disloyalty.
 
“A betrayal?”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Unfortunately yes.
 
It’s a power grab, is what I figure, but I
don’t know which underboss is doing the grabbing.”

“Or if it’s
all of them?”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Or if it’s all of them,
yeah.
 
Every last one of those fuckers
are under surveillance.
 
I’m using Reno
and Tommy’s men to do that part.
 
We’ll
find out what’s going on soon enough.”

“That’s why
you aren’t taking their cries to meet seriously?”

“That’s
exactly why.
 
But we’ll see.”

Gemma
gargled, and then headed for the shower.
 
“Don’t leave before I get out of the shower,” she said as she stepped
in.
 
“I want to see you off.”

But Sal had
no intentions of leaving, and she was about to see him off right now.
 
He stepped into the shower behind her.

Gemma was
surprised.
 
“I thought you just
bathed?”
 
She had a smile on her face.

“Yeah, so?”
Sal responded.
 
“I didn’t come in here to
bathe.”

Gemma looked
at him as he got in behind her.
 
“Then
what did you come in here to do, Sal?”

“To
fuck.
 
To make love to my wife.
 
What else?
 
The doctor said up until your water breaks your ass is mine.”

“He also said
within reason,” Gemma added, but Sal didn’t hear that part.
 
And as he sat his dick between her cheeks,
and leaned into her, massaging her ass and kissing her neck, Gemma wasn’t
trying to hear it either.