Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) (5 page)

As
soon as they left, Grace picked up her desk telephone, ready to give Tommy a
piece of her mind.
 
It was just like him
to do something like this.
 
Ever since he
put a ring on it he’d been acting as if she was his possession, not his
wife.
 
Which was fine in the
bedroom.
 
She loved it in the
bedroom.
 
But that shit didn’t work in
the boardroom.
 
Every move she made had
to be cleared by him.
 
Every decision she
made had to be approved by him.
 
Every
time she wanted to jump, he had to decide how high.
 
This was getting out of hand.

She
hung the phone back up and decided a face-to-face was needed.
 
If he was ever going to take her complaints
seriously, he had to see that she was serious.
 
She grabbed her suit coat off of the back of her chair, grabbed her
purse and smartphone out of her bottom desk drawer, and then headed for the
exit.
 
She was so upset she could hardly
contain her rage.
 
But she contained
it.
 
She was still trying to win the full
respect of her employees, who still thought her too young and over-her-head to
run Trammel the right way.
 
She wasn’t
about to blow it by throwing some rage-filled tantrum in front of them
now.
 
That level of rage she was saving
for later.
 
That level of rage she was
saving exclusively for Tommy.

The
object of her rage was in his office at the Gabrini Corporation.
 
He was leaned against the front of his desk
talking shop with three businessmen.
 
His
arms were folded over his pristine Armani suit, his legs were crossed at the
ankle, and the general atmosphere was an unpleasant one.
 
As usual, it was Tommy they were courting,
not the other way around.
 
They wanted to
do business with him, and had come to offer their wares.
 
But Tommy, also as usual, was the one not yet
sold.
 
He was a venture capitalist.
 
He invested in failing businesses all day
long.
 
But he was very particular about
the businesses he agreed to lifeline.
 
These men wanted a lifeline.
 
Their businesses were failing, but they wanted to maintain majority
control.
 
But just as they were nearing
the hard sell, just as they were about to agree to give up controlling
interest, his office door flew open, and Grace, with Irma, Tommy’s secretary,
frantically hurrying up behind her, walked in.

Tommy’s
heart squeezed with joy as soon as he saw his wife.
 
That pretty brown face.
 
That slender but curvaceous frame.
 
Those full flung breasts that he wouldn’t
mind sucking right now.
 
He could tell
she was upset, and he hated seeing her that way, but he always loved seeing
her.

His
secretary, a pinch-faced woman with an equally pinched disposition, killed the
mood.
 
She was loaded with attitude, as
if Grace’s mere presence was an affront to her.
 
“I
told
her you were in a
meeting, sir,” she said emphatically.
 
“I
told
her you didn’t want to be
disturbed, sir.”

“You
don’t tell her anything,” Tommy shot back, equally affronted.
 
“She’s my wife.
 
She tells you.
 
Understand?”

The
secretary was easily displeased.
 
She
didn’t like things out of order and she felt Grace was out of order.
 
But she also knew she was still coming to
grips with the fact that Grace wasn’t just another girlfriend, but was now this
man’s wife.
 
She had overstepped her
bounds.
 
“Yes, sir,” she said with tight
lips.

“Now
get back to work.”

She
attempted to smile and nod at Grace, a gesture Grace accepted, as the woman
walked back out the door, closing it behind her.
 
The businessmen glanced at each other.
 
They’d heard for years about how Tommy had a
thing for black women, and dated them almost exclusively, but they had no idea
he had married one.

“Get
one of my assistants to take you downstairs to the cafeteria,” Tommy said to
the men.
 
“I’ll send for you as soon as
I’m done here.”

Although
they had once been on the top of the heap in their own right, and at one time
were major businessmen too, they needed Tommy’s help.
 
Tommy was in control now.
 
So they agreed to his suggestion, spoke to
Grace, and left.

As
soon as the door closed, Grace let him have it.
 
“You hired a CFO for
my
company?”

But
Tommy didn’t take her bait.
 
“Good
morning,” he said calmly.

Grace
knew she was coming on like gangbusters, compared to Tommy’s coolness, but she
felt cornered.
 
She knew she should be
eternally grateful to have a man like him in her life.
 
She knew everybody was convinced of her unworthiness,
and how she didn’t deserve a man as special as Tommy.
 
She’d certainly heard it many times
before.
 
But she wasn’t about to lose
herself just to stay in his good graces.
 
She wasn’t about to tread so lightly that she couldn’t recognize her own
footprints.
 
“Good morning,” she
said.
 
“Why did you hire a CFO without
consulting me first?”

Tommy
exhaled.
 
He was tired, his plate was
already too full, and the last thing on his mind was little Trammel
Trucking.
 
“You’ve met him?”

She
frowned.
 
“What difference does that
make, Tommy?
 
Yes, I’ve met him.
 
But why did you hire him?
 
Why did you do something like that?”

“What
do you mean why did I do it?
 
I’m
chairman of the board.
 
I hired an
incredibly talented man I didn’t want to get away.
 
I was going to mention it to you.”

“Mention
it?
 
That’s all?
 
I get no say whatsoever?”

“Of
course you get a say.”

“But
he’s hired, right?
 
I can get a say, but
what you say is what goes.
 
Is that how
it works?”

“I’m
looking out for the company.
 
You need a
CFO and you’ve been in need of one for months.
 
I took care of that need.”

“But
it’s my company, Tommy!
 
You’ve got to
let me handle that.
 
I’m the majority
shareholder.
 
Yes, you put me in that
position, you did that for me.
 
But I’m
in that position now and I will not cede my authority to you or anybody
else.
 
It was my job to hire the person
who would be number three in the chain of command.”

“Just
check him out.
 
You won’t find anyone
better situated for Trammel.”

“That’s
not the point!”

“Then
what the hell is the point, Grace?”
 
His
temper flared.
 
“You needed a chief
financial officer.
 
Now you have one.”

“The
one you chose.
 
Not the one I
wanted.
 
The one you chose.”

“That’s
what the chairman does.
 
Make the tough
calls.”

“When
you were the chairman and the majority shareholder, you had a right to make the
calls.
 
But you turned your shares over
to me, making me the majority holder.
 
I
make the final calls now.”

 
“Brad is hired.
 
And that’s final.
 
I know a hellava lot more about this business
than you do.”

But
Grace wouldn’t concede that either.
 
Tommy was older than she was, and he was right.
 
He was a major businessman when she was still
in school.
 
But that didn’t give him the
right to disregard her business acumen completely.
 
“I’ve been working for Trammel since I got
out of college, so don’t even try that, Tommy.
 
Yes, I was an assistant there, and wasn’t the head person.
 
But I’m the head person now.
 
And you have got to let me run it the way I
want to run it!”

Tommy
stood up from his leaned position.
 
“I’m
not going to argue with you,” he said, walking behind his desk.
 
“Brad is the new CFO.
 
End of discussion.”

“Oh,
really now.
 
That’s the end of the
discussion?
 
Says who?”

“Says
me.
 
The chairman.”

“Then
you’re fired.
 
You’re no longer the
chairman.”

Tommy
could not believe she had just said that.
 
“What did you say?”

“I
said you’re fired.
 
As majority
shareholder, no board member can serve without my blessing.
 
You serve at the pleasure of the owner.
 
I have no more pleasure in your service to
Trammel.
 
At least not if you’re going to
continue to refuse to let me do my job.
 
So you’re done.
 
You’re no longer
chairman.”

Grace
turned to leave, knowing that she had stood up to Tommy in a way that was jaw
dropping.
 
But she knew she had to stick
to her decision.
 
He wasn’t going to take
her concerns seriously no other way.

But
just as she made it to the door and opened it, Tommy had made his way to that
same door and grabbed her from behind, turning her around and slamming the door
back shut.
 
His assistants outside of his
office were amazed by the display.
 
But
he didn’t care.
 
He looked at Grace with
earnest eyes that were a cross between anger and disappointment.

“Who
do you think you’re talking to that way?” he asked her.

And
that question alone made her understand who.
 
Tommy.
 
The man she loved and
respected above any human being alive.
 
But he wasn’t getting it.
 
No
matter how hard she tried to get him to understand, he wasn’t getting it.
 
“We can’t keep going on like this,” she said
in a defeated tone.

Tommy
kept looking at her.
 
He knew she’d had
her issues with his business style, but he had been too busy to figure out how
to remedy it.
 
“We can’t go on like
what?”

“Like
this. Like the way you treat me professionally.”

“I
treat you as if you were more precious than life itself, Grace, what are you
talking about?”

“You
treat me like your child, Tommy, not like your life partner.
 
That’s what I’m talking about!
 
Ever since our marriage it’s been as if you
have to be in charge of every aspect of my life.”

“I’m
looking out for you.
 
What’s so wrong
with that?”

“You’re
suffocating me,” Grace finally admitted.
 
Tommy stared at her.
 
“I know you
mean well, but it’s suffocation.
 
You
won’t give me room to grow.
 
You want me
to remain this innocent flower that never grows or changes.
 
I see how Reno treats Trina, and how Sal
treats Gemma.
 
They let them fall into
the river sometimes, to see if they can swim.
 
But you won’t even let me anywhere near the river!”

“Because
you’re my baby.
 
I swim for both of us.
 
I don’t need you falling into any rivers to
prove anything to anybody.
 
I need you to
be who you are, Grace.
 
You will not see
the horrors Trina and Gemma have to see.
 
You’re not them, and you will not become them.”
 
Then he frowned, thinking about his deceased
father and how she had to learn about his father’s abusiveness, and had to
witness his father’s horrific death.
 
“You’ve already seen too much.”

“I
understand your concern, Tommy.
 
Really I
do.
 
But you’re letting it spill over
into every part of my life.
 
I told Henry
the other day that I wanted him to draw up plans to renovate the kitchen.
 
Our kitchen.
 
He told me he had to check with you first.”