Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) (12 page)

Tamara
was lying across her bed when Grace walked in.
 
She didn’t ask if she was all right.
 
She didn’t ask Tam anything.
 
She
sat patiently on the edge of the bed until Tamara herself sat up on the bed,
and was ready to talk.
 

“Sorry
about that,” she said.

“I
know it hurts.”

“I
love him and he knows I do, but he’s still sleeping with all those other
girls.”

“You
know this?”

“He
had a baby by one.
 
He denies it, but
that girl showed me a DNA test.”

“Wow.
 
I’m sorry to hear that, Tam.”

“I
know.”
 
Then Tam frowned.
 
“What should I do?” she asked Grace.
 

“There’s
no question about it.
 
You have to leave
him.”

“Because
he cheated?”

“Yes.”

“You
didn’t leave Tommy.
 
You married him.”

Grace
frowned.
 
What in the world was she talking
about?
 
“What do you mean?”

“When
Tommy cheated.
 
You didn’t leave him.”

Grace
stared at her.
 
“Tommy never cheated on
me.”

Tamara
laughed.
 
“You don’t believe that.”

“Yes
I do believe it.
 
Because it’s true.”

“How
do you know?”

Grace
knew this was going to sound naïve, but she said it anyway.
 
“Because he loves me.”

“Bobby
loves me too, but he cheats on me all the time.”

“Well
Tommy isn’t Bobby.”
 

Tamara
looked away.
 
Grace knew her sister
figured she was just deluding herself, but she wasn’t about to argue with
her.
 

Then
Tamara looked back at Grace.
 
“You didn’t
give up your apartment, did you?”

Grace
stared at her.
 
“No.
 
Why?”

“Can
I stay there for a few months?
 
Just to
get my head together and maybe get a job or something?”

“You
want to leave Oregon?”

“Yes.
 
I need to leave it, Grace.
 
I don’t want to stay with a man who treats me
the way Bobby treats me, but I know I’ll stay if I don’t have anywhere else to
go.”

“But
what about Mom?”

“What
about her? Seattle is less than three hours from here.
 
I can come see her anytime.
 
Please Grace.
 
Just for a little while!”

Grace
knew Tommy would probably advise against it.
 
But it was her apartment she was talking about and her sister who was in
need.
 
Tommy didn’t have a vote.

“For
a few months only,” Grace said, and Tamara hurried to Grace and threw her arms
around her.

“I
love you, Grace,” Tamara said, but Grace knew that wasn’t true.

“You
won’t regret it,” Tamara added.
 

But
Grace knew that wasn’t true either.

NINE

Marie
Knox walked into the gym and started looking around.
 
She knew she would be there, she just had to
find her.
 
When she saw her, she headed,
not in that direction, but in the exact opposite direction.
 
Grace was on the treadmill.
 
She headed for the weights.

As
soon as Grace stopped, and went over to the bench to take a breather, Marie
made her way over there too.
 
She sat
beside her as Grace sipped her bottled water.

“Good
workout?” Marie asked her.

Grace
smiled.
 
“Very good.
 
I’m very proud of myself.”

“You
talk like it isn’t an everyday thing.”

“Are
you kidding?
 
It’s not.
 
Maybe a once a week thing.”

Marie
smiled.
 
“Yeah, I’m not much better.
 
But with your body, and you only work out
once a week?
 
Impressive.”

“Thanks.”
 
Grace wiped her sweaty face and neck.

Marie
started rubbing the expensive bracelet she had on her wrist, forcing Grace to
notice it.
 

“Nice,”
Grace said.

“Oh,
thank-you,” Marie said with a smile.
 
“My
boyfriend gave it to me.
 
It’s
real.”
 

Grace
nodded.
 

“No,
I’m not kidding,” Marie said as she began taking it off.
 
“Let me show it to you.
 
It’s real.”

“You
don’t have to do that,” Grace said, stunned that it could possibly matter to
her.
 
“I believe you.”

But
Marie was quick and was already handing the bracelet to Grace.
 
“See what I mean?
 
Real diamonds.
 
My boyfriend, Tommy, he owns his own
company.”

Grace
heard her say that name, but she continued to look at the bracelet.
 
“Yes, it’s very nice.”

“He
even had it inscribed, girl,” Marie said, as she turned the bracelet over so
that Grace could see it.

“See
there.
 
To Marie,” she read, then added,
“that’s me.”
 
She continued to read the
inscription.
 
“From TG.
 
TG is for Tommy Gabrini.”
 
She looked at Grace.
 
“He’s such a dear.
 
Just like this bracelet.
 
He took me with him on a business trip to
Aspen.
 
That’s when he gave it to me.”

Grace
didn’t even look at the woman when she made that declaration.
 
If this was some kind of a setup or some kind
of a joke, she wasn’t going to be in on it.
 
“Very nice,” she said again, handing her back the bracelet.
 
“But I’d better get back to my workout before
I don’t feel like doing a darn thing.”

“I
know exactly what you mean,” Marie said with a grand smile.
 
And Grace walked away and headed back for the
treadmill.
 

Although
Marie was floored, she had expected major fireworks, she kept smiling and went
back to her exercises too.
 
But she was
highly pissed.
 
Not because Grace was
too, but because Grace wasn’t.

Grace
didn’t show it, and managed to complete her entire exercise routine before she
left the gym, but she was highly pissed too.
 
She got in her Audi, drove straight to the Gabrini Corporation, and did
not stop until she was told by Tommy’s secretary that he was on the racquetball
court with Sal.

Grace
stepped onto the executive elevator, made her way to the company gym on the
ground floor, and entered the racquetball courts.
 
No one was in there but Tommy and Sal and
both of them, in their shorts and sweatshirts, hitting the ball repeatedly
against the wall, were sweating profusely.
 
They had the gym built for days like this.
 
They didn’t need a country club.
 
They had it all right onsite.
 
The way Tommy saw it they could play hard,
then shower and get back to work.

Sal
was the first to see Grace when she walked in.
  
“Your old lady’s here,” he said.

Tommy,
wiping sweat from his forehead with his wrist band, looked toward the entrance
too.
 
When he saw that it was Grace, and
saw that look on her face, he held up his racket.
 
“Take ten,” he said to his brother, and began
walking her way.
 
Sal threw up his hand
at Grace, but continued to play ball with himself and the wall.

“Hey
darling,” Tommy said as he approached her.
 
“What are you doing here?”

Grace
didn’t mix words.
 
“When you went to
Aspen on business, did you take someone with you?”

Tommy
studied her.
 
“I went to Aspen months
ago.
 
Why would you be asking me about
that?”

“Did
you take someone with you?”

“I’m
sure you mean a female.”

“Yes.”

“No.
 
I didn’t take anyone with me.”

“This
woman, she said her name is Marie, showed me a bracelet she claims you gave to
her.”

He
didn’t respond.

“It
had an inscription on it.
 
The bracelet,
that is.
 
From TG with love
, or something like that.”

Tommy
again didn’t respond.
 

But
Grace was not backing down.
 
“Did you
give her that bracelet?”

Tommy
exhaled.
 
“Yes.”

Grace’s
heart dropped.
 
“And that was your
inscription?”

“Yes.”

“So
you did take her with you?”

“She
showed up in Aspen, but she didn’t come with me.
 
I gave her that bracelet, but it was years
ago.
 
Long before I knew you existed.”

Grace
felt relieved, but what if he was just telling her what she wanted to
hear?
 
“So there’s nothing between you
two anymore?”

“There’s
nothing between us, Grace.”

“Then
why would she claim you took her to Aspen?
 
Why would she imply that you gave her that bracelet since you’ve been
with me?”

“Why
did she approach you to begin with?
 
Why
are these females calling you?
 
I had an
open relationship with many women, Grace.
 
They knew what they were getting.
 
They just never banked on me marrying anybody.
 
Most move on, some don’t.
 
She hasn’t yet.”

Grace
knew she had to believe him.
 
What was
their relationship if it wasn’t founded on trust?
  
But she didn’t want to play the fool
either.
 

Tommy
saw her dilemma.
 
He looked back at
Sal.
 
“Catch up with you later,” he
yelled, and then he motioned Grace toward the exit.
 
“Let’s go,” he said.

“Where
are we going?” Grace asked.

“To
prove a point,” Tommy said.
 
He had hoped
he would have no more points to prove, but these females, these women like
Marie, wasn’t about to allow that.

Tommy
and Grace stepped off of the elevator at the Bridgewater Apartments in
northwest Seattle.
 
Tommy held Grace’s
hand tightly as they made their way to apartment 92B, an apartment he used to know
very well.
 
He hadn’t seen her in months,
but that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard from her.
 
He had.
 
Constantly.
 
He thought they had remained friends.
 
He never dreamed she’d pull this little
stunt.

Grace
looked at Tommy after he rang the bell.
 
He still wore his shorts and sweatshirt, and looked so damn sexy with
his tousled hair that she wondered if this woman would lie her head off, and
deny ever meeting with Grace, just to remain in his good graces.
 
And given Tommy’s wealth, and given how great
he looked and how great he was in bed, Grace, unfortunately, would fully
understood why.

When
Marie looked through her peephole, and saw Tommy’s face, she beamed.
 
And quickly opened the door.
 
Her smile left, however, when she saw that he
had brought Grace with him.

“May
we come in?” Tommy asked.

He
wore shorts, which surprised Marie, and when she glanced down and saw how that
bundle between his legs looked as if it was packed and stacked and could spring
out at any moment the way it used to do whenever he came over in the old days,
she knew she had to play this cool.
 
“I
was in the middle of something actually,” she said.

“Thank-you,”
Tommy said as if he had heard a different response, and he escorted Grace
inside the apartment.

Marie,
not at all surprised by his boldness, closed the door.
 
“Didn’t you hear me, Tommy?
 
I said I was doing something.”

“What
the hell are you trying to pull?” Tommy asked her pointblank.

For
most women, the jig would be up.
 
No way
would a man come to her apartment, in shorts and a sweatshirt, with his wife by
his side, without knowing full well what she was up to. But most women had
never had Tommy Gabrini before.
 
He
wasn’t an easy man to release.
 
Marie decided
to play dumb.
 
“I don’t know what you’re
talking about,” she said.

“I’m
talking about that bracelet you flaunted in my wife’s face today.”

She
frowned.
 
“I wasn’t flaunting
anything.
 
It was a bracelet you gave to
me.
 
I was showing it around.
 
What’s the big damn deal?”

“You
said he gave it to you while he was on business in Aspen,” Grace said.

“That’s
true.”

Tommy
was furious.
 
“That’s a
got
damn lie and you know it, Marie!”

“You
didn’t give me a bracelet?”

“You
know I gave you one.”

“Then
what’s the problem?”

“When
did he give it to you?” Grace asked.

“I
told you when.
 
We were in Aspen.”

Tommy
stared at her.
 
“When?” he asked her.

“What
do you mean when?”

“When
were we in Aspen?”

Marie
knew it was a trick question, but she just couldn’t figure out what the trick
was.
 
“It was four months ago,” she
said.
 
“A week before my birthday.
 
That’s why you gave it to me.
 
As a birthday gift.”

Grace
smiled.
 
Marie didn’t know it, but she
had just confirmed how full of shit she really was.

“I
wasn’t in Aspen four months ago,” Tommy said.

Marie’s
entire countenance changed.
 
“You’re lying.”

“No,
you’re the one who’s lying,” Tommy said.
 
“I was scheduled to go four months ago, but I cancelled at the last
minute.
 
I had a family situation in
Vegas and I had to go to Vegas.
 
Forgot
to tell my office even.
 
But somebody in
my office didn’t forget to tell you.”

“Let’s
go, Tommy,” Grace said, heading for the exit.
 
“She’s full of it just like I thought.”

But
Tommy wasn’t nearly as forgiving.
 
He
moved away from Grace and invaded Marie’s personal space.
 
“I don’t know what kind of twisted pleasure
you’re getting out of this nonsense, but it had better stop and stop right
now.
 
You hear me?
 
If I find out that you’ve been within a
hundred feet of my wife, I will make certain that she will be the last human
being you ever even think about stalking again.
 
You will regret tangling with me.
 
Am I making myself clear to you?”

Marie
swallowed hard.
 
She knew about Tommy’s
prowess in bed.
 
But she also knew about
his other side too.
 
“Crystal,” she said.