Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again (5 page)

Like
now, as the limo began to drive away and he began unzipping his pants.
 
He needed it now.

“You’re
going to take care of me, aren’t you?” he asked, as he unzipped.

Freda
knew the drill.
 
She knew not to badger
him or ask any questions when he wanted some.
 
He was her gorgeous sugar daddy, and she wasn’t going to allow her mouth
or any growing feelings she might have for him to ever interfere with such a
perfect arrangement.
 
He kept her living
in high cotton, and she performed her duty wherever and whenever asked.
 
“You know I will, baby,” she responded as he
pulled that juicy dick out.
 
She didn’t
give it a second thought.
 
As soon as she
saw it, she stopped talking, and began licking.
 

Tommy
reached under her blouse and fondled her breasts as her licks turned to
sucks.
 
He leaned his head back, groaned
with the feeling, and tried not to think about Grace and Ed as she did
him.
 
Grace knew him better than
that.
 
She knew he would never agree to
limit his interactions with his own child.
 
But she tried him anyway.
 
As if
he was that kind of man.
 
As if he didn’t
care enough to fight back.
 
He didn’t
like that.
 
He didn’t like it at all.

But
the more his erection grew, the less he thought about them.
 
The harder she went down on him, the less he
thought about the nerve they had.
 
When
she took him in full, and he began mouth-fucking her, the less he thought about
the level of disrespect they showed him.
 

He
thought less about them, but he still thought about them.

Sal
Gabrini leaned against his father-in-law’s Cadillac with his arms folded and
his ankles crossed.
 
He was casually
dressed, in a pair of blue jeans, a V-neck pullover shirt, and a New York
Yankees baseball cap.
 
He was at the
airstrip outside of Rosemont, Indiana, waiting for Tommy to un-board his
private plane, and he was anxious to see his brother’s face again.
 
It had been nearly a month since Grace
married that doctor, and because of the fact that Sal now lived in Vegas, and
Tommy still lived in Seattle, and they both were always away on business trips
and rarely in the office of the Gabrini Corporation they co-owned, they hadn’t
seen each other in nearly that same amount of time.
 
They spoke by phone almost daily, but that
had been it.

Tommy
finally stepped off of the plane and he was walking, it seemed to Sal, like a
man free and clear.
 
His sports coat was
over his shoulder, his sunglasses were over his eyes, and his hair bounced
around into a bang across his forehead.
 
He had pep in his step.
 
He looked
years younger.
 
But Sal wasn’t
fooled.
 
He knew his brother.
 
He knew how seriously he took things to
heart.
 
There was no way, after only a
month, he was there yet.

“Salvatore
Luciano!” Tommy said with an upbeat tone as he crossed the tarmac and made it
up to his brother, his hand already extended.
 
“How the hell are you, man?”

“Better
than you, motherfucker,” Sal replied affectionately as they shook hands.
 
“Where have you been all month?”

“I’ve
been working.
 
Pulling your weight.
 
Where have you been is the question.”

“Ah,
come here!” Sal said and pulled his older brother into his big arms.

They
hugged each other vigorously.
 
Tommy
loved the feel of his brother in his arms.
 
It had been a while!
 

But
when Sal was ready to pull back, Tommy continued to hold him tightly.
 
That was when Sal knew for sure that all of
those phone calls where Tom insisted he was fine with Grace’s marriage going
forward and how it didn’t bother him at all, was a load of bull just like Sal
suspected it was.
 

When
they finally stopped embracing, and Tommy lifted his shades and placed them on
top of his head, Sal was even more convinced.
 
Tommy had the most expressive eyes he’d ever seen.
 
People rarely saw it.
 
They were too busy looking at the beauty of
Tommy’s eyes.
 
But Sal saw it every
time.
 
Those eyes told the story.

But
it wasn’t until they were in the Cadillac and Sal was driving them away from
the airstrip, did Sal bother to mention anything that serious.
 
He looked at his brother.
 
With all kidding aside, his blue eyes now
insisted.
 
“Rough going, hun?” he asked.

But
Tommy wasn’t ready yet.
 
“Whose car is
this?”

“My
father-in-law’s.
 
Rodney’s.”

Tommy
nodded.
 
“Nice.”

“Now
answer my question.”

Tommy
still wasn’t ready yet.
 
He always
preferred to keep his private life private.
 
Even from his kid brother.
 
“Rodney and Cassie doing well?”

“Tommy?”

“What
do you mean by that question?”
 
Tommy
asked.

Sal
continued to drive.
 
He wasn’t
bullshitting around with him, and Tommy knew it.

After
a longer pause, Tommy exhaled.
 
“It’s
better.”

“But
not the best yet.”
 
Sal looked at
him.
 
“Would that be an accurate
assessment?”

Tommy
nodded.
 
“That would be an accurate
assessment.”

“You
handled the divorce better than you’re handling her marriage.
 
Which makes no sense at all.
 
Broad did me the way Grace did you, I’d be
glad some other sucker was taking her on.”

“Come
on, Sal.”

“Come
on nothing!
 
I hope he breaks her heart
the way she broke yours.
 
Maybe her ass
will see what it feels like then.
 
And
the nerve she had sending me and Gem an invitation.
 
An invitation to her wedding, are you kidding
me?
 
Crazy bitch!”

“Knock
it off,” Tommy said firmly.

“Knock
what off?
 
She’s nuts if she thought I
was attending any wedding of hers!”

“She’s
the mother of my child.
 
Knock it off.”

Sal
understood that tone, and knocked it off.
 
Tommy was a strange bird, always had been.
 
He never responded the way everybody else
did.
 
Not even when he had every right to
get his revenge right then and there.
 
But Tommy would wait.
 
He’d pick
his moment.
 
And then he’d strike.
 
When everybody else thought it was all over
with, he was just getting started.
 
Their
old man used to call Tommy a backdoor bastard.
 
While Sal was kicking in the front door to get his revenge, Tommy was
waiting outback to get his.
 
While Sal
might have had an audience when he was getting even, Tommy had no such limitations.
 
He never had an audience.
 
Which, their old man concluded, made Tommy
far more lethal.

“I
just don’t like how she did you,” Sal said.
 
“That’s all I’m saying here.
 
I
liked Grace.
 
I thought she was going to
be in it for the long haul, I really did.
 
But her ass didn’t make it midway.”

“It’s
a hell of a life, Sal,” Tommy reminded his brother.
 
“You get in trouble, or Reno or Trina or
Jimmy, I have to be there.
 
I’m in it as
deeply as whichever one I’m helping.
 
Grace knew that.
 
She ultimately
couldn’t handle that.”

“Bullshit!”
Sal shot back.
 
“She knew that going
in!
 
Your lifestyle didn’t develop after
you married her.
 
It was there before the
marriage, it was the same way all the time.
 
What I think happened is that she got what she wanted from you and took
off.
 
That’s what happened.
 
She got that business you gave to her, and
that pretty baby you gave to her, and she was done with your ass.
 
What she sticking around for the danger
for?
 
She didn’t need the danger
too!
 
As if we live for this shit.
 
As if we want to bring the danger on.
 
Who does she think we are?
 
A bunch of fucking idiots with a death wish?
 
And the way she and that bastard husband of
hers had the nerve to try and restrict your visitations with Desi, claiming you
can’t protect her the way they can.
 
Yeah, that bitch is crazy alright.
 
Crazy bitch!”

Tommy
was sorry he ever told Sal about any disagreements he had with Grace.
 
But when they stepped to him at their
reception with that supervised visitation suggestion of theirs, it angered him
so fiercely that he had to get it off his chest.
 
He couldn’t reach Reno at the time, or Trina,
so he unloaded on Sal.
 
He didn’t like
to.
 
Sal fancied himself as Tommy’s
protector and never took kindly to anybody slighting his big brother.
 
But Tommy had to talk to somebody or he was
certain, at the time, he would explode.

“Where’s
Gemma?” he asked Sal, to change the subject.

“At
her parents’ house, where else?
 
She’s
entertaining the guests.”

Tommy
smiled.
 
“Her parents are celebrating
their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary.
 
Must be nice.”

“And
you don’t know how pleased they are that you decided to come,” Sal informed
him.
 
“We’re all pleased you came.
 
You’re a busy man.”

“Ah!”
Tommy said with a shake of his shoulder.
 
“Bump busy.
 
They’re Gemma’s
parents.
 
Salt of the earth people if
ever I knew any.
 
I love them too.”

Sal
smiled and reached over and squeezed his brother’s upper arm.
 
Then he began patting that arm, and then his
chest.
 
“Damn,” he said.
 
“You’ve been working out.
 
Your pecs didn’t used to be this big!”

“Jealous
are we?”

“Hell
yeah!” Sal responded.
 
“You’re the brains
around this joint.
 
I’m the brawn.
 
Don’t you forget that!”

Tommy
laughed.
 
He lost a wife, but he knew
he’d never lose his loyal-to-a-fault, beloved brother.
 
That was special too.

Liz
Logan grabbed her luggage off the carousel, pulled up the handle, and began
rolling it out of the massive airport.
 
She glanced at her watch.
 
Nearly
two already.
 
Which was just great.
 
She was going to be late.
 
She promised Chelsey she would be there for
her, for moral support, as she faced that family of hers again.
 
But Liz had to come all the way from Houston,
where she’d been on business, and her flight into Indiana had been delayed
twice.
 
But since nobody knew she and
Chelse were coming anyway, she didn’t see where it would matter.
 
Although she knew it would.
 
It always did when it came to visiting
Chelsey’s family.

“Finally!”
a voice said and she turned to the sound.

Chelsey
Jones, rolling her own suitcase, was coming up behind her.

Liz
smiled and hugged her neck.
 
“How long
have you been here?
 
Hours?”

“Forty
minutes,” Chelsey admitted.
 
“I had
delays too.”

“Oh
good,” Liz said.
 
“Not the delays.
 
But it’s good you didn’t have to wait long.”

Chelsey
smiled.
 
“I got it.”

“Ready?”
Liz asked her.

“Can
I ever be ready for something like this?”
 
Then Chelsey nodded.
 
“I’m as
ready as I’ll ever be I suppose.”

“Let’s
get to it then,” Liz said, and they began walking steadily through the
airport.
 

Chelsey
smiled.
 
Talk about a study in
contrast.
 
Two people, she felt, could
not have looked differently.
 
Whereas Liz
was tall and slender, Chelsey was short and almost purposely frumpy.
 
She wore washed-out, faded blue jeans, a big,
outside-hanging dress shirt, and red
 
Jordans.
 
Although her hair was
naturally long and beautiful, she wore it in a ponytail.
 
Her face, though pretty, bore no makeup.
 
And although Liz was straight and girly and
it showed, Chelsey was a lesbian, and that showed too.
 
But no two friends could have ever been closer.

But
as they walked through that airport, it was obvious who the men favored.
 
Not that Chelsey was surprised.
 
She wasn’t.
 
She had a crush on Liz too, and if Liz wasn’t straight she’d be all over
her just as hard as the men.
 
What she
liked about Liz was how well she took the catcalls and stares.
 
Most women hated it.

Liz
hated it too as she walked through that airport, but she knew how to handle
it.
 
She smiled at the various men who gave
her that assessing look she knew so well, or gave her an approving nod, or even
those rare guys who actually stopped walking to stare at her.
 
It was ridiculous, and she really didn’t like
it when they went that far, but she smiled anyway.
 
She knew those guys weren’t coming from any
place of malice.
 
So, she figured, why
should she?

She
wore a pair of slim-fit trousers, a tucked-in, high collar white blouse, and
she sported a short, man-cut afro that looked effortless although she took
pains to keep it soft and neat.
 
More
than a few of her colleagues said she reminded them of some exotic supermodel,
but she dismissed such a comparison.
 
Liz
had no interest in being any kind of model,
super,
role, or otherwise
, and she didn’t care to be mistaken for one.
 
But she smiled anyway, thanked them for the
compliment, and kept it moving.