Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 (3 page)

“Very
close,”
Jonnell
said.
 
“We met on assignment.
 
I was a
journalist too.
 
We hit it off and stayed
in touch.”

“I
see,” Gemma said.
 
Sal could tell she was
sizing this woman up, trying to see how she fit into this meeting that the
Joneses felt was so important that they asked Gemma and Sal to drop everything
to attend.

But
Sal was more concerned about his father-in-law.
 
This was the man of this house. He ran this.
 
Whatever the big deal was, he was the one who
decided it was big.

“Why
did you ask us to come, Rodney?” Sal asked him pointblank.
 

Rodney
Jones pushed his slender frame up toward the edge of his seat, as if he wanted
to address Sal directly with no interference.
 
“I asked my daughter to come, and to bring you with her, because I want
to know the truth.
 
And I want to hear it
from you.”

Sal
didn’t blink.
 
He crossed his legs.
 
“What truth are you referring to?” he asked
him.

Rodney
looked anguished, but Cassie interrupted him.
 
“Chelsey is my daughter,” she said.

It
didn’t seem like earth-shattering news, but Cassie looked as if it was.
 
“I know that,” Sal said.

“She
was not Roddy’s daughter,” Cassie added.

Sal
did not know that.
 
Cassie looked at
Gemma, as if she was hearing this for the first time too.
 
And she was hearing it from her parents for
the first time, but she and Chelsey, when they were very young, had already
concluded as much.
 
But like most things
in their family, it was never openly discussed.

Cassie
continued.
 
“Rodney was hurt by the
affair,” she said, “and he was bitter, but he decided to raise her as his
child.
 
There was no other way.”

Gemma
put her arm around her mother’s shoulder.
 
“I know, Ma.”

“I
treated her differently,” Rodney confessed, anguish on his face too.
 
“I didn’t mean to, I really didn’t.
 
But I did.
 
I treated her like she was less-than.
 
And even with her success, I behaved as if she was an abject failure.”
 
Then he looked at Sal.
 
“But that didn’t mean I didn’t love her.
 
That didn’t mean I would not have died for
her because I would have.
 
That didn’t
mean I could be fed a pack of lies about her and believe it because I didn’t
care either way.”

Rodney
calmed back down.
 
“She was a problem
daughter,” he continued.
 
“I’m not going
to sit here and pretend she was the model daughter, because she wasn’t.
 
She gave us a lot of grief.
 
A lot of grief.”

“What
pack of lies are you referring to?” Sal asked him, discerning, correctly, that
those supposed lies were the reason for this get together.

It
was obvious that Rodney would have loved to tell it all himself, but he
deferred to his houseguest: to
Jonnell
Keith.
 
Everybody looked at her.

She
looked a Sal.
 
“You’re a liar,” she said.

Sal
had planned to keep his cool no matter what.
 
These were grieving people after all.
 
But he lost it as soon as that woman uttered those words.
 
“Who the fuck are you to call me a liar?” he
shot back.

“Don’t
you dare use that gutter language in my home!” Rodney yelled.
 
“And especially not to one of my guests!”

Sal
wanted to fight back, but he looked at Gemma.
 
The despair on her face reminded him of these people’s pain.
 
He looked at
Jonnell
.
 
“What are you talking about lady?” he asked
her.

“You
told them that your cousin, Reno Gabrini, killed Chelsey,”
Jonnell
said.

“And?”
Sal asked her.

“And
that was a lie.
 
A close friend of mine
is with the Chicago P.D. and I asked him to look into it.
 
According to every police report he reviewed,
you were listed as the shooter, not your cousin.
 
You killed Chelsey.”

Gemma
couldn’t believe the nerve of this woman.
 
“But that’s not true,” she said.

“It
is true.
 
They said it was justifiable,”
Jonnell
added, “but they made it clear that your husband
was the one who pulled that trigger.
 
Not
his cousin.”

“He
lied to you,” Rodney said to Gemma, “and he lied to us because he knew what it
would do to us if we knew the truth.
 
Your association with him caused us to lose our daughter.”

“Why
would you say that, Dad?
 
That’s not
true!”

“It
is the truth!” Rodney shot back.

“No,
it’s not,” Sal said.
 
He looked
especially at Cassie, but also at Rodney.
 
“I didn’t kill your daughter,” he said.
 
“I didn’t kill her because my cousin Reno was a faster shot.
 
But I would have killed her before I let her
murder my brother, which is what she tried to do.”

“That’s
a bald-faced lie!” Rodney declared.
 
“Chelsea would never harm anybody!”

“But
her girlfriend had been killed, Dad,” Gemma reminded him.
 
“She was distraught about what happened to
Karen.
 
She wanted revenge right then and
there.
 
She would have killed Tommy if
Reno hadn’t pulled that trigger.”

“But
he didn’t pull it,” Rodney said.
 
“Salvatore pulled it and he knows it!”

“Stop
saying that, now I mean it,” Gemma said angrily.
 
“Sal did not kill Chelsey.”

Rodney
reached onto the cocktail table, grabbed a folder, and handed it to Gemma.
 
“It’s right there in black and white,” he
said.
 
“Read it and weep.”

Gemma
opened the folder and began to read the report.
 
Sal’s heart was hammering, not from guilt, but because Gemma was in the
middle; because Gemma had to deal with pain on every side.

“That
police report makes clear who killed our child,” Rodney said.
 
“And it wasn’t Reno!
 
Jonnell
didn’t just
come here telling us tall tales.
 
I asked
her to look into it, and she did.
 
She
came with the truth.”

Rodney
stood up.
 
Sal, perceiving a sudden
threat, stood up too.
 
“I want you to
leave my house and leave it now,” Rodney said.

“Daddy,
don’t,” Gemma said heartfelt, rising too.
 
“Don’t do this.”

“Now
you can divorce him,” Rodney said to her, “and go on with your life.”

“Divorce
him?” Gemma was incredulous.
 
“Because of
what some police report says?”

“Because
of what he said!” Cassie said as she stood up too.
 
“You heard him.
 
He said he would have killed Chelsey himself
but somebody else beat him to it.”

“Chelse
stabbed Tommy, Ma,” Gemma tried to get her to understand.
 
“And she would have continued to stab
him.
 
She would have killed him.
 
What do you think they were going to do?
 
Let her?”
 
She tossed the report back onto the table.
 
“I don’t care what some report says.
 
I believe my husband.”

“You
believe
him
?” Rodney couldn’t believe
it.
 
“You believe that gangster over an
official report?
 
Over us?
 
Then you’re no longer the woman I raised you to
be.”

Sal
went over to Gemma, took her by the hand, and pulled her away from her
parents.
 
“You’re right about that,” he
said to Rodney.
 
“She’s not the woman you
raised.
 
She’s even more of a woman.”

“Who
are you to tell me what my daughter is?” Rodney fired back.
 
“She was the apple of my eye before she
married the likes of you!”

“Roddy,”
Cassie said, placing her hand on his arm.

But
he jerked away from him.
 
“Ever since the
day she met you you’ve caused nothing but heartache and grief.
  
You’ve been nothing but trouble to her!”

“Was he
trouble to you when he saved your life?” Gemma angrily asked her father.

“My
life would have never been in danger if it wasn’t for him!” Rodney
responded.
 
“So yes, he was trouble to me
even then!
 
Him and his mob ties!
 
Don’t you dare throw him saving my life in my
face ever again!”

“And
don’t you dare throw divorce in mine ever again!”
 
Gemma was as angry as her father was
bitter.
 
“You feel guilty for how you
treated Chelse, and you want to take it out on Sal.
 
And that’s okay.
 
Sal is strong enough to take that.
 
He’ll take that all day long if it’ll give
you some relief.
 
That’s the kind of man
he is.
 
But I love Sal with all my heart.
 
I’m not divorcing him.
 
Not ever!”

“Fine,”
Rodney said.
 
“Then you can leave right
along with him.
 
Until you see the truth,
you’re not welcome in our home either.
 
I
cannot forgive him.
 
I will not forgive
him!”

Gemma
saw it clearly now.
 
“So he gets blamed
for something he didn’t even do, but that’s okay?
 
That’s fine?
 
Got it.”
 
She hugged her mother’s
neck.
 
She even hugged her father, and he
allowed it.

But
as she and Sal began to leave, Rodney pulled his daughter back.
 
He loved her.
 
“You’re making a big mistake, Gemmanette.
 
You need to come to your senses.
 
You need to choose.”

“No,
Dad,” she said.
 
“You and Mom are my
parents and will always be my parents.
 
Sal is my husband and will always be my husband.
 
You’re the ones who need to choose.
 
When I said
I Do
and married Sal, I made my choice.”

Then
she and her parents exchanged another strained, but loving look, and she and
Sal left their home.

When
they made it out to the rental car, and Sal opened the passenger door for
Gemma, she could see the distress all over his face.
 
“Don’t beat yourself up, Sal,” she told him
as she began to get in. “I mean it.”

But
Sal couldn’t help it.
 
Anguish blanketed
him.
 
“I have cost you so much,” he said.

“Cost
me?” Gemma asked, looking at him.
 
And
then she got back out of the car.
 
“You
haven’t cost me anything, Sal, what are you talking about?
 
You, the most generous man I’ve ever known,
has given me nothing short of everything.
 
And don’t you forget it.”

Sal
looked at this woman he loved, and pulled her into his arms.
 
But even with her love, the torment he felt
for all the pain he had caused her throughout their marriage was still
there.
 
She could say whatever she wanted
to say, but for a hard man like Sal, sugary words would never be enough to take
that depth of truth away.

The
front entrance door to the law office of Gemma Gabrini opened, and Ted Coggan
could have heard a pin drop when he entered.
 
He already knew the players.
 
His
people had scoped them out.
 
The lady in
red was Barbara Jiles, Gemma’s pleasingly plump paralegal.
 
She was the brawn of the support staff, the
one who would run interference if anybody even thought about disrespecting her
boss.
 
She had a wealth of information, a
treasure trove, but she was as loyal as a birddog and could not be relied upon
for any intel.
 

The skinny
guy in one of those skinny slim suits was Curtis Kane, Gemma’s long-time
secretary.
 
He was loyal too, but unlike
Jiles, Ted’s people concluded that Kane could be bought.
 
Not with money, Kane wasn’t betraying his
beloved boss for money.
 
But if the right
guy came along with good sex and the perfect bod, Kane could be valuable.
 
Kane could tell them everything they needed
to know while believing, because he was blinded by the man beside him, that it
was only just a little pillow talk.
 

Both
he and Jiles were standing at a file cabinet behind the reception desk,
apparently searching for a file, when Ted walked in.
 
Now they were staring at him, mouths agape,
as if they were looking at a ghost or, as was actually the case, a tall, dark,
extremely gorgeous superstar criminal defense attorney.
 
The average Joe wouldn’t know Ted Coggan from
any other lawyer.
 
Barbara Jiles and
Curtis Kane, who were steeped in the legal profession and knew all the
superstar attorneys, weren’t average Joes.

“Good
afternoon,” Ted said with a smile as he walked toward the reception desk.

“Good
afternoon,” Barbara said, still staring at him.

“May
we help you?” Curtis asked, still staring too.

“You
may,” Ted said.
 
“I’m here to see Mrs.
Gabrini.”

“You’re
Ted Coggan,” Curtis couldn’t help but say.

Ted
smiled.
 
“That’s right.”

“You’re
the next Johnnie Cochran,” Curtis said.
 
“You’re the chocolate F. Lee Bailey.
 
You’re as big as Ted Wells!”

Curtis
was overdoing it as usual, and his overkill broke Barbara out of her stargazing
trance.
 
She looked at Curtis.
 
But Curtis was still in star-worship
mode.
 
“Mark
Geragos
ain’t got nothing on you on any given day,” he continued.
 
“David
Boies
,
please.
 
He don’t have a thing on you
either!”

“Alright,
Curtis,” Barbara said, trying to smile but with an edge in her voice.
 
“We get it.”
 
She looked at Ted.
 
“Do you have
an appointment, Mr. Coggan?”

“Actually,
I don’t.
 
I didn’t think I would need
one.
 
But I can always go find another
attorney to assist me.”
 
He behaved as if
he was about to turn and leave.

“No!”
both Curtis and Barbara said in unison.
 
Curtis even hurried from behind the desk.
 
“This way, sir, I’m sure she can see you
right now.”

Ted
inwardly smiled.
 
Thought so
, he thought, as he followed Curtis.
 
For the right price, this one could most
definitely be bought.

Curtis
escorted Ted down a hall that led to Gemma’s private, closed-door office.
 
Curtis knocked one time and then opened the
door.
 
Gemma, who was seated behind her
desk, her skirt suit coat off, was just about to take another bite of her big,
messy fat burger, when the door opened.
 

“I
hope you found that file,” she said without looking up.
 
And when she did look up and saw who was
standing at her door, she almost choked on the part of burger she already had
in her mouth.
 

When
she looked up, and Ted saw her beautiful dark face, he was equally taken
aback.
 
Damn
, he thought as he looked at her.
 
Her photographs didn’t do her justice at
all!
 
He didn’t usually go for
dark-skinned women of any ethnicity, but he was feeling this chick.
 
He could see himself feeling her, in fact,
all the way to the bedroom.

“Mrs.
Gabrini,” Curtis said, “I present to you Mr. Ted Coggan.
 
And yes, it is THE Ted Coggan child!”
 
Curtis regained his composure.
 
“He is here to see you.”

Gemma
swallowed hard and took a napkin to wipe her mouth.
 
Whenever her adrenalin started racing and she
was ready to get excited about something that she knew was silly in the long
run, she slowed herself down.
 
She took
her time.
 
She got serious.
 
“Next time,” she said to Curtis, her voice
calm and measured, “buzz me on my desk intercom and let me know I have a
visitor.”

It
was Curtis who swallowed hard this time.
 
He knew Gemma could be the best boss in the world, fun-loving and all of
that, until she got serious.
 
“Yes,
ma’am,” he said.

“That
will be all.”

“Yes,
ma’am,” Curtis said, as he and Ted shared a
that
was a read
look.
 
Curtis then closed
the door and headed back toward the lobby and the reception desk.
 
But he smiled.
 
He and Ted shared a look, and not just an
innocent one either.
 
That brother was on
the DL.
 
Then he snapped his finger.
 
Thought
so
, he said.

Ted,
walking toward Gemma’s desk, said words even she knew he did not mean: “Would
you prefer I wait until you finish your lunch?” he asked her.

“It’s
okay,” Gemma said.
  
“Have a seat.”

Ted
fully expected Gemma to gather up her messy, awful-looking burger, throw it in
the garbage where he felt it belonged, and give him her undivided
attention.
 
He was, after all, Ted
Coggan: Gorgeous, brilliant, and a woman’s dream!
 
But, to his surprise, Gemma continued to eat
her messy, very tasty burger, despite his presence.
 
He sat down.

“What
can I do for you, Mr. Coggan?” Gemma was on her lunch break.
 
She had to be in court later this
afternoon.
 
She wasn’t going to starve
herself because some celebrity attorney showed up.

Ted
smiled, deciding to see what she was made of by throwing proper etiquette in
her face.
 
“No apology for eating in
front of a client?” he threw at her.

But
Gemma threw it right back.
 
“No apology
for showing up without scheduling an appointment?”

Ted
couldn’t help but smile.
 
“
Touché
,” he said with a slight bow of
his head, and then he opened his legs spread eagle across the floor, purposely
revealing the bulge between his legs.
 

Gemma
noticed the bulge.
 
By the way he was
lifting his hips to draw attention to it, she couldn’t help but notice it.
 
But if he thought he was going to win her
over with that little sensual maneuver he was kidding himself.
 
Sal had a bulge too.
 
And Sal’s was bigger.
 
“How can I help you?” she asked again.

“You
can help me,” Ted said, “by helping me.”

“On a
case?”

“On a
case.”
 

This
did intrigue Gemma.
 
She’d never worked
with an attorney of Ted Coggan’s caliber.
 
She’d worked with numerous attorneys who tried to use whatever gifts
they had at their disposal to entice her into their beds, she was well
accustomed to the games men played, but not one of those guys had ever been in
Ted Coggan’s league.
 
He had a legal mind
and reputation that was second to none.
 
“The
case you’re talking about is a Vegas case?”

“It
is.
 
One of my longtime clients was here
with her boyfriend on vacation and managed to get herself arrested for
boyfriend’s murder.”

“Okay,”
Gemma responded.

“I
managed to get her out on bail, which is a good thing, but I noticed a problem
in your town.”

Gemma
finished chewing a bite of burger.
 
“A
problem?”

“Yes,”
Ted said.
 
“The judge kept citing the
fact that I was a nationally recognized attorney as if I was asking for special
favors because of that fact.
 
‘I don’t
care how many times you’ve been on CNN and MSNBC,’ he kept saying, even though
I never mentioned being on either network.
  
I almost thought he was going to deny my client bail because of who I
was.”

Gemma
nodded.
 
“I feel you.
 
Vegas is a big city on the Strip.
 
It’s very small and cloistered everywhere
else.”

“But
thankfully bail was granted.
 
But that
experience spooked me, so to speak.
 
And
I decided to do something about it.
 
That’s why I’m here.
 
I think it
would be better if you took over as lead attorney and I remain in the
background, giving advice and consultation, but otherwise letting you be the
face of her defense.
 
Are you
interested?”

Gemma
was interested, but she needed to know more first.
 
“Why me?” she asked, as she completed her
burger and threw the remaining scraps, along with the saran wrap beneath it,
into her wastebasket.

“I
decided to go with you because you have a reputation in town as a fierce
advocate, and a very ethical one.”

“I’ve
also been on a losing streak lately.
 
I’ve lost more cases than I have won.
 
Why me?”

She
was sharp too, Ted thought.
 
Not to be
bullshitted this one, he noted.
 
“Because
you’re a fighter,” he said.
 
“You won’t
give up on a case.”
 
Then he smiled.
 
“Most of your cases of late have been pro bono
work.
 
You did the work for free.
 
It’s high time you were paid for your
considerable services.
 
My client will
pay well I assure you.”

He
was right.
 
Gemma had not had a paying
client in quite some time.
 
She often
handled some cases out of the public defender’s office whenever they had a
backlog, and she was paid for that work, but it was almost always an
underpayment.
 
Having a client who was
willing to pay top dollar for her services would be a welcomed change.
 
She pulled out a legal pad.
 
“Give me the background,” she said.

Ted
smiled.
 
“Does that mean you’re onboard?”

Something
inside of Gemma told her not to get onboard.
 
There was something about Ted Coggan that bothered her, and not in a
good way, and it had nothing to do with his lame attempt at seduction.
 
But she couldn’t deny his legal expertise,
something she could use herself.
 
She
wanted to be a better lawyer, and she felt Ted could very well teach her a
thing or two.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“I’m onboard.
 
What’s your client’s name?”

“Her
name is
Rabina
Chen,” Ted said, well satisfied now.

“C-H-E-N?”

“Correct.”

Gemma
wrote as he spoke.
 
“Asian?”

“Taiwanese,
that’s correct.”

“What
does she do for a living?”

“Off
the record, she’s a madam,” Ted said, and Gemma looked up at him.
 
“A Beverly Hills madam,” he added.

“She’s
a madam,” Gemma asked, “as in she pimps out girls?”

“She
gives high-class call girls an opportunity to spend time with high-class
gentlemen at her estate in Beverly Hills.
 
No-one knows anything at all about her profession.
 
It is the best kept secret in Hollywood.
 
It will remain so with you.
 
Because on the record, she’s just a wealthy
widow.”

“Was
her deceased husband murdered too?”

Ted
smiled.
 
“Oh, you’re quick.
 
No ma’am.
 
He was not.
 
He died of natural
causes.
 
You can look it up.”