Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 (7 page)

“But
you could have told Gemma about that house in Chicago and who’s living in it.”

“My
wife is an attorney, she’s an officer of the court.
 
I’m not getting her caught up in that crazy
part of my life.
 
I told her before we
married I wasn’t discussing that area with her, and she accepted it then and understands
that now.
 
That’s Gemma.
 
She can handle the fact that I have to handle
that alone.”

Reno
wasn’t buying it.
 
“You could have told
her about a woman living in your house.
 
You can’t bullshit me.
 
You could
have told her that, Sal.”
 
Then Reno looked
at him.
 
“I saw how beautiful that
Chicago dame was.
 
You hit that
before.
 
Don’t you dare tell me you
didn’t.”

Sal
didn’t tell him anything.

“And
that’s why Gemma doesn’t know about that house in Chicago, and that lady living
there.
 
Don’t bullshit me.”

“I’m
faithful to Gemma,” Sal said.

“It
could have been before you married Gem, I don’t know.
 
But you fucked that blonde before, I know
that.
 
And it apparently wasn’t half bad
because you keep her around.
 
You may not
do anything with her, but you keep her around.
 
So stop bullshitting me.
 
I know
the game. I invented the shit.”

“Ah,
fuck you, Reno,” Sal said, although he didn’t say it with the usual
Sal
gusto.

“Fuck
you!” Reno responded, with the usual
Reno
gusto.

Then
they became silent again.
 
Reno looked at
him.
 
“How’s Tommy doing?”

“He’s
still recovering,” Sal said.
 
“He went
through hell and back in Chicago.”

“You’re
right about that.
 
But he’ll be his old
self again.
 
He’s a fighter.”

“Fighter
my ass,” Sal said.
 
“He’s a fucking
warrior!
 
He’s getting better every day.”

“That
Liz woman still around?”

Sal
frowned again.
 
“Yeah, she’s still
around, Reno, why are you always making out like you’re the only Gabrini who
knows how to hold onto a good woman?
 
It’s Trina anyway who keeps your marriage together. You left her for
damn-near a year before, remember that?”

“It
wasn’t a year.”

“Stop
acting so above everybody else,” Sal continued.
 
“Your ass hanging by a thread too.”

Reno
wanted to smile at that, but he didn’t.
 
He and Sal had great love and respect for each other, but they also had
a very contentious relationship that neither one of them wanted to
correct.
 
So Reno didn’t smile, but for
Gemma’s sake he still wanted to hear Sal tell him that the woman he was with
wasn’t his lover.
 
“Why were you at a
restaurant with Alfie
Farino’s
sister-in-law?” Reno
asked.

Sal
waited a moment, but he needed to get it off of his chest.
 
Reno got on his nerves, but he was one of the
few people in this world who would understand.
 
“She agreed to be there with me,” Sal said, “when I told Alfie’s widow.”

Reno
was dumbstruck.
 
“His widow?
 
What are you talking?
 
Alfie’s dead?”

A
stormy look appeared in Sal’s blue eyes.
 
“Yup,” he said.

“Get
the fuck out of here, Sal! What happened?”

“Marty
Dim was moving in on territory he had no business moving into, and I needed to
remind him of that fact.”

“You
made a volley run?”

“Yeah.
 
Alf and I went over to some dive he was
staying at, and busted in the room.
  
But
his ass was waiting on my slick ass.
 
He
was firing with both barrels blazing.
 
Alfie didn’t stand a chance.
 
I
barely got out of there alive, thanks to Alfie’s dead body as my cover.”
 

Reno
looked distressed too.
 
He’d been there
before.
 
He knew what Sal was going
through.
 
Except he knew Sal, as big a
heart as he had, was going through it times ten.

And
he was right.
 
Sal was still anguished by
that night.
 
He scrunched up his
face.
 
“It was a horrible scene,” he went
on.
 
“I not only had to leave a man
behind, which just kills me, but I had to use that same man as a human shield.”

 
“Damn shame,” Reno said.
 
“But you had to do what you had to do,
Sal.
 
Alfie would understand.”

“His
widow didn’t.”

Reno
frowned.
 
“You told her?”

“Damn
straight I told her.”

“Sal!”

“I
had to leave Alf’s body behind, remember?
 
I didn’t get a chance to have my men take the body to some random place
and pretend he was the victim of some crime, rather than part of the
perpetration of one.
 
I wasn’t going to
sugar coat it.”

“But
you didn’t have to tell her the part about using dead husband as a human shield
to get yourself out of there alive, Sal.
 
You didn’t have to go there.”

“Yes,
I did.
 
And yes, she didn’t like it.
 
She said I’ll know what it feels like to be
in pain too, one of these days.”

“Oh,
that bitch is full of shit.
 
You know how
Rosie is.
 
She’s always been a big mouth,
just like Alfie was.
 
But what about the
guy?
 
What about Marty Dim?
 
We need to go after him?”

“Hell
no,” Sal said.
 
“I took care of his ass
that night.”

“He
got what he deserved,” Reno reminded Sal.
 
“That’s on him.”

“Damn
right he got what he deserved,” Sal echoed Reno.
 
“But Alfie didn’t.”
 
He looked at Reno.
 
“That’s on me.”

He
saw the BMW stop in front of the tall office building near the Vegas Strip and
Gemma step out from behind the wheel.
 
She stood there, in her bright yellow pantsuit and her green-and-yellow
heels, and looked up at the huge complex.
 
Sal smiled as he stared down from the top floor, the fortieth floor, at
his wife.
 
She was his world, and he knew
he didn’t deserve her.
 
But when he saw a
man approach her, and then pull her into his arms, hugging her vigorously, his
world turned upside down.
 
He frowned.
 
He knew if Gemma was in his shoes, she would
have remained at that window and wait to get the facts.
 
But he wasn’t Gemma.
 
He was Gemma’s husband, and she was hugging
another man.
 
He didn’t wait to get
shit.
 
He hurried out of his top-floor
office and onto his private elevator.

Gemma
was smiling from ear-to-ear when she stopped hugging Rory Calhoun.
 
“How long has it been?”

“Since
you clerked for me,” Rory said.
 
“Years.”

“I’m
sorry I didn’t stay in touch.”

“Oh,
don’t trouble yourself, Gemmanette, don’t you dare.
 
It’s as much my fault as yours.
 
I’m just happy to see you.”

Judge
Rory Calhoun was one of Gemma’s first mentors.
 
He treated her like his own daughter and gave her invaluable advice
through much of her early career.
 
“So
how have you been, sir?
 
And how’s Mrs.
Calhoun?”

“I’ve
been good.” Then his look turned less joyful.
 
“Evelyn passed on last year.”

“Oh,
sir!
 
I’m so sorry to hear that.
 
Had she been ill?”

“She
was.
 
But she’s not suffering now, so I’m
at peace with it.”

“Good.
 
She was a wonderful person.”

“Yes,
she was.
 
And she’s sorely missed.
 
But life goes on, at least that’s what my
clerks tell me.
 
So I’m going on with my
life.
 
That’s why I’m here.”

“In
Vegas?”

“That’s
right.
 
I’m thinking about moving here.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“Really?”

“Yes,
I think so.
 
I’ll be stepping down from
the bench in a couple months and I want to open up a practice.
 
So I was looking for office space, and knew
this was the most luxurious game in town.
 
I’m meeting my realtor here.
 
That’s why I’m over here.
 
I hear
office space in this building are selling like hot cakes and I had better stake
a claim while a claim can be staked.
 
Is
that why you’re here to?
 
To stake your
claim?”

“No,
nothing like that.
 
I’m here to meet my
husband.”

“Your
husband?” Rory asked.
 
“I assumed you
were married, a beautiful, desirable woman like you could not possibly go
unclaimed for very long.
 
But I wasn’t
sure.”

“Yes,
I’m married.”

“Happily
I hope.”

“Oh,
yes.
 
Very.
 
In fact he owns this building behind us.”

Rory
looked surprised.
 
“He owns it?
 
You mean he has an office here, or?”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“No, sir, he owns the entire
building.”

Rory
smiled.
 
“He owns the Gabrini
Complex?
 
My goodness.
 
You didn’t just marry, you married well.”

“Very
well.
 
Yes.”

Rory
nodded his head.
 
“Good, Gemma.
 
And congratulations,” he said, and hugged her
again.

Inside
the office building, Santino Druce, the building’s security chief, was
reviewing a series of monitors, all of which showed various locations inside
and outside of the huge office complex.
 
Santino’s assistant, Jody Carter, was also in the office, seated beside
the desk.
 
They had been discussing the
meet and greet scheduled for next week, where the entire building would be open
to whomsoever wished to attend, when they noticed, on one of the monitors, Mrs.
Gabrini in the parking lot.
 
The
assistant chief noticed it first.

“Whoa,”
he said, and Santino looked too.
 
“She’s
hugging that guy.”

“Yeah,
I see.
 
She apparently forgot who she’s
married to.”

“Boss
ain’t gonna like that.”

“She
better hope Sal doesn’t see that,” Santino agreed, but then he looked over at
the elevator monitor.
 
“Oops, too late,”
he added.

Jody
looked at the monitor showing Sal’s private elevator, with Sal in it.
 
“He’s on his way downstairs now.”

“She
should know better,” Santino said, as Sal exited the elevator.
 
“Hugging that guy in public like that.
 
She should know better.”

Both
men returned their attention to the monitor showing the parking lot.
 
“Wonder who the dude is?” Jody asked.

“I
don’t know,” Santino said, “but I don’t think boss is gonna like some man
hugging on his wife like that, he doesn’t care who he is.”

“Why
should it bother him?” Jody asked.
 
“Guys
like Sal Gabrini always have ten other chicks just like her.
 
What’s the big deal?”

“She’s
his wife, jug head.
 
That’s the big
deal!
 
She’s not some anybody.
 
And I heard he actually loves her.”

“I’ll
have to see that to believe it.”

Santino
smiled, as the monitor showed Sal heading for that parking lot and making a
beeline for his wife.
 
“Why else would he
hurry out there like that if she didn’t mean shit to him?
 
Seeing is believing, so see it and believe
it,” Santino bragged.

Sal
knew he had security cameras everywhere, but the idea that his men could be
monitoring him on those cameras didn’t cross his mind.
 
He made his way to Gemma.
 
It was one thing for men to admire her and
appreciate her from afar.
 
It was
something else for a man to touch her and flirt with her and put himself in any
kind of position to possess her.
 
That
was one game Sal didn’t play.

When
Gemma saw him coming toward them, she smiled.
 
“Here’s my husband now,” she said to Rory.
 
“Hey, Sal,” she added as Sal approached.

“Hey,”
Sal responded, all the while studying the man that still had his hand on the
small of Gemma’s back.

“I
want you to meet a very old friend of mine,” Gemma said.
 
“His name is Judge Rory Calhoun.
 
I clerked for him years ago, and he still
ranks as the absolute best mentor I’ve ever had.”

   
“She’s giving me far too much credit,” Rory
said with a smile, and extended his hand.
 
“How are you?”

“I’ll
be better,” Sal responded, “when you take your hand off of my wife.”

“Sal!”
Gemma was mortified that he would disrespect her former mentor and a renowned
federal judge that way.

But
Rory only smiled.
 
“It’s alright, Gemma,”
he said.
 
“If you were my woman, I’d be
territorial too.”

“But
that’s where you’re wrong,” Sal pointed out.
 
“She’s not my woman, she’s my wife.”
 
Sal looked the man dead in the eye.
 
“She’s already taken.”

Gemma
was even more mortified.
 
“He knows that,
Sal,” she said, “what are you telling him that for?”

“What
do you want?” Sal asked Rory.

“He
wanted to see about renting out office space, in your building, for his law
practice.
 
He’s retiring soon and was
giving this place a look.
 
He’s meeting
his realtor here.”

“Okay,
well, we won’t keep you,” Sal said, as he placed his hand in the small of
Gemma’s back.

Gemma
looked at Rory.
 
“It was great seeing you
again, sir.”

“You
too, dear.”

“I
hope to see you around soon.”

“Same
here.”

Gemma
hugged his neck.
 
Rory glanced at Sal as
she did.

“I’ll
see you around,” he said to her, and Gemma and Sal began heading for the
entrance.
  
Sal looked back at Rory as
they went.

Once
they entered the office building, they made their way toward the private
elevator.
 
The lobby was packed with
staff and potential tenants with their realtors as they all worked to make the
brand new Gabrini Office Building fully occupied.
 
Although Sal had his hand around Gemma’s
waist, it was obvious to every worker in the lobby who went out of their way to
speak to the boss and his wife, that their body language had them very far
apart.
 
And when they got onto the
private elevator, and Gemma moved to the back of the elevator and folded her
arms, while Sal hovered around the buttons, it was for certain: Gemma was
pissed.

“What
was that about, Sal?” she asked him.

Sal
was disinclined to turn her way.
 
“It was
about making sure you were okay.”

Gemma
frowned.
 
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?
 
That man is my mentor, Sal!
 
He’s old enough to be my father!
 
He was here about office space when he saw me
drive up.
 
All he wanted was to say
hello.
 
That’s all he wanted.”

“You
don’t know what all he wanted,” Sal said.
 
Then he turned to her.
 
“According
to you, you haven’t seen him in years.
 
What would you know about all he wants?”

 
“He’s not that kind of man.
 
His wife just died last year.
 
That man isn’t interested in me like that,
why do you keep acting as if every man on the face of this earth wants me when
you barely wanted me when you first saw me yourself?”

Sal
looked at her as if he couldn’t believe how wrong she was.
 
“I didn’t want you?” he asked as he began to
walk toward her.
 
“Are you kidding
me?
 
I wanted you so badly I could hardly
sleep!”

Gemma
shook her head.
 
But Sal grabbed her by
the chin and made certain they were eyeball to eyeball.
 
“Do you hear me, Gem?
 
Why would you say something like that?
 
I wanted you from the moment I saw you.”

“Yeah,
right, Sal.
 
That’s why I ended up
phoning you after we met, not the other way around.”

This
wasn’t the first time she had mentioned their first meeting to Sal, as if his
reaction and subsequent decision not to phone her bothered her mightily.
 
Now it was bothering him.
 
He went over to the elevator buttons and
pressed STOP to end the shaft’s progression toward the top floor.
 
He used his key to turn off the security
cameras, and then he moved back over to his wife.

He
placed his hands on either side of her arms.
 
“I didn’t call you,” he said, “not because I didn’t want to call
you.
 
I wanted to call you desperately.
 
But you had already turned me down.
 
I didn’t want my heart broken.”

“You
wanted to have sex with me when you barely knew my name.
 
Hell yeah I turned you down for that.
 
But I thought we had made a connection.”

“We
did.
 
That was the problem.
 
It was too deep of a connection.
 
I wasn’t used to that.”
 
He rubbed her arms and that troubled look
came into his deep-socketed eyes.
 
“And
the fact that you were black had something to do with it too.”

Gemma
considered him.
 
Sal was the most honest
man she knew, but he rarely spoke about the days when he held some pretty awful
racial views.
 
“What do you mean?” she
asked him.