Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 (9 page)

He
restarted the elevator, causing it to jerk before it took off again.
 
He looked at his wife, to make sure she had
it all together, and then turned back on the monitors inside the
elevators.
 
It was only then did Sal
remember that the monitor inside his head of security’s office was on.
 
And he had forgotten the kill switch that was
separate from all the others.
 
But
Santino and Jody would never know that Sal knew because Sal never outwardly
acknowledged anything.
 
He simply waited
for the elevator doors to finish taking them to the top floor, and then he and
Gemma exited as if they had had an uneventful ride up.
 

Santino
and Jody smiled at how cool they could play it after such a hot time in that
old elevator they’d just had.
 

Santino
even laughed.
 
“I wanna be just like
Sal,” he said.

When
Sal and Gemma entered Sal’s suite of offices on the top floor, Gemma hesitated
at the entrance as soon as she saw his extensive staff.
 
They were still unpacking boxes and setting
up office equipment, but she noticed an undeniable trend.
 
She looked at her husband as they stood
there.
 
The staff was far enough away
from the entrance that she could speak, and not be overheard by any of
them.
 
But right now, she just looked at
him.

At
first he thought she was admiring how big and luxurious his office suite
actually was, and that was why she was looking at him.
 
But he was wrong.

“Really
Sal?” she asked him.

Sal
was surprised by her sudden tone, and he truly didn’t understand that
oh no you didn’t
look on her face.
 
“What?” he asked her.

Gemma
didn’t respond.
 
He had to know what was
going on.
 
But she was wrong.
 

“What?”
he asked again.
 
“What are you talking?”

“Your
staff.”

“What
about my staff?”

“All
female.
 
All blonde.
 
All young and pretty.
 
Is this Hooters, or is this your business
office?”

Sal
looked at his staff.
 
And she was
right.
 
Every member of his personal
staff was a blonde beauty.
 
Every one of
them.
 
He hadn’t even noticed it, or
realized what he had done, until now.
 
He
looked at Gemma.
 
“It’s not like you
think,” he said, “so let me correct you right there.
 
It’s not as if it was some scheme or
conspiracy on my part, because it wasn’t.
 
It just happened.”

But
Gemma wasn’t buying it.
 
“It just
happened?” she asked him.
 
“Of all the
people in this town, blonde bombshells were the only ones you could find
qualified enough to hire?
 
Is that what
you’re telling me, Sal?”

“I’m
telling you it didn’t cross my mind.
 
I’m
telling you I don’t get your point.”

“Stop
it, Sal,” Gemma said with irritation in her voice.
 
“Just stop it!”

A few
staffers glanced their way when they heard Gemma’s elevated voice.
 
And Sal cut the crap.
   
He conceded the point.
 
“Okay,” he said, “they’re all female, all
right?
 
And they’re blondes, so what?”

“They
aren’t just blondes,” Gemma said.
 
“You
didn’t hire a staff filled with ugly blondes, you didn’t hire a staff filled
with plain blondes.
 
You hired pretty
blondes.
 
Period.”

“Okay,
they’re pretty too.
 
But so what?
 
Who the fuck cares?
 
I don’t want any of these women, come on!”

“And
none of these heifers better not want you, either,” Gemma made clear.
 
“Or they will answer to me.”

Sal
smiled.
 
“I don’t believe it.
 
You’re jealous!”

“Oh,
please,” Gemma said as she began heading for his office in the back of the
large suite.
 
Sal followed her, feeling
ten feet tall.
 
Gemma Gabrini was jealous
of him!
 
The strongest woman he ever met
in his life could be petty too.
 
He loved
it!

But
when he saw how some of the ladies on his staff were looking at Gemma oddly, as
if
she
didn’t belong there, he
reached out, grabbed Gemma by the hand, and pulled her back to his side.

Gemma
was, at first, annoyed that he had pulled her back.
 
The idea that he would minimize her very real
concern with a joke about her being jealous was irritating in the extreme.
 
But Sal didn’t even look at her.
 
He was too busy looking at his staff.
 
“Everybody, listen up,” he said in a loud
voice that was necessary given the size of the room.
 

The
ladies didn’t hesitate.
 
They knew who
buttered their bread.
 
They listened
up.
 

“I
want every one of you to meet my wife,” Sal said.
 

As
soon as he said it, Gemma could see surprise and defeat appear on many of the
faces staring back at them.
 
They had
been smiling gaily when he first got their attention, as if he was simply going
to introduce a new member of his staff.
 
They continued to smile after he mentioned that she was his wife, but
their smiles now seemed fake and forced.
 

But
Sal was undeterred.
 
“She is the co-owner
of this entire enterprise.
 
So she’s your
boss just as much as I am.
 
Fuck with her
and you’re fired.
 
Disrespect her as my
wife, as the most important human being on this planet to me, and you just
might not live to see another day.”

They
couldn’t even fake or force a smile after Sal made that declaration.
 
He saw it too.
 
“And yes, I said that.
 
Because I’m not fucking with y’all.
 
Her name is Gemma Gabrini.
 
Mrs. Gabrini to all of you.
 
And you will respect her.”

You
could hear a pin drop in that room.
 
Even
Gemma could feel the tension.

But
Sal was determined to make himself crystal clear.
 
“So if any of you think the reason I hired
your pretty asses is to fuck those asses, think again,” he said.
 
“If you think I hired you for anything other
than doing your work and getting it done, then you need to leave now.
 
I prefer blondes.
 
That’s obvious.
 
Look around.
 
But I don’t prefer anybody alive over my wife.
 
Understand me?
 
I want to make sure everybody in this office
understands that.
 
Because if you have a
problem with what I’m saying, or if you thought your good looks were going to
win me over, you need to leave now.
 
You’re in the wrong fucking place.
 
Leave now.”

As
Gemma suspected, nobody went anywhere.
  
Not one so much as moved an inch.
 
Sal paid top dollar.
 
And besides,
Gemma was certain, many of them still probably didn’t believe him and would try
him whenever they could.
 

But
Sal was satisfied enough that he placed his hand on the small of Gemma’s back,
and began escorting her into his office.
 

Gemma
wasn’t crazy about the fact that he had such a weakness for pretty blondes, a
weakness that was so pronounced that he could hire a staff full of them and not
realize what he had done.
 
But it was a
fact: her gentleman preferred blondes.
 
But she wasn’t about to dye her hair or do some other ridiculous thing
to supplement that weakness.
 
Because she
believed him when he admitted that he had a weakness for beautiful blondes, but
he had a greater weakness for her.
 
Any
other man, and she would be concerned.
 
But Sal was her man.
 
She believed
he was strong enough to know the difference.

The
door to Santino Druce’s office flew open and slammed shut, and Sal began
walking toward his desk so fast it looked as if he was running.
 
Santino’s heart fell through his shoe as he
stood up.
 
Jody, who was still in the
office, stood up too.

But
Sal hurried right past Jody, with Sal’s designer suit flapping around his
muscular frame as if he was moving so fast even his clothes couldn’t keep
up.
 
And he had eyes only for his chief,
not his chief’s lieutenant.

“Mr.
Gabrini,” Santino said nervously.
 
“Everything
okay?”

Sal
grabbed him by the catch of his collar and slung him against the
floor-to-ceiling window, rattling the window.
 
“You think you’re smart, don’t you?” Sal asked him.
 
“You think your ass is smarter than
mine?
 
Think you can play me and get away
with it?”

“What
are you talking about, sir?
 
I don’t know
what you mean!”

Jody
knew what he meant.
 
He even began
backing up, wondering if he should make a run for it.
 
He knew who they were working for.
 
He knew what Sal Gabrini was capable of!

But
Sal wasn’t thinking about Jody.
 
His
entire venom was being spewed at Santino.
 
“You saw me fucking my wife, didn’t you?” he asked him.
 
“You sat your fat ass in this office and
watched me fuck my wife?
 
Didn’t you?”

“No
sir!
 
Why would you believe something
like that?
 
I just got in my office.”

“You
lying motherfucker!
 
I saw your ass!”

That
stopped Santino cold.
 
“But how?” he had
the nerve to ask.
 
Even Jody knew that
was the wrong question.

And
Jody was right.
 
Sal slammed Santino
harder against the window, rattling it to a near breaking point.
 
“There’s a separate kill switch in that
elevator for your monitor, and I forgot about that.
 
I forgot all about it.
 
That’s on me.
 
But what your stupid ass didn’t realize is that I never leave my fate in
the hands of somebody else.
 
Not even my
head of security, a man I’m supposed to trust.
 
I have a kill switch for your fucking kill switch.
 
I have a monitor monitoring your fucking
monitor!”

This
was news to Santino and Jody, and their facial expressions showed just how
surprising that news was to them.
 
But
Sal didn’t give a damn about their surprise.
 
He was still fuming.
 
“After my
wife left my office a few minutes ago, I took a look at the tape.
 
Just to make sure.
 
And I saw your ass!
 
I saw you sitting in here watching me make
love to my wife.
 
I saw you get a hard-on
watching my wife!
 
My wife
!
 
And you think I’m
going to let you see my wife’s bare breasts and her naked body and there be no
retribution?
 
Who the fuck do you think
you’re dealing with?
 
Who the fuck do you
think I am?”

And
Sal began the beat down.
 
He beat Santino
in his face so many times that Santino, who tried to fight back, didn’t stand a
chance.
 
Jody knew he was doomed too; he
knew he was going to be next; but he also knew he couldn’t run.
 
If he ran, boss would hunt him down like a
mangy dog in the street and do worse to him than he was doing to Santino.
 
He had to take it here and now and could only
hope to get out of it alive.
 

Because
Sal Gabrini wasn’t playing.
 
Blood was
spewing from Santino, and populating the big picture window with every lick as
if a painter was splattering it onto a canvas.
 
By the time Sal was done, and he stepped back, Santino slid like a
lifeless piece of trash onto the floor.
 
Sal clutched his knuckles.
 
They
were aching from the blows.
 
Then he
began to leave.

Jody
stood still.
 
He was going to take this
like a man.
 
But when Sal stopped as soon
as he got parallel to Jody, Jody flinched.
 

“Get
me that tape,” he said to the younger man.

“Yes,
sir,” Jody said without hesitation and hurried to retrieve all recordings from
Sal’s private elevator.
 
While he did so,
Sal picked up Santino’s desk phone and called downstairs.
 
“Come to
Sannie’s
office,” he said to his front desk chief.
 
“And bring some muscle with you.
 
There’s a mess I need cleaned up.”

“Yes,
sir, boss,” the chief said on the other end of the phone, and then Sal hung
up.
 

Jody
handed Sal the tape.
 
“Here’s the day’s
recordings from the elevator, sir.”