Sal Gabrini: His House of Cards (22 page)

And nobody
really had to tell him that either.
 
Because he knew what he had to do.
 
His only regret was that he would never see Gemma’s beautiful face
again.
 
But he still had to do it.
 
He dropped his gun.

Fran smiled
so wildly that it seemed to break each man from staring at the other.
 
She quickly moved over, grabbed Sal’s gun,
and stood to her feet.

“Now we’re
talking, Sal Luca,” she said as she pointed the gun at Sal.
 
“You played right into my hands.
 
I didn’t expect you this soon.
 
You and Reno were always smart about figuring
shit out.
 
But I’m so happy you
came.”
 
She aimed that gun straight at
his heart.
 
“Now I’m going to take you
out the way you took my mother out.
 
I’m
going to do to you what you did to her.
 
I’m going to make you see your son for the first time in your life, and
then die.
 
That’ll be justice for you.”

Then Fran’s
smile was gone.
 
“I was the family secret
nobody talked about.
 
Reno didn’t know,
our other siblings didn’t know.
 
Nobody
knew but me.
 
You know how I found
out?
 
Your father told me when I was a
little girl.
 
He told me if I ever told
anybody he would kill me.
 
So I never
told.”

Sal could
see the pain in Fran’s eyes.
 
“Years
after she had me, when I was a grown woman, she had left your daddy for good
and moved back to Jericho.
 
I went to see
her once, to try and see her.
 
But she
wouldn’t even see me.
 
She looked alarmed
when I told her who I was, and she slammed her door.
 
So I left it alone.
 
Too many years had passed, and she didn’t
want me.
 
So I didn’t want her.”

Tears
appeared in Fran’s eyes.
 
“Except I did
want her.
 
I just knew one day she’d
accept me as her daughter.
 
But you ended
that for me.
 
I thought it didn’t
matter.
 
But as the months came and went,
I realized nothing else mattered more.
 
Reno had kicked me out.
 
Men had
used and abused me.
 
I had no one.
 
And you had took away my only chance with
her.
 
And now it’s my time to show you
how it feels to find somebody, only to lose them as soon as you do.”

And Fran
cocked the gun and the shot rang out.
 
But Sal wasn’t shot in the head as Fran had aimed.
 
Fran was shot in the back.
 
She stared at Sal, as if she couldn’t believe
the double cross, and fell on her face.

Outside,
Reno and Tommy might not have hear Sal’s yell about finding Fran, but they
heard that gunshot.
 
They ran to his aid.

But he
didn’t need their assistance.
 
His son
had just shot Fran.
 
And he had shot her
to stop her from killing Sal.
 
Sal stared
at his son.
 
His son dropped his weapon
to his side.

By the time
Reno and Tommy made it inside the apartment, and into the room, Fran was dead.

Reno looked
at his sister, and looked at the young man who seemed so familiar, and somehow
he knew, even without being told, that she had it coming to her.
 
And as he looked at Fran again, and
remembered the risky life she always led, he knew this moment was a long time
coming.

But Reno
went to her, fell on his knees, and pulled her into his arms.
 
Even if she had it coming, she was still his
sister.
 
It still didn’t blunt the pain.

Tommy went
to Sal and put his arm around him.
 
And
both of them moved their gaze from Fran, to the young man that stood before
them.

Sal walked
shirtless along the California beach with his sweat pants low on his waist and
his sandals in his hand.
 
His son, fully
dressed in a suit, walked beside him.
  
They had been embroiled in a long conversation.
 
Now they were nearing the end.

“I didn’t
need a DNA test,” Sal said as they walked.

“I needed to
see it,” his son responded.
 
“I’ve been
Rudy Balotti’s son all my life.
 
Now I
look at a test and I’m not?
 
It’s tough.”

Sal looked
at him as they walked.
 
He was a handsome
young man with features that looked completely Gabrini, and nothing like Rudy
Red.
 
“Rudy never told you?” he asked
him.

Rudy, Junior
shook his head.
 
“I had no idea until
Fran said it to you.
 
She thought I knew,
but I didn’t.
 
And then I saw it.
 
As soon as she said it, I saw me in you.”

Sal’s heart
squeezed in pain.
 
He didn’t see his son
in him, but he
felt
his son in him.

“I didn’t
want to do that to Fran, she was my father’s, I mean, Rudy’s girlfriend.
 
He told me to protect her until the heat was
off.
 
That’s why I was holed up in her
apartment.
 
I never dreamed you were the
heat.
 
But I couldn’t let her kill
you.
 
That’s all I knew.
 
I couldn’t let her kill you.”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Thank you.”

They stopped
walking.
 
His son looked at him.
 
“Where do we go from here?”

Sal stared
at him.
 
“As far as you want it to go.”

Rudy liked
that response.
 
“I appreciate that.”
 
Then he extended his hand and realized
something as they shook.
 
“I don’t know
what to call you.”

“Sal is
okay.”

“You sure?”

“For
now.
 
We both have to get used to this.
 
My wife has to get used to this.”

Rudy
nodded.
 
“Understood.”
 
Then they shook.
 
“I’ll keep in mind everything we
discussed.
 
I’ll be in touch, Sal.”

“Take care
of yourself,” Sal said, heartfelt, and watched his son as he walked away.

Rudy, Junior
left the beachfront hotel where Sal and Gemma were staying, and made his way
across town.
 
He parked his car, got out,
and got into the waiting limousine.

“Thanks for
the meeting.
 
I know you’re a busy man.”

There was no
sound from the other side of the car.

Then finally
Rudy looked at Mick Sinatra.
 
“My old man
is dead,” he said to him.

Mick seemed
nonplussed.
 
“Rudy Red is dead.
 
And now you get to take over his
organization.”
 
He looked at Rudy.
 
“And you’re Sal Gabrini’s son.”

“Sal Gabrini
planted that bomb that tried to kill my dad.
 
Some of his men are saying Sal went to the hospital and finished him
off.
 
I’m no son of his.”

“The same
men who told you all of this are the same men who left Rudy at that warehouse
to die.”

Rudy looked
ahead.
 
“I’ll take care of them.
 
Don’t you worry about that.”
 
Then he looked at Mick.
 
“I can be the inside man for you.
 
I can tell you everything you ever want to
know about Sal Gabrini’s outfit.
 
About
Sal Gabrini himself.”

Mick seemed
to consider the proposition.
 
Rudy’s
heart was hammering.

“He’ll trust
me with everything,” Rudy continued.
 
“Just like my old man did.
 
I can
deliver the goods, Mr. Sinatra.
 
You can
count on me.”

“In exchange
for?” Mick asked.

Rudy felt
better.
 
He at least was entertaining the
idea.
 
“In exchange for protection,” he
said.
 
“You put my organization under
your protection and I’ll deliver the goods for you.
 
It’ll be a no-lose situation for you, sir.”

Mick stared
at the young man.
 
He was young but he
wasn’t fearless.
 
Mick could smell his
fear.
 
He had a long way to go.
 
“Rudy loved you very much,” he said.
 
“He was a good father to you, I’ll give him
that.
 
He would turn over in his grave if
he knew his beloved son, the new head of his organization, was crawling to me
to take care of him.”

“I’m not
crawling,” Rudy made clear.
 
“I’m
asking.
 
I know what’s needed for that
organization I’m the head of to survive.
 
I need your protection.”

“Sal Gabrini
can protect you,” Mick pointed out.

“Not the way
you can,” Rudy proclaimed.
 
Then a bitter
look crossed Rudy’s handsome face.
 
“I
don’t want his protection,” he said.
 
He
looked at Mick.
 
“What do you say, Mr.
Sinatra?
 
Will you do it?”

“I say I’ll
see,” Mick said.
 
“It’s been fucking
child’s play so far.
 
Now it’s the
grownups time.”

“Fran came
close to doing the job for you.”

“Nobody’s
doing shit for me,” Mick said angrily.
 
“I finish my own job.”
 
Then he
dismissed Rudy with a wave of the hand.
 
“Get your snitching ass out of my fucking car.”

If that was
anybody else calling him a snitch, they would have been dead.
 
But this was Mick the Tick.
 
Retaliating against Mick the Tick was like
retaliating against a nuclear bomb.
 
Only
a man with a death wish would try.

Rudy
swallowed hard.
 
His heart was already
hammering.
 
This was already tough enough.
 
And then to get no firm commitment?
 
But what could he do?
 
Nobody rushed Mick the Tick.
 
He’d better be glad he agreed to meet with
him in the first place.
  
“I’ll wait to
hear from you, sir,” he said, and got out of his car.

Gemma was
relaxing in the tub when Sal walked into the bathroom of their hotel
suite.
 
He leaned against the door jamb
and stood there momentarily, watching his wife with her head leaned back, her
eyes closed, her arms dangling over the claw foot tub with a glass of Sherry,
in one hand, dangling too.
 
Her beautiful
dark breasts were just above the water, and they stood out plump and high, with
nipples ready for his mouth.

They’d been
through a lot these last few months.
 
She’d been through too much.
 
But
they made it through every one of those storms, and were stronger for it.
 
He swallowed hard.
 
He loved that woman over there.
 
He could hardly believe how fortunate he was
to be her man.
 
To be the one she came
home to.
 
To be the one who got the added
bonus of fucking her every night.
 
Something, he thought, as he pushed off of the door jamb and made his
way into the bathroom, he planned to do right now.

Without
saying a word, he dropped his low hanging sweat pants, revealing a cock pumped
and primed for her bare ass, and he got in the tub behind her.

Gemma smiled
when she felt his hands move her body forward, as he got in behind her.
 
She smiled even greater when she realized his
cock was already hard.

She glanced
back at him as he sat down.
 
“You okay?”
she asked.

He
nodded.
 
“I couldn’t be better.”

“How did it
go?”

“It’s
early.
 
It’s still too new.
 
We have to take it slow.”

Gemma
agreed.
 
“I’m just so happy he saved your
life.
 
I’ll always love him for that.”

Sal wrapped
his arms around her, and leaned her back against him.
 
“And I’ll always love you,” he said.

She smiled
and looked at him.
 
“You’re a regular
touchy feely guy these days,” she said.

“Like hell,”
he said.
 
Then he looked down at her
mouth, not with a tough guy gaze, but with the gaze of a man in love.
 
“I’ve got your touchy feely right here,” he
said.

And then he
kissed her.
 
Long and lovingly.
 
He held her chin in his hand and would not
let her go.
 
And just like that Gemma
knew that her relaxing, quiet bath was about to get busy.