Romancing Tommy Gabrini (40 page)

“You
said it would be about us.”

“It
is about us.
 
It’s absolutely about
us.
 
It’s about me making certain you
understand that there is no
us
now
and will never be again.
 
That’ what this
is about.”

ShoShawna
felt exposed, and she despised exposure.
 
“You are so full of yourself,” she said. “Who says I want you back? I’d
rather date a toad than ever let you touch me again.”

“So
why are you here?”

“Excuse
me?”

“Why
are you in Vegas?
 
Why did you show up in
Sydney?
 
Why did you feed the Feds with
that malarkey about the Sheila Lindsey case?
 
Why would you send doctored photos to my woman if you have no more
interest in me than you have in a toad?
 
Why, Shanks?”

Shanks
stared at him.
 
It was obvious to
her.
 
“Because you can’t win,” she said
pointblank.

Tommy
stared back at her.
 
Something about her
made his skin crawl.
 
“What?” he asked
her.

“You
can’t win.
 
I can’t let you win.
 
Don’t you understand that?
 
What we had was great.
  
You know it, and I know it.
 
The world knows it!
 
But you decided to change it.
  
To change me.
 
And it destroyed me.
 
Now you expect me to just step aside and let
you waltz into the sunset?
 
Happy and
free?
 
While I’m in prison because of
you?”

“Prison?
 
What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Because
I can’t stop thinking about you!” she blared.
 
“You expect me to accept that reality?
 
Just accept it?”
 
She shook her
head.
 
“I can’t,” she said.
 
“I won’t.”

She
didn’t realize it, but Tommy understood her motives clearly now.
 
She wouldn’t admit it, but it was true.
 
She was going to give him hell, or die
trying.
 
This was the Shanks he always
worried about.
 
This was the Shanks he
knew, one day, would turn on itself and destroy her.

He
stood up, and walked up to her.
 
She looked
up at him.

He
rubbed her hair, as he had done so many times before.
 
She closed her eyes, loving the feel of his
touch.
 
Then he opened her mouth with his
fingers.
 
When she opened her eyes again,
he had a pistol in his hands and was shoving it into her mouth. She flinched
and nearly jumped from her seat.
 
But he
slung her, by the hair, back down.

This
was that side of Tommy she always dreaded.

“You
listen to me and you listen really carefully,” he said to her.
 
“I’m no longer playing with your ass.
 
You have a death wish, Shanks.
 
I do believe you
 
have a very severe death wish.
 
Keep disturbing my woman and your wish will
come true.
 
Do you understand me?
 
It’ll come true.”

He
paused, still staring at her, unsure if she understood him at all.
 
“We broke up nine months ago,” he said.
 
“That’s a long time.
 
Human beings get formed in nine months.
 
I told you then, and I’m telling you now, we
are done.
 
We are done, Shanks.
 
We are done.
 
And if you don’t believe just how done we are, keep bothering Grace.
 
Keep interfering with my life.”

He
then removed his gun and released her.

She
jerked away from him, stunned.

“Go
home, Shanks, wherever your home is now.
 
Get the hell out of Vegas and go on with your life.
 
You told me once the one thing you always hated
was to waste time.
 
Stop wasting time and
move on.
 
Because I’m not playing with
you.
  
I will fuck you up, Shanks, if you
push me any further.”

He
stared at her longer, and then walked out of the door.

ShoShawna
was still too stunned to speak.

When Tommy
got back into the rental car he had arrived in, he drove around the
corner.
 
Parked and waiting in a separate
car were Reno, Wilkes and Crane.
 
Reno
was seated in the backseat.
 
Wilkes was
behind the wheel.
 
Tommy stopped his car
beside Reno’s and rolled down his window.

“What’s
her problem?” Reno asked him.

“Me,”
Tommy admitted.

“She’s
getting out of town?”

“I
told her to.
 
But you know Shanks.”

“Yeah,
I know the bitch,” Reno said, and looked at his men.
 
“Make sure she gets on that plane.
 
Not tomorrow.
 
Not in a few hours from now.
 
But
now.
 
Call me when she’s on the plane.”

“Yes,
sir,” Wilkes said and Reno stepped out.
 
The car drove off as Reno got in the car with Tommy.

Reno
looked at Tommy.
 
Tommy drove away.

Shanks
was still sitting there, still stunned, when the door to the motel room
opened.
 
She hadn’t bothered to lock it,
because she knew what was coming next.
 
She just sat there as Wilkes walked in and Crane, walking in beside him,
closed the door.
 

“Hello,
Shanks,” Wilkes said, looking around.

Shanks
didn’t even bother to stand.
 
“Really,
Wilkes?
 
They send you?
 
Really?”

“Time
to go to the airport, Shanks.”

“Oh,
yeah?
 
Says who?
 
You, Wilkie?”

“Yeah,
me.
 
How about that?”

“No,
Wilkie, not how about that.”
 
Shanks
pulled a gun from the small of her back, a gun with a silencer, and fired once,
shooting Wilkes in the middle of his forehead.
 
“How about this?” she said, as he fell.

Then
she aimed her gun at Crane.
 
Crane threw
his hands in the air.
 
He knew Shanks was
a bad bitch when it came to firearms.

“You
can help me,” she said.
 
“Or I can kill
you.”
 
Then she aimed.
 
“Pick your choice.”

Tommy
stood in the doorway of the ballroom and watched Grace and Trina review
decorations with the party planner.
 
But
mainly he watched Grace.

He
could tell she wasn’t quite herself yet.
 
She was trying, smiling and giving her opinions to Trina, but she wasn’t
there yet.
 
And what hurt him most was
that he knew it was all his fault.
 
Her
lack of spark was because of her association with him.
 
She decided to stay with him, and to trust
him, but he knew the risk she was taking.
 
She decided to give him her heart.
 
He wasn’t about to disappoint her ever again, but he knew only time
would prove him out.

Last
night, after he brought her back to the PaLargio from the airport, she decided
to stay in a separate hotel room.
 
Just
to get her thoughts together, she said.
 
It hurt him to his core, but he fully understood it.
 
And spent his night lying in bed, flat on his
back, thinking about her.

Now,
it was a new day, Shanks had been dealt with earlier today, and he could only
pray that would get past this, too.

When
she looked his way, he waved her over.

“Excuse
me, ladies,” Grace said to Trina and Eve, the party planner.
 
She used to want to run whenever she saw Tommy.
 
And she still did, but she was guarded right
now.
 
She had to take this slow.

She
walked.

“Hey,”
he said to her when she approached him.
 
They hadn’t seen each other since they returned yesterday from the
airport, and both seemed relieved.

He leaned
over, touching her on the arm, and kissed her on the lips.
 

Grace
could feel the fire of his kiss, but she still refused to be all-in this
quickly.
 
She had to see more from Tommy.
She had to be certain that his womanizing days were completely behind him.

Tommy,
too, could feel her hold-back, but he was still pleased that she allowed his
kiss.
 
“How did you sleep last night?”

“Not
the way I do when I’m in bed with you,” she said truthfully, “but I slept.”

He
rubbed her arm.
 
Pleased that she had missed
him.
 
“Hopefully I’ll be back in that bed
soon,” he said.

She
wasn’t ready to discuss that.
 
“What have
you been up to?” she asked him.

He
leaned against the jamb.
 
“I went to see
Shanks,” he said.
 
He’d vowed to himself
to tell her everything from here on out.
 
The good, the bad, and the ugly, keeping nothing from her.

“You
said you thought she might be in Vegas.
 
So is she?”

“She
was, yes, but I’ve gotten confirmation that she’s on a plane as we speak.”

“Really?
 
Going where?”

“Wherever
the hell she wants to go,” Tommy said, and Grace smiled.

“Well,
I must say, that’s a relief.
 
She seemed
like a desperate woman to me.”

“Although
she’d never admit it.”

“She
didn’t have to.
 
Her actions speak louder
than words.”

“Grace!”
Trina called.
 
“Could you come and tell
us what you think!
 
You can spare her for
two minutes, Tommy!”

Tommy
smiled.
 
He moved up to Grace and kissed
her again.
 
“I’d better let you go.
 
Trina can be bossy.”

“Nothing
I can’t handle, darling,” Grace said jokingly the way Jillian would have said
it and Tommy laughed.
 
Then he looked
around, saw no-one watching, and squeezed her ass.
 

“See
you later,” he said and Grace waved as she walked away.

“We’ll
see,” she said as she walked.

Tommy
felt better.
 
They were improving.
 
But time, he warned himself again, would be
the judge.

Jimmy
broke serve on the Billiards table and Reno was impressed.

“Damn,
you’re good!” he said to his son.

“Who
me?” Jimmy Mack said with a grin and shot another ball in the right pocket.

“Keep
being cocky,” Reno warned him.
 
“When I
show you what cocky really looks like you won’t know what hit your ass.”

Jimmy
laughed at his father’s big talk and sunk another ball.
 
They were in the Billiards room, just down
the hall from the ballroom, and Tommy walked in just as a series of five balls
in a row careened in the corner right pocket.

“Who’s
winning?” he asked as he entered.

“Asshole
here,” Reno said of his son.
 
“At least
he thinks he is.”

“Dad
said as son drained another one,” Jimmy Mack said as another ball fell through the
pocket.
 
Then he shot again, and the
remaining balls fell through, leaving only the white cue-ball.

“Done,”
Jimmy said and laid the pool stick on the table.

“He’s
good,” Tommy said.

“He’s
the worse winner I’ve ever seen in my life!” Reno declared as he re-racked the
balls, and Tommy and Jimmy laughed.

In
the ballroom, there was contention over which of the four bands commissioned to
perform at the party would be primary.
 
Grace sat while Trina and Eva went back and forth, as she was still
unable to digest the fact that there would be four bands, primary or otherwise,
at a baby’s birthday party.
 

And
that was when ShoShawna walked through the door.