Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) (20 page)

“No,”
Gemma replied.
 
“You know I’m not.”
 
Then she saw them on her porch.
 
“Mom and Dad?”

“Your
parents?
 
Where?”

“There,”
Gemma said, motioning toward her porch.
 

Sal
looked too.
 
And his heart began to
pound.
 
“Oh, Lord,” he said, as he placed
the car in Park.
 
“What now?”

CHAPTER TWENTY

Sal
turned off the ignition, got out of the car, and walked around to the passenger
side of Gemma’s car.
 
He had a bad
feeling about this unexpected visit.
 
It
wasn’t going to be pleasant.
 
Maybe that
former field director for the FBI, that new found friend of Rodney Jones, had
told Gemma’s father about Sal’s detention yesterday.
 
“The FBI picked Sal Gabrini up,” that
ex-agent might have told Gemma’s old man.
 
And already he was here.
 
Ready,
Sal believed, to put a stop to what he probably viewed as a farce of an
engagement.

“What’s
wrong with you?” Gemma asked as he helped her out of the car.

And
just like that, Sal felt defensive.
 
“Whatta you mean what’s wrong with me?”

“Why
are you looking like that?”

“Like
what?”

“Like
a man in the electric chair, Sal. All nervous like that!”

“What
nervous?”
 
Sal placed his hand in the
small of her back. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.
 
I don’t get nervous.”

Gemma
didn’t respond to that.
 
Because she knew
him.

And
she was right.
 
Sal wasn’t as nervous as
a man on death row, he was beyond that man’s nervousness.
 
Because he knew these parents of Gemma’s held
the wildcard.
 
They could come with an
ultimatum.
 
Gemma had to dump him as her
potential husband, they could say, or they’d dump her as a daughter.
 
No child of theirs, they could declare, was
marrying a thug like Sal.

By
the time they stepped onto the porch, Sal was downright terrified.

“Mom,
Dad, what are you doing here?” Gemma asked her parents in a way that sounded
almost suspicious to Sal.
 
Which was heartbreaking
too.
 
In the past, whenever she used to
see her parents, she would be thrilled to see them.
 
She would be overjoyed.
 
But now she was suspicious of their
motives?
 

Rodney
and Cassie Jones were sitting on their daughter’s front porch.
 
It hurt both of them a little bit to see her
reaction to their presence, but they both understood it.

“We
came to see you,” Rodney said.
 
“And
Sal.”

Sal
hated to hear that.
 
He really did.
 
But he didn’t delay.
 
He went to Gemma’s front door and unlocked
it.
 
So that they could at least go
inside.
 
So that this confrontation would
not be broadcast.

And
as soon as they got settled down in Gemma’s small living room, with Gemma and
her parents on the sofa, and Sal seated in the flanking chair, Sal had made up
his mind.
 
But his instincts told him to
wait.
 
To hear the man out.
 
To hear Rodney’s ultimatum, and then give his
own.

But
at first there was nothing but silence.
 
As if nobody really wanted to go there.
 
But Sal maintained his cool.
 
He
had to hear what he was up against first, before he could even began to set the
man straight.
 
And his patience paid
off.
 
Rodney got the ball rolling.
 
Rodney started talking.

“When
we spoke to Gemma a couple days ago,” Rodney said, “she mentioned that you and
she were going to close on a house today.
 
Did you close?”

Sal
nodded.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
One of the happiest days of his life.

“I’ll
bet it’s beautiful,” Cassie said with a smile that was warm, but strained.

Gemma
nodded.
 
“It is, Mom,” she replied.
 
“Sal gives me the best.”

Rodney
cleared his throat.
 
“Which brings us to
why we’re here,” he said.
 
“I heard about
the arrest.”

“He
wasn’t charged with any crime,” Gemma pointed out.

“Oh,
Gemma, don’t do that!” Rodney yelled.
 
“He was arrested!”

“He
was detained for questioning, but he wasn’t charged.
 
Now that may be a distinction without a
different to you, Dad, but it is a difference.”

Rodney
ran his hand across his low-cut hair.
 
“Okay,” he said.
 
“He was
detained.
 
That sounds better for you?”
 
Rodney calmed back down. “The point is,” he
said, “it upset your mother and I in a very profound way.”

“It
made us realize,” Cassie said, “the kind of life our little girl is going to be
living from here on out.”

“It’s
scary,” Rodney admitted.
 
“I cannot
pretend how terrified just the thought of it makes us.
 
My daughter is involved with a man, is
talking about marrying a man, with an FBI profile.
 
With connections to the FBI.”

“Connections
to the FBI?” Gemma asked as if she couldn’t believe her father.
 
“What FBI connections?
 
He was detained for questioning by the FBI,
Dad.
 
That’s all that happened
yesterday.”

“But
that’s not where his connections began,” Rodney said.
 
“I know that!
 
So stop trying to behave as if this stuff isn’t serious, because it is,
Gemma Jones.
 
It’s deadly serious!”

Rodney
said those words and shook the room.
 
He
and Sal looked at each other.
 
The two
men who loved Gemma most in the world had a stare-down.
 
Because they knew his words were true.
 
Gemma and her mother may not have fully appreciated
the seriousness, but Sal and Rodney absolutely did.

“Since
you closed on a house together,” Rodney said, “I have to presume this marriage
is still on.”

“It’s
still on,” Sal responded, feeling even more defensive.
 
“No devil in hell is going to stop it.
 
We’re going to get married.”

Rodney
nodded, still staring at Sal.
 
“No matter
how anybody else feels about it?”

“That’s
right,” Sal said firmly.
 
“In fact,” he
added, “I have a confession to make.”

Rodney
and Cassie looked at Sal with anxious eyes.
 
What else, they wondered.
 
Gemma was looking at Sal too.
 
What more, she wondered.
 

“A
confession?” Rodney asked.
 
“What kind of
confession?”

“I
have to confess, Mr. Jones, that I lied to you.”

Gemma’s
heart pounded.
 
She looked at Sal.
 
“You lied to him?”

“I
lied to you,” Sal repeated, his eyes never leaving Rodney’s eyes.

Rodney
exhaled.
 
“And what is it that you lied
about?”

“I
told you that if you refused to continue to have a good relationship with
Gemma, the marriage would be off.
 
I
wouldn’t marry her if her relationship with you suffered.”

“You
said that,” Rodney said.
 
“That’s right.”

“I
lied,” Sal said.
 
“I’m making Gemma Jones
my wife.”

Gemma
stared at him.
 
Rodney and Cassie were
riveted too.

“If
you choose to end your relationship with her,” Sal continued, “it’ll be an
awful thing.
 
A painful thing for her on
every level, I’m positive it will be.
 
And she’ll probably hate me a little because of it.”

“Sal,”
Gemma started, but Sal wasn’t backing down.

“She’ll
hate me a little,” he said again.
 
“But
it won’t stop me from making her my family.
 
She’s the one I want to be my wife.
 
She’s the one I want to be the mother of my children.
 
You undoubtedly came here to give her some
ultimatum.
 
You undoubtedly want to make
it clear to her of your displeasure with a man like me.
 
And if she was my daughter, I would probably
be doing the same thing.”

It
hurt Sal to admit it, but he admitted it.
 

“Look,
Salvatore,” Rodney said, “I’m not trying to pile on you.
 
But I have a duty to my daughter.”

“I
understand that.”

“I
have to tell it like it is in these matters.
 
You have a past, and I’m not even sure if it’s completely passed
yet.
 
I have to protect my daughter.”

“I
understand that too.
 
And I’m sure in
your mind a serial killer is more suitable for your daughter than I am.”

Gemma’s
heart broke.
 
“Oh, Sal,” she said.

“I
wouldn’t go that far,” Rodney said.

“But
it’s the same principle,” Sal said.
 
“And
you’d be right.”

Rodney
frowned. “I’d be right?”

“I’m
not a good man,” Sal admitted. “Gemma thinks I’m this prince, but I’m not.
 
I’d have to work at being the frog.”

Gemma
smiled, although she was pained too.

“I’m
a ruthless man,” Sal went on.
 
“I
sometimes have to do things that . . . a good man shouldn’t have to do.”

Rodney
waited for the but.
 
None came from Sal.

“What
are you saying?” Rodney asked him.

“I
love your daughter and I have every intention of marrying her.
 
Giving her back to you is not an option.
 
She’s with me now.
 
I’m her responsibility now.
 
What you don’t know, what nobody seems to
understand, is that I’ve had a heart transplant.
 
And it’s in Gemma now.”

Cassie
covered her mouth and fought back tears.
 

“There’s
no turning back for me,” Sal said.
 
“If
Gemma will continue to want to be with me, she’s going to be with me.
 
No matter what.”

“Good,”
Cassie found herself saying.
 

Rodney
and Gemma both, and Sal too, looked at her.

“Gemma,”
Cassie said as she took her daughter’s hand, “your father used to dream that
one day you’d marry this perfect man.
 
And I mean perfect.
 
He had to be
an African-American.
 
He had to have the
right job and resume.
 
He had to have the
right college credentials and family background.
 
And he had to be great looking on top of all
of that.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
Sal and Rodney were staring at
Cassie.

Cassie
continued.
 
“I went along with your
father’s dream for you.
 
I went along
with it.
 
But that was never my
dream.
 
I didn’t care about his race.
 
I didn’t care if he was a banker or a
baker.
 
I didn’t care if he went to
college or barely graduated high school, to tell you the truth.
 
My dream for you was that he treated you
right.
 
My dream was that he loved you
with all his heart and never cheated on you and never caused you a moment’s
grief.
 
He didn’t even have to be a good
man in the way the world defined good.
 
He just had to be good to you.”

Gemma
placed her arm around her mother.
 
Cassie
looked at Sal.
 
“You’re good to my
daughter, Salvatore.
 
Even a blind man
can see that.
 
You have my blessing.
 
Marry her.
 
Have your way with her.
 
She’s
yours.”

Sal
stood to his feet, hurried to his future mother-in-law, and pulled her up and
into a big bear hug.
 
Gemma stood up too,
smiling and crying at the same time.
 
She
rubbed her mother’s back.

Sal
pulled back, and looked at Cassie.
 
“Just
so I’m sure I heard you right,” he said. “You said I have your blessing?”

Cassie
smiled.
 
“That’s exactly what I
said.
 
And I’m going to help with the
preparations too.
 
My youngest daughter
is getting married in style.
 
I’m
excited!”