Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again (24 page)

“Sal,
Gemma,” she said as they hurried to her.

“How
is he?” Sal asked.

“The
doctor wants to sedate him because of the pain he’s in, but Tommy refuses.
 
He wants to see you guys first. But the
doctor says he’s going to be fine.”

“Thank
God!” Sal said, and hurried up the stairs.
 

Jimmy,
Trina, and Gemma followed him.
 
Reno
followed too, but not before giving Liz a second look.
 
He was impressed.
 
She had to be one of the best looking ladies
he think he’d ever seen.
 
Lucky dog, he
thought.
 
All Tommy had to do was walk
out the door and great looking women fell in his arms.
 
But that kind of admiration was for another
time.
 
Right now he had to eyeball Tommy
too before he could relax.
 
He hurried on
up the stairs.

The
door flew open and Sal stood there, expecting the worse.
 
When he saw Tommy lying there, bandaged
around his upper torso, looking pained but alive, he let out an exhale of
relief.
 
Jimmy, Gem, and Reno entered the
room and saw Tommy, and were relieved too.
 
Although tears appeared in Trina’s eyes, she was relieved too.
 
She was as close to Tommy as Sal and Reno
were.

The
doctor, who was also present, seemed exhausted.
 
“He’s okay, Sal,” he reassured Sal. “He took three bullets.”

“Oh
no,” Trina said.

“But
none hit any vital organs,” the doctor quickly said.
 
“I got them all.
 
He’s a very fortunate man.”

Sal
walked up to the bed.
 
Gemma and Reno
followed him.
 
Trina was still too upset
to move.

 
“Hey,” Reno said.

Tommy
was in so much pain he was barely able to speak.
 
The doctor had wanted to sedate him, but he
needed to let his family hear firsthand that he was all right.
 
He knew how they would react, especially Reno
and Sal.
 
They were as bad as nervous old
ladies when it came to his wellbeing.
 
“Hey yourself,” he managed to say.
 
“Where’s Trina?” he asked.
 
“Trina
didn’t come?”

“Yeah,
she’s,” Reno started saying, and looked for his wife.
 
When he realized she was still in the
doorway, with tears in her eyes, he went to her.
 
He placed his arm around her and then
escorted her to the bed.

“He’s
going to be alright, honey,” he said as he escorted her.

“You
better not be crying,” Tommy said, and it took all the strength he had to say
it.

Trina
smiled through her tears and placed her hand on the side of his face. “You
don’t tell me what to do,” she said.

Tommy
smiled too, as best he could.
 
“That’s
better,” he said.
 
Then he looked at
Sal.
 
Nervous Nelly number one.
 
“Hey, bubba,” he said.

“You
feel like shit, don’t you?” Sal asked.

Reno
rolled his eyes.
 
“No, Sal.
 
He feels like going to the opera.
 
Or maybe out on the tennis court.
 
How do you think he feels?”

“Fuck
you, Reno.”

“Fuck
you!” Reno shot back.

“Ah knock
it off, both of you,” Trina said.
 
“This
man doesn’t want to hear that nonsense, and neither do I.”

“Neither
do I,” Jimmy echoed his stepmother.
 

Gemma
smiled and squeezed Tommy’s hand.
 
“I’m
glad you’re okay, Tommy,” she said.

“How
did you get here?” Tommy asked.
 
“I
thought Sal was still in Seattle.”

“He
was.
 
I hitched a ride with Reno and
Tree.”

“But
I thought you had a trial?”

“What’s
a trial compared to coming and seeing about my brother?” Sal asked.

“He
was talking to Gem,” Reno said.

Gemma
smiled.
 
“I do have a trial.
 
It resumes tomorrow afternoon.
 
I’m going to have to fly back in the morning
because a man’s life is on the line and I have to be there to defend him.”
 
Then she frowned.
 
“But I had to make sure you were okay.”

“I’m
fine,” Tommy said.
 
“And thanks for
coming.”

“Trina’s
going back with you,” Reno said, “now that she can see for herself that Tommy’s
okay.
 
I told her she didn’t need to
come, but she had to see it to believe it.
 
We’ve got babies at home.
 
One of
us needs to be there.”

“Val
and the nannies are there,” Trina said.
 
Jimmy was Reno’s son from a previous relationship, and Val was Jimmy’s
young wife.
 
When Reno didn’t respond to
that, Trina said it again.
 
“Val and
the
 
nannies are there,” she said.

“And
all of them together don’t make one Mommy.
 
You’re going to be there.”

Trina
looked at Tommy and shook her head.
 
Tommy smiled.
 
“Bossy as hell,” he
said, and Jimmy laughed.

“Thank-you!”
Trina said, as if she’d been vindicated.

Tommy
looked at Sal.
 
“What about Destiny?”

“I
spoke with Ed,” Sal said.
 
“They have her
on lockdown.”

“Did
you send some of my men over?”

“My
men, your men, everybody’s over there.
 
Grace and Ed’s house are more fortified than Fort Knox.”
 

Tommy
nodded.
 
“Good.
 
What about Liz?
 
Where’s Liz?”

“Liz?”
Reno asked.
 
“You mean that black
bombshell downstairs?”

Tommy
smiled weakly.
 
He knew Reno would
approve.
 
“Yeah.”

“You
told me you were dating this Liz person,” Reno said.
 
“You didn’t tell me she looked that good.”

Sal
looked at his brother. “You could tell Reno you were dating her, but you
couldn’t tell me?
 
Your flesh and blood?”

“I’m
his flesh and blood,” Reno said.

“What
happened, Tommy?” Gemma asked.
 
“You have
any idea who would do this to you?”

“The
only thing I know,” he said.
 
Then he
swallowed hard.
 

The
doctor gave him water from a straw.
 
“Just a few more minutes, folks,” the doctor said, “and then I’m going
to have to insist
 
he gets his rest.”

“I
was leaving Liz’s house,” Tommy said, “and the next thing I know I was ambushed.
They got out of their car and were about to finish me off, but Liz shot all
three of them.”

“Liz?”
Reno asked.
 
“What the fuck?”

“Get
out of here!” Sal said.
 

“Liz
shot all three?” Gemma said.

“And
made sure they were dead, yeah.”
 
Tommy
looked dead at his brother.
 
“My lady did
that.”

Sal
nodded.
 
He was impressed.
 
He had to admit he was impressed.

But
as Tommy’s eyes began to glaze over, and the pain caused him to cringed and
slump to the side, the doctor stepped in.
 
He needed his rest, he said, and ordered everybody out.
 
The doctor prepared the morphine.

“But
why isn’t he in a hospital?” Reno asked as they sat in the spacious living
room.
 
Reno and Trina sat together, while
Sal, Gemma and Liz sat across from them.
 
Jimmy remained upstairs with Tommy.
 
“And why aren’t the cops out here investigating this crime?
 
Tommy didn’t do anything wrong.”

“That
was my call,” Liz said and everybody looked at her.

“Your
call?” Reno asked.

“Tell
him what you told me,” Sal said, “about the mayor and the cops.”

Liz
was a little uncomfortable going into her personal business with people who
were virtual strangers to her.
 
Especially this Reno character, who seemed even more bombastic and
hard-edged than Sal.
 
But Tommy had total
confidence in him.
 
He had told her so
many times that if anything ever happened to him, she was to call Reno or
Sal.
 
They would take care of the rest.

“I
had a previous relationship with Matthew Tennyson,” Liz said.

“Matthew
Tennyson,” Reno said.
 
“Should I know
him?”

“He’s
the mayor of Chicago,” Liz said.

“The
mayor?” Trina asked, surprised.
 

“Damn
girl,” Reno said, surprised too.
 
“You
shoot for the fucking stars, don’t you?
 
The mayor.
 
Tommy.”

“He
may have the title,” Liz said, “but there’s nothing high-class about Matt
Tennyson.
 
Nothing.”

“Yet
you dated him?” Sal asked her.

She
started to say she didn’t date him, but she didn’t bother.
 
“The point is,” she said, “he’s crooked as
they come and his police commissioner is even worse.
 
Snakes both of them.”

“Go
on,” Trina said.

“One
morning, after Tommy left my house, Matt came over and tried to have his way
with me.”

“What
are you talking?” Sal asked with a frown.
 
“He tried to have sex with you?”

“He
tried to rape me,” Liz said.

“Ah.
 
Rape.
 
How convenient,” Sal said.

“Yeah,
how fucking convenient,” Trina said. “She’s just making it up as she goes
along, is that what you’re trying to imply, Sal?”

“Just
keep going,” Reno said.
 
“Don’t mind
him.
 
He can’t help himself.”

“Fuck
both of yous,” Sal said in his still strong Jersey accent.

“I
beat him with a bat,” Liz continued, looking mainly at Trina, “and he fell down
a flight of stairs.”

Reno
smiled.
 
“How convenient,” he said.

“It
may seem convenient to you, but I didn’t push him. He fell. I just want to set
the record straight.”

“But
so you figure he wanted revenge on you,” Reno said, “because you beat him with
a bat?
 
Or did he think you pushed him
down those stairs?”

“He
wanted revenge because Tommy took revenge on him.”

Sal
frowned.
 
“Tommy?
 
When?”

“A
few days after he fell down those stairs.
 
Tommy went to Matt’s apartment and beat him until his balls bled.”

Sal
and Reno looked at each other and shook their heads.
 
“Backdoor Tommy strikes again,” Reno
said.
 
“And he never even mentioned it!”

“He
didn’t mention it to me either,” Liz said.
 
“I found out through Matt’s maid, who still kept me posted about his
goings-on.
 
That’s how I found out Matt
was fooling around with other women.”

“What
did his maid tell you about the hit on Tommy? ”

“Nothing.
 
She said the mayor was highly pissed and
angry as hell about the fall and the pain he was in, and that he and the
commissioner said they had to keep it quiet.
 
She never mentioned any talk of any revenge attack.
 
But then I’m sure they wouldn’t have
discussed that around her anyway.”

Sal
nodded.
 
“If they weren’t total fools,”
he said.

“That’s
why I couldn’t call the cops or have an ambulance take him to a hospital,” Liz
said.
 
“They would have made sure he
didn’t survive the visit.”

“Good
looking out, Miss Liz,” Trina said.
 
“You
made the right call.”

Of
all of them, Liz found Trina the nicest.
 
Reno was okay, she decided, but he could sometimes be as flip as Sal,
and Gemma was Gemma.
 
She was more
thoughtful than talkative.
 
But Trina
seemed as in charge as Reno and Sal.