Until You Come Back To Me, Book 5 (4 page)

“A
rich widow,” Gemma wrote on her legal pad.
 
Then she looked at Ted again.
 
“Off the record,” she said, “did she ice the boyfriend?”

“Oh,
yes.
 
She’s already admitted to it.”

Gemma
studied him.
 
“Let me guess:
self-defense?”

“Self-defense,”
Ted said with a nod of his head.
 
“It’s
your job to set her free.
 
She’s not just
a client to me, she’s somebody I care deeply about.
  
She must be victorious.
 
I will have the legal skill to make that
happen.
 
I need you to use the respect
you have in the Vegas legal community to make it happen.
 
By any means necessary.”

Gemma
leaned back.
 
“When do I get to meet our
client?”

“Not
yet,” Ted said, rising to his feet.
 
“I’ve got to work on sharpening her defense a little more before we
reveal it even to you.”

Gemma
stood up too.
 
“Okay.”

“You’ll
mainly work with me for now,” Ted said.
 
“Once we sit down together, develop a firm strategy, then I’ll set up a
meeting with
Rabina
where we can get her trial ready,
which is where you will come in.”

“I’ll
handle the trial,” Gemma said.

“Right,”
Ted said.
 
“With an assist or two from
me, of course.
 
But always behind the
scenes.
 
I don’t want to do anything to
jeopardize my client.”

Gemma
nodded.
 
She could appreciate his
devotion.
 
“Agreed,” she said.

 
“Maybe by next week I’ll have some meat on
the bones, something firm to work with.
 
Miss Chen, as you can imagine, is very upset still by this turn of
events.
 
Especially since they will not
allow her to leave Vegas until the trial is complete.
 
This is a very taxing time for her.
 
But let’s meet next week and see what we have
then.”

“Sounds
good,” Gemma said. “What hotel are you staying in?”

“None
right now.
 
I have to get back to
California today on a case.
 
But I’ll
stay at The PaLargio when I return.
 
It’s
where I always stay whenever I’m in town.”

Gemma
smiled.

“What?”
Ted asked, as if he didn’t already know.

“My
husband’s cousin owns the PaLargio.”

“You’re
serious?
 
Really?”

“He
owns it.
 
Dominic Gabrini.
 
But we call him Reno.”

“Reno?
 
A Reno in Vegas.”

Gemma
laughed.
 
“I know.”

“This
is a strange little town,” Ted said with a shake of his head.
 
“And what about your husband?
 
Is he in the hotel business too?”

Not
that she knew of.
 
Sal did not discuss
his business ventures with her like that.
 
“No,” she said.

“Is
he around?
 
Maybe I can meet him.”

Sal
had been out of town for nearly two weeks now, but that wasn’t his
business.
 
“Maybe we’ll have dinner
sometime.
 
Before the case wraps
up.”
 

“Excellent.
 
I’ll have my office fax over the contract
ASAP.”

 
“Sounds good.”

“Have
a nice day, Mrs. Gabrini.”
 
Ted turned to
leave.
 
But then he turned back.
 
“Oh, and Mrs. Gabrini,” he said, “I’m sure I
don’t have to remind you to remind your staff that my visit never occurred and
our association is not for public consumption.
 
Confidentiality of the highest order, in other words?”

Gemma
nodded. “You’re right,” she said.
 
“You
don’t have to remind me.”

Alfalfa
“Alfie”
Farino
dropped his cigarette on the New
Jersey sidewalk, squashed it with his big brogan shoe, and then made his way
across the busy highway to the Bed, Bath, and Beyond parking lot.
 
Sal Gabrini, his boss, sat in the backseat of
the SUV, while Crawley and
Narb
, Sal’s men, sat up
front.
 
Alfie opened the door and got
into the backseat too.
 
“He just went
in,” he said to Sal.

“Which
floor?”

“Fourth.”

“Was
he alone?”

“He
was alone.”
 
Alfie handed Sal the
key.
  
“Mean-looking sonafabitch.”

“I
got his mean alright,” Sal responded, taking the key.

“What
do you want us to do, boss?”
Narb
, the driver, asked.

“After
you drop us off you swing around back and wait.
 
If you see any cops, or anybody looking like any cops, you keep
going.
 
We’ll find our way back.”

Narb
cranked up, drove across the highway to the rundown Peekaboo Hotel, or
what most people called the Hooker Hotel, and stopped at the curb.
 
Sal and Alfie got out of the backseat and
made their way through the revolving door into the lobby.
 
It reeked of urine and cigarettes.
 
Sal buttoned his double-breasted suit as
Alfie led him across the lobby, through the heavy stairwell door, and up the
stairs to the fourth floor.
 

They
were there on what was called a volley mission.
 
They were there to warn Marley Dim about the importance of established
territory and what happened to men like him when they crossed those
boundaries.
 
Dim should already know
better, he’d been in the racket long enough, but his actions weren’t bearing
that knowledge out.
 
So in case he was as
dumb as his name, Sal decided to personally pay him a visit and make himself
clear.

They
walked down the fourth floor corridor to room 419.
 
Sal stood on the doorknob side of the door,
and Alfie stood by the door hinge.
 
Alfie
then put his ear against the flimsy door, to listen for movement inside, but he
heard nothing.
 
He looked at Sal and nodded
his head.
 
They pulled out the guns they
had in the small of their backs, Sal swiped the keycard, and then he pulled
down the handle and entered slowly.

As
soon as they entered, they could hear snoring coming from the bed that was at
the far end of the room, facing the door.
 
They could see Dim’s big lump of a body lying under the bed
coverings.
 

But
as they began to gingerly walk that way, Sal began to walk even slower.
 
Something was off.
 
It was obvious that the man in the bed was
Dim’s big-ass body.
 
His clothes on the
floor beside the bed proved that.
 
But
how in hell, Sal wondered, could the big man make it up to his room, change his
clothes, get in that bed and be fast asleep and snoring this quickly?
 
His ass just got up here.
 
And that was when Sal smelled a setup.

“Drop!”
he yelled to Alfie, and as soon as he yelled it Marty Dim rose up in bed with a
gun in each hand, and began firing.
 
He
hit Alfie multiple times, causing Alfie’s body to jerk backwards as if he was
in some fucking Matrix movie; as if he was trying to get away but the bullets
kept pulling him back.
 
Then he fell back
onto the floor with a hard hit, his eyes wide open.
 
No doubt about it: he was dead.

Sal
saw his man fall but he couldn’t deal with that loss now.
 
He rolled and started firing back, determined
to kill that motherfucker if it was the last kill he had.
 
But a door opened in the bedroom and another
man with another set of firepower started shooting too.
 
Sal knew he was outmanned and outgunned and
wasn’t going to survive any bullet-for-bullet gunfight.
 

He
got up, dived toward Alfie’s lifeless body, and lifted Alfie in front of
him.
 
Only Alfie was dead weight and it
felt to Sal as if he was lifting pure steel.
 
But those days in the gym, and the muscles Sal had to back it up, paid
off.
 
He held onto Alfie and fired back
at the two gunmen to keep them in retreat rather than in advance, as he managed
to get his ass out of that hotel room.
 

But
as soon as Sal cleared the exit, Marty Dim jumped out of bed in his boxers, and
he and his backup firepower hurried out into the corridor, stepping over
Alfie’s dead body to make it out.
 
They
were going to blow that motherfucking Sal Gabrini away from this earth if it
was the last thing they did tonight.
 
Had
everybody fooled into believing he was some legit businessman when he was more
of a thug than they were.
 
And now he was
going to muscle them out of territory they had just as much right to as he
had?
 
Wasn’t going to happen.
 
That was why they began to head down that
corridor toward the stairs.
 
The
stairwell, they both knew, would be a perfect place for Sal Gabrini to die.

But
they forgot to clue in Sal Gabrini.
 
Because as soon as they turned to head toward the stairwell, a shot was
fired that caught Dim’s partner in the back of the head. He dropped like a loaf
of bread. Dim turned quickly, ready to fire back, but he knew it was too
late.
 
Sal wasn’t in any stairwell, but
he was behind them, and his gun was pointing straight at Marty Dim’s heart.

“Sal,”
Dim said, tossing his gun aside, suddenly wanting to reason with him.
 
But he was wasting his time because Sal
wasted no time wasting him.
 
He shot him
as he walked toward him.
 
He shot him and
he shot him until Dim dropped the same way Dim had dropped Alfie.
 
And then Sal stepped over his dead body, as
he made his way toward that stairwell.
 

When
he got downstairs, and ran through the hotel’s back exit, sirens could be heard
in the distance.
 
But Nard was still
there.
 
He hadn’t left Sal behind.
 
Sal jumped into the SUV, and they took
off.
 
Sal leaned back in the backseat,
his hand still covered in Alfie’s blood, and silently screamed.

Crawley
looked at Nard.
 
They wanted to know what
happened, but dared not ask.

“Don’t
trust men,” Liz Mertan said to Gemma as they sat at the bar and had another
round of drinks.
 
Or at least Liz had
another round.
 
Gemma was still on her
first glass.
 
“No matter what they say to
you,” Liz continued, “don’t trust them.
 
You know why?”

Gemma
didn’t respond.
 
She only met Liz for
drinks after she called in a desperate state.
 
And she remained in a desperate state.
 
Tears were in Liz’s big blue eyes.

“I’ll
tell you why,” Liz went on.
 
“They’re
dogs, that’s why.
 
Every man that has
ever lived is nothing but a dirty dog.
 
And I have the bite marks to prove it.”

Gemma
considered her business partner.
 
They
were friends from way back who co-owned, along with Reno Gabrini’s wife, an
upscale clothing store.
 
Liz was married
to a respectable dentist, but neither she nor her husband had ever been
faithful to each other.
  
But whenever he
was caught red-handed, it was always like the end of the world for Liz.
 
“What happened this time?” Gemma asked her.

“The
same thing that happened the last time.
 
He screwed a girl and lied about it.
 
Nothing new happened to him.
 
He
screwed yet another female, what else is new? I’m just tired of him screwing
me.”
 
Then Liz looked at Gemma.
 
“Because of you,” she said, “his new piece on
the side is black.”

Gemma
frowned.
 
“Why would that be because of
me?”

“The
bitch he’s sleeping with this time around is black or, excuse me,
African-American.
 
And it’s all because
of you.”

“Because
of me?”

“Yes,
you!” Liz was angry now.
 
“He talks about
you all the time.
 
‘Did you see how
nicely she dressed today?
 
Did you see
how smooth her black skin is?
 
Did you
see how perfect her teeth is?’
 
It’s
disgusting!”

“It
is disgusting,” Gemma said.
 
“On his
part!”

“So
because of his infatuation with you, he decided to go black too.”
  
Liz began to cry in that sing-song, tearless
cry of hers.
 
“What if he doesn’t come
back?” she cried.
 

Gemma
took a sip of her drink.
 
She couldn’t
take Liz seriously even if she wanted to.
 
Liz cheated as much as her husband did.
 
What was with the fake outrage?
 
“He’ll be back,” Gemma said confidently.

“What
makes you so sure?”

“Because
he always comes back,” Gemma responded.
 
“And you always forgives him, and he always forgives you, and it always
starts all over again.”

Liz
smiled and took a sip of her drink.
 
Then
she looked somber again.
 
“You don’t get
tired of it?” she asked her.

“Tired
of what?
 
Your husband cheating?”

“No!”
Liz shot back.
 
“
Your
husband cheating.
 
Don’t
you get tired of it too?”

Gemma
wasn’t about to tell her that her husband didn’t cheat, since she could not
possibly be certain of that.
 
But just
the thought of Sal treating her that way was too painful to even think
about.
 

“Well
don’t you?” Liz asked.

“Don’t
I what?” Gemma responded.

“Get
tired of Sal cheating on you?
 
And please
don’t you dare declare that he’s so different than any other man alive and he’d
never cheat on you.
 
Please don’t make
yourself out to be the biggest fool this side of living with a response that
lame.”

Gemma
pointed her finger.
 
“Don’t go there,
Liz,” she warned.

Liz
was puzzled.
 
“Don’t go where?”

“Don’t
go there,” Gemma said again.
 
“Don’t turn
your problems into mine.
 
We’re here
because you wanted to talk about your troubles.
 
My husband has nothing to do with this, and neither do I.
 
So don’t go there.
 
Don’t get it twisted.”

Liz,
however, took it a different way.
 
“So
what you’re telling me,” she said, “is that you’re in denial.
 
If you don’t talk about it or don’t think
about it then it’ll just magically disappear.
 
That’s what you think, right?”

“What
I think,” Gemma said as she gathered up her cell phone and purse, “is that I’m
going to get out of here.”
 
She stood up.
“I’m sorry about you and your husband, but you aren’t roping me into your
madness.
 
Have a nice night.”
 
And Gemma walked out of the bar.

She
wasn’t in her BMW a good minute before she received a text.
 
It was from Sal, which meant it was
blunt.
 
Where are you
? Then:
 
Bring your ass home
.
 

Gemma
smiled.
 
She had a good idea what he
wanted to do with that ass when she brought it home.
 
She also had no idea he would be back in town
a day early, but she was thrilled.
 
On my way
, she text him back, and then
gladly got away from Liz and her fake-ass umbrage.

Sal
tossed his cell phone onto the sofa after reading Gemma’s text, and he
continued to pace around their living room like a man with a chip on his
shoulder.
 
He had changed and showered
and had on his bathrobe, and he was doing everything in his power to stop
thinking about Alfie and how it all went down in that hotel in Jersey.
 
He didn’t leave his men behind.
 
That was something he never did.
 
But not only did he have to leave Alfie
behind, but he had to use Alfie’s dead body as a human shield to get out of
there alive himself.
 
All because he
didn’t do his homework.
 
All because he
walked right into a trap he should have seen a mile away.
 
And now one of his loyal men was dead.
 
He needed Gemma, not only because he always
needed her, but tonight he needed her to make him feel better.
 
Because right now, Sal felt like crap.

He
paced that floor and paced that floor.
 
He must have walked ten miles in his living room.
 
And when he heard Gemma’s car drive up, he
walked and made a beeline to the front door.

He
opened it just as she was about to turn the knob, and as soon as he saw her
again, his heart hammered with love and lust and he couldn’t begin to describe
what else.
 
He took her by the hand and
pulled her into their home.

The
door slammed shut almost exactly as he slammed her back against the door.
 

“Where
were you?” he asked with a distressed look on his face that worried her, but he
didn’t give her time to react.
 
His mouth
covered hers in a searing kiss.
 
He
kissed her with a gusto Gemma could not possibly return because it was coming
from a place she could not possibly understand.
 
But she knew Sal.
 
He returned
from a business trip a day early, he wanted her home immediately, and when she
arrived home he couldn’t even wait to get her upstairs.
 
He needed her, not her comments.
 
He needed her.

“I met
Liz,” she finally said when he stopped kissing her on the mouth and began
rubbing his lips against hers.
 

But
he was still driven by lust.
 
“Yeah,” was
all he could manage to say as he recaptured her mouth for another long, searing
kiss.
 
He even untied and opened his
bathrobe, revealing his naked body, as he kissed her.
 

She
knew it was going to happen right here, in their foyer, because Sal was already
too far gone.
 
The idea of carrying her
upstairs, or even to a couch, was as foreign to him now as the idea of not
doing her right here and right now.
 
He
wanted her, and he was going to get her.

He
lifted her body, with her back sliding higher against the door, and then he
tore the seat of her panties with his bare hands.
 
He began to rub and finger her as he kissed
her.
 

Now
Gemma was getting into it too.
 
He didn’t
give her a chance when he first pulled her in, as the sudden thrust into lust
had startled her.
 
But as soon as he
began to rub her clit, and two of his fingers shoved inside of her while he
kissed her passionately, she was all-in too.
 
This was Sal.
 
This was the man
she loved above any human being on earth.
 
She wrapped her legs around his muscular body, giving him fuller access,
rubbed her fingers all over his thick, brown hair, and they kissed with that
kind of
nobody else but you
emotional
love-release that made Gemma all the more convinced that Sal could never do her
wrong.
 
She didn’t care what Liz
believed.

He
kissed her and fingered her with the kind of heightened passion that he knew no
lesser woman could handle.
 
But he needed
her, and he knew she knew it.
 
That was
why his love for her continued to grow even as he was certain he couldn’t
possibly love her more.
 
That was why he
was kissing her harder and harder, and fingering her harder and harder until
her vaginal juices oozed out and covered his digits.
 
When he was well saturated, he pulled his
fingers out, and put them into his mouth.
 
He wanted to eat her, she knew how much he adored eating her, but he
knew he wouldn’t last that long.
 

He
entered her through the ripped seat of her panties.
 
He slid in with a wave of thickness that took
Gemma’s breath away.
 
She arched her body
as she took him in.
 
And as he began to
move inside of her, she laid her head against the door and allowed her eyes to
roll back into that calming, relaxing, sensual haze.

Sal
pulled out her blouse that had been tucked into her skirt, lifted it clean over
her head, and then lifted her bra.
 
Her
beautiful dark breasts stood at attention, taut and ready.
 
And Sal began to suck those breasts as he
fucked her pussy.
 
He wasn’t playing
now.
 
He wasn’t trying to go easy on her
or prolong that wonderful feeling.
 
He
wanted to heighten that feeling.
 
And he
did.
 

Gemma
didn’t think it was possible, but Sal’s movements inside of her and his mouth
ravaging her breasts, took her to yet another level of sensuality.
 
He took her there.
 
He pushed deeper in and almost out, deeper in
and almost out, as he sucked and licked and massaged her breasts with every
ounce of passion he had.
 
He took her
there.
 

Gemma
was near tears as he sucked and fucked her.
 
He was putting it on her in a way that made her understand the beauty of
it even as she experienced the eroticism of it.
  
Her body was moving with his pounding and
they both felt as animalistic as they felt calm.
 
They were in the quiet of their massive
living room, with no sounds but the sounds of their fucking, and they were
enjoying each other in a way that only love could allow.
 

Some
of Gemma’s friends often told her that their lovers gave them so much sex, that
they were jaded by sex.
 
They now needed
to do weird and crazy things just to get an orgasm.
 
But Gemma’s experience was the exact
opposite.
 
Sal gave her a lot of sex, but
he gave her love with his sex, and that made it powerful, not common.
 
And even in this desperate time, when she
knew there was much more going on with her man than love for her, he was still
loving her through his desperation.
 
Something awful had happened on his trip, and Gemma knew it, and she
also knew that he needed her body to make him forget.
 

As
she continued to open herself to him, she gave him what he wanted in the foyer
of their living room.
 
She gave him her
body.
 
As good as Sal had been to her, as
much as Sal had done for her, she would have laid her body down like a doormat,
if he would have needed her to.