Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) (20 page)

Grace
threw herself into his arms.
 
Tommy
gladly held her, because he was relieved too.
 
But it was relief with a heavy heart.
 
Nothing had changed the truth of their union.
 
She was still a Gabrini and would still be
subject to all manner of evil.
 
But he
would protect her.
 
That was his
responsibility to her.
 
That was his
solemn vow to her.
 
He would stand by her
and keep her safe from harm.
 
That, he
felt as he held her, was the least he could do.

SIXTEEN

Tommy’s
Ferrari was waiting for them at the airstrip in Seattle when they un-boarded
the plane.
 
And after he dropped Grace
off at her apartment and headed for his office, both of them excited about the
night they had planned, she headed upstairs to pack.

“Tam,
I’m back!”
 
She headed for her bedroom,
calling her half-sister’s name twice, but Tam, apparently, wasn’t at home.
 
Which was fine by Grace.
 
She didn’t want to hear any
I told you so
from her, or be asked to
give her any explanations.
 
She was going
home.
 
To her husband.
 
Period.
 

And
as she packed up what she planned to take home for now, she started thinking
about Tommy, and how much she had missed him during their weeks apart.
 
She knew living without him permanently was
no longer a possibility.
 
She wondered if
it ever was.
 
Then she smiled.
 
Instead of having second thoughts, as she
thought she would have, she developed even more resolve, and packed even
faster.

She
showered next, and changed into a sleek, form-fitting white dress.
 
Tommy was going to take her dancing and she
was determined to look her best and enjoy the evening.
 
And just as she sat her first packed suitcase
in the living room, her cell phone rang.
 
When she saw that it was him, she smiled.
 
“Miss me already?” she asked with a grin.

“Always,”
Tommy said into the phone.
 
“Just
checking on you.
 
Making sure Tamara
wasn’t trying to change your mind.”

“You
must be joking.
 
She’ll have the
apartment to herself again.
 
She’ll be
shouting for joy when she finds out.”

“She’s
not there?”

“Nope.
 
Thankfully.
 
She’ll be glad I’m leaving, but she’ll declare I’m making the mistake of
my life.”

There
was a pause on the other end.
 
“Most
people probably would agree with her.”

“Well
thank goodness I’m not most people.”

“As
simple as that?”

“As
simple as that.”

“That’s
why you’re my girl, Grace.”

Grace
smiled.
 
“Why?
 
Because I bend to your will?” She headed back
into her bedroom.

“Exactly
why,” Tommy proclaimed, and they both laughed.

“Where
are you?
 
Still at the office?”

“Just
finishing up.”

“They
haven’t burned it down yet, I take it.”
   

“Not
yet.
 
But if I would have stayed away
another day, who knows?”

Grace
laughed.

“But
once I grab these papers I’m out of here.
 
I’ll see you at the house.”

“Okay,
babe,” Grace said, they said their goodbyes, and she ended the call.

But
almost immediately, her cell phone rang again.
 
Certain it was Tommy calling her right back, she answered just as
immediately.
 
“What did you forget to
tell me?” she asked.

But
it wasn’t Tommy.
 
The voice was decidedly
female’s.
 
“I did not forget a damn
thing,” the voice, a familiar voice, said into the phone.
 
A voice with a strong European accent.

And
Grace couldn’t believe it.
 
She wasn’t
back in Tommy’s bed yet, and already it was starting up again.
 
“Goodbye,” she said, and was about to
disconnect the call, but the voice spoke up.

“It
will never end,” the woman said.
 

“You’re
right,” Grace said.
 
“Tommy and I will
always be together.
 
We’ll never
end.
 
You’re right about that.”

“It
will never end,” the woman said again.
 
“I lost, now you will lose too.”

“Whatever
you say.”

 
“I hope you slip in her blood,” the woman
said.
 
“I hope you choke in your own
vomit when you see all that blood.
 
I
took her away from you, but I will not stop.
 
It will never end until you are sleeping in your grave.
 
And still I will torment you.
 
You cannot win.
 
You will never win.
 
You will never have Tommy, you will never
have anybody!
 
I will see to that.”
 
And then the woman disconnected the
call.
 

Grace
was thrown.
 
It would never end?
 
She hoped Grace slipped in her blood?
 
In whose blood?
 
Her own blood?
 
Then Grace got a chill, and thought about her
sister.
 
Tam
, she said nervously, and quickly called her sister’s cell
phone.
 

But
the phone started ringing inside the apartment.
 
Which floored Grace.
 
Tam would never have left without her cell
phone.
 
Not ever.
 
Maybe she was asleep.
 
Maybe she was in one of those deep sleeps of
hers and didn’t hear Grace call her name when she first arrived.
 
And maybe she was too deep into sleep to hear
her cell phone ringing.
 
Or maybe, Grace
didn’t want to even imagine, Tam was the one that woman was talking about!
 

Grace’s
heart began to pound as she followed the ringing phone.
 
It led into Tam’s bedroom.
 
Grace hurried to the room, all kinds of
possibilities rushing through her head.
 
And as soon as she pushed the door open, she was met with blood.
 
On the floor.
 
On the walls.
  
And there was a
message on the far wall.
 
IT WILL NEVER END
, it read.
 
And it was written in blood.

Grace’s
heart was now hammering, but she knew she had to go further in.
 
If this woman had harmed Tam, she could still
be alive and needed Grace’s help.
 
But
there was so much blood!
 
Too much
blood.
 
Grace knew better.
 
She knew nobody could have survived this
massacre.
 

But
she had to see for herself.
 
She had to
be certain.
 

She
walked further in, sidestepping the puddles and streaks of blood.
 
And that was when she saw her.
 
Lying across the bed.
 
Her throat was slit so wide it looked like
three cuts in one.
 
Her eyes were still
wide open, staring lifelessly at Grace.
 

Grace
backed back up until she had rammed against the door.
 
She could barely breathe.
 
She wanted to cry, for Tamara, to scream out
the pain and horror she had to have felt when the massacre happened.
 
But no sound would come.
 
Because it was more than pain Grace
felt.
 
It went deeper than pain.
 
It was more than fear.
 
It went deeper than fear.
 
Grace was angry now.
 
Because it had to stop.
 
Tamara had nothing to do with any of those
women.
 
They probably didn’t even know
her name!
 
But because she was connected
to Grace, and because Tommy had chosen Grace, they decided to end her life as
if they were tossing away trash.
 

Grace
looked at the writing again.
 
Wrote in
Tam’s own blood.
 
And for Grace it was
clear.
 
Literally, the writing was on the
wall.
 
Because she realized the truth of
those words as surely as she stood there looking at them.
 
IT WILL
NEVER END
, those words read.
 
And it
was true.
 
It would never end if she
allowed them to win.
 
It would never end
if she allowed this horrific act to cower her.
 
They had her leaving her husband, hiding out in her own apartment, just
so they would leave her alone.
 
They had
her husband asking for a divorce so he could protect her from them.
 
And they still found a way to torment
her.
 
They still found a way to take the
life of a sweet girl like Tam, just because they could.
 
Just because they didn’t have what they
wanted and were willing to kill to get it.

Now,
right now, looking at her sister’s body, looking at the blood and that writing
on the wall, she was ready to do it too.
 

She
headed back to the living room, grabbed her keys, and took off.
 

She
jumped into her new car and drove so fast she nearly hit two other cars.
 
She knew she should call Tommy, or at least
call the police, but that wouldn’t do any good.
 
Not with these women.
 
She had to
handle this herself.
 
She had to send
this message herself.
 
These females were
never going to leave her alone until they understood that two could play their
game.
 
They were angry?
 
She was going to be angrier.
 
They were crazy?
 
She was going to be crazier.
 
They wanted Tommy?
 
She wanted him more.

She
turned onto his street, a street that housed his mansion alone, and saw a car
parked in front of the house.
 
As she was
about to turn into her driveway, she saw the woman in the car.
 
It was Deena Driscoll.
 
And as soon as she saw that face, she realized
it was Deena’s voice that had been the voice on that phone call.
 
She was the one responsible for Tam’s death.
 
She was the one who wrote those words.
 
And when she looked closer, Deena held up a
cardboard sign.
 
IT WILL NEVER END, were
the words written on the board, and written in blood too.
 
Tam’s blood?
 
And when Deena smiled at her, and took her finger and ran it across her
neck, as if she was cutting her throat, Grace knew the time had come.
 
Talk was over.
 
It was time for action.

She
drove into the driveway, ran into the house, and didn’t stop until she had that
gun in her hand and was running back out again.
 
By the time she made it down the driveway and across the street, and was
firing shot after shot after shot, trying not to scare Deena Driscoll, but to
kill her ass as surely as she killed Tam, Tommy’s Ferrari turned onto the
street.
 
The gunshots had Henry running
out of the house too.
 
But it was too
late for talk.
 
Talk was over.
 
Grace was a wounded animal cornered now.
 
And was coming out for blood.

She
saw Tommy coming just as he was upon her.
 
He had been running.
 
His eyes
looked wild, and as tormented as her heart felt.
 
But he had to understand.
 
Enough was a fucking nuff.
 
Nobody was running her away anymore.
 
Nobody was coddling her anymore.
 
She was riding with Tommy now, and these
bitches, she felt, had better get used to it.

She
looked at Tommy, as he put one hand around her and took the smoking gun from
her with his other hand.
 
He didn’t say a
word to her.
 
But he took over.
 
He handed the gun to Henry, and he walked
Grace to his car.
 
Henry would handle the
cleanup, but he would come back to oversee it.
 
Grace was involved.
 
There could
be no evidence linking any of this to her.

 
But his job now was protection.
 
Grace’s protection.
 
Making sure he got her away from the scene
and that none of the blowback that was surely to come, blew back on her.
 

And
then the real work, of restoring his wife, of restoring his marriage, would
have to begin.