Tommy Gabrini 4: Dapper Tom Begin Again (28 page)

They
walked silently along the quiet beach behind Tommy’s home.
 
It had been a slow healing process for Tommy.
Much slower than even his doctors had anticipated.
 
But three months in, he finally felt like his
old self again.
 
But as the darkness
descended over the horizon, and they sat down right at the riverbank, his
thoughts were with Liz.
 

She
was sitting on the sand between his legs, with her back against his front.
 
She had been quiet all evening.
 
Which wasn’t like her.
 
She usually outtalked him.
 
She had, in fact, been wonderful during his
convalescence.
 
He could not have asked
for more.
 
She even took a leave of absence
from her magazine and spent time in Seattle taking charge of his recovery.
 
But now it was the last day of her
leave.
 
She was heading back to Chicago
in the morning, and he was returning to work shortly thereafter.
 
And she seemed concerned.

“What’s
the matter, sweetheart?” he asked her.

“I
leave tomorrow.”

“That’s
right. Do you have a problem with that?”

She
smiled.
 
“No.
 
No problem.”

Tommy
looked as her soft, short afro blew in the November wind.
 
He couldn’t see her face, but he could feel the
stress.
 
“Then what’s wrong?” he asked
her.
 
“And don’t say nothing’s wrong
because I know it is.”

Liz
looked across the river.
 
“It’s beautiful
here,” she said.
 
“I see why you bought
this house.”

“It’s
a lot of house.
 
Even bigger than the
house I used to live in.
 
The one my
ex-wife now owns.”

Liz
looked back at him.
 
“That doesn’t bother
you that she’s living in your house with her new husband?”

“My
daughter lives there too.
 
It’s the only
house Desi has ever known.
 
I wasn’t
taking that away from her.”

Liz
looked at him.

“When
you have children,” he said, “you’ll understand.”

Liz
smiled and turned back around, facing the peaceful river.
 
“Who says I’m going to have children?” she
asked.

“I
do,” Tommy responded.
 
“We’re going to
have babies, that’s for sure.”

Liz
didn’t dispute him.
 
She was in this
relationship for the long haul and she loved how he wasn’t rushing
anything.
 
She was thirty-three and he
was almost ten years older, but they were going to take their time.
 
He’d already made that clear.
 
“I’m glad,” she said.

“Glad
about what?”

“The
fact that we’re taking it slow.
 
That
we’re taking our time.”

Tommy
hesitated.
 
He knew they needed to
revisit it.
 
“My ex-wife had a similar
thing happen to her,” he said.
 
“She had
to use firepower on one of my ex-lovers who had been stalking her.
 
She never admitted how much that affected
her.
 
I think that night was the
beginning of the end of our marriage.”

“It
was an awful thing, I’m not gonna lie,” Liz said.
 
“But not for the reasons you think.”

“Come
on, Liz.
 
Don’t you dare minimize
this.
 
I won’t allow that again.
 
You’re still stunned by what happened to me
that night and what you had to do to protect me.
 
You have to be.”

“Yeah,
it was tough having to do what I had to do.
 
Yeah, I’m not saying it wasn’t.
 
But I’d do it again to save your life.
 
That’s what you don’t understand.
 
I mind my own business, I do my own thing, but if people put my back
against the wall I’m coming out swinging like a motherfucker.”

Tommy
smiled and wrapped his arms tighter around her.

“Let’s
make that clear,” she continued.
 
“I’m
not your ex-wife, Tommy.
 
I know you have
nightmares about me turning on you or whatever, and saying how I can’t live
this kind of life or whatever, the same way she did, but that ain’t me.
 
All right?
 
Those assholes wanted to kill you that night.
 
What was I supposed to do?
 
Let them?
 
Please.
 
I’m not losing any sleep
over people like that.
 
They wouldn’t be
losing any sleep over me if they would have won that battle.
 
So bump them.
 
It’s not about them.”

Tommy
waited for her to say more.
 
When she
didn’t, he went there.
 
“What is it
about, Liz?”

“It’s
about Chelsey and Karen.
 
That’s what I
can’t seem to get over.
 
I just still
don’t understand it.
 
Karen is dead
 
for what?
 
Chelse is dead for what?”

“They
would say love,” Tommy said.
 
“Karen was
madly in love with Chelsey, and she thought you were going to take her away.”

“But
I’m not gay.
 
Why would I want
Chelse?
 
Karen knew I was seeing
you.
 
And why would she have her brother
set up that attack on you, if she was so angry with me?”

“Her
brother was a small-time hood. He knew the rules.
 
He knew, if his sister would have killed you,
then I would have tracked her down like a dog and killed her.
 
They had to take me out first.
 
When it didn’t work, thanks to that little
gun you kept in your nightstand drawer and your quick thinking, then they had
to improvise.
 
He got out of the country
for his own safety.”

“You
think Chelse came here to warn me about Karen.
 
Didn’t you?”

“I
know she did.
 
I looked into it.
 
Karen followed her here.
 
When she realized her brother’s henchmen did
not finish the job as they were paid to do, she decided she was going to finish
it herself.
 
She was coming here to kill
you as soon as she found out I was dead.
 
Now she had to get us both.
 
She
followed Chelsey because she knew Chelsey, unwittingly, would lead her to you.”

“But
why would Chelse stab you?”

“Because
I lived, and Karen didn’t.
 
They had
crazy love, Liz.
 
And crazy love does
crazy things.”

Liz
shook her head.
 
“It’s crazy alright. Me
and Chelse have been best friends since childhood.
 
Why would I all of a sudden want to take her
away from Karen?”

“Because
Karen had asked Chelse to marry her, and Chelse had turned her down.”

Liz
turned completely around and looked at Tommy.
 
“How do you know that?”

“My
security firm investigated those two.”

“The
same firm that can’t find Karen’s brother?”

“They’ll
find him, don’t worry.
 
Carmine Fontaine
will be found.
 
They know he’s no longer
in Dubai, and all indications are that he made it to Europe, but
 
he’ll be found.”

“So
Chelse turned Karen down?”

“Yup.”

“Did
you
 
investigators find out why?”

Tommy
hesitated.
 

“What?”
Liz asked, more curious than ever now.

“Chelse
told Karen that if she was going to marry anybody, it was going to be you.”

Liz
couldn’t believe it.
 
Chelse was holding
on to impossible love, and Karen was holding on to Chelse.
 

And
Liz finally grew faint.
 
It seemed as if
everything in her life had been turned upside down.
 
What was happening?
 

But
then she looked at Tommy again.
 
He saw
that look on her face too.
 
He opened his
arms to her.
 

And
that small gesture alone, from the one human being she was growing to trust so
completely, gave her strength.
 
She went
into his arms.
 

Despite
the pain he still felt; despite the concern he still had that she might not be
able to endure any more times like these, he pulled her tighter and tighter
into his arms.
 
He held onto her for dear
life.
 

Visit
www.mallorymonroebooks.com

for more information on all of her
titles.