Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (10 page)

Grace was shocked.
 
She didn’t expect that response from
him.
 
“Thanks for the vote of
confidence.”

“You’ve earned it,” he said.
 
But he was still staring at her.
 
She knew why.
 
Wearing sunglasses inside a building was always suspicious, especially
when it wasn’t her habit to do so.
 
She
could only hope he didn’t go there.
 
The
mess she made with Ed was her mess to clean up too.
 
“What brings you here?” she decided to ask
him, praying it would refocus his attention.

“Destiny’s here,” Tommy responded.

Grace stood up with sudden panic on
her face.
 
“She’s
here
?”
 
It was the middle of
the school day.
 
Tommy would not have
pulled her out of school unless it was vital.
 
Or she was ill.
 
“Where is she?
 
What’s wrong?”

“She’s fine,” Tommy quickly
responded.
 
“I picked her up before
lunchtime so she’s downstairs, in the cafeteria, having her lunch.”

“Having lunch with whom?” Grace knew
Tommy wouldn’t allow her to be downstairs alone.

“With Branson Nash, with her nanny,
and with about ten more of my people, all also eating lunch at various tables.”

Grace was now certain something was
up.
 
“What’s happened?” she asked.

 
“That is a question,” Tommy said as he began
to walk around her desk where she was standing, “that I’ve been dying to ask
you.”

Grace looked at him.
 
They were within an inch of each other.
 
She could smell Tommy’s cologne.
 
She could feel his outsized presence even though
he was not touching her.
 
“What do you
mean?” she asked him.

Tommy reached toward her face,
causing her to automatically flinch.
 
But
it was that reaction that concerned him even more.
 
“I’m not going to hurt you, Grace,” he felt a
need to say.

And as soon as he said it, Grace felt
the sting of emotion.
 
“I know,
Tommy.
 
You would never hurt me.”

“Never,” Tommy responded.
 
He could feel her presence too, and it was so
powerful he wanted to pull her into his arms.
 
He never felt such protectiveness for any woman the way he felt for
Grace.
 
She was in his soul.
 
Even during their darkest hours, in the midst
of their divorce, he still felt that connection to her.
 
“And don’t you forget that,” he added.

Grace was near tears, but she didn’t
allow herself to cry.
 
Because she knew
that would only make it worse.
 
That
would only allow Tommy to see the kind of train wreck her life really was.
 
Because she knew what he was about to
do.
 
She knew whenever he made up his
mind regarding her or Destiny, there was no stopping him.
 
And she was right.
 
He did it.
 
He removed her sunglasses.

When Tommy saw the extent of the
damage, when he saw that Grace had literally been punched in the face, his
entire countenance changed.
 
He frowned
when he saw the purple bruise beneath her eye.
 
It was no longer swollen or puffy, but he could tell it had been.

Grace wanted to look away from
him.
 
She was embarrassed by the end
result of her decision to marry a man like Ed.
 
But Tommy placed her chin in his hand and kept her face turned toward
his.
 
There was no blame in his
eyes.
 
There was no judgment.
 
To Grace’s everlasting relief, there was only
concern and sadness.
 
“Who did this to
you?” he asked her.

Grace didn’t respond.
 
She knew she would be signing Ed’s death
warrant if she told.

But Tommy already knew.
 
“It was Ed, wasn’t it?”

Grace continued to stare at him.

“I know it was Ed,” Tommy said.
 
“This is his handiwork.
 
A man who would contract hitmen to
assassinate me will have no problem doing shit like this.”

Grace’s heart fell through her
shoe.
 
She couldn’t believe it.
 
“Hitmen?
 
What are you talking about?”

“That’s why I picked up Destiny.
 
That’s why you stay at my side until I find
that joker.
 
He’s bad news, Grace.
 
He wanted control of Destiny’s
inheritance.
 
But he couldn’t get it
unless he took me out of the picture.”

“He wants to kill you?
 
He hired people to murder you?”

Tommy knew how tough it was for Grace
to hear such news.
 
But she had to know.
“Yes,” he said.

“
Oh,
my God
!” Her eyes were moving rapidly from side to side, as if she was
still trying to understand.
 
“What have I
done?
 
A wolf knocked at my door, and I
let him
in
?”
 

Tommy handed her a handkerchief out
of his coat pocket and then placed one of his hands on the small of her back,
pulling her closer.
 
“How did it happen?”

“He was upset about my refusal to
support you endorsing him.
 
I didn’t want
to hear it, so I went in the bathroom.
 
He broke the door down and punched me.”

Tommy was livid.
 
“In the bathroom?”

Grace nodded.
 
“I felt so trapped.
 
But I fought my way out of there, God knows I
did.”

“I hope you beat his ass.”

“I did,” Grace said, nodding her
head.

Tommy rubbed her back.
 
The idea that Ed would put her in that
position angered him.
 
“I take it he
didn’t try to harm Destiny?”

“No way!
 
I declare he wouldn’t be alive if he would
have touched our child.”

He isn’t going to be alive after touching you
, Tommy wanted to say, but wasn’t
certain if Grace could handle it.
 
“Is he
also behind that hostile takeover, Grace?” he asked her.

Grace was astounded that Tommy would
put Ed in that mix.
 
“He’s not behind
it,” she said as she wiped her nose.
 
“But that’s about the only negative thing he isn’t behind!”

But Tommy was still staring at
Grace.
 
One of his hands was still on the
small of her back, and his hand had moved from her chin to the side of her
face.
 
He was now standing so close to
her that their bodies were touching.
 
She
could feel the outline of his penis pressing against her belly button.
 
She could feel every inch of him.

“Is this the first time?” he asked
her.

“Yes,” she said quickly.
 
But Tommy still looked doubtful.
 
“I promise you it’s the first time he ever
hit me.”
 
Tommy still looked doubtful.
 
“It was the first time he hit me,” she
clarified, “but it wasn’t the first time he threatened to hit me.
 
He threatened many times.”

Tommy was searching her big, bright
eyes.
 
He could only imagine the pain
that jerk had put her through.
 
“You’ve
filed for divorce,” he said to her.

Grace looked at him.
 
She wasn’t as wide eyed anymore.
 
How, she wondered, could he possibly know
that?
 
The court didn’t even have the
papers yet!
 
Ed hadn’t even been served
yet!
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“And I know what you’re thinking.
 
I should have never married him.
 
And you’re right.
 
I put Destiny in a bad situation and I hate
that as much as you do.
 
He was trying to
have you killed?
 
Oh my God!
 
How could I allow this man to be in our
daughter’s life?
 
I know you won’t let
anybody stand in the way of Destiny’s happiness.
 
I know that.”

But a frown appeared on Tommy’s
face.
 
“Nor yours, Grace,” he said.
 
“Do you know that too?
 
I’ll never let anybody stand in the way of
your happiness either.
 
That’s why I
agreed to the divorce in the first place.
 
It was what you wanted and I gave in.
 
For your happiness.
 
That’s why
you should have come to me the first time that asshole threatened you.”

Grace was still reeling from news of
the assassination plot, and now from the kind words he had just spoken.
 
She was also reeling from the way his body
kept pushing closer against her.
 
But she
had to keep it together.
 
“I knew I could
handle him,” she said.
 
“And I did handle
him after he hit me.
 
I beat his ass,
Tommy.
 
That’s the kind of woman you
like, right?
 
The kind that would kick
ass when she was kicked?”

But Tommy’s reaction was one of alarm
rather than pride.
 
“Is that what you
think, Grace?” he asked her.
 
“You think
I would want my woman wrestling with some man?
 
You think I would want my woman
kicking
ass
?”
 
Tommy grabbed her by both of
her arms and turned her toward him.
 
“I
don’t want that,” he said.
 
“I don’t want
any such thing!
 
Yes, if you’re attacked
I want you to defend yourself.
 
You’d
better defend yourself.
 
But don’t you
understand?
 
I don’t want you getting
attacked.
 
I don’t want you in a position
where you have to defend yourself.
 
That’s my job.”

Tears were reappearing in Grace’s
eyes, and a slight puffiness around her bruised eye was beginning to
manifest.
 
His heart broke.
 
The idea that she had to endure what she
endured.
 
The idea that she had been
living in a loveless marriage and enduring all of that shit alone, angered him
and frustrated him and made him feel guilty as sin.
 
Grace and Destiny were his family.
 
The only family of his own he’d ever managed
to pull together.
 
They were separated,
which didn’t bode well for his abilities, but they were still a unit.
 
They were still together.
 
But only to find out now that even in
separation they were falling apart, tore at Tommy’ heartstrings.
 
He pulled her into his arms.

Grace closed her eyes tightly when
Tommy held her.
 
She fought back tears,
she fought the pain, she fought the agony of knowing that she was the one who
broke up their family, and brought Ed into their lives.
 
Guilt couldn’t describe how Grace felt.
 
She was burdened with it.

When Tommy realized she wasn’t just
holding him now, but was clinging to him, he held her tighter.
 
But unlike Grace, he wasn’t thinking about
the past.
 
He wasn’t blaming her for what
went wrong with their relationship because he, in his own eyes, was even more
at fault.
 
Grace was a plant that had to
be watered and cared for.
 
But he just
planted it and expected it to grow.
 
She
eventually grew, thanks to her own initiative.
 
After the divorce she truly blossomed.
 
But his inattention, his need to conquer the world and expect his family
to be just fine, nearly choked the life out of her.
 
Now she was blaming herself for hooking up
with Ed.
 
He couldn’t allow that.

When he felt her emotions were
easing, he pulled back from her.
 
He
looked directly in her big, beautiful eyes.
 
His friends said Grace was weak.
 
His friends said Grace was dull.
 
His friends said Grace didn’t live up to the standard of international
beauty that his other women easily lived up to.
 
But Tommy knew those friends, well-meaning though they might be, were
wrong.
 
In Tommy’s eyes Grace didn’t live
up to the standard, she surpassed it.

“It’s been a rough few days for both
of us, Grace,” he said.
 
“I just left
contentious meetings in Vienna, and you just had to file for divorce from
Ed.
 
Not to mention all the conniving
he’s been up to.
 
It’s been rough.
 
But the one thing we cannot do, and will not
do, is look back and blame.
 
We have a
child to raise, companies to run, and lives to live.
 
And don’t you worry about Ed.
 
I’ll take care of that bastard.”