Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (13 page)

“Please, Tommy,” Ed was crying.
 
“Tommy, please!”

But Tommy showed no mercy.
 
He threw Ed from one end of that bathroom to
the other end, beating him, kicking him, grabbing his head and banging it
against the sink until it began to split and the blood began to pour.
 
Then he threw Ed toward the toilet.
 
Ed fell down on it, but was already losing
consciousness.
 
By the time he leaned over,
and then fell off of the toilet, he was dead.

Tommy just stood there, breathing
heavily.
 
He wished with all that was
within him that it didn’t have to end up this way.
 
But Ed started digging his grave when he laid
his hands on Grace.
 
And then he wanted
Tommy dead.
 
And tried to take out
Tommy’s men.
 
There was no other way, as
far as Tommy was concerned, that it could have ended.
 
No fucker alive could do what Ed did and
expect anything less than what he just got.
 
Tommy had no sympathy.
 
Tommy had no
regrets.

When the silence continued for longer
than a half a minute, Branson and Tommy’s other men opened the door.

“You okay, boss?” Branson asked him
before he saw the scene.
 
Then he saw the
scene.
 
And when he saw the state of that
bathroom, and especially the state of Ed Jefferson, he realized he had asked
the wrong man that question.

He looked at Tommy.
 
He had a reputation as the easiest
Gabrini.
 
As the lover not the
fighter.
 
But he knew better.
 
He learned long ago not to listen to that
bullshit.
 
He’d heard long ago how Tommy
was a backroom bastard.
 
How Tommy was
the kind of man you never wanted to meet in an alley.
 
And he’d seen Tommy do some alley-like things
in the time he worked for him.
 
Some
crazy-ass shit.
 
But he’d never seen him
kill a man with his bare hands.

Branson looked at that bloody
bathroom again, and at Ed on that bathroom floor.
 
It was a horrific death, Branson felt, and he
also felt that it could not have happened to a nicer guy.
   

By the time Tommy made it home, it was
well past midnight.
 
Not because he had
been at Ed’s cabin all night.
 
After the
carnage, he left.
 
His men knew what to
do.
 
But the carnage was the point for
him.
 
There was no way he could just go
home to Destiny and Grace.
 
He couldn’t
explain to her what he had to do with blood still on his hands.
 
He went to his brother Sal’s apartment.

In the heart of upscale Seattle, Sal
owned a luxury apartment building.
 
The
top floor, the penthouse, was where Sal lived before he married Gemma and
relocated to Vegas.
 
Whenever Sal and
Gemma were in town, or Reno or Trina, or whenever Tommy needed to use the
place, it was available.
 
Everybody who
worked in that building knew the Gabrinis and also knew, because Sal had made
it perfectly clear, that they were answerable to all of them.

The doorman eagerly let Tommy
in.
 
The desk manager eagerly escorted
Tommy to the private elevator that would take him to the private
residence.
 
And once in the penthouse,
Tommy jumped into the shower and bathe until his skin felt raw.
 
And even after that, after nothing was coming
off of his body because there was nothing left to come off, he leaned his hands
against the shower wall, dropped his head, and felt that ache he felt after
times like these.
 
And he thought, not
about Ed, but about Destiny and Grace.

Destiny liked Ed.
 
Since he was her stepfather, Tommy and Grace
saw that their relationship was solid.
 
Tommy was certain Destiny would miss Ed.
 
But since there was no way he was going to allow that man to spend
another second around his daughter after what happened with Grace, she was
going to miss him anyway.
 
He was going
to be out of their lives regardless of whether or not this night had ever
occurred.
 
He wasn’t worried so much
about Destiny.
 
But he was worried sick
about Grace.

Grace had filed for divorce, even
though Ed apparently didn’t realize it, and she was upset with Ed now.
 
But he couldn’t dismiss the fact that Ed had
been her husband.
 
He couldn’t dismiss
the fact that Ed had been her lover.
 
He
couldn’t dismiss the fact that Grace was going to miss him in the days ahead
just as he had once missed Liz.

But when he got out of the shower,
and dried off and put on clothes that he kept at Sal’s place, he just wanted to
get home.
 
He felt better now.
 
Not good.
 
But better.

And when he finally made it home, it
was well after midnight.
 
He went to
Destiny’s room first, to check on her, and was surprised to find that Grace was
in that room, asleep in bed with Destiny.

He stood there when he saw them
there.
 
Mother and child.
 
The mother of his child.
 
And he was in his feelings in a way that
seemed to characterize the day.
 
He
placed his hands in his pants pockets as he looked at them.
 
Grace was lying on her side, with her arm
protectively around Destiny, and Destiny’s tiny hand was holding onto one of
Grace’s fingers.
 
Tommy smiled when he
saw how tightly she was holding on.

And then he sat in the chair beside
the bed, crossed his legs, and watched over his family all night long.

The next morning, as Tommy was
sitting at the head of the breakfast table sipping coffee and reading the Wall
Street Journal online, a call came in.
 
He looked at his cell phone’s Caller ID.
 
It was Liz.
 
Surprised, he
answered.
 
“Hey,” he said.

“You phoned?” she responded.

Why in the world would he have phoned
her?
 
“No,” he responded.

“I mean, I’m phoning you,” Liz
corrected herself.
 
“I wanted to make
sure you were okay.”

Suddenly, even as she spoke, Tommy
could hear all kinds of gunfire and bombs blasts in the background.
 
“Doesn’t sound okay where you are.”

“I’m fine,” Liz said in a hyper-voice
that defied her words.
 
“This just
erupted.
 
It sounds close, but it’s not.”

“Sounds as if you’re on the
battlefield.”

“That’s not far off,” she said.
 
“Ask him,” she said to somebody else.
 
“Yeah.
 
Tell him we’ll pay if he’ll take us to him.
 
Ask him, Raj!”

“Any more threats on your life?”
Tommy asked her.

“No, Tommy, and it won’t be.
 
Adabi was just a bitter little man who
thought he could score some points by killing a journalist.
 
He was a joke.
 

A joke?
 
She was the joke, Tommy thought, if she
thought that terrorist wasn’t real.
 

“He’ll do it,” Tommy heard Raj say.

“I’ve got to run,” Liz said into the
phone.
 
“We’ve got somebody willing to
hook us up with Mamoof, and he seems credible.”

“He
seems
credible?”
 
Tommy
couldn’t believe the chances she took.
 
“What if he’s not credible, Liz?”

“He’ll do.
 
I’ve got to run.
 
Bye!”
 
She hung up before Tommy could urge her to be careful.
 
Which was fine by Tommy.
 
That was a broken record from long ago.

By the time Grace and Destiny woke up
that morning, bathed, dressed, and made their way downstairs, Grace was
surprised to see that he was up and dressed and ready to go.
 
Grace saw him before he saw them and to the naked
eye he looked like the gorgeous man he was in his expensive, tailored
suit.
 
But Grace could see the stress on
his face.
 
Whatever he did last night,
whatever he had to do last night when he left the house, had affected him
mightily.

“Daddy,” Destiny said happily when
she saw her father sitting at the dining room table.
 
She broke away from Grace and ran to him.

Tommy smiled when he heard his
daughter.
 
He sat his phone down and
lifted her into his arms.
 
“There’s my
angel,” he said as he held her.

He also observed Grace as he held
Destiny.
 
Grace was dressed marvelously,
he thought, in a Carolina-blue skirt suit and red heels that made her look more
feminine than bossy, but left no doubt that she was the boss.
 
Her long hair was pushed back, with a bouncy
underthrow, and that face Tommy had always admired was unobstructed for his
view.
 
Many people didn’t seem to get
Grace’s beauty because it wasn’t a flaunted beauty, but Tommy got it.
 
He got it loud and clear.
 
Grace, to Tommy, was inside and out the most
attractive woman he’d ever known.
 
Her
heart showed on her face.
 
Her decency
and pride showed in her walk.
 
Her
unwavering moral core showed in the twinkle deep within her expressive big
eyes.
 
That was why he never got over
her.
 
That was why he still felt he
picked the right one to be the mother of his child.
 
It was the one thing, Tommy felt, that he got
exactly right.
 
“How are you this
morning, Grace?” he asked her.

“I’m well rested,” Grace said.
 
“How about you?”

Tommy nodded.
 
“I’m good,” he said in a less-than-enthused
way that only confirmed Grace’s concern.

But she knew there was nothing that
could be said in front of Destiny.
 
“Are you
going to take her to school,” Grace asked, “or am I?”

“Neither,” Tommy said.
 
“Sally’s taking her.”
 
The threat had been neutralized.
 
Tommy still had security on Destiny, and
Grace too for that matter, but the immediate threat had been dealt with.

Grace nodded her understanding,
although a chill ran down her spine because she knew, if Tommy was allowing
Destiny to go anywhere without either one of them at her side, that Ed was no
longer a threat.
 
That Ed, in all
probability, was dead.

“Do you want breakfast at school,”
Grace asked Destiny, “or do you want Mommy to prepare you something?”

“School,” Destiny said excitedly.
 
“I get to be with all of my friends at
breakfast.”

“Then breakfast at school it shall
be.”

Tommy sat Destiny back on her
feet.
 
Sally came in from outside as
Grace double-checked Destiny’s book bag, and double-checked her lunchbox.
 
Then she gave Sally the go-ahead.
 
Destiny kissed both parents goodbye, and then
she and Sally headed out.

“Be good,” Tommy said.

“You too,” Destiny said, as they
left.

Tommy laughed.
 
“I’ll try,” he said.

Grace refreshed Tommy’s coffee,
poured a cup for herself, and then sat at the table with him.
 
She knew they needed to talk.
 

And Tommy didn’t hesitate.
 
“He’s dead, Grace,” he said bluntly.

Grace stared into her coffee
mug.
 
Then she looked at Tommy.
 
“It couldn’t be helped.
 
Could it?”

Tommy shook his head.
 
“No,” he said.
 
“He sat a trap for me and my men at the cabin
where we found him.”

“A trap?” Grace asked.
 
“What kind of trap?
 
And what cabin?”

“Some cabin he owns deep in the
woods.
 
Guns were rigged to go off at the
push of a button.
 
If my men had not checked
out that place in search of some kind of a trap, he would have killed every
last one of us.”

Grace’s heart fell through her
shoe.
 
“Including you?”

“Including me.
 
Especially me.
 
Every one of us.
 
That fucker didn’t care.
 
My men even found two bodies in a storage
shed on the property.”

Grace was floored.
 
“Two bodies?”

Tommy hated to tell her, but she had
to understand the level of man she had been dealing with.
 
She had to understand that Ed Jefferson did
not deserve her tears.
 
“Two small-time
hit men, Mike Dobson and Narly Fann, had gone missing on the day of Destiny’s
party.
 
Word was that Ed was looking to
hire them to take me out, and then suddenly they went missing.
 
Of course everybody thought I had something
to do with their disappearance, but I didn’t.
 
It was all on Ed.
 
He killed them,
and then stashed their bodies in that shed until he had time to bury them.”

“Geez,” Grace said.
 
“And you’re certain Ed killed them?”

Tommy nodded.
 
“I’m certain.
 
It wasn’t his first time either, Grace.
 
He used to take out women on the operating table if they didn’t share
their fortunes with him.”

Grace frowned.
 
“How did you find that out?”

“Deep investigations.
 
It can’t be proven, but that’s the conclusion
I’ve reached and apparently the Detroit hospitals that revoked his privileges
concluded too.
 
They forced him out.
 
Quietly.”

Grace shook her head.
 
The depth of depravity of that man was
endless.
 
“And there’s two bodies on his
property.
 
At some cabin I didn’t even
know he owned.”

Tommy nodded.
 
“That’s right.
 
But don’t worry about those two bodies.
 
My men moved them to an entirely different
location.
 
I don’t want Ed’s death tied
to their deaths at all.”

Grace didn’t understand.
 
“If Ed killed them, why wouldn’t you want the
authorities to know?”

“When the cops find Ed, we want it to
be an open and shut case of a robbery gone wrong.
 
My men will move his body off site too.
 
That’s how they’ll set it up.
 
If the cops discover that Ed owned that
cabin, and they find those dead bodies on the premises, it’ll only prolong the
investigation.
 
And I want it shut down
quickly.
 
I don’t want that hanging over
your head.”

That wary look was in Grace’s eyes,
and it scared Tommy.
 
Because he
remembered it.
 
It was the same look she
had when they first started down that road to divorce.
 
“I know what I’m saying sounds cold and
cruel,” he said.

But Grace cut him off.
 
“No, it doesn’t,” she said firmly, surprising
him.
 
“Ed was a bad man who tried to take
you out.
 
So you took him out.
 
And he murdered two men?
 
What else was he capable of?
 
Once he got control of Destiny’s money, if
that was his aim, he could have turned around and killed me and Destiny
too!
 
I’ll be the fool of fools to grieve
his loss.
 
I’m glad you took care of
him.
 
For our child’s sake, I’m pleased
you took him out, Tommy.”

But Tommy saw her eyes.
 
They didn’t match her talk.
 
“Then why are your eyes filled with unshed
tears, Grace, if you’re so pleased?”

“I’m pleased he’s gone, and trust me,
I’m not shedding any tears for him.
 
But
there’s a terrifying truth I have to live with, Tommy.
 
I fell for Ed.
 
Before I found out what kind of man he truly
was, I loved him deeply once.
 
If you
would not have had him investigated, if you hadn’t told your men to make sure
that cabin was safe, what would have happened?
 
He could have killed you and your men and then came for Destiny.
 
Then what protection would she have had?
 
I have to protect her,” Grace said with such
conviction that it warmed Tommy’s heart.

“For our daughter’s sake,” Grace
said, “I have to be there when you can’t be there.
 
She’s Tommy Gabrini’s daughter, she will
forever be a Gabrini, I have to stand up for her.
 
So, no, Tommy.
 
Don’t you dare think I’m shedding a solitary
tear for that bastard.
 
My tears are for
Destiny, and how my actions put her in such peril and I didn’t even know it!”

And Grace couldn’t help it.
 
The tears flowed.
 
Tommy wanted to grab her in his arms, but he
was too pleased to see her strength.
 
He
was too pleased to see that she now fully understood what Destiny, as his
daughter, was going to be up against.
 
And she was up for the challenge of protecting her too.
 
But he did reach over and squeeze her hand.
 
“Ed caused his own downfall, Grace,” he
said.
 
Her anguish anguished him.
 
“None of this is your fault.”

But Grace was no apologist.
 
She was shaking her head.
 
“Don’t say that,” she said.
 
“It is my fault.
 
There was a part of me that knew there was
something wrong with that joker early on, but he seemed like such a great guy
that I thought it was just fear.
 
I
thought it was just the fact that I’d had nothing but failed relationships in
my life and didn’t want to go down that road again.
 
But I fell for a monster.
 
I put our baby in such danger, Tommy!”

Strength be damned, Tommy thought, as
he quickly stood up and hurried to Grace.
 
He lifted her from her seat and pulled her into his arms.
 
“It’s alright, darling,” he said as he held
her.
 
“It’s alright now.”