Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (21 page)

Grace smiled and stood up.
 
She walked up to Sal.
 
They were eyeball to eyeball.
 
“I know you have your doubts about me.”

“Hell yeah, I do.
 
If you couldn’t take the heat before, what
makes you think you can take it now?”

“I understand what you’re saying,”
Grace said.
 
“But I can show you better
than I can tell you.
 
I’m not leaving
Tommy ever again.
 
I’m in this for
life.
 
He is my life.”

“You said those words before,” Sal
said.

“All I ask,” Grace said, “is that you
judge me by my works.
 
I’ll take great
care of your brother’s heart.
 
I promise
you that.”

Sal thought about it, and then he
smiled.
 
“You’d better,” he said with
that charming smile Grace found infectious.
 
“Because if you don’t, I’ll be coming for you, sister. I’ll be coming
with the Calvary.
 
There’ll be nowhere to
run, nowhere to hide.”

Grace laughed and they embraced.
 
A part of her knew he was joking.
 
But there was that little part that knew Sal
was a mob boss.
 
A very ruthless mob
boss.
 
There was that little part that
told her he wasn’t kidding at all.

Three months later, at Grace and
Tommy’s wedding, seriousness took on an entirely different meaning.
 
An ambush at the church.
 
Reno Gabrini was down.
 
Sal Gabrini was down. Mick Sinatra was
hit.
 
And Dapper Tom, the lover boy, the
one who was supposed to make love not war, became the undisputed head of the
family.

The women and children in the family
were hurried out of the sanctuary and placed into a backroom of the
church.
 
Chaos reigned supreme as more
and more gunshots could be heard outside.
 
Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, and his eldest son Brent, were in charge of
security, and all of the young guns, including Jimmy Mack Gabrini, were in
charge of keeping the women and children as calm as they possibly could.
 
Many of the guests that had been attending
Tommy and Grace’s wedding were in other rooms of the church, but this room was
for family members only.
 
They had to
treat this as an attack on the Gabrini and Sinatra family, and from the sounds
of the gunfire it was a massive assault.
 

Everybody was terrified, with the
children crying and screaming and the women attempting to calm them down.
 
But the sound of so many bullets flying left
even battle-tested Big Daddy Sinatra rattled.
 
He’d been in some tough calls in his life, but nothing like this.
 
This was Mick’s world.
 
This was a long way from his hometown, his
stomping ground of Jericho, Maine.

 
But as the women calmed the children, he had
to reassure everybody that the men knew how to handle their business and that
there was nothing more to be done than to wait.
 
He also worried sick about his wife Jenay, who was not accustomed to
this kind of madness.
 
But Mick’s wife
Roz Sinatra, kept Jenay reassured.
 
She
told Big Daddy not to worry.
 
She was
packing too, as Mick always insisted upon it, and would make it her personal
mission to protect Jenay.

But when the shooting would not let
up, Big Daddy made the decision to go and see what was going on, to make sure
the men did not need reinforcements.
 
His
oldest son Brent, the chief of police of the Jericho County Police Department,
and Reno’s oldest child Jimmy Mack, would take his place as the men in charge.

As Big Daddy left the room, and Brent
and Jimmy assumed the command, Grace was inwardly terrified.
 
She knew Big Daddy would not have gone out
there unless he felt something had gone horribly wrong.
 
She wanted to know if Tommy was alright so
badly that her heart was squeezing with anxiety.
 
They had just said their vows mere seconds
before the shooting erupted, and the idea of losing Tommy was unthinkable to
her.

But she also knew she was a Gabrini
now.
 
She had been pronounced Tommy’s
wife and this was a part of being his wife.
 
She had to keep it together.
 
He
couldn’t hold her hand and pamper her, he had to protect the entire
family.
 
So Grace got in protection mode
too.

While Grace’s mother, who was also in
attendance at the wedding, was complaining to her that she didn’t sign up for
this, Grace was helping the other womenfolk calm the fears of Destiny and the
smallest of the children.
 
But she was
also looking ahead.
 
As CEO of Trammel,
Grace had to deal with an oftentimes hostile board of directors that forced her
to always think more than one way.
 
She
was always looking ahead.
 
When she asked
some of the young guns to help her move around those tall file cabinets that
were in the room, she caught Trina and Gemma’s attention too.
 
They walked over to her.

“What’s going on, Grace?” Trina asked
her.

“We need to put a secondary barrier
up for the children in case the shooting doesn’t stop outside, but find its way
back here too.
 
While Brent and the guys
guard the room itself, we can guard the children in this secondary setup.”

Trina nodded.
 
“That’s a good idea,” she said, and Gemma
agreed too.
 
And they got busy helping to
make it so.
 
Roz and Jenay, the Sinatra
women, got busy too.

And Trina, being Trina, got on the
young men.
 
“What are you dragging around
for?” she yelled.
 
“We don’t have all
day!
 
Put some pep in your step!
 
Get moving!
 
You heard, Grace.
 
Move every file
cabinet in this room!
 
We need them all!”

Jimmy Mack looked at his mother.
 
“You sound just like Dad,” he said.

In any other circumstance, Trina
would have argued with him.
 
But not in
this circumstance. She took it as a compliment.

By the time Big Daddy left the back
room with his weapon drawn, and was back inside of the sanctuary, the shooting
out front suddenly stopped.
 
But instead
of feeling relaxed because it was all over, he ran faster toward the front
doors.
 
The silence felt more eerie to
him than the gunfire.

And when he made his way outside, and
down the steep steps of the cathedral, he saw why.

“
Dear
Lord
,” he said as he bore witness to the carnage.
 
Mick was down, Reno was down, Sal was
down.
  
Many of their men were down.
 
And Tommy, the only one still standing, was
running up the steps toward him.
 
He
still had two smoking guns in his hands.

“Guard the scene,” he said to Big
Daddy.
 
“We don’t know if there’s more to
come.
 
The ambulances are on their way.”

Sirens were already being heard in
the distance.
 
“Did you take out any of
the bad guys?” Big Daddy asked.

“Almost all of them,” Tommy
said.
 
“One of them was hit, but isn’t
dead yet. My men are transporting him to one of my safe houses.”

“For questioning?”

“For questioning,” Tommy said, as he
made it to the top step.
 
“Anybody hit
inside?”

“No, thank God. They’re all okay.”

Tommy looked back at his brother,
cousin, and uncle.
 
“Guard them with your
life, Big Daddy,” he said.

“That’s the only way I know how to
guard,” Big Daddy said, as he hurried down the steps.
 
Tommy hurried inside the church.
 
Big Daddy’s first instinct was to run to his
kid brother, to Mick, to make sure he was okay.
 
But he knew he had a job to do.
 
Every one of these powerful men were at this moment their most
vulnerable.
 
He had to protect them all.

Inside the church, Jimmy Mack saw
Tommy coming toward the backroom where they were hiding out.
 
He quickly opened the door.
 
When Tommy walked in, Grace sighed relief.
 
But even she could tell something was
terribly wrong.
 
All of the others in the
room could tell it too.
 
Even the
children went still.

When he saw that the children were
okay, including his Destiny, he looked at the women.

“Are they alright?” Trina asked, her
heart hammering.
 
What she always loved
about Tommy was his directness, and she was counting on it right now.

“No,” he responded without
hesitation.
 
“They’re still alive,” he
said quickly.
 
“But they’ve been hit.”

“Who’ve been hit?” Gemma asked, her
heart pounding.

“Dad’s been hit?” asked Jimmy Mack,
his heart pounding too.

“All of them,” Tommy said.
 
“Reno.
 
Sal.
 
Mick.”

Roz gasped.
 
For some reason she never thought for a
second that Mick could be injured.
 
He
was mighty Mick to her.
 
And he was down
too?
 
“Where are they?” she asked.

“They’re out front.
 
The ambulances are on their way.”

All of the women began moving as if
they were going where their men were, but Tommy blocked their passage.

“What are you doing?” Trina
asked.
 
“I’ve got to see Reno!
 
I’m going to check on, Reno!”

“No, you aren’t,” Tommy said
firmly.
 
“You’re going to stay right here
until my men come and transport all of you to a safe house.”

“A safe house?” Gemma asked.
 
“But what about Sal?
 
I’m not leaving Sal!”

“Yes, you are,” Tommy said
firmly.
 
“And Trina, you’re leaving Reno,
and Roz, you’re leaving Mick.”

“You can’t keep me from my husband,”
Roz asserted, moving closer.

But Tommy held her back.
 
“Yes, I can, and I am.
 
None of you are leaving this room until my
men arrive.
 
All of you will go to a safe
house until we know the nature of this threat.”

“But what about our husbands?” Trina
asked, worried sick.

“I’ll take care of them.
 
I’ll be with them.
 
Big Daddy will be in charge in my
absence.
 
And every one of you had better
do exactly what he tells you to do or you will be answering to me.
 
Once I’m confident that the hospital is
secured, and all of our men are in place, then yes, you wives can come and see
about your husbands.
 
But until that time
comes, you’ll continue to protect the children while we protect you.
 
You have got to trust me.
 
I will not tolerate anything less.”

They were unaccustomed to Tommy being
in charge.
 
He was usually the Brainiac
they all went to, not to carry out the plan, but to plan the plan.
 
But his threat felt as real as the fear in
the air, and they all heeded his warning.
 
Dapper Tom was gone.
 
Backdoor
Tommy was in charge.

Tommy looked at Grace.
 
His heart was breaking for her.
 
She hadn’t been married to him for one full
hour and already she was being tossed into the fire again.
 
It was grounds for divorce before.
 
Was she regretting her decision already?

Grace could tell he was worried about
her, when she knew worrying about her was the last thing he needed to be
concerned with.
 
And she didn’t
hesitate.
 
She quickly stepped forward.
 
“We trust you, Tommy,” she said.
 
“Go.
 
Take
care of the men.
 
We’ll be okay.”

When she said those words of
unconditional support, Tommy’s heart swelled with emotion.
 
She was in the fire, alright, but she wasn’t
getting burned.

And Tommy hurried out.
 
Because he had a job to do.
 
Because he had to protect their fallen
men.
 
He had to secure the premises where
they would be fighting for their lives.
 
And just as importantly, he had to find out who in the world caused this
fight in the first place.

The Director of Hospital Operations opened
the door of the doctors’ lounge and the chief of surgery, along with two other
doctors, looked up.

“Everybody’s needed,” the director
ordered.
 
“We have a mass shooting on our
hands.”

The doctors began to rise.
 
“What is it this time?” the chief asked as he
began putting on his lab coat.
 
“A school
shooting?”

“No.”

“A church bombing?”

“No,” the director said.

“Then what, Abe?”

“Tommy Gabrini’s brother has been
shot.”

“Tommy Gabrini?” a second doctor
asked. He was putting on his lab coat too.
 
“The CEO of the Gabrini Corporation?
 
That
Tommy Gabrini?”

“That’s the one.”

“His brother was shot?
 
But isn’t his brother a mob boss?”

“That’s what I’m hearing,” the
director said.
 
“And it’s not just
him.
 
But the owner of the PaLargio has
been shot too.”

“The PaLargio on the Vegas Strip?” a
third doctor asked.
 
“Damn!”

“And that’s not all.”

“More casualties?”

“Many more. Their bodyguards and what
have you.
 
And Tommy Gabrini’s uncle, a
guy named Mick Sinatra, was hit too.
 
And
gentlemen, there may be doubt about the others and their mob ties, but there’s
no doubt about this Mick Sinatra character.
 
From what I’ve been told, he’s all mob.”