Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (3 page)

“Why would that turn us off?” Narly
asked.
 
“We’ll handle who we have to
handle to get paid.”

But Mike had more questions.
 
“Who’s the target?
 
How much are you paying up front?
 
When do we get the rest?”

“Twenty grand up front,” Ed
said.
 
“We meet back here for final
payment, for the other thirty grand.
 
You
call me and say it’s done, we meet for payment.
 
But only after I get unambiguous confirmation that the job is done.”

“Answer the rest of it, man,” Mike
said. “Who’s this guy you want us to take out?
 
Who’s this guy to you?”

Ed didn’t want to go there, but he
knew he had no choice if he expected their help.
 
“He’s my wife’s ex-husband, alright?
 
He’s my stepdaughter’s father.”

Narly studied him.
 
“Why would you want him dead?” Narly
asked.
 
“He want his wife back?”

“Because I need money,” Ed said.
 
“Big money.
 
The kind of money even a doctor can’t make.
 
With him out of the way, I’ll be sitting on a
goldmine.”

“A goldmine?
 
The stepdaughter?” Narly asked.

“My stepdaughter,” Ed said with a
nod.
 
“She’ll be under me and my wife’s
complete control.
 
Her and all of those
millions her dead daddy will leave her.”

Narly looked at him
suspiciously.
 
He didn’t know Ed like
that.
 
Only through a friend of a friend
of a friend.
 
But this reeked of more killings
to come if the wife wasn’t involved.
 
“Your wife on board with this?” he asked Ed.

“Of course she’s not on board!” Ed
lashed out.
 
“That’s the father of her
child.
 
She’s still in love with the
joker!
 
But that’s why this killing has
to be professional.
 
That’s why I’m
willing to pay top dollar.
 
You’ve got to
make it look like an accident unquestioned.”

But the more Ed talked, the less
comfortable Mike was getting.
 
The fact
that the wife wasn’t onboard was a problem.
 
“Who is he?” Mike asked.
 
“Who’s
the bullseye?”

Ed was told that these two men were
tough enough.
 
He was relying on their toughness
now.
 
“Tommy Gabrini,” he said.

As soon as that name was spoken, the
expression on both men’s faces changed.
 
Narly even more so than Mike.
 
“
Tommy Gabrini
?” he asked.
 
“Are you out of your fucking mind?
 
You want us to take out
Tommy Gabrini
?”

Ed was disappointed.
 
“What’s the big damn deal?” he asked.
 
“It’ll be the easiest fifty grand you ever
made.
 
He won’t know what hit him!”

“But we’ll know what hit us!” Mike
fumed.
 
“Are you fucking serious?
 
He’s Tommy Gabrini!
 
He’s Sal Gabrini’s brother!
 
He’s Reno Gabrini’s cousin!
 
He’s Mick the Tick’s nephew for crying out
loud!
 
Do you know who Mick the Tick is?
 
Do you know what that man is capable of?
 
Let’s get the fuck out of here!” Mike began
walking away.

“What are you afraid of?” Ed asked,
panicking now.
 
“They’ll never know it
was you!”

But Mike was already heading back
toward the Jeep.
 
“I’m out,” he said.

Ed looked at Narly.
 
He was his last hope.
 
“I heard you had the grit I need,” he
said.
 
“Or are you a yellow belly like
your partner?”

“When it comes to the Gabrinis?
 
I’m a yellow belly,” Narly said without an
ounce of pride, and began leaving too.
 
He loved money, but he loved living more.

But Ed knew he couldn’t let them just
leave.
 
They knew the plan now.
 
What would stop them from taking that
information to the authorities?
 
Or even
worse, if the price was right,
to the
Gabrinis
?

Ed hurried out of the cabin, pulling
out his gun and resting it at his side as he walked up to the Jeep.
 
The two men didn’t see it coming when this
mild-mannered doctor lifted that gun and shot one, and then the other one,
straight through the forehead.
 
It was
his first double kill.
 
But they were
wrong.
 
It wasn’t his first time at the
rodeo.

It also wasn’t his first time around
dead bodies.
 
He was a doctor.
 
He saw death all the time.
 
But the fact that they were dead didn’t make
Ed’s job any easier.
 
He had bodies to
bury now.
 
He had to convince Grace that
he loved and cared about her and her irritating daughter a little longer
now.
  
Because Tommy still had to
go.
 
He was still going down.
 
But the plan was going to have to change.
 
Without hitmen to do his dirty work, Ed
didn’t have the cover he was hoping for.
 
He didn’t have the alibi effect.
 
But that didn’t matter.
 
Gabrini
still had to go.
 
Only it was the good
doctor Ed, and not two random henchmen, who would have to get it done.

“Cheers,” Liz Logan said to Raj, and
they toasted to another job well done.
  
He had been Liz’s photojournalist for the past three years, but had only
started working closely with her for the past three months.
 
The best three months of his entire life, if
he had to say so himself.
 
But he
didn’t.
 
Liz, like most Americans, never
asked his opinion.

“You’re an excellent photojournalist,
Raj,” Liz said to him.
 
“One of the
best.
 
You’re due a raise.”

Raj smiled greatly.
 
“Now that calls for a toast.”

Liz laughed as they toast again.
 
Then her smile eased, and she shook her
head.
 
“I still can’t get over the scene
at that hospital,” she said.
 
“All of the
carnage.
 
All of the victims.”

“And so young they were,” Raj said.

“Babies,” Liz said.

Raj looked at her.
 
“What about you?
 
Any babies of your own?
 
Now or in the future?”

“No and no,” Liz said.

“No?”
 
Raj was surprised.
 
“You do not
want to have children?
 
What woman does
not want babies?”

“This woman,” Liz said.
 
“It’s not that I’ll never have any.
 
But I don’t want any right now.
 
Not with my lifestyle.
 
It wouldn’t be fair to the child.”

Raj looked at her.
 
Fair to the child his ass.
 
Liz Logan had a lot of great qualities, a lot
of wonderful qualities, but selflessness wasn’t one of them.
 
“What about your male friend?” he asked.
 
“The one that phones too much?”

Liz smiled.
 
“I never said he phones too much.”

“You did not have to say.
 
The way you rush him off the phone, the way
you quickly end the calls, says so.
 
What
about him?
 
Does he not care about your
decision?”

In truth, Raj was the only person
she’d shared her feelings with.
 
“We
haven’t discussed it yet,” she said.

Raj smiled and shook his head.
 
“You Americans.
 
You think time is eternal.”

“I think no such thing!”

“But you do, Liz.
 
And it is with grave displeasure that I have
to tell you this, but you are not, how do you say?
 
So young?
 
Time may leave you or, how is it said?
 
Run out on you.
 
Time may run
out.”

Liz nodded.
 
She was well aware of that fact.
 
Tommy had mentioned it more than once.
 
He was older than she was.
 
He was especially aware.
 
“I know I don’t have a wealth of time,” she
said.
 
“But I can’t change who I am, or
what I do.
 
Babies can wait.
 
The world is on fire and I’m fortunate enough
to be a journalist with a ringside seat witnessing the blaze.
 
I’m not missing out, man.
 
I’m not giving this up.
 
No way.”

“We are in the center,” Raj
said.
 
“We cannot miss it.”

Liz smiled.
 
She knew he didn’t understand the nuisance of
what she meant, but it didn’t matter.
 
She sipped more beer.

Raj watched her drink her beer.
 
“I suggest we retire upstairs,” he said, “and
rest until we get the call.
 
I will give
you another one of my world class massages.”

Liz rubbed her neck.
 
She could surely use a world class
massage.
 
But she was nobody’s fool.
 
This man didn’t want to ease her muscles.
 
He wanted, once again, to ease his
boner.
 
“We’d better wait right here,”
she said.
 
“I’d never forgive myself if
Adabi showed up and I wasn’t in place.”

“You think he will actually allow you
to see Mamoof?”

Liz nodded.
 
“Yes.
 
I think so.
 
But be prepared.
 
He’s probably not going to let you come
along.”

“And that is okay with you?”

“I’d rather have my own photographer,
certainly,” Liz said.
 
“But I know
Adabi.
 
We’ve worked together
before.
 
He’s good too.
 
Besides, this is going to be the interview of
a lifetime.
 
An exclusive with an ISIS
informant.
 
I’m not passing this up.”

Tommy leaned back in the musky cab as
it lumbered through the bustling streets of Damascus.
 
He didn’t have time for this, he had too much
on his plate as it was, but he knew he had to make this journey.
 
This was
come
to Jesus
time for him and Liz, and it was a long time coming.
 
Long overdue.
 
And as he looked out over a city he’d never visited before, he tried to
think how it all went off the rails for them.
 
But he couldn’t say.
 
He couldn’t
pinpoint when it all changed.
 
But he did
remember what he didn’t think was then, but now believed to be, the defining
moment.

It happened two months ago.
 
They were at a horse ranch owned by a friend
of Tommy’s in northwest Seattle.
 
It was
a family day for Destiny.
 
Her mother was
there, Tommy’s ex-wife Grace, and Grace’s husband Ed.
 
Tommy invited Liz along, and she accepted.

Destiny was up on her pony, with an
experienced rider at her side, while Tommy, Liz, Grace and Ed were on
individual horses.
 
But before they could
even begin to trot along, Ed decided to give his horse an unnecessarily harsh
slap, and the horse lifted up on his hind legs, screeching, and then tossed Ed
to the ground.
 
Grace’s horse, and Liz’s
horse, reacted to Ed’s horse and took off running down the slope.
 
The women were terrified, crying for help.

Tommy immediately ordered the trainer
to watch Destiny, and then he gave his horse a swift kick and galloped toward
them.
 
He wasn’t a great rider, but he
was an experienced one, and was able to catch up with the wayward horses within
seconds.
 
But he knew he had a decision
to make.
 
Either he was going to save Liz
first, or save Grace first.
 
He couldn’t
get to both.
 
He kicked his horse into
high gear, and made his decision.
 
He
went for Grace.
 
He didn’t know why he
made that decision, but he did know he would have died if anything would have
happened to Grace.

When he made it up to Grace, he
corralled her horse, grabbed the reins, and stopped the progression.
 
Liz, stunned that he would rescue Grace over
her, lost her balance before Tommy could get over to her, and fell off of her
horse.
 
She wasn’t hurt.
 
But Tommy knew she was pissed.

“Really?” she asked when Grace and
her horse were safely reined in and Tommy was jotting toward her.

“What are you talking?” Tommy
asked.
 
“I had to make a decision!”

“And you chose Grace?”

Tommy wasn’t going to deny it.
 
“Yes.”

“Why, Tommy?
 
And don’t tell me that shit about her being
Destiny’s mother.
 
You always use that
excuse every time you do something for that woman.
 
Well what about me?
 
You don’t do shit for me!”

It was a major blowup that riled
everybody that day, with words being tossed around that shattered all
peace.
 
Tommy couldn’t remember what
words they exchanged, but what he never forgot was his decision, and the fact
that he didn’t regret that decision.
 
He
didn’t regret it for one second.
 
But
that fact alone, the fact that he rescued Grace over Liz, made him all the more
aware that he and Liz, and their relationship, were in trouble.
 
And that was even before she decided to
inject herself into this brutal war.

The cab stopped in front of the
Baroche Hotel and Tommy stepped out.
 
He
reached back in, grabbed his overnight bag, placing the strap over his
shoulder, and paid the driver.
 
And then
he walked into the hotel’s lobby.
 
He had
no intention of being in the Middle East tonight, let alone in some dinky
hotel, but that was where he found himself.
 
In a war-torn country in the middle of the night.
 
And with the ten-hour time difference between
Seattle and Damascus, he was barely functional.

But he wasn’t going to let this
matter linger.
 
She wanted this life, she
could have it.
 
But he wasn’t
participating.
 
He was, in fact, thinking
about just how much he wasn’t having this when he saw her in the hotel’s
lounge.
 
She was sitting at the bar and
laughing and talking with a middle-eastern man.
 
And Tommy stood there, watching her.
 
She seemed so different to him.
 
She seemed as if this life, this place, was where she was in her element
and whenever she was with him she was out of her element.
 
It was a reality he’d known for some time
now, and it was a troubling truth.
 
The
fact that his woman would be more relaxed, more in her element when she was
away from him, was another nail in their coffin.
 
This wasn’t how it was supposed to be.
 
He thought he had seen the last of this kind
of life when he broke up with Shanks.
 
He
thought those days of worrying about his woman, and wondering where in the
world she was, were so far in his past that he would never dream of allowing a
comeback.
 
But it came back.
 
It came back in the name of Liz.

Before Tommy could make a move, the
bartender behind the counter came over to Liz and Raj with a phone in his
hand.
 
“Liz Logan?” he asked.

“Yes,” Liz said excitedly.

“For you,” the bartender said and
handed the phone to Liz.

“Adabi, hey,” Liz said as soon as she
grabbed the phone and answered it.
 
“A
few minutes?
 
Okay, sounds good.
 
Yes, I’ll be at the curb.
 
I’ll be there.
 
I’m bringing Raj, my photojournalist.
 
He can be an extra hand.”

Raj looked at her as the man on the
other end of the call responded.
 
Liz
looked at Raj and began shaking her head.

“Okay, okay, I get it.
 
I’ll be alone.
 
Yes.
 
Yes.
 
Alright, bye.”
 
Liz handed the phone back to the
bartender.
 
“He’s nervous,” she
said.
 
“He doesn’t want anybody else
around.
 
He feels Mamoof will change his
mind and maybe even avenge him if you or anybody else came along.”

“So what do I do while you’re out
there having all the fun?” Raj asked.

“Just wait here.
 
Go to your room and get some needed
rest.
 
I’ll come see you as soon as I get
back.”
 
Liz began to sip the last of her
beer, and that was when she saw him through her periphery.
 
Shocked, she removed her glass from her lips,
and turned his way.
 
When she turned was
when he began walking toward her.
 
But
Liz still couldn’t believe it.
 
Tommy was
here?
 
Right now?
 
In
Syria
?

“Tommy?” she asked, as he approached
her, as if she still wasn’t sure if he was real.

Raj looked too.
 
And he was stunned by what he saw.
 
Not by the fact that a man was coming toward
them.
 
But he was stunned by the beauty
of the man who came.

So this was Tommy Gabrini?
 
This was the man who phoned too much?
 
As he walked toward them, Raj was staring as
hard as Liz.
 
And what he saw was impressive
even to him.
 
He saw a tall, muscular
man, a man with a thick head of light-brownish, nearly blondish hair, and big
odd eyes that looked as blue as they looked green.
 
He wore a gray, pullover sweater that
crisscrossed at the chest, and a pair of dress pants and shoes that rounded out
a nicely wrapped package.
 
He was
beautiful.
 
Even Raj would admit
that.
 
And it was a deflating experience
for Raj.
 
Because now he knew.
 
If this runway model looking guy was Liz’s
type, he didn’t stand a chance.