Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor (4 page)

Liz smiled, stood up, and hurried
into Tommy’s arms as he approached.
 
Tommy swept her up, holding her, and then kissed her with all he
had.
 
He hadn’t seen her in nearly a
month.
 
He missed her.

When they stopped kissing, and she
was able to pull back from him, she looked at him.
 
“What in the world are you doing here?”

Tommy glanced at Raj, and then looked
back at Liz.
 
She looked tired, and
flustered.
 
Dark circles were beneath her
eyes.
 
“I came to see you,” he said.

“But why?” Liz asked.
 
“I told you I was fine.”

Tommy was offended by her cavalier
attitude.
 
“Fine in a war zone?” he
asked.
 
“I don’t think so.”

“Well I know so,” Liz said, gathering
up her backpack and bottled water.
 
As
she hoisted it onto her back, she introduced the two men.
 
“Tommy, this is Raja, my photographer.
 
Raj, Tommy.”

The two men shook hands.
 
“Nice to finally meet you, Tommy.”

Arab guy.
 
Tall, thin.
 
Handsome in a rugged sort of way.
 
“Nice to meet you, too,” Tommy responded.

Liz handed Tommy her hotel room’s
keycard.
 
“Here’s my room key,” she said
to him.
 
“I’ll be back as soon as I can
get back.”

“You’ll be back?”
 
It was the middle of the night.
 
“What do you mean you’ll be back?
 
Where are you going?”

“I’ve got an exclusive interview.”

“Why can’t it wait until daybreak?”

“It can’t wait,” Liz said.
 
“It’s an exclusive with an informant.
 
An ISIS informant.”

Tommy couldn’t believe it.
 
“
ISIS
?”
he asked.
 
All he could think about were
the kidnappings and beheadings that organization were known for.
 
“Liz, are you out of your mind?”

“It’s an exclusive, Tommy.”

“Fuck that!
 
Let somebody else handle it.”

“Liz, you’d better get going,” Raj
said.
 
He understood Tommy’s concern, but
he also understood how big a “get” Mamoof was.
 
“Adabi should be out there now.”

Liz leaned over and kissed Tommy on
the cheek.
 
Tommy couldn’t believe
it.
 
It was almost as if the role had
reversed.
 
He was always the one giving
his ladies a nice little kiss on the cheek as he went away to handle
grown-folks
business.
 
Now she was kissing him?
 
She was leaving him?
 
He didn’t like the feeling.
 
He didn’t like this shit one bit.

And when Liz turned to leave,
thinking her cute little kiss was going to be enough to appease him, Tommy took
her by the arm and pulled her back.
 
“Let
somebody else handle it,” he said firmly.

Liz looked at him.
 
This was and would probably always be their
bone of contention.
 
“There is nobody
else,” she said to him.
 
“I’m the one he
agreed to meet with.
 
I’m the one who
worked my butt off to get this exclusive.
 
I have to handle it.”

Then she tore away from Tommy, and
left.

Raj watched Tommy as Liz walked
away.
 
But instead of showing the hurt
and embarrassment most any other man would have shown, all Raj saw in that
guy’s eyes was anger.
 
And not at all to
Raj’s surprise, Tommy walked out of the lounge, up to the front desk counter
inside the hotel’s lobby, and handed the desk clerk the key.
 
And then began heading toward the front exit.
 
Raj laughed.
 
A man like that, he knew, wasn’t used to playing second fiddle.
 
Especially when he was second, not to another
man, but to a career!

“Good,” Raj found himself saying, his
head nodding.
 
“Those white Americans
think they rule the world.
 
Good,” he
said again, sat back at the bar, and drained down, with great satisfaction, the
last of his beer.
      

But outside, Liz was in a different
place, and satisfaction wasn’t a part of it.
 
She felt some kind of way about Tommy coming all this way to see
her.
 
Because she knew it wasn’t just
because he missed her.
 
That was a small
part of it.
 
The larger part, she felt,
was because he didn’t have her exactly where he wanted her: under his
thumb.
 
He wanted a tough lady, and he
got one.
 
But was that really what he
wanted, Liz wondered.
 
Tommy always
seemed to live his life in extremes, when, she was beginning to believe, he was
more like a man in the middle.

Her car drove up, with Adabi in the
backseat, just as Tommy, further down and in front of the hotel, walked
out.
 
The door of the sedan opened, and
she was about to get in the backseat beside Adabi.
 
But then she saw Tommy standing there, as if
he was waiting for a cab.
 
Was he
leaving?
 
Was he
that
upset?
 
He flew fifteen
hours to just turn back around?

“Give me one minute,” Liz leaned in
and said to Adabi.

“One minute?” Adabi said. “I don’t
have one second to waste!”

“I know, but I need to take care of
this.”
 
Liz placed her backpack in the
car and then began walking away, heading toward Tommy.

Adabi was angry.
 
His driver looked through the rearview.
 
“What are we to do now, Adabi?
 
What are we to do now?
 
She is getting away!”

Adabi was angry that it would have to
come to this.
 
He would rather a secluded
place.
 
But he pulled his weapon from
beneath the car mat, cocked it, and then got out of the car.

Tommy, on the other end of the
sidewalk, waiting for a cab to arrive, saw Liz coming toward him.
 
It was in the middle of the night in Damascus
but the streets were busy and well-lit in the area surrounding the hotel.
 
He could see her easily.
 
But Tommy was a trained observer.
 
He also saw the man getting out of the car
behind her, and heading toward her back.

Tommy quickly removed his carrying
bag from his shoulder and sat it down.
 
Then he calmly began walking toward Liz, walking directly in front of
her, careful to make her body a shield for his as he pulled his own gun from
out of the waistband of his trousers.
 
When he saw Adabi raise his arms and aim his gun directly at the back of
Liz’s head, Tommy increased his steps and pushed Liz down, just as Adabi was
about to fire.
 
But Tommy fired first,
hitting the hitman between the eyes.
 
Adabi fell down dead.

People started screaming and running
for their own lives, and Adabi’s driver, realizing that his passenger was down,
attempted to speed away.
 
But Tommy ran
toward the car and began firing.
 
He got
the driver in the back of the head.
 
The
driver’s face hit the steering wheel as the car’s momentum carried it further,
and then to a rolling stop.

Liz was still on the ground, looking
at Adabi’s dead body, looking at the car Tommy had just riddled with
bullets.
 
And then she looked at Tommy.

Tommy put his gun away and began
walking toward her.
 
If he had not been
there Lord only knew what would have happened to Liz.
 
But it didn’t please him that he was her
rescuer.
 
It didn’t please him one
bit.
 
It angered him that she would put
herself in a position to have to be rescued at all.
 
She didn’t have to be in this madness.
 
She
chose
to be in this madness!
 
Tommy was
seething with anger.

Kassab Khan, the head of the Damascus
Metropolitan Police, sat in the hotel room in front of Liz and Tommy.
 
Raj was in his own hotel room, waiting for
the questioning to end.
 
But even without
the additional body, the atmosphere felt crowded and tense.

“It is a most unfortunate thing,”
Khan said.
 
“A most unfortunate
thing.
 
You were going to meet up with an
informant, a very important informant, and Adabi would attempt such a
slaughter.”

“Any idea what the motive might be?”
Tommy asked.

“Radicalism.”

“But Adabi is no radical,” Liz said.

“He does not present as a radical,
no.
 
But he has been radicalized.
 
Yet his motive is not religion.
 
His motive is money.”

“Money?” Tommy asked.

“Money,” Khan replied.
  
“He was to get Miss Logan out of the city
and hold her for ransom.
 
He knew of her
wealthy boyfriend, of you, sir, and as near as we can decipher, he had no idea
you had arrived in the country.”

“But why would he want to kill her,”
Tommy asked, “if his plan was to hold her for ransom?”

And just that easily, Khan was stumped.
 
Tommy couldn’t believe it.
 
It felt as if the head of police was winging
it.
 
It felt as if he was making it up as
he went along.

“Perhaps money was not the motive,”
Khan admitted, “but he was a radical.
 
Of
that we are certain.
 
Perhaps he was
merely interested in taking out an American.
 
An infidel, as he would call her.”

But Tommy wasn’t buying it.
 
And after the head of police and his
speculation stood up to leave, and Tommy and Liz stood too, he still wasn’t
buying it.
 
There were hundreds, if not thousands
of Americans in Damascus.
 
Why target
just Liz?
 
But he kept his thoughts to
himself.

“I will give permission for you to
leave the country, sir,” Khan said.

“Thank you,” Tommy responded, and the
two men shook hands.

Khan then turned to Liz.
 
“You may also leave the country,” he
said.
 
“I take it that is your wish?”

But Liz did not hesitate.
 
“No,” she said.

Tommy looked at her.
 
Khan did too.
 
“No?” he asked.
 
“But madam, there
was an attempt made on your life.
 
One
that would have surely been successful had it not been for the James Bond-like
skill and acumen of Mr. Gabrini.
 
Surely
you would want to leave until this matter is resolved.”

“I have work to do here,” Liz
said.
 
“There’s no way I can pack up and
leave right now.
 
But thank you,” she added.

Khan was lost, and looked to Tommy
for guidance.
 
But Tommy was staring at
Liz.
 
After Khan said his goodbyes and
left, he was still staring at Liz.

“What do you mean no?” he asked her.

“Not now, Tommy,” Liz said, sitting
back down. “It’s been traumatic enough.”

But Tommy stood there, with his hands
in the pockets of his pants.
 
He could
appreciate a tough lady trying to handle her business.
 
He could admire her, in fact.
 
But he did not appreciate any lady who would
dare to try and handle him.
 
“I’m leaving
this place tonight.
 
I’ve already alerted
my pilot to ready my plane.
 
You will be
returning to the States with me.”

Liz looked up at him, at that
gorgeous man that stood before her.
 
It
felt like the clash of titans to her because she viewed herself as Tommy’s
equal.
 
She didn’t take a backseat to him
when she first met him, she was not taking a backseat to him now.
 
She stood to her feet.
 
“No,” she said, “I will not be returning with
you.
 
I came here to do a job and I
intend to finish it.
 
I’ll hire
security.
 
Yes, I’ll do that.
 
And Raj will look out for me too.
 
But this is where the action is.
 
The Middle East.
 
This is why I started that magazine to begin
with.
 
It’s a foreign affairs
magazine.
 
I deal in wars and rumors of
wars.
 
This is where it’s at, Tommy.
 
I’m not about to leave this kind of action.”

“You’re passionate about your
career,” Tommy said.
 
“And I appreciate
that passion.
 
But you’re taking this
shit too far, Liz.
 
You have got to learn
how to balance it.”

“Balance it how?” she asked, a
puzzled look on her face.
 
“By jumping
every time you snap your finger?
 
By
leaving my post just because you don’t like the danger?”

“By understanding that you aren’t in
this alone!
 
I have your best interest at
heart, and I’m not going to let you put yourself in any danger.”

“You aren’t going to
let
me?” Liz asked angrily.
 
“That’s mighty white of you!”

Tommy couldn’t believe she said
that.
 
“
What
?”

“You put yourself in danger every day
of the week,” Liz kept talking, “but I don’t complain about it.
 
I don’t track you down and make you come
home!
 
You put yourself in dangerous
situations all the time!”

“Bullshit!” Tommy roared.
 
“What I do and what you’re doing are not the
same thing and you know it!”

“It is the same thing!” Liz fired
back.

But Tommy was adamant.
 
“It is not!
 
Unlike you, I don’t run around searching for shit to get into.
 
That shit finds me!
 
If I didn’t have to fire a weapon again for
the rest of my life I’d celebrate that life!
 
I don’t get any high off of danger!”

“I don’t either.”

“More bullshit!” Tommy said.
 
“You’re getting some kind of high off of
whatever’s keeping you here, or you’d come with me.
 
You’re the magazine owner for crying out
loud, Liz!
 
You aren’t going to tell me
you have no choice but to be on the front lines too.
 
You tell me you want to be there.
 
You tell me you prefer to be there.
 
But don’t you dare tell me you must be there!
 
Because I run things too, Liz, don’t forget
that little fact.
 
I run an international
corporation.
 
I know how it works.
 
So don’t you dare talk to me about what you
have to do!”

“Okay, I don’t have to do it.
 
I want to do it.
 
Is that better?
 
Does that make you feel better?
 
No,” Liz said, answering her own
question.
 
“You don’t feel better because
it’s not about that. It’s not about what I want, it’s about what you want for
me.
 
And I’m not having that.
 
I love you, Tommy.
 
You know I love you.
 
But
I
run
this.”
 
She moved her hands around her
body as if to demonstrate her point.

But Tommy had already gotten the
point.
 
She loved him.
 
But she loved her career, and her
independence from him, more.

He walked over to the side wall,
grabbed his carrying bag, and began to leave.

“Tommy!” she yelled.
 
“Tommy!”

Tommy stopped walking and looked back
at her.
 
He was so tired he could barely
stand.
 
But he was even more tired of
her.
 
“What?” he asked.

“You’re going to just leave?
 
You’re going to just walk out that door
because I won’t bow to your demands?”

“Characterize it any way you please,”
Tommy said.
 
“But you aren’t handling
me.
 
You want to wear the pants, then
wear them.
 
But you will not be wearing
my
pants!”
  
He began leaving.

Liz ran up to him, grabbed the sleeve
of his pullover sweater, and angrily spun him around. “You’re leaving because I
love what I do?”
 
Her face was frowned
with anguish.
 
“Is that it, Tommy?
 
I love what I do.
 
How can that possibly be wrong?”

He didn’t say it was wrong, and she
knew it.
 
“You’re passionate about your
job,” he said.
 
“I told you that was a
good thing.
 
You know what you want.
 
That’s good.
 
But I know what I want too.
 
And a
lady who will not remove herself from dangerous situations even when she can,
is not it.”
 
Then he frowned.
 
“What’s wrong with you, Liz?
 
You nearly died tonight!”

Tommy’s voice became strained.
 
He took a moment, to calm himself back
down.
 
“You nearly died tonight,” he said
again, “and you’re running right back into the fire.
 
And what’s even more remarkable is that you
expect me to overlook that inconvenient truth.
 
You continually place yourself in harm’s way, and you expect me to
accept that uncomfortable fact.
 
Well I
can’t, Liz, and I won’t.
 
I’ve been
through this shit before with Shanks.”

“Oh, here we go!” Liz said angrily,
raising her hands and dropping them back down.
 
“The ghost of
ShoShawna
Shanks rears her
ugly-ass head again!
 
Why does everything
have to be compared to her?
 
Why,
Tommy?
 
You chose Grace because she was
the exact opposite of that Shanks woman.
 
Then you chose me because I’m Shanks on steroids!
 
Well what do you want, Tommy, because it
can’t possibly be both types!
 
They are
diametrically opposed.
 
And you wonder
what’s wrong with
me
?
 
What the hell is wrong with
you
?”

“You can pretend I’m the issue all
you care to,” Tommy said.
 
“That’s
fine.
 
But I went through that
globe-trotting danger zone shit with Shanks just as I said, and I’m not going
through that again.
 
You can stay here
and do your thing.
 
Hell, go to Iraq and
on to Afghanistan while you’re at it!
 
But not with me.
 
Do you
understand that, Liz?
 
Not with me!”

“So you’re leaving me?”
 
Tears were in her eyes now.
 
“You’re going to just walk away from me?”

Tommy’s anger went from five to
fifty.
 
“You would have been dead if I
hadn’t been here, Liz!
 
That bastard
would have killed you!”

“It’s what I do,
got
dammit!
 
It’s the risk I
take!
 
Can’t you get that through your
thick skull?
 
I’m no boring-ass housewife
and I’ll never be!
 
I have a real job!”

“As does housewives,” Tommy said,
“but that’s not the issue either.”

“Then what’s the issue?” she
asked.
 
“Please tell me what’s at
issue!”
 
Then Liz stopped, as if a
lightbulb had sudden flicked on in her brain.
 
She looked at Tommy.
 
“It’s Grace.
 
Isn’t it?
 
Is it Grace?”

Tommy had not expected that name to
come up.
 
He didn’t respond.

But Liz was certain now.
 
“It’s Grace!
 
She divorced you, but mentally you never really divorced that
woman.
 
Now I get it.”

“Don’t start that psychobabble shit
on me, Liz.
 
Don’t even try it.”

But she tried it.
 
“You’re a stubborn-ass man who couldn’t deal
with the fact that a woman would dump you,” she said.
 
“So when Grace left you, you reverted back to
form.
 
You chose me because I was like
all of your other women, and you were comfortable with that kind of lady.
 
Grace was a lot of work because she was so
different than what you were used to, but me and all of your other women were
easy to you.
 
Being with a woman like me
came naturally to you.
 
But the problem,
Tommy, is you.
 
Because as time went on,
you began to treat me like you treated all your other women.
 
I was nothing special to you either.
 
I wasn’t different like Grace.
 
I was just another body to warm your bed.”