Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) Page 11

  “And as one of the largest corporations in Seattle,” the reporter was saying, “and with the merger on the line, their CEO Tommy Gabrini has been caught in a rather compromising position.”

  Grace’s heart began to pound as a series of photographs appeared on screen. First was the photo of Tommy standing at the door of what looked like a motel room, and he was hugging some white man. And then Tommy and the man were lying across a bed in that motel. And then the man was on top of Tommy. And then, to Grace’s shock, Tommy and the man appeared to be kissing!

  “These photos,” the reporter was saying, “shows the newly married CEO appearing to have some rendezvous in a local motel room with another man. The man, identified as Peter Harpton, could not be reached for comment. Mr. Gabrini’s office is also not accepting our phone calls at this time. It has been rumored that Mr. Gabrini was being groomed to run for public office, possibly for mayor. Given these photographs, I doubt seriously if that is an option anymore.”

  “Grace,” Jamie said, stunned by the report, but she could not even look his way. She was so discombobulated that she grabbed her purse and took off out of the store, leaving her friend, and her blouse, behind.

  “How much is it?” Jamie asked the saleslady, pulling out his wallet.

  “Ninety dollars,” the saleslady said. She had just bagged up the blouse and was awaiting payment. “What, does she know those people?”

  “Yes,” Jamie said, quickly paying for the blouse. “But it’s all a pack of lies. Tommy Gabrini and some man? I’m gay and even I’m not buying that. Now if it was a black woman in that motel, yes. I’d believe every picture. But some man? No ma’am,” Jamie said as he grabbed the bagged-up blouse, and took off too.

  Tommy stood behind his desk fielding call after call from members of his board of directors. He was Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer, while his brother Sal was co-chairman and Chief Operating Officer, but their concerns paled in comparison to the concerns their board members were expressing. Not because of the allegations directly, but because of the timing of those allegations.

  Sal came rushing into the office unannounced, and he came in talking. “Did you see,” he started, but Tommy held up a finger.

  “The same thing,” Tommy said into the phone. “No comment up and down the line. Right. Right. No, not yet. Not unless it comes directly from my office or Sal’s. Right. Okay, Mack.” Then he hung up the phone.

  “Did you see those pictures they were parading on the television?” Sal was now standing in front of his brother’s desk, and he was all parts angry.

  “I saw them, yes,” Tommy said, opening his suit coat and placing his hands on his hips. He was so tired of this shit he didn’t know where to begin to unleash his anger.

  “What the fuck was that about?” Sal asked. “You with a man, like he was your lover. What did they do? Did they photo shop that shit or something?”

  Tommy shook his head. “No. They were real.”

  Sal’s big blue eyes stretched even wider. “Get the fuck out of here! Real? What are you talking? Can’t be, Tommy!” Then he stared at his brother with a sidelong look. “Can it?”

  The desk intercom buzzed. Tommy pressed the button. “Yes, Viv?”

  “Mr. Tannebaum is on line four, sir.”

  Sal rolled his eyes. He knew why Tannebaum, one of their investors, was calling.

  “All right,” Tommy said. “Oh, and have you been able to reach my wife, Viv?”

  “I’m still trying, sir. She’s not answering her phone.”

  “Keep trying,” Tommy ordered. He released the intercom button, picked up his desk telephone, and pressed button four. “Don’t panic, Sid,” he said. “Yes, I know. I know exactly what it looks like. Yes. Of course it’s not true! I know that. But looks can be deceiving.”

  Then Grace came unannounced into the office. As soon as Sal saw her, he hurried to her. “You okay?” he asked her.

  Grace could only nod, although her flustered face was telling an entirely different story. Sal’s heart went out to her, and he pulled her into his arms. Grace welcomed his embrace.

  Tommy’s heart dropped. The two people he felt the most responsible for in this world, his wife and his younger brother, had to deal with this shit too. He knew they were tired of his past constantly coming back to haunt them. Especially Grace. “Sid, let me call you back,” he said into the phone, and although Sid was still talking, he hung up.

  Sal stopped hugging Grace and Tommy came from around his desk. Grace hurried to him and fell into his arms.

  She looked up to him, revealing such sad eyes that it broke Tommy’s heart. She didn’t deserve this. None of it. But he wouldn’t let her go. Both of them, in fact, remained in each other’s arms, as if, it seemed to Sal, it was them against the world.

  “I take it you saw the news,” Tommy said.

  “I saw it.”

  “My secretary tried to get in touch with you.”

  “I know but . . . I needed to see you and be with you. I didn’t want to talk on any phone. I just wanted to get here.”

  He sat on the edge of his desk, with her standing between his legs, with his arms still around her waist. He looked her dead in the eyes. “It’s not true,” he said.

  Grace nodded her head. She had a weary, but determined look in her eyes. “I believe you,” she said. “But what happened?”

  “Peter set me up.”

  “The man in the photos?” Grace asked.

  “Yep.”

  “You know the guy?” Sal asked, coming up beside them.

  Tommy nodded. “I know him. We actually went to high school together.”

  “High school? I don’t remember no fucker like him in high school.”

  “I’m four years older than you, remember? We had graduated by the time you got there. I also used to do some business with him. We go back a long way. He’s an old friend of mine.”

  “Friend my ass,” Sal said. “He’s an old enemy of yours. If he’d set you up like that, he must hate your guts.”

  Grace looked at her husband. She could see the strain in his eyes. He hated disloyalty probably above all else.

  “Where is he?” Sal asked. “This Peter. Where you think he’s hiding?”

  “Last time I saw him I beat his ass, so he’s not going to be an easy find, that’s for sure.”

  “You fought him?” Grace asked. “Why?”

  She moved to get out of his embrace, but Tommy kept her in his grip. “Remember when I told you about some people interested in backing me for mayor?”

  “He was one of those people?”

  “Yeah. I met him and some DC operative, Amy Richards, at some motel outside of town. Peter set the whole thing up.”

  “You think that woman was involved too, and this politics thing was just a ruse?”

  “No. I don’t think she was involved in that. I think Peter has his backers, and they was going to capitalize on whatever opportunity came their way.”

  “But who are his backers?” Grace asked. “Who would go through such links? And why?”

  “And how could it happen?” Sal asked, never a man to beat around the bush. “How could you end up in bed kissing on his ass?”

  “After Amy left, Peter was trying to convince me to run. I had already told them no, but he said if he could make me laugh, I had to agree to at least think about it. He was a prankster from way back, and he certainly was good for laughs, so I said okay. He started horse playing around, trying to tickle me, and then he was straddling me and tried to kiss me. It happened just that fast.”

  “There was no try in it, Tommy,” Sal said. “According to that photo, that man was kissing you.”

  “And I beat his ass for doing so. I left him in that motel room.”

  Sal stared at his brother. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

  “There was nothing to tell.”

  “People want you to run for mayor of Seattle, and you don’t think that’s something to t
ell?”

  “It’s nothing to tell because I wasn’t about to do it.”

  “Then why did you meet that man in the motel, if you had no intentions of running?”

  “Amy Richards came all the way from DC to speak with me, and Peter had set it up, so the least I could do was hear her out.”

  “But why a motel room?” Grace asked.

  “Amy Richards is well known in political circles. She didn’t want to be seen meeting with me to avoid any premature announcements or press speculation. At least that was the line Peter laid on me. And I believed him. Dammit!”

  Grace placed her hand on the side of Tommy’s face. “There’s no way you could have saw this coming, Tommy. There’s no way. So don’t blame yourself. Isn’t that right, Sal?”

  But Sal wasn’t interested in coddling his brother. He was interested in revenge. He looked at Tommy. “Who’s he working for, you figure?”

  “Maybe one of your girlfriends,” Grace suggested.

  “No,” Sal said.

  “Peter wouldn’t play that kind of game,” Tommy said. “The stakes would have to be higher. Much higher than that.”

  Sal looked at his brother. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

  Tommy nodded. “Univec?”

  Grace was surprised. “The other company that want a merger with Beltco?”

  “That’s the one,” Tommy said. “They probably hired him. To get the upper hand.”

  The desk intercom buzzed. Tommy leaned back and pressed the button. “Yeah, Viv?”

  “The Chairman of the Beltco Corporation is on line seven, sir.”

  Grace and Sal both looked at Tommy. She fully expected him to release her as he took this all-important call. But he didn’t. He took the call, but he, in fact, held her tighter.

  “Hello William,” Tommy said into the phone. And then he listened. And listened. “Okay,” he finally said. “Right.” And then he hung up.

  “What did he say?” Sal asked.

  “The merger is off,” Tommy said. “They’re going with Univec.”

  “Damn,” Sal said, so disappointed. “Fuck’em,” he then said, his anger rising. “Who the fuck needs them anyway? Damn,” he said again, his disappointment winning out.

  Grace continued to stare at her husband. She knew how badly he wanted that merger. She rubbed his powerful biceps. “It was for the best, Tommy,” was all she could think to say.

  “What reason did they give?” Sal wanted to know. “We were the number one company they wanted to merge with and those fuckers knew it! They knew we could take them higher than they could ever dream. But suddenly we aren’t good enough? Suddenly they figure you’re some flaming homosexual and they don’t want to associate with us?”

  “Not quite the way he put it,” Tommy said. “He started off saying he didn’t believe such nonsense.”

  “Then why would he make the deal with Univec?” Sal wanted to know.

  “Because he didn’t want controversy, or so he claims.”

  “Yeah, well, he can kiss my ass! Who wants to deal with people like that anyway? A bunch of fair-weathered friends. Instead of defending you, like me and Grace have to do all the time, they dump you. Fuck’em!”

  But Tommy stared at Sal.

  “What?” Sal asked, wondering why was he staring, and staring so hard.

  But Grace knew. “It’s what you said,” she said. “You said you and I always have to defend him.”

  “Well we do. That’s not news.”

  “No,” Tommy said, releasing her and standing up. “It’s not.” He walked behind his desk.

  “What did I say wrong?” Sal wanted to know. “You’re a major businessman with business enemies, and you’re a major lover with lovesick enemies. You’re just fucked up, Tommy, what can I say?”

  Tommy looked at his brother, to make sure those weren’t fighting words, and then Sal smiled.

  “What can I say?” he said again. “I love you, but you’re fucked up. You are!”

  And Tommy released the tension, and smiled too. And then he laughed. It took Grace longer to accept such bluntness, but then she laughed too. Because in a lot of ways it was true about all three of them. It wasn’t exactly funny, they had lost a major merger, but they decided they might as well get a good laugh out of it. It certainly beat a good cry.

  But despite their good outlook, Tommy and Sal still took care of business and ordered their men to track down Peter Harpton. It was over, the damage was done, but that didn’t mean the Gabrinis were going to let him get away scot-free. They found him, holed up at a motel near Newcastle, and Tommy and Sal paid him a visit.

  They didn’t bother to knock, they bust the door in. When Peter, who was fucking a woman in the bed, realized what was happening, it was too late. Tommy grabbed him out of bed, his small dick still stiff and wet, and slung him against the wall. It sagged almost immediately. Sal silenced the naked woman with a gun to her head, warning her that if she ever mentioned seeing a damn thing, she could forget seeing another day.

  And Tommy beat his former friend’s ass again. Why did Peter do it? He did it for the money, Tommy got him to admit. He had a hooker problem, and a gambling problem, and he needed the dough. When Tommy finished with him, he needed a hospital. But the woman wasn’t calling one. As soon as the Gabrinis left, she put on her clothes and fled too.

  TWELVE

  After the merger didn’t materialize, Tommy and Grace moved on with their still-new marriage. But she continued to sense her husband’s disappointment. All his life, from a mother who left him, to a father who abused him, to a former fiancée who never really committed her all to him, he’d been let down. The failure of the Beltco merger was just another nail in that coffin. Grace knew he would get over it. He always did. But as the week ended and another week began, and he still seemed in a funk, she decided, early that morning, to help him along the way.

  She notified her office that she would not be in this week and went, instead, to her husband’s office. He was in a major meeting, so she waited in the secretary’s suite. There was no rush. Besides, the more business he could conclude, the better.

  But it would be another hour, and Vivian’s constant requests to at least let him know she was out here, were declined. But Vivian remained concerned, she knew how protective Mr. Gabrini could be when it came to his wife, and her fears were heightened when the meeting finally wrapped up, and Tommy emerged.

  When he saw his wife sitting out there, as if she was just anybody, he was, as Vivian had feared, upset. But before he could take it out on Viv, Grace stood. “She wanted to let you know I was out here,” she quickly said, “but I insisted she didn’t.”

  “And why is that?” he asked her.

  “I knew you were in an important meeting.”

  Tommy smiled. “That never stopped you before,” he said truthfully, prompting Grace to make a face at him.

  “All right, Tommy,” the gentleman he had been meeting with said, “I’ll have my people send over the paperwork for you to review.”

  “And then we’ll see,” was all Tommy was willing to promise, and the two men shook hands. The gentleman looked at Grace. “My wife,” Tommy said, by way of introduction. “Grace Gabrini.”

  “So nice to meet you, ma’am,” the man said, shaking her hand. “I heard Tommy had married well. Now I see just how well.”

  Grace continued to smile, what a load of bonkers, she thought, and he left.

  “Come on in,” Tommy said, but Grace shook her head.

  “Can’t,” she said. “The plane is waiting.”

  He didn’t understand. “What plane?”

  “Our plane. The one that’s going to take us up out of here.”

  Tommy still didn’t understand. And neither did his secretarial staff, as they were all ears too. “Darling, what are you talking about?”

  “I have canceled all of your appointments for the week.”

  Tommy looked at his wife as if he was looking at a stranger. �
��You did what?”

  “She canceled all of your appointments for the week,” Sal’s voice said, and Tommy turned to the sound. Sal was entering the suite as he spoke.

  “And why did she do that?”

  “What are you asking me for?” Sal asked. “Ask her.”

  Grace laughed and put her arm in Tommy’s arm. “Come on,” she said. “I’ll explain on the way.”

  Tommy was amazed by this, and not at all amused, but he studied Grace. He stood there, his suit coat opened, his hands on his hips, and studied his wife. She was not a frivolous woman, neither was she someone who didn’t think things through very careful. She had thought this through and had decided, unilaterally for the first time in their marriage, that this was what they should be doing. And because it was Grace, and because she was always of sound judgment, he decided to see. For once in his life, he decided to relinquish control and let her take the wheel.

  And he and Grace, arm in arm, left the Gabrini Corporation. Sal was involved. That gave Tommy added assurance because he knew Sal was more than capable of handling any emergency. He could also handle Tommy’s staff.

  And sure enough, as soon as Tommy and Grace were gone, Sal looked at that staff and read them the riot act.

  “To all you slackers who think the boss’s absence gives you a license to hang around and do no work, think again. Nothing could be further from the truth. I’m still here, I’m not going anywhere, and I’m going to ride your asses like a witch on a broom. You don’t wanna fuck with me. I’m gonna work your asses like a hoe in a garden. You’ll wish you were dead when I get through with you.”

  He stared at their faces. They all looked so terrified! And then he smiled. “I’m just fucking with y’all,” he said with a jerk of his shoulders, and he said it so breezily that they realized instantly he was, indeed, joking. They laughed. He got them good.

  “While the boss is gone,” Sal said seriously, “do your work. You cash our paychecks every week, you gotta do your work. But other than that, do whatever the fuck y’all wanna do. Just do it discreetly, and don’t let me hear about it. I hear about it, I gotta do something about it, and you won’t like what I do. Understood?”