TOMMY GABRINI 2: A PLACE IN HIS HEART Read online

  But the woman was the animated one. “Get her away from me!” she kept yelling as she backed up, on her ass, away from Grace. “Get her away from me!”

  Grace kept trying to get away from Security to pick up her files, but he wouldn’t let her anywhere near the other woman. It was the Doorman, who had also raced over, who began picking up her files, her briefcase, and even her broken phone for her.

  “Are you okay, Miss McKinsey?” he asked as Security sat Grace on the bench against the wall.

  “I’m okay,” she said, although she really wasn’t.

  “Should I call Mr. Gabrini, ma’am?” the Doorman asked.

  And that stopped Grace cold. Tommy? she thought. And then she looked at the woman, who they now had lifted from the floor also and had seated in a chair on the opposite side. She was beautiful, she was African-American, and she was on the small side. She was definitely Tommy’s type. But was she one of Tommy’s ex’s?

  “No,” Grace replied to the Doorman. “No need to bother him.”

  Besides, she needed time to digest what had just happened herself. But when Security asked if she wanted to press charges, it all became crystal clear to Grace then.

  “Absolutely,” Grace replied without hesitation. Nobody was going to jump her like this, out of the blue like this, and expect her to just let it slide.

  But as they contacted the police, and as the woman continued to complain as if it was all Grace’s fault, Grace looked at the woman again. Most of Tommy’s ladies had accepted the fact that he was no longer on the market, and they moved on with their lives. But there were a small stubborn group of females that still refused to believe it. Grace had gotten her share of phone calls in the late night from ladies telling her how she’s not good enough for Tommy, or how she was just a fad to him even after they were engaged. But Grace wouldn’t rise to their bait and it would all blow over. But none of those ladies, not one of them, had ever resulted to this. Tommy’s stuff was good, and worth the effort, Grace knew that much. But nobody’s stuff, Grace also knew, was worth a woman acting a fool like this. She felt as if she was back in high school somewhere when she was rolling on that floor.

  Now the police had to be called. All because, if Grace’s suspicion was right, some woman refused to give up on Tommy. Grace leaned her head back as she waited. She had a monster headache, because of this fool woman.

  The call came into Tommy as soon as his man could make it, and although he and Sal shut down the negotiations they were conducting and practically flew over to Grace’s apartment building, the police had nonetheless come and gone by the time they arrived.

  The Security Guard hurried to Tommy and Sal as the two brothers entered the lobby. Both were in their expensive suits, both looked angry, and the Guard knew he had to get this right because he feared what guys like them could do to him. They could blame him for allowing the woman to so much as approach Tommy Gabrini’s girlfriend, and he could be fired. He had to get this right.

  “She’s absolutely fine, Mr. Gabrini,” was the first news he broke.

  “Where is she?” Tommy asked without breaking his stride.

  “She’s upstairs in her apartment, sir.” He was trying to keep stride with the fast walking Italians.

  “And the woman?” Tommy asked.

  “The police was called, but she wasn’t arrested.”

  “Why the hell not?” Sal wanted to know.

  “The police said, given the nature of the other lady’s injuries, that they would have to arrest both women. Because you were involved, sir, they viewed it as a domestic violence situation.”

  Tommy and Sal glanced at each other. One of Tommy’s females. Sal had figured as much. Tommy also glanced over at the man he had hired to protect Grace. He was maintaining his cover, but was still lurking around in the lobby. That chilling look on Tommy’s face, just before he stepped onto the elevator, made the man certain that he would be severely reprimanded or even fired. He might be able to plead his case to Sal, because Sal had a heart for people in distress, but he knew he could forget it with Tommy. He knew Tommy. Tommy Gabrini could be a hard-hearted man, if you blew it with him.

  Tommy’s heart was pounding when those elevator doors shut. He was angry and fearful all at the same time.

  “This shit serious, Tommy,” Sal said to his brother.

  “I know,” Tommy said.

  “What if that bitch had had a gun?”

  “I know, Sal, I know. Gotdammit, I know!” Tommy didn’t mean to sound so harsh, but he couldn’t help it. He ran his hands through his hair. He was so filled with fear that he could hardly contain himself. He had to see Grace. He had to make sure for himself that she was as absolutely fine as that sorry-ass security guard seemed to believe.

  “How the fuck could this happen?” he asked angrily. “I have one man shadowing her, and the building had another security guard who was supposed to be looking out for the tenants. Two gotdamn strong men within reach of her but yet some little ass female still managed to come out of nowhere and jump her like this? And they expect me to understand this shit?”

  “Like hell,” Sal said. “Because I’m with you. If that bitch would have had a gun, if that bitch would have been out for real blood, she could have killed Grace.”

  Tommy looked at his brother. The mere prospect of it was too much for him to even entertain. He just had to see her. He’d deal with the security breach later. Right now he had to see Grace.

  And when the elevator finally stopped on the seventeenth floor, and the doors slung open, he didn’t hesitate. He and Sal both ran to Grace’s apartment.

  It took longer than they would have liked, even though it was mere seconds, but she eventually opened the door. As soon as she opened it, and saw Tommy’s beautiful face, that fear that had choked her alive released itself and she jumped into his arms.

  Tommy, relieved too that she was all in one piece, hoisted her up and carried her further inside the apartment, while Sal closed and locked the door.

  “How did you know?” Grace asked.

  He sat on the sofa with her on his lap. “Let me look at you,” Tommy said instead, as he took her chin and looked over her face. He could see bruising underneath her eye and a small cut on her bottom lip. She’d been in a fight, all right, and it angered him even more than some bitch had forced her to this. But she was okay.

  “What the hell happened, Grace?” Sal asked as he sat in the chair flanking the sofa.

  Grace exhaled. The idea of reliving that nightmare was something she knew she had to do, as Tommy would insist she tell him the whole story, but it wasn’t something she wanted to do. “You guys want anything to drink?”

  Tommy looked at her. He could see the fear still in her eyes. “Sure, babe,” he said, patting her on her hip.

  Grace got up and went into the kitchen. When she was gone, Sal looked at Tommy and raised his eyebrows. “She looks pretty bad,” he said.

  “Yeah,” Tommy replied.

  “If she looks like this, wonder how the other girl looks?”

  “She’ll look worse,” Tommy said, “when I’m finished with her.”

  When Grace returned, with the drinks, she sat beside Tommy. And told them exactly what happened.

  “But did she say what it was about?”

  Grace shook her head. “No. I think she told the cops why, but she didn’t tell me.”

  “And they wouldn’t let you press charges?” Sal asked.

  “I could press them, but according to those cops, she could press them on me too, and they would have to take us both Downtown. Trammel would take a hit if I got arrested on some domestic violence nonsense. I couldn’t take that risk.”

  Tommy patted her on the thigh. “Good for you,” he said. “You have an acute business sense, babe,” he said.

  “Fuck business sense,” Sal said, leaning forward. “What are we going to do about it?”

  Tommy, who had his legs crossed and seemed more like a professor waiting to decide his ne
xt move than a vengeful ex-lover, exhaled. “Describe her,” he said to Grace.

  Grace described her, even down to the small gap between her teeth. Tommy and Sal looked at each other.

  “Kelli,” they said in unison. “The bitch,” Sal added.

  “Who’s Kelli?” Grace asked.

  “Kelli Montiscue,” Sal said. “One of Tommy’s former longtime friends.”

  “A friend with benefits?” Grace asked.

  “You know it,” Sal said. He didn’t care how Tommy felt about his comment either. Tommy, in Sal’s view, protected Grace too much. She needed to know what she was up against.

  Tommy stood up. He leaned down and kissed Grace, careful to avoid her small cut. “I’ll be back,” he said.

  “Where are you going?” she asked him.

  “I’ll be back,” he said again.

  Sal stood up too. “So what’s the plan? What are we going to do?”

  “You’re going to stay here with Grace. I’m going to take care of some business.”

  Sal saw that look in Tommy’s eyes. He was what their father called a backdoor asshole. Whereas Sal would settle scores on the spot, upfront, often causing considerable jeopardy to himself, Tommy would settle scores behind the scenes, when the perp wasn’t expecting a score to be settled, and where he could exact the harshest punishment.

  Sal never got in Tommy’s way when he had that look in his eyes, and Grace knew not to either. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll wait here.”

  Kelli Montiscue was in her bathtub nursing her wounds. It had been an awful scene. She had gone over there to talk, just talk some sense into the girl. But as soon as she saw her face, and saw that freshness, that innocence that she knew Tommy would like, she couldn’t hold back. She had to lash out. What she never expected was that the girl, Grace, would lash out too. And nearly kill her. The bitch!

  The doorbell started ringing just as she was about to really relax, and she knew it was probably Tommy. He was going to be upset, she knew that too, but she was also knew she had to bring it. She had to convince him somehow that she was the woman for him, not that plain Jane bitch. She came a dime a dozen, but a woman like her, she felt, a woman who had once been the toast of the fashion world, was priceless.

  She got out of the tub, grabbed her bathrobe, slipped into her bath slippers, and made her way to her front door. As soon as she opened it, and saw Tommy, she actually smiled. Tommy couldn’t believe it.

  “I know you’re mad,” she said with a grin, “but I can explain.”

  She opened the door further, and he walked in. Although he was raging inside, nothing on his exterior alerted Kelli to that reality. She actually thought that she could explain it away. She actually thought that she could say just the right words, or display just the right breast, to change Tommy’s heart. Her thought process could not have been more wrong.

  As soon as the door shut, and she turned toward him, he grabbed her by the catch of her throat and slung her against that door. “Tommy!” she screamed. “You’re hurting me!”

  Tommy stared her in her eyes. He made sure she was looking at him. It was this side of Tommy, this ruthless, animalistic side, that every woman who had ever dated Tommy rarely saw, but always feared.

  “Am I the kind of man who enjoy games, Kell?” he asked her.

  “This isn’t a game,” she said, but he slammed her harder against the door.

  “Do I play games, Kell?” he asked her again.

  “No!” she answered, as the pain ripped through her body. “You don’t play games.”

  “This game you’re playing, has got to stop. You understand me, Kell? It has got to stop. Grace McKinsey is my woman. She is going to be my wife. If you ever, and I mean ever touch her again, I will fucking kill you.”

  Kelli opened her mouth to object, but Tommy pulled his gun out and slung it into her mouth. Her eyes were wide with shock and her body fought to get away from him. She knew Tommy could have a terrible temper, but she never dreamed it would come to this.

  “I will fucking kill you,” Tommy said again. Words, he knew, were not going to work with Kelli. He had to put her very existence on the line.

  “You think you know me, Kell,” he went on, “but you don’t know a gotdamn thing about me if you think I’m going to let you terrorize my lady. You have another fucking thought coming if you think I’m going to let that happen.”

  He tightened his hold on her, and pushed his gun further into her mouth, causing her to gag.

  “You will stay away from me and you for damn sure will stay away from Grace. Do I finally make myself clear, Kell? You will not be terrorizing her, not ever! Because if you try that shit, you won’t be any Fatal Attraction bitch. You’ll just be a fatal bitch.”

  Then he removed his gun from her mouth. She exhaled with that back from the brink relief, but it was short-lived. Because Tommy might have put his gun away, but he still had his fist. He knocked her so hard, that he knocked a tooth out. She fell to her knees in agony, and looked up to Tommy for sympathy. How could he do this to her, her eyes asked. She loves him!

  But Tommy showed no mercy. He kicked her down and put his expensive shoe on her chest, keeping her down.

  “Try me one more time, Kell,” he said, “and a missing tooth will be the last thing you’ll be worried about. I guarantee it.”

  Tommy stared at her again, as if his look alone wanted to force her to understand just how serious he was. He used to care about this woman, that was a fact. But she had put her hands on Grace. That changed everything in his eyes. Now she was the enemy. Grace was off limits, and she had crossed that line. He couldn’t let her think for a second that their history would change his mind. She had to understand that it wouldn’t. If he had to come back this way, he’d have to come back deadly. And although he’d do what he had to do, that was the last thing he wanted to do.

  He removed his shoe, and then walked out of her apartment.

  “I want a gun,” Grace said to Sal as they waited for Tommy’s return. She was lying on the couch, on her back, and Sal was seated in the chair.

  He looked at her. Her words broke his heart. He and Tommy were thugs in the long run, it was in their DNA, but not Grace. “You don’t want a gun,” he said with an underlying plea in his voice. “You don’t wanna go down that road.”

  “I don’t want to, but I have to, Sal. These females aren’t going to give up Tommy without a fight. They aren’t going to go quietly into that good night like losing Tommy’s sex is no big deal to them. Most of them have moved on, but some of them will never give him up without a fight. Well I’m not giving him up without a fight either. But I’ve got to be equipped. You should have seen the rage in that woman’s eyes. I never seen her before in my life that I know of, but she hated my guts. I have to be equipped, Sal, and I have to turn to you because Tommy won’t let me go anywhere near a gun and you know it.”

  “I know. He babies you, I tell him that all the time. But that’s because he knows you’re better than us, Grace. You have no blood on your hands. And he’s determined to keep it that way.”

  But Grace was determined too. “If you don’t do it for me,” she said, “I’ll do it myself. I’ll find a way, Sal, I promise you I will.”

  Sal understood what she meant. And he agreed with her. But Tommy would never forgive him if he took her down that road. That could be the end of his airtight relationship with his brother. Although he loved Grace, and thought the world of her, nobody alive was going to cause him to lose Tommy.

  Nobody.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” he said to her, although even she knew it was just a stalling tactic, an unabashed delay, until he could alert Tommy.

  Grace was asleep in bed by the time Tommy made it back. He didn’t come straight back. He, instead, drove around town to take the edge off. He hated to go to that dark place, and often when he did he had to have some time alone to return back to normal. It was nearly four in the morning by the time he returned to Grace’s apar
tment.

  He sent Sal home, took a shower, and then got in bed with Grace. He just laid there, since his weight on the bed didn’t wake her, and stared at her. Her eye was still a little puffy, and up close that cut on her lip was still visible, but she looked far better than Kelli had looked. Which surprised him when he first saw Kell. Grace had actually held her own and then some. She had actually stood up to that bully of a female and gave her a taste of her own medicine.

  Tommy wanted to smile at the thought of his baby beating the crap out of some woman, but it was backed by too much pain for him to find the humor. She could have been in serious jeopardy tonight, had Kell been even more irrational than coming to Grace’s apartment in the first place had led her to be. Sal had told him, before he left, about Grace’s request for a gun. And although it was a terrible thought for Tommy, he knew she was right. She did need her own protection. She did need to be able to defend herself adequately. Paid security only got you just so far, he knew, and it didn’t help a damn thing with Kell. So he knew he had to make at least a couple changes. Putting security on Kell and a few of his other ladies who might be predisposed to try some stupid shit was one of the things. Taking Grace to the gun range, he thought sadly, was the other.

  She began to stir as he thought about his options, and then she opened her eyes. But only slightly. When she saw that Tommy was back with her, safe and sound, she smiled, closed her eyes again, and turned over. But when she turned over, she snuggled closer against him, causing her ass to jut against his penis. Why, he thought, did she want to do that? There was no way he could let that ride.

  He therefore lifted her gown, just enough to uncover her bare ass, and pulled down his briefs. He teased her long enough with in and out pokes of his dick, arousing himself even more in the process, until she was moist enough for him to ease on in.

  She moaned that sensual moan he loved when he began to stroke her. It was an easy fuck, but an intense one, as they lay there, with his arms wrapped around her. He made the kind of love to her that he knew was more soothing than sensual. It was a joining love. It was Tommy inside of Grace with a powerful need to be there. Nothing more, nothing less.