Tommy Gabrini 3: Grace Under Fire (The Gabrini Men Series) Read online

  “He’s probably running the whole thing,” Nancy said. “What would you know about running a company?”

  Tommy looked at his mother-in-law. “Why would you say a thing like that? She’s done an excellent job with Trammel. It was bleeding money, had rarely been profitable, before Grace took the reins. She’s a natural. I’m extremely proud of her.”

  And that small statement shut Nancy up. From there on out, it was pleasantries all around.

  Until yelling was heard outside.

  “What’s that?” Grace asked.

  “That’s Tam and that boy. They argue all the time. Don’t even give it a second thought.”

  But Grace walked up to the bay window and looked out. Whatever she saw caused her to run out of the front door. Tommy stood up and ran out behind her.

  When he got out there, they were all on the front lawn. Grace was standing in between Tamara and Bobby, and Tamara was hitting Bobby by swinging beyond Grace.

  Tommy’s heart dropped at the thought that one of those fools could injure his wife. He jumped from the porch and hurried up to the threesome. Nancy stood on the porch and looked as Tommy pulled his wife out of the way and allowed Tamara and Bobby to continue their argument.

  “Go inside,” he ordered Grace as he stepped in between the couple. They could argue, was his reasoning, but Bobby wasn’t laying a hand on Tamara.

  And he didn’t. The argument was circular and went nowhere fast. Soon, Bobby was in his Toyota and was leaving the scene, with Tamara shouting about how glad she was that she found out before she fell for his ass.

  But as soon as they all returned inside the house, Tamara broke down and cried. She ran to her bedroom. Grace broke away from Tommy, who held her hand, and hurried behind her. She and Tam weren’t exactly friends, but they weren’t enemies either.

  Tamara was lying across her bed when Grace walked in. She didn’t ask if she was all right. She didn’t ask Tam anything. She sat patiently on the edge of the bed until Tamara herself sat up on the bed, and was ready to talk.

  “Sorry about that,” she said.

  “I know it hurts.”

  “I love him and he knows I do, but he’s still sleeping with all those other girls.”

  “You know this?”

  “He had a baby by one. He denies it, but that girl showed me a DNA test.”

  “Wow. I’m sorry to hear that, Tam.”

  “I know.” Then Tam frowned. “What should I do?” she asked Grace.

  “There’s no question about it. You have to leave him.”

  “Because he cheated?”

  “Yes.”

  “You didn’t leave Tommy. You married him.”

  Grace frowned. What in the world was she talking about? “What do you mean?”

  “When Tommy cheated. You didn’t leave him.”

  Grace stared at her. “Tommy never cheated on me.”

  Tamara laughed. “You don’t believe that.”

  “Yes I do believe it. Because it’s true.”

  “How do you know?”

  Grace knew this was going to sound naïve, but she said it anyway. “Because he loves me.”

  “Bobby loves me too, but he cheats on me all the time.”

  “Well Tommy isn’t Bobby.”

  Tamara looked away. Grace knew her sister figured she was just deluding herself, but she wasn’t about to argue with her.

  Then Tamara looked back at Grace. “You didn’t give up your apartment, did you?”

  Grace stared at her. “No. Why?”

  “Can I stay there for a few months? Just to get my head together and maybe get a job or something?”

  “You want to leave Oregon?”

  “Yes. I need to leave it, Grace. I don’t want to stay with a man who treats me the way Bobby treats me, but I know I’ll stay if I don’t have anywhere else to go.”

  “But what about Mom?”

  “What about her? Seattle is less than three hours from here. I can come see her anytime. Please Grace. Just for a little while!”

  Grace knew Tommy would probably advise against it. But it was her apartment she was talking about and her sister who was in need. Tommy didn’t have a vote.

  “For a few months only,” Grace said, and Tamara hurried to Grace and threw her arms around her.

  “I love you, Grace,” Tamara said, but Grace knew that wasn’t true.

  “You won’t regret it,” Tamara added.

  But Grace knew that wasn’t true either.

  NINE

  Marie Knox walked into the gym and started looking around. She knew she would be there, she just had to find her. When she saw her, she headed, not in that direction, but in the exact opposite direction. Grace was on the treadmill. She headed for the weights.

  As soon as Grace stopped, and went over to the bench to take a breather, Marie made her way over there too. She sat beside her as Grace sipped her bottled water.

  “Good workout?” Marie asked her.

  Grace smiled. “Very good. I’m very proud of myself.”

  “You talk like it isn’t an everyday thing.”

  “Are you kidding? It’s not. Maybe a once a week thing.”

  Marie smiled. “Yeah, I’m not much better. But with your body, and you only work out once a week? Impressive.”

  “Thanks.” Grace wiped her sweaty face and neck.

  Marie started rubbing the expensive bracelet she had on her wrist, forcing Grace to notice it.

  “Nice,” Grace said.

  “Oh, thank-you,” Marie said with a smile. “My boyfriend gave it to me. It’s real.”

  Grace nodded.

  “No, I’m not kidding,” Marie said as she began taking it off. “Let me show it to you. It’s real.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Grace said, stunned that it could possibly matter to her. “I believe you.”

  But Marie was quick and was already handing the bracelet to Grace. “See what I mean? Real diamonds. My boyfriend, Tommy, he owns his own company.”

  Grace heard her say that name, but she continued to look at the bracelet. “Yes, it’s very nice.”

  “He even had it inscribed, girl,” Marie said, as she turned the bracelet over so that Grace could see it.

  “See there. To Marie,” she read, then added, “that’s me.” She continued to read the inscription. “From TG. TG is for Tommy Gabrini.” She looked at Grace. “He’s such a dear. Just like this bracelet. He took me with him on a business trip to Aspen. That’s when he gave it to me.”

  Grace didn’t even look at the woman when she made that declaration. If this was some kind of a setup or some kind of a joke, she wasn’t going to be in on it. “Very nice,” she said again, handing her back the bracelet. “But I’d better get back to my workout before I don’t feel like doing a darn thing.”

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Marie said with a grand smile. And Grace walked away and headed back for the treadmill.

  Although Marie was floored, she had expected major fireworks, she kept smiling and went back to her exercises too. But she was highly pissed. Not because Grace was too, but because Grace wasn’t.

  Grace didn’t show it, and managed to complete her entire exercise routine before she left the gym, but she was highly pissed too. She got in her Audi, drove straight to the Gabrini Corporation, and did not stop until she was told by Tommy’s secretary that he was on the racquetball court with Sal.

  Grace stepped onto the executive elevator, made her way to the company gym on the ground floor, and entered the racquetball courts. No one was in there but Tommy and Sal and both of them, in their shorts and sweatshirts, hitting the ball repeatedly against the wall, were sweating profusely. They had the gym built for days like this. They didn’t need a country club. They had it all right onsite. The way Tommy saw it they could play hard, then shower and get back to work.

  Sal was the first to see Grace when she walked in. “Your old lady’s here,” he said.

  Tommy, wiping sweat from his fo
rehead with his wrist band, looked toward the entrance too. When he saw that it was Grace, and saw that look on her face, he held up his racket. “Take ten,” he said to his brother, and began walking her way. Sal threw up his hand at Grace, but continued to play ball with himself and the wall.

  “Hey darling,” Tommy said as he approached her. “What are you doing here?”

  Grace didn’t mix words. “When you went to Aspen on business, did you take someone with you?”

  Tommy studied her. “I went to Aspen months ago. Why would you be asking me about that?”

  “Did you take someone with you?”

  “I’m sure you mean a female.”

  “Yes.”

  “No. I didn’t take anyone with me.”

  “This woman, she said her name is Marie, showed me a bracelet she claims you gave to her.”

  He didn’t respond.

  “It had an inscription on it. The bracelet, that is. From TG with love, or something like that.”

  Tommy again didn’t respond.

  But Grace was not backing down. “Did you give her that bracelet?”

  Tommy exhaled. “Yes.”

  Grace’s heart dropped. “And that was your inscription?”

  “Yes.”

  “So you did take her with you?”

  “She showed up in Aspen, but she didn’t come with me. I gave her that bracelet, but it was years ago. Long before I knew you existed.”

  Grace felt relieved, but what if he was just telling her what she wanted to hear? “So there’s nothing between you two anymore?”

  “There’s nothing between us, Grace.”

  “Then why would she claim you took her to Aspen? Why would she imply that you gave her that bracelet since you’ve been with me?”

  “Why did she approach you to begin with? Why are these females calling you? I had an open relationship with many women, Grace. They knew what they were getting. They just never banked on me marrying anybody. Most move on, some don’t. She hasn’t yet.”

  Grace knew she had to believe him. What was their relationship if it wasn’t founded on trust? But she didn’t want to play the fool either.

  Tommy saw her dilemma. He looked back at Sal. “Catch up with you later,” he yelled, and then he motioned Grace toward the exit. “Let’s go,” he said.

  “Where are we going?” Grace asked.

  “To prove a point,” Tommy said. He had hoped he would have no more points to prove, but these females, these women like Marie, wasn’t about to allow that.

  Tommy and Grace stepped off of the elevator at the Bridgewater Apartments in northwest Seattle. Tommy held Grace’s hand tightly as they made their way to apartment 92B, an apartment he used to know very well. He hadn’t seen her in months, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t heard from her. He had. Constantly. He thought they had remained friends. He never dreamed she’d pull this little stunt.

  Grace looked at Tommy after he rang the bell. He still wore his shorts and sweatshirt, and looked so damn sexy with his tousled hair that she wondered if this woman would lie her head off, and deny ever meeting with Grace, just to remain in his good graces. And given Tommy’s wealth, and given how great he looked and how great he was in bed, Grace, unfortunately, would fully understood why.

  When Marie looked through her peephole, and saw Tommy’s face, she beamed. And quickly opened the door. Her smile left, however, when she saw that he had brought Grace with him.

  “May we come in?” Tommy asked.

  He wore shorts, which surprised Marie, and when she glanced down and saw how that bundle between his legs looked as if it was packed and stacked and could spring out at any moment the way it used to do whenever he came over in the old days, she knew she had to play this cool. “I was in the middle of something actually,” she said.

  “Thank-you,” Tommy said as if he had heard a different response, and he escorted Grace inside the apartment.

  Marie, not at all surprised by his boldness, closed the door. “Didn’t you hear me, Tommy? I said I was doing something.”

  “What the hell are you trying to pull?” Tommy asked her pointblank.

  For most women, the jig would be up. No way would a man come to her apartment, in shorts and a sweatshirt, with his wife by his side, without knowing full well what she was up to. But most women had never had Tommy Gabrini before. He wasn’t an easy man to release. Marie decided to play dumb. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

  “I’m talking about that bracelet you flaunted in my wife’s face today.”

  She frowned. “I wasn’t flaunting anything. It was a bracelet you gave to me. I was showing it around. What’s the big damn deal?”

  “You said he gave it to you while he was on business in Aspen,” Grace said.

  “That’s true.”

  Tommy was furious. “That’s a gotdamn lie and you know it, Marie!”

  “You didn’t give me a bracelet?”

  “You know I gave you one.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  “When did he give it to you?” Grace asked.

  “I told you when. We were in Aspen.”

  Tommy stared at her. “When?” he asked her.

  “What do you mean when?”

  “When were we in Aspen?”

  Marie knew it was a trick question, but she just couldn’t figure out what the trick was. “It was four months ago,” she said. “A week before my birthday. That’s why you gave it to me. As a birthday gift.”

  Grace smiled. Marie didn’t know it, but she had just confirmed how full of shit she really was.

  “I wasn’t in Aspen four months ago,” Tommy said.

  Marie’s entire countenance changed. “You’re lying.”

  “No, you’re the one who’s lying,” Tommy said. “I was scheduled to go four months ago, but I cancelled at the last minute. I had a family situation in Vegas and I had to go to Vegas. Forgot to tell my office even. But somebody in my office didn’t forget to tell you.”

  “Let’s go, Tommy,” Grace said, heading for the exit. “She’s full of it just like I thought.”

  But Tommy wasn’t nearly as forgiving. He moved away from Grace and invaded Marie’s personal space. “I don’t know what kind of twisted pleasure you’re getting out of this nonsense, but it had better stop and stop right now. You hear me? If I find out that you’ve been within a hundred feet of my wife, I will make certain that she will be the last human being you ever even think about stalking again. You will regret tangling with me. Am I making myself clear to you?”

  Marie swallowed hard. She knew about Tommy’s prowess in bed. But she also knew about his other side too. “Crystal,” she said.

  Tommy stared at her a moment longer. They used to have good times together, but those days were forever gone. Just like their friendship.

  He took Grace’s hand and left her apartment.

  Marie slammed the door behind them, fell against it, and sobbed.

  Grace’s Audi stopped in front of the Gabrini Corporation. Tommy sat on the passenger seat. He looked over at Grace.

  “She won’t try that shit again,” he promised her.

  “I know.”

  “She thought all she had to do was pressure you and you’d cave.”

  “Cave? Cave how?”

  “You’d leave me, I guess.”

  Grace shook her head. “That woman’s delusional. Leave you over her? Please.”

  Tommy smiled, leaned over, and kissed her on the lips. “Drive carefully,” he said, and then got out. Grace waved as she drove off. Too fast, in Tommy’s view.

  But he didn’t dwell on it. He headed into the building, took the executive elevator to the top floor, and then made his way to his office suite. Irma, his secretary, was behind her desk, and his assistants were behind theirs. But his entire attention was on Irma.

  Known for being discreet, he would have normally taken her into his office. But not this time. He didn’t want to make this a private mat
ter. They all needed to hear this. “Have you spoken to Marie Knox?”

  “Your girlfriend?” Irma asked. “No sir, not lately.”

  “My former girlfriend. And what do you call not lately?”

  “Not lately, sir. I haven’t spoken to her in a while.”

  “Did you speak to her four months ago?”

  “Four months ago, sir?”

  “Yes, four months ago. When I was scheduled to go to Aspen. Did you tell her I was going to Aspen four months ago?”

  The secretary hesitated. Deny all seemed to be her strategy. “Aspen, sir?”

  “Don’t bullshit with me, Irma. Now did you or did you not tell her I was going to Aspen?”

  “I might have mentioned it to her. Yes, I did mention it to her.”

  “Why? You knew I was engaged then. Why would you need to notify my ex-girlfriend about my schedule?”

  “I was . . . I didn’t see where it was any big deal really. Could you do better than her? Yes, I felt you could. And I doubt if I was the only human being in this organization who felt that way. But that’s not why I mentioned your schedule to Marie.”

  Tommy stared at her.

  “What?” Irma asked through his stare. “I liked Marie and I thought she would have made you a better wife.”

  The nerve of this woman, Tommy thought. “You wanted to sabotage our relationship,” he said, still staring at her, still wondering what gave her the right to even have an opinion about his private life.

  “I wanted you to see what you were missing,” Irma surprisingly admitted. “If you want to call that such a loaded word as sabotage then fine, call it that. I wanted to sabotage your relationship.”

  “Well lady,” Tommy said, “you just sabotaged yourself. You’re fired. Get out, and get out now.”

  Irma’s heart dropped. “Fired? Over her?”

  Tommy looked at the woman seated behind Irma’s desk. Irma was already a non-factor in his eyes. “Viv, you take over her duties until I can find a replacement.”

  “Yes, sir,” Vivian replied, displaying loyalty to Tommy only.

  Without giving his long-time secretary a second glance, he went into his office.

  TEN