Page 13 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
“I’ll do?”
“You’ll do,” Reno said, sounding like the mobster he never liked to be perceived as. “What more you want me to say? We’ve got to get that bitch to sign, okay? Can I put it any plainer than that? There’s no two ways about this. If we can’t get her ass on board then we can kiss our dream goodbye. And Reno Gabrini ain’t kissing shit goodbye. We’re getting that signature.”
Tommy shook his head. He couldn’t believe he was agreeing to this ridiculousness. Reno told him there was a glitch and he needed his negotiation skills. But it wasn’t until they were on Tommy’s plane and almost to Alberta did Reno admit what kind of negotiating skills he was talking about. But they were within a few miles of her house and she was the missing link they desperately needed to get the dream of their European Industrial Complex off the ground. Without her sign-on, the Europeans would sign off. Without a major European backerthe European Union already made clear that they would not allow the massive project to come to fruition. They had to have The Hawk. Period.
Tommy looked at Reno. “Who’s this woman anyway? I’ve never heard of her before.”
“That’s because she’s not somebody that wants to be known. She just wants to be rich. And she is by the way. In multiples of us. The Hawk is what they call her.”
“Why?”
“She can be overbearing. Let’s put it that way.”
Tommy shook his head again. “I don’t know why I agreed to any of this. I don’t even like business partners, especially those I don’t know.”
“You think I like doing it this way? I don’t like it either. In the States we do our own thing. You own the Gabrini Corporation and I own my hotels and casinos and the government be damned. Neither one of us are used to this set up, although I’ve done a few deals with the Europeans before. But nothing on this scale. Just think of it as one of your mergers. You do mergers all the time.”
“That’s different, Reno, and you know it.”
Then Reno exhaled. “Look, I know my methods are unorthodox. You’re my cousin, my best friend, and my business partner all rolled into one. You think I wanna put you through this shit? You think I wanna go out like this? Hell no! But we can’t do the deal just the two of us. We can’t have a Europe-based company without the Europeans. The European Union already made it perfectly clear that we must have European investors of at least twenty-five-percent ownership or they won’t allow our venture to ever see the light of day. And the kind of money we’re talking has to come from the heavy-hitters. Ingrid is the heaviest hitter who at least will entertain the idea. So that’s where we are. We’ve got to get her signature or our dreamis doomed, there’s no ands, ifs, or buts about it, and we’ve got to get it now. Today.”
But as their limousine stopped around the waterfall at the main house of the Hawken estate, and their bodyguard got out and stood at the back passenger door, Tommy was still hesitant.
Reno frowned. “Why you acting like some debutante afraid of her coming out party?”
“Why do you think?” Tommy looked at him. “You know what my childhood was like. Because I supposedly had these great looks I was treated like an object for anybody and everybody to use and abuse. You know how I hate that shit!”
Reno knew about Tommy’s twisted childhood and how, even to this day, people wanted to be around him only because of his so-called “gift” for having unusually great looks. But those great looks, as Reno knew all too well, never got him anything but trouble. Reno knew asking him to take advantage of that “gift,” when Tommy viewed it more as a curse than a gift, was asking a lot. But there was no other way.
“Just this one time,” he said to his cousin as they sat shoulder to shoulder. “We get her signature and it’s over. You won’t have to see her again as long as you live. Because after that signature she’ll be all in whether she likes it or not. I’ll deal with her after we get that signature.”
Then Reno exhaled. “What can I say, Tommy? Her weakness is her weakness. And her weakness is great looking guys like you. Whether you wanna believe you’re great looking or not, women believe it. It’s just a fact of life you’ve got to face.”
“Then you seduce her if it’s a fact of life. You’re good looking. You woo her ass.”
“Who said anything about good looks? She don’t give a damn about good looks. Only great looks. Which means you’re all we got. You’re it.” Then, after a few seconds, Renoreluctantly added: “If it’s Grace you’re worried about, don’t worry about that. She’ll never know.”
Tommy and Reno shared a brief glance that made clear they understood each other. They had so many secrets between them, secrets that they would take to the grave, that the weight of it all was jarring. But it was what it was.
“Let’s just get this shit over with,” Tommy said as he tapped the car window, their bodyguard opened the backdoor, and he, and then Reno, got out.
CHAPTER SIX
When the butler escorted Tommy and Reno to the back patio pool area and Tommy saw her for the first time in his life, she wasn’t at all what he expected. She was tall and beautiful, statuesque even, and sitting on her lounger at her massive infinity pool like a woman with the world on a string. Ingrid “The Hawk” Hawken was captivating.
“Welcome to Alberta, gentlemen,” she said as they began walking toward her.
Reno gave Tommy the elbow and muttered “wow” beneath his breath. Tommy was impressed too: she was a very beautiful woman.
When they sat down in an array of chairs in front of her lounger, they realized her eyes were staring at Tommy. But when she unbuttoned the one button on her long shirt to reveal the bikini she wore, both men got hard.
“This is my cousin and business partner I was telling you about,” Reno said to Ingrid.
“Ah yes. The infamous Tommy Gabrini. Dapper Tom when you’re good. Backdoor Tommy when you’re bad.” Then she laughed as she looked Tommy up and down. “Both suits you.”
“But which do you prefer?” Reno asked, playing on her attraction to Tommy. In his eyes he always played the hand he was dealt. She loved great-looking men. That was her weakness. He was not above playing to that weakness.
But Ingrid was nobody’s fool. She knew how to play too. “I would rather ask him what does he know about me?”
