Page 1 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

PROLOGUE

“Luck? Luck? Lucky, over here!”

When Salvatore Luciano Gabrini, Jr., calledLuckyby everyone who knew him, saw his mother over at the ballpark’s concession stands calling his name, he broke away from his teammates and hurried to her. He loved his baseball team with a passion, but his family was his life.

Lucky had a bodyguard assigned to him, and the guard was hurrying right along with him. Gemma Jones-Gabrini, his mother, had a bodyguard by her side as well, a reality she nor Lucky liked. Lucky’s teammates assumed it was because his father was super-rich and that was why they needed all of that security, but Lucky knew that wasn’t the real reason. Although he wasn’t supposed to know this, he knew that his father was the second-most powerful mob boss in the country, second only to Uncle Mick, and it was during a time when tensions were high across the underworld. At a time when security was no longer optional.

“We won, Ma,” Lucky said happily when he rushed to her side. “Isn’t that something? We were the underdogs and we still whipped their asses!”

“Watch your language,” Gemma warned, but she still smiled at her adorable adolescent son. “You were great, Lucci.”

“Ah, I was okay. I could have played a bit better though.”

“Better? Are you kidding me? You hit a homerun!”

“And struck out twice. And I muffed that ball in center field when I should have caught it. That’s not great. But the main thing is we won. That’s all that matters to me.”

“Right,” said Gemma, nodding her head. She appreciated her son’s refusal to go along with anybody’s bull, including hers. He didn’t play well and that was all there was to it to him. “I didn’t see Carmine out there,” she said. “I thought Carmine had joined your team.”

“He did for a minute. But when he decided to design our new uniforms and sew them himself, the team had a problem with that. Especially when he showed them the finished product.”

“What was wrong with the finished product?”

“They were pink-looking, for one thing, although Carmine claimed they were actuallyblush-rose, whatever that means. And they had flowers in them, Ma. Flowers! The guys voted to kick him off the team so fast the coach feared a lawsuit. They couldn’t believe he was Uncle Reno’s son. I heard one of them say, ‘that’s Reno Gabrini’s kid? How could Reno Gabrini have a kid like that?’ I just laughed.”

“You laughed, but was Carmine hurt? What did Carmine do?”

“Carmine cussed out every single one of them and threatened to do all sorts of horrible things to them like bury them in cement and flush their private parts down toilets. You know, things Uncle Reno would say. But that’s Carmine. I was laughing because I know he talks like that. But those kids took it dead serious. They ran away from him in tears he had them so terrified. The coach then kicked him off the team himself and the Little League banned him for life. Uncle Reno and Aunt Trina are still getting calls from those kids’ parents.”

Gemma was shocked. “How did I miss all of that?”

“You were helping Kidd Curry then,” Lucky said. “You were distracted.”

Mason “Kidd” Curry, thought Gemma. Her decision to be his lawyer in a high-profile murder case was seen by many as a losing proposition. But when she got him off, and he was singing her praises every chance he got to his A-list clients and other big wigs in Hollywood, it became a turning point in her legal career. But it nearly ruined her marriage, and they still hadn’t fully recovered.

“Did you stand up for your cousin?” asked Gemma. “Or did you go along with the crowd?”

“I stood up for him at first,” said Lucky. “He’s a fashion design genius, if you ask me, the way he comes up with all those funky clothes like he does. And you know how book-smart he is too. I respect that. But when he started cussing out those kids and threatening them like he was doing, and kept doing it even when he saw how scared they were, I couldn’t stand by him anymore. Carmine has no off button. He goes too far. I always knew he was fearless like Dommi. But I never thought he was reckless like him too.”

“He’s not reckless,” Gemma said as Lucky started looking around.

But Gemma knew what Lucky meant. Carmine, like most of those Gabrini men, was a counterpuncher. He only strike if you strike him. But then he keeps on striking and striking and striking until you wish to God you’d never met him. But she noticed her son was still looking around the ballpark. “What are you looking for?” she asked him.

“Where’s Daddy?” Lucky finally asked as he continued looking around. “He didn’t come to see me play again?”

“He’s been very busy lately, baby, you know that. Otherwise he would have been here.”

“He used to be here all the time.”

“And he will again, I promise you that.”

“That’s what you promised me the last time. And the time before that. Face facts, Ma. He just doesn’t care about us anymore. He acts as if--”

Gemma looked at her son. “As if what?”

“As if he has another woman, okay? I’m just gonna put it on out there.”

A look came over Gemma’s face that made Lucky feel even worse for saying what he said, but he wasn’t going to sweep truth under any rug either. “I know that’s hard to hear, Ma, but we have to face facts.”

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