Page 15 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

Gemma, surprised, looked at her old friend. She thought it was just a chance meet up. “Mason, is that true?”

“Call me Kidd.”

“You said you hated being called Kidd.”

“You’re right.”

“Mason!”

“Yes, it’s true, okay? I hired a P.I. I just wanted to make sure you were okay and--”

“You wanted to make sure she was okay after all these years?” asked Sal. “What kind of bullshit you’re peddling?”

“And,” said Mason, knowing he had to go there sooner than he wanted to go there, “I wanted to see if I could hire her.”

That threw both Sal and Gemma for a loop. “Hire me?” asked Gemma. “Hire me for what?”

Mason put on his best worried face. Then he leaned forward. “This woman is claiming I assaulted her something like a decade ago when she was one of my first clients,” he said. “And I’m talkingsexuallyassaulted her to the point that I’m supposedly making her give me a bj against her will and shit like that. It’s bogus as fuck, I declare it is, and that’s why I’m taking it to court. No settling out of court for me. I’m not dropping a dime on that bitch. She will not associate my name with that shit. Not in thisMe Tooenvironment. I’d be ruined for life! That’s why I need the right lawyer to make it happen for me.”

Sal was staring at Mason. He wasn’t buying what he was selling not for a second. But what he needed to know was if Gemma was buying it.

“Make what happen for you?” Gemma asked Mason.

“Exoneration,” said Mason, “because nothing else will do. I like what you did for Q when you were his lawyer.” Q was another Hollywood guy that Gemma successfully defended. “I want that same kind of representation,” Mason added.

“Don’t you have an attorney of your own?” Gemma asked him.

“I have a firm on retainer, yes.”

“But you need a woman?” Gemma asked.

Mason smiled. “There’s no bullshitting you, just like in college. But yes, that’s right. And it’s not because I’m guilty, either,” he said, looking at Sal. “But it’s because I know how people think. In Hollywood, just the charge can bring you down. And people running around talking about how we got to believe the women no matter what?”

Then he shook his head. “I’m in trouble, Gem. My client list is almost ninety-percent female. They start deserting me in droves then I’m doomed. I need a woman in my corner. Somebody who knows I don’t roll like that. Somebody who’ll fight for me the way I know you will because you know me.”

Sal frowned. “How the fuck she know you? She don’t know shit about you. You were a snot-nosed college kid when she met you. No telling what your ass been up to since.”

Mason looked at Sal as if he was offended. He could tell Sal could see right through him. But it was Gemma he had to convince. “What I’ve been up to since college,” he said, “is cultivating a lucrative talent agency, actually. And being a rock star and an actor, too, while I was at it. If you care to know the full sail.”

But Sal was still staring at him. Still trying to figure him out as only Sal could. “What’s your game?” he finally asked him.

Mason felt as if he was losing his touch. “I want to hire your wife. That’s my game.”

“And instead of calling and asking for her help, you hire a private investigator? She’s in the phone book, motherfucker. And I hear Google works too.”

Sal was making great points to Gemma. She had been so caught up in the nostalgia of seeing a great old friend again that she didn’t see any of the little red flags. Sal saw them all because he was caught up in looking out for his woman. Gemma stared at Mason too.

Mason had always thought of mobsters as dumb lugs you could easily manipulate with raw intelligence. Slap’em with knowledge and you’ll slap’em down, was how he saw it. But he had read Sal Gabrini wrong. There was nothing dumb about that joker.

That was why Mason knew he had to double down. He put on his best charming smile. But even Gemma wasn’t smiling back.

He moved around in his seat, and then got serious. “It’s a bit embarrassing to admit, to tell you the truth,” he said with a slight smile. Then he waited for Gemma to ask himembarrassing how? But she didn’t say a word. It was as if she had chosen sides, and it wasn’t his side.

He cleared his throat. “It’s embarrassing,” he said again, “because I hired a P.I. to check out your wins and losses first, Gem, especially in assault cases, to make sure you would be the best person for the job. That you would be up to the job. You’re my great friend and I should have known better, but that’s why I hired a P.I,” Mason added, making it up as he went along. “I’m in trouble and I need somebody who’ll stand up for me. Gemma, you’ve always been that standup kind of person.”

Sal knew that was the truth. Gemma was a moral, ethical, goodhearted person. But he still didn’t believe any other words coming out of that bastard’s mouth.

Gemma wasn’t that critical of Mason, but she knew Sal. And if Sal judged a man to be full of shit, he was usually full of shit. Even though she’d never known Mason to be that kind of guy. Even after he cheated on her, he came clean with her about it.

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