Page 16 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

But Sal was feeling some kind of way and she wasn’t about to dismiss his feelings. She wasn’t about to go down a road Sal was all but ordering her to stay clear of. “I’m going to have to take a pass, Mace,” Gemma said to her old friend.

Mason was stunned. He never thought she’d turn him down! “May I ask why?” he asked her.

“My husband isn’t feeling this,” said Gemma. “And if he’s not feeling it, then I have to go with him. Always,” she added. “Because he’s never wrong when he feels this way.”

Mason jumped defensive. He was losing her again. “But he’s wrong about me!” he said so heartfelt that even Sal was surprised by his sudden turn of emotions. He and Gemma both looked at Mason.

“I didn’t assault that girl,” Mason continued. “I’d never do that to anybody, not ever. That’s why I went to the links I went to. I can’t get this wrong. I need an attorney who’ll believe in me the way I’d believe in you, Gemma.”

Gemma’s heart sank. Down through the years she used to wonder if she had judged Mason too harshly after he slept that one time with that one girl. But one time was all it took for Gemma back then. Now she’d had a lifetime of suspicious behavior by Sal, but she never once divorced Sal. She left Sal before, but she never left him for good the way she did Mason after that one, albeit terrible, mistake he made.

But the fact remained the fact. Sal wasn’t feeling it. “I can give you the names of some very good female attorneys,” Gemma said.

But Mason refused to give up. “After what you did for Q, I figure you’d do the same for me,” he said to her. “And I hang with the A-listers in Hollywood, Gem. If you get me off, you will have more A-list clients than you can keep up with. I guarantee you that. Your practice will explode. Because my back is against the wall, Gem. I need somebody who actually gives a damn to fight for me. And I hate to admit it, but you’re it. Not some random female who don’t know the kind of person I am. You’re all I have.”

Gemma’s heart went out to Mason. He was always a good guy in the end.

Sal wanted to lash back, but then his cell phone rang, which angered him. Especially since it was, once again, the urgent ring tone. Which always meant trouble brewing, or already brewed.

Sal grabbed his phone and answered angrily. “What is it now?”

It was Robby Yale. “The shipment from Spain to Chicago?”

“What about it?”

“Intercepted.”

Sal was floored. “What?”

Gemma and Mason both looked at Sal.

“It was intercepted, Boss,” said Robby over the phone. “And we don’t have a clue where it is either. Like it just disappeared.”

“I know better than that shit!”

“Oh everybody got cussed out, believe you me,” said Robby.

Cussed out, Sal wanted to say. That was the best Robby could do? How many did he fire? How many heads were busted?

“But we got a suspect who might know everything we need to know,” Robby said, saving himself.

Sal glanced at Mason. Couldn’t speak too freely with him staring down his throat. “And who is that?” he asked.

“Danny Rodrigo. Our point guy from Spain. They picked him up right there in Vegas. He’s at the safe house off Kirkland Street. But we haven’t gotten him to flip yet. He’s not talking. Won’t tell us shit.”

“That’s what you think,” Sal said. “I’m on my way,” he added, and ended the call.

Then he began standing up and reaching his hand for Gemma. “We gotta go,” he said.

Gemma looked at him. “Go?”

“Yes, go. Come on.”

Gemma felt uneasy just leaving Mason when she could tell he was in distress. She would have stayed and helped out a stranger in this kind of distress. But she couldn’t help her friend?

But Sal wore the pants in their family. And if he, a man who’d seen it all, wasn’t feeling Mason, she wasn’t going to buck him. She took his hand and stood up. Then she looked at Mason. “I’ll send you that list of attorneys,” she said.

Mason couldn’t hide his sense of defeat.

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