Page 33 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

Trina was lying across the bed thumbing through her emails when Sal walked into his bedroom. He looked down the full length of her as she laid on her stomach on his bed not even noticing his presence. When he first found out she was married to Reno, he didn’t like her bossy ass. At that time he couldn’t understand for the life of him why Tommy and Reno were hooking up with all these black girls when they had all these Italian girls to choose from. But that was the old Sal, the guy who couldn’t see past his own nose. The guy so narrowminded that he thought every black person was just like the criminals he had to deal with on a daily basis. He loved Trina now.

“Where’s Gem?” he asked her.

“Shower,” she responded without looking up.

Sal sat on the side of his bed and began removing his shoes.

“You’re late,” Trina said.

“Don’t start. I had to hear that same shit from Reno downstairs.”

“But you are late.”

“How am I late?” Sal asked with a frown. “It’s only an hour flight to his place and we aren’t supposed to be leaving until seven. It’s not even six-thirty yet.”

“Correction,” said Trina, still flicking through her emails. “The plane leaves at seven. Which means we should be on our way to the airport to board the plane by now.”

“Since it’s my plane,” Sal pointed out, “I doubt seriously it’ll leave without me.”

“Ok, keep talking hotshot,” Trina said as she got off of his bed. “We can always take Reno’s plane and leave your ass right here in Vegas.”

“Be my guest! I don’t wanna go to that shit anyway.”

Trina stood there and considered Sal. He looked tired already and the evening had not even begun. She knew why he was so reluctant, although she also knew he’d never admit it. She’d been married to Reno for a very long time. Had had more problems in their marriage than she could ever count. She’d seen it all.

“She’s not going to leave you, Sal,” she said to him.

Sal looked at Trina as if he had no clue what she was talking about. Which meant, to Trina, that she had hit the nail right on the head. “What leave?” Sal asked her with a fixed frown on his face. “What are you talking, Tree? I wasn’t even thinking like that.”

Sure you wasn’t, Trina wanted to say. “Just get ready,” she said instead and began leaving.

“Gemma’s not ready yet either. I don’t see you and Reno getting on her case.”

“She’s a woman,” Trina yelled back at him, as if that explained everything. “We have more to do.”

“Bullshit!” Sal yelled back at her, but Trina was gone.

Sal began undressing as he sat there. He was still trying to digest the news he heard about the six families being overrun by some syndicate nobody had any intel on. Those six families were lower level than the three they didn’t touch, but they were higher in rank than most syndicates. And it was out of the blue. Sal didn’t see it coming. Which was always bad.

But that dinner party he was forced to attend in Hollywood might just be worse.

When he finished undressing, he laid back on his bed naked, not feeling like even showering. Whenever Gemma was around that Hollywood crowd, he always felt insufficient. Like he was some ignoramus and they had all the answers. He tried to contribute and they laughed as if he was just some muscle head who didn’t know what he was talking about. And the only thing they ever wanted to talk to him about was what it was liking being a gangster. Whenever Sal pointed out that he was a businessman, and a very successful one at that, they balked.Yeah, and I’m Marilyn Monroe, one of the guys said.

“You might be,” Sal responded.

And Kidd Curry was the worst. Always up under Gemma, staring at her like she was a side of beef and he was the gravy. It was infuriating for Sal. But he didn’t tell Gemma. He took the abuse and let her shine. She had successfully defended that creep Curry in court and got him off on what looked like even to Sal was a trumped-up murder charge, and she deserved every accolade she received. He thought they would celebrate and then leave L.A. and Curry and his obnoxious crowd behind for good. But then this invitation shows up.

He closed his eyes. He had a bad feeling about Mason Curry, a really bad feeling. But just like that ghost syndicate, he had nothing to go on that would even remotely convince Gemma to stay away from her own client.

And then he fell asleep.

By the time Gemma was out of the shower, had dried off and brushed and gargled and finally made her way into the bedroom to get dressed, Trina was gone and Sal was lying back on their bed fast asleep.

She stood there, staring at her husband’s naked form, and at his penis that was still big and fat even as it slept. She could feel her body respond.

And when Sal suddenly opened his eyes and saw Gemma standing there as naked as he was, his penis responded too. So much so that he knew it wasn’t going to be able to wait.

“Come here,” he said to Gemma.

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