Page 40 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

“I will, Boss. And Pauley you know better. You come to us when you got something this big. You don’t take it in your own hands to figure it out for yourself. You come to me or you go straight to Boss. You got it?”

But Gucci went a step further. “And if he ain’t got it,” Gucci said as he grabbed Pauley, turned him around to face him, and began beating the shit out of him. “He’s getting it now!” He beat Pauley down the way he felt Robby, as underboss, should have done.

Robby knew what Gucci was up to. Every time he turned around he had to fight back a challenge to his spot in the pecking order by ambitious made men who had no stomach for waiting their turn. That was why Robby looked at Sal to see if he approved. Sal did approve. Pauley was wrong and needed to be taught a lesson.

“Okay that’s enough,” Sal said when he saw that Gucci was going too far. “He got the message,” he added.

Gucci stopped on Sal’s order, but he would have been happy to continue. But that wasn’t his call. That was Sal’s call. And since Sal was no fan of gratuitous violence, he put an end to it.

But Sal wasn’t disappointed. He honestly believed Pauley was way out of line and deserved every lick. And Robby should have handled that better than just a verbal lashing. Gucci wasn’t wrong about that either.

But Gucci was wrong if he thought he was man enough to take Robby’s place in Sal’s organization. Too many of his men thought because Robby was gay, or because Robby had too many fuck-ups lately, that he was vulnerable. But he wasn’t. Sal was as loyal to Robby as Robby was to Sal.

“Clean his ass up,” Sal said as he looked at Pauley’s bloodied face, “and get back to work. I want everybody looking for that guy. I want to know who he is by nightfall tonight! If he got the balls to come after my guys, he’s got backing. I need to know who’s backing him. Now get on it and stay on it until it’s done.”

“We will, sir,” said Robby. You heard the man,” he said to their capos as their drained, overworked boss headed for the exit.

CHAPTER TWENTY

“But I don’t like sweet peas,” Lucky said. “Why do you make me eat something I despise?”

“Just eat your peas, boy, and shut up,” said Marie. Then she smiled. “Or I’ll tell Ma about that girl you like.”

“I’ll tell her about that man you like,” said Lucky.

“What man?” Gemma asked. She was sitting at the breakfast table drinking a cup of coffee and reviewing a spreadsheet on her computer. Lucky and Marie were at the table too.

Although Marie was much older than Lucky, they were very close. But unlike Lucky, who told Gemma everything going on in his life, Marie was secretive. She rarely told Gemma anything. Gemma was a teen when she had Marie. She thought she had died at birth. It was only after Marie was an adult did Gemma find out that she had actually lived. And although Sal had adopted Marie and he and Gemma welcomed her into their family with open arms, that gulf between mother and daughter still remained.

“You’re dating somebody Marie?” Gemma asked her.

“I wouldn’t call it dating,” Marie said.

When Gemma waited for her to say more, nothing more came. And then they all heard the door open, and Sal’s booming voice yelling for Gemma.

“Why does Daddy always call for you every time he steps into our house?” asked Lucky.

“Back here!” Gemma yelled back.

“Why doesn’t he never yell for me, or for Marie?” Lucky asked.

“Because he’s known me longer,” Gemma said with a smile and Marie laughed. “How about that?”

Sal entered his breakfast room looking every bit as drained as he had looked at the warehouse.

“Hey Daddy,” Marie said to her adopted father, and she purposely said it before Lucky could, to get a rise out of him.

It worked. “That’smydaddy,” he said. “Hey Daddy!”

Sal ignored them both because he knew the games they played, kissed Gemma on the mouth, and then plopped down in the chair beside her.

“Coming to my game today, Daddy?” asked Lucky.

“I’ll be there.”

“You said that before.”

Sal gave him a hard look. Lucky knew to back off. “Yes, sir,” he said.

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