Page 41 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

“What time did you leave this morning?” Gemma asked him.

“Four. Something like that. I needed to meet with my guys before they made their rounds this morning.”

“You needed to meet with them about what happened in Hollywood?” Lucky asked him.

Sal frowned and looked at his son. “What you know about that? Were you listening at our bedroom door again when we got home last night?”

“No, sir, I promise. It was nothing like that! Marie told me about it.”

Sal and Gemma both looked at Marie. Sal frowned. “What are you talking to your baby brother about shit like that for, Marie? You know we don’t play that.”

“He wanted to know why I was so upset. I just told him general stuff, that’s all.”

“You don’t tell him shit! He’s still a kid and he’s going to live a kid’s life. You don’t drag my baby into none of this bullshit, you hear me?”

“I didn’t mean anything by it, Daddy, dang.”

“Do you hear me?” Sal asked point blank.

“Yes, sir. I hear you loud and clear.”

“Okay, you can cut the attitude, Marie,” Gemma said. “He’s not telling you anything we hadn’t already told you.”

“I was asking her questions,” said Lucky, her greatest defender. “She didn’t mean anything bad.”

“Who asked you?” Sal asked. Then he frowned. “Aren’t you late for school?”

“I had to eat breakfast. Can’t a brother eat breakfast in this household?”

“No,” Sal and Gemma said together. “Go get dressed,” Gemma added.

Lucky rolled his eyes and stood up. As he was passing Sal, Sal stopped him and hugged him. Lucky smiled and wrapped his arms around his father. Sal was his hero.

Sal then kissed him on his forehead and slapped him on his butt. “Get going,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” a happier Lucky said as he left the breakfast room.

Marie began rising too. “I’d better get ready for work myself,” she said as she began removing her and Lucky’s plates off the table. Now that Gemma was super-busy with her law practice and had not a moment to spare, Marie took over as Senior VP of Champagne’s, a clothing boutique owned by Trina and Gemma together, and ran the day-to-day operations along with Jimmy’s girlfriend Oprah.

But Gemma could tell her daughter wanted to say more. And she did. “I do want to apologize to you guys for telling Lucky about last night. I should have been more careful.”

“Yes, you should have,” said Gemma. “He’s too young.”

“I grew up fast,” said Marie. “I guess I forgot not every kid has to.”

“I grew up fast, too,” said Sal. “But Luciano will not be following in my footsteps. I’ll see to that myself. He might not have brains like Carmine, but he’s got brains like his mother. And I aim for him to use them. We got too many lugs in this family as it is.” Then he looked at Marie. “And we got too many young people in this family falling in love with lugs.”

Marie smiled. She knew he was talking about her cousins Ashley, whose man Monk Paletti was a mob boss, and Sophia and Destiny, whose men were gangster too. Even Carly’s man, Trevor Reese, was suspicious. “Yes, sir,” she said.

“And I’m sorry for snapping at you,” Sal said. “It’s been a rough week. I was taking it out on you. Come here,” he said to Marie.

Marie, who, like Lucky, was always happy whenever Sal was happy with her, hurried over to him. Gemma watched as Sal hugged and kissed her the way he had done Lucky. But Gemma was worried about Marie. She knew how to play men. She was manipulative that way. Not that it could be helped: she was raised that way.

That was why Gemma knew better. She knew what Marie had told Lucky wasn’t why she apologized. Getting out of there before Gemma could ask her any further questions was her aim. “You still haven’t answered my question,” Gemma said to her when she and Sal stopped embracing.

“What question?” Sal asked.

“About her boyfriend.”

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