Page 51 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

“Gemma Gabrini does not allow anybody to make her do anything. She fell in love with you because, crazy as it seems to me and the rest of the universe, she wanted to fall in love with you. You didn’t make her do shit.”

“But what’s going on with me, Uncle Mick? My organization’s falling apart. You aren’t wrong about that. And it’s falling apart at a time when this Croatian’s injecting himself into my business, trying to take my business, while Kidd Curry’s trying to take my wife. And I don’t know what to do about it.”

Mick nodded again. “I’ve been there,” he said.

Sal was shocked to hear it. “You’ve been there? Been where?”

“Where your ass is right now. It’s called a mid-life crisis, Sal. You’re scared.”

Sal didn’t like that word one bit. And for Mick to put it on himself too? “You’re saying you’ve been scared? That you’ve beenthere?” Sal was still shocked to hear that.

“Yes, I’ve been there,” Mick made clear. “You’re scared you aren’t good enough anymore. That you could lose the most important person in this world to you and you won’t be able to stop it from happening.”

“How did you manage it?”

“I made sure I stopped it from happening,” said Mick.

Sal and Mick stared at each other. They understood each other. Then Sal stood up and extended his hand. “Thanks, Uncle Mick,” he said, Mick shook his hand, and then Sal deplaned.

But as soon as his feet hit the tarmac, Sal began running. “Shit!” he yelled as he ran.

“What is it, Boss?” Robby asked, trying to keep up with Sal.

“Lucky’s ballgame. I forgot my son’s game again. Fuck!”

And they hurried to his Bugatti. But before they could get inside, Robby, who was watching some video on his phone, stopped him. “Gotta take a look at this, Boss,” he said.

Sal frowned. “A look at what?”

“This,” he said and handed his cell phone to Sal. “Somebody just sent it to me.”

“Is it Jovie?” Sal asked. “We got him?”

“Just watch it.”

“Watch what? Who sent it to you?”

“I don’t know. It was just sent over.”

“And your stupid ass opened it?”

“My virus protector said it was legit. Just watch the video, Boss!”

Sal, already flustered, pressed the play button on Robby’s phone and watched the video. And what he saw astounded him. It wasn’t a video of some gangster they were trying to catch. It was a video of Mason Curry and Gemma, and they were kissing passionately in Mason’s living room.

Sal could hardly believe it. It had to be doctored. It had to be! But when Mason reached his hand inside of Gemma’s blouse, Sal’s heart squeezed in fear. Did they go all the way? Did Gemma,his Gemma, go all the way???

But the video ended right then and right there, with Mason’s hand sliding seductively inside of Gemma’s blouse.

“That’s it?” Sal asked.

“I don’t know if that was it,” said Robby. “But that’s all they sent.”

Sal leaned against his car, seemingly exhausted by the possibilities. What he had just watched had been his worse fear: That Gemma would find the right guy, the guy of her dreams, and leave Sal’s ass. But had she left him already? Had those days at Mason’s house, where she was prepping him for his trial while Sal was trying to keep a lid on his syndicate, been more intense than Gemma had led him to believe?

“Is he nuts touching Sal Gabrini’s wife like that?” asked Robby.

“I don’t see no gun to her head,” responded Sal.

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