Page 52 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

But his response surprised Robby. He was one of the few people on earth who knew just how much he loved Gemma. “You believe that shit, Boss?” Robby asked him.

But Sal wasn’t answering. He wasn’t believing anything concerning his wife, until he heard it straight from Gemma herself. Gemma, he knew, never lied.

On the plane, Mick had walked across the aisle to the window and watched as Sal and Robby were standing at Sal’s Bugatti. And all Mick could do was shake his head. These mobsters and their exotic-ass cars. What were they thinking? Mick drove Cadillacs. American made and well built. Somehow that made more sense to him if you wanted to fly under the radar. But a fucking Bugatti? Was Sal insane?

But he was also thinking about Sal, and how much he worried about the guy. Because Sal was always a bundle of emotions. He had heart. He was different than the rest of those Gabrinis. Reno was confrontational. Tommy was slick. But Sal never bothered anybody. Never even thought about taking over somebody else’s territory or dropping those other pathetic bosses that relied too heavily on him. Sal never bothered anybody. But boy did they bother Sal!

And boy, Mick also thought, how he would kill a motherfucker if they touched a hair on that man’s head.

“Coast clear?” It was the woman Mick had been talking with when Sal and Robby first boarded his plane.

But Mick didn’t bother to answer her. He was watching intensely as Sal sped away.

And Sal was speeding even more than he usually did. He thought he was going to that ballpark not only to watch his kid’s baseball game, but to confront Gemma about that video. But he made it to the parkafterhis son’s game was over. And it was Gemma confronting him for being late again. And he would end up buying her daffodils in his lame attempt to make amends.

But then he would see Gemma and Lucky getting into Gemma’s car. He would grab those flowers and hurry across the sidewalk. And then he would see the explosion with his own two eyes, and fire raging at the front end of that car. And that video, and the fact that he had missed his son’s game again, wouldn’t mean shit compared to that.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

As the fire raged on, Gemma tried to get in the backseat to rescue their son, but Sal wouldn’t let her. As soon as he shot out that window, he grabbed Gemma and pulled her out of that burning car. She was screaming for their child, and she wanted to go back in to get him, but Sal made Robby get Gemma and hold her back. He was certain, had he let Gemma go in that backseat, that he would have lost his wife and his son.

Now he had to save his son.

With Gemma still screaming and Lucky screaming for help, Sal threw his suitcoat over his head and jumped into that burning car. The fire that had started at the front of the car was now at the dashboard inside the car, moving steadily across the front seats, when Sal jumped in. He could feel the searing heat against his skin as he quickly moved to the backseat and tried to undo his son’s seatbelt himself. But he couldn’t undo it.

He looked at Lucky as he continued to try and Lucky looked at him, and both of them had nothing but love and fear in their eyes. “Daddy, leave,” Lucky said. “Don’t try to save me, you’ll die too. I’m okay. Mommy and Marie needs you. Daddy just leave!”

But Sal wasn’t even listening to that nonsense. He covered his son’s head with his suitcoat and pulled out the pocket knife he kept in his pocket, opened it, and began cutting that seatbelt.

But it was only working around the margins. It was too small and dull. He had to cut and cut and cut and it still wouldn’t break free.

And when he turned, he saw that the flames were now on the back of the front seat, within inches of consuming not just him, but his son, and he wasn’t about to let any fire harm his boy. He took his bare hands and his teeth to try and dislodge that seatbelt that had contracted so tightly around his son that his son couldn’t move.

And Lucky’s coughing was getting even more uncontrollable even with that suitcoat covering his face. He was about to pass out.

Then Sal could hear people pounding on the back window with baseball bats just as he finally, with his now bleeding bare hands, was able to tear that seatbelt apart and remove Lucky from its grasp.

But just as he lifted Lucky into his arms, the back window shattered from the pounding of those baseball bats. But the introduction of that new air into that burning car created a backdraft as that fire swooshed from the front seat to the back seat and slammed father and son. And as soon as it hit them, Sal didn’t hesitate. He threw his son out of that shattered back window with the little strength he had left, knowing somebody would catch his child.

And they did. Lucky’s coach and his teammates, all with their baseball bats, grabbed their team captain just as Sal threw him out of that window and ran with him as fast as they could in case the car exploded.

Because it was now engulfed in flames.

Gemma saw that Lucky was unconscious and in bad shape, but he was safe now. But Sal was still in that car. Gemma, now beyond terrified when she saw no daylight in that car, broke away from Robby, who was looking at Lucky, and ran to the back of that car. Robby, realizing Sal was still inside, ran after her.

And when they saw through the broken back window that Sal was passed out inside of that car, Robby and Gemma both jumped on the hood and grabbed him. And with the help of the coach, who had run back over, they dragged Sal out of that car and carried him away just as that Bentley lifted up from the ground, and flipped into the air like a metal ball of fire. It landed back down so hard, and with such force, that it caused that part of the street to cave into a giant sinkhole.

And even though they had moved Sal and Lucky far enough away, even their jaws were jumping from the reverberations.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Fire trucks and ambulances, along with dozens of police cars, all blanketed the area within minutes of the explosion. Sal regained consciousness almost immediately. He had some smoke inhalation, which still made it difficult for him to breath normally, and he had small burns on both his arms, but he was otherwise okay. He refused any treatment. He was too concerned about his son.

Everybody stood there worried about Lucky. He was the one in bad shape. The paramedics were trying to stabilize him as the emergency helicopter was flying in to airlift him to the burn center. Because that backdraft hit Lucky with a direct shot, and because Sal was holding Lucky’s face against his chest, Lucky’s back was exposed to the fire that barely touched Sal. But Lucky was badly burned.

Pocketswas what the firemen kept saying was the reason. Sal had miraculously ended up in a pocket inside that car where the fire had not yet consumed. But Lucky wasn’t so lucky. Lucky was the one in bad shape.

They had already placed the injured bodyguards in ambulances and were transporting them to the hospital. They were going to be okay. But Sal and Gemma weren’t so sure about their child.

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