Page 62 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

But Sal didn’t need defending. He easily blocked Palo’s punch and gave Palo a gut punch that rocked him back against the limo and forced him to bend over in pain. By the time the family had made it up to Sal, Palo was putting his hand up in surrender.

As his family stood beside him, Sal didn’t even notice they were there. He was too shocked by Palo’s action. He had a puzzled frown on his face. “What the fuck was that about, Palo?” he asked the man he knew he’d done nothing wrong to.

“They got our kids,” said Boomer Cirillo.

“They got my son!” cried Palo. “Because of you, they got my son!”

“They got my son too,” said Milo Terranova.

“And my daughter,” said Boomer.

“Who is they?” asked Reno.

But as soon as he asked it, Mick saw two vans pull from a curb and began speeding toward the gate. He knew a developing attack when he saw one.

And he didn’t hesitate. “Ambush!” he yelled and pulled out his gun. And Mick being Mick, he didn’t wait for backup. He began running toward the danger, shooting as he ran toward the vans.

Tommy, Reno, and Dommi all pulled out their weapons and began running and firing too. The three mob bosses pulled out their weapons as well. The grounds security and the gate security were firing too.

But Sal looked toward Gemma and the ladies, to make sure there were no backdoor attacks. And that was when he saw a Hummer break down the far side of his fence and men began to jump out.

“Get down!” he started yelling and running toward that Hummer. His grounds security heard his cry and began running behind him.

Big Daddy heard Sal’s cry, too, and immediately grabbed Gemma and threw her out of the line of fire as the first man out of that Hummer began shooting her way.

Sal and his grounds security were shooting, too, and they took out the first gunman and then two more. The driver of the Hummer tried to make a break for it, backing back through that torn down fence, but Sal and his grounds security were firing too many shots. They took out the driver too.

But then Sal, horrified, began running toward his wife and the others, shocked by what he was seeing.

Mick and his crew took out the last of the men in the vans, while Tommy, Reno, and Dommi took off running back toward the gate, to make sure everybody else were okay. Mick, gate security, and the three bosses ran to the vans, to make sure they killed them all.

But just as he checked the pulse of the last one, Dommi ran back toward him calling his name. “Uncle Mick?” he cried. “Uncle Mick!”

Mick turned to him.

“It’s Big Daddy, Uncle Mick,” Dommi said. “They shot Big Daddy!”

Mick’s heart nearly stopped as he ran back toward the gate. Tell him anybody else was shot. But nothim.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

With cleaning crews outside cleaning up the “mess,” the family were all inside and grateful that the bullet had only grazed Big Daddy’s skin, which could be painful but was not life threatening, and the doctor on call for Lucky was there to care for Big Daddy. Everybody stood around Big Daddy’s bedside relieved but still worried. Even Lucky had gotten out of his bed and was checking on his beloved Uncle too.

But there were no worries, as far as Big Daddy was concerned. He wasn’t even lying down, but was seated on the edge of the bed as the doctor was still wrapping his wound that hit him just below his armpit. He wasn’t even thinking about that wound. He was thinking about his family. “Don’t call any of my children,” he ordered everybody in earshot. “Don’t you call my sons and don’t you dare call my daughters. And none of your asses better even think about calling my wife. This is nothing for them to worry about. And we’re going to keep it that way.”

“Say what now?” asked Reno, pointing to his ear playing with him. “I can’t hear you? What did you say?”

“Don’t play with me, Reno. You better not call Brent. You better not call Bobby. You better not call Tony. You better not call Donald. And you sure better not scare my girls with this shit.”

“But I can call Jenay, right?” asked Reno.

Big Daddy almost jumped off the bed to swing on Reno. They all had to laugh at that.

“Big Daddy, you and Uncle Mick are two different kind of dudes,” said Dommi. “Everybody else would want their family around them at a time like this. But not you two.”

“I don’t want them worrying,” said Big Daddy. “And I mean that!”

“Okay, Big Daddy, damn,” said Reno. “We know how you are. We don’t do anything concerning your ass until we run it by you.” Everybody laughed. “We know how you are!”

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