Page 66 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

Pauley didn’t respond. Sal and Mick both looked at him. And it was beginning to enrage Sal. “Tell me the truth, Pauley. Did you or did you not take that photo of this man right here?”

Pauley began shaking his head. “I did not,” he said. “But I had no choice, Boss. You have to believe me. He gave me no choice!”

“Who gave you no choice?” asked Sal. “This guy right here?”

Pauley shook his head. “No. The guy who approached me and Markie.”

Sal and Mick both were confused. “You told me it was this guy right here who approached you and Markie at that bar.”

“That’s what the guy forced me to tell you. He’s Fed, Boss. And he had a book on me that was thick as your arm. They would send me up the river for life if I didn’t cooperate. I would never see the light of day again if I didn’t do exactly what he told me to do.”

Now Sal was beginning to get seriously worried. He and Mick glanced at each other. This was going in a direction they never saw coming. “How do you know he was Fed?” Mick asked Pauley.

“He showed me his ID. And you can smell’em a mile away. He was Fed.”

“Who was this Federal agent?” Jovie asked.

Pauley wouldn’t respond and Sal and Mick looked at Jovie, too, and the nerve he had.

“What have I done?” Jovie asked. “I have a right to know who the person is that’s going around telling people to accuse me of crimes I’ve not committed.”

They couldn’t argue with that. “Just answer the question,” Sal ordered Pauley.

“His name’s Jason Ritch. FBI RICO unit. He’s legit Boss. He knew the shit I pulled when I was a teenager! The only thing he didn’t have in that book was the shit I pulled since I been with you. But what he had would send me away forever. I had to do exactly what he told me to do.”

But that only fueled Sal’s anger even more. “How the fuck would he know what you were doing? You could have come to me undercover and told me what was going on. You could have told me the truth instead of that bullshit you told me! Even after Markie nearly killed my wife, you still didn’t come clean to me?”

“I couldn’t. He would know.”

“How the fuck would he know?”

Pauley exhaled. He was in severe distress.

Mick saw it too. “How would he know, Pauley?” Mick asked.

Pauley was near tears he was so terrified. “I was wired,” he said.

Sal jumped from his seat. Mick did too. Robby moved in closer too. “Your ass wired now?” Sal asked hysterically.

“No! After I was terminated by Mr. Sinatra, I took that shit off. But they made me wear it to bed, Boss. Twenty-four-seven. They had me over a barrel.”

Sal had to get away from Pauley before he killed him. He ran his hands through his hair. Mick shook his head, too, and moved over by the side wall. He lifted one leg and placed the back of his expensive shoe against the wall and then he leaned against it. This was out of hand. They did not see this coming!

Sal looked at Robby and nodded his head toward Pauley.

Robby handed his rifle to one of the other capos in the room and hurried over to Pauley. Then he tore open his shirt to make sure he wasn’t wired and strip-searched him by removing every stitch of clothing he had on down to his boxers. He was not wired.

Then Robby stripped Jovie down to his underwear too. But he was not wired either.

But Sal had to continue pacing the floor to regain some semblance of control over his rage at Pauley. He stopped and looked at the man he once considered a family member. “So what you’re telling me,” he said, “is that the Feds now know all about my shipments coming and going and my warehouse locations and all of that shit?”

Pauley had tears streaming down his face. But he nodded his head.

“Gotdammit!” Sal yelled and then he couldn’t control it another second. He hurried over to Pauley and began beating him so viciously that Pauley was screaming for his life. But Mick was watching the beatdown carefully. He wanted Sal to kick his ass within an inch of his life.

That was why, when Pauley was unconscious and Sal was still wailing on him with roundhouse blows, Mick stepped in and pulled Sal off. “You kill him,” he said to his nephew, “and the Feds will know it was you. You beat his ass they don’t give a shit.”

Sal knew it too. He jerked away from Mick, but he backed off.

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