Page 67 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

But then another thought occurred to him. And he looked at Mick. As soon as he looked at Mick, Mick realized it too.

“Robby,” Sal said to his underboss, “get the bosses down here now.”

This time Robby grabbed his gun and went upstairs to escort them down himself.

Jovie looked at Sal and Mick. “Are you two thinking what I’m thinking?”

They looked at him.

“If those bosses have been spreading lies about me kidnapping their children and what-not, do you not think they could be wired too?”

That was exactly what Sal and Mick were thinking, and Sal ran his hands through his hair again and then kicked Pauley’s unconscious body angrily with his own expensive shoe. It was no longer simply a question of life and death in the generic. It was also a question of life in prison without parole or death row. Sal and Mick glanced at each other. They understood the jeopardy Sal was in.

Robby escorted the three mob bosses down the stairs. All three men saw the state of Pauley, as his nearly-naked, bloodied body was curled up in a fetal position as if he was dead. Did Sal kill him? Was that to be their fate next? Each one of them knew how not to show their terror, but Mick and Sal could tell just by the way they looked when they saw Jovie in the room that they felt it.

Robby and another capo stripped-searched each one of the bosses down to their underwear, to ensure they weren’t wired, and then they backed off.

Sal was so enraged when he saw those three men he had risked his life for time and time again, men that more than likely betrayed him so completely, that Mick took over the questioning. “Is this the person that kidnapped your children?” Mick asked them.

None of them wanted to take the lead. None of them responded.

“You heard my uncle, motherfuckers!” Sal yelled. “Is this the man that kidnapped your mistresses and your children. Is this the one?”

“Yes,” said Palo Bracchi.

Mick and Sal didn’t expect that answer. They looked at Jovie. Jovie showed no emotion. He didn’t even looked at Palo.

Then they looked back at Palo. “You’re saying this man, Jovie Joventanno, is the man that you met with and that did those kidnappings?” Sal asked.

Palo nodded, looking anguished. But then he shook his head.

Sal frowned. “What the fuck does that mean? Is he the one or isn’t he, Palo? What you fucking me around for?”

Boomer Cirillo stepped in. “Just tell the truth, Palo. What we gonna lie for now? They didn’t bring us in these woods for no reason. They already know. Just tell the truth!”

“What’s the truth?” Mick asked.

“He told us to say it was Joventanno,” said Milo. “But it wasn’t him.” Jovie finally looked at them.

“Then who was it?” asked Sal.

“Guy name Jason Ritch,” said Boomer. “FBI.”

Sal’s heart dropped. He would have preferred it was Jovie! “What did he say?”

“He put a wire on us,” said Milo. “I’m assuming you already knew that or Robby would not have stripped us.”

“He had thick binders on each one of us,” said Boomer. “There’s no way we couldn’t do what he ordered. There was no way.”

“What did he order?”

“He ordered us to first tell you that our mistresses were snatched, then to escalate it to our children being snatched and that Joventanno was the one who took them if you showed us that photo. And he ordered us to tell you that we could get them back in exchange . . .”

Sal and Mick waited. “In exchange for what?” asked Sal.

“In exchange for Gemma Jones-Gabrini. For your wife, Sal,” he said.

Sal was shocked. “My wife? Oh hell no! Why would the Fed want my wife? You didn’t tell me anything about any fucking exchange!”

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