Page 25 of Sal Gabrini: Man on Fire

“Little kiss my ass,” Gemma said with clenched teeth as she began angrily gathering up her hundreds of papers scattered over his coffee table, and began stuffing them into her briefcase. The bodyguards realized they had missed the kiss. Which meant they couldn’t tell Boss anything about it because he wouldn’t miss beating their asses.

Mason began to panic. “What are you doing, Gem? You don’t have to leave!”

Gemma was still floored. She couldn’t believe she let another man kiss her like that. Sal was going to kick her ass he found out she let another man kiss her like that! She already wanted to kick her own ass for being that gullible when there wasn’t a gullible bone in her body! What was Mason thinking, and how did she not see it? How in the world did she let it come to that?

Mason, realizing her great distress, knew he had to change strategies and change in a hurry. “Gem, I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “You’re right, I got carried away. I went too far.”

“Yes you did,” she said firmly as she continued gathering up her papers. But then she frowned. “So did I,” she added, refusing to give herself a pass.

“It’s natural, Gem, to want affection when you have an inattentive husband like Gabrini.”

Gemma stopped grabbing papers and looked at Mason. “What? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about your husband. You’ve been here a full week straight. I heard you telling one of the girls on my legal team that you haven’t heard from him in that entire time. I heard that conversation.”

“My husband is busy. He’s a very busy man.”

“Too busy to call his wife in a whole week?” Mason asked. “You call it busy, I call it inattentive. Face it, Gem. A thoroughbred horse like you need a better jockey than him.”

“Oh please,” said Gemma dismissively and continued stuffing papers in her briefcase again.

“I’m serious!”

“You’re full of shit.”

Mason didn’t like her tone. His smile was gone. He was tired of her ass treating him as if his feelings didn’t count. “That thug got you just where he wants you, don’t he? Even when he’s wrong you defend him,” Mason said more out of frustration than fact.

“You don’t know anything about my marriage, Mace.” She glanced at him. “Just stop.”

“I heard you tell that girl you haven’t heard from your husband all week. If that’s a good, attentive husband, I would want no parts of that if I were you. Besides,” Mason added, “I’ve heard a lot about your little hubby. I’ve heard he’s got his share of mistresses just like the rest of those mobsters.”

Gemma didn’t even entertain that kind of talk. She’d been hearing it her whole marriage, especially from women who wanted Sal for themselves. And maybe she was horse blind. Maybe she refused to see what was obvious to everybody else. But nobody knew Sal like Gemma knew Sal. He could be a domineering asshole sometimes. But his heart was always in the right place. He would never, not ever, cheat on her.

At least that was what she told herself those nights when he didn’t make it home.

When Mason realized she wasn’t biting his bait, he changed course again. “Just slow down, alright?” he said to her. “You don’t have to leave. I had too much to drink. It was just a mistake, that’s all.”

“Mistake my ass! You kissed me, what’s wrong with you? I’m a married woman.” Then she frowned again. “And I let you kiss me! That’s not okay, Mace. How could I let something like that happen?”

Mason smiled. “It’s not like we made long, hot love, Gemma.” Although he desperately wanted to. “It was just a simple-ass kiss.”

“I’m married!” She pointed a finger at him. “There’s no such thing as a simple-ass kiss with a man who’s not my husband. Don’t try to gaslight me. Don’t pull that shit on me.” She continued stuffing in the last of her papers. The bodyguards all but nodded their heads.

Then Mason was suddenly concerned. He hadn’t thought his strategy all the way through. Because he realized she could be done with his ass. He stood up. “You’re still representing me though, right?”

“It’s the night before the trial, what do you think?” A part of Gemma wondered if that was why he decided to strike when he did. Because he knew, if his little play at seduction went wrong, he could always dangle the fact that it was the night before trial in her face.

But she wouldn’t have deserted him anyway. “I’m not blaming you,” she said. “I’m blaming myself. My ass let it go too far.”

“It didn’t go anywhere!” Not where he wanted it to go. “There’s no blame. There’s no need for blame. We did nothing wrong.”

But he could tell Gemma wasn’t going for it. Then he knew he’d better tell her before it was too late. Before she stormed out of his house and refused to take his calls. He quickly began pulling up a text message. This was getting out of hand! He was losing her again. He hurriedly pulled it up. “It was no big deal, Gemma,” he said as he searched for the text.

“Maybe it’s no big deal in your world. But in mine?” She didn’t answer her own question because the answer was obvious. Sal didn’t so much as let another man look at her too hard, and she just let one kiss her passionately? And she was enjoying the kiss? She finished packing up her papers and then looked at him. “Just be on time for court tomorrow.”

“Wait a minute,” he said, reading the text. “Wow.”

She wondered if it was more bullshit. “What is it?”

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