Page 10 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
He thought to call 911, or at least Hotel Security, but then he came back to himself and realized there was no way he could call either one. He was Tommy Gabrini. More specifically, he was a Gabrini. No matter what he said, or what the evidence showed, they would gleefully blame him. There was no suicide, they would insist. It was murder. And there was no jury in America that wouldn’t gleefully convict him.
If a Gabrini goes to prison,he’d heard all his life, they will never get out. They’ll throw away the key.
He pulled out his phone. When Sal answered, he was matter-of-fact. “I need a cleanup crew,” he said, “and I need one now.”
CHAPTER FOUR
THREE MONTHS LATER
Inside the restaurant on the bottom floor at Trammel, Grace, along with Reno Gabrini’s wife Trina, sat at the table near the entrance. “This is nice, Grace,” Trina was saying as they sat down. “When did you renovate it?”
“When? Girl how long has it been since you were in Seattle? Tommy had this restaurant renovated before GG was born.”
“Really? Wow. It’s beenthatlong? I know it’s been a minute since I last came out here to see you. That’s why when Reno said he and Tommy were flying to Alberta to handle some negotiations, and it would only be a day trip, I thought I’d stay here until they got back. Just so we could catch up. But I didn’t think it’s been that long since I was last here.”
“But it has been,” said Grace as the waiter hurried over to take their drink orders. Because Grace was the owner and CEO of Trammel, she was technically the boss of every employee in that building. Trina wasn’t surprised by the fast service.
After he took their drink orders and left, Trina smiled. “At least one thing hasn’t changed.”
Grace looked at her. “What’s that?”
“Tommy’s still runningyourcompany.”
“Don’t start, Tree.”
“Well it’s the truth! Why he over here renovating a restaurant insideyourbuilding foryouremployees? He doesn’t let you go over to the Gabrini Corporation and renovate anything over there. And why does he have to be the chairman ofyourboard of directors? You aren’t the chairman ofhisboard. I love Tommy, you know I do. He and I are super-close. But that man rules over you like he’s your daddy, not your man.”
It was a constant problem in the family. Because Grace wasn’t hard-charging like Trina or the other women in the family, she was viewed as Tommy’s little girl or his weak other half or something less than the rest of the Gabrini and Sinatra wives.
But Grace knew it wasn’t true. “First of all,” she said to Trina, “it was Tommy’s money that allowed me to become the owner of this company. It was Tommy who saved it from certain bankruptcy. It’s Tommy that taught me everything I know about running a business successfully. So hell yeah he’s my adviser and is still the chairman of my board. I’m blessed to have him.”
Trina considered the sweet person that sat across from her. She remembered how so many women used to say that a so-calledPlain Janegirl like Grace, who they insisted was pretty enough and had a nice enough figure, didn’t deserve a superstar husband like Tommy Gabrini. Which was so condescending to Trina that it angered her. And when Tommy and Grace divorced and then remarried, many of those same women were declaring that they should have stayed divorced.
But Tommy chose Grace, not any of them, and he respected her and stayed true to her. That wasn’t the problem Trina had with their union. The problem Trina had was how controlling Tommy was towards Grace. As if he owned her. And he ran her whole life, and the lives of their children too, it seemed to Trina.
But it worked for them. That was why Trina shook her head and smiled. “Gracie, Gracie, Gracie. What am I going to do with you?” And they both laughed.
“But keeping it real, girl,” Trina said, getting serious again, “I wouldn’t let no man rule over me like Tommy rules you, I’m sorry. That’s not healthy. But that’s just me talking.”
The waiter brought their drinks as Grace looked at Trina. She was a gorgeous woman with large, striking hazel eyes that made you pay attention to her. Considered the matriarch of the Gabrini wives, she was married to a force of nature like Reno Gabrini that many women wouldn’t be able to handle. But Trina was a force of nature in her own right and was handling him just fine. And if you wasn’t hard-charging like her she didn’t understand you at all. But Grace was used to the misunderstandings.
Grace’s goal, after she and Tommy reconciled and remarried, was to keep her family together. No matter what. And despite all those rumors she had to endure about Tommy stepping out on her, she kept their family together. And chose to believe in Tommy rather than those rumors. It was the strength of their marriage.
After the waiter left, Trina spoke up. “One thing about these Gabrini and Sinatra men,” she said, “is that they only respond to that hard push. You push too soft girl. Tommy has way too much control over you.”
Although inwardly Grace had had it with Trina and her constant putdowns of her relationship with Tommy, you’d never see it on her outward, always calm face. But her words could be biting in their own smooth way. “I know you mean well,” she said to Trina, “but I’m going to have to be blunt with you since that’s the only language you seem to understand.”
Trina smiled. Grace blunt? That would be a first! “Hit me with your best shot,” she said jokingly.
But Grace was dead serious. “You have a lot to say about my relationship with Tommy. Every time we talk you’re always telling me to be harder on him and to push back against him andto stop letting him push me around. I tell you he doesn’t push me around, but you don’t wanna hear that.”
“Because it’s not true,” said Trina in her forcefully blunt style. “He’s your daddy whether you like it or not. He pushes you around whether you like it or not. So stop trying to justify what you wanna say and just say it. Hit me with your best shot,” she said again.
Grace decided to go there. “Sweep around your own front door before you try to sweep around mine.”
It was as blunt as Grace could get, and it did sting Trina. Because her marriage to Reno, though improving, was still as tumultuous as it was on their wedding day. And all that gossip about him and other women, though a constant in every Gabrini and Sinatra marriage, was picking up steam again.
The two women looked at each other. Grace felt bad for going there, because she knew the struggles Trina had in her marriage, but it had to be said. And she wasn’t backing down.
