Page 18 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
Tommy exhaled. “Well at least we have our virtue,” he said as his phone began ringing.
“Virtue?” asked Reno. “What the fuck is that? I could have been wilding out with that very attractive blonde bombshell, but instead I’m riding to the airport with your ass. Who that?”
Tommy looked at his Caller ID. “It’s your wife.”
“Mywife?” Then Reno frowned. “I declare if that woman don’t have GPS in my dick!”
Tommy smiled, placed his phone on Speaker, and answered the call. “Hey Trina, what’s up?”
“There’s been a school shooting, Tommy.”
She said it so fast and with such urgency behind her voice that both Tommy and Reno immediately knew it was tragic. “A school shooting?” asked Tommy.
“Yes.”
“What school?”
It was as if she hated to say it. “It’s at TJ’s school.”
Tommy’s heart began to pound. “Tell me my son is okay,” he said with urgency now himself. “Don’t tell me anything else, Tree. Tell me my boy is okay!”
But Trina hesitated, which horrified Tommy and Reno both. “What are you hesitating for?” Reno yelled at her. “TJ alright?”
“He’s not alright,” said Trina.
Reno looked at Tommy. The driver and bodyguard looked through the car mirrors at Tommy too.
“Did he get shot, Trina?” Tommy asked in an eerily calm voice.
“As far as I know, he hasn’t been harmed,” said Trina.
Reno frowned. “Then why ain’t he alright?”
“What is it, Trina?” Tommy asked her, even though he didn’t want to hear her answer.
“The cops are saying he’s the shooter, Tommy,” she said in a voice that cracked. “They’re saying TJ is the shooter!”
It was as if a sledgehammer had slammed into Tommy’s heart. “The shooter?” he asked in disbelief.
Reno was stupefied too. “Are you joking?”
Trina lashed out. “What the fuck I look like joking about a thing like that, Reno?” She was feisty again.
“Where’s Grace?” Tommy asked.
“They just picked her up to take her to the school. I’m in the car speeding trying to keep up with those slick-ass cops.”
“You be careful,” Reno said. “This kind of bad news usually comes in threes, and we already had twos.”
“What twos?” asked Trina.
Tommy knew he had to keep his wits about him. “Call Uncle Mick,” Tommy managed to say to Trina. “And call my brother too. Tell him to bring Gemma. If it’s true, TJ is going to need a lawyer. I’ll call my team in Seattle to get to that school too, but Gemma will take the lead. We’ll get there before they get there, but we need them there.”
“Okay,” Trina said.
“I’ll call Grace.”
“You can’t. I have her phone,” Trina said. “And I don’t think they’re gonna let her talk to anybody right now.”
