Page 9 of Tommy Gabrini: All Fall Down
“They’re after me, Tommy. They won’t leave me alone!”
“Is somebody in this suite?” Tommy was looking around. He was packing, and would defend himself if he had to pull out his weapon, but it didn’t feel like that kind of danger. “Are they in this suite?”
“No,” Tiffany said. “Nobody’s here but me.”
“Then who’s after you? Who won’t leave you alone?”
“They said if it doesn’t happen they’ll kill me.”
“If what doesn’t happen?”
She began moving around, changing course quickly, and then moving faster. “It’s like bells. I can’t stop hearing the bells.” She placed her hands to her ears. “It’s like bells! They’ll gonna kill me, Tommy. You’ve got to do it!”
Tommy grabbed her and stopped her from moving. The last time he saw her was several months ago. They had just closed a major merger deal that would greatly benefit both their companies, and she wanted to go out and celebrate. But he declined. “I need you to settle down and tell me what’s going on. I can’t help you if you don’t make any sense. Now take a deep breath and slow down.”
Tiffany did as he instructed and took a long, deep breath.
“Now tell me what this is about?”
“They said if I don’t marry you, they’ll kill me.”
Tommy frowned. “What? Who would say something like that?”
She tried to move out of his grasp, to pace around again, but he wouldn’t let her. “Please, Tommy. I can’t take it anymore. Please, Tommy!”
“Who are these people you’re talking about, Tiffany?”
“It’s out of my hands,” she said, shaking her head.
She wasn’t well. At all. And Tommy knew it. “When was the last time you saw your therapist?”
Tifanny looked at him with anger in her eyes. Then she snatched away from him. Now she was hysterical. “Why are you bringing her up? That lady thinks I’m crazy, but I’m not. I am not! I just have to marry you, Tommy. That’s all. Then they’ll leave me alone. Just marry me and it’ll be all over.”
“What are you talking about marrying you? I’m already married and you know it.”
“Divorce her. They can do it quick in Mexico. You can fly out there tonight and--”
“Tiffany, stop it!” Then he frowned. “What’s wrong with you?”
She stopped moving around and looked at him. She looked physically and emotionally exhausted. “Tommy please.”
“No! Just stop this.”
“I beg you with everything within me and you still tell me no?” Then, as suddenly as a blink of the eye, she pulled from her pocket a pink, Lady Wesson revolver with a built-on silencer, and pointed it at him.
Tommy, stunned, held up his hands. “Put the gun away, Tiff.”
But she was shaking her head. “It’s over. I can’t live like this. I can’t live,” she said with a cry in her voice and put her finger on the trigger, causing Tommy to leap toward her to grabthat gun. But she put it in her mouth and fired before he could get there.
He knocked her over and fell on top of her. But she was already dead.
Tommy could hardly believe what he’d just witnessed. As he checked her for a pulse, although it was obvious there would be none, his heart was hammering. He stood up and looked down at her. He could not believe it!
He hadn’t seen her in months. There were no phone calls. There was nothing between them! She began texting him a few days ago, but they were increasing every day. He didn’t answer her because she wasn’t on his priority list and he had to prioritize. She was nowhere near the top of his list.
But yet she expected him to drop everything, divorce his wife, and marry her when he wouldn’t even have an affair with her? It made no sense!
He knew she was seeing a therapist. A psychiatrist to be precise. But he never dreamed she was that unbalanced.
