SAL GABRINI
HIS HOUSE OF CARDS
By
MALLORY MONROE
Copyright©2015 Mallory Monroe
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This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the story’s sake.
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INTERRACIAL ROMANCE SERIES
BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MALLORY MONROE:
THE SINATRAS OF JERICHO COUNTY
SERIES IN ORDER:
BIG DADDY SINATRA
THERE WAS A RUTHLESS MAN
BOOK ONE
BIG DADDY SINATRA 2
IF I CAN’T HAVE YOU
BOOK TWO
BIG DADDY SINATRA 3
THE BEST OF MY LOVE
BRENT SINATRA
ALL OF ME
BOOK ONE
MICK SINATRA
FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE
BOOK ONE
MICK SINATRA
LOVE, LIES, AND JERICHO
BOOK TWO
THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND
SERIES IN ORDER:
THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND
THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND 2:
HIS WOMEN AND HIS WIFE
DUTCH AND GINA:
A SCANDAL IS BORN
DUTCH AND GINA:
AFTER THE FALL
DUTCH AND GINA:
THE POWER OF LOVE
DUTCH AND GINA:
THE SINS OF THE FATHERS
DUTCH AND GINA:
WHAT HE DID FOR LOVE
BOOK EIGHT
THE MOB BOSS SERIES
IN ORDER:
ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS
MOB BOSS 2:
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
MOB BOSS 3:
LOVE AND RETRIBUTION
MOB BOSS 4:
ROMANCING TRINA GABRINI
A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS:
THE PREGNANCY
(Mob Boss 5)
MOB BOSS 6:
THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI
RENO’S GIFT
BOOK 7
RENO GABRINI:
A MAN IN FULL
BOOK 8
RENO AND TRINA:
GETTING BACK TO LOVE
BOOK 9
RENO AND SON:
DON’T MESS WITH JIM
BOOK 10
MOB BOSS ELEVEN
THE WRONG ONE
BOOK 11
RENO AND TRINA
IN THE SHADOWS OF LOVE
BOOK 12
THE GABRINI MEN SERIES
IN ORDER:
ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI
ROMANCING SAL GABRINI
TOMMY GABRINI 2:
A PLACE IN HIS HEART
SAL GABRINI 2:
A WOMAN’S TOUCH
TOMMY GABRINI 3:
GRACE UNDER FIRE
SAL GABRINI 3:
HARD LOVE
SAL GABRINI 4:
I’LL TAKE YOU THERE
TOMMY GABRINI 4:
DAPPER TOM BEGIN AGAIN
SAL GABRINI 5:
UNTIL YOU COME BACK TO ME
ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING
INTERRACIAL ROMANCE
FROM MALLORY MONROE:
DANIEL’S GIRL (ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN)
ROMANCING MO RYAN
ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR
ROMANCING THE BULLDOG
INTERRACIAL ROMANCE
FROM
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
KATHERINE CACHITORIE:
LOVERS AND TAKERS
LOVING HER SOUL MATE
LOVING THE HEAD MAN
SOME CAME DESPERATE:
A LOVE SAGA
ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING
INTERRACIAL ROMANCE:
A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP
YVONNE THOMAS
AND
BACK TO HONOR:
A REGGIE REYNOLDS
ROMANTIC MYSTERY
JT WATSON
ROMANTIC FICTION
FROM
AWARD-WINNING
AND
BESTSELLING AUTHOR
TERESA MCCLAIN-WATSON:
DINO AND NIKKI:
AFTER REDEMPTION
AND
AFTER WHAT YOU DID
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www.mallorymonroebooks.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
Sal Gabrini didn’t like surprises. But the last few months had been loaded with them. Now he was about to get the fucker who got the ball rolling. He was about to make him pay with his life. But something was off. Something was wrong. It was all set, but it all felt sideways.
He stood on the eighth floor of the vacant building and looked at the warehouse across the wide expanse of the alleyway. He looked through a burglar-barred window fronted by galvanized mesh that made viewing difficult, but that totally obscured the view of someone on the outside looking in. Because to the unsuspecting public, that warehouse Sal was watching was a neglected hunk of junk that should have been torn down years ago. But Sal knew better. He knew it was a well-run chop shop for stolen vehicles. He knew, if he was ever going to stop Rudy Red, he had to stop him here.
Rudy rarely showed up here. It was only one of his many illegal enterprises, and not even the most profitable one. But Sal received a beforehand notice that Rudy would be here today. And he was. He arrived a few minutes ago.
Now Sal’s men were beneath Rudy’s Town car hiding explosives. But Sal wasn’t looking at them. He was looking at the area. Nothing was stirring, but he kept looking. And as his men planted the explosives beneath the car and ran back toward the building where he stood, Sal’s eyes couldn’t stop shifting and searching for clues. He looked up one block and then the other block. The alleyway was as empty as the building he stood in. The warehouse across the wide expanse of the alleyway was locked down and windowless. Rudy thought he was as slick as they came. The fool had no idea Sal knew what he was up to, or that he was a targ
et. He thought he’d deal in dirt and hide his hands. But he couldn’t hide from Sal Luca. When he came out of that warehouse, the retribution would be complete.
Downstairs, Sal’s men, including Angelo Romano, climbed the eight flights to where he stood. When they made it upstairs, they saw their boss at the window. He was standing with his back to them in his double-breasted suit, looking more like the wealthy businessman the world knew him as rather than the boss he was. They walked up to him and stood by his side.
“It’s done,” Angelo said.
Sal didn’t respond. He already knew the explosives had been planted.
“Bastard won’t know what hit him,” another one of Sal’s men said.
“He’ll know,” said another one with a grin. “He’ll be frying by then, but he’ll know.”
“Are the cars ready?” Sal asked.
“Their ready,” the third man said. “We go out that side door over there, down the back stairs, and we’re out of here within seconds. It’s all set.”
“Go make sure it’s set,” Sal ordered, “and come back and report.”
The man frowned. “Why would I need to do that, boss? It’s set.”
Sal looked at him. “You’re arguing with me? What the fuck is your problem? Do what you’re fucking told!”
The man quickly realized his error. “Yes, sir,” he said, and then quickly hurried out of the side door.
Sal lifted his binoculars again and continued to look out of the window. He continued to look for clues that weren’t there. But when the warehouse door finally opened, and Rudy Red and two of his men came out, Sal exhaled. Now they were getting somewhere.
Rudy’s driver hurried in front of him to open the car’s back door. But just as he did, another car drove up. Sal’s heart began to pound.
“Who the fuck is that, boss?” Angelo asked Sal.
Sal had no idea so he didn’t respond.
Rudy didn’t get into the Town car, but instead waited for the man in the second car to get out. He did, and hurried to Rudy.
Sal and his men watched as Rudy and his man, a big, burly man, began talking. Then Rudy smiled and clapped his hands, and then the burly man hurried back to the second car. He reached into the backseat and pulled out two people, both with their hands tied behind their backs, as he hurried them toward Rudy’s car.
Angelo’s eyes stretched wide, and so did Sal’s. “What the fuck?” Angelo asked, standing erect. “That’s your wife’s parents, boss. Isn’t that Mrs. Gabrini’s folks?”
Sal couldn’t believe it. Gemma’s parents were being marched to the car that his men had planted explosives beneath. “No,” Sal said in disbelief. “No, no, God, no!”
He ran. He ran out of the door his men had entered. One of his men raised his gun to shoot the driver, so that he wouldn’t crank the car, but Angelo knocked his hand down.
“Are you crazy? You’re motherfucking cause it to blow if you shoot in that direction! You’re kill everybody! Hold your fire,” Angelo yelled as he ran behind Sal. “Hold your fucking fire!”
But Sal didn’t hear him say a word. He was too busy running. He was too busy running down stair after stair after stair. He slid down banisters. He ran down more stairs as if he would lose control at any second. All he could think about was Gemma’s parents. All he could think about was Gemma. It would kill her if anything happened to them. And his slick ass just might be the murderer!
He ran and he ran until he was down four, three, two flights of stairs, and then on the ground floor. He opened the steel door so fast it flew out of his hand.
But as soon as the door flew open, the Town car across the alleyway rose as if hydraulics was pumping it up, and then exploded into a fireball of smoke and flames. The very power of the explosion threw Sal back against the door so hard that it took his breath away. And he was out cold. And no damn good for anybody.
Especially not Gemma’s parents.
CHAPTER ONE
Six Weeks Earlier
Reno Gabrini might have been the most powerful man in Vegas, but that didn’t stop Gemma Jones-Gabrini, his cousin’s wife, from giving him a piece of her mind. She’d had it up to here with his insinuations. She’d had it up to here with his feud with Sal that she thought had gotten better but was strained once again. She knew this meeting was important. She knew Sal should have been here. But that still didn’t give Reno the right to accuse her husband of not caring about her. Reno, Gemma felt, had gone too far.
Reno looked at her with shock in his eyes. Gemma looked right back at him. He was a man who always dressed in tailored clothing, but he always looked as if he’d slept in those clothes. He always looked on the verge of pure exhaustion. He looked that way to Gemma right now. “What do you mean I’ve gone too far?” Reno asked her. “I’m telling you what I know.”
“Then you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gemma responded just as firmly. They were at her law firm, sitting at her conference table, and tension was building. “He had to leave town this morning, Reno. It wasn’t planned. It couldn’t be helped. If he could have been here, he would have been here. But to suggest he doesn’t care about me because he’s not here is ridiculous!”
It wasn’t ridiculous to Reno. “You’re his wife,” he said firmly.
Even Reno’s wife, Trina, looked at him when he said that. She was sitting at the table too, and found herself in the familiar role of mediator between the two heavyweights. “No shit, Reno,” Trina said to him. “Gemma is Sal’s wife? Really?”
Gemma couldn’t help but smile. She and Trina were both African-American women married to hotheaded Italian men. They had a bond that could not be broken.
“Okay, now I get it,” Reno said defensively. “So that’s how it goes? The two of you ganging up on me?”
“Nobody’s ganging up on anybody,” Trina said. Her husband was the toughest man she knew, but he hated it when she didn’t agree with him one hundred percent. “But you were out of line,” she continued. “To question Sal’s commitment to Gem just because he couldn’t make some meeting is absurd. You’re wrong for that.”
“He should be here,” Reno said firmly. “That’s all I’m saying. A man has to protect his wife. That means keeping his ass in town and taking care of this situation his wife finds herself involved in. I’m here for you,” he said to Trina. “Sal should be here for Gem.”
“Nobody’s saying he shouldn’t,” Gemma said to him. “But you’re missing the crucial fact, Reno. He would be here if he could. But some very important business came up that he had to take care of. It couldn’t wait.”
“What about this business?” Reno asked. “This can’t wait either. You and my wife have a situation at Champagne’s that has to be addressed and he knew we were planning to deal with this today. So I take time out of my busy schedule to come to your office. Trina takes time out of her busy schedule to come to your office. And he leaves town? That’s some bullshit, Gemma. Sal is wrong. His ass should be here.”
“I know he should,” Gemma fired back. “How many times do I have to tell you that? But that doesn’t give you a license to sit up here and besmirch his character just because he couldn’t make it. You will not tell me that my husband doesn’t care about me because he isn’t here.”
Reno stared at Gemma. She was a tall, beautiful, elegant lady with a good head on her shoulders, but she seemed to be so blind when it came to Sal and his shady ways. But Reno wasn’t blind. “If he cared,” he said boldly, “he would be here. Point blank period. I’m not taking that back. He would be here! We’re business people. We know how to move things around so we can be where we need to be. Hell, I own the PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip, and more properties around this world than his ass can count, and I’m here. But every time you turn around he’s off on some can’t wait business trip he can’t even tell you about, and you’re flying solo. You have to handle it yourself. That’s not right, Gem. You’re going to have to convince me that something that wrong is r
ight.”
Gemma knew Reno spoke some serious truth. She hated that Sal had to suddenly fly off to parts unknown when he knew they were planning to meet. But Reno, as usual when it came to Sal, was taking it too far. She wasn’t going along with that. “I don’t have to convince you of anything,” she responded with bite in her voice too. “It’s not my concern if you’re convinced or not. But I’m telling you to back off Sal.”
Reno was a man unaccustomed to being challenged so boldly. He angrily stood to his feet. “Who’s going to make me?” he asked, looking Gemma up and down. “You?”
Gemma stood to her feet too, stunned that Reno would go there. But she wasn’t backing down. “I might,” she responded.
But Trina quickly stood up between them. “That’s enough you two,” she said. “Both of you are acting like a couple of spoiled kids! Sal isn’t here and all of this back and forth isn’t going to change that fact.” She looked at Gemma. “Reno is right, though. Sal’s ass should be here.” She looked at her husband. “But just because he isn’t here has nothing to do with how he feels about Gem, and you know it, Ree. Ever since I’ve known Sal he’s always hopping that private jet of his and flying off to handle these business emergencies he doesn’t discuss with anybody. This isn’t new to you. So both of you need to knock it off!”
Reno and Gemma seemed to heed Trina’s advice. They backed down. They were pals, the two of them, but lately their relationship was getting as strained as Reno’s relationship was with Sal. And neither understood why.