Sal Gabrini: Just The Way You Are Read Online Free

floored.
    “How did
they get in here?” Curtis asked confusingly as they all looked around
nervously.
    “How should
we know?” Barbara asked.   “We just got
here too.”
    “But is it
safe to be in here?” Curtis asked, looking around and suddenly jumping as if
somebody was behind him.
    Barbara
looked at Gemma.   “It’s safe,” Gemma
said.   “But stay downstairs just in
case.”
    “I’ll call
911,” Curtis said, heading for the office phone.
    “No,” Gemma said,
pulling out her cell phone.   “I’ve got
it.”
    Curtis and
Barbara began walking around, checking out the areas downstairs.   “Who would do something like this?” Barbara
asked.   “Kids maybe?”
    “And look,”
Curtis said, pointing to a position on the wall.   “They snatched out the cameras.”
    Barbara
hurried behind the desk.   The entire
computer controls were gone too.   Which
mean the hard drive cloud was gone.   “They took it all,” she said.   “These were no kids.   They knew
what they were doing.”
    Gemma walked
away from her assistants as she pressed a button on her cell phone and listened
to the rings.   What was obvious to
Barbara and Curtis: she wasn’t calling 911.
    She was
calling her husband, Sal Gabrini.   And
because he was taking a longer-than-usual time to answer, she knew there was
undoubtedly some situation at his office that had him tied up.   But he almost never let her phone calls go to
voice mail.   And he didn’t this time
either.
    “If you’re
okay,” Sal’s voice came onto the line, “I’ll have to call you back.”
    But Gemma
looked around her office, and especially at the writing on the wall.   She was not a nervous, needy person.   But this had unnerved her.   “I’m not okay,” she said.
    Sal’s voice
changed from slight irritation at being bothered during an apparently stressful
time, to grave concern.   “What’s
wrong?   What happened?”
    “Somebody
vandalized my law office.   At least the
entire downstairs.   I haven’t gone
upstairs yet.”
    “And don’t
go up there,” Sal said.   “Get outside and
stay outside until I get there.   I’m on
my way now.”
    “Thanks,
Sal.”
    “You’re
packing like I told you to?”
    Gemma hated
guns, but Sal made her carry one in her glove compartment anyway. “I’m covered,
yeah,” she said.
    “Good.   I’m on my way.”
    Gemma,
pleased to know that Sal was coming, ended the call.   When she looked up, her assistants were
staring at her.
    “I guess
this is going to require Gabrini Justice,” Barbara said, “rather than 911?”
    Gemma
exhaled, and remembered what Sal said.   “Let’s wait outside,” she said.
     
    As Sal drove
up to his wife’s law firm, he saw Gemma and her assistants standing outside,
with their briefcases and purses sitting against the wall.   His heart squeezed every time he saw Gemma no
matter what, and now that she was carrying his child that feeling he felt was
tenfold.   She was his girl, and the idea
that somebody was trying to get under her skin with this bullshit she’d just
called him about angered him to the point of rage.   She didn’t need this shit.   Especially not now.
    Curtis was
the first to see Sal when his Porsche drove up, and he exhaled because he never
quite knew what to make of Sal Gabrini.   He admired his good looks and muscular physique, and the wealth and
power that cloaked him.   But the man had
such a rough and tough exterior, and such an unrelentingly hard-charging style
that often came across as rude in the main or even a bit racist, that it was
tough for Curtis to say outright that he liked Sal Gabrini.   He respected him.   He admired his success.   And although he would never think of Sal
Gabrini as a nice guy at all, he did seem to treat Gemma right.   But there was nothing more Curtis could say
about him.
    Gemma had no
such ambivalence.   As soon as she saw
Sal, she hurried to him.   He got out of
the car and hurried to her.