Gemma was feeding Lucky the next morning when her cell phone rang.  She grabbed it from off of the center island and looked at the Caller ID.  It was Patty, a colleague she knew from the DA’s office.

“What’s up, Patty Pat?” Gemma asked.

“I was going to ask you the same thing,” Patty replied.  “How are you holding up?”

“I’m holding up good.  Open your mouth,” she said to her son.  “Come on, baby, I want you to eat this.  Lucky?  Eat it, baby, come on.  I’ll tell Daddy.”  Lucky opened his mouth, and ate it.  “Sorry about that, girl,” she said to her colleague on the phone.  “But yeah, I’m doing good.  Thanks for asking.”

“I still say you should have won.  But it went crazy, didn’t it?  All they wanted to talk about was your husband.”

“Yeah, right?  I thought for a second Sal was the one running for office.”

“It was stupid,” Patty said.  “They kept saying how they don’t want the mob controlling the DA’s office.  That spooked a lot of people.  Their propaganda campaign worked.”

“Yeah, it did,” Gemma said with a nod.  “It worked like a charm.”

“I’m thinking about resigning,” Patty said.

“Don’t,” Gemma urged.  “Please.”

“But I really don’t want that guy as my boss.”

“I know.  But you can do far more on the inside than on the outside.  That’s why I ran.  It didn’t work out for me, but that’s okay.  You stay.  This town needs people like you to stay on the job.”

“I’ll think about it,” Patty said, and they both laughed.  “Anyway,” she added, “I was mainly calling to see how your sister-in-law was doing.”

Gemma was perplexed.  “My sister-in-law?”

“Yes.  Tommy Gabrini’s wife?  You know I’m a Seattle native so I always have to have my morning fix of the Seattle Times local news reports.  And that’s when I saw it.”

Gemma began pulling up the Seattle Times newspaper on her cellphone as she talked.  “That’s when you saw what?” she asked.

“That’s when I saw the headline.”

And Gemma saw it too: Tommy Gabrini’s wife attacked at Mayor’s Mansion Last Night, the headline blared.

Gemma’s heart dropped.  She couldn’t believe it.  “Pat, let me call you back,” she said, and ended the call before Patty could say okay.

The head Nanny, who knew how to proceed, quickly came and took control of little Lucky.  “Thanks,” Gemma said as she held onto her cellphone, reading the article, as she made her way across the hall and up the stairs.

Sal was in bed, fast asleep, when Gemma hurried into their bedroom.  “Sal!” she said, shaking him to wake him up.  “Sal!”  She hated to wake him.  She knew how drained he was last night.  But this was different.

Sal woke up with a start, until he saw Gemma sitting on the edge of their bed beside him.  When he saw that look on her face, his look became concerning.  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Look,” Gemma said, and handed him her cellphone.

Sal frowned as he attempted to focus his eyes to read the Seattle Times headline.  But when he realized the story was about Grace and some attack at the mayor’s house, he quickly bolted upright.  And quickly grabbed his own cellphone off of the night stand, and called his brother.

 

Tommy was busy.  He was busy doing all he could to fuck the sleep out of his wife, and himself while he was at it, after he woke up horny as hell.  Grace had been asleep when he first woke up, but by the time he was between her legs, eating her so hard that her juices spilled all over his mouth, she woke up, too, and was smiling when she realized what he was doing.  They were in their bed, in the privacy of their bedroom, making passionate love.

And when Tommy’s naked body and fully aroused cock got on top of Grace, and entered her, and began to fuck her hard, they both wrapped up together and pumped their asses off.  Tommy didn’t know a better feeling than the feelings he felt whenever he was inside of Grace.  That was why he took it slow whenever he made love to her.  That was why he laid on her, held onto her, and stroked her with what seemed like a hundred strokes.  He didn’t want those feelings to end. 

Grace was happy that he was taking it slow.  Because Tommy’s dick had a way of overwhelming her insides in such a way that she felt an orgasm with his every stroke.  She felt as if she was cumming the entire time he was inside of her. 

And when they both did climax, it was after a long, gratifying fuck that caused them to cum, not with a burst where they both had to strain it out, but with a slower, more sensual, more enchanting release.   This was their morning fuck, and lately, to Grace’s delight, Tommy was performing this ritual every single solitary morning.  His trips out of town and out of the country that used to be ordinary for him, were practically nonexistent of late.

He was still on top of Grace after they came, and was still wedged inside of her, when his cellphone first began to ring.  They both were still attempting to regulate his breathing again, which didn’t endear Tommy to any interruption.

“Fuck,” he said, as he just wanted to hold his wife a little longer.

Grace smiled and grabbed his phone for him, and looked at his Caller ID.  She handed him the phone.  There were a few phone calls that Tommy always took: Sal and Gemma, Reno and Trina and Reno’s son Jimmy Mack, Big Daddy Sinatra, and Mick Sinatra were the top five.  “It’s Sal,” she said.

Tommy finally pulled out of Grace and laid on his back beside her as he took possession of his phone.  “Hey,” he said, still breathing heavily, after pressing the button and placing the call on Speaker.

“Hey yourself,” Sal said.  “Grace alright?”

   Tommy and Grace glanced at each other.   They were surprised that Sal would have heard about last night.  “Yes, she’s fine,” he responded cautiously.  He had to make sure Sal wasn’t just asking as a curtesy.

“Gem and I see in the newspapers where she was attacked at the mayor’s house,” Sal said, dismantling any doubt about what he meant.  “What was that about?”

“Is Grace okay?” Gemma interrupted before they went into any long, drawn-out discussions about who might have done it.

Grace smiled.  She and Gemma were really becoming the closest of friends.  “Yes, I’m good, Gem,” she said, leaning toward Tommy’s phone.  “I wasn’t harmed.”

“Thank God,” Gemma said.  “That article wasn’t clear enough for my liking.  But it must have been harrowing.”

“It was.  I just thank God Tommy had taught me how to spot check whenever a stranger comes around.  That’s how I was able to see that knife.”

“Are you saying you had to fight her?” Gemma asked.

“It wasn’t exactly a fight.  I had to contain her, yes.”

“And she did with flying colors,” Tommy said as he pulled Grace against him.

Gemma laughed.  One thing about Tommy Gabrini that no member of the family could ever dispute: he loved him some Grace.

“The kids weren’t involved, I take it?” Gemma asked.

“No, no,” Grace said.  “They were at home with the nannies.  Thank God.”

“That’s good to hear,” Sal said.  “But who did it, Tommy?” Sal wanted to know.  Sal, being Sal, needed to know.

“A woman by the name of Marilyn Chiver,” Tommy said.

“A paid assassin, or just some whack job?” Sal asked.

“They cops believe she was paid,” Tommy said.  “She decides to attack my wife when she went to use the restroom,” he added.

“Sounds orchestrated to me.”

“It was.”

“What did this female say?”

“She’s dead,” Tommy said blandly, as if he had nothing whatsoever to do with it.  Even Grace knew that wasn’t true.

“So what have you heard?” Sal asked.

“That there’s some serious beef behind her.”

“How fat?”

“Chainsaw Makinroe fat,” Tommy said.

“Chainsaw?” Sal asked.  He was shocked.  “Get the fuck out of here!”

“What?” Tommy asked.

“That’s the fucker that snatched one of my capos.  I just got back from Chicago.  They killed my man.”

“And you’re sure it was Chainsaw?”

“From what I’m hearing, yeah, it was that fucker.”

“But why would he snatch one of your guys?” Tommy asked.

“Fuck if I know.  Nobody knows.  We had to do what we had to do to get that much out of those bastards.  My people are tracking his ass down now.”

“So are mine,” Tommy said.

“He’s based near Seattle, so it looks like I’m coming home.”  Sal lived in Seattle, too, before he met and married Gemma.

“I’m coming with him,” Gemma announced.  “To eyeball Grace for myself.”

Grace smiled.  “Thanks, Gem,” she said.

“We’ll see you guys later today,” Sal said.

“Sounds great,” Tommy said.  “But listen, don’t spread the news around.  At least not just yet.  Grace is fine.  I don’t want Reno and Trina and everybody else disrupting their busy lives just to drop everything and come to Seattle, when she’s okay.  So far, it’s been contained as a local story.  I want to keep it that way.  I want to get to the bottom of it first.”

“If I don’t get there before you,” Sal said.  “But you know Reno’s not gonna like it.”

“I know.  But he’s got his hands full in Vegas,” Tommy said.  “He deserves a break from drama.”

Sal had to agree with that.  Besides, he had a serious beef with Chainsaw Makinroe all by himself.  He needed no help to get up the motivation to want to take that character apart limb by limb.  The fact that that fool tried to harm Grace, too, only added to his resolve.

But as soon as the call ended, and Sal gave Gemma back her phone, their intercom buzzed.  Sal leaned over and pressed the button.  “What?” he asked.

“Robby Yale and Curtis Kane are here to see Mrs. Gabrini,” the front gate security said.

Gemma took over.  “Send them in, Mike,” she said.

“Right away, ma’am,” he replied.

Sal looked at Gemma.  “Is this really necessary?” he asked her.

“Yes,” Gemma said.  “Get up, shower, and come on down.”

Sal exhaled.  He needed a meeting like this about as much as he needed a hole in the head.

But he got up, and headed for the shower.