CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Two days later and Jenay arrived home under cover of darkness. Not with convoys and seen security and helicopters buzzing overhead. But on the backseat of her husband’s tinted Mercedes-Maybach.

All seven children had arrived earlier, along with Monk Paletti, as if they were coming over for dinner, which wasn’t unusual, and Mick and Roz had flown to Philly, picked up their twin son and daughter, and come over earlier too. Mick’s son Teddy, who ran his syndicate, and his daughter-in-law Nikki, who was Teddy’s underboss, remained in Philly with their baby daughter: to make sure there was no infiltration anywhere near the syndicate.

Also present were Tommy and Grace Gabrini, Sal and Gemma Gabrini, and Reno and Trina Gabrini. They had flown in earlier together, not because Mick and Charles were ready to rope them into the unraveling of what was really going on with Jenay’s shooting, but to let them know that Jenay was alive and well. They loved her and had been devastated by her death too.

Charles drove into his garage and then he and Jenay got out. And then, hand in hand, they went inside.

Walking into her home for the first time in what turned out to be months on end felt surreal to her. Because she had no memory of the actual shooting or those months she spent in a coma, it didn’t feel like she expected it to feel. It felt like she had been hospitalized for a few days and then she was released. And back home. It felt so normal to her.

Which pleased Charles. That was what he was praying for. He didn’t want her to be traumatized. He wanted her to be happy. Which was why he wasn’t sure if she was up to seeing the Gabrinis just yet. But it was her request. She didn’t want them to have to suffer a moment longer either. And she, like Mick and Charles, knew the absolute only way the Gabrinis would believe it was true was to see it with their own eyes.

The Gabrinis were in the living room laughing and talking with the Sinatra children and Trevor and Monk. Makayla, Brent’s wife, and Rain, Bobby’s lady, were in the back family room with the babies and younger children. Tony’s girlfriend Samantha, along with her son, were supposedly still visiting her mother. All of his siblings feared he was once again dragging his feet in the marrying her department and, like his prior girlfriends, Sam had had enough. He was going to lose another good woman if he wasn’t careful was how they saw it. Tony, who, as a clinical psychologist that always urged people to communicate their feelings, could never seem to express how he saw it.

Once Charles and Jenay left the garage and walked through the kitchen area and then into the dining hall, they could hear the lively conversations and laughter coming from the living room. Charles looked at his wife. She had lost considerable weight, but still had a radiance about her. Still had that elegance and sophistication he loved. She was still Jenay.

They stopped in the dinning hall. He smoothed down an errant strand of her hair. “Ready?” he asked her.

She took a few deep breaths, and then she nodded. “Yes. I’m ready.”

“They might frighten you with their shock.”

“If my own children didn’t frighten me with their shock, I don’t think the Gabrinis are going to frighten me at all. I’m ready,” she said again.

In the living room, Tommy and Grace were seated in a chair together and were being picked at by Reno and Trina and Sal and Gemma, who sat in various seats in the same room. The Sinatras just sat around enjoying the show.

“They always got to sit together, eat together, you name it,” said Sal Gabrini, Tommy’s kid brother. “If you see Tommy, then Grace and all of their children aren’t far behind.”

“I thought that was a good thing,” said Roz. “Families doing things together.”

“Thank you, Roz,” said Gemma. “I said the same thing.”

“But my goodness,” said Sal. “ All the time?”

“Yes all the time, although we know you’re exaggerating,” said Gemma.

“True story,” began Reno. “I was in Seattle visiting Tommy and his family. Just dropped by on my way to wherever I was going. And it’s lunch time. So we go to this fancy-dancy restaurant and darn if Tommy and Grace didn’t order one hamburger and split it between the two of them.” Everybody laughed. “True story,” Reno said through the laughter. “One hamburger for the two of them.”

“You’re lying, Reno,” said Monk. “That can’t be true.”

“If I’m lying I’m flying,” Reno responded. “It’s a true story!”

“Reno lying,” said Sal. “Tell us, Tommy, Grace: Reno is lying, right?”

But Tommy and Grace only smiled.

“They know I’m telling the truth,” Reno said. “All this family shit all the time is crazy. He can’t go anywhere without taking his entire family.

“It’s a sickness, is what it is,” Sal added, to more laughter.

And that was when Charles and Jenay walked into the room.

Reno’s wife Trina was the only one who could see Jenay from her vantage point and as soon as she saw her she started screaming from the top of her lungs. Reno, terrified, started screaming from the top of his lungs, too, although he didn’t know what he was screaming about. Sal looked at him like he was crazy and Tommy began scrambling to his feet to pull out his weapon to stave off whatever attack was going on. Then Reno and Sal, although a few seconds behind, jumped up too. But when they saw the Sinatra children laughing at them, they stopped in their tracks.

Reno frowned. “What the fuck’s so funny? My wife’s having a heart attack over here!”

“Look over there, Reno,” Trina said to him, pointing. She was still in shock. “It’s a ghost up in this bitch. It’s a ghost!” Then she wondered if she was the only one seeing that ghost.

When Reno, Tommy and Grace, and Sal and Gemma turned to where Trina was pointing, and they saw Jenay, they all screamed too. But not nearly as long or a loud as Trina had.

“What the fuck is going on here?” asked a bewildered Sal.

“Jenay?” asked Grace.

“Can’t be,” said Gemma.

“It’s me,” said Jenay with a smile on her face. “I’m alive guys. I’m alive.”

And if that moment couldn’t get any weirder, and before anybody could react any further, Reno Gabrini, the owner of the largest hotel and casino on the Vegas Strip, the former head of the Gabrini crime family, an original wise guy, fell flat on his face. Fainted.

Sal shook his head. “Out like a girl,” he said, and all of the Sinatras laughed.

But it was no laughing matter to the Gabrinis. Jenay was alive? Jenay ? It was impossible! They forgot about Reno as they stepped over him, and hurried to her.