CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Sal was still deep inside of Gemma, and they both were asleep in one of Big Daddy’s guest houses on his property, when the call came in from Brent and MaKayla. His head was still too foggy with sleep to understand details, but he told Brent to call his underboss Robby Yale, give him the names, and he would make sure the guys were picked up and placed inside a safe house. MaKayla had their parole officers’ info, which would allow Sal’s men to find out where they were currently staying. “If they’re still banging around Jericho,” Sal said, “then Robby will have them at that safe house in a matter of hours.”

Brent and MaKayla doubted that even Robby Yale, whom Sal and the family put a lot of faith in, could be that good.

But when they woke up later that same morning, their doubts proved misplaced. Robby Yale was apparently that good because he had all three men in one of Mick’s safe houses before they could sit down to breakfast.

Reno and Sal hurried over in Big Daddy’s Mercedes, scooped up Brent and MaKayla, and all four made their way to the safe house.

Reno, who was driving, looked through the rearview at MaKayla. “How you holding up?”

“Better now that we have somewhere to start. Especially after what happened to Darren.”

“I can’t get over that guy. A Glock to his balls and he still stuck to his lies? He’s a piece of work. At least he was,” Reno added, and that addition put a pit in MaKayla’s stomach.

“He doesn’t have a family and he was supposed to still be home recovering, so nobody’s asking about his whereabouts just yet. But they will,” MaKayla said.

“By then I hope we have the real perpetrator,” said Reno. “But other than this situation, how are you doing?”

MaKayla exhaled. “I’m doing as well as I can,” MaKayla said. “I’ve been talking to June especially ever since I got out of jail and that’s been major. I’m so happy he’s having a ball with Ash and Monk.”

“What’s the deal with them anyway?” Sal asked. “Last I heard The Monk had all the Sinatra young people at his house. How’s that working out?”

“Just great. Ash and June were already thick as thieves. She won’t let none of the kids get on social media at all, or talk with their friends just yet. It can’t last for long, but at least for now it’s a great help. Hopefully I can clear my name before we have to tell June anything. He’s the one I’m most worried about.”

Reno and Sal glanced at each other. “I hate to break this to you,” Reno said, “but those kids probably already know. Including June. You may as well just tell him the truth.”

“I have to disagree with you on that, Reno,” MaKayla said. “You don’t know Ashley like we know Ashley. If she says they’re watching zero social media or talking zero on the telephone, I’m telling you that’s exactly the way it is. They absolutely adore Ashley. They’d rather be with her than anybody else on earth.”

“Us included,” Brent added, and everybody laughed.

They sobered up when they arrived at one of Mick’s safe houses in Jericho. They didn’t expect it to look so ordinary, but it did. It was a plain, clapboard house in a wooded, rural area that would have drawn the attention of no one. From Sal’s count, Mick had nearly twenty of those houses set up around town should Big Daddy and the family need a fast, protected hideaway until Mick or Teddy, or Sal, Reno, or Tommy Gabrini, or Monk Paletti or some other “skilled” member of the family could get to the area.

Brent used to view it as dramatic overkill, all of those safe houses, and also how his Uncle Mick had those big, tricked-out Cadillac Escalades in every single city he visited on a regular basis too. A man some in the family said was an actual billionaire, Mick, to Brent, was just throwing away money like it was water. But now that MaKayla’s freedom, not to mention her very life was in jeopardy, he understood why he put so much money and effort behind what ifs . Although he and Mick clashed more often than he would like, he loved his uncle even more for his great looking out. He was a good man that had to do a lot of bad things just to keep himself and his extensive family safe. Sometimes he went too far, like beating up Jake Dalenti to within inches of his life without knowing Jake’s true role in anything. But most times his Uncle Mick just helped out everybody in the family and never asked for anything in return. Not even a thank you.

When they walked into the safe house, all three men, their faces covered with over-the-head masks, were seated in a row of chairs. Two of Sal’s armed men were standing on either side of the three chairs. The masks were utilized mainly to protect the identities of Reno and Sal, even though the men would probably figure out Brent and MaKayla’s voices. Which was okay by Brent and MaKayla.

The foursome that had just walked in sat down in the chairs in front of the three masked men. MaKayla took it from there. “When I call your name,” she said, “raise your hand.”

“Eric Jackson.” The man in the middle, the only black guy in the group, raised his hand. “Jerome Lewandowski.” The man to the left raised his hand. “And Pete Zackery.” The man to the right raised his hand.

“Why are we here?” Pete asked.

“Because we know your asses are involved in this shit,” said Reno.

“What shit?” asked Eric. “I keep my nose clean these days. What shit are you talking about?”

“My shit,” said MaKayla. “So don’t play games with us. These men that are with me do not play. Please understand that. Now answer my questions.” She exhaled. “What did Darren McGuire threaten you with to get you to set me up in that hotel room?”

Nobody answered that question.

Sal had had it. “Take off those fucking masks,” he ordered. “We need to see faces.”

But Brent held out his hand, holding the capos off. “You sure?” he asked Sal.

“Hell yeah I’m sure. We know how to prevent assholes from talking when they leave here. Besides, who says they’re ever leaving here?”

The men sat up straight when they heard that question, and then Sal nodded and his men removed the masks.

When all three men, crooks and convicts from way back, saw that Sal Gabrini and Reno Gabrini were also in that room, Brent could see an immediate shift in their sense of safety. All three were now terrified. They knew who those two men were, and what those two men were absolutely capable of doing to them.

Sal recognized their terror too. “Now your asses ready to talk?”

They all nodded their heads. They were ready.

“Ask your question again,” Reno said to MaKayla.

“What did Deputy DA McGuire threaten you with to set me up in that hotel room?”

“We never had no contact with McGuire,” said Eric.

“But you’ve had contact with each other?”

All three looked at each other. “Yeah,” said Jerome.

MaKayla wanted to say just like you had contact with each other when you were raping and killing those women and blaming it on those innocent females , but she didn’t go there. “What was your role in what happened to Alvin Clayton?”

Again they looked at each other. Then they looked at Reno and Sal. When they looked at each other again, they all nodded their heads. “We were approached, and offered big bucks,” Eric said, “to take out Judge Clayton.”

“What do you call big bucks?” Reno asked.

“A quarter of a million a piece,” said Eric.

Reno nodded. “Yup. That’s big bucks,” he said.

“Who offered you that kind of money?” asked Brent.

“That’s what I wanna know,” said Sal. “Families around here are wealthy, I’ll give’em that, but ain’t nobody around here but Big Daddy that’s got dough like that to toss around. Who the fuck gonna give y’all that kind of money to off some nobody judge?”

Again they looked at each other as if they were still partners in crime.

“Was it Deputy DA McGuire?” MaKayla asked them again. Who else, she wondered, would have assumed that they had a connection to each other unless it was somebody in the DA’s office? Somebody with intricate knowledge of the similarities of their three separate cases?

But that wasn’t the name they gave. “Donald Sinatra approached us,” said Pete Zackery.

When MaKayla and Brent and Reno and Sal heard that name again , they all paid attention.

“Why would my brother pay you to kill a judge he barely knows?” Brent asked them.

“What he told us,” said Jerome, “was that Judge Clayton was fooling around with his brother’s wife and he wanted him out of the picture.”

Reno and Sal looked at MaKayla. But Brent was staring at the three men. “Why didn’t you take the money?”

“Us kill a judge?” asked Eric. “We weren’t trying to go out like that. We told him to take a hike.”

“Sure you did,” said Sal.

“If I’m lying I’m flying,” said Eric. “We told him to take a hike!”

“That’s what we told him,” agreed Jerome.

“That’s what we said,” agreed Peter.

MaKayla was lost. She didn’t know what to believe herself anymore. She looked at Reno and Sal.

Brent stood up. MaKayla, Reno, and Sal stood up too. Brent looked at his two cousins. “Keep’em here,” he said. “Unharmed,” he added, “until we talk to my brother.”

Sal looked at his men and nodded his head. And then he, Reno, Brent and MaKayla left.

They stood outside of the house.

“You believe those motherfuckers?” Sal asked Brent.

“That Donnie told them to kill somebody because he thought my wife was cheating on me? Hell no. Donnie didn’t tell them that.”

“But?” said Reno, who was staring at Brent.

“But Donnie’s involved. Not like these guys are saying he is, but somebody’s telling them to say his name. His name isn’t coming up like that for no reason.”

“Then let’s get our asses back in there and find out who’s telling them to say that name,” said Sal.

Brent didn’t want it to turn into a violence they couldn’t come back from. “Let me handle it, Sal. Reno,” he said.

“Then go handle it,” Reno said.

Brent went back inside the safe house and walked up to the one he viewed as the weakest link: Peter Zackery. He grabbed him, put the mask back over his head and face to avoid him seeing any details of where they were, and then he all but dragged him outside.

Reno, Sal, and MaKayla gathered around him so that he could see nothing but them, and then the mask was removed. “You have one shot at telling us the unvarnished truth,” Brent said to Peter. “You lie, and I’ll turn you over to these very dangerous men. You understand me?”

“I told you the--”

Brent quickly placed two fingers over Peter’s mouth. “You didn’t hear me clearly enough. And keep in mind, we have intel. We didn’t just round you up for a shot in the dark. So let me be clearer: If your ass wants to live, you had better tell us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and tell it to us now.”

They all stared at Peter. Sal and Reno opened their suit coats, displaying their hardware. Peter swallowed hard. Tears filled his eyes. “I know you don’t wanna believe us, Chief, but we told you the truth. Your brother was the one that approached us. It was Donnie.”

Reno and Sal glanced at each other. But Brent remained unconvinced. “My brother didn’t offer to pay you money to kill anybody for any reason. That is not true!”

Peter was crying. “But it is true. It is true.”

“Where’s your family?” Sal asked Peter.

Peter looked at him. “My family?” He wiped away his tears. “What does my family have to do with this?”

“Are they alright?” asked Reno. “Is anybody holding them hostage and ordering you to tell us that fairytale?”

“No! It’s not a fairytale. It’s the truth. I swear to you on my own children’s lives it’s the truth!”

Brent quickly pulled out his revolver and placed it against Peter’s skull. “I’ll kill you right now if you don’t stop telling us lies and tell us the truth!”

“I’m telling you the truth,” said Peter as snot ran from his nose. “It was your brother. I know your brother. We went to high school together. It was Donnie!”

With a gun to his skull and he still stuck to his story? Brent removed his revolver from Peter’s head.

But as soon as he did, Reno and Sal placed their own revolvers up to his penis for Sal and his head for Reno. “Just in case you thought Brent the good cop wouldn’t pull that trigger, you’re now face to face with the bad cops,” said Sal.

“And we pull triggers for a living,” said Reno. “No more lies or I’ll splatter your brains all over this dirt!”

Peter recoiled from both men, but he still would not change his story. “On my children,” he said, “it was Donnie. And we turned him down.”

Now even Reno and Sal were convinced. They put their guns away, too, and stood back.

Reno opened the door and motioned for one of the capos to come and get Peter.

“Keep those assholes right here until you hear from us,” said Sal. “No exceptions.”

“Yes sir, Boss,” the capo said and dragged Peter back inside of the safe house.

“Donnie still in town?” MaKayla asked.

“He’s still in town,” said Sal. “Said he was going to spend the day with Jenay over at the hotel.”

“Let’s get over there,” Brent said, and they headed for his father’s car. Only this time Brent got behind the wheel and sped all the way to the Gabrini hotel.