CHAPTER THREE

“Carmine did what ?”

“He beat that man down, Sal. He beat him to the ground. You should have seen it.”

“Was there blood?”

“There was blood. And plenty of it. The only reason he wasn’t arrested was because of his last name and all these cops in Vegas are afraid of you and Reno. But it was a horrible sight to see. I mean the rage on Carmine’s face. It was scary.”

“What scary?” Sal Gabrini said. “He was doing what he was supposed to do. Let somebody push you down. What you think I’m gonna do? Let him? Tell him to kick you while you’re down there too?”

“Carmine’s still a minor. He has no business beating up any grown man.”

“Bullshit! That grown man pushed his mother. He’d better beat his ass.”

Gemma rolled her eyes and shook her head. There was no getting through to Gabrini men when it came to what they perceived to be any slight against their women whatsoever. But they weren’t still in bed, and Gemma’s naked body wasn’t on top of Sal’s, to talk about what happened at some Black Friday foolishness. They were still in bed because they both were horny.

But Sal was also still drained from his long night of work. That was why Gemma slid down the length of his naked body and began to give him what she knew he needed.

And it was just what Sal wanted. He began moaning as she did him. His body moving, he moaned for nearly ten minutes straight. He was enjoying it so much that Gemma, though tired herself from that Black Friday debacle, didn’t have the heart to stop.

But the more she went down on him, the less he moaned. Which usually meant he was getting to that point where he would nudge her back up and enter her. But the nudge never came. She kept going harder and harder, but the nudge still wasn’t there. Which was so unlike Sal that she knew something was wrong.

But she didn’t stop doing him until she heard that sound. And then she stopped and looked up at him. And that was when she realized he had fallen asleep and was snoring. Snoring! She couldn’t believe it. Feared mob boss Sal Gabrini, whose idea it was for them to get in bed when they both had jobs to get to, was fast asleep.

She got up, got out of bed, and went into the bathroom. But as soon as she closed the door, she leaned against it and began to cry. It wasn’t because he fell asleep. She could understand a man that worked as hard as he worked would be tired. But it was because their marriage was falling asleep. It was because he was always doing everything but what she wanted or needed. And this Christmas season, when so many of her friends were going on special trips with their husbands, or doing special things with their men while she and Sal weren’t doing squat, was beginning to get to her. It was getting to her big time.

She hated herself for crying. But there it was. She was in a serious meltdown. And Sal, she could still hear, was snoring his head off. Completely at peace with the world. Completely, as usual, oblivious to her pain.