Italian Stallions (12 page)

G
abe’s cell phone rang. He flipped it open, and as he did, a loud thud on the front door made Gianna jump. They’d found her! She turned wide-eyed to Gabe, who scowled and spoke quietly but definitively to the caller. He didn’t appear to be worried.

The thudding increased in volume. Gabe finally flipped his phone closed, scowled at her, then grabbed her by the arm. “Come with me.”

Gianna didn’t ask where they were going.

His bedroom. He grabbed a really big gun off the nightstand and slid it down the back of his pants, then pulled on a pair of tennis shoes and slipped on a T-shirt before moving through the room to the window. He hoisted the window up, reached out, and pulled down the fire escape. “C’mon, Gianna.”

She didn’t question him. Gabe followed her down to the alley at the back of the apartment building, and to her surprise there was a waiting car. She scowled as she recognized one of her customers behind the wheel.

Gabe hustled her into the backseat, slammed the door shut, then hopped in the front passenger seat.

“Go,” he said, and the driver took off.

As they zoomed through the streets of San Francisco, Gianna’s fear took a backseat to her curiosity. Before she could ask what the hell was going on, Gabe’s phone rang again.

“LaMotta.”

She heard a voice, but the words were too faint to decipher. “We’ll be there in less than ten.” He flipped the phone shut and looked to the driver. “We’re a go.”

Gianna had had enough of the spy routine. “What’s a go? Where are we going?”

“You’re in no danger.” Gabe curtly answered.

“Great, now answer my question.”

Gabe half turned toward her. “You’ll have all of your answers in less than ten minutes, Gianna.” He turned giving her a great shot of the back of his head.

His tone left no room for discussion. Gianna sat back and crossed her arms over her chest, and decided further prodding would only get more non-answers.

Several minutes later, she was ushered into a nondescript building on the other side of town and into what appeared to be an office. There was a keypad on the outside of the metal door, and Gabe quickly punched in a sequence of numbers, and it buzzed. He opened it and stood back for Gianna to walk through ahead of him. She caught his gaze. For a brief moment, his dark eyes softened, and he softly said, “It’s okay.”

And she believed him. Gianna strode through the door and was surprised to see Donna, Gabe’s secretary, and a man she didn’t recognize. He smiled, and while she got the feeling he didn’t do it often, she smiled back.

“Gianna, I’d like you meet John Moncada, special agent in charge of Operation Cannoli.”

Gianna laughed. Operation Cannoli? He was kidding, right? John extended his hand. “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Cipriani.”

Gianna took his hand and said, “How did you know my last name?”

“Special Agent Donna Sweeney, Gianna Cipriani.” And then Gabe said, “Special Agent Angelo ‘Gordo’ Torres, Gianna Cipriani.”

As introductions were made, it occurred to Gianna that Gabe was not a real-estate mogul.

She turned on him and said, “Let me guess. Special Agent Gabriel LaMotta? Or is that name as fake as you are?”

Gabe frowned but he nodded. Her anger rose. “So, Mr. Special Agent LaMotta, what does seducing a virgin have to do with your Operation Cannoli?”

SAC Moncada coughed and cleared his throat. He stepped between Gianna and Gabe.

“Miss Cipriani, please sit down and I’ll be happy to explain why we’ve brought you here.”

Gianna eyed Gabe like he was covered in scabs.

Once she was seated, she looked up expectantly at the SAC, who pulled a chair from the wall and moved it closer to her. He sat down and smiled. “I believe you are familiar with a certain Fabio Tucci.”

She nodded.

“This task force has been working diligently for several years to nail the bastard. Twice we’ve had him on the hook and twice he’s slipped off.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“We believe he was responsible for your father’s death, and—”

“No! Papa fell!”

“We think he was pushed. A man was seen entering the restaurant and leaving within ten minutes of the accident. We haven’t identified him, but we compared the times to your 911 call. It fits. We know your father was heavily in debt to Tucci. We also know he has pressured you. For what? We’re hoping you will share that with us and in so doing, help us find a way to nail him and put him away for good.”

Gianna turned to look up at Gabe. “You were at the Kat’s Meow on purpose.”

“I saw you run out of Roberto’s, and I heard Mario and Eddy saying they wanted a piece of you.”

Gianna stood up. God she was a schmuck! “And so did you! Except you got it, didn’t you?”

John stood. “Miss Cipriani, I apologize for my agent’s poor decision making. He’ll be reprimanded. But I’m asking you to put your emotions aside for a minute and tell us what Tucci wanted from you.”

Gianna sat back down, all the while glaring at Gabe. She turned to face the SAC. “He told me my father owed him one hundred forty thousand dollars. He wants part of Ciao Bella as payment. I told him no.”

“And how did he feel about that?”

“He wasn’t happy. He gave me two weeks to sign it over.”

“Did he threaten you?”

“Yes.”

John looked at Gabe, then Gordo, then Donna before looking back at her. “Miss Cipriani, would you consider wearing a wire and engaging Tucci in a conversation that may incriminate him?”

Gianna swallowed. But her decision was made the minute she realized Tucci had killed her father. She would do anything to see him behind bars.

“I…I…yes. But what if he doesn’t tell me what you want him to?”

“Then we go to Plan B.”

“What is that?”

“I’ll let you know when we know.”

Gianna took a deep breath. “Tell me what you want me to do.”

At her words, the Feds gathered around her and laid it out.

More than two hours later, Gianna’s head felt like it was going to explode with information overload. When Gabe made a move like he was going to take her home, she shot him a glare. Instead she turned to Donna. “Would you give me a ride home please?”

Donna and Gabe made eye contact, but the woman nodded. “Of course.”

As Gianna walked out the door, she heard John’s furious words. “What the fuck were you thinking? Are you looking to get booted out of here? No fucking victims!”

Gianna cringed at the harsh words.

“Ignore them, Gianna. They’re nothing but a bunch of pricks,” Donna said.

“No kidding.”

Once in the car, and after several minutes of silence, Gianna asked, “Do these set-up things go wrong very often?”

Donna glanced at her. A tight smile played on her lips. She was pretty, Gianna decided. One of those take-charge type of women. And she knew instinctively that Gabe and Donna had been intimate at one time.

“They can get pretty dicey. But as we explained, the club will be filled with agents. Our surveillance truck will be in the alley. Worst-case scenario for something like this? You might get a few bumps and bruises out of it.”

Gianna nodded, and as much as she didn’t care for Tucci, she didn’t see him killing her. She swallowed down the huge lump in her throat. Unless he figured out she was wearing a wire.

Several more moments passed in silence. Gianna wrestled with a question she was dying to ask Donna but would feel foolish if she did.

“Did you love him?” Gianna blurted out. So much for looking foolish.

Donna’s body stiffened at the question, her hands grasped and ungrasped the steering wheel. By her body language alone, Gianna had her answer. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me.”

Donna shook her head but kept her eyes on the road. “It’s kind of hard not to fall for Gabe LaMotta.”

Gia nodded. “No kidding.”

Donna gave her a quick smile before turning back to the road. “Gabe and his wife were having problems. She didn’t like his constantly being gone. But she knew the score when she married him. I don’t know why she thought it would change. They got into it one night right after a long stint in Phoenix. She kicked him out. He came to my place looking for a couch to crash on.” Donna’s fingers continued to open and close around the steering wheel. “We got drunk. And, well, I gave him more than a couch to crash on.” She laughed bitterly. “I have to hand it to him. He went straight to Debbie the next morning and told her what he did, and then he told her, if he slept with me, he’d sleep with anyone.”

Gianna gasped. “How horrible!”

Donna pulled up in front of the restaurant and said, “What he meant was, if he could stray once, he’d stray again, and he didn’t want to be in a marriage where he wanted other women.”

That surprised her. Not that Gabe had been unfaithful to his wife, but that he had been honest with her about it and realized his weakness. Most guys would have never told their wife and kept tomcatting around. Her eyes narrowed when she thought of how she like Donna and no doubt dozens of others had been caught up in his seductive web.

Donna touched Gianna on the arm. “Try to give him a break. He’s been undercover on one assignment or another for the last seven years. I don’t think he knows who he is or what he wants anymore.”

Gianna nodded, feeing a little less angry with him. But not enough to forgive him.

“We’ll have a car out here keeping an eye on you,” Donna said. She scribbled a number down on her card and handed it to Gianna. “Call me if you get scared.”

Gianna nodded and hurried into the restaurant, then up to her apartment. She triple-checked the dead bolts before she jumped into the shower. She turned out all the lights and went to the window in the living room that looked down at street. A dark van was parked a half block away. As she stepped back, a dark blacked-out sedan pulled up behind it. Her heart leapt in her throat as she watched Gabe get out and talk to the driver of the van. They switched vehicles. Before Gabe climbed into the van, he looked up at her window and stared. Gianna stepped back, allowing the heavy drapery to fall into place.

When she slipped between the sheets in her lonely bed, Gianna thought how easy it would be to call Gabe and invite him up to warm her. Not that he’d come. And seriously, not that she’d have him. Although the sex with him had been beyond her wildest expectations, Gianna realized that while she could change her virgin status, she couldn’t change her traditional good-girl status. It was who she was. And while she would give an Oscar-worthy performance for Fabio Tucci tomorrow night, it was just that, an act.

She was Gianna Michaela Cipriani. Good Catholic girl who, while she wanted to explore more of the world around her, did not want to do it with casual relationships littering her wake. The next man she had sex with would be a man who accepted her as she was, not who she could act like. She closed her eyes and snuggled against her pillow. And she was okay with that. A smile tugged at her lips. But she had to admit, another round or two in the sack with Gabe wouldn’t be such a bad thing either.

Gianna was up early and called Tucci. She told him she’d made a decision that he might be interested in hearing. She’d like to see him later that evening to discuss it. At his place if that was okay with him.

The don tripped over his words as he hurried to assure her he would count the seconds until eight o’clock.

For self-preservation, and the fact that she was still steamed at him, Gianna refused to allow Gabe near her as she was being wired. She was relieved to see it wasn’t a big bulky device like she’d seen on the movies. No, the device she was wearing was worked expertly into a heavy chunky gold belt she would wear. It went perfectly with her skimpy outfit. Since there would be nothing taped to her chest, she felt confident that if Tucci got suspicious, she could persuade him he was being paranoid.

“Gianna, we have another toy for you,” John said as he handed her a small black clutch purse with a big onyx button snap. He tapped the stone. “A lens.”

Gianna scrunched her eyebrows in confusion.

He explained. “Have you ever heard of a nanny cam? It’s like that but more sophisticated and compact. When you get into Tucci’s office, set this down and position it so we can get a full view of the room. If we lose you on the wire, we can see what’s going on.”

Gianna relaxed. She was double covered.

Tucci called an hour before she was ready to leave, insisting Mario and Eddy would pick her up. Gianna said she was hoping for a ride since she didn’t know if she’d be returning home and didn’t want to leave her car parked in the Tenderloin. She smiled when Tucci was speechless for several seconds. When he spoke, his voice quivered. “Gianna, I cannot tell you how happy I am you are coming to me tonight.”

Gianna hung up the phone, giving it a sneer. Men. They only thought with their dicks and didn’t care a whit about anything else.

She had been nervous the first time she had slid into the back of the black stretch, but Gianna was calm this time. She understood the power she held over a man. And she understood it had little to do with superficial beauty. It had to do with attitude. It had to do with a natural sensuality you could not practice and perfect. It had to be a natural occurrence. And she discovered that night in front of her mirror that she had it spades. Men looked at her completely different now that she took herself more seriously. It felt good. Empowering. Coupled with the fact that her resolve had galvanized, and in the last few days she had gone from a timid virgin to a woman with a vendetta to serve.

When Eddy and Mario smacked their lips at her like she was a piece of candy, she scowled and said, “Do you kiss you mother with those lips?”

Both men looked at her in surprise. Gianna pushed harder. “How do you think your boss will feel when I tell him you two have been hitting on me?”

“Hey! We—” Eddy started.

Gianna waved him off. “Do you think he’ll believe you or me?”

Mario elbowed his partner. “Just shut up, E. We’ll get the seconds.”

Gianna scoffed. “I’ll geld you first. And don’t for a minute think I won’t.”