Sal Gabrini 4: I'll Take You There (The Gabrini Men Series Book 7) by Mallory Monroe

else about him?”
    “No,”
Sal said firmly.   “I don’t want you
overlooking anything about me.”
    “Warts
and all?”
    “Warts
and all,” Sal agreed.   “Hell yeah!   I never in my life pretended to be
perfect.   I’m not on the same planet as
perfection.   Wouldn’t know it if it
slapped me in the face.   But I love your
daughter.”
    “That’s
well and good,” Rodney said. “I’m sure you do love her.   Many men love her.   But to be quite frank with you, Sal,” Rodney
added, “I don’t think you deserve my daughter.”
    Gemma
was outraged.   But Sal was nodding in
agreement.   “Hell I could have told you
that myself!” he said.   “You don’t have
to tell me that!   Of course I don’t
deserve her!   I’m a fucking piece of
costume jewelry compared to the gem your daughter is.   But . . .”
    Cassie
stared at him.   “But what, Sal?”
    “But
I love this gem,” Sal said.   “I love
her.   There is no man alive that can love
her better.”
    “Okay,
I’ll be blunt,” Rodney said.   “And I’m
going to expect blunt answers.”
    Sal
stared at him.   “Shoot,” he said.
    “Are
you, Salvatore Gabrini, a mob boss?”
    Sal
hesitated, but did answer.   “No,” he
said.
    “Have
you ever been a made man?”
    “A
made man?” Cassie asked with a frown.   “What in the world is that?”
    “A
mobster,” Rodney explained to his wife.   “A made man is a mobster who has the protection of one of the major mob
families.”   He looked at Sal again.   “Are you now or have you ever been a made
man?”
    “Hell
no,” Sal responded.   “Give me more credit
than that.”
    Rodney
didn’t understand.   “What’s that supposed
to mean?” he asked.
    “I’m
in nobody’s pocket,” said Sal.   “That’s
what it means.   Nobody made me.   Not even my uncle, and he was a mob boss,
could make me.”
    “Are
you now,” Rodney went on, “or have you ever been in the mob?”
    “Oh,
Dad!”   Gemma said.   “He shouldn’t have to sit here and answer all
of these questions.”
    But
Sal answered him.   “No,” he said.
    “Do
you now, or have you ever in the past been involved with mob activity?”
    Now
Gemma was offended.   “What kind of open-ended,
generalized question is that?”
    “Generalized?”
her father asked.   “What’s generalized
about it?   Somebody ask me if I’ve ever
been involved in mob activities, there’s a real specific answer for that.   No.   Hell no.   That’s the answer.”   Then Rodney looked at Sal.   “Isn’t it, Salvatore?”
    But
it wasn’t so simple for Sal.   It was
obvious that it wasn’t when he didn’t respond right away.
    “Well?”
Rodney asked.   
    Sal
looked at Gemma’s mother.   He could tell
she was still holding out hope that he wasn’t as deplorable as he really
was.   But he had no sweet answer to a
question like that.   “I have
connections,” he said.
    Rodney
pushed his glasses on his face and studied him.   “Connections?   As in mob
connections?”
    Sal
frowned.   “As in all kinds of connections,
what’s with this mob obsession?   I have
all kinds of connections.   My friends
need help, I help them. I need help, they help me.”
    “Even
if they’re Mafia?”
    Sal
hesitated yet again.   But, yet again, he
answered.   “That’s right,” he admitted.
    Rodney
leaned back, and removed his glasses.   For him it was the answer he was dreading.   For Cassie, she still wasn’t convinced that
Sal Gabrini could be all bad.
    “What
kind of help do you give to your friends?” she asked him.
    “Help,”
he said.   “Whatever kind they need.”
    “Legal
or illegal?”
    “Legal,”
Sal said, “and illegal.   Yes ma’am.”
    Cassie
let out a harsh exhale.   And she and
Rodney both looked at Gemma.   “Did you
know about this?” she asked her daughter.
    Sal
didn’t look at Gemma, which didn’t surprise her.   He was so tense that his muscles were
straining his suit