Tommy?” Liz asked. “What would have happened if I would have
told you that then?”
Tommy stared at her. “It would have been over then. Just like it’s over now.” A twinge of regret appeared in his tired
eyes, but he had never been more resolute. “It’s not going to work, Liz. We
don’t want the same things. I’m not
traveling down roads to nowhere because I’ve been there, done that, and I’m not
doing that again. It’s over.”
Liz didn’t try to get him to change
his mind. Because the writing had been
on her wall too. She loved Tommy, but
she loved her career and her freedom more. Tommy loved her, but he loved Grace more. She wasn’t giving up her first love, and
Tommy, she now realized, wasn’t giving up his. Grace was married and out of his reach for the moment. But Tommy used to always say how he didn’t
think Grace and Ed were going to last. He used to always mention that. The way Liz figured it, Tommy, always a patient man, wasn’t going to run
into the arms of some other woman. He
was going to wait it out. She should
have known all along that this day would come. She should have seen how their breakup was as inevitable as Seattle
rain. Their interests were just too
different! But it still hurt like hell.
When Tommy left, and didn’t look
back, Liz tried to walk around her hotel room as if she was glad he was
gone. She tried to pretend that it was
all for the best. But when she
visualized his beautiful face, and remembered what it felt like to be Tommy
Gabrini’s woman, and to have his cock deep inside of her, she couldn’t
pretend. Because she wasn’t glad. And it wasn’t for the best. But nobody was standing between her and her
goals. Especially not some good looking
womanizer like Tommy Gabrini still in love with his ex-wife!
She walked a little longer, and then
left too. She left her hotel room, and
went where she knew she could find her own brand of comfort. She went to Raj.
CHAPTER FOUR
Three Months Later
The guards quickly opened the
security gate and waved Tommy Gabrini through. Tommy gave a quick horn blow in return and drove up the driveway that
led to Grace and Ed’s Seattle lake estate. The home was a new construction home in the suburbs, after Ed decided he
didn’t want to live in Tommy and Grace’s old home, but the guards and every
aspect of security was on Tommy. His
daughter lived there, and his daughter’s mother. He wasn’t leaving their security to anybody
else.
Tommy, for his part, moved back into
his old home when Ed and Grace moved out, mainly because he wanted Destiny to
have that familiarity whenever she stayed with him. But also because he felt adrift when he left
his longtime home. He needed that
familiarity too.
When he pulled around the horseshoe
driveway to the steps that led to the front door, he leaned back in his Ferrari
and looked through his dark sunglasses at the house in front of him. It was nothing to write home about - Tommy’s
estate was five times larger and far grander. But it was so suburban, and so family-oriented, that it radiated warmth
to him. There were toys on the front
lawn, including a big, bright pink Barbie car Tommy could just see his little
girl riding around in, other assorted toys, and a discarded soccer ball. He knew most of his friends wouldn’t be
caught dead living in a place like this. It was too bland, and too cookie-cutter for them. But Tommy smiled. There was a time when he would have given his
right arm to be cookie-cutter too.
What also amazed him was how anxious
he was to see Grace again. Every time he
saw her his heart acted strange. Every
single time. He ignored those feelings
when he was trying to make it work with Liz. But after their breakup three months ago, his feelings for Grace seemed
to be at the forefront of his mind. Word
had
Learning to Kill: Stories