Tommy Gabrini: The Grace Factor Read Online Free PDF Page B

to see
her.   Because she knew it wasn’t just
because he missed her.   That was a small
part of it.   The larger part, she felt,
was because he didn’t have her exactly where he wanted her: under his
thumb.   He wanted a tough lady, and he
got one.   But was that really what he
wanted, Liz wondered.   Tommy always
seemed to live his life in extremes, when, she was beginning to believe, he was
more like a man in the middle.
    Her car drove up, with Adabi in the
backseat, just as Tommy, further down and in front of the hotel, walked
out.   The door of the sedan opened, and
she was about to get in the backseat beside Adabi.   But then she saw Tommy standing there, as if
he was waiting for a cab.   Was he
leaving?   Was he that upset?   He flew fifteen
hours to just turn back around?
    “Give me one minute,” Liz leaned in
and said to Adabi.
    “One minute?” Adabi said. “I don’t
have one second to waste!”
    “I know, but I need to take care of
this.”   Liz placed her backpack in the
car and then began walking away, heading toward Tommy.
    Adabi was angry.   His driver looked through the rearview.   “What are we to do now, Adabi?   What are we to do now?   She is getting away!”
    Adabi was angry that it would have to
come to this.   He would rather a secluded
place.   But he pulled his weapon from
beneath the car mat, cocked it, and then got out of the car.
    Tommy, on the other end of the
sidewalk, waiting for a cab to arrive, saw Liz coming toward him.   It was in the middle of the night in Damascus
but the streets were busy and well-lit in the area surrounding the hotel.   He could see her easily.   But Tommy was a trained observer.   He also saw the man getting out of the car
behind her, and heading toward her back.
    Tommy quickly removed his carrying
bag from his shoulder and sat it down.   Then he calmly began walking toward Liz, walking directly in front of
her, careful to make her body a shield for his as he pulled his own gun from
out of the waistband of his trousers.   When he saw Adabi raise his arms and aim his gun directly at the back of
Liz’s head, Tommy increased his steps and pushed Liz down, just as Adabi was
about to fire.   But Tommy fired first,
hitting the hitman between the eyes.   Adabi fell down dead.
    People started screaming and running
for their own lives, and Adabi’s driver, realizing that his passenger was down,
attempted to speed away.   But Tommy ran
toward the car and began firing.   He got
the driver in the back of the head.   The
driver’s face hit the steering wheel as the car’s momentum carried it further,
and then to a rolling stop.
    Liz was still on the ground, looking
at Adabi’s dead body, looking at the car Tommy had just riddled with
bullets.   And then she looked at Tommy.
    Tommy put his gun away and began
walking toward her.   If he had not been
there Lord only knew what would have happened to Liz.   But it didn’t please him that he was her
rescuer.   It didn’t please him one
bit.   It angered him that she would put
herself in a position to have to be rescued at all.   She didn’t have to be in this madness.   She chose to be in this madness!   Tommy was
seething with anger.

CHAPTER THREE

 
    Kassab Khan, the head of the Damascus
Metropolitan Police, sat in the hotel room in front of Liz and Tommy.   Raj was in his own hotel room, waiting for
the questioning to end.   But even without
the additional body, the atmosphere felt crowded and tense.
    “It is a most unfortunate thing,”
Khan said.   “A most unfortunate
thing.   You were going to meet up with an
informant, a very important informant, and Adabi would attempt such a
slaughter.”
    “Any idea what the motive might be?”
Tommy asked.
    “Radicalism.”
    “But Adabi is no radical,” Liz said.
    “He does not present as a radical,
no.   But he has been radicalized.   Yet his motive is not religion.   His motive is money.”
    “Money?” Tommy