Read Online Sal Gabrini: His House of Cards by Mallory Monroe - Free Book Online Page A

toughness is beneath even you,” Sal responded to the
hostile press.   “My toughness has nothing
to do with their lawsuit.   It’s all just
a money grab and you know it.   My wife
made it clear.   I did not discriminate
against anyone.   I did not make racist
jokes or allow managers to hang nooses.   I didn’t do any of that shit they claimed.”
    The
reporters snickered at his use of language.
    “If that’s
the case, Mr. Gabrini,” the third reporter asked, “then it should be easy for
you to answer our question.   How many
African Americans do you have working in this building in senior management
positions? Or in any management positions at all?”
    “The Gabrini
Corporation’s home office,” Sal said, “has plenty of managers of the black
persuasion.”
    “We didn’t
ask about the corporate office.   We asked
about the Vegas office, where the accusers allege the discrimination took
place.   How many black people are in
management positions in this office?”
    Sal
hesitated.   Gemma looked at him.   Why didn’t he just answer the question?   If he didn’t know, why didn’t he just say
so?   Unless ,
she thought with alarm.   Then she quickly
leaned into him.   “Say you don’t know,”
she whispered.
    “I don’t
know those stats,” Sal responded.   “You’ll have to take that up with HR.   I’m trying to run a company here, not bean count.”
    Then he took
Gemma by the hand, and they walked out.   But the questions continued to be hurled.
    While the
media was still being held in the pressroom, Sal’s car had been moved to the
back of the building, and Sal and Gemma were able to leave undetected.   During the presser, Gemma’s car had already
been driven to their home.   Now they were
on the way home too.
    But the
silence wasn’t golden.   It was
tense.   Sal was uneasy, and Gemma was
concerned.   It had not gone the way she
had hoped.
    “Motherfucking
press,” Sal said with anger in his voice.   He was driving, but not in his usually fast way.   He was almost lumbering along.   “They’ll sell their soul for a story.   They’ll sell their soul to try and tear
somebody down.”
    But Gemma
wasn’t thinking about the press.   She was
thinking about the man she had married.    The man she loved with all her heart.   She looked at him.   “How many,
Sal?” she asked.
    He knew what
she meant, and he wasn’t going to insult her intelligence by pretending he
didn’t.   He looked at her.   “In the corporation worldwide?   Or in the Vegas office?”
    Gemma didn’t
respond to that.   He knew she meant the
Vegas office.   He and he alone ran the
Vegas office.
    Sal
continued to drive.   Then he looked at
her again.   “I have plenty of minority
employees.”
    “How many
managers?”
    Sal looked
away again.   Then he looked at her
again.   “None,” he said.
    Gemma’s
heart dropped.   She was floored.   “None, Sal?   You don’t have a single minority in not one management position?”
    “What do you
want me to say?   I wasn’t looking to hire
this color or that color. I was looking to hire people.”
    “Blonde,
blue-eyed people who also happened to be beautiful women?   Are those the people you looked to hire?”
    “Don’t
cheapen me like that,” Sal shot back.   “You know that’s not true!   I
hired people who I knew through the years could make the Vegas office soar.   It’s still a new office.   Some people didn’t expect me to pull it off,
but I did.   And all of my managers are
men and most of them are Italians.   Because they’re the people I know.   They’re the people I work with.   They had the experience this office needed.   I tried to find minorities with that same
level of experience.   I looked, Gem.   I didn’t find what I was looking for.”
    “Then you
should have looked harder,” Gemma said.   “Or asked me.   I know plenty of
African Americans who could have filled that bill.   I’m sorry,