Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (29 page)

“Did you?” Reno asked, staring unblinkingly at
the boy.

Jimmy stared back, only his eyes looked almost
lifeless.
 
“No,” he said.
 
“I didn’t even know her.”

He was lying, Reno thought.
 
Something about this kid was one big fat
lie.
 
He stood up.

Trina stood too, while Jimmy and Nell looked
up.
 
“What is it?” Trina asked.

“When you’re ready to come clean with me,”
Reno said to Jimmy, “then we can talk.”

“But Reno,” Nell said, jumping to her
feet.
 
“He needs help!”

“I’ll get him help.
 
He’ll get a lawyer.
 
But that’s as far as it’s going with me.
 
Let’s go, babe,” Reno said to Trina as he
headed for the exit.

“Yes,” Jimmy said, and Reno stopped in his tracks.
 
He and Trina both turned toward him.
 
Reno walked back to him.
 

“Yes, what?”
Reno asked.

Jimmy looked at him, his eyes hard and
cold.
 
“What you asked me.
 
Yes, I knew her.”

“But you told me you didn’t know her,” Nell
said, confused.

Reno continued to stare at Jimmy.
 
“Did you fuck her?”

Jimmy paused.
 
“Yes,” he admitted.

Nell was mortified.
 
“What are you saying?” she asked her
son.
 
“Jimmy, what are you saying?
 
You didn’t rape that girl.
 
You know you didn’t rape that girl!
 
Why are you
---
”

Reno touched Nell on her arm.
 
She looked at him.
 
But he was looking at Jimmy.

“Did you rape her?” he asked him.

Jimmy stared into space until tears appeared
in his eyes, and then he quickly wiped the tears away.
 
“I guess so,” he said.

Reno frowned.
 
“What do you mean you guess so?
 
You either did it or you didn’t!”

Nell shook her head.
 
“It’s not true. Reno.
 
It’s not true.
 
Jimmy wouldn’t do something like that.”
 
She looked at her son.
 
“Why are you lying?
 
You didn’t rape anybody.
 
Why are you lying?”

“I don’t know what I did.
 
I blacked out.
 
I don’t . . .
”
 
Jimmy
was beyond distressed.
 
Reno sat down beside him.
 
Jimmy smelled like a combination of sweat and
cologne, but this was Reno’s first time smelling his son’s scent.
 
If he was his son.

“Tell me what happened.
 
How did you end up at her house?”

“She called me over.
 
She said she heard I was back in town.”

“She had your number?”

“We’re in the phone book.”

“But you never gave her your number?”

“No.
 
Never.
 
I never said
two words to her.”

“Why not?”

“I just didn’t.”

“So why would she call you out of the blue?”

“Because she said she heard I was back in
town.”

“What the fuck she cares about you being back
in town?
 
She doesn’t have any dealings
with you.”

“She’s a real popular girl around the school,”
he said.
 
“Everybody knows her.
 
She’s real pretty.”

Reno stared at him.
 
The kid lacked confidence.
 
He didn’t think he was good enough for
her.
 
Reno exhaled.
 
“So you went running over there because she
asked you to come?”

Jimmy nodded.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said.
 
“I went over
there.”

“And then what happened?
 
You fucked her?”

“Reno!” Nell said.

“You fucked her?” Reno asked Jimmy.

Jimmy nodded.
 
“Yeah,” he admitted.

“Unprotected?”

“No, I . . . Yeah,” he admitted.

“Oh, Jimmy Mack!”
Nell said, amazed.
 
“How could you do something that stupid?”

“Where did the blood come from?” Reno asked
him.

“I don’t know.
 
I remember having sex with her, but then the next thing I remember is
I’m waking up and she’s lying beside me with blood all over her and I just went
nuts or something.
 
I just ran out of
there.”

“Why didn’t you call 911?”

“I was going to call for help.
 
I didn’t have a phone and I didn’t see one in
her house.
 
So I guess I just ran.
 
It’s all muddled to me now.”

Reno stared at Jimmy.
 
Although Reno didn’t see any family
resemblance in the young man, there were too many coincidences to rule it
out.
 
Right age.
 
Right race.
 
He couldn’t rule it out.
Which
made him feel like a man with the burden of the world on his shoulders.

He stood up.
 
Jimmy’s eyes followed him like a kid seeking reassurance.
 
It was so sadly pathetic that it broke
Trina’s heart.
 

“I’ll get my attorneys on a plane right away,”
Reno said to Jimmy.
 
“You say nothing to
nobody.
 
Understand?”

Jimmy nodded.
 
“Yes, sir.”

“No confessions to your cell mate, no trying
to explain yourself, none of that shit.
 
And if those assholes up front try to drag you back here and beat some
truth into you, you’d better take the beating, boy, and not say a word.
 
Understand me?”
 

 
Jimmy
seemed oddly relieved, as if he finally had somebody on his side who knew what
they were doing.
 
“I understand,” he
said, shaking his head.

“But what’s happening?” Nell asked,
confused.
 
“Jimmy didn’t try to kill
anybody.
 
He didn’t rape that girl.”
 
She looked at her son.
 
“Tell him you didn’t do it.
 
You’ve got to tell him the truth.”

“Please get her out of town,” Jimmy said to
Reno, tears now in his eyes.
 
“Please get
her away from here.
 
I don’t want her to
go through what my trial might put her through.”

“Your trial?”
Nell said, aghast.

Reno pulled her into his arms.
 
Trina understood.
 
She fully understood.

“I’ll take care of her,” he promised the
boy.
 
“You just keep your trap shut.”

Trina looked at Jimmy’s side profile as he
looked up at his mother and Reno, and she saw it.
 
For one quick second, looking at his profile,
she saw it.
 

God help her, she saw Reno.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

By the time Trina unlocked the front door and
they returned to their home, it was three a.m.
 
Trina led the way into the kitchen, where Reno sat at the marble-top
center island while she stood across from him and brewed some coffee.
 
She folded her arms and looked up at him, as
the coffee brewed.

“What are we going to do, Reno?”

Reno frowned.
 
“Wait for the lawyers to get here and see if they can get him out on
bail.”

“Even though he said he had sex with her?”

Reno let out a painful exhale.
 
He rubbed his forehead.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“It’s his word against hers at this point,
the little fucker!
 
But I’ve got to do
what I’ve gotta do.
 
He could spend the
rest of his life in prison if he doesn’t have superior representation.
 
Nell was right about that.”
 
Reno sat
erect
, and
then slouched back down.
 
“And I guess I
need to get a DNA test.”

“But how are you going to pull that off?
 
Nell said she doesn’t want him to know yet.”

“That ain’t for her to decide,” Reno said.

“Yes, it is, Reno,” Trina disagreed.
 
“She knows that boy.
 
She knows his sensibilities, what he can and
cannot handle.
 
We don’t know shit.
 
She’s got to agree to this, too.”

“Yeah, well, she believed his lies about not
even knowing the girl.”

“Why do you think he lied like that?
 
Was he just afraid?”

“Probably, yeah.”
 
Then
he hesitated.
 
“I don’t think he raped
that girl, and I don’t think he tried to harm her.
 
I just don’t believe that.”

Trina looked at him.
 
“Why wouldn’t you believe it?
 
I don’t think it’s a good idea to get like
Nell and start denying the truth.”

“I’m not denying it.
 
I’m just telling you I’m not ready to believe
he did that yet.”

“But why not?
 
Because
he might be your son, and no son of yours would ever have to take sex from any
woman?”

“Yeah, whatever,” Reno said, running his hand
across his tired eyes.
 
“Something
like
that.”
 
Reno got
up and began pacing around the spacious kitchen.

Trina exhaled.
 
This was going to be a tough slog, she could feel it.

She began preparing to pour coffee.
 
Reno stood behind her, leaned against the
drain board, and folded his legs.

“You know what I keep thinking, Tree?” he
asked.

Trina glanced back at him, but turned back
around.
 
She continued to prepare
coffee.
 
“What?” she asked him.

“I keep thinking that it’s my fault.”

“Reno---”

“No, hear me out.
 
I keep thinking that if I would have known
,
if I would have been there for him, if I would have---”

Trina closed her eyes.
 
She knew Reno would take this hard.
 
“You didn’t know, Reno.
 
If he’s your son, you didn’t know anything
about it.
 
Don’t beat yourself up about
something you didn’t even know about.”

“Then maybe he’s not mine,” Reno
continued.
 
“I didn’t see any family
resemblance or anything like that.
 
I
looked but I didn’t see--”

“I saw it, Reno,” Trina said without turning
around.
 
Her heart was hammering.

Reno stared at her back.
 
His heart was hammering, too.
 
“You saw it?” he asked her.

She nodded.

“Who did he resemble? Pop?
 
Joey?”

Trina closed her eyes.
 
“You,” she said to him.

Reno’s heart plunged.
 
He leaned his head back.
 
Trina could feel his anguish, but she still
didn’t turn around.
 
She was afraid she
would break into tears if she turned around.

And although Reno felt the anguish of what
this all meant, he felt Trina’s presence, too.
 
And her presence alone reassured him.
 
Because he knew she had his back, even with this revelation, and he knew
she understood.
 

He moved up to her.
 
When he placed his hands around her waist,
and pressed his manhood against her jean-clad ass, it didn’t surprise her at
all.
 
He needed to relieve stress.
 
And her pussy was usually the first place
Reno sought when he needed that relief.

And sure enough, he reached his hand inside
her pants and began fingering her.
 
Trina
attempted to continue pouring coffee, but the feel of his finger sliding
against her clit got in the way.
 
She
stopped as he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants and pulled them, along with her
panties, down her legs.
 
It was slightly
painful when he entered her, because he hadn’t prepped her enough, but the
friction soon gave way to his masterful touch.