Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (4 page)

“Hey-hey,” Sal said, astounded by this
display.
 
“Not you two love birds, too!
You’re supposed to be the example for the rest of us to follow, and now you’re
at each other’s throats?
 
Give me a
break.
 
What the hell’s going on here?”

Reno exhaled, stopped pacing, and pinched the
bridge of his nose.
 
“I just wanted Tommy
to be happy,” he admitted, as his big blue eyes became bright with
emotion.
 
“For once in his life, I wanted
it to work out for him.”

 
Tommy’s brother Sal and Trina both understood what Reno meant.
 
Because they wanted it,
too.
 
Tommy and ShoShawna had had
such a tumultuous relationship for so long, and Tommy had wanted her to be his
wife so badly, that the idea of her doing this to him, at the last freaking
moment, was too much for all of them.
 
Especially Reno, who was Tommy’s best friend.

He looked at Sal.
 
“You’d better get Tommy.
 
And don’t tell him shit, just get him up
here.”

“Right,” Sal said and turned to do as he was
told.
 
But as soon as he turned, he
realized there was no need.
 

“Tommy,” he said, causing Reno and Trina to
turn toward the suite’s open door, too.
 
And there he was, Tommy Gabrini, leaned against the jamb.
 
He was in white tux, too, with every strand
of his brownish-blond hair in place as always, but the sparkle in his bright
blue eyes was gone.
  
He knew.
 
They didn’t have to tell him a thing.
 
His eyes made clear that he already knew.

He pushed away from the jamb and walked
further into the room.
 
Although Sal was
his baby brother, he moved more toward Reno, who was always his rock in times
like these.
 
The two men stood an inch
apart.

Trina went to Tommy and hugged him.
 
Reno could see the pain even with Tommy’s
eyes closed.
 

“I’ll go and notify the guests,” she said.

“I should do it,” Tommy said, although
everything within him would dread doing so.

“No,” Trina said, patting him on his coat
lapel.
 
“I’ll do it.
 
You’ve been humiliated enough.”
 
She said this heartfelt.
 
And as she turned to leave, Reno grabbed her,
and pulled her into his muscular arms.
 
He,
too, closed his eyes in a tight squeeze.
 
He wanted to say that he was sorry about his outburst, but he didn’t have
to say a word.
 
She knew.
 
He kissed her on the cheek, and then she and
Sal Luca left, closing the door behind them.

Reno then turned his attention back to his
cousin.
 
“She called you?” Reno asked
him.

Tommy nodded.

“What did she say?”

“She said she can’t do it.”

“She can’t do it?
 
That’s it?”

“That’s it.
 
That’s Shawnie.”

“What’s her problem, man?
 
Why she always pulling stupid shit like
this?
 
Why would she do this to you?”

“Wrong question, Reno,” Tommy said.
 

Reno would have flown off the handle if it had
been any other man making such a comment.
 
But not with Tommy.
 
When they were kids trying to be bad boys in
Jersey, it was always said that Reno was the brawn of the family, the
undisputed leader of the next generation of Gabrinis, but Tommy was the
brains.
 
Reno accepted that.

“Wrong question?” he responded.
 
“So what’s the right question?”

“The question isn’t why did she do this to me,
but why did I do it to her?”

“You?”
Reno asked, astounded.
 
“What you did to
her?”

Tommy was about to answer the question
analytically, but he couldn’t.
 
Trying to
be analytical about something this heartbreaking wasn’t going to cut it. He
frowned.
 
“I should have known she couldn’t
do it.
 
I mean, I already knew, a part of
me knew it all along, but I guess I wanted it so badly.”

“But why couldn’t she do it?
 
What’s Shanks problem?
 
She loves you, I know that much.
 
Why can’t she forget playing cowboy and be
with you?”

“You’re one to talk,” Tommy said somewhat
harshly.
 
“She’s just like you, Reno,
don’t you realize that?
 
You live for the
thrill, too.”

“That’s a
got
damn
lie,” Reno objected.

“That’s the
got
damn truth,” Tommy insisted.
 
“That’s what you’re about, and always has been.
 
That’s what Shawnie’s about, too.
 
She can’t no more give up being a part of the
action than you can.
 
She’s a hired gun,
that’s what she does for a living, and she loves it.
 
And she loves it more than she loves
me.”
 
This pronouncement may have sounded
simple enough, but it hurt Tommy to his core.
 
Reno placed his hand on his cousin’s shoulder.
   

Tommy continued.
 
“The idea of her becoming domesticated, as
she liked to call it, scared her off.
 
Again,” he added.

“Well she picked a fine time to be scared.”

Tommy shook his head and started walking
around the spacious room.
 
He walked over
to the window and looked out at Vegas in the heat of the day.
 
Then he turned to Reno, his eyes wide as a
Kennedy Fifty Cent coin.
 
“Get Trina away
from here, Reno.”

Reno was surprised by his sudden shift.
 
“I am.
 
You know that.
 
It’s all arranged.”

“Don’t change anything.”

“I won’t, Tommy, you know I won’t.
 
I told you after that craziness with Marbeth
that I was getting her away from here.
 
And we’re going.”

“It’s still Georgia?”

“Crane, Georgia, that’s right.
 
It’s all arranged.”

“But I thought Trina was going to
Detroit.
 
She was saying something about
going to Detroit.”

“My plane’s flying her to her uncle’s funeral
in Detroit tomorrow, that’s right, and she’ll stay there for about a week while
I finalize my step-down as CEO here.
 
But
then we’re leaving.”

Tommy still seemed unconvinced.

“What, you think I changed my mind?
 
She’s going to Detroit for a funeral.
 
That’s all that’s about.
 
Her father’s brother died and they’re going
to Detroit to take care of that.
 
But
she’ll be back and then we’re out of here.
 
That’s why what you said about me being like Shanks is completely
wrong.
 
I’m nothing like her.
 
I don’t live for this shit.
 
I live for my wife, and the normal, real life
I want to give her.
 
That’s why I’m
getting her out of here.”

Tommy nodded.
 
“Good.
 
That’s good, Reno.
 
Then maybe you still stand a chance.”

Reno hesitated.
 
“But Shanks don’t?”

Tommy didn’t immediately respond.
 
Then he exhaled.
 
“She can’t be domesticated.
 
She’s got to run free.
 
And I’ve got to accept it.”

“Or,” Reno said, deciding to be blunt, “you
can leave her and her precious freedom the hell alone and find you a woman like
Tree.
 
A woman who
loves you above all else.
 
Because you deserve that, Tommy.”

But Tommy wasn’t listening anymore.
 
His decision to have ShoShawna all to himself
may have caused him to lose her forever.
 
And he couldn’t deal with that reality right now.
 
Let alone accept it.
 

Reno didn’t realize he was crying until he saw
the shake of his shoulders.
 
And he
hurried to offer comfort.
 
Although Reno knew, because he knew Tommy and Shanks too well, that
they’d be back together again.
 
And then they’d break up again.
 
And then they’d talk about marriage again.
 
And on and on and on.
 
A vicious cycle, Reno thought as he pulled
Tommy into his arms, if ever there was one.

But right now he just comforted his best
friend.

Downstairs inside the PaLargio, however, the
prospects of happiness for Richie Marcasi, better known as Dirty, was almost as
diminished as Tommy’s prospects.
 
Especially when he looked across the casino floor and saw Vinnie
Delgado coming his way.
 
He tried
to get lost, it was a massive casino, after all, but it was damn-near
impossible.
 
Dirty was a pit boss, the
point person for many of the gambling tables, so everywhere he turned somebody
was calling his name.
 
He couldn’t
hide.
 
So he smiled, turned toward his
unwelcomed guest, and determined to lay the charm on thick.

“Vinnie, my man, what’s up?” he asked as the
strong man was upon him.

“Why aren’t you at the wedding?”

Dirty bristled.
 
“Tommy
“high-rolling” Gabrini wouldn’t invite the likes of me to any wedding of his
and you know it.
 
What’s up?”

“You know what’s up,” replied Vinnie.
 
“The Drag wants to see you outside.”

“What you mean see me?
 
I’m working here.
 
I can’t just leave.”

Vinnie shook his head.
 
“You’re pitiful, you know that?
 
You’re Reno’s brother-in-law.
 
Married to his sister.
 
And a pit boss of a nothing job is the best
you can do?”

“Fuck you, Vinnie!
 
You don’t, as usual, know what you’re talking
about.
 
This is temporary.
 
This ain’t
no
permanent arrangement, that’s what you don’t know.”

“Yeah, right,
Dirty
,
right.”

“It’s temporary!”
Dirty
insisted.
 
“Reno’s gonna look out
for me.
 
He always does.
 
He’s just still pissed about what happened
with his Ma and Fran.”

There was a break-in at Reno and Trina’s
penthouse apartment inside the PaLargio at a time when Reno was out of town and
Dirty
was in charge.
 
Reno’s mother was killed and his sister Fran, Dirty’s wife, was badly
injured.
 
Dirty was downstairs gambling
when it happened.
 

Vinnie, however, didn’t get the
connection.
 
“What’s he so pissed
about?
 
That hit wasn’t your fault.”

“But I was in charge when it all went
down.
 
So he figures I bear the
responsibility.”

“That’s stupid.”

“That’s Reno.
 
You know how Reno is.
 
If you’re
in charge, you’re responsible.
 
Period.”

“Yeah, that’s Reno all right,” Vinnie agreed.

“It’s Reno,” Dirty reaffirmed, happy to stay
off-subject.

“But you still have to come with me,” Vinnie
said, putting them back on-subject.

Dirty exhaled.
 
“I
told you I’m working here.”

“Let’s go,
Dirty
.
 
Now.
 
He’s waiting outside.
 
You gotta come now.”

Dirty hated the fix he was in, but avoiding it
wasn’t going to work, either.
 
He went
with Vinnie.

The car was parked along the circular driveway
in front of the majestic PaLargio.
 
Vinnie opened the door,
Dirty
stepped inside,
and Vinnie closed the door back.
 
It was
no surprise to Dirty when he saw Luigi Johnny Drago, better known as the Drag,
on the backseat.

“How you doing, Johnny?”
Dirty asked him.