Mob Boss Eleven- The Wrong One (The Mob Boss Series Book 11) (21 page)

“Except
by you, hun, Tommy?” Reno said with a grin.

It
was a joke, but Tommy and Grace couldn’t bring themselves to laugh.
 
It felt too true, on that personal,
gut-wrenching level, to be funny.

Then
even Reno’s smile was gone, because he knew the Herculean task ahead of
them.
 

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

It
seemed like a Mafia convention at an empty warehouse in Spring Valley,
Nevada.
 
All the relevant Dons were
there, at Reno’s request, ten in all, but every one of them were singing the
same song.
 
The same
I don’t know shit
song.
 
The
one song Reno didn’t want to hear.

They
sat on crates in the musky space.
 
Reno
owned it for years but rarely used it.
 
But it was secure and secluded.
 
It forced egos to be checked at the door.

“None
of our people,” Cork Jusetti said for all of the Dons, “were involved in this,
Reno.
 
None.
 
And you know why we weren’t involved?
 
Because we aren’t crazy.
 
We aren’t stupid.
 
We’re not idiotic enough to try to ice Reno
Gabrini’s wife.
 
Only a fool would have
tried that shit!”

“And
the pictures you showed us of those two shooters?” Cork continued.
 
“We showed them to everybody.
 
All the cops on our payroll.
 
Everybody.
 
But nobody had ever seen them before.
 
And the names you gave us?
 
Mort
Carson and Brendan Ashfordland?
 
We ran
their names too.
 
We never heard of them
before.
 
This is some serious shit,
Reno.
 
But not one of us is involved in
this serious shit because we know it’s serious shit.”

Reno
was pacing.
 
Tommy was leaned against the
wall.
 
Sal was sitting with the
Dons.
 
Reno forbade Jimmy to be anywhere
near this meeting, mainly because he didn’t want any more Mafia taint on his
son than he already had because of his Gabrini name.
 
But also because his job was still to protect
the home front until they resolved this matter.
 
But even now, early in this meeting, it was
already becoming apparent to Reno that nothing was going to get resolved here.

“Nobody
knows squat,” a New Jersey Don they all called Fathead, added.
 
“We went around the horn with all of our
people, Reno.
 
As soon as it happened, we
were on the blower.
 
‘You heard what
happened to Trina Gabrini.
 
You know
anything about it?’
 
And every last one
of our people said no.
 
Are you
nuts?
 
Why would we do something like
that?
 
Gunning down your wife, and
Tommy’s wife, like that?”

“It’s
not us, Reno,” Cork Jusetti echoed Fathead.
 
“You’re looking in the wrong place.
 
No family in our host of families would dream of doing what they did to
Tree.
 
That shit that happened in that
nightclub sounds personal.
 
They weren’t trying
to take over territory. They weren’t trying to get your attention.
 
They were trying to kill your wife.
 
Pure and simple.
 
And what would it profit any of us to pull
some stunt like that?”

Reno
stopped pacing and looked at Cork.
 
Of
all the Dons present, or any others he ever had to deal with, he respected Cork
the most.
 
He didn’t trust him, since he
didn’t trust any mob boss, but he respected him.

“Look
inside Reno, is my advice,” Cork said.

“Inside?”
Sal asked.
 
“What the fuck does that
mean, Cork?
 
Inside what?
 
The family?”

“His
own organization, yes,” Cork responded.
 
“His own people.
 
Specifically,”
he added, “his people of the female persuasion.”

Sal
looked at Tommy.

“What
are you saying?” Reno asked Cork.

“I’m
saying what I see,” Cork responded.
 
“I’m
saying what all of us see.
 
That hit on
Trina had female written all over it.
 
Excuse me for being a sexist or whatever they call us, but that hit was
about emotion.
 
It was about rage.
 
It had all the earmarks of a woman, what do
they call it, scorned.
 
A woman
scorned.
 
Yeah.”

Reno
and Sal looked at Tommy.
 
But Tommy
didn’t blink.
 
A woman might have been
behind that hit, just as Cork said.
 
But
that woman, Tommy was certain, wasn’t Grace.

But
after the meeting, as the three Gabrini men piled into the Bentley and made
their way back to Vegas, they reached a conclusion.

“It’s
a startling truth,” Sal said from the backseat.
 
Reno was driving and Tommy was on the passenger seat.

Reno
looked through the rearview mirror at Sal.
 
“What’s a startling truth?” he asked.

“If
Cork is right, and a woman is behind it all, and that woman happens to be one
of our ex-lovers, then we’re doomed.
 
The
number of females we would have to eliminate would be staggering.
 
Especially for Tommy.”

But
even Tommy had to agree with that.
 
“Staggering is right,” he said.

“But
don’t concentrate on that old shit,” Reno reminded them.
 
“Remember Joe Nathan.
 
He went to work at Trammel two weeks ago for
a reason.
 
Fuck coincidence because
there’s no such thing.
 
He went to work there
for his alibi.”

“His
alibi?” Tommy asked.

“In
case we tracked him down.
 
You called it,
Tommy.
 
Because I agree with you.
 
I think Nathan figured he would name Grace
and throw us all so completely that he would somehow get away.”

“Yeah,”
Sal said.
 
“It’s possible.
 
Especially if he only knows you and me as the
head of the Gabrini Corporation in Seattle, and he only knows Reno as the owner
of the PaLargio in Vegas.
 
We’re just
busy businessmen.
 
Maybe he thought he
could really outsmart us and outmaneuver us and get away with any shit he
wanted to get away with us.”

Tommy
nodded.
 
“Because he wouldn’t know who
he’s really dealing with.”

“Right,”
Sal said.

“Which
brings us back to Cork’s point,” Reno said.
 
“What female did we piss off in the last few weeks?”

 
Neither Tommy nor Sal could think of any
one.
 
At least not anyone who wouldn’t
know who she was dealing with.
 

Reno
had the same problem.
 
There were women
he’d pissed off recently.
 
Plenty of them
undoubtedly.
 
But then one did come to
mind.
 
One that suddenly appeared out of
the blue.
 
One that always, but always
underestimated him.

He
made
 
U-turn so suddenly that Sal and
Tommy had to hold on.

“What
the fuck, Reno!” Sal yelled.

“I
have a possibility,” Reno said.
 
“It’s a
long shot.
 
It’s a hellava long
shot.
 
But there are no usual
suspects.
 
And when that’s the case,
we’ve got to go with the unusual.”
 
Then
Reno phoned his pilot, who was on standby anyway, to ready the plane.
 
He was about to phone Jimmy, who had to hold
it down until they got back, and Tree, who he didn’t want to worry.
 
But Tommy interrupted him.

“And
where is this unusual suspect?” he asked him.

“In
Reno,” Reno said.
 
“Reno, Nevada.
 
So buckle your seatbelts, gentlemen.
 
Reno is going to Reno!”

Sal
rolled his eyes.
 
But he buckled his
seatbelt all the same.

They
sat in the parlor of her stately mansion.
 
Faye Greenwood was stylish if she was nothing else, and her home, in the
heart of Reno, Nevada’s Caughlin Ranch district, proved it.

And
when she entered the parlor, sweeping in and looking gorgeous, both Tommy and
Sal understood why this particular woman had once caught Reno’s attention.
 

“Oh
my,” she said as soon as she entered the room.
 
All three men stood up.
 
“Not one,
not two, but three attractive men to see me?
 
Who are your friends, Reno?
 
Introduce us, please.”

“These
are my cousins, Thomas and Salvatore.
 
Tommy, Sal, this is Faye Greenwood.”

“Thomas
and Salvatore,” Faye said as she extended her hand.
 
“Nice to meet you.”

She
looked at Sal, and was pleased by the sight, but she stared at Tommy and was
transfixed.

“And
how’s your husband?” Reno asked her.

She
finally looked at him.
 
“He’s still
alive, if that’s what you mean.”

“Haven’t
hired a hit man yet?”

“Very
funny,” she said.
 
“No, I have not.
 
I’m not stupid you know.
 
I was just joking with you.”

“Yeah,
right, Reno said.
 
“Just remember what I
said.”

“Is
that why you came all this way, Reno?
 
To
make sure I didn’t kill my husband?”

“Somebody
tried to kill my wife,” Reno said bluntly.
 
“Tell me what you know about it.”

Faye
was offended.
 
“Tell you what I
know?
 
Why would I know anything about
some attempted murder?”

“No
bullshit, Faye.”

“Why
would I lie to you, Reno?
 
I don’t know
anything about it!
 
I heard about
it.
 
Who hasn’t?
 
But that’s it.”
 
She looked him up and down.
 
“The nerve you have,” she said.
 
“You broke my heart, not the other way
around.
 
You made it perfectly clear whom
you preferred.
 
And that’s fine.
 
It hurt, I’ll admit it, but I’m over it
already.
 
Geez.
 
I’m not desperate by any stretch of the
imagination.
 
It’s an impossibility.”

And
she continued, explaining to them just how impossible it was.
 
Reno felt like crap.
 
They were getting nowhere.
 
They were learning nothing.
 
They were wasting too much time!

As
they left Faye’s estate and drove through the casino district in Reno on their
way back to the airstrip, Reno sat quietly in the limo.
 
Both Tommy and Sal could feel his
frustration.

“Why
would you think she could be involved?” Tommy asked him.
 
“That woman has one thing---”

“And
one thing only,” Sal added.

“On
her mind,” Tommy finished.
 
“Why
her?
  
What happened that put her on your
radar?”

“She
showed up out of the blue,” Reno said.
 
“And I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“What
did she want?”

“She
wanted me to kill her husband.”

Tommy
shook his head.
 
Sal laughed.

“When
did she show up?” Tommy asked.

“A
few days ago.
 
At the office.
 
I hadn’t seen that woman in years.
 
And I mean years.
 
Then out of the blue, she pops up.
 
Trina and I were discussing the PaLargio South,
and how I’ve decided to purchase that property in Georgia.
 
Tree said that . . .”

It
clicked.
 
Reno remembered.
 
It suddenly clicked!
 
“Tree said . . .”

“What?”
Sal asked.

“What
did Trina say?” Tommy asked.

Reno
looked at them.
 
“I’ll be
got
damn,” he said.
 
He quickly pulled out his phone, flipped
violently fast through a series of photos, until he found the one he was
searching for.

“Reno,
are you going to tell us what’s going on?”
 
Tommy asked him.