Mob Boss Eleven- The Wrong One (The Mob Boss Series Book 11) (9 page)

Buddy
exhaled, and suddenly that grand smile was gone.
 
“Yeah, me too.
 
I’ve seen a big change in her after that
miscarriage.”

“Did
you talk to her?”

“Did
I?
 
Every chance I could.
 
But she denies having any problems
whatsoever.
 
I even got my pastor to talk
to her, but she walked out on the man.
 
‘I’m not crazy,’ was all she would say.”

Reno
leaned forward.
 
“She’s a smart
girl.
 
She has a great head on her
shoulder, thanks to the way you raised her.
 
And she’s hot, let’s just be honest.
 
She has it all.
 
And I understand
the pain she’s experiencing, I really do.
 
But what I don’t understand,” he added, as he looked at her father, “is
why she refuses help.”

But
that was no mystery to Buddy.
 
“Because
she’s stubborn!” he said pointedly.
 
“She
believes she can figure this out for herself and she doesn’t need anybody interfering.
 
But she’s not figuring it out and she can’t
understand why.
 
Yet she’s too stubborn
to say so.”
 
Then Buddy smiled.
 
“Given your superstar wife, I would have
thought you’d know a little something about stubbornness yourself.”

Reno
snorted.
 
“A little something my
ass.
 
My wife wrote the book on it.”

Then
Buddy exhaled.
 
“She’ll be okay,” he
said.
 
“I know my daughter.
 
She’ll be okay.”

“I
hope so,” Reno said.
 
“It’s eating my son
alive.
 
That’s why I’m concerned.
 
He’s had a lot of bumps in his life.
 
He met Val and everything seemed to iron
itself out.
 
Then that damn miscarriage.”

Buddy
nodded.
 
“Yeah.
 
That darn miscarriage.”

“That
changed everything.
 
Now I’m worried
again.
 
But anyway,” Reno said as he
stood.
 
Buddy stood too.
 
“I just wanted to see if I could talk with
that daughter of yours before we hooked up tonight.
 
Is she in her office?”

“No,
I’m sorry, Reno.
 
She’s home.
 
She left early today.
 
She said she wanted to make sure she had
everything ready by the time you and Trina arrived for dinner tonight.”

“Really?
 
We’re just going over there for dinner.
 
It’s no big deal.”

“Reno
and Trina Gabrini are coming to her house tonight.
 
That’s a big deal to her.”

Reno
nodded.
 
He understood.
 
“I’ve got a couple stops to make,” he said,
“and then I’ll probably go on over there ahead of Jimmy and Tree.
 
I’ll see if I can talk to her, and knock some
sense into her,” Reno added with a smile.

“I
know my daughter,” Buddy responded skeptically.
 
“Good luck with that.”

Reno
laughed.
 
And then left.

CHAPTER NINE

Val
stepped out of the shower just as her cell phone began ringing.
 
She removed her shower cap and allowed her
hair to cascade down, grabbed the towel off of the rack, and then hurried for
the nightstand in her bedroom.
 
But by the
time she grabbed
 
her cell phone off of
the stand, the call had ended.
 
She
checked the Caller ID.
 
It was Jimmy.
 
Undoubtedly checking up on her again.
 
She tossed the phone back onto her nightstand
and sat naked on her bed, the big white towel still in her hands.

She
didn’t know why she felt such animosity toward her own husband.
 
He didn’t do it.
 
He didn’t cause her to lose their baby.
 
If anything, he was overly helpful.
 
He did everything right.
 
But she just felt such hostility whenever she
was around him!
 
She just felt such a
sense of failure and anger.
 
Trina was
much older than she was when she first got pregnant, and she had two beautiful
babies for Reno.
 
And Grace was older
too, and she just had a healthy baby girl for Jimmy’s Uncle Tommy.
 
Val couldn’t help it, but she felt as if she
was the only one who failed.
 
She was the
only one of the Gabrini women who let a Gabrini man down.
 
And it was driving her nuts.

And
not only that.
 
It was the way they
treated her now, and the way they looked at her.
 
Oh,
poor Val
, their faces seemed to say.
 
Look at poor Val!
 

But
she didn’t want to be poor Val.
 
She
didn’t want to be the weak link in the Gabrini chain.
 
They didn’t like weak women.
 
They frowned upon weakness.
 
And here she was, not measuring up.

She
laid back on her bed.
 
Maybe that was the
worst of it for her.
 
The idea that she
wasn’t living up to other people’s expectations.
 
Before she married Jimmy, she was very
independent and self-possessed and very comfortable in her own skin.
 
She knew who she was, where she was going,
and how she was going to get there.
 
But
that miscarriage seemed to bring out into the open what had been hidden, but
was festering all along: she wasn’t good enough to be a Gabrini.
 

Jimmy
all but told her so many times before.
 
Whenever they were all together, and she always felt like the odd girl
out.
 
He would tell her that it took time
to become a Gabrini.
 
He would tell her
that she was a special person, but she had years to go before she could try to
put herself on the same level as Trina and Gemma Jones.
 
Be herself, he would tell her.
 
Don’t try to be like them.
 
And she used to agree with him.
 
She wasn’t there yet and he was giving her
good advice.
 
But after her misfortune,
after that awful miscarriage, it no longer felt like sage advice.
 
It felt like criticism.
 

The
doorbell suddenly rang.
 
Val sat up
quickly and looked at the clock on her nightstand.
 
She knew she was moving slow, but it was a
full two hours before their guests were expected.
 
She hurried to the bedroom window and looked
out.
 
When she saw that Porsche in front
of her house, and saw only one person at her front door, she actually smiled.
 
He had apparently decided to come early.
 
Two full hours early.
 
And it somehow felt like fate to Val.
 
It somehow felt perfect.

She
still had dreams about that man.
 
They
used to feel innocent to her.
 
But after
that miscarriage, and after Jimmy’s inability to fulfill her, they suddenly
didn’t seem so innocent any longer.
 
She
had a thing for Reno Gabrini.
 
Jimmy once
told her so himself, but she denied it to his face.
 
Now she was no longer in denial.
 

It
was reckless, it was wrong, it was careless in the extreme.
 
But even all of those reasons not to do it,
couldn’t overcome the only reason she had to give it a whirl: her unyielding
desire to see what it felt like to know Reno Gabrini.

She
wrapped the towel around her naked body, and hurried downstairs.

Reno
rang the bell again, and then again before Val finally opened the door.
 
Reno was shocked when she opened the door.

“Oh,
Mr. Gabrini!” she said as if her shock trumped his.
 
She stepped behind the door.
 
“Come on in,” she said.

Reno
hesitated, then walked in slowly.
 
Maybe
she had a coat behind the door, he assumed.
 

But
when Val closed the door behind him, and continued to just stand there as if
she was dressed in Chanel head to toe, he held his hands, palm up,
confused.
 
“What are you doing?” he asked
her.

“I
thought you were Jimmy,” she said with a smile.

That
smile was gorgeous, Reno thought, but he wasn’t fooled by it.
 
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked
again.

“I
told you.
 
I thought you were Jimmy.”

“But
as you can see I’m not Jimmy.”

“Right,”
Val said with that smile.

“So why
haven’t you marched your naked ass upstairs and put some clothes on?”

Val
just stood there.
 
She didn’t expect that
response.
 
She had no plan B.
 
Given his reputation with the ladies, she
never expected rejection.

“Go,”
Reno ordered her.
 
When she still
wouldn’t move, he grabbed her by the arm and slung her away, to give her the
momentum to move forward.
 
But she still
just stood there.
 

Reno
frowned.
 
“What the fuck is wrong with
you, Valerie?”

Tears
came into Val’s eyes.
 
Sincere tears,
Reno could tell, not like that phony-ass smile she slapped on when he walked
into her house.
 
And he suddenly wasn’t
angry.
 
He felt her pain.
 
He felt it deep within his heart.
 

“What’s
the matter?” he asked her again.
 

But
Val shook her head.
 
“I don’t know,” she said,
unable to stop the flow of tears, unable to understand her own actions.
 
“I can’t snap out of it.
 
I’ve tried and I’ve tried.
 
They don’t think I’ve been trying, but I
have, Mr. Gabrini.
 
I swear to you I
have!
 
But I can’t get over it.
 
Jimmy says I’m going backwards, and I
am!
 
He’s right.
 
I’m sliding so far back that I’m reduced to
seducing my own father-in-law!
 
What’s
wrong with me?
 
I don’t know what’s wrong
with me!”

Reno
immediately pulled her into his arms.
 
His heart went out to the sweet young woman.
 
But then he just as immediately pulled back
when he felt her.
 
He removed his suit
coat, placed it around her towel-clad body, and then he held her again.
 
She sobbed in his arms.
 

After
allowing her as much time as she needed, he walked her over to the sofa in the
living room and sat her down.
 
He sat
beside her, on the edge of the sofa, and continued to hold her hand.

“I’m
sorry,” Val was saying.
 
She looked at
him. “I would never do. . .”
 
Then she
frowned.
 
“But I did it.
 
I’m sorry.”

“Don’t
be,” Reno said, squeezing her hand. “You aren’t yourself right now,
sweetheart.”

“But
it’s been three months,” Val said.
 
Then
she looked at him.
 
“You’ve lost a child
before.”

Reno
nodded.
 
“I’ve lost two children,” he
said softly.

“Oh.
 
Of course!
 
I didn’t mean---”

“One
was killed, and my wife, as you know, also had a miscarriage.”

“Trina
said it takes time to get through it.
 
She said it takes time to move on.
 
But it didn’t take her this much time.
 
Did it?”

Reno
exhaled. “When my child was killed, it took, and is still taking forever.
 
It nearly cost us everything, including our
marriage.
 
We separated, was heading
straight for divorce.
 
But thank God,
Trina wouldn’t let me go.
 
Because I was
a mess.
 
And she knew it.”

“A
mess like me?” Val asked, seeking that reassurance that there really was a
light at the end of her tunnel.

“I
was worst,” Reno said, giving her that light.
 
“I was inconsolable.
 
Nobody was
going to tell me shit about how I felt and how I should snap out of it.”

Val
stared at him.

“The
second death, the miscarriage, brought us closer.”

“But
how?” Val wanted to know.
 
“How could
such an awful thing make any couple closer?”

“Because
I called Trina on her bullshit,” Reno said, and Val flinched.

“You
what?” she asked.

“I
called my wife on her bullshit.
 
She was
just like you.
 
She was telling everybody
that she was fine and dandy too, and she didn’t know why in the world would
anybody think otherwise.
 
But, in truth,
she wasn’t just in pain, she was in agony.
 
And so was I.
 
But it wasn’t until
she admitted how she truly felt were we able to heal, and get on with it.”

“You
got over it?”

“No.
 
We’ll never get over it.
 
But we got through it.
 
That’s what I’m saying to you, Val.
 
You’ll get through it.
 
And one day, you’re going to have lots of
beautiful babies with James.
 
Mark my
word.”

Val
smiled.

“But
as for this seductress, sex maven shit?” Reno went on.
 
“This ain’t you.
 
You hear me?
 
I know it, and you know it.”

Val
frowned.
 
“I am so sorry,” she said, as the
tears began to flow again.
 
“I don’t know
what got into me.”

“Lust
got into you, what do you mean?
 
You
wanted some of this,” Reno said with a smile that prompted Val to smile
too.
 
“I’m irresistible.
 
I get it.”

Val
laughed.
 
“I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Now
your ass sound like Trina,” Reno said, and smilingly waved his hand. “Just get
upstairs and put some clothes on that fine body of yours.
 
And yes it’s fine,” Reno freely
admitted.
 
Then he turned serious.
 
“But it’s Jimmy’s fine, not mine.
 
Trina’s mine.”

Val
understood.
 
She nodded her head.
 
“Yes, sir,” she said, stood up, and headed
upstairs.
   
She stopped and looked at
him.
 
“Thanks, Mr. Gabrini,” she
added.
 
Then she smiled and wrapped his
coat tighter around herself, as she went.

When
she left, Reno leaned forward and ran his hands through his hair.
 
He had tented his pants, but what did she
expect parading herself around like that?
 

And
although she got a rise out of him, at least he got a smile out of her.
 
His only hope was that she would allow Jimmy
to do the same.