Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair (19 page)

Sal frowned.
 
“Quinn Chan?
 
Your
Quinn?
 
That bitch
finally showed her true colors?”

Reno nodded.
 
“She showed her colors alright.”

“I knew it was just a matter of time,” Sal
said.
 
“When Tree doesn’t like somebody,
you can take it to the bank.
 
Something’s
wrong with that person.
 
Now you see it
too.
 
But what’s this about her
blackmailing Jimmy?
 
And what
brother?
 
I didn’t know her slutty ass
had a brother.”

“She’s got one.
 
I just had to handle him at the safe house.”

Sal was surprised.
 
“What were their demands?”

“Two hundred grand.”

“Get the fuck out of here!
 
These people crazy!
  
What did they catch Jimmy doing, damn?”

Reno wasn’t about to tell his son’s business.
 
Not even to Sal.
 
“His action didn’t fit their demand, trust
me,” Reno said.
 
“They were just being
greedy.”

“Well at least that.
 
And you had to ice the brother?”

“Yeah.
 
He
wouldn’t talk.
 
Usually that’s very
commendable.
 
But I needed answers.
 
I
 
needed to know why Quinn recruited her brother in the first place, why
she tried to claim that Trina was behind the entire scheme, and who was behind
the set up to begin with.
 
So I had to
show Quinn I wasn’t the man to fuck with.
 
I had to let her see my other side for herself.”

“You iced him in front of her?” Sal asked.

Reno nodded.
 
“I was probably too brutal, but she wouldn’t talk.”

“I’m sure you did what was necessary,” Sal
said.
 
“You have to contain this shit.”

“That’s what I’m trying to do.
 
Before anybody else in my family is
endanger.
 
Quinn’s at the safe house
now.
 
I’m going to have to deal with her
again, but first I need to talk to Tree.”

“What is Tree saying about all of this?”

“I haven’t talked to her yet,” Reno said.
 
“I’m waiting for her to come home.”

Sal exhaled.
 
“This is a hellava thing, Reno.”

“Yeah. I just wish Tree wasn’t involved.
 
I could deal with anything if she wasn’t
caught up in whatever is going on.”

“What are your people finding out?
 
Are they hearing any chatter?
 
Are they feeling any heat?”

“Nothing.
 
But
that doesn’t mean shit either.
 
It’s a
big world.”

“It’s supposed to be a small world, after all.
 
At least that’s what they say.”

“Yeah, well, they aren’t Gabrinis.
 
They don’t have shit to say about our world,”
Reno said, and Sal couldn’t agree more.

Trina pushed her partially-filled shopping cart in
the store inside the mall, heading for the cash register.
 
But when she turned the final corner that led
to the checkout counter, she stopped in her tracks.
 
Standing not four feet away from her was the
very person she had been fearing to face.
 
She thought she had more time.
 
She was told next month.
 
But he
was out already?
 
He was older, much
older, but she would never forget that face.

She grabbed her purse out of the shopping cart and
took off running.
 
He didn’t realize he
was face to face with the one person he had been dreaming of seeing again until
he looked over and saw her running out.
 
He had just arrived in town.
 
They
refused to tell him where he could find her, just that they knew she was in
Vegas, and that he had to chill until they got the money taken care of.
 
Now she was within his grasp?
 
Katrina Hathaway was in the same space as he
was in?

He took off behind her, running too. But he wasn’t
nearly as familiar with the mall as she was, and he ended up confused.
 
She cut corners, and was well out of the mall
itself, and in her Mercedes driving away, by the time he made it outside.
 
She was gone, when he made it out.

Reno’s men didn’t know why Trina was in such a
hurry, but their assignment was to follow her.
 
They cranked up their car, and followed her.
 

Trina had planned to go to the estate on the
outskirts of Vegas, but not now.
 
It was
too isolated and she had been too spooked. It was well fortified, their home,
but she didn’t want to take that chance.
 
She also didn’t want to go anywhere near her children, in case she was
being followed, until this threat was handled.
 
She drove straight to the PaLargio.

When she arrived, the valets, realizing Reno’s wife
had arrived, hurried like a stampede of cattle to her car.
 
She jumped out and ran inside, tossing her
keys as she went.
 
She didn’t stop her
fast progression until she was on the private elevator, heading upstairs to
Reno’s office.
 
When his staff informed
her that he wasn’t in the building, her heart dropped.
 
She needed him.
 
She needed him now!

Reno and Sal were still on the patio when the cell
phone began ringing.
 
Reno looked at his
Caller ID.
 
When he saw that it was
Trina’s security detail, he answered quickly.
 
“This is Reno.”

“You wife is at the PaLargio, sir.”

Reno frowned.
 
“The PaLargio?
 
She was supposed
to come to the house tonight.”

“I know, sir, but she left the mall like a bat out
of hell and came straight to the PaLargio.”

A call waiting began to beep on Reno’s phone.

“She hurried out of her car and ran inside,” Reno’s
man continued.

“She’s inside now?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Hold your ground.
 
I’ll call you back.”
 
Reno then
answered the call waiting.
 
“This is
Reno.”

“Reno.”
 
Trina’s voice sounded distressed.

Reno sat up.
 
“Tree, what’s wrong?” Sal looked too.

“I’m at the penthouse,” Trina said.
 
“Come quickly please.
 
I need you.
 
I’m in trouble, Reno.”

Reno’s heart dropped through his shoe, and he stood
up.
 
“You’re in danger?” he asked.
 
When he said those words, Sal stood too.

“I’m safe,” Trina responded.

“And the children?”

“They’re at Jimmy’s.
 
They’re fine.
 
But it’s . . . it’s
. . .
 
please come.”

“I’m on my way,” Reno said.
 
“You wait right there.
 
I’m on my way, sweetheart!”
 

“What is it?” Sal asked as Reno began running off of
the patio and through the house.
 
Sal
didn’t know what was going on, but he ran right behind him.
 
“What’s the matter, Reno?”

“I don’t know yet,” Reno said.
 
“But this shit is about to come to a
head.
 
You’re riding?”

“Hell yeah,” Sal said, and both men, in their
imported suits, in their Italian shoes, ran as if they were thieves in the
night.

Everything slowed when Reno and Sal walked into the penthouse
and saw Trina standing there.
 
She had
been anxiously pacing the room, unable to keep still, but stopped when she saw
Reno.
 
He looked his usual frazzled self,
with his beautiful hair all over his beautiful head, with his suit of clothes
hanging on him as if they had never been tailored-made for him, and with his
intense blue eyes so focused on her that they looked like lasers.

Reno couldn’t help that he was overly focused on
her.
 
He’d been overly worried about her
since their fight the night she didn’t show up at that restaurant.
 
And now this.
 
Her small arms were folded across herself, as if hugging herself, and
although she looked well put together to most people, Reno could see the
devastation in her big hazel eyes even from where he stood.

And he felt two ways about it.
 
He was relieved that she was in their
penthouse and in one piece, and he was crippled with fear that her togetherness
was only skin deep.
 
He knew she had been
talking to the Feds.
 
He knew she had
been going in and out of motel rooms meeting with them.
 
Now she said she was in trouble.
 
She
was in trouble.
 
That was the part that
worried Reno the most.
 
He would rather
she had snitched on him, and brought him down, than for this shit to twist on
her.

When Trina saw Reno walk through that door, all of
the distress of being alone in the battle melted away from her.
 
She needed him, unlike she had ever needed
him before, and he came.
 
He came, she
knew, because he loved her.
 
He came
because he was worried sick about the way their relationship had been
going.
 
He came because he was that kind
of man.
 
“
Reno
,” she said heartfelt, as if his presence alone was her relief,
and ran to him.

Reno’s own heart swelled with so much emotion when
she began running to him, as if he was her knight again, that he began hurrying
to her.
 
When they finally closed the
breech that had been swallowing both of them, he opened his big, muscular arms
to her, and she fell into those arms.
 
She began sobbing, as he held her tightly.
 
Her pain broke his heart.
 
“It’s going to be alright, baby,” he was
saying to her, comforting her.
 
“I
promise you it’s going to be alright.”

Even Sal was taken aback by the emotion Trina was
displaying.
 
She was always so strong in
his eyes.
 
Like a well-grounded tree, as
if she had earned her nickname.
 
Even
when they first entered the penthouse, he was impressed with her dignity.
 
Shit was going on, some serious shit if those
videos were to be believed, but she still had that style about her.
 
Her red pantsuit was still crisp even this
late in the day.
 
Her thick, bouncy hair
was still immaculate.
 
Her heels were so
steep that most women would walk like penguins in them, but Trina glided in
them even when she ran to Reno.
 
But she
was sobbing in her husband’s arms.
 
She
had phoned and said she was in trouble.
 
Even trees, he knew, needed to be nourished.
 
Tree needed Reno.

When her sobbing eased, Reno pulled slightly back
and placed his hand on her chin.
 
Her
beautiful eyes were wet, but her relief that he held her in his arms still
shined through.
 
“What’s the matter,
babe?” he asked her, looking from one eye to the other eye as if he could
somehow find the answer within those orbs.
 
“What happened?”

Trina knew she had to come clean, completely clean,
to keep him in her corner.
 
Only she
wasn’t at all sure, once he heard what she had to say, if he would stay
there.
 
“Sit down, Reno,” she said.
 
“I need to tell you something.”

Reno’s heart was hammering as she clasped his hand
and they walked to the sofa.
 
Sal’s heart
was hammering too as he followed them and sat in the flanking chair.
 
He loved Reno and Tree.
 
He loved them so deeply that it could not
have hurt him more even if it was he and his own wife going through this
turmoil.
 
He crossed his legs.
 
Reno and Trina sat on the edge of the sofa,
turned toward each other, still holding hands.
 
What Sal loved most about the two of them was that they trusted him so
much that they never once asked each other if it was okay for him to hear whatever
they had to say.
 
They knew it was okay.

“I met with two operatives affiliated with the FBI,
Reno,” Trina admitted off the top.

Reno felt relieved that she admitted it, but still
concerned.
 
“I know,” he said.

Trina looked at him.
 
“You know?”

“I had my men following you.
 
I know I promised I wouldn’t have you
followed anymore, but I know you, Tree.
 
Something was wrong.
 
My gut told
me so.
 
Your actions told me so.
 
After we had our argument, I put a detail on
you.
 
They saw you meeting with the two
guys, did their due diligence, and found out they were both FBI.
 
So I know you met with them.
 
What I don’t know is why.”

Trina should have known she couldn’t put anything
past Reno.
 
She should have known.
 
But she still had to tell him the truth.
 
“I was at work, at Champagne’s,” she began,
“when a UPS driver brought me this package.
 
Two items were in it.
 
One was a
video.”

Sal frowned.
 
“What’s with all of these fucking videos?” he asked.
 
“First they have this video of Jimmy, and
they blackmail him.
 
Then these videos of
you and the Feds.
 
Now somebody’s sending
you a video too.
 
Are all of these things
related?”

“Yes,” Trina said to Sal.
 
“Jimmy’s video, the video of me meeting with
the Feds, and the one they mailed to me are from the same people, if that’s
what you mean.
 
They discovered mine when
Ice came up for parole, and then they pulled that sting on Jimmy.
 
They purposely set him up.
 
They said he was the trial run to see how
Reno would handle it.
 
When they didn’t
hear back from some guy their inside person, they got their answer.
 
So they knew they had to play this
right.
 
They had to go to me, not you.”

“But what was the video about?” Reno asked.
 
“And who’s Ice?”

“Iceman Nelson was a big time drug dealer I knew
back in Mississippi.
 
I was managing a
nightclub in Dale that he frequented a lot, and we began taking a shine to each
other.
 
What I didn’t know was that he
was responsible for a lot of drive-bys when people didn’t pay up.
 
He killed a lot of people.
 
And the fact that he had been transporting
drugs across state lines, brought the Feds in.”

Reno was surprised Trina had never mentioned the
guy.
 
But he held his fire.

“So one day, after we hooked up and he started
recognizing me as his old lady, he told me he was trying to break into the big
leagues and needed my help.”

“What kind of help?” Reno asked.

Trina hated to admit this part of her story.
 
“He wanted me to provide girls for his major
suppliers,” she said.

Sal was stunned.
 
Reno frowned.
 
“You mean pimp for
him?
 
He wanted you to pimp for him?”

Trina nodded.
 
“I didn’t think of it that way back then,” she said, “but yeah, that’s
what it amounted to.”

“But regardless, you said no, right?
 
You told him to take a hike, right?”

Trina knew Reno had this image of her.
 
Even when she would tell him that she was not
now, nor ever had been some good little choirgirl, he wouldn’t accept it.
 
“No, Reno,” she said.
 
“I didn’t turn him down.
 
I provided girls for his suppliers.”

Sal didn’t know what to think. He had this image of
Trina as the epitome of morality always, even in her youth.
 
And she used to be a madam?
 
Sal was thrown.

Reno was thrown too.
 
The idea of his virtuous wife
providing
girls
for some trash barrel drug dealer didn’t sit right with him at all,
but he knew it was long ago and far away, long before she ever met him.
 
“Keep talking,” he said.

“One girl worked as a waitress at the club.
 
She was very pretty and innocent and Ice
really wanted her roped in.
 
So I roped
her in.
 
I told her the guy was nice, and
that she didn’t have to do anything she didn’t want to do, and I really roped
her in.
 
Of course I didn’t know the
guy.
  
Had never even laid eyes on him
before.
 
But I offered her up to Ice and
he offered her up to this so-called major client.
 
The next day, I hear that same major client
had brutally beaten and raped her.”

Sal let out a harsh exhale.
 
Poor thing, he thought.
 
Reno, however, was staring intensely at his
wife.
 
Trina, and what all this meant for
her, was all he could think about.

“They said she wouldn’t go to the hospital and
wouldn’t call the cops, so I wanted to rush to her apartment and see for myself
what that creep did to her.
 
Ice wouldn’t
let me go alone, so he had this dude named Stokey, his right hand man, drive me
over there.
 
I didn’t care at that
point.
 
I just needed to make sure Vern
was okay.”

“Was she?” Sal asked.

Trina shook her head.
 
“When we got to her apartment, and after
Stokey jimmied the lock to let us in, we discovered that she had already hung
herself.”

“
Ah, man
,”
Sal said with a distressed look on his face.
 
He looked at Reno.
 
But Reno was
still singularly focused, not on the misfortunes of some girl, but on Tree.

“I was devastated,” Trina said.
 
“I knew then I was in some deep shit I didn’t
even understand.
 
I caused her death,
Reno.
 
I caused it.
 
The only reason she went to meet up with that
dude was because she trusted me.
 
She
figured I wouldn’t steer her wrong when I was steering my own self wrong back
then.
 
I loved bad boys and Ice was the
bad.
 
But seeing what happened to Vern,
seeing her so ashamed that she would take her own life, woke me up.
 
I had to get my black ass out of Mississippi,
I knew that, and away from Ice, too, or I probably was going to end up like
Vern.”

“What did you do?” Sal asked her.

Trina was surprised that Reno wasn’t asking her any
questions, just staring at her as if he was going to explode with rage at any
moment, but she answered Sal’s question.
 
“I first knew I had to get away from Ice, and I had to have time to get
away.
 
If I tried to run away from Stokey
at that moment, I knew he would only tell Ice and they would track me down
easily.
 
So I had to get some space.”

“What did you do?” Sal asked again.

“As soon as
Stokey
took me
back to Ice’s apartment to wait for Ice to make it home, and as soon as Stokey
turned his back, I made my move.
 
I grabbed
the first thing I could lay my hands on, which was the base of a lamp, and
slammed it over his head.
 
It
worked.
 
He passed out.
 
Then I went to the payphone in the apartment
building and called another friend, Jeffrey Graham, and told him I needed to
get out of town and I needed to get out right now.
 
He agreed to come and get me.
 
I know I told you that I left Dale because I
was all in love with Jeffrey.
 
But that
was only partially true.
 
Jeffrey was in
love with me, and I depended on that love to get myself out of Dale.”

Reno continued to just sit there and listen.
 
It was tough to hear, but he wasn’t hearing
it the way Trina thought he was hearing it.
 
It wasn’t a story of lies and deceit to him.
 
It was a story of survival.
 
“Keep going,” he said to her.