Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full (22 page)

But Trina was nobody’s fool.  This was feeling weirder by the second.  “But you came all this way for what?”

“To see you.  To talk to you.  To give you that insight Reno wouldn’t let me give to you.”

“But how did you know I was even here?”

“One of your employees told me.  Since I knew I had to come near here, I decided to drop by.”  He smiled.  “I’m not stalking you or anything like that, Tree, so relax, okay?  I’m not some creep, okay?  I feel I can really help you, I can help your business.”

“Who is it?” Reno asked behind her.  Trina looked back.  He was coming toward the door in his pants and his unbuttoned shirt.  “Who is it?” he asked again.

“Jody,” she said, still stunned.  “Jody Parks.”

Reno couldn’t believe it either.  “What the fuck!” he said and hurried to the door and slung it open.  When Jody saw Reno, his heart dropped through his shoe.

But it was too late for him to even think about running because Reno grabbed him by the catch of his collar and flung him into the house.  Trina looked out, to make sure he was alone, and then closed the door behind them. 

Reno dragged Jody and threw him onto the sofa.  Then Reno stood there, looking at him.  “What the fuck are you doing here?” he asked him.

“I was on my way to Charleston--”

Reno slammed his fist across Jody’s jaw.  Jody shrieked in pain. 

“What are you doing here?” Reno asked again.  “Don’t fuck with me, Jody!”

“I came to talk. . .  I wanted to talk to Trina.”

“Talk to Trina about what?”

“Just talk to her.”

Reno rammed his fist into Jody’s face again.  Blood gushed from his nose.  “Talk to her about what?” Reno asked again.

“Her store!” Jody yelled in pain.  “I wanted to give her pointers---”

“You’re a fucking liar!” Reno roared.  “Why did you come here?  Why were you so surprised to see me here?”

“Reno, it’s not like that.  I wasn’t,” he started, but Reno had had it.  He rammed his fist into Joey’s face over and over.  He beat him down on that sofa.  Trina moved back, and hated that it had come to this, but she knew Reno was doing what he had to do. 

“They made me!” Jody finally yelled when he couldn’t take another punch.  Trina looked at Reno.  Reno was staring at Jody.

“Who made you?” he asked him.

“They said they would, if I didn’t, they said---”

Reno grabbed Jody again by the catch of his collar.  “Who made you, motherfucker, answer my question!  Who made you?”

“Acer!” he yelled.

Reno knew him.  “He’s a loan shark.”

“I owed him money.  Big money.  My business was failing, I was in a lot of debt, and he . . . the banks wouldn’t. . . so he loaned me money.”

Trina stared at Jody.  It was all lies.  He wasn’t any turnaround expert.  His own business had failed!

“How much you owe?” Reno asked him.

“Fifty thousand.  Plus interest.   Only the interest isn’t money, it’s . . .”

Trina moved up beside Reno.  “It’s what, Jody?” she asked.

“They wanted me to be your confidant.  They wanted me to be the inside man for some scheme they’re cooking up.  They needed to know what you were thinking and what was going on, and they knew I once had a good friendship with Tree.  So they were going to use me.”

Trina, puzzled, looked at Reno.  Reno looked at her, too, and then looked at Jody.  “What else?”

“They didn’t tell me anything else.  They told me to reestablish our friendship.  That was all I was supposed to do.”

“You keep saying they,” Reno said.  “Who’s they?”

“Acer.  I don’t know his real name.  He has different people working for him.  I deal with different people.  They told me what to do, and I wouldn’t owe them a dime if I succeeded.  They didn’t give me any choice, Reno.”

Reno released Jody and stood erect.  “Get my phone,” he ordered Trina and she hurried to the bedroom.  When she returned, Reno made a call and moved slightly away from them, although they both heard the conversation.  “Send me a couple of guys,” he eventually said, and then killed the call.

Trina started to ask just where were these couple of guys going to come from, but she already knew.  If Reno had his people keeping an eye on her in Vegas, she would have been naïve to think he was going to let her come all this way to Mississippi without somebody watching over her.  But to her surprise, the two men entered her parents’ home almost immediately, as if they were just outside the door, and they didn’t bother to knock.

“Yes, sir?” the tall one said as they entered.

“Get him,” Reno ordered, and the two men headed for Jody.  “Take him to the box.”

The two men grabbed Jody and left.  Jody would have asked where they were taking him, but if it meant getting him away from Reno, he was agreeable.  Anybody was preferable to Reno.

Trina looked at Reno when they left, and she had that look of concern on her face.  Reno exhaled.  “It’ll be all right, babe,” he said to her.  “I promise you that.”

“What do you think is going on, Ree?”

“It’ll be alright,” he said again, his face betraying his words.  “It’ll be alright.”

The bag was taken off of Jody’s head and he realized he was in a small living room inside a small house.  The two men who had ushered him out of Trina’s parents’ home were the two men who now stood guard over him.  He smiled.  He felt as if he had dodged a bullet.

“What kind of place is this?” he asked them.  “One of Reno’s safe houses?  He finds a house to rent or buy whenever he or his family is in a town long enough.” Jody smiled.  “Didn’t think I would know that, did you?”  The two men were ignoring him.  “Well I do know it.  I used to work for Reno, too, you see.  I know all his little secrets.  I know if he meant to harm me, I would have been dead by now.  But he won’t harm me.  You know why?  Because we go back too far.  Way back.  We used to chase those females like it was nobody’s business, I’m telling you.  And Reno, he was worse than I was.  But we loved us some females.  Yes we did,” he said, looking around.  “Yes, we did.”

It was nervous chatter and both guards knew it.  They’d seen it countless times before.  It was Jody’s way of maintaining his dignity; of not shitting all over himself with fear.  Because if he worked for Reno in the past as he claimed, then he had to know Reno didn’t play.  So they let him talk up a storm.  And he talked and he talked.  He laughed and he talked.  Until the front door opened, and Reno walked in.  He shut up then.

Reno hesitated, as he stood at the closed door looking at Jody.  Jody wanted to smile; he wanted to say something to lighten the tension Reno brought into the room when he walked in it, but every instinct within him told him to keep it buttoned.  Reno, with that intense look on his face, was not the one.

Reno removed his gloves and walked up to the small chair they had Jody sitting in.  Jody’s heart began to pound.  And suddenly he felt as if he had to remind Reno of who he was.  He felt he had to remind Reno of his humanity.

“Remember when we tried to sneak into that Knicks game that time, Reno?” he asked him.  “I was telling the guys here about it.  You pissed in your pants when that guard caught you by the collar.”

“Have you pissed in yours?” Reno asked him.

Jody’s smile left.  “No,” he said.

“You should.  It may be the last piss you ever have.”

“Why you wanna say things like that, Reno?” Jody pleaded.  “Why you talking like that?”

“I spoke to Acer,” Reno said.

Jody’s heart dropped.

“He didn’t know who the fuck you were.”

“But I’m telling you he’s the one I was dealing with!”

Reno pulled out his gun and without any pause whatsoever shot Jody straight through one of his testicles.  Even Reno’s own men winced as Jody screamed out in pain and grabbed his bleeding balls.  He was in so much pain that he flipped the chair over and then flipped over himself in unbearable pain.

Reno kicked the chair out of his way, lifted Jody by the catch of his collar, and then slung him onto the sofa.  He placed the barrel of his gun at Jody’s second testicle.  “Didn’t I tell you I didn’t like games?”

“Reno, please,” Jody begged.

“I told you two things.  I told you not to fuck with me, and I told you to stay away from my wife.  But you decided my word wasn’t worth shit to you, and you defied me, Jody!  What did you think I was gonna do?  Let you play me for a chump with no retribution?  Are you that stupid, or did you think I was?”

“I didn’t, Reno, I don’t,” Jody was crying and out of his mind with pain.  He could hardly hear Reno.

“Who sent you here?” Reno asked him.  “Who told you to follow my wife to Mississippi?”

“I told you---”

Reno pressed his barrel harder against Jody’s testicle. 

“Reno, no!” he yelled, bending down in pain.

“Then tell me, gotdammit!  Who told you to follow my wife here?”

“He’ll kill me if I tell!”

“And what the fuck you think I’m gonna do to you if you don’t tell?  A bird in the hand is worth fifty fucking birds in a bush motherfucker!  I’m that bird in the hand, asshole.  They threaten to shoot you, but I just did.  So who should you fear more?  And I’ll shoot your ass again if you don’t stop fucking with me, Jody!  Now who sent you here, and you tell me the truth!”

Jody’s face was now a mask of anguish.  He was at that point of no return. “Compton,” he said.

Reno frowned.  “Who the fuck is Compton?”

“Compton Durail,” Jody said.

“Durail?  I know that name.”

One of Reno’s men, the smaller one, spoke up.  “That kid that tried to carjack Jimmy Mack earlier this year was named Durail.  Jermaine Durail.  Compton’s his older brother.”

Reno looked at his guard. “You know him?”

“I heard of him.  He owns the Meg Club on Market.”

Now it was beginning to make some sense to Reno.  The Meg Club on Market was where Jimmy’s friend Connie shot and killed Jermaine Durail.  Was this what it was all about?  Was Compton Durail blaming Jimmy for his brother’s death?  Was this some revenge plot?  Reno didn’t know, but he was going to find out.

He began heading for the door.

“
Reno
!” Jody cried out.  “What about me?  I’ll bleed to death if you leave me here!”

“Drop him off at the hospital,” Reno said to his guards.  “Drop him in the parking lot and then haul ass.”

“Yes, sir.”

 Reno looked at Jody.  “If you mention my name to the authorities or anybody else the way you just mentioned Compton Durail’s name to me, my name will be the last word you speak on the face of this earth.  If you don’t believe me, if you ever find yourself doubting that I’ll keep my word, I want you to look down, at your balls.  Or, at least, what’s left of your balls.  That’ll tell you all you’ll need to know.”

Reno stared at the man who was once his friend a moment longer, and then walked out.

SEVENTEEN

As soon as the plane touched down in Vegas late that same night, and Reno and Tree emerged and began to walk down the steps of the plane, Dommi started jumping and clapping in Jimmy’s arms.  Although Trina had told Jimmy to keep the baby indoors as he recovered from his cold, she was far too happy to see her baby again to be upset.  She was, in fact, overjoyed when she saw her sons standing on the tarmac waiting for them.  She bolted down the steps like the high school sprinter she once was, leaving Reno in the dust.  But Reno didn’t mind.  He had his wife back.  His family was whole again.  All was right with the world.

“Mommy!” Dommi screamed as Trina ran to him. Jimmy had him decked down in layers and layers of clothing as his little gloved hands reached out to her and his body jerked so far away from Jimmy’s arms that Jimmy could barely hold him back. 

But he held Dommi long enough for Trina to grab him and swallow him up in her own loving arms.  Dommi laughed as Trina hugged and kissed him.  Seeing his mother again had just made his day.

It made Reno’s day seeing all of them together, as he finally made it up to them. 

“Hey, Dad,” Jimmy said as he extended his hand to his father. 

Reno shook his hand but also kissed him on the cheek.  “Everything all right?”

“Everything’s great.  The PaLargio didn’t fall apart just because you weren’t in it.”

Reno laughed.  “Very funny,” he said and playfully slapped Jimmy upside his head.  They had a truce regarding Melita, and he aimed to keep it that way.  At least for now.

“But for real though,” Jimmy said, “everything’s fine.  I asked Lee just before I came to meet your plane if there were any problems, and he said there were the usual disruptions in the lounges, the drunks, you know, but nothing he couldn’t handle.”

Reno nodded.  “Good,” he said.  “That’s what I want to hear.”

But as they drove back to the PaLargio, with Jimmy driving, Reno sitting on the passenger seat, and Trina and Dommi seated on the backseat, the festive mood changed.  It changed as soon as Jimmy said he had an announcement.

“It better be good news, Jimmy,” Trina said as Dommi played with her hand.  “I don’t want to hear any more bad stuff.  None.”

“It’s great news, Ma, don’t worry,” Jimmy said, glancing at her through the rearview mirror, wondering if something went down in Mississippi.

“So what is it?” Trina asked.  “What’s the big announcement?”

Jimmy swallowed hard.  “I wanted you guys to be the first to know.  I asked Melita to marry me, and she said yes.”

Reno looked at Jimmy.  Trina looked at Reno.  A sudden tension overtook the car that was so intense that even Dommi felt its force.  He stopped playing with his mother’s hand and stopped asking her questions and became silent too, as he looked at his family with nervous eyes. 

Trina waited to hear what Reno had to say, and Jimmy looked at him too.  But Reno didn’t say a word.  He continued to look at the road ahead of them.  But Trina could feel the anger bubbling up inside of him.  She could feel the explosiveness.  And she knew she had to defuse this situation, and defuse it now, before Reno went to town on Jimmy’s “announcement.”