Reno Gabrini: For His Lover (The Mob Boss Series Book 14) (15 page)

“Will do.”

Trina killed the call.
 
Then she leaned back, and exhaled.
 
And prayed this was some big, grand mistake.

Stephanie was still in bed, but Reno was now sitting in a chair,
the only seat in the motel room.
 
They
both were distressed.

“I’m weak, Reno,” she said, “and I’m getting weaker.
 
It has to be today.”

But Reno was shaking his head.
 
“You don’t realize what you’re asking of me,
Steph.”

“I do know.
 
How can
you say that?
 
We keep meeting, and
talking, but I can’t go on any longer, Reno.
 
It has to be today.”

Reno was agonized.
 
“Why would you want to put this burden on me?
 
You’re one of my oldest friends.
 
We go way back, Steph.
 
How can you ask me to do something like
this?”

“Because you’re the strongest man I know.
 
Because I know you can handle it.”

But Reno shook his head again.
 
“It’s too much to bear, Steph.
 
You don’t know what you’re asking!”

“Stop saying that. I do know what I’m asking.
 
I’m asking you to help me commit suicide,
Reno.
 
I’m asking you to end this pain so
I won’t have to bear this another day.
 
I
came back to Vegas for your help, not your judgment.
 
I’m asking you to kill me so that I won’t
have to die alone.
 
Because either you’ll
going to take that gun and take me out, or I’ll do it myself.
 
And I’ll die alone, Reno.”

Reno rubbed his forehead.
 
And shook his head again.

But before he could ask another question, or make another
plea for Stephanie to talk sense, the door to the motel room was unlocking.
 
He looked at Stephanie.
 
“Expecting somebody?” he asked.

“No,” Stephanie said and sat up in bed, covering her naked
body with the sheets.

But Reno didn’t have time to react.
 
The door opened and, to his eternal shock,
Trina and two other people walked in.

“Tree?” Reno asked, floored.
 
“What are you doing here?”

“I know you didn’t just ask her that question,” Jazz
said.
 
“I know better than that.”

It was only then did Reno realize the woman he thought he
recognized was none other than Jazz, Trina’s old friend.
 
“What the fuck are
you
doing here?” he asked her.

“What is this about, Reno?” Stephanie asked.
 
“And who are these people?
 
I don’t know any of these people!”

Trina, who was already staring at her, looked at her
husband.
 
The pain in Trina’s eyes were
intense, but Reno didn’t see it.
 
He was
too busy consoling the other woman.
  
“It’s okay, babe,” he said to Stephanie.
 
“This is my wife.”

Stephanie’s eyes grew larger.
 
“Your
wife
?” she asked as if
it was news to her.
 
“What are you talking
about?”

Reno looked at her.
 
And frowned.
 
“What do you mean
what am I talking about?
 
This is
Trina.
 
I told you all about her.”

“You told me?” Stephanie asked.

Reno stared at her.
 
He
was even more puzzled than Trina’s presence.

“Tell me what’s going on, Reno,” Trina said.
 
“Who is this lady, and what are you doing in
a motel room with her?”

“It’s not what you think,” he said quickly.
 
“This is an old friend of mine.
 
This is Stephanie Deevers.”

Trina looked at Stephanie when he said her name.
 
“Stephanie Deevers?”

“We’ve been friends since childhood,” Reno continued.
 
“She came to town a few weeks back because
she had a request.”

Trina was puzzled.
 
“What kind of request?” she asked.
 
To sleep with you?
 
To ruin our marriage? To ruin my life?

“To assist her,” Reno said, “in ending her life.”

Trina was floored.
 
Jazz and Andre too, began smiling and then laughing.
 
“Oh, you’re good,” Jazz said.
 
“She catches you in the act, and you claim
you were just here to kill her.
 
You’re a
piece of work, Reno!”

“Fuck you, Jazz!” Reno yelled.

But Stephanie was equally shocked.
 
Trina saw it first, then Reno realized it
too.

“To end my life?” Stephanie asked, staring at Reno.
 
“What are you saying?”

Trina could see the confusion on her husband’s face.
 
And she only saw the half of it.
 
“You came to town because of the cancer,”
Reno said to Stephanie.
 
“You showed me
the X-rays and everything.
 
You said you
didn’t want to die alone.
 
You said you
didn’t want to take your family through all of that shit and you needed me to
help you, Steph!
 
Why are you acting like
you don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about?”

“Because I don’t!” Stephanie said decisively.
 
“You aren’t here for any such thing, and you
know it!”

While Reno stared at Stephanie, stunned witless, Stephanie
looked at Trina.
 
“I didn’t even know he
was married, ma’am,” she said, getting out of bed.
 
She was naked as a Jayhawk, and didn’t seem
to give a damn.
 
She began putting on her
clothes.
 
“He brought me out here so
nobody would recognize him or his car.
 
This has nothing to do with assisted suicide.
 
Really, Reno?
 
Assisted suicide?
 
This has everything
to do with you getting back together with me, and you know it!”

Jazz laughed.
 
“Fucking
versus assisted suicide,” she said.
 
“Um,
which one would I believe?”

But Trina wasn’t playing anybody’s game.
 
This was her life.
 
Her life!
 
She had too many unanswered questions.
 
“How do you know Jazz?” she asked Stephanie.

“Who’s Jazz?” Stephanie asked.
 
And then she looked at Andre.
 
“And who are you?”

“Don’t you worry about me,” Andre said.
 
“I ain’t fucking somebody’s husband.”

“He came to me.
 
He
wanted to fuck me.
 
He wanted us to get
back together.”

“That’s bullshit!” Reno decried.
 
“What are you talking?
 
Where’s Stephanie?”

“Don’t stand up there like you know me,” Stephanie said,
tossing her blond hair back as she put on her blouse.
 
“I haven’t seen your ass in years.
 
You’re just putting on this innocent act for
your wife.
 
Yeah, right.
 
Innocent my ass!”

Trina was staring at Reno.
 
She couldn’t tell if he was more hurt by what he believed to be a
betrayal of his childhood friend, or the fact that Trina thought something more
was going on.
 
The fact that she couldn’t
tell said it all to Trina.
 

“
Tree
,” Reno began
saying, in that
please believe me
voice she knew so well.
 
He was ready to
get down on his knees and beg to get her to believe him.

But Trina stopped him before he could even plead his
case.
 
“You don’t have to go there,
Reno,” she said.
 
“I know good and well
you weren’t in this hellhole fucking this bitch.”

Stephanie was shocked by Trina’s response.
 
So were Jazz and Andre.
 
“You believe him?” Jazz asked.
 
“You believe him?
 
Tree, I know better than this.”

Reno stared at his wife.
 
He knew she was special, but how could she believe him against this kind
of set up?

“So you believe your husband,” Stephanie said.
 
“Whopdedo.
 
You actually think I would come all the way to Vegas after I left this
town years ago, show your husband X-rays of my supposed disease-ridden body,
and then ask him to help me kill myself?
 
Why would I do that?”

“I don’t know,” Trina admitted.
 
“But I know you’re a liar.
 
I know liars lie.”

Stephanie frowned.
 
“What?”

“You just stood up here and claimed you don’t know Jazz or
this guy.”

“So?” Stephanie asked.
 
“I don’t know them!”

“You know him,” Trina said, referring to Andre.

Andre frowned.
 
“What
are you talking about?
 
I don’t know that
bitch.”

“Quit tripping,” Trina said.
 
“That bitch is your wife.”

Now Reno and Jazz both were stunned.
 
“His wife?” Jazz asked.

Reno looked at Stephanie.

“They met in Mexico.
 
She spent many years in prison for killing her husband.
 
She got out, she gets deported back to the
States, and lo and behold she’s not out six months before she’s married to
Andre here.
 
I ran background on you,
from your photograph on my security cameras.
 
Stephanie is your wife.”

“But how can this be, Dre?” Jazz asked.
 
“I acted like she was some random you never
met before.
 
You were playing me too?”

“Believe her if you want to,” Andre said.

But it was Stephanie Reno couldn’t believe.
 
“What’s going on here, Steph?
 
What kind of game are you playing?”

His words struck a chord with Stephanie.
 
An angry, bitter chord.
 
“Game?” she asked him.
 
“What kind of game am I playing?
 
You left me in that prison to rot!”

“I didn’t even know you were in prison!” Reno yelled.

“That’s a lie!” Stephanie yelled back. “I sent word by my
lawyer, and he said you knew about it but told him to go fuck himself.
 
You didn’t give a damn, Reno.
 
You didn’t give a damn!”

Tears were in her eyes.
 
Real tears this time, Reno figured, not that fake shit she was crying
before Trina came.
 
“I killed my husband,
but you knew he was abusive.
 
You could
have spoken up for me.
 
I sent for
you.
 
But you never came.
 
Nobody came.
 
It was awful!”

“I didn’t know, Steph,” Reno insisted.
 
“I would have helped you had I known!”

 
“You knew,” Stephanie
insisted.
 
“That’s why I was glad to
bring you down. You and your whole family.
 
I just want that sweet revenge.
 
I
was going to break up your marriage with this one here, and Kap Cole was going
to break up your son’s marriage.”

Reno and Trina looked at each other, then both of them looked
at Stephanie.
 
“Kap Cole?” Reno asked
her.

“Who’s Kap Cole?” Trina asked.

“He’s the man who was banging your daughter-in-law.
 
That’s who!
 
He was a friend of mine and Andre’s.
 
We paid him to sleep with little Miss Val, after we found out, of
course, her predilection for certain kind of men.
 
But he skipped out on us.
 
Just took off.
 
We haven’t heard from him in weeks.
 
Where is he?
 
Did Reno find out about his involvement with his precious
daughter-in-law and did something to him?
 
We knew, after we couldn’t find Kap, we had to speed this thing up.
 
Now your clever little wife figures out my
relationship with Andre, and makes all of us nervous.”

“Yet she’s not as clever as she thinks she is,” Andre said,
and Reno knew he was reaching for a gun.

But Reno reached too, and pulled out his gun just as Andre
pulled his.
 
Reno knocked Trina down and
was firing as he fell on top of her.

Andre was firing as he fell too.
 
They were trading gunfire like they were
trading cards, and bullets sailed all over the small room.
 
But Reno was a better shot. Andre dropped dead.