Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series)

MORE INTERRACIAL ROMANCE

FROM
BESTSELLING AUTHOR

MALLORY
MONROE:

THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND

SERIES IN ORDER:

THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND

THE PRESIDENT’S GIRLFRIEND 2:

HIS WOMEN AND HIS
WIFE

DUTCH AND GINA:

A SCANDAL IS BORN

DUTCH AND GINA:

AFTER THE FALL

DUTCH AND GINA:

THE POWER OF LOVE

DUTCH AND GINA:

THE SINS OF THE
FATHERS

DUTCH AND GINA:

WHAT HE DID FOR
LOVE

THE MOB BOSS SERIES

IN ORDER:

ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS

MOB BOSS 2:

THE HEART OF THE
MATTER

MOB BOSS 3:

LOVE AND
RETRIBUTION

MOB BOSS 4:

ROMANCING TRINA
GABRINI

A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS:

THE PREGNANCY

(Mob Boss 5)

MOB BOSS 6:

THE HEART OF RENO
GABRINI

THE GABRINI MEN SERIES

IN ORDER:

ROMANCING TOMMY GABRINI

ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING

INTERRACIAL ROMANCE

FROM MALLORY MONROE:

ROMANCING MO RYAN

ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR

ROMANCING THE BULLDOG

IF YOU WANTED THE MOON

AND

INTERRACIAL
ROMANCE

FROM

BESTSELLING
AUTHOR

KATHERINE
CACHITORIE:

LOVERS AND TAKERS

LOVING HER SOUL MATE

LOVING THE HEAD MAN

SOME CAME DESPERATE:

A LOVE SAGA

ADDITIONAL BESTSELLING

INTERRACIAL ROMANCE:

A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

YVONNE THOMAS

AND

BACK TO HONOR:

A REGGIE REYNOLDS

ROMANTIC MYSTERY

JT WATSON

ROMANTIC FICTION

FROM

AWARD-WINNING

AND

BESTSELLING
AUTHOR

TERESA
MCCLAIN-WATSON:

DINO AND NIKKI:

AFTER
REDEMPTION

AND

AFTER WHAT YOU
DID

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PROLOGUE

Ten Years Earlier

Reno
Gabrini wasted no time.
 
As soon as
Adolpho Lucci sat down, he handed him the check.
 
The Dolph, as Adolpho was often called,
smiled grandly, and gladly accepted the payment.

“Thank-you,
Reno, thank-you,” the jowly older man said.
 
“I knew you’d come through for me.”

“You’re
the one who came through for me,” Reno assured him.
 
“When I needed capital to purchase this
place, you were there for me, Dolph.
 
I’ll never forget that.”

“But
to pay me back so quickly, and with more than we agreed to.
 
You’re a good man, Reno.”

They
were in Reno’s office inside the PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip,
and the Dolph and his only son, Bruno Lucci, were seated in chairs in front of
the massive desk.
 
The office used to
belong to Tony Tufarna before his poor management plunged the place into
receivership.
 
Reno, thanks to wise guys
like the Dolph backing him, was able to outbid the competition and take over
controlling interest.
 
One by one, beginning
with the Dolph, he was paying them back.

But
he could tell the Dolph had other things on his mind.
 
Dolph folded the check slowly, as if he was
trying to find the words.
 
And the fact
that he brought his asshole son Bruno along made Reno certain that something
was up.
 
It made Reno certain that paying
back his debt wasn’t going to be as easy as handing over a check.

So
Reno watched the Dolph intensely and waited.
 
He didn’t say a word, he just waited.
 
He never thought of himself as smart in the book sense of the word, but
he considered himself a genius at reading Dons.
 
Especially since his own old man, Paulo Gabrini, was an East Coast Mafia
boss himself.
 
That was why Reno kept
quiet.
 
He remained leaned back, allowed
silence to fill the air, and waited for Adolpho Lucci to make his next move.

The
Dolph, with his soft, eternally hoarse Italian voice, eventually got to the
point.
 
“I always knew you were good for
the money, Reno.
 
That’s why I was more
than happy to do that favor for you.
 
Tony Tufarna is a loser who can’t manage a walk across the street, let
alone a real high class establishment like the PaLargio.
 
His mama was probably turning in her grave
when her beloved business fell into that fool’s hands.
 
But as soon as I found out you was going to
take over, I knew it would be in good hands then.
 
Miss E, God bless her, could rest in peace
when you took over, Reno.”

Reno
still remained silent.
 
The Dolph,
although a boss, never had a wide reach.
 
Not because he didn’t want more power, but because his only son was a
hotheaded idiot who shot first and aimed later.
 
Whenever Dolph needed something done, his son was the last person he
could depend on to get it done.

“I
was proud to do that favor for you, Reno,” the Dolph continued, as Reno knew he
would.
 
“It was my honor to do a favor
for a man like you.
 
I consider you family.
 
I consider you to be my flesh and blood.
 
That’s how I feel about you.
 
That’s how much I love and respect you.”
 
Then he paused.
 
“But now, Reno,” he said, “I’m going to have
to ask you, family to family, to do a favor for me.”

Reno
would have laughed if he didn’t understand the stakes.
 
This wasn’t some priest sitting up here
asking him for a favor.
 
This was a mob
boss.
 
And mob bosses never wanted you to
do anything legit on their behalf.
 
Never.

“What
favor?” Reno asked him.

Bruno
smiled.
 
“Why are you so defensive?
 
Will you relax for two minutes?
 
You look like I’m gonna ask you to murder
somebody or something.
 
Relax.”

Reno
stared at him intensely.
 
“What’s the
favor?” he asked again.

Dolph
exhaled.
 
He wasn’t a man who asked for
help lightly, and Reno wasn’t making it any easier.
 
“I need you to alibi my son,” he said.
 
“Bruno, foolish boy that he is, needs an
alibi.
 
And all because of some girl, can
you believe it?
 
Some girl!
 
Just say he was here at the PaLargio with
you.
 
That’s all I need.
 
It’s nothing.”

Reno
looked at Bruno Lucci.
 
He hated to see a
grown man hiding behind his old man’s coattails.
 
There was no way in hell Reno would have his
own father sitting in somebody’s office making any pleas for him.
 
No way.
 
But Bruno seemed to have no problem with it whatsoever.
 
That was why Reno directed his question, not
to the Dolph, but to the son.
 
“Who’s the
girl, Brew?” Reno asked him.

But
the Dolph was quick with the answers.
 
“Just a girl,” he answered for his son.
 
“A nobody.
 
Got herself a big
mouth.
 
Went running to the cops claiming
Brew roughed her up.
 
You know how girls
can be, Reno.
 
You slap’em around a
little, to keep’em in line, and they wanna run to the cops nowadays.
 
They sling their slutty bodies all over you,
every chance they get, then they wanna cry rape.”

And
that was it.
 
A beating my ass, Reno
thought.
 
It was rape.
 
That was what this was all about.
 
Bruno had gone too far and raped some
girl.
 
Now he had his old man fighting
his battle.
 
Now he had his old man
begging to get him out of this jam.
 
He
was a big man when he was raping that girl, now he was some scared little boy,
hiding behind Daddy.
 
What a scumbag.