MOB BOSS 6: THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI (Mob Boss Series) Page 10

  Jimmy was often in the gym trying with all he had to bulk up too, but he had nothing on his father. Reno was a man’s man in every sense of the word. Jimmy was always reasonably sure that he was good in bed too, especially the way Trina was always pulling on him and always seemed to want him in her bed. But after seeing him in action on the penthouse balcony, Jimmy had no doubt that his father had mastered that aspect of his life, too. He put a whipping on Trina she couldn’t possibly soon forget. The only area that still had room for doubt, as far as Jimmy was concerned, was his father’s heart. He sometimes wondered if he had one at all.

  Like now. He knew how distraught Jimmy was over Ashley and Cooper, but he still wouldn’t take the time to talk to him. He was playing basketball and gotdammit he was going to finish playing basketball. His son be damned! At least that was how Jimmy saw it.

  But he waited patiently.

  After about twenty minutes of his father dribbling and taking jump shots, Reno finally called it a day. He walked over to his son, tossed the ball into a bin, and grabbed his bottle of Gatorade that sat nearby. Then he drank half the bottle, and sat down.

  Reno looked at his son. He had that kind of light-brown skin that always made him look freshly washed and clean cut to Reno. But his big eyes told a different tale.

  “Where’s Ash and Coop?” Jimmy asked without pretending that he was there for any other reason.

  “We aren’t going through that again,” Reno said.

  Jimmy moved closer to his father. Reno was sweating like it was nobody’s business, but you could still smell a freshness about him. But that was Reno, Jimmy thought. He could be in a shithole of a sewer, and somehow manage to come out smelling like roses.

  “Where’s Ash and Coop?” Jimmy asked again.

  Reno grabbed a towel from the back of the bench and wiped his face. “They’re okay.”

  “But where are they?”

  “They’re in one of my safe houses. Nothing’s changed. They’re okay.”

  “I want to see them.”

  “Not now.”

  “Why can’t I see them, Dad?”

  “Because they have valuable information that I need to extract before they see anybody. You understand that?”

  “But they’re my friends. They don’t know anything.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, young man. They know plenty. And I intend to find out every ounce of what that plenty is before I even think about letting them go anywhere or see anybody.” Reno drank more Gatorade. “But they’re okay,” he said when he finished.

  “But how do I know they’re okay?” Jimmy asked him.

  Reno looked at his son. “What do you mean how do you know it? I told you, that’s how you know it!”

  Reno was amazed at how Jimmy was changing. There used to be a time when his word was gospel to that young man’s ears. Now Jimmy questioned everything Reno did or said. It all started after Trina’s arrest on some trumped-up charge. Tommy Gabrini, Reno’s cousin and best friend, came to town, and he brought his new lady Grace with him. But after they left Vegas and went back to Seattle, Jimmy’s relationship with Reno shifted from blind trust to a kind of trust but verify position that was no trust at all as far as Reno was concerned. And Reno still couldn’t understand what caused it.

  “I still want to see them, Dad,” Jimmy said, reinforcing their changed relationship.

  “You will see them in time, just not right now.”

  Jimmy hesitated, still staring at his father’s handsome face. “Did you touch her?” he asked pointblank.

  Reno sipped more Gatorade. “I kicked her ass for fucking with me,” Reno admitted.

  Jimmy nearly jumped from the bench. “You beat her? But why? Why did you do that?”

  “Because she was fucking with me. I didn’t have time for her bullshit.” Jimmy continued to stare daggers at him. “What?” Reno asked. “That bitch was trying to set you up, what did you think I was gonna do? Let her? Tell her to behave next time and send her on her way?”

  Reno hated showing this side of himself to his son, but he couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stand a whore like Ashley Cooper who didn’t give a damn that his son’s heart was in her hands. He couldn’t stand that bitch and he wanted Jimmy to understand that.

  But Jimmy was in love. Reno could see it in his big, pitiful eyes.

  “But what about their family?” Jimmy asked. “What about her mom? What is she going to think?”

  “She talks to her mother, based on calls in and out on her cell phone, once a week. She spoke with her a couple days ago. We still have time.” Then he looked at Jimmy. “You ever met her boyfriend?” he asked.

  Jimmy stared at his father. “I’m her boyfriend.”

  “There’s where you’re wrong again. She most definitely has a boyfriend, and he ain’t you. His name’s Eddie. Eddie Dreeson. You know him?”

  Reno could tell Jimmy was a little shaken by the news. But he had to know. “I never heard her ever mention any Eddie,” he said.

  Reno took another drink of his Gatorade.

  Jimmy, as he expected, continued to stare at him. “What about this Eddie?” he asked.

  “He helped a certain acquaintance of mine set you up.”

  “And that’s why you think he’s Ash’s boyfriend?”

  “I didn’t know he existed. Ashley told me about him.”

  Jimmy’s heart began to pound. “Many guys want to get next to her,” he said. “So what?”

  “Yeah,” Reno said, rising. “So what?”

  Jimmy stood up too. “I still wanna see her, Dad.”

  “What, is something wrong with your hearing now? I said you can see her, just not right now. Not before I get my information. Not a second before that. Now get your ass over to Lee’s office. He’s going to go over the balance sheets with you. You need to get your head out of the clouds and start focusing on the PaLargio more. I’ve been easy on you since you graduated, but I expect you to start getting down to business.”

  “Get down to business now?” Jimmy asked, astounded. “At a time like this?”

  “At a time like what?” Reno asked. “I’m handling that situation with your so-called friends. You let me worry about that. That has nothing to do with you. You do your job before you don’t have one to do.”

  Jimmy always wondered how his father could carry on when such upheaval was circling around him. But he always did it. “Yes, sir,” he said and began to leave.

  “Oh, and James,” Reno said.

  Jimmy turned and looked at him.

  “You ever walk in a room and see me doing what I do with my lady, you’d better run, not walk, but run away from that scene. You feel me?”

  Jimmy’s heart dropped. How could he have seen him on that balcony? He seemed so taken with Trina, so in love with fucking her, that there was no way he could have seen him.

  But apparently he did.

  “Yes, sir,” Jimmy said embarrassingly, and then hurried away from there.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  “Didn’t I tell you I had business to take care of?” Sal Luca Gabrini said into his cell phone. “Didn’t I tell you I wouldn’t be in Seattle for a few days?”

  Sal was in the backseat of his limo talking to one of his girlfriends. His limo had just stopped at the entrance of the PaLargio Hotel and Casino. And he was livid.

  “I don’t like that shit,” he said into his phone. “Wanna know where I am every hour of the day, who do you think you’re dealing with?” Then he paused, listening to her. “What are you asking? When will you see me? Your ass will see me when you see me, that’s when you’ll see me!” Then he violently slammed down his phone. “Women!” he said as if it were a curse word.

  And then he got out of his limousine.

  “Welcome to the PaLargio, Mr. Gabrini,” the Valet staff immediately greeted him as soon as he got out.

  Sal buttoned his suit coat, nodded his head, and walked inside.

  “Welcome back, Mr. Gabrini,” the Con
cierge said as he hurried toward him when he realized who had just entered the massive lobby. Reno usually gave them the heads up whenever Tommy or Sal were in town, so that the GM or higher could be there to greet them. But they had no idea.

  “How you doing, Max?” Sal asked as he shook hands with the Concierge.

  “Mike,” the Concierge corrected.

  “Like I give a fuck,” Sal corrected him.

  Mike swallowed hard. He was well aware of Sal’s lack of decorum, but that didn’t mean he liked it. “I’ll escort you to the penthouse, sir,” he said.

  “Uncle Sal!” Jimmy voice was heard, and Sal looked across the lobby. When he saw his nephew hurrying his way he smiled. If you would have told him a few years ago that he would be okay with the fact that a relative of his was this strapping young half-black kid, he would have told you to go play with yourself. But now, as he watched Jimmy come, he was not only okay with the fact that Jimmy was his kin, but he was thrilled by it. Other than his brother Tommy, he loved Jimmy the most.

  “My nephew will escort me, Max, thanks,” Sal said to the concierge and the concierge left. Sal heartily embraced his nephew when they met. Jimmy, too, felt closest to Sal above all his other relatives. Not because Sal was such a good, kind person. But because Sal wasn’t, and didn’t pretend to be. Unlike his father, Jimmy thought.

  “You look great, Uncle Sal,” Jimmy said as he looked at Sal’s Armani suit and felt the muscles of his biceps. “Spending more time in the gym I see.”

  “Ah, fuck you,” Sal said and Jimmy laughed. “Trying to say I was fat? I wasn’t fat, you fuck. I was compact, solid. Built like a bulldog.”

  “A bulldog,” Jimmy said with a grin. “Is that what they call it nowadays?”

  “Okay, keep needling. I could take your skinny ass any day of the week.”

  “Skinny?” Jimmy asked. “Who’s skinny?”

  Sal laughed. “I can turn the tables with the best of them, baby,” he said with a grab of his crotch. “So don’t fuck with me.”

  “I hear you,” Jimmy said.

  “So where’s that knuckleheaded cousin of mine?”

  “Who, Reno?”

  “No, not Reno. Jermaine and Tito Jackson! The Kardashians! Of course Reno. Who the fuck else is gonna be a cousin of mine inside the PaLargio Hotel and Casino?”

  Sal’s rudeness took some getting used to, but Jimmy was getting there. “I don’t know where he is. Ma said he had to take care of some business.”

  “So he ain’t here?”

  “Not at the moment, no.”

  “Take me to Tree, then. At least I can holler at her.”

  Jimmy began escorting him to the private elevator in the back of the lobby. Once they were alone inside the elevator and the doors closed in front of them, Jimmy looked at Sal. “Can we talk?” he asked him.

  “Can we talk?” Sal responded. “Who are you, Joan Rivers? Can we talk. Yeah, we can talk. What is it?”

  “I don’t know what’s up with Pop.”

  “What’s up with you is the question. From what Reno tells me you’ve managed to get yourself in a little trouble, young man.”

  “Dad called you? Is that why you’re here?”

  “Yeah, it’s why I’m here. I hear my favorite nephew is in trouble, I get here.”

  Jimmy couldn’t believe the nerve of his father. “Did he call Uncle Tommy too?”

  “He didn’t wanna worry Tommy. Tommy’s got his hands full with all those females around the globe who can’t believe he chose a girl like Grace over them. They didn’t pull that shit when he was engaged to Shanks, but they think they can pull it on Grace. They don’t think she’s up to the challenge, but I told those bitches not to underestimate that girl. She’s up to it all right. They’ll see.”

  “I don’t know what to say about Dad,” Jimmy said. “He’s overreacting for no reason at all.”

  “Whoa now,” Sal said. “What overreacting? Didn’t you have a dead body in your car?”

  Jimmy hesitated. “Well, yeah, but---”

  “Yeah, but nothing! I know you might think dead bodies in cars is something me and your old man are very familiar with, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna stand back and let you get familiar with it.”

  Jimmy looked at Sal. His father and Uncle Tommy always insisted that Sal wasn’t Mafia, but Jimmy wasn’t at all convinced. Sal was always running to Jersey. He always had business in Jersey. And lately, he also noticed, whenever his father needed muscle, he would call on Sal. Sal, like his brother Tommy, used to be a cop. And Jimmy could still see cop all over him. But he saw something more too.

  “Yeah, there was a dead body in my car,” Jimmy said, “but only because this guy overdosed in the house of this girl I know and she needed me and her brother to move the body. She’s on probation and she didn’t want to get accused of anything.”

  “And you was so hot under the dick for this girl that you dutifully move a dead body on her behalf?”

  “I’m not hot for no girl! That had nothing to do with it!”

  “Yeah, right, and I’m Tinker Bell.”

  “But Dad kidnapped Ash and her brother and put them in a safe house, Uncle Sal, like they’re those lowlifes he’s used to. He’s nuts, I’m telling you!”

  “Whoa now,” Sal said and immediately pressed the stop button on the private elevator. The elevator came to a shaking halt.

  Sal looked at Jimmy. “Since when are you criticizing Reno? His farts used to be sweet to you just a few months ago. What happened here?”

  Jimmy could still see it as if it happened yesterday. ShoShawna Shanks, Uncle Tommy’s former girlfriend, was sitting there, defenseless, and Reno put a bullet in her head. But he wasn’t about to share that nightmare with Sal.

  “Nothing happened,” he said to his uncle. “I just don’t want anything to happen to my friends.”

  “What did Reno say? Did he say something was gonna happen to them?”

  “He claims they’ll be fine.”

  “Then they’ll be fine. Reno’s a lot of things, but he ain’t no liar.”

  Jimmy shook his head. Sal didn’t understand, either, he thought.

  Trina signed her name on the dotted line and then sat back. She was in her office inside the PaLargio, along with Gemma Jones and Liz Mertan. They had all three just signed the lease agreement for the boutique, and they were pleased. At least two of them were.

  “What’s wrong, Trina?” Liz asked her. “Aren’t you thrilled? I know I am!”

  “I am too. It’s just that. . .”

  “That what, love?” Liz asked in her faux British accent. “What?”

  “I just have a lot going on right now, that’s all.”

  “Well,” Liz said, rising to her feet, “I’m beyond happy. But right now I have a nuncheon across town that I simply cannot be late for.”

  “A nuncheon, Liz?” Trina said. “Really? This is America, not Great Britain, all right? We have luncheons, not nuncheons.”

  “Don’t worry,” Gemma said. “Great Britain doesn’t have nuncheons either.”

  “Oh, you girls are such a riot,” Liz said, grabbing her big bag. “TaTar, talk to you later,” she said as she was about to leave. But the intercom at the conference table came on.

  Trina pressed the button. “Yes?”

  “Mr. Gabrini and Jimmy are here to see you, ma’am.”

  Trina frowned. Reno never, not ever, waited for some secretary to announce him. He just barged on in. “Reno?” she asked.

  “Oh, no ma’am. Mr. Salvatore Luciano Gabrini.”

  “Better known as Sal Luca,” Trina heard Sal tell her secretary in the background.

  “Better known, ma’am,” her secretary said, “as Sal Luca.”

  Trina laughed. Leave it to Sal to make that woman pronounce his complete name, then make her say the name he should have asked her to say in the beginning. “Send them in, Marge,” she said.

  “Who’s Sal Luca Gabrini?” Liz asked.

  “Reno’
s first cousin. From Seattle.”

  “Oh,” Liz said, as if she was interested.

  The double doors to Trina’s office opened, and Sal and Jimmy walked in. Only Sal walked in talking.

  “You got yourself a snooty secretary out there, Tree,” he said as he came. “Acted like she was too good to say my name. You ought to get rid of her.”

  Trina wasn’t thinking about taking personnel advice from the likes of Sal Gabrini. “When I can come to your office in Seattle and tell you who you need to get rid of, then you can tell me.”

  Sal smiled. He and Trina would never be besties for a number of reasons. Not least of which was the fact that Sal was very vocal in his opposition to Reno marrying a black girl. Or, as he put it at the time, a non-Italian. But they did respect each other and had managed, over the years, to make peace.

  “So what’s up, Sal?” Trina asked. “What brings you to Vegas?”

  “Your old man brings me to Vegas,” Sal said, looking at the two women at the table with Tree. He extended his hand to Liz. “I’m Sal,” he said. “How are you?”

  Liz removed her bag from her right hand to her left and shook his hand. “I’m Elizabeth Mertan, nice to meet you, Sal.”

  Gemma stood and shook Sal’s hand, too. “Gemma Jones,” she said with a smile.

  Sal looked at those big, African lips over her bright white smile. “That’s Gemma with a G?” he asked her. He continued to grasp her hand.

  “Yes,” she replied, removing her hand from his grasp. “Gemma with a G.”

  “Sit down, Sal, take a load off,” Trina said. Then she looked at Jimmy. “Hey, Mack.”

  “Hey.”

  “You okay?”

  “You heard from Dad?”

  Trina hesitated. “No,” she said.

  “Anyway,” Liz said. “I’m off.”

  She looked again at Sal, who, after Gemma had sat back down, was sitting at the conference table too. She looked especially at his muscular body. “Maybe, if you’re in town long enough,” she said to him, “we could have drinks. I’ve been thinking about expanding my business interests in the Seattle area. You could perhaps give me some pointers.”