Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Page 18

  “Ah, forget you, Sal!” Johnny replied. “You didn’t think I was a crazy fuck when your people needed more muscle last month.”

  Tommy looked at Johnny. “What kind of muscle?” he asked him.

  “What kind you think? Muscle. He and Joey Joplin needed more muscle, so he came to me.”

  “Joey Joplin?” Reno and Tommy said at the same time, incredulity in their voices. “You’re fooling with that fool?” Reno added.

  “Joey and I have a business arrangement that’s nobody’s business but my own,” Sal said. “So shut the fuck up and keep the fuck moving.”

  “Yeah, I got your fuck up,” Reno said. But then he settled back down. The last thing he needed to be worrying about right now was Sal getting in too deep with the mob. “What about Bruno?” he asked Johnny again.

  “What about him?” Johnny answered again. “He’s been dead for over a month.”

  Reno unfolded his arms in shock. Sal stood from the desk. Tommy remained cool, but his heart began racing.

  “Dead?” Reno asked. “What the fuck you’re talking about?”

  “You didn’t know?” Johnny asked. “Yeah, Bruno died something like a week after he was released from prison. He was over in Italy. The plan was that he was going to stay there, get in the family wine business there or some such business, and get his life back on track. I know about it because my cousin Lonnie, who lives there too, told me about it. He got himself run over by a car. But yeah, Bruno’s dead.”

  Sal looked at Reno. “Then why was Belle Patrone running around talking about Bruno dropping coins for your execution?”

  But Reno was thinking. Everybody knew that anguished, pensive look. He was thinking hard.

  “There’s a connection,” he said. Trina walked into the study just as he said it. But they were all so riveted on Reno that nobody noticed.

  “There has to be,” Reno continued. “Dirty and Bruno were friends back in the day. Bruno was convicted and forced to serve ten years in prison thanks to me. Then Dirty was iced thanks to me. Belle starts telling me all about Bruno and how he’s in for the kill against me when that fucker isn’t even alive and she has to know it. Why else would she use his name of all people? Then Fran pays Lefty to get rid of me and my wife, and then she takes my son. There has to be a connection.”

  “Fran was in the shop,” Trina said, remembering, and everybody turned her way.

  “Ah, Tree,” Tommy said. “The doctor said you’re supposed to get some rest.”

  But Reno knew she could handle it. He wanted to know what she knew. “Your shop?”

  “Yeah,” Trina said. “When Belle came into the shop the first time and asked if I was your wife, Fran was in there.”

  “But what difference does that make?” Sal asked.

  “Maybe that’s why Fran told Lefty to go the mayor’s house that night,” Jimmy suggested. “Because she found out some kind of way that Belle was staying there and it would be a great way to take the heat off of her, by putting it on Belle.”

  “Or,” Reno said, and everybody looked at him. “Fran and Belle were in it together. That’s why Belle was feeding me that bullshit about dead Bruno. She needed to keep me distracted while they plotted and schemed. There’s a connection between Fran and Dirty, but if I was a betting man, and I am, I’m willing to bet there’s a connection between Belle and Bruno.”

  “And Belle is the only one still around,” Tommy said, “who knows what that connection is.”

  Everybody immediately stood, knowing their walking papers without being instructed, and they all began hurrying out.

  But Reno stopped Jimmy.

  “I know,” he said. “I’ve got to be Adam Cartwright again. I’ll stay here at the Ponderosa with Ma and the ladies.”

  “You watch entirely too much TV,” Reno said with a smile but then he stared at his son with an affection that even he found startling. He leaned over and kissed him, and then hugged him. What would he do without Jimmy?

  But then Trina stopped Reno as he moved to get away too. She placed her hands on either side of his upper, muscular arms. He looked her dead in the eye. “Bring our child home, Reno,” she said to him.

  Reno nodded. He wanted to promise that he would. But somehow he didn’t know if that was true. For the first time in his life, he felt lost.

  And somebody was going to have to pay.

  THIRTEEN

  Belle Patrone offered no solace for Reno. She denied any knowledge of anything as if it was her birthright to deny. She knew nothing about Fran kidnapping anybody. And she stuck to her story with an assurance that bordered on arrogance.

  She was sitting in a chair in the living room of her safe house. Reno was standing in front of her, and Tommy and Sal were standing behind her.

  “You know where she is, Belle,” Reno said. “I know your ass. You know where she is. And you know where she has my son.”

  “You’re wasting your time, Reno. I don’t know your sister and I don’t know anything about her taking your son. I’m sorry this had to befall you, but you can’t keep accusing me of bothering with your family. Yes, I went to see your wife. Yes, I was hopeful that I still stood a chance with you. But it’s a far cry from wanting to fuck you, to wanting to fuck with you. I’m not fucking with you, Reno. I wouldn’t do that.”

  The sincerity in her eyes stopped Reno cold. He was inclined to believe her. But he couldn’t be weakened by his history with her. There were too many coincidences. There were too many wheels lining up behind her wagon.

  “If you’re not involved,” Reno said to her. “Why did you lie?”

  “I didn’t lie!”

  “Bruno is dead, Belle.”

  Belle looked at Reno with shock on her face. “Dead? Since when?”

  “Since two-three months ago. Just after he got out of prison. And you knew it all along!”

  “I didn’t know any such thing, Reno, how could you say that about me?”

  “Then how could you know for a fact that he was making noises about getting revenge on me? It was so much chatter, you claimed, that you had to come down to the boardwalk when I was in Atlantic City and tell me about it. Then you had to come to Vegas to warn me about all of this scary chatter of Bruno’s. How could a dead man talk so loud, Belle? You tell me that?”

  “I only told you what I heard,” Belle said, still looking convincingly innocent. “I never told you he told me any of that shit. I only told you what I heard.”

  “But it’s awfully strange that nobody else heard what you heard. Nobody! Just you.”

  Then the door to the house could be heard opening from the back. Tommy pulled his weapon and headed in that direction. But it was only Jimmy. With a still badly beaten Lefty Gromes.

  Jimmy, with a gun to Lefty’s back, pushed him into the living room. Although Jimmy knew his father would be staring at him, Jimmy was too busy staring at Belle. And just as he expected, her facial expression changed as soon as Lefty entered the room.

  “I thought Reno told you to stay with the ladies,” Sal said in an accusatory tone.

  “Trina can handle the ladies,” Jimmy said. “I had business to take care of.” Then Jimmy looked at Lefty. “Is that her?” he asked him.

  Lefty was already nodding his head. “That’s her,” he said. “That’s Fran Marcasi.”

  Reno, Tommy, and Sal were stunned. But none more so than Reno. He stared at Lefty as if there had to be some mistake, and then he turned a hard stare Belle’s way. And that confidence, that pride, that arrogance, was gone.

  “I don’t know what he’s talking about,” she said, her voice now deflated.

  “She’s the one who paid me half of the money upfront,” Lefty said. “She’s the one who told me to go to the gate of that mansion and then keep driving after Reno drove by. She’s the one. She told me her name was Fran Marcasi. She told me she would pay me the rest of my money if I did everything she told me to do.”

  “What made you think there was some mix up?” Tommy a
sked Jimmy. Reno, still stunned, looked at his son.

  “It had to be,” Jimmy said. “I knew Aunt Fran wouldn’t kidnap Dommi. I knew she wouldn’t. Something wasn’t right. So I asked Ma for a picture of Aunt Fran. She gave me one. And I paid a visit to Lefty. Showed him the picture. He claimed he never saw her before. So I asked him to describe this Fran Marcasi. He described a woman all right, but it wasn’t Aunt Fran. With a little persuasion,” Jimmy said, highlighting the fact that he held a gun, “he agreed to take a ride with me.”

  Reno was alarmed by his son’s actions, and damned proud of him. But he wasn’t distracted by it. He, in fact, pulled his gun from his side holster and was now staring at Belle.

  “You kidnapped my son and my sister?” he asked her. His face was filled with rage, anguish, and confusion.

  But Belle was still in denial. She was still shaking her head. “No, I didn’t,” she insisted as if her life depended on it. “I told you----”

  “Don’t you lie to me!” Reno roared so loudly that it nearly broke Jimmy’s eardrum. Reno then took his gun and slammed it into Belle’s face. She howled in pain.

  “Reno, you have to believe me!” she cried.

  “Where are they, Belle? If you don’t tell me where they are in two seconds I’ll blow your fucking brains out!”

  “I told you I don’t---”

  Reno pistol-slapped her hard again. “Where are they, Belle? I don’t want you to tell me any gotdamn thing but where I can find my family! Where are they?” He pistol whipped her, slapping her again and again. But she still refused to admit anything.

  Then blood started streaming from her mouth. And it seemed to change her again. She smiled. To everybody’s shock, she actually smiled. She knew it was over for her. She knew it. And she wasn’t going out like a chump.

  “Big Reno Gabrini,” she said through her smile, the blood on her teeth. “The big man Reno Gabrini himself. Devastate lives all up and down the east coast and think nothing of it. Forget the people who used to care about you. Forget all about us. But you’re all Mister Big Shot now. Marry you some nigger bitch and have yourself some nigger children and you’re the cat’s meow now. And you expect me, me, to care about your family? You expect me to care what happens to your sister and your nigger child? Are you fucking kidding me???”

  She spit the blood from her mouth. “Fuck that bastard!” she screamed. “Fuck your whole family! Just like you fucked mine. What about mine, Reno? You didn’t give a shit about mine, but you expect me to care about yours? Fuck you, Reno! I’ll die before I tell you anything! I’ll be buried in my grave laughing while you cry! And you’re gonna cry, Reno. You’re gonna cry this day.”

  Reno stared at Belle with a kind of hatred that alarmed even Tommy. “Everybody out,” he said without looking away from her.

  “Out?” Jimmy asked. “Why do we have to leave?”

  “Don’t you know nothing” Sal asked him as he began shoving him and Lefty out. “Plausible deniability,” he said.

  “But--,” Jimmy started, upset. But Sal would have none of it. He grabbed Jimmy and Lefty, and forced them out of the backdoor.

  “You too, Tommy,” Reno said, still staring at Belle.

  Tommy stared at his cousin and best friend. He knew what Reno was doing. Reno never wanted blood on Tommy’s hands. Reno always ended up bearing these burdens alone.

  “Sure?” he asked him.

  “Positive,” replied Reno.

  Tommy didn’t like it, but he honored his cousin’s wishes. And left.

  Reno, however, was still staring at Belle.

  “So what, you gonna shoot me now?” she asked him. “You think I care about you shooting me? And you’re so protective. You didn’t want your black boy of a son to see you shoot me, did you? Is that it? Because I don’t care, Reno. I don’t care. You can’t hurt me with your bullets. I don’t give a fuck! I’m gonna be laughing tonight. You’re gonna be alive and crying. I’m gonna be dead and laughing!”

  “You’re going to be dead, all right,” Reno agreed with her. “But it’s going to be difficult to be laughing if you have nothing to laugh with.” He said this and then shot her, at pointblank range, in the mouth. It ripped her lips apart and shattered her teeth and tongue.

  She was still alive as the blood poured out. She still showed fading signs of life in her eyes. A life filled with fear and anguish and pain were still in her eyes. And Reno stood there and watched that flicker of life as it slowly flicked out. He didn’t know where his family was. And maybe he would never know. But at least he knew no bitch like this would ever laugh at him again. At least he knew that.

  But the drive back home was an unbelievably anguished one for Reno. He was no further ahead of the game than he had been yesterday, when his son was snatched. And what about Fran? Was she kidnapped too? Did Belle orchestrate this disaster herself? Or did she have help?

  Jimmy left his car at Belle’s safe house and rode back in his father’s Bentley. Reno’s cleanup crew arrived before they left and was tasked with getting rid of Belle, Lefty, and any evidence of any crime whatsoever. They were also tasked with tearing that house apart in the off chance that Reno’s family could be hidden there.

  Jimmy sat in the backseat with his still distraught father, while Sal drove and Tommy sat on the passenger seat. The conversation was muted, with most of it centering on Belle’s decision to die rather than tell what she knew. It confounded them all, especially Reno.

  Jimmy looked at Reno. He looked drained beyond measure. Jimmy knew how much his father hated to go there, he hated it with a passion, but he had to. Jimmy didn’t see where he was left with a choice.

  “You did what you had to do, Pop,” he said to his father.

  But Reno would not be comforted. He ignored his son.

  “She wouldn’t tell what she knew, and you couldn’t let her get away with that. I’m proud of you, man.”

  Reno looked at his son. “You’re proud of me?” he asked. “I don’t know where your baby brother is, where my baby and my sister are, and I didn’t have what it took to scare a woman into telling me shit, but you’re proud of me? Don’t you dare set your standards that low, you hear me, boy? I’m your father, and I love you, but I didn’t do anything to be proud of. It’s gonna break Trina’s heart when I walk through that door without her baby. And you’re proud?”

  Sal glanced at Tommy and then at Jimmy through the rearview. Reno was in a terrible way, and all of them knew it.

  And when they drove up to the house, just as a cab was turning into the driveway, they also knew that Reno’s mood wasn’t going to lift any higher. Something was up. Maybe whoever took Fran and Dommi was now elevating the game.

  “Who the fuck is that?” Sal asked as he drove nearer.

  “Floor it, Sal,” Reno ordered as he pulled out his weapon. Tommy and Jimmy did the same. Sal sped up and hurriedly turned onto the driveway, blocking the cab.

  “Tommy, you and Jim get inside and make sure everybody’s safe in there. Sal, you come with me,” Reno ordered and he and Sal jumped from the car and hurried toward the cab. Tommy and Jimmy headed for the house.

  Reno ran up to the cab, pulled open the door, and Sal grabbed the driver by the catch of his collar and slung him out of the automobile.

  “I no bad!” the driver started yelling, with his hands in the air. “I no bad!”

  “Who are you?” Reno asked.

  The man, a Korean-American with a thick accent, was shaking his skinny head. “I nobody. I cab driver. They told me come. They pay me come.”

  “Who paid you?” Reno asked.

  “Lady. Lady pay me come.”

  “What lady?” Sal asked. “What’s her name?”

  “She no tell. She wave down cab at street. On street. Tell me bring him here. She pay me bring him here.”

  “Bring who here?” Sal asked.

  “Him,” the driver said and pointed toward the backseat. Reno quickly slung the driver aside and leaned his head inside the car
. Seated on the backseat, in a car seat, was Dommi. Looking fit and happy. He even smiled. Reno nearly died with joy.

  “Daddy!” Dommi said, reaching his little brown hands for his father.

  “Oh, my precious baby,” Reno said, reaching for his son.

  “Ree, wait!” Sal yelled. “Is this bitch rigged?” he asked the cabbie.

  “Rig?” the driver responded, confused.

  “Yes, rigged you foreign motherfucker! Is it rigged? Is a bomb in there?”

  “Bomb?” the driver asked, attempting to get away. “No bomb! Me no like bomb!”

  “Get your skinny ass back over here!” Sal slung him back. But it didn’t matter. Reno grabbed his son and pulled him out of that musky cab. Without giving the cabbie a second thought, he rushed, with his bouncing baby boy in his arms, inside the house.

  To Mom.

  FOURTEEN

  Less than a half-hour later, with mother and child reunited, Reno had them all assembled in the living room. Grace and Gemma were there with Tree and the baby, and Jimmy, Sal, and Tommy surrounded Reno. The cab driver had been allowed to leave. He could barely describe the woman, just that she was white and skinny and had short black hair. Could have been twenty, thirty or forty. He didn’t really pay her much attention and couldn’t say if it was her if he was to ever see her again. All he knew was that she paid him generously, he would have to work all day to make what she paid him, and he did what she asked. It was unconventional, and he knew it, but he drove the baby home.

  Reno was so pleased that he paid him too, equally as generously. But he was no happy fool. He also ordered a couple of his men to follow the cabbie for the rest of the day and night, just in case there was more to know than meets the eye.

  But nobody could figure out why the kidnappers would release the baby, and keep Fran. The baby, surely, was their trump card. Why didn’t they play it?

  “Maybe because they found out that we were on to Belle,” Sal suggested, “and they had to scuttle their plans. Maybe Belle was the mastermind.”

  “I doubt that,” Tommy said. “Belle said Reno was going to cry tonight. If she was running anything, why would she be so certain that it would continue to fruition?” Tommy shook his head. “No. Belle couldn’t have been the mastermind. But the question remains: who is?”