Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Page 2

  “You’re a sewer-dwelling whore from the lowest rung, who do you think you’re fucking with? You gave it up and you gave it up willingly!”

  “I didn’t!”

  “You did and you know you did!”

  “He forced me!”

  “Yeah, right.”

  “Okay!” Myra screamed. “Okay. At first I did give it up. I did. But he changed on me. He wanted more and more and then he got mad at me because he couldn’t get it up those other times. He started . . . He started slamming his fist into my vagina like it was my fault. And he kept fisting me. He said he was trying to loosen it up, that sick fuck! Then he. . . Then he. . .”

  Reno stared at her. “Then he what?” he asked her.

  Her eyes were now big and bright, as if she was reliving every moment of that night. Then she lifted her uniform, dropped her panties, and sat up on the dance table. She opened her legs wide. “Then he did this to me,” she said with tears in her eyes.

  Reno’s throat constricted when he saw her vagina. It had been sliced open.

  “I had to have eighty stitches,” she said. “Eighty stitches! That doctor said I’ll never be able to have children when all I’ve ever wanted was to get married and have children.”

  She paused, to collect herself again. “And while I was bleeding, and in all that pain, he did me again. And again. He said it worked. I was in so much pain I felt like my stomach was exploding, and he was enjoying himself!”

  She looked at Reno. “He didn’t just rape me,” she said. “He brutalized me! And you want me to drop the charges? You want me to let him get away with this?”

  Reno leaned against the table and rubbed his forehead. Somehow he knew, because Bruno was involved, that it was going to be far worse than his old man had suggested. “No,” he said. Then he frowned. “Of course not.”

  His reaction surprised Myra. She expected him to continue to blame her. She expected him to still claim she brought this on herself. She stared at him.

  “Close your legs,” he ordered her, and then began walking around the room.

  She did as he ordered, but continued to stare at him. Maybe he would help her. Maybe he was as ethical as they claimed and he was her ticket out of this nightmare. “Can you help me, Mr. Gabrini?” she asked. “I’m so afraid of him. I don’t go anywhere anymore. I have this guy friend who brings me to work and take me back home. It’s like living in a cage when I did nothing wrong.”

  Reno continued to pace the room. Myra could tell he was bothered by what she showed him. She could tell he hadn’t expected anything like that. And she was going to play on that sliver of humanity she saw in him. “Can you keep Bruno away from me, Mr. Gabrini? I feel like he’s watching me. I feel like he’s waiting for that right moment to harm me again. I know you came here to help him, but I’m the one who need your help. And I know you don’t know me like that, and I know you probably don’t think that highly of me, but I need help, Mr. Gabrini!”

  Reno looked at her with an incredulous look on his face. “I don’t think highly of you?” he asked. “Are you serious? You’re a racist piece of shit to me, that’s how highly I think of you! If I help, and that’s a big-ass if, it won’t be because of your stank ass. It’ll be because of other females out there, who aren’t whores or racists or opportunists like you, but whose only crime was to fall for scum like Bruno.”

  Then he exhaled. “I was asked to offer you money to skip town. But that won’t solve the problem. If Bruno went this far with you and gets away with it, he’ll go even farther with other girls. And unlike you, some of those other girls might just be worth a damn.”

  Myra wanted to lash back, but she knew he was right about Bruno. Bruno had to be taken off the streets or he not only might brutalize some other girl, but he might come back to finish what he started with her.

  But she knew she was taking a risk. Reno Gabrini could be playing her too. He could still be sympathetic to Bruno and playing her for all she was worth. But it seemed unlikely to her. He was a respected businessman who owned the PaLargio for crying out loud! Why would a man like him play her? Why would a man like him be so beholden to Bruno?

  She decided to play her trump card.

  “I recorded it,” she finally said.

  Reno looked at her. “You recorded what Bruno did to you?”

  “You can’t take it,” she warned. “If anything happens to me the cops will be notified and the tape will automatically go to them.” She knew it wasn’t true, but Gabrini didn’t know that. “I’ve got it set up like that. Anything happens to me and the cops get the tape.”

  “Just show me what you’ve got,” Reno said dismissively. The idea of her threatening him was too insulting to even dignify.

  She hesitated but then pulled her cell phone from her uniform pocket. She pressed numerous buttons until she found the right recording. Then she pressed play and handed the phone to Reno.

  And there it was. The video began with Myra working feverishly to put her phone in position. At first the phone’s video camera was facing her. Then she sat it on the nightstand and pointed the lens in front of her, at her open legs. She was naked on the bed.

  And then Bruno appeared in the frame, mouthing that he “found something,” as he positioned himself between her legs. The camera revealed that he was wielding a small steak knife, even as Myra was asking what was it that he had found.

  And then he was slicing her, and she was screaming. It was a painful video to watch. And just as she said, he then began to fuck her as she bled and screamed. It angered Reno just watching it. To Reno, it didn’t get any sicker than this.

  When the video ended, he looked at her. “Does the DA have a copy?” he asked.

  But before she could answer, there were knocks on the door and then the door was opened. It was Trina Hathaway.

  “Okay, Myra, now, you said ten minutes.”

  “I’m coming.”

  “It’s been half an hour already.”

  “Ah, keep your shirt on, lady!” Reno angrily shot back at Trina. “She said she’s coming!”

  Trina looked at him. She looked him up and down. It was arrogant pricks like him that made her all the more determined to get far away from Boyzie’s as soon as any one of her job applications came through.

  “You’ve got five minutes,” she said to Myra. “If you aren’t working your station in five minutes, then it won’t be worked.”

  “Okay. I’ll be there. I promise.”

  Trina knew Myra’s promise wasn’t worth the breath it took to say it, but it didn’t matter. Trina meant what she said. No Myra in five minutes and her station would go uncovered. Period. She therefore slammed the door, and left.

  Myra looked at Reno. “I’ve got to get back before she goes to Boyzie.”

  “Answer my question,” Reno said. “Does the DA have a copy of this tape?”

  Myra shook her head. “No,” she said. “I haven’t shown it to the prosecution.”

  “And why the hell not? They saw the extent of your injuries already. Why didn’t you show them the video to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Bruno who caused those injuries?”

  “Because I don’t trust them either! I’m not mentioning this tape until I get on the witness stand. They won’t be able to lose it or suppress it or try to silence me then. Bruno’s old man is Mafia. He probably owns half of those people in the prosecution’s office as it is.”

  “It ain’t that serious, trust me,” Reno said. “Bruno’s reach, or even his old man’s reach, doesn’t dip nearly that deep. But that recording changes everything.”

  “How?”

  Reno exhaled. “Well, we have two choices. You can testify and take your chances that the Mafia community, of which I am not a part, will let you live after snitching on one of their people. Or you can take this money Bruno’s family is offering you, and get the hell out of Dodge. It’s up to you.”

  But, as Reno suspected, it turned out to be an easy choice for Myra. She accep
ted the money on the spot and didn’t even wait around for Reno to facilitate her move out of town. She left on her own. She left with fire under her feet.

  Reno handed the tape over to the Dolph the next day. Dolph told him that he would handle it. Although Reno knew his idea of handling it would be far less than how Reno would handle the beast, out of respect for the Dolph he allowed him to take care of the problem himself. It was his son, his problem. And, to Dolph’s credit, he did work Bruno over bad enough that he required hospitalization. Although Bruno didn’t do time for his crime, since the star witness had fled, he didn’t exactly get away with it, either.

  Two months later and Frank Spillane walked around the massive casino until he finally saw his boss. He was at one of the blackjack tables and was schmoozing patrons and joking around and being regular Reno on a Friday night in Vegas. Frank knew how Reno hated to be bothered when he was with his customers. They were the heartbeat of the entire operation, he always said, and nothing else mattered when they had his attention.

  But Frank had a problem. A major problem. If it could wait, he wouldn’t hesitate to come back another time. But it couldn’t wait. He headed in Reno’s direction.

  The entire table was laughing, and Reno was enjoying the good time. “I’m telling you the truth,” he said as the laughter began to lessen. “The guy come at me like I’m some fucking novice and he’s gonna show me how it’s done.”

  “He’s gonna show you?”

  “He’s gonna show me! He’s gonna show me, Reno Gabrini, how to kiss a woman.” They all laughed again. “I’m serious here. Y’all laughing, but I’m serious. A guy who spent half his fucking life behind bars, surrounded by rough-ass men day in and day out, is gonna show me how to kiss a woman.”

  “Hey, boss,” Frank said as he arrived.

  “So what did you do, Reno? You let him show you, or did you tell him to kiss your ass?”

  “I let him show me, all right. Then he woke up and got serious!”

  “Boss.”

  “What?” Reno asked irritably as he turned to the sound. “Don’t you see me talking here?”

  “We’ve got trouble.”

  “What kind of trouble?”

  “The real kind.”

  “Where?”

  “Upstairs.”

  “Upstairs where?”

  “Upstairs. In the hotel.”

  Reno knew what that meant. Trouble in one of the lounges, or even in the casino, wasn’t the same as trouble in a hotel room. That kind of trouble was usually so serious that it was criminal.

  “Don’t win too much of my money,” Reno said to the crowd at the blackjack table. “I’ll be back.”

  And Reno and Frank made their way across the massive casino to the private elevators in the back of the hall. Reno knew not to ask any questions until they were alone on the elevator, and the door was shut.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Three guys,” Frank said as he pressed the twelfth floor button, “got rough with a girl.”

  “Gang-raped her?”

  “Repeatedly.”

  “Damn. She bleeding?”

  Frank nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

  Reno exhaled angrily, slung open his suit coat, and placed his hands on his hips. The last thing he needed was some lawsuit because of some hormone-crazed fools. “Who are they? Some fucking high school kids?”

  “Older. That’s how we caught’em. One of the guys was old enough to know better. He sneaked out of the room and ran and told Mikey that yeah, they were having some fun with the girl, but that Bruno was going too far.”

  Reno looked at his body man. His heart began to pound. “Bruno? Bruno Lucci?”

  “One in the same.”

  “Get the fuck outta here!”

  “That guy’s crazy, Reno. He do this shit for sport. I mean, you should see that girl. She’s ugly as hell and one donut away from weighing three hundred pounds, but she’s the one he messes with.”

  Reno frowned. “What the fuck difference does that make? Because she’s fat means Bruno has a right to abuse her? Is that what you’re saying to me?”

  “No, no,” Frank quickly corrected himself as the elevator jerked to a stop and the doors began to open. “That’s not what I meant at all, boss.”

  But Reno didn’t wait to find out his true meaning. He hurried off and forced Frank to hurry and show him to the room.

  When Reno walked through the door, he was astounded. Not just from the amount of blood in the small hotel room, but from the amount of upheaval. Sheets and bedspread and pillows spewed everywhere as if they had been caught up in a whirlwind. Even the curtains were torn and bloodstained. Bruno was seated on the floor naked, along with some younger guy Reno didn’t recognize, and Reno’s man Mikey had both of them in hand restraints.

  “Where’s the girl?” Reno asked. Mikey motioned toward the bathroom.

  Reno went to the bathroom and slowly pushed the door open. From the look of the room, he knew it wasn’t going to be pretty in there. And it wasn’t. The girl, sitting naked in the tub, had towels between her legs and was pressing down hard. She was crying, her red hair and ruddy-complexioned freckled face was contorted with fear. Reno’s heart dropped through his shoe.

  “Leave me alone,” she said in a voice she probably thought was screaming out, but was actually nothing more than a whisper. Reno knew what trauma looked like. She was traumatized.

  “It’s all right,” he said to her as he moved slowly toward her. “My name is Reno. I own this hotel. Nobody’s gonna hurt you again.”

  She began crying harder, as Reno could see the relief, but also the horror still in her eyes.

  He bent down at the tub. “What’s your name, sweetheart?” he asked her.

  But she couldn’t respond.

  “They raped you?”

  She nodded her head.

  “All three?”

  She shook her head.

  “Just one?”

  She nodded again.

  “The one they call Bruno?”

  As soon as he said that name, the fear in her eyes became terror. She nodded her head feverishly.

  Reno looked down, at the towels between her legs. “Did he cut you down there?” he asked her, hoping that it was not so, even though it was obvious.

  When she nodded yes to that too, Reno exhaled. He wanted to reach out and touch her, and tell her everything was going to be all right, but he knew she wasn’t ready for that. “We’ll get you some help, don’t worry,” he said, instead. “That bastard won’t get away with this.”

  Then he stood up and left the bathroom. Frank was waiting by the door.

  “Call Doc Rivers.”

  “I did already. He’s on his way,” Frank said. “So what you gonna do, boss? You’re gonna let the Dolph handle this again, or turn him over to the cops?”

  Reno stared at Bruno. He let the Dolph handle it before. Now another woman, probably a good, decent woman, was traumatized and messed up for life. Dolph wasn’t handling shit. Not this time. Reno was handling this.

  He walked until he was standing right in front of Bruno. Bruno looked up at him, pleading his case.

  “It just got a little out of hand, Reno,” he said. “She was all for it, and it got out of hand.”

  Reno looked at the younger man beside Brew. “Shove off,” he said, and the younger man quickly rose to his feet.

  “And hey,” Reno added as the man’s hand restraint was cut by Mikey. “If you mouth a word about what happened in this hotel room tonight, your ass is mine.”

  “I won’t,” the younger man said. “I won’t say a word.”

  “Just get the fuck out of my face.”

  The young man took off.

  Then Reno looked at Bruno Lucci. He looked at the bloody switchblade that Mikey had in his hand. Reno motioned for it. Mikey gave it to him.

  “This what you cut her with, Brew?” he asked as he inspected the blade.

  “It’s not like you think. She
was all for it, Reno. She wanted it. It just got out of hand.”

  Reno leaned down to Bruno. “It got out of hand?”

  “That’s right.”

  “The way Myra Rause got out of hand?”

  Bruno hesitated, less certain of his answer now. “Yeah. Like that.”

  Reno took the knife and without warning, immediately sliced Bruno’s penis completely away from his balls. Bruno screamed in pain.

  “Oops,” Reno said as Bruno screamed and leaned sideways in agony. Even Mikey and Frank backed up in shock, and grabbed hold of their own privates.

  “Guess what happened?” Reno asked a still screaming Bruno. “It got out of hand! It got out of hand, Bruno. But you was all for it, right? You like this shit. You wanted it, didn’t you, Brew? You was all for this you sick piece of shit!”

  Then Reno grabbed the detached penis and shoved it into Bruno’s mouth. Bruno gagged as his head lobbed backwards. “Suck on that cock, you cocksucker!” Reno roared. “Eat it, you asshole, eat it like it’s the best meal you ever had! You want it, right? You want this!”

  And Bruno Lucci, to the amazement of even hardened men like Frank Spillane and Mikey Katana, ate cock that day.

  The cops were also called that day and everybody but Bruno agreed that the girl must have castrated him. The girl was too traumatized to remember. And the two other men who had been in that room when the rape occurred, testified against Bruno too, claiming to have run for help when Bruno began his brutalization.

  The Dolph didn’t live to see the completion of his son’s trial, as he suffered a massive heart attack and died two weeks before closing arguments. It dismayed Reno greatly, but he didn’t have an ounce of remorse. Not for a bastard like Bruno.

  And when the sentence came down and Bruno received ten-to twenty years, Reno still didn’t celebrate. He saw what that jerk was capable of. He wanted that jerk to suffer. And even though it wasn’t nearly enough punishment to Reno, he knew Bruno would have a far different view. Because he knew assholes like Bruno. They talked a big game, but were nothing more than weak punks in the end. To a man like Bruno Lucci ten-to-twenty years in prison was his nightmare come true. They might as well had given him Life.