A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS: THE PREGNANCY (MOB BOSS SERIES) Page 5

  “Are you done for the day with the tutor?” Lee asked him.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Good. Grab you some lunch and then meet me in my office in, say, an hour or so?”

  “Sounds great, sir. Thanks.”

  “I’ll be in touch, Reno,” Lee said.

  “You’d better,” Reno said as Lee began leaving. “I don’t want any member of my staff fucking this visit up.”

  “They won’t,” Lee said without turning around, and then he was gone.

  Dirty took a seat in front of Reno’s desk. Reno looked at him. “Why aren’t you in the pit?” he asked him.

  “Can’t a man take a break every blue moon?”

  “Sure they can,” Reno said. “But you work every blue moon and spend the rest of the time on break.”

  “So you trust that guy?” Dirty asked.

  Reno and Jimmy both looked at him. “He’s my senior manager,” Reno said. “Why wouldn’t I trust him?”

  “He and Tree are real tight.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Good looking guy like that?”

  Reno’s heart began to pound. What was Dirty getting at? “Yeah, he’s good looking. So?”

  “I’m just saying. All I know is that a good looking guy like that wouldn’t be hanging around no wife of mine.”

  “A good looking guy wouldn’t want to hang around a wife of yours, Dirty,” Jimmy joked.

  “Hey, that’s my sister you’re joking about,” Reno reminded his son, causing Jimmy’s heart to drop.

  “You tell him, Reno!” Dirty agreed, with satisfaction.

  “But it was a good joke,” Reno added, and Jimmy laughed.

  But Reno was still wondering what Dirty’s little comment was implying. He knew his brother-in-law well enough to know that he didn’t make snide little statements unless he had the goods on somebody.

  “I just came to ask if you wanted to grab some lunch with me,” Jimmy said.

  “Since when are you done with your tutor at lunchtime? The only reason I agreed to this homeschooling business was because I figured you’d get more knowledge without the shock of being plopped down in a big city school for your senior year when you’ve never attended a big city anything in your life before. But you’d better not be bullying those teachers into releasing your ass early.”

  “I’m not, Pop, honest. Miss Mear said we covered everything we needed to cover for today and she said I could go.”

  “Then I need to have a talk with Miss Mear. No son of mine is gonna be a dummy. You’re going to college and get your MBA before you start running this joint. You’re gonna be the total package.”

  “You didn’t go to college and you’re the total package.”

  Although Reno appreciated his son’s confidence in him, he still had to set him straight. “And that’s where you’re wrong,” he said. “I had to scratch and claw for every piece of knowledge I learned about this business. I didn’t know shit about running a hotel nor a casino, are you kidding me? My old man was a mob boss, a gangster, a criminal. He was teaching me business, all right, but the wrong kind of business. I’m gonna teach you right.”

  “I respected your old man with great respect, Reno,” Dirty said. “Your old man was a saint, Reno.”

  “My old man wasn’t shit,” Reno said with brutal honesty. “I loved him, but he wasn’t shit. And I don’t ever want my son to say the same thing about me.”

  Jimmy loved Reno, and the thought of him even suggesting such a thing distressed him. “You’re my hero, Pop,” he made clear. “You’ll never have to worry about me ever saying anything like that about you.”

  But Reno knew better. When he was eighteen, he used to think his father was the solution to all of his problems, too. By the time he turned nineteen, he realized his father was the problem.

  “You go get some lunch,” he said to Jimmy. “Tree’s over at the Brink having lunch. You might want to go over there and spend some time with her.”

  Jimmy liked that idea. Although his mother was no longer with him, and nobody was ever going to take her place, he liked Trina tremendously. There was something so good and wholesome about her that he completely understood why his father loved her so. And that was also why seeing her yesterday hugging on some strange man was almost as disconcerting to him as it was to Reno.

  And that was why he decided against the idea. If he was going to be on anybody’s side should there be a problem, it was going to be his father’s side. “I think I’ll go see if Mikey’s at lunch, and I’ll hook up with him.”

  “Who’s Mikey?”

  “One of my dealers,” Dirty said. “He’s a good kid.”

  “Dirty introduced us,” Jimmy said. “He said we have the same personality.”

  “You do,” Dirty said. “Both of you think Reno can do no wrong, and both of you are terribly misguided individuals.”

  Reno and Jimmy laughed. And then Jimmy left.

  “This Mikey,” Reno asked Dirty. “He’s legit?”

  “Of course he’s legit, Reno. Whatta you think I’m crazy? You think I’d have your son hanging out with mob material?”

  “You’d better not.”

  “I wouldn’t do a thing like that.”

  But Reno never took chances with Dirty. He made a mental note to have his security people run a thorough background check on the dealer named Mikey.

  “I came here for a reason,” Dirty said. “And it didn’t include being insulted.”

  “What’s your reason?”

  Dirty smiled. “I’ve got a secret,” he sang.

  Reno knew Dirty was up to no good. They didn’t call him Dirty for nothing. “Oh, yeah?” Reno asked. “And what secret is that?”

  “If you make me a senior manager I’ll tell you.”

  “Then I won’t be finding out, will I?”

  “Oh, Reno, come on! I’m your brother-in-law for crying out loud! I’m married to your sister. And the best you do for me is make me a pit boss? It’s embarrassing. I should be running operations around here, not Lee Jones. I’m family.”

  “I’ve got work to do, Dirt. Now what’s the secret? I don’t have time for this.”

  Dirty stared at him. “You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you? You’ve got the money, the prestige, the respect, the wife you think is worthy of respect.”

  Reno looked at Dirty. Finally he was getting to the point. “What do you mean I think she’s worthy of respect?”

  “I told you I’ve got a secret.”

  Reno’s heart began to pound. Did it have to do with that Bob character from yesterday? “What is it?”

  “What’s in it for me?” Dirty asked.

  This offended Reno. Wasn’t it enough that he provided a massive apartment inside the PaLargio for Dirty and his wife? Wasn’t it enough that they never had want for anything? Wasn’t it enough that he gave Dirty a job managing his casino tables when his only claim to fame had been as a bartender and mob muscle for his father back in the day? He knew how Reno felt about Trina, and he wanted to jerk him around about it?

  “Life’s in it for you,” Reno finally said. “Because if you don’t tell me what this secret of yours is, you might not live to tell anything else.”

  “Trina had an abortion,” Dirty blurted out. He knew when he was cooked.

  He also knew when Reno was shocked.

  Reno frowned at him. “That’s a gotdamn lie!” he declared.

  “It’s the truth, Reno. That’s why Fran went with her to the mall yesterday. She was supposed to meet some man there and he was supposed to take her to have it done. Fran going with her yesterday was a cover, because Tree knew you would want somebody to go with her. Fran told me all about it.”

  Reno stood up. This had to be some mistake. Dirty and Fran had to be mistaken big time. Trina wouldn’t do that to him. He stumbled as he hurried from around his desk. Trina wouldn’t do that to him, he kept thinking as he hurried out of his office.

  Dirty smiled. That�
��ll teach him to look down his nose, he thought.

  But Reno wasn’t thinking about Dirty. Trina was on his mind. He hurried downstairs to the Brink restaurant, but Trina had already gone. He hurried up the stairs to Trina’s office. But she wasn’t there. He hurried down the stairs to Cheri Dallas’s office, and then to Lee Jones’ office, and then to the casino, but Trina was nowhere to be found. He tried her cell phone number, but, as he should have known, it went straight to voice mail. Then he stopped to think. Where would she be?

  He hurried to the penthouse.

  He flew open the door, ready to call her name, but he looked across the expansive room and saw her lying on the sofa. Which was strange to see Trina lying anywhere in the middle of the day. But seeing her did help to calm him down. Physically, but not emotionally.

  He went to her.

  “You’re home early,” she said to him. After lunch with Fran her energy level went to zero. She had to take a break.

  Reno sat beside her on the sofa. She could smell his sweet cologne scent. She could also see the concern deep within his bright blue eyes.

  “What’s the matter?” she asked him.

  “I should be asking you the same thing. Why aren’t you in your office?”

  “Little tired, that’s all.”

  But Reno was never a man to beat around the bush. “Is it true?” he asked her, his heart pounding.

  Trina stared at him. Somehow she knew what was coming. “Is what true?”

  “Did you go to get an abortion yesterday?”

  Trina braced herself. “I went, yes,” she said.

  But the look on Reno’s face stunned her. He suddenly looked old and ghostly. “Oh, Tree,” he said in agony. “Why would you do something like that? I know I said I didn’t want us to have children right now, but you didn’t have to. . . Why didn’t you just tell me, Tree?”

  “You said you couldn’t bear bringing another child into a world like this. You said---”

  “But I’m over that now. I told you I was over that. People wanna fuck with me now, I’ll just have to fuck’em back. And if they ever try to lay a hand on any child of mine, or my wife, they’ll rue the day they were ever born. I told you those days of us living in fear are over. I told you that, Tree.”

  “But,” Trina started, confused. “You mean you want to have a child?”

  “Not just a child, but your child. Not that I’m saying we should have gone out and had a baby right away, I’m not saying that. But if you would have told me you were pregnant then, yeah, I would have wanted it.”

  Trina was stunned. “You would have wanted it?”

  “I’d been thinking hard about this matter, Trina. And I realized I fathered two children that I know of, and I never raised either one of them. Now one is gone, and Jimmy Mack was seventeen when I first knew he existed. Seventeen, Tree. Your child, our child would have been the first child I get to raise myself from birth, and see grow and mature and become the person I want him or her to be.”

  Trina smiled, but tears were in her eyes.

  “And that child would have come from you? Oh, Tree,” he said, anguished. “Why didn’t you talk to me first?”

  Tears began to drop from Trina’s eyes. “That’s why I couldn’t go through with it,” she said, and Reno looked at her.

  “You couldn’t go. . . Whatta you mean you couldn’t go through with it?” Reno’s heart began to soar. “Are you telling me you didn’t. . . that you never had the abortion?”

  Trina nodded her head. “I couldn’t go through with it,” she started, but before she could finish Reno had pulled her into his arms.

  “Oh, Tree!” he said. Then he pulled her back to look into her gorgeous hazel eyes. “So you’re telling me that you’re pregnant now, right? You’re telling me that you’re carrying my child right this very moment, right?”

  Trina smiled. “Yes,” she said. “I’m carrying your child, Reno. I’m carrying your baby.”

  Reno pulled her into his arms again, unable to suppress his gratitude. Then he pulled back again. “But what happened yesterday? You said you went to have an abortion yesterday.”

  “I did go to have one,” she said. “But I couldn’t do it.”

  “Is that who this Bob person was? Was he your moral support?”

  “Didn’t Fran tell you that part, too?”

  “Fran didn’t tell me anything.”

  “But I assumed. . .” Then she realized. “Reno, you had somebody following me?”

  “No. Hell nall. Fran came back alone and I couldn’t get you on your cell phone. I got worried, that’s all. I was just going to go and make sure you were okay, you know how I am. But when I saw you with that Bob character.”

  “But Reno, you didn’t recognize him?”

  “Recognize him? I’m supposed to know that guy?”

  “Yes, you know him! He’s my gynecologist. That’s Dr. Bob Paxon. Bob, remember? Your doctor referred me to Bob.”

  Reno still had no remembrance of the guy. None. “So Bob’s your doctor?”

  “Yes. He agreed to go to the clinic with me. He knows I’m the wife of the owner of the PaLargio. That’s the only reason I’m sure he offered to go with me. There’re benefits in being your woman.”

  Reno smiled. “And of course you would never dream of taking advantage of those benefits, now would you?”

  Trina laughed. “You know me,” she said.

  “Yeah, I know your ass real good,” Reno said and squeezed that ass as he held her. “Oh, it’s going to be great, Katrina. We’re going to be the best parents ever.” He looked at his wife. “And you’re going to be the most beautiful mother ever.”

  Trina smiled. And as they stared into the other’s eyes, and realized just how heady the thought of being a parent really was, their love began to overwhelm them.

  Reno reached over and kissed her on the mouth. He meant for it to be a simple kiss, but Trina placed her arms around his neck and turned that simple kiss into a very passionate one. And then Reno was all in, pulling her closer and kissing her harder. Then she began to unbuckle his belt.

  “But wait a minute,” he said, pulling back from her, looking concerned. “This sex thing.”

  “Yeah, what about it?”

  “I don’t wanna, whatta you say, hurt the baby.”

  Trina smiled. “You won’t. Bob says we can do as we normally would.”

  “You sure?”

  “I’m positive. He told me so himself.”

  “But it could hurt the baby?”

  “No, Reno. I mean, we can’t get crazy now. None of your pounding sessions. But yeah, he said we can carry on as usual.”

  Reno grinned. “In that case,” he said as he stood and dropped his drawers, his aroused dick jutting out with a bounce as if it had been attached to springs. Reno was happy. “Open that pussy wide, baby,” he said, “because Reno’s about to give you the ride of your life.”

  Trina laughed, but she knew he wasn’t kidding. She removed her panties, and opened wide.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Reno and Jimmy Mack sat in Dr. Bob Paxon’s OB/GYN office and waited their turn. They were the only male adults in the room at the time, and the only two, Reno also noticed, who wasn’t pregnant. Many of the pregnant ladies were big talkers, as they yelped on and on about their female issues and laughed about their clueless men and the young son of one of them, a little red-haired terror, kept running around the small waiting room ringing a bell some genius decided to give to him. His mother, a cute blonde who sat crocheting in the corner, kept asking him politely to stop, but the kid wasn’t thinking about her. This was a drag for Reno, one of the last places on earth he’d ordinarily want to be. But today, a week after he learned he was soon to be the father of a beautiful child, it was his pleasure.

  Reno flipped through yet another pregnant ladies magazine and then tossed it onto the table. He crossed his legs, watched the bell ringing child circle them again, and then he looked at his son. Jimmy Mack was in a co
nversation with two of the women about fabrics. And to Reno’s shock, Jimmy Mack actually seemed to know what he was talking about.

  “Yes, that’s lovely,” he said to one of the women who was showing him a puce-colored scarf. “That’s a lovely piece of fabric. And the faux silk gives it a nice glow.”

  “So it’s not the real silk, though?” the woman asked him.

  “No, it’s not real. But that’s a good thing. It glows.”

  “Yes,” the woman agreed. “Yes, it does.”

  Reno stared at Jimmy. Jimmy looked at him. “What?”

  “It glows?” Reno asked.

  Jimmy Mack smiled. “I’m just saying,” he said.

  Reno snorted and sat upright. “What did you guys see last night?” he asked him.

  “What did we see?”

  “You and Mikey. At the pictures. You said you and he were going to the movies last night. What did you see?”

  “Oh,” Jimmy said as if he were thinking. “It was all right.”

  The bell child circled them again ringing his bell. “Stop it, Winkie!” his mother yelled again.

  “I didn’t ask you how it was,” Reno said. “I asked you what it was. What did you guys see?”

  “Just some dance flick or something. I don’t remember.”

  “So girls were there, too, right?”

  Jimmy shook his head. “Not really. I mean, girls were inside the movie theater, but they weren’t with us.”

  Reno stared at his son. His that’s a lovely piece of fabric son. “Why not?” he asked him. “Don’t you and Mikey like to screw the ladies every now and then?”

  Some of the ladies in the room glanced at Reno. Jimmy felt embarrassed. “That’s gross, Dad,” he said in a lowered tone. “Geez.”

  Gross? What was gross about getting some? “Whatta you mean? I know you aren’t a virgin, not after what happened in Crane. So what’s the deal?”

  “I just don’t want to get caught up in any of that emotional stuff right now, that’s all. There’s plenty of time for that.”

  Reno nodded. What a good kid, he thought. And so different from the kind of gotta have it every day kid Reno was. “You’re right about that,” Reno said. “Plenty of time. Your mother, God bless her, raised you right.”