Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Read online

  He glanced back at Trina. She was spending most of her time at Champagne’s building her own small business, but he could tell she missed him too. Maybe not as much as he and Dommi did, but she missed him. What Jimmy never understood was why she allowed it.

  He left the window, and walked to the chair beside the sofa. “I don’t get it,” he said as he plopped down in the chair.

  “You don’t get what?” Trina asked, her eyes still trained on the catalogue’s gorgeous clothes.

  “The PaLargio’s still closed and won’t be open for another three months, but he’s never home. Sometimes he doesn’t even come home until late into the night. If at all.” Then he stared at her, wondering if she understood how badly these women out there, even women Jimmy’s own age, wanted to be with her husband. “Where does he be all day and night?” he asked her.

  If that question would have come from anybody else, Trina would have been defensive. But Jimmy loved Reno. She understood exactly what he meant. “I have no idea,” she replied honestly.

  “You have no idea what he does with his time all day, but yet he has to know where you are every minute of the day.” Jimmy looked at her. “Don’t you find that strange?”

  “Don’t you find that strange?” Dominic, Junior said, parroting his older brother, although his attention remained solely on lifting the Hulk’s muscular legs and twirling around his muscular arms and flipping him upside down.

  “That’s your father,” Trina said to Jimmy. “And yours too,” she added to Dommi as she nudged him with her shoulder. Then she continued to turn pages in the catalogue. “I knew what I was getting into when I married him. He told me all along that if I wanted some nine-to-five Mister Normal, then I shouldn’t hook up with him. I would be the fool of fools, he used to tell me, to hook up with him if normal was what I was after. So no, Jimmy Mack, I don’t find it strange at all,” she said, looking up at him. “My eyes were wide open when I became Reno Gabrini’s woman.”

  Jimmy smiled a kind of relieved smile.

  “I mean think about it, Jimmy,” Trina went on. “On our wedding day, on the very day that we got married, a mob war was breaking out and Reno was at the heart of it. If I didn’t know what I was getting into after that, then shame on me because I should have known. That’s what love is. You have to trust the person you love.”

  Jimmy gave a snort that was laced with bitterness. “No thanks,” he said. “I’ll never fall in love again.”

  “Oh, Jimmy,” Trina said regrettably as she stared at her handsome stepson. Four months ago he was severely wounded by one of his father’s enemies. Except for the occasional migraines that he would have to endure for the rest of his life, he was physically fine again. His recovery, by all accounts, had gone remarkably well. He believed he was completely back to normal, and Trina agreed that he was physically back. But not emotionally. That ordeal had taken quite an emotional toll on Jimmy. He was still the same kind, funny, considerate Jimmy, but that trusting spirit she used to love about him was gone. Completely. She wanted him to know, however, that it didn’t have to stay away.

  “Don’t say that,” she said to him. “You’re much too young to be thinking like that.”

  “But I couldn’t take another heartbreak, Ma,” Jimmy said honestly. Trina was the person he often confided in. “I can’t trust people like that anymore. I mean look at you. You and Dad have a wonderful relationship but even you don’t know what he’s up to all day. He could have another family somewhere for all you know.”

  “Oh, Jimmy!” Trina said with a smile. He was her stepson, a young man Reno fathered years before she ever met him. But because his now-deceased mother was also African-American, which made him a biracial young man, he was always mistook as Trina’s biological child. She nor Jimmy, and especially not Reno, ever bothered to correct that assumption. “My husband does not have another family somewhere, okay?” she said to him.

  “But you can’t be certain, Ma.”

  “Oh yes I can,” Trina replied firmly, although she was unable to suppress a smile. She found Jimmy’s concerns more humorous than bothersome. “I am absolutely certain that my husband doesn’t have another family, another wife and child, tucked away somewhere. Not Reno.”

  “Okay, okay, I agree with you,” Jimmy said with a smile of his own. “Maybe that’s taking it too far.”

  “You think?”

  “Not another family,” Jimmy conceded. “He doesn’t have another family. But he can have another woman somewhere that takes up a lot of his time. That’s possible. Especially if you listen to what they keep saying all the time.”

  Trina frowned. “What who keeps saying all the time?”

  “People around town. Everywhere I go I hear it. They claim Pops be fooling with this woman over here or that woman over there and I just stopped listening to it.” Then he glared at his stepmother with concern in his eyes. “I know you have to hear it too.”

  Trina stopped flipping through the catalogue and paused. Then she nodded her head. “Yeah, I hear that nonsense, Jimmy, I’ll admit that. From the day I decided to hitch my wagon to Reno’s train I’ve been hearing it. It used to bother me, oh, how it used to bother me, I’m not gonna even front. I used to go to Reno with that nonsense and I could just see the disappointment in his eyes. He thought I knew better than that. At first I didn’t. In fact, it was more likely than not in my book that Reno was cheating on me. At first.”

  “But now you’re certain he’s not cheating?”

  “No, I can’t say I’m certain about that. But since I’ve gotten to know the heart of Reno Gabrini, the odds have improved. Tremendously.”

  “So it’s no longer more likely than not?”

  “It’s still more likely than not, but in Reno’s favor.”

  “It’s more likely than not that he hasn’t cheated on you, than he has.”

  “Right.”

  Jimmy loved Trina’s trust in his father. He absolutely admired it. He nodded. “Maybe one day I’ll get there too. Maybe one day I’ll meet the right girl that I can marry and settle down with. But that day seems like a lifetime away, Ma. Because even with what you’re saying about Dad, I still can’t see it. I mean, these women out here love rich, powerful men. And even I can see how these women are easily attracted to Dad. Girls my age are always trying to get me to give him their numbers, like I’m that stupid. Like I’m gonna give my dad their number so he can cheat on my mother.” Jimmy shook his head. “Like get real.”

  Trina laughed. Jimmy was her ally and always would be. She knew it like she knew her own name.

  “What about you, Jim?” she asked him. “I know Reno wants you to start taking college courses at UNLV and soon he expects you to be ready to handle a management job at the PaLargio. But what do you want to do?”

  Jimmy thought about it, as he had been thinking about his future a lot lately. “I know Dad gave me an apartment at the PaLargio, but I want to get my own place, away from the PaLargio. Ever since that shooting, he treats me like I’m some little kid. A couple of my friends came over to see how I was doing the other day, and Dad had the nerve to walk up and ask them all kinds of questions about who their parents were and where did they live and it was so embarrassing. He can be so. . .”

  “Concerned?” Trina asked.

  “Yeah,” Jimmy replied.

  “And kind. And loving. And caring. And considerate.”

  Jimmy smiled. “Okay, I get your point. But still, Ma. I’m a grown-ass man now.” Trina laughed. “Not some kid. He wouldn’t have allowed his old man to treat him the way he treats me.”

  “If that’s the case then maybe you need to stop allowing him,” Trina suggested. “But I personally don’t think that’s the case. Reno doesn’t like weak men, so the fact that he wants to keep tabs on you doesn’t mean he thinks you’re weak, Jimmy. In fact, he knows you aren’t. He told me so himself. The fact that he has to know where I am all the time doesn’t make me weak either. Because it’s not about who we are t
hat makes him keep tabs on us, Jimmy. It’s about who he is. I’m the wife and you’re the son of Reno Gabrini. He’s no mob boss, you and I both know he’s not, but he has enemies in the mob. Many enemies.”

  “For real though,” Jimmy said with a laugh. Trina looked at him. It always concerned Reno that Jimmy found his connections to the mob as the best thing about him. “Some of my friends think he’s the biggest Mafia guy in America,” Jimmy continued. “I keep telling them he’s not, but they don’t believe me.”

  Then Jimmy heard a car door slam. “He must have finally finished his phone call,” he said as he stood up and walked over to the window. “Yep,” he said. “He’s coming. Looking all serious, like he’s still upset about whatever he was talking about on the phone.”

  “Great,” Trina thought. Reno could be a handful when he was in a bad mood. And then she smiled. “Jimmy,” she said and he turned to her. “Remember that routine we talked about? Let’s put a smile on his face for a change. He’s serious all the time. If we make coming home such a joy to him, who knows? Maybe he’ll work harder to be home more.”

  Jimmy laughed. He knew exactly what she was talking about. “This is insane,” he said happily as he made his way into the hall. “I love it!”

  It would be another couple seconds and then Reno was unlocking the door and entering the home. As soon as he did, it was Dominic, rather than Trina, that greeted him grandly.

  “Daddy!” he yelled, jumped down from the sofa by turning backwards and then sliding down, and ran to his father.

  “There’s my boy!” Reno said with his own grand smile as he bent down with his arms wide open and then hoisted his son into the air when he ran up to him. “How have you been, little fellar?”

  Reno kissed him and held him tightly against his body. Then he walked toward the chair flanking the sofa, looking at Trina, whom he also wanted to hold in his arms, as he walked.

  “Don’t you find it strange, Daddy?” his son asked him.

  Reno looked at him. “Don’t I find what strange?”

  “I don’t know,” Dominic said, hunching his tiny shoulders. “Ask Jimmy!”

  Reno, now standing beside the chair, looked at Trina for clarity. Trina was suppressing a laugh. She was amazed that their little boy gave her just the opening she needed. “Oh, Reno, you won’t believe the news!”

  “What news?”

  “You won’t believe what happened!”

  Reno was now concerned. “What is it?”

  “Dr. Marshall gave Jimmy this experimental treatment that has changed his life!”

  Reno frowned. “An experimental treatment?” he asked. “Where does he get off giving my son some experimental treatment?”

  “But it’s revolutionary, Reno. It was supposed to cure his migraines, but it did so much more.” Then she yelled toward the hall. The puzzled look on Reno’s face was priceless to her. “Jimmy, come and show your father the good work Dr. Marshall has done!”

  Jimmy came out of the hallway walking as if he had some serious issues. He had one feet turned sideways and was dragging it, while his arms swung loosely and wildly away from his body as if he was disjointed.

  “See, Reno,” Trina said cheerfully. “See!”

  Reno, however, was alarmed. He sat the baby in the chair, but his eyes never left his approaching son. “What’s wrong with him?” he asked.

  “It’s the treatment, Pop,” Jimmy said, trying with all he had to suppress his own laughter.

  “Isn’t it great?” Trina added.

  “Great?” Reno asked, staring at his son. “What’s great about it?”

  “It’s the great treatment he gave him!”

  “But what’s wrong with him?” Reno asked again. “He looks like a fool!”

  “A fool?” Trina asked as if she were stunned. “What are you talking about?”

  “Why is he walking like that?”

  “Like what?” Jimmy asked as he continued to drag his feet and sling his arm around the living room. He wanted to laugh so bad he was about to pee in his pants.

  “And his arms,” Reno said, still alarmed. “What’s wrong with you, boy? What did that joker do to you? Where the fuck is that doctor, anyway? What has he done to my child? I’m gonna kick his boney ass!”

  Jimmy fell in the chair next to Dommi and was rolling with laughter. He couldn’t hold back any longer.

  Reno was confused. “You think this is funny? You look like a gotdamn Cyclop and you think it’s funny?”

  “A cyclop, Dad?” Jimmy asked between laughs. “Cyclops are known to have three eyes. They aren’t known to have a bad limp.”

  “What fucking ever!” Reno yelled. “I don’t see how you can find this humorous.”

  “Oh, Reno,” Trina said with great endearment. “We were just playing, honey.”

  Reno looked at her. She was smiling too. “Playing? You were just playing? I’m having a heart attack over here and you’re playing?”

  Reno was inwardly smiling, pleased that his wife and son could still surprise him, but he wasn’t about to let them know that. He began unbuckling his belt.

  “Okay, I got your play right here,” he said as he began to remove the belt from around his waist. “I got your play right here!”

  Trina yelped and jumped up as Reno took that belt and swung it toward her. Although he purposely missed her, she didn’t know it. It was her time now to be alarmed. “Reno!” she yelled. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m playing,” he said seriously as he ran her around the living room. “You wanna play, don’t you? You wanna have some fun at the old man’s expense, don’t you? And what are you laughing at?” He said this to Jimmy, who was enjoying his parents run. But when Jimmy realized he was about to get it too, he jumped from the chair.

  “But Pop, it was a joke!” he proclaimed as Reno slung the belt and barely missed him. Reno had him on the run too. Dommi was laughing and clapping his hands, forgetting all about the Hulk. He was having the time of his life.

  And Reno kept pursuing them. He didn’t stop running them around that house until he had the fear of Reno back in their hearts. Then he stopped when he no longer had the energy to continue. He put back on his belt, and headed for the kitchen.

  “What’s for supper?” he asked as he walked, as if he hadn’t chased a soul.

  Trina and Jimmy, both exhausted and scared, looked at each other. Trina’s hair was standing on top of her head and Jimmy had a migraine coming on. How could such an innocent, nothing joke go so very wrong, they wondered. It was as if they realized, as they should have already known, that Reno was not the one to play with. They were both embarrassed and enlightened by that realization.

  Reno, however, was in the kitchen laughing his heart out. They got him good, he thought. But he got them better.

  FOUR

  Tommy Gabrini hated doing it, but this was his first time in France since the news broke, and he knew he had to personally let her know.

  She had arrived early, he noticed, as the Maître D escorted him to her table. And she was a striking woman to notice. She was one of those extremely talented African-American supermodels who made a killing in Europe, but could barely find work at home. So she packed up and left America for good and made her home, and a very good living, abroad. Whenever Tommy was on business in England, he’d cross the Channel to Morlaix and hook up with her. This was his first time seeing her in nearly a year.

  “Tommy!” she said cheerfully with her exaggerated French accent as he approached her table. She stood up to greet him, and they kissed cheek to cheek. She wanted more, much more, but she was a patient girl. They weren’t meeting in a hotel lounge by accident. A room with a view, thanks to her careful planning, awaited them upstairs.

  “It’s simply amazing,” she said as he held her chair for her to sit back down and then walked around to his own chair. “You get better looking every time I see you. Every single time. How is this possible?”

  Tommy smiled warily and took a
seat in front of her. She wasn’t going to make this easy, and he was prepared for that. What he wasn’t prepared for was his reaction to her. Because he certainly had one. She was still that beautiful Cat. Tall and slender, with that gorgeous dark-chocolate skin and those African lips that used to work magic all over him. He was throbbing at just the sight of her.

  After placing his drink order, a Scotch and soda, same as hers, and the waiter left to fulfill that order, he leaned forward. He wasn’t a man who mixed words, and he wasn’t about to start now.

  “I’m getting married, Cathy,” he said to her.

  She had been reaching for a nut from the snack tray when he said those words. Her hand stopped mid-reach as if she didn’t understand what he was saying. And then her eyes showed complete understanding. “You’re what?”

  “I’m getting married.”

  Cathy, known across Europe now as Caterina, suddenly felt offended. It wasn’t the words as much as the way he said those words that got to her. He said them so casually, as if he didn’t care how devastating they sounded to her. Hey, how are you doing, isn’t it nice outside, I’m getting married, pass the butter.

  “And when did this happen?” she asked him.

  Tommy exhaled. “I proposed not long ago.”

  “You proposed? And to whom did you propose? I thought after Shanks your proposing days were over.”

  “I know,” he said with a knowing nod. “I thought so too.”

  “Then who is this woman? Who is she, Tommy?”

  Tommy hesitated. For some reason he had an aversion to mentioning Grace’s name in the presence of his former ladies. But he and Cat went back a long way. She stood by him when his former fiancé, ShoShawna Shanks, gave him all kinds of fits, and she was a sympathetic ear after their break-up. She deserved straight answers. “Her name is Grace,” he said.