A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS: THE PREGNANCY (MOB BOSS SERIES) Page 7

  “I apologize for being intrusive,” Cheri said.

  “Don’t let it happen again.”

  “I won’t, sir.”

  Reno gave her a look that made clear he was getting fed up with her. And then he and Trina left. Cheri’s heart hammered against her chest when he left. By blurting out the way she did, she showed her hand just now. She never meant to show her hand!

  Outside, Reno escorted Trina to the elevator. “Don’t let her handle you,” he said as they walked. “You don’t like some act she’s booking, you put your foot down. You’re her boss, not the other way around.”

  “I know, and I did put my foot down. But Lee overruled me.”

  “Well, if you feel strongly about it you come to me. I don’t get in Lee’s way for the most part, but if you feel strongly about it that’s different.”

  “It’s actually the same, Reno,” Trina said with a smile, “but I get your point.”

  By the time they were on the private elevator heading up to the penthouse, Trina began to shake her head. “I guess taking a break is a good idea,” she said, “and then get back to work. My staff shouldn’t miss me for a few minutes anyway.”

  “A few minutes my ass,” Reno said. “It’s nap time for you.”

  “Quit playing. You know I’m not about to take any nap this time of day.”

  “Who’s playing?” Reno asked as they stepped off of the elevator. “I read those books Bob Paxon recommended. And every one of them talk about plenty of rest and exercise. You move around enough, you’re getting your exercise, but you’re not getting enough rest. You need to rest those ankles.”

  “Ankles?”

  “Yeah, that’s what those books said. At least one of them said that, I think. I don’t know. Those books went on and on. Like Paxon, they don’t know how to shut up. But the point is the same: you need your rest.”

  Trina wanted to argue with him, she sometimes felt as if she got too much rest, but she didn’t bother. She allowed him to lay her on their bed and go and get her some milk. She even smiled at the thought of Reno getting her milk.

  But by the time Reno returned at her bedside with the milk, Trina was fast asleep.

  Reno exhaled. This pregnancy was driving him nuts. He drank the milk himself.

  Their first Lamaze class was canceled when the instructor fell ill, which bummed Reno out since he had to move a lot around to accommodate the class, and had read many brochures on the method. But when the second class was confirmed, he and Trina were right there. But when they showed the video, and Reno saw firsthand the actual birth of a baby, and the messy, bloody process of that birth, he hit the floor like a sack of potatoes. At first Trina was embarrassed. None of the other men passed out. But then she couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Reno, Reno, Reno,” she said later when they were driving home. “You’re the only one who passed out.”

  “I didn’t pass out,” he insisted. “I just got kind of sleepy.”

  “And so you just decided to drop to the floor and take a nap. Is that what you’re telling me, Reno?”

  Even Reno had to smile at that. “Something like that, yeah.”

  “Yeah, okay,” Trina said and then she looked at him again.

  “So,” he said. “I was the only one to pass, I mean, get sleepy like that, hun?”

  Trina smiled. “The only one.”

  “Damn,” Reno said. “The only one.”

  “Yeah, but as you were sliding from your chair and dropping to the floor, I thought you never looked more attractive.”

  Reno looked at her, smiling. “Really?”

  “Really. You look adorable, Reno. You looked just like a girl the way you fell to that floor.” Trina said this and laughed.

  Reno’s smile disappeared. “Very funny,” he said as he hit the gas and flew his Porsche through another green light.

  Later that night, however, Trina found herself throwing up violently in the toilet bowl. Reno was by her side, seated on the floor holding her as she couldn’t stop regurgitating. Then she leaned back against his heart chest, and he held her even tighter, praying that the nausea would stop. And it did momentarily. But then the heaving would resume and she’d be over the toilet bowl once again. Reno tried not to feel guilty on nights like this. He tried not to blame himself for impregnating her in the first place. But more often than not he couldn’t pull it off. Especially when Trina started crying. Guilt, on those nights, was all that he could manage to feel.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  But as the weeks came and went and Trina’s “morning” sickness began to dissipate, a sense of calm acceptance began to overtake Reno. Especially as the dread of Autumn began to fade and his favorite time of the year, Christmastime, slowly built up steam. All up and down the Vegas strip were bright lights and miniature Christmas trees. There was Santa Claus imitators and Salvation Army bell ringers. There were carolers singing Joy to the World and street performers singing Stomp. The sights and sounds of Christmas were everywhere. And so were Reno and Tree.

  He took her shopping. From Nordstrom’s to Bloomingdale’s to department store chains inside the PaLargio, Reno spared no expense. They purchased so many gifts, for family, friends and associates, that it bordered on outrageousness. But this Christmas was different for them. Trina was pregnant, Reno was no longer a nervous wreck, Jimmy Mack was turning out to be their right-hand man, and they felt grateful.

  Trina also felt a need to oversee the decorating of the massive Christmas tree that dominated the PaLargio’s main lobby. Normally she left it to her staff, but not this year. She wanted to put her stamp on everything that pleased Reno. And Christmas, she was discovering, pleased him mightily. Jimmy Mack even assisted her. He had an eye for design that Trina appreciated.

  Reno, too, stayed busy. Anticipating heavier-than-normal holiday bookings, he gladly approved the hiring of nearly a hundred seasonal workers and extended the overtime hours of many of his regular people. It was an all-around good time, a festive time, at the PaLargio.

  Cheri Dallas, however, wasn’t feeling the love. Reno was still all but ignoring her and Trina was still questioning every major decision she made as if she had no executive authority. And whenever she took up her concerns with Reno, he would tell her to do whatever Queen T told her to do. It annoyed the hell out of Cheri and began to turn her against Reno too.

  And to make matters worse, Cheri’s mother came to town. Just to spend a night with her daughter before heading to Malta for her own Christmas celebration. And for that one night she was willing to give to her daughter, she was looking for a good time in return.

  “It’s Christmas time,” Thelma Dallas proclaimed. “Let’s get out there and have some fun!” She was a mother who was only sixteen years Cheri’s senior, a woman who was once a supermodel and still drop-dead gorgeous, and Cheri could hardly stand the sight of her.

  But she took her to dinner at Monitov, a luxurious restaurant inside the PaLargio where Cheri, as GM, had a table reserved for her exclusive use. It was a purely vain selection on Cheri’s part. All of her life she had tried and tried to impress her mother, all to no avail. Even when she was assistant manager at Caesar’s Palace, the only job she ever had that she did not sleep with somebody to achieve, and her mother never even congratulated her. Now, as GM at the famed PaLargio Hotel and Casino she was once again seeking out her mother’s approval. An approval, she quickly realized, that wasn’t going to happen either.

  Cheri was given the royal treatment by the Monitov staff, as the restaurant’s manager himself escorted her and her mother to their table. To Cheri’s surprise, Reno was in the building. She looked over at the raised booth reserved for Reno’s exclusive use, as she always did when she entered any of the restaurants and lounges inside of the PaLargio, but on this night, two weeks before Christmas, there he was. Having dinner. His wife and son were having dinner with him, but seeing him again still gave Cheri a thrill. Especially because she knew, as she swayed her hips a little more and slung
her long, blonde hair with more animation, that Reno’s location made it impossible for him not to see her.

  He saw her as he ate. And he did find her attractive in her pale gray pantsuit, although the older woman with her was even more attractive. But that was as far as it went with Reno. He was exhausted, after another crazy day of putting out fires around the casino, and all he wanted to do was eat, relax with his family, and then get back to work.

  “Who on earth are you looking at?” Thelma asked her daughter after they were seated, their drink orders taken, and the manager left their side.

  Cheri felt a flush of embarrassment. She had not realized just how often she was glancing over at Reno. “I just noticed that my boss was here,” she replied to her mother.

  “Your boss? Oh, really now? Where is he?” Thelma began looking around.

  “He’s over there,” Cheri said with some reluctance, nodding toward the top booth in the back of the room. “He’s the white guy.”

  Thelma Dallas looked at Reno, looked him up and down, and then looked at Cheri. “Very attractive,” she said. Then she smiled. “Am I going to get to meet Mr. Gorgeous?”

  Cheri felt a surge of jealousy when her mother put it that way. Her mother was never above taking men away from Cheri. She, in fact, had done so even when Cheri was in high school. “He’s married mother,” she said.

  “I’m sure he is. Those are the best kind. No commitments. Just sex.” Thelma said this with such a smile that Cheri looked away in disgust. Some mother, she thought.

  “Who’s the woman with him?” Thelma asked. “Is that his wife?”

  Don’t even mention that witch, Cheri thought to herself. “Yes,” she said out loud. “That’s his wife, and his son.”

  Thelma nodded, looked Trina up and down. “Not bad,” she said. “But he could do better.” She looked at her daughter. “Does this wife deserve a man like him?”

  “Of course not,” Cheri said as if that went without saying.

  “But of course you feel that you, on the other hand, deserve him,” Thelma said with a smile. “Am I correct?”

  Cheri thought about that comment. The fact that she was dating the owner of the PaLargio would impress her mother, she was willing to bet it would. So she went with it. “Of course,” she said with a sly smile.

  Thelma laughed. “Good girl,” she said. Cheri was now smiling too. It was the closest thing to an approval she’d had from her mother in a long, long time.

  “But I would love to meet him,” Thelma said.

  “We’ll see,” was all that Cheri would say about it. Not because she didn’t want her mother to meet Reno, she did. But she knew Reno would not take kindly to her just walking up to him when he was with his family.

  But when Trina stood and began heading their way, presumably to go to the restroom, Cheri saw her opportunity. She would impress her hard-to-please mother no end if she could get her mother an audience with Reno. But she knew, to her consternation, that she had to go through Queen Katrina first to get anywhere near Reno lately.

  “Hey, Trina!” Cheri decided to politely yell as Trina walked near their table.

  Trina looked her way. Cheri waved her over. Although Trina was feeling a little queasy, and needed to get to the restroom, she went over just the same.

  “I want you to meet my mother, Thelma Dallas,” Cheri said.

  “Oh, Miss Dallas,” Trina said, shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

  “This is Katrina Gabrini, Mother. The owner’s wife.”

  “Yes, you told me,” the mother said bluntly. “Nice to meet you, too, Mrs. Gabrini,” she said to Trina.

  “I take it you’re not from Vegas?” Trina asked.

  “Oh, no,” Thelma said as if she had just been asked if she was from prison or the hood or some other equally less gratifying place. “I have a country estate in New Hampshire, although I consider myself a citizen of the world.”

  “She’s in town for tonight only,” Cheri explained. “She’ll be off for Malta tomorrow.”

  “The Mediterranean,” Trina said. “How romantic.”

  “Romance or death,” Thelma said with a laugh.

  “Well,” Trina said, finding something off about the woman, “I’m glad I got a chance to meet you.”

  “I was wondering, Trina,” Cheri said cautiously, “if Mother could possibly meet Reno.”

  As Cheri expected, Trina was hesitant. “He’s having dinner,” she said. She knew Cheri wouldn’t understand that. She was always finding ways to disturb Reno.

  “No, I fully appreciate that,” Cheri said. “But this is my mother. Surely he could take a minute of his time to meet the mother of his general manager.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to happen tonight,” Trina said firmly. “I want him to have his dinner in peace. In the morning, before she leaves, she’s welcome to go by his office and say hello then. But not tonight.”

  Cheri could barely suppress her anger. The nerve of this chick, she thought. But Cheri knew how to keep it under wraps. “Tomorrow then,” she said with a tight smile.

  “Have a nice evening, Mrs. Dallas,” Trina said.

  “You, too, hon,” Thelma replied, and Trina continued her trek to the bathroom.

  “That’s a tough broad,” Thelma said. “But I like her.”

  Cheri looked at her. “You like her? What’s there to like?”

  “She’s tough. She looks out for her man. Yes, I like that.”

  “She’s so ghetto, what are you talking about? Like how would introducing you to him be disturbing him?”

  “Because she knows the game. She knows every one of you bitches. You want to get in her man’s pants and I’m sure every pretty girl around this place wants in, too. She knows what she’s doing.”

  But Cheri begged to differ, as Thelma knew she would. Cheri wouldn’t understand how a woman was supposed to treat a man if her freedom depended on it. Men were just objects of sex to Cheri, and rungs on that ladder to success. And Thelma should know, she thought as she looked at her daughter, who was, once again, staring at Reno. Then she shook her head. She taught her daughter well, she thought sadly.

  A week before Christmas and the annual Christmas party was being held at the PaLargio. All employees were invited to come in shifts and most of them came. Reno, they knew, knew how to throw a party.

  The party was held in the grand ballroom and Reno stood back and enjoyed the view. All of their friends were there, and many of the senior management staff, too. Even some of the headlining lounge acts with weekly shows at the PaLargio made the commitment to come. The band was live - playing solid Christmas tunes, the food was good, and Trina, it seemed to Reno, was radiant.

  She wore an ocean-blue sequined dress that stuck to her perfectly curved body like a second skin, and every man in the room kept eyeing that smoking body of hers. Reno saw those roving eyes himself. And he delighted in it. This was his woman, but he loved that others saw at least the physical part of what he saw. This woman, this African Queen, was soon to become the mother of his child. The first child Reno himself would have the pleasure of rearing. He could not have been a happier man.

  Not that he wasn’t still worried. He was. He had to know where Trina was every moment of the day or he suddenly felt uneasy. And it was tricky, too, because Trina hated for him do any of that hovering, or any of that mother hen behavior she despised. So he had to be crafty. Everywhere she went, he had six different guys following her, all rotating an incredibly complicated security scheme worked out by Reno himself. Trina was too smart for one or even two guys to get away with tailing her, and Reno knew it. So when his security chief mentioned some routine tail, Reno balked. They might not think they were tailing somebody as special as, say, the president’s wife or the queen of England, but Reno begged to differ. They were tailing Mrs. Gabrini, he made clear to them. The First Lady and the Queen combined had nothing on her.

  Besides, Trina made James Bond look like a second rate spy. She knew how
to sniff out a tail a mile away. But with six guys on her trail, no. Even she wouldn’t be the wiser.

  “Nice party, Reno,” Dirty said as he walked over. Reno wore a white tux. Dirty wore a black one.

  “Yeah, it is nice,” Reno said as he sipped more wine and watched Jimmy Mack whisper one of his undoubtedly lame jokes in the ear of one of his friends, the guy they called Mikey. Reno sometimes wondered about that boy’s sexual orientation. He didn’t seem interested in females at all. And he was always all up in Mikey’s pale face, like that was his woman. Even Lee had mentioned the same thing. But Trina told him to stop worrying. Jimmy was a great kid with a good heart. In the end that was all that mattered.

  “So Trina didn’t have the abortion after all,” Dirty said.

  Reno’s jaw tightened. If he mentioned that abortion again! Every time they talked lately, he mentioned that abortion. “No, Dirty, she didn’t go through with any abortion, okay? So you need to let it go.”

  “Hey, whatta you mean? I was just stating a fact, Reno. I mean, Fran told me what the deal was.”

  “Yeah,” Reno said as he looked across the room and saw his sister running her mouth with a group of ladies Reno didn’t even know. “She’s always telling everybody’s business but her own.”

  “I’m just repeating what she told me,” Dirty said again. “You wanna be mad at somebody be mad at her.”

  “Yeah, whatever,” Reno said, looking around the room.

  “But so . . . does that mean that you’re like, that you’re sure then?”

  Reno looked at Dirty. “Am I sure? Sure about what?”

  “The baby.”

  Reno hesitated. No this asshole wasn’t going there. “What are you talking about, Dirty?”

  “I’m talking about the baby. And why Trina would want to abort it in the first place. I’m just asking if you’re sure the baby Tree is carrying is yours.”

  As soon as Dirty said those words Reno lifted his fist and slammed it into the side of Dirty’s face, causing Dirty to fall backwards and flip over a nearby table. Everybody in the room looked their way, including Trina, whose heart began to pound. The live band stopped playing. Fran hurried to her husband’s side.