Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Read online

  “Ah. Grace. How charming.” She said this with no charm at all. She said this without even pretending to hide her bitterness. “And who is this Grace? Where did she come from? You never mentioned any Grace before. When did you meet her?”

  Her questions were now fast and furious. But Tommy kept it measured, steady. He used to think these kind of open relationships were the way to go, and the only kind to have. But Grace was right. They were the most dishonest of all relationships because as soon as the party was over, and one of the participants was ready to move on, everything changed. Suddenly people were staking claims that they had shunned before, and the emotional wreckage it all had wrought staggered Tommy still. Now it was Cathy’s time. And because of the long history he shared with her, it was tough. One of his toughest.

  “I met her a year ago,” he said.

  “A year ago?” Cathy’s voice was now laced with spite.

  “About that,” Tommy said, studying her and her quickly changed mood. “Yes.”

  “I see. A year ago. That is strange to me. Something about that is not right to me. How can it be that I’ve been with you for a dozen years, a dozen years, Tommy, but you won’t refer to me as so much as your girlfriend in mix company? Yet this trollop called Grace pops onto the scene two minutes ago, pops up out of nowhere, and you put a ring on it?”

  The waiter returned with his drink, and then asked if they were ready to order.

  “Not yet,” Tommy said and, once the waiter left, sipped from his glass of Scotch and then looked at Cathy. “You knew what our relationship was about, Cat,” he said, staring her directly in the eyes. “You knew it was an open relationship with no strings whatsoever.”

  “I know that. Of course I knew it. I understand how we started. But it’s been twelve years, Tommy. When I first made love to you, I was twenty-five years old. I had my entire life in front of me. Now I’m thirty-seven years old, can barely find A-list gigs because I’m perceived as too old in the industry, and things change, don’t you see? I’ve changed. We’ve changed.” Her eyes were now bright with unshed tears. “How can you do such a thing to me? If you wanted to get married, if you wanted a wife to settle down with, why didn’t you ask me?”

  Tommy frowned. “What are you talking about? We didn’t have that kind of. . .What are you talking, Cat? We had a friendship, yes, a good one, I thought, and we had sex. But that was all we had. I wasn’t going to ask you to marry me any more than you would have accepted if I had. What are you doing?”

  It seemed to Tommy that she didn’t know what she was doing. She had more than a few men in her stable still, just as he, until he met Grace, had more than a few women in his. Neither one of them were marriage material. One of the main reasons that he chose Grace above all of those wonderfully sophisticated and experienced women, was because she was.

  “So,” Cathy said, sitting erect and fighting back any more embarrassing tears. “When is the big day?”

  Tommy exhaled. “In a few months,” he said.

  “Where? In Seattle?”

  Tommy hesitated.

  Cathy smiled, or, at least, attempted to. “Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t show up and demand you marry me, instead. I’ll never be that desperate.”

  Tommy felt foolish for even thinking it. “Vegas,” he said.

  “Ah, yes. The PaLargio, right? Reno?”

  “Right.”

  “So the renovations are complete? I thought it was pretty well shattered after that explosion.”

  “Part of it was, yes. The casino area mainly. But it’s on its way back. Reno expects to have a grand reopening in about three months.”

  “Ah. Just in time for the wedding.”

  “If all goes well, yes.”

  Cathy nodded her head but Tommy could tell she was no longer invested. It was a done deal as far as she was concerned, and it saddened her. She looked at Tommy. He always had the bluest eyes. He always had the brightest smile. He always was the only man to make her feel as if she was more than just a piece on the side. When, in truth, that was all she ever was to him too.

  She grabbed her Dior bag and rose to her feet. Tommy, surprised by her sudden move, stood too.

  “You’re leaving?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “At least have dinner with me, Cat.”

  “No,” she said firmly. “I’ve wasted enough time with you.” Then she leaned over, and hugged him around his neck with one hand, while kissing him gently on the cheek. But then the tears attempted to return, and she just stood there, still holding on.

  Tommy put his arms around her, too. He was sorry. He didn’t mean to hurt her, just as he didn’t mean to hurt all of his other “open relationship” females he had broken the news to. But he couldn’t duck the truth. He was marrying Grace McKenzie, that was all there was to it, and he felt he owed his regulars at least a face-to-face notification.

  None of those notifications went well.

  And this one, because of the long history, was especially painful.

  When they stopped embracing, Cathy stared into his deep-set eyes. She patted his coat lapel and marveled at his trim, muscular frame. She had thought, after Shanks, that she stood a chance with him. That maybe, when he returned to France, they could discuss their relationship in more definitive terms. But it was not to be.

  She nodded her head. “It’s going to happen, Tommy.”

  Tommy hesitated. He could sense what she meant. “What’s going to happen?” he asked her.

  “You’re going to know how it feels one of these days.”

  He continued to stare at her. He knew where she was going with this, he just preferred that she didn’t go there. But she did.

  “She’s going to break your heart,” she said as if it was a foregone conclusion. “You’ve broken too many hearts, far too many, for somebody not to break yours. Shanks didn’t do it. You rebounded too quickly. But this Grace, this woman you thought enough of to ask her to share your name, is going to be the one.” Then the tears couldn’t hold back any longer. “She has to be,” Cathy was barely able to add.

  And then she hurried, like a woman realizing for the first time that her dreams might not come true, out of the lounge.

  Tommy stared at her as she left, and his heart was conflicted. But then he paid the ticket, left a tip, and began a slow walk to the exit. His cell phone rang as he walked. When he saw that it was Sal, he answered right away.

  “What’s up?” he asked his brother.

  “Hate to bother you big brother but there’s a situation I figure you’d want to know about.”

  “A situation?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Involving?”

  “Grace,” Sal said and Tommy stopped walking. His heart hammered against his chest.

  “Grace?” he asked his brother.

  “Afraid so.”

  “What happened? Is she alright?”

  “She’s all right,” Sal said. “At least physically she’s fine.”

  Tommy began walking again. “Only physically?”

  “Afraid so. The bastard at least had the decency to shoot himself rather than her.”

  Tommy was now outside, in the parking lot. “Sal, tell me what happened.”

  “Grace was having dinner with this guy she says is called Cameron.”

  “Cameron? Cameron Birch?”

  “That’s the one. Her ex-boyfriend or something like that. But they were talking and then she stood up to leave. And then that fucker stood up too and blew his brains out. Right in front of Grace he blew his brains out.”

  Tommy felt faint. His poor Grace. “Where is she now?”

  “The cops are interviewing her. But Tommy here’s the clincher: the dude decides to pull his little stunt right in one of your restaurants In Diamante’s.”

  But Tommy couldn’t care less about the location. He was too worried about his lady. “Put Grace on the phone,” he said.

  “I told you the cops are talking to her now.”


  “I don’t care if the president is talking to her now. Put her on the phone. I have to hear her voice.”

  Sal exhaled. He knew there was no changing Tommy’s mind when he made it up. “Hold on,” he said.

  And Tommy did hold on. With both hands. His heart was a torrent of pain. He pulled out a second cell phone, his business only line, and speed dialed his pilot.

  “Ready the plane, Jeffrey,” he said into the phone. “I want to pull out as soon as you can get it ready.”

  “Where to?”

  “Home,” Tommy said. And then Grace was on his personal cell phone.

  “I’m all right, Tommy,” she said.

  Tears came into Tommy’s eyes when he heard her voice. He could hear the strain and the emotional drain in her words. “Sure you’re okay?” he asked her.

  “I’m positive. Please don’t worry. I’m fine. I’m talking with the police now. We’ll talk later.”

  “Okay,” Tommy said, although he wanted to say so much more. And then Sal was back on the line.

  “She’s upset that I called you,” he said. “But I told her tough. You’re my brother, she’s your lady. You had a right to know.”

  “Damn straight,” Tommy said.

  “So what’s the game plan?”

  “The plane is getting prepped now. I’m going to head back.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about. She keeps saying she’s all right, but a fragile girl like Grace can’t witness a thing like that and be all right.”

  “You stay with her. I don’t care how much she complains. You stay with her.”

  “Don’t worry. A complaining female never stopped me yet.”

  Tommy would have smiled. Sal could always cheer him up. But not this time.”

  Gemma Jones watched Fran as she walked around the store looking for that perfect outfit. Trina was also behind the counter at Champagne’s, and was watching too. This was early afternoon, and there was a lull in the day. Gemma glanced at Trina, and then continued to look at Fran.

  “Jody called,” she said to Tree.

  “Oh, yeah?”

  Gemma looked at Trina. “He said Reno fired him yesterday. I said that wasn’t possible. He said it was true. Reno fired him. Not you, certainly not me, but Reno. I didn’t know Reno was a partner in this business, Tree.”

  “He’s not,” Trina said. “He and Jody have an acrimonious history and it played out yesterday. That’s all.”

  “But the fact still remains Reno fired him.”

  “I fired him,” Trina said, looking her friend dead in the eyes.

  “You fired him because Reno made you fire him. But we’ve got to get that straight, Tree. I know what kind of a take charge man Reno is. But he can’t take charge of Champagne’s. He can’t have charge of this.”

  “Now you just hold on there for a minute,” Trina made clear. “My husband has enough on his plate, believe me. He doesn’t want to take charge of this. But you need to understand one thing. He does have charge over me. And if he doesn’t want Jody around me, Jody’s not going to be around me. So I fired him, yes, I did. But it was my decision.”

  “I don’t get you,” Gemma said, a puzzled look on her beautifully dark face. “You are one of the toughest broads I know. I have seen you go toe to toe with some of the meanest men I’ve ever met. But yet Reno tells you to jump, and you don’t even question it. You don’t even ask how high. You just jump. What’s up with that?”

  Now it was Trina’s time to be puzzled. “What do you mean what’s up with it? Reno is my husband.”

  “So! Does that mean you have to do whatever he tells you to do?”

  “Yes, it does! Now if Reno was a husband I couldn’t trust, or a man who doesn’t handle his business, then yeah, I might have to take more control of our marriage. But Reno ain’t that dude. He handles his business and he handles his wife. If I didn’t want a man like that I shouldn’t have married him.”

  “So you wanted a man to handle you?”

  “In a way, yeah. I want my man to be in charge. I want to be pampered sometimes and treated like a queen, hell yeah I do. I don’t see where that makes me weak and insufficient. Compared to other women I think I’m a gotdamn boulder. But compared to Reno, I’m not even a rock.”

  “Nobody’s handling me like that, I don’t care how tough they are,” Gemma said. “I’m in charge of myself and he’ll be in charge of himself. Fifty-fifty baby or nothing at all. And if that’s not good enough for his ass then we can always do a seventy-five/twenty-five split.”

  “Let me guess: you’ll be the seventy-five?”

  “You’d better believe it.”

  Trina shook her head. Gemma was dreaming if she thought a strong man was going to let her run the show like that. “And how’s that working out for you?” she asked her.

  Gemma looked at her. And then she smiled. “You’re wrong for that, Tree,” she said.

  “No, now, answer the question,” Trina said with a smile of her own. “You’re Miss Seventy-five percent. Where’s this man who allows you to run the show? Show him to me. And I’ll show you a man who also runs behind your skirt when trouble comes. And I’m not messing with you. Some women don’t like alpha males. I’m just not one of them.”

  “I like alpha males,” Gemma pointed out. “But they’d better like an alpha female or they won’t like me.”

  Trina had to laugh at that one. “True that,” she said as she laughed.

  When the laughter died down, Trina turned serious again. “So what did you say to Jody?”

  “I told him I couldn’t help him. We can’t let anybody play one of us against the other one. So I wasn’t about to get involved, no matter how it went down yesterday. We’ll just have to find another accountant.”

  Trina smiled. She truly loved Gemma Jones.

  And because they were on one accord, the rest of the day went as well as the morning. Fran hung around laughing and talking, as they knew she would, and the day went by. Until late afternoon, when the boutique’s door opened and Belle Patrone stepped inside.

  Belle walked around the boutique in a slow paced, nothing-but-time-on-her-hands wandering gait. She kept glancing over at Trina, who was serving a customer, and Gemma, who was ringing up another customer. When both customers had finally left the store, and Trina was now behind the counter with Gemma and Fran, Belle grabbed a blouse she had been eyeing and made her way to the cash register.

  “Hi,” Trina said as she accepted the blouse, and moved to ring it up.

  “Hi,” Belle said, pulling the coins out of her Michael Kors handbag. “You have lovely clothes in this boutique.”

  “Thank-you,” Trina said as she rang up the sale. “Thank-you very much.”

  Belle looked at the amount- eight hundred and forty-nine dollars- and pulled out her Discover card and handed it to Trina. Trina swiped the card while Gemma bagged the blouse.

  Belle accepted the bag and then her card and receipt. She smiled and began putting her card back into her purse. But just before she was about to take her leave, she looked again at Trina.

  “Aren’t you Reno’s wife?” she asked her.

  Fran and Gemma both looked at her. Trina smiled. “Yes, that’s right.”

  Belle gave a weak, tight smile. “Thought so,” she said.

  The look that was now on her face surprised Trina. “You know him?” she asked.

  “Yes,” Belle said, staring at Trina. Trina, Fran, and Gemma waited for more of an explanation, but none came.

  Finally Belle had put her card and receipt away and was now ready to go. “Good afternoon,” she then said, grabbed her bag, and left.

  Fran looked at Trina. “What was that about?” she asked her.

  Trina was staring at Gemma as she walked across the sidewalk and got into her Lamborghini . “Don’t know,” Trina said, and meant it.

  The stairs to the private plane dropped down and Tommy practically ran off of the plane into the Seattle night breeze. Sal, looking f
lustered, was waiting by the limo, but he rushed toward his brother to meet him halfway.

  “She’s okay,” he said, to reassure Tommy. He knew how his brother could be.

  “Where is she?” Tommy asked as they continued to hurry toward the limousine.

  “I took her to your place. I figure she’d be better off there. Some of those nosy-ass reporters were surrounding her apartment asking for a comment. I almost told them to go fuck themselves bugging her like that, but I didn’t. Grace is a lady. I didn’t wanna, you know, mess up her reputation by being myself. So we both agreed she’d be better off at your place. They know not to pull that shit with you.”

  “What about Cameron? Is he dead yet?”

  “Not yet,” Sal said. “But he’s on life support. The bastard.”

  When they arrived at the limo, his driver Albert greeted him. “Where to, sir?” he asked as he always did whenever Tommy returned to town.

  “Home,” Tommy said. “And fast.”

  And he and Sal hurried inside.

  Grace showered, put on one of Tommy’s big dress shirts, and was now in his bed fielding phone calls from members of her board of directors and her closest friends. Everybody wanted to know if she was okay. Everybody wanted to know if Cam was still alive. And everybody, to a man and woman, wanted to know what in the world was that fool thinking.

  And that summed it up for Grace, too. What was he thinking? She was sorry that his life had become so unbearable that he felt a need to end it, but the way he tried to end it was what concerned her. And angered her. It was as if he was going to get his revenge for the rest of her life by forcing her to witness the end of his.

  When all the phone conversations were over, she just lay there, smelling Tommy’s sweet cologne scent, and thought about Jillian. Her life revolved around that troubled son of hers. What, Grace wondered, would become of Jilly?

  The front door could be heard opening as she pondered her former boss. And then she heard Tommy calling her name.

  “I’m upstairs,” she yelled back. She could hear him taking the stairs two at a time.