Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Read online

  Her heart began to leap for joy as she heard him coming her way. He’d been in Europe all week on business, and they hadn’t spoken for a few days. When Sal told her that he had phoned Tommy, she was upset at first. She knew how hectic his schedule was when he went out of the country, and she didn’t think he should have been disturbed.

  But as time went on, and the disbelief of what Cam had done began to sink in, she was glad Sal had phoned his big brother. She needed Tommy. With every hour that passed she realized just how much.

  And Tommy needed her. He entered his home and was taking the stairs two at a time. He felt a sense of possessiveness about Grace that he had never felt for any other woman before. She wasn’t anything like his previous ladies. Her entire value system, and the way she led her life, was completely different. She was the one who used to admonish him for his badly flawed open relationship philosophy, a truth that was being born out with female he broke the news of his engagement to. It was as if they were all frauds playing a game where they could have their cake and eat it too until somebody else wanted in on the recipe. And Grace exposed the flaws early. She was nothing like the others.

  And that was perhaps why he loved her so much and chose her above the rest. She wasn’t a type. She was Grace. Unpretentious. Sweet. Innocent. Grace. And he was her man. He couldn’t get up those stairs fast enough.

  And her reaction to him, as soon as he entered the bedroom, proved how much. Her self-control broke. Tears immediately appeared in her eyes.

  “Oh, Tommy,” she said with feeling as soon as he entered the room. She threw the covers off of her, and was about to run from the bed, but he got there first.

  “Babe,” he said as he threw his arms around her and lifted her off of the bed. “Oh, babe.”

  She closed her eyes tightly shut as he held her. She was sobbing now. She didn’t think it had affected her that way. All of those phone conversations, all of those talks with her friends, didn’t have her the least bit emotional. But all Tommy had to do was walk into the room, and she was already boo-hooing.

  He held her for hours. What she loved most was the fact that he didn’t ask her what happened, or who did what, or what she was going to do about it. He just held her.

  Later, after Grace fell asleep in his arms and he put her to bed, the phone rang. The Caller ID identified the caller as D. Gabrini. Tommy moved away from the bed and answered immediately.

  “Hey, Ree. What’s up?”

  “I see you made it back. Good. How is she?”

  “Not great. But she’ll be okay.”

  “And it was the same guy we handled here in Vegas? The one who disrespected Grace that time?”

  “One in the same.”

  “That bastard. I thought we took care of his sorry ass. Apparently not.”

  “Ah, Reno, guys like that lead miserable lives and hate everybody for refusing to wallow in pity with them. He knew Grace is a sensitive woman. He knew he would hurt her more because of her good heart.”

  “Is he dead yet?”

  “Not yet.”

  “Think he needs some help along the way?”

  “Don’t think so. Sal says he’s on life support. It’s just a matter of time.” Then Tommy exhaled. “Poor Jilly,” he added.

  “Who the fuck is Jilly?”

  “His mother. She used to run Trammel. When she found out Grace was now majority stakeholder thanks to me, she quit on the spot. Cameron was supposedly meeting with Grace to find a way to facilitate her return to Trammel.”

  “Some facilitation.”

  “I know.” Then Tommy looked at Grace as she slept. “I just wonder how this will affect her in the long run.”

  “You mean the violence?”

  “And the fact that I’m a Gabrini, yes.”

  “What’s that got to do with it?”

  “She’ll be marrying into the Gabrini family. That has everything to do with it. Grace is no hardened she-woman, Reno. She hasn’t been in that monkey house like we have. Shit still stank to her.”

  “Hell, it still stank to me!” Reno said with a chuckle. “I just know how to live with the stank.”

  “She doesn’t,” Tommy said, still staring at her. “That’s my point.”

  And it was obvious that Reno could feel Tommy’s pain. He understood what he meant perfectly. “Bring her to Vegas, Tommy,” he finally suggested.

  Tommy exhaled. “What good is that going to do?”

  “She needs to be around us now, the people who are going to be her family. She needs to get to know us better.”

  “She did get to know you guys when you were here for two months. Well, not you, since you weren’t here, but Tree and Jimmy and Dominic. She loves them.”

  “But she don’t know me. And what good is knowing the Gabrinis if she don’t know me?”

  With any other human being, such a statement would make no sense. But with Reno, it made perfect sense to Tommy.

  “Besides,” Reno continued, “the last time she was here we had to deal with that craziness with Shanks. Maybe if she comes now, on my turf, and spend some time with me especially, I won’t be so scary to her then.”

  “She doesn’t think you’re scary, Reno.”

  “Oh, my bad. Not scary. I won’t be so stank to her then.”

  Tommy laughed through his exhaustion. “You know what I meant.”

  “Yeah, I know. But bring her to Vegas, Tommy. Sweet girl like that see her former boyfriend commit suicide is serious business. You don’t want your future wife messed up for life. And besides, when are you gonna marry the girl anyway? What are you waiting on? Retirement?”

  “It’s been a hectic series of months, Reno. I told Grace once everything settles back down, then we can make some decisions.”

  It sounded like vintage Tommy to Reno. Even when they were kids everything had to be just right before he would even consider it.

  “There’s not going to be a perfect time, you know,” Reno said.

  “I understand that. I don’t want it to be a perfect time. This just isn’t the right time right now.”

  “Do you love this girl, Tommy?” Reno asked him pointblank.

  Tommy looked at Grace. He looked at the outline of her eyes. The deep brown of her skin. Her nose. Her eyebrows. Her soft hair. But none of that was the reason. “Yes,” he said. “Completely.”

  “Then take time out of your busy schedule and bring her to Vegas. There’s always money to be made. Right now, she needs you. And both of you need me.”

  Tommy smiled and shook his head. “You’re one to talk. You don’t exactly hang under Trina’s skirt. Sometimes she doesn’t see your ass for days.”

  “But you ain’t me. You’re the lover, I’m the fighter. You’re supposed to love. So love that woman by canceling all of your business trips and bring her to Vegas.”

  “She has a business to run too, you know. She’s the head of Trammel now.”

  “Good. Since she’s the boss she should have no trouble canceling all of her appointments, too.” Then Reno exhaled. “Besides,” Reno began, but didn’t finish.

  “Besides what?” Tommy asked him.

  “I don’t feel I thanked you properly, Tommy, for taking care of my family. I always ask a lot of you, and you always come through for me. Now I need to come through for you. Your lady just witnessed a terrible thing. I want you to get her away from there and bring her to me. The least I can do is soothe her pain and ease her burden.”

  The idea of Reno soothing and easing anybody’s anything was laughable to almost any human being who would hear it. But not to Tommy.

  “You’re right, Reno,” he said, staring again at Grace. “A change will probably do her a lot of good. Despite the fact that you’ll be there too.”

  “Very funny,” Reno said as Tommy smiled. “Ask Tree and Jimmy what happened to them the last time they thought they were being funny.”

  “Just playing,” Tommy said.

  “Yeah, they were just playing too. But anywa
y, I’ve got a meeting I’m already late for. You and Grace come, and bring Sal with you, the big lug. We’ll make it a family affair. Have a barbeque or something. It’ll do Jimmy a world of good too.”

  “Okay, you’re on,” Tommy said. “Now all I’ve got to do is convince Grace.”

  “Convince her?” Reno asked. “Convince her my foot! You tell that woman to get her ass on the plane, that’s all you’ve got to tell her. And you tell her she’d better not give you any lip or you’ll knock hers through her throat.”

  Tommy laughed. “Oh, yeah, she’ll really wanna marry me then, Reno. She’ll really want me then.”

  There was a pause. “You talk like she’s the reason y’all aren’t married yet in the first place.”

  Tommy was always amazed at Reno’s perceptiveness. Because it was true. Tommy was ready, but he hadn’t pressed the issue because he knew a part of Grace wasn’t. A part of Grace was concerned that a part of him was still that playboy he used to be. He exhaled. “Something like that,” he admitted.

  FIVE

  Trina sat on the bed in her bathrobe, her legs crossed, talking on her cell phone. She had just gotten out of the shower, and Reno had just gotten in. Gemma Jones, Trina’s friend and business partner, had phoned her about Liz Mertan, another friend and business partner. When she said that Trina wasn’t going to believe this one, Trina braced herself.

  “What has she done this time?” she asked.

  “Two overweight ladies walked into our store today.”

  “Okay.”

  “I hadn’t been there ten minutes because I was in court today, and was putting my things away. I saw the ladies when they walked in and thought nothing of it. They looked like regular customers to me. Well, Miss Super Thin Liz hurried to the front door before the ladies could cross the threshold good and told them that they were in the wrong store.”

  Trina frowned. “Are you serious?”

  “As a heart attack, Tree. And the store wasn’t empty either. There were at least three or four people looking around when she said that. And those ladies she insulted were middle-aged tourists, obviously educated and well put together, who probably saved their hard-earned coins all year to come to Vegas and have some fun.”

  “And she proceeded to insult them.”

  “Big time. But get this: when one of the ladies said she didn’t understand, Liz didn’t mix words. ‘We don’t service people like you,’ she told them.”

  “Oh no she didn’t. No she didn’t, Gem!”

  “Oh, yes she did,” Gemma said. “And of course they immediately took her comment to mean that she didn’t service African-Americans, since that happened to be their race.”

  “But regardless of how they took it,” Trina said, “her butt was wrong to even go there. No, we don’t have nearly enough clothes in their sizes, which is going to change by the way, but she should have let them find that out for themselves. She didn’t know why they walked through that door. We sell more than clothes! We sell hand bags and shoes and accessories she knows that!”

  “I hear you.”

  “Hell, they could have been coming in to purchase a gift for their daughter or their niece, she didn’t know any of that.”

  “I told her everything you just said. I also told her it was against the law to discriminate like that. Everybody’s welcome in our store, I don’t care if they weight a thousand pounds and couldn’t fit a shoe in the store.” Then Trina calmed back down. “I hope you apologized to the ladies.”

  “You know I did,” Gemma said. “Both of those ladies looked like they were about ready to tell Liz where she could take her little comments, and one of them looked as if she was going to help her take it there.” Trina laughed. “But yeah, I apologized effusively and told Liz about her skinny butt right in front of them.”

  “Good. I hope you embarrassed the hell out of her the way she tried to embarrass those ladies.”

  “Don’t you know I did,” Gemma said. “And I gave the ladies fifty percent off of whatever they picked. And guess what? One of them could wear a cute blouse that we sold and she was able to get half off of that.”

  Trina would have given her the blouse for free, but at least fifty percent was something. “That’s good, Gem,” she said. “Were they okay with that? Did they leave the store happy?”

  “Oh, yeah. They seemed fine after that.”

  “Wait until I get my hands on Liz,” Trina said as the water in the shower stopped running and she could hear Reno getting out of the stall.

  “She is so insensitive,” Gemma said. “You and I have worked around racists and haters all of our working days, so we get it. But Liz act as if she doesn’t understand shit.”

  “Oh, she understands it all right,” Trina said. “She just has that streak in her where she has this need to feel superior to people. She always has to make somebody else small to elevate herself. I’m sorry I ever agreed to partner with her.”

  “It was my fault. She was my friend before you even knew her name. But after today, I’m beginning to regret the move too.”

  “You’re an attorney,” Trina said to Gemma. “What can we legally do? Can we buy the witch out?”

  Gemma laughed. “Only if the witch is willing to be bought out. But we’ll talk. I know you’re busy. You and Reno’s been invited to dinner by the mayor himself, and you have to tighten up that appearance, girl. Everybody’s not able.”

  “Everybody doesn’t want to be able, either,” Trina said. “I didn’t even vote for him.”

  Gemma laughed. “So is it a full blown dinner party, or just you, Reno, and the mayor?”

  “Just us, as far as we know.”

  “You lucky bitches.”

  “It’s not about us, you can bet that,” Trina said as Reno stood in the doorway of the bathroom, naked, wet, and drying off. She stared at him as she talked on the phone. “Reno says it’s all about the mayor and his reelection bid coming up. That’s why this dinner invite all of a sudden. He believes Reno can deliver him some Italian votes, and I can deliver him some black votes.”

  Reno asked, with mouth movement alone, who was she talking to. Trina mouthed Gemma. Reno, satisfied, nodded.

  “I can understand where he would think of you that way,” Gemma said. “You have been getting politically active lately. So I see where he would think you could deliver a vote or two. But Reno? I never knew him to be involved like that.”

  “He’s not. And I’m not either, not to where I can deliver votes for somebody. But that’s how these politicians think. They think races are monolithic. Everybody does everything in lockstep. It’s ludicrous, but that’s how they think. Reno says he invited us just so he can kill two birds with one stone. The Italian bird and the black bird.”

  Gemma laughed.

  Reno also said that if they should have any permit issues with the PaLargio rebuilding process, the mayor would be a good person to personally know. But Trina wasn’t about to tell all of that to Gemma.

  “Anyway,” she said, “I’d better finish getting dressed. Oh, I meant to tell you. Guess who’s coming to town?”

  “Who?”

  “Guess, Gemma. Guess.”

  “I have no idea. Who?”

  “Sal.”

  Sal Luca? Mister Wisecracks?”

  “One in the same. He’s coming, along with his brother Tommy and Tommy’s fiancé Grace. Reno’s having a cookout in their honor. We want you to come too.”

  There was a slight hesitation. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  Trina smiled. She knew Gemma. Gemma seemed to like Sal’s energy, and the way he wasn’t afraid to go toe-to-toe with her, when he was last in town. She was going to be there if it was the last thing she did.

  “Before I hang up,” Trina said, “did you get the names of those ladies Liz insulted?”

  “I did.”

  “Give them to me,” Trina said, grabbing a pen and pad from the nightstand. “Where are they staying?”

  “Caesar’s.”
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  “I want to send them a couple of gift cards. I hate that Liz dampened their fun.”

  “I hear you, girl,” Gemma said as she retrieved their information, gave it to Trina, and then they hung up.

  “Liz insulted somebody?” Reno asked Trina.

  “Yeah,” Trina said as she sat the pad and pen back on the nightstand.

  “Who?”

  “A couple of the boutique’s customers.”

  “Why would she insult her own customers?”

  “Because she’s stupid like that,” Trina said as she removed her robe and tossed it aside. “She and Gemma have been friends for a long time, that’s why I hooked up with her. But even then I knew it wasn’t going to work. But Gemma just seems to love her and she was the only one of us who didn’t already have a job and could work in the store on a daily basis, so I went with it. Of course, that was before the PaLargio went down. Now I have time on my hands and can devote it all to the boutique.”

  “You’re there more than Liz is.”

  “I know. And that was the plan. I’ll give her a break until the PaLargio’s back in business and I’m once again preoccupied. They know my duties to the PaLargio will always come first.”

  Reno inwardly smiled. “So what did she do?” he asked, staring at Trina’s now nude, freshly scrubbed, beautiful black body.

  “She told two overweight ladies that they were in the wrong store and, when they asked for clarification, she said we didn’t carry their size and they therefore shouldn’t be there.”

  “Get the fuck outta here,” Reno said. “And this idiot is your business partner?”

  “I know,” Trina said, shaking her head and grabbing the lotion off of the nightstand. “Gem and I are going to discuss our options when we meet again.”

  “You mean the option to dump her as a partner?”

  “Oh, hell yeah. Nobody insults my customers.”

  “That’s right,” Reno said, nodding and agreeing with her. “That’s how I expect you to handle your business. I don’t care how small the insult, you handle your business because if it wasn’t for customers, you and me and no other business person on this Strip or in this entire town would be in business at all. And that includes Miss High and Mighty Liz Mertan. You remind that bitch of that very point, Tree.”