Maggie was shaking her head, and backing up. “No,” she said. “It wasn’t like that.”
Reno was moving forward, remaining in her personal space even as she sought to get him out of it. “It was exactly like that,” Reno said. “You left my wife to die. Now,” he added, when she backed into the wall and he was able to move even closer, “it’s your turn.”
Maggie didn’t realize Reno had a knife in his hand until he was shoving it through her body, and the pain came. Her mouth opened first, as if she wanted to scream, but all she could do was gurgle. Reno imagined Trina was gurgling too, when her car began to fill with water. If it had been left up to this woman, Trina would have died a lonely death that night and Reno might have never known what happened to her. And this pathetic piece of shit of a lady would have gotten dressed for her night out on the town, just as she had been doing, and never gave Trina a second thought.
That was why, as Reno watched her take her final breath, he had no second thoughts either. He twisted the knife.
Trina was fast asleep by the time Reno made it back home. Jimmy and Val, who had stayed the night, were asleep in the guest room, and Dommi and Sophia were asleep in their beds. Reno took a shower in the bathroom adjacent to a separate guest bedroom to avoid waking Trina, and then crawled into bed well after midnight.
Trina stirred when the mattress she slept on was pressed down by Reno’s weight, but she didn’t wake up. Which pleased Reno mightily. He pressed his naked body into hers, and wrapped her into his arms. The things most men did for love were child’s play compared to the things Reno had to do. But as he looked at her, and thought about what that woman’s carelessness almost did to her, he snuggled her even closer. He hated going to those dark, lonely places. He was no cold, calculating, heartless man. But he’d go to even worse places, and become even more heartless and calculating all day long, for his family.
He did what he had to do.
That was why, within minutes of lying in bed beside his precious Tree, he was as dead to the world and all its cruelty, as she was.
CHAPTER NINE
When Trina grabbed her purse, her briefcase, and the hot cup of coffee she’d just picked up from the 7-11, and made her way inside her clothing store, she saw Amy standing at the check-out counter. After the events of last evening, this bothered her. Why was she back here after Reno had threatened her to stay away? She wanted the job, and Trina understood that, but Amy was no newbie. She knew Reno was not a man of idle threats.
“Hi,” Amy said with a smile on her face as Trina made her way toward the counter.
“Good morning.” Trina was not in a cheerful mood. She rarely was early mornings anyway, and she especially was not this morning. Reno didn’t want her to come to work today. Now she wished she had taken his advice.
“I know you weren’t expecting to see me here today,” Amy said. “But I heard about what happened to you last evening. I wanted to make sure you were okay.”
Trina hadn’t expected that. “I’m okay. Thanks.”
“Do they know who hit your car?”
Trina was sure Reno knew. “Not yet, no,” she said.
Amy nodded. “I also came,” she admitted, “because I was hoping that the job offer was still open.”
Liz Mertan, Trina’s business partner and the co-owner of Champagne’s, was standing behind the counter, drinking her own cup of coffee. “What job offer is that?” she asked Trina. “I told her I didn’t know what she was talking about.”
“I’ve got it,” Trina said as she placed her purse and briefcase behind the counter.
“Have you seen her resume? We certainly can use some good people. I had to fire Lindsey at our PaLargio location.”
Trina looked at Liz. She was always firing people without consulting her first. But that was a fight for another day. She had to deal with Amy first, before the store traffic picked up. “Come with me,” she said to Amy and escorted her, with her coffee still in hand, to the small office off from the main floor.
When they settled at the conference table, Trina got down to business. “Why did my husband fire you?” she asked her.
Amy didn’t seem surprised by the question. It seemed to Trina that she was ready for it. But she had to play the same tune first. “I already told you why.”
But Trina was in no mood for old songs. She was so inattentive yesterday, so upset with Reno and their previous conversation that she wasn’t paying attention to the world around her, something Reno drilled into her brain was an absolute must no matter what. She didn’t see that car coming. It nearly cost her her life. And it was all because of Amy’s appearance at Champagne’s. She had to be worth fighting for, and Trina wasn’t going to know that until she heard the full story. The new song. “Why did my husband fire you? Until you tell me why, the real story, I can’t help you.”
Trina’s suspicion was right. Amy was ready to talk. “He wanted to sleep with me,” she said so quickly that it took Trina by surprised. She looked Trina dead in the eyes when she said it.
Trina was staring her dead-on too, and it was startling. But she needed more. Dropping a bomb and expecting her to react to it, wasn’t going to happen. That was why Trina didn’t respond. It was Amy she needed to hear from. She sipped her coffee instead.
“I know you don’t believe me,” Amy went on. “But it’s the truth, Mrs. Gabrini. I respect you too much to lie to you. Your husband is attracted to beautiful women.”
Trina didn’t like that insinuation. “What man isn’t?” she responded.
But Amy took her response as defensiveness. “The wife is always the last to know,” she said, schooling Trina. “They think their husbands can do no wrong, but they do wrong all the time. You can’t imagine how many other married men hit on me every single day.”
She wasn’t interested in what other married men did. She was interested in what her man did.
“He was attracted to me,” Amy went on when Trina didn’t rise to her bait. “He would always compliment me on whatever I was wearing, and the perfume I used. He said he buys it all the time. He said it’s his favorite.”
“What perfume do you use?” Trina asked.
Amy had obviously not expected that question. “Caron’s Poivre,” she finally said.
Trina sipped more coffee. Reno wouldn’t know Caron’s Poivre from a buy-one-get-one-free perfume at the dollar store. “Go on,” she said to Amy.
“He kept complimenting me so much, but I didn’t mind that. It seemed harmless. Until, while we were on a business trip to Hawaii, he propositioned me. I turned him down cold. I do not date married men. When we got back, that was when he had Quinn concoct that story about his business partners, and he fired me.”
When it seemed as if Trina was still skeptical, she took it a step further. “He wanted to sleep with me, Mrs. Gabrini,” she said. “I wouldn’t. Quinn would. He fired me, and promoted Quinn. And that’s the truth, ma’am.”
Trina listened to her entire story, and her final curb ball regarding Quinn, and then she stood up. Amy stood up too. “I can’t help you,” Trina said to her.
Amy was stunned. “But I just told you the true story!”
“You told me a story, but I don’t believe it.”
“You don’t believe it? How can you not? And here I was thinking you were smarter than that. Here I was thinking you were somebody who would listen. My girlfriends told me I was wasting my time. They told me you were as clueless as the rest of those rich married women who would rather believe anything their men told them before they believed the truth about their shiftless husbands. They always look the other way and keep spending their husband’s money. And their husbands kept harassing women like me and making pure fools out of wives like you.”
Before Trina could react, Amy left the room.
Trina used to despise those kind of weak women too, those who had blinders on when it came to their no-good husbands. She would never stay with a man who even thought about cheating on her, used
to be her mantra. Those women were fools, and she used to be so certain that she was not one of them. Now she wasn’t certain at all. Because this was about Reno, not some random man. This shit was personal.
She meant to leave that room too and get to work, but she sat back down instead.
Reno arrived in his suite of offices late that afternoon after meetings he couldn’t cancel across town. Debrosiac was waiting for him outside his office, which surprised him.
“What are you doing here?” he asked him.
Debrosiac stood up. “A twist,” he said.
Reno didn’t know what he meant, but he looked at his secretary. “Hold my calls,” he said, and then he and Debrosiac entered his office.
It was empty, but Reno and Debrosiac both knew his managers would be barging in with contract disputes and vendor disputes and any other problem they could think up as soon as they got word that Reno was back in the building. Reno had some time, but not a wealth of it, before the onslaught began and his office was overrun with staffers vying for his time and attention.
“What you got?” he asked as he made his way behind his desk. He was so tried he sat down.
Debrosiac remained standing. “That lady we handled?”
“Yeah, what about her?”
“She wasn’t as random as we thought, boss.”
“Meaning?”
“She intended to harm Mrs. Gabrini. That car accident was no accident.”
Reno wasn’t expecting to hear that. He frowned. “How do you figure that?”
Debrosiac opened the file he had in his hand and gave it to Reno. “Ever seen that guy before?”
Reno picked up the folder. It was a picture of Shaun Connors. “Yeah, I’ve seen him. He was complaining about how he was treated when he stayed here. It was a pack of lies.”
“Maggie Vinson, the woman we handled, was his sugar mama.”
“His sugar mama?”
“She had a private eye on his ass. This P.I. saw him with your wife at McHale’s restaurant, and saw him again with her at Champagne’s. She leaped to the conclusion that they were having an affair, and decided no gorgeous young woman such as your wife was taking her gorgeous young buck away from her. So she took matters into her own hands.”
“How do you know all of this?”
“A friend of a friend knew the P.I. After Maggie Vinson croaked, he was running his mouth.”
Reno looked at the picture again. “So Connors led that bitch to my wife.”
Debrosiac nodded. “He’s the one. Shaun Connors. A gigolo basically.”
Reno tossed the picture back at Debrosiac. “Find him,” he said. “I want to see his ass before the day is out.”
Debrosiac smiled. “I’ll find him,” he said, grabbed the photo and file, and left.
“Knock-knock,” Jimmy said as he entered his parents’ penthouse.
“Hey, Jimmy.” Trina was seated on the sofa, with her legs folded beneath her, sipping wine. “How you doing?”
“I’m good.” He walked toward the sofa. “I wanted to see how you were doing before I headed home.” He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek.
“How sweet,” Trina said with a smile. “Don’t you look handsome in such a nice suit.”
“My employees got on my case about it. They said I was trying to dress like Dad. I said no I wasn’t either. I’d have to trample all over this suit and then put it on. Then I’d look like Dad.”
Trina laughed. Jimmy sat beside her. “I thought you guys were going to stay at the estate tonight.”
“No, we’re probably stay here at the penthouse for the rest of the week. We’ll go home to the estate over the weekend.”
“So where’s everybody?”
“Dommi’s sleep. Sophie’s sleep.”
“Where’s Dad?”
“Working, I guess. I haven’t heard from him.”
Jimmy couldn’t believe it. “Are you serious? Ma, why do you let him get away with that?”
Trina looked at Jimmy as if he had exposed her somehow. “Let him get away with what?”
“With treating you like this.”
“Jimmy, I know I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You nearly died last night. Yet tonight he’s not here with you, holding your hand, but he’s out late who-knows-where doing who-knows-what. Why do you put up with that?”
Trina was stunned that Jimmy felt that way about her. “I’m not putting up with anything. Your father is working.”
“Where?” Jimmy asked. “He’s not here, at the PaLargio. I just clocked off. So where is Dad doing all of this big work?”
Trina considered their oldest child. “What are you trying to imply, Jimmy?”
“You need to get stricter with Dad. You need to make him tell you where he is at all times.”
“Oh, really now? And I’m sure Reno will gladly allow that. I’m sure he’ll check in with me every time he’s about to make a move. That is so Reno. That sounds so much like my husband and your father.” Then Trina got real. “Come on, Jimmy. Reno will kick my ass and yours too before he have me controlling him like that.”
“But he should be here with you, Mom. He’s the boss, and I mean the final boss. He can clock off early sometimes. You shouldn’t have to sit home alone by yourself all the time.”
“Quit exaggerating, boy,” Trina admonished Jimmy. “He’ll be here if he could. He apparently had work to do.”
Across town, Reno had work to do. He had Shaun Connors by the catch of his two legs, upside down and dangling out of a tenth floor empty office building, and Shaun was wiggling and begging for mercy so hard that Debrosiac had to grab hold of his feet to prevent him from slipping out accidentally. But it was no accident why they were there.
“It’s not my fault!” Shaun was pleading. “I had no idea Mag knew anything about your wife!”
“But you approached my wife with lies, didn’t you? You were trying to set her up, weren’t you?”
“No!” Shaun cried. “I wasn’t trying to do any such thing, Mr. Gabrini! You have to believe me. I was just---”
“You were just what?” Reno pulled him a little further out of the window.
“I was just talking to her, that’s all. I wasn’t trying to set her up. I swear! I was just talking to her.”
Reno pulled him back up into the room. Shaun was weak-kneed when his feet touched back down.
“Why did you lie about being mistreated at my hotel? Why did you lie?”
“Because it was a way for me to talk to your wife. It was a way for me to get her attention. But I didn’t know Mag would try something like that. I broke up with her weeks ago!”
“She didn’t break up with you,” Reno said.
“But I broke up with her! I didn’t want her. I don’t know what she was thinking! You’ve got to understand that!”
“Your decision to try and steal my wife from me, which is enough for me to beat your ass alone, is what caused that woman to try what she did. What the fuck am I supposed to understand? If it wasn’t for your horny ass my wife would not have been in that river fighting for her life. Your actions brought that about. You can claim you had nothing to do with it until you’re blue in the face. But your actions started this whole shit-ball rolling, and it almost rolled over the most important person in this world to me. What do you think I’m going to do about that? Nothing?”
“That would be great,” Shaun said.
Debrosiac laughed.
“Yeah, that would be peachy I’ll bet.” Reno looked at him hard. “Oh, you’re going to get an ass-whipping. That goes without saying. You’d better be glad that’s all you’re getting. Because if you go anywhere near my wife again, she’ll be the last sight you ever see on the face of this earth. Do I make myself clear, Mr. Connors?”
“Yes,” Shaun said, his head bobbing almost hysterically. “I can’t stress how much you’ve made yourself clear.”
Reno stared at him. He was a chump in the end, he decided. He nodd
ed for Debrosiac to take care of it. Then he walked out.
Shaun felt a false sense of security when Reno left. “He didn’t mean that, did he?” he asked Debrosiac. “He wasn’t really going to drop me over that ledge because of some woman, was he?”
“Man, shut up.”
“Because if I wanted the bitch,” Shaun said boldly, refusing to shut up. “I would have had the bitch.”
“On second thought,” Reno said, and made a beeline back to Shaun before Debrosiac could commence his ass-whipping.
When Shaun saw him returning, he pointed in that direction. “No!” he yelled, prompting Debrosiac to look too. But it was a diversionary tactic because Shaun then grabbed the gun out of Debrosiac’s hand and pointed it at Debrosiac’s head. “He’s dead if you come one step closer,” Shaun warned.
Reno stopped in his tracks.
“That’s right,” Shaun said. “I’m not as lame as you thought I was. Even I can shoot and maim from this distance.”
But Reno was so quick that he pulled his weapon and fired it into Shaun’s shoulder before Shaun realized Reno had made a move at all. The gun flew from Shaun’s hand as his instinct caused his hand to hurry and cover his wound.
“But can you shoot and kill,” Reno asked as he made his way up to Shaun.
Debrosiac grabbed his gun from the floor and pointed it at Shaun. “You bastard!” he said.
But Reno didn’t bother with any more conversation. Shaun had crossed that line.
“What are you doing?” Shaun was asking as Reno lifted him out of that window, but this time Reno didn’t even tease. He let go. Shaun flew like a bird without wings, with his cries growing fainter and fainter, until he splattered across the sidewalk.
Even Debrosiac was stunned. He looked out of the window, and then looked at Reno.
Reno stared at the body a moment longer, a drained look appearing in his cold eyes, and then he left.
Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 Page 10
