Debrosiac still stood there in disbelief. He looked at Shaun on that sidewalk, and then back at Reno’s retreating form. And he shook his head. He’d never met a more vicious man than Reno Gabrini.
And it wasn’t the other way around. Because the older Reno got, Debrosiac thought has he hurried behind him, the more vicious he was becoming.
CHAPTER TEN
Reno was surprised to see Trina was still up. Usually when he had one of his late nights, she and the children would be fast asleep. The children were asleep-the silence in his home proved that. But Trina wasn’t.
She was seated in the living room wing chair, her legs hanging over one of the arms, with her iPad in her hands. She removed her reading glasses and looked at Reno when he walked in.
“You’re up,” he said, as he walked up to her. He sat near her, on the edge of the sofa. “How are you feeling?”
“I thought you would be home for dinner,” Trina said, not interested in any small talk at this late hour.
“I thought so too. But I couldn’t make it.”
“You could have phoned.”
Reno looked at her. Since when did he have to phone her? He didn’t say he’d be home in time for supper. He usually wasn’t home in time for supper. He usually wasn’t home in time for anything but bed. “So what gives?” he asked. “What happened?”
“Who says something happened?”
“The fact that you’re still up says it. The fact that you’re pulling this where were you shit says it. Now tell me what’s on your mind.”
Trina didn’t like his tone. She looked at him, and then put back on her glasses and looked back at her iPad. “Sal called tonight looking for you.”
Reno knew he had upset Trina. He exhaled. “Yeah?”
“He and Gemma wants to take us out to dinner tomorrow night.”
“I thought they were going to Japan tomorrow night.”
“They were. They still are. But they wanted to have dinner with us before they left.”
Reno smiled. “Knowing both of them the way I do, I’m certain this dinner date is more about eyeballing you before they leave the country. They want to make certain, after that hit-and-run, that I’m taking care of you right.”
Trina smiled weakly. She was certain that wasn’t it, but why argue about it?
Reno considered her. She deserved an answer to her question. “I was out taking care of business,” he said. “I was taking care of that hit-and-run business,” he added. “I found out who hit and ran.”
Trina looked at him over her reading glasses. “You found who did it?”
“I found her.”
“A woman?”
“A middle-aged woman named Maggie Vinson. Heard of her?”
Trina thought about that name, then shook her head. “No,” she said. “Should I have?”
“She was Shaun Connors sugar mama.”
“Shaun Connors? The guy who---”
“The guy who claimed the PaLargio wasn’t shit and all of that bullshit, yeah. Him. Seems his old money bags thought he was having an affair with you.”
Trina was stunned. “With me? Just because I was talking to him?”
“Because you were talking to him twice. She wasn’t taking any chances.”
Trina shook her head and thought about how such an obvious misunderstanding nearly got her killed. Then she looked at Reno. He wouldn’t stand for that. She knew it. “I take it payback was in order?”
“You better believe it was. I’m not a heartless man, Tree. But when they fuck with you, I am. I don’t take mercy and I don’t give none.”
Trina nodded. “I know.”
“What about Shaun? Have you spoken to him?”
“I spoke with him tonight.”
“And what did you do about him?”
“I was going to let an ass-whipping be enough. But he started talking that bull about how he could have any woman he wanted and if he wanted you he was going to have you and I wasn’t risking it, Tree. The Gabrinis have a family motto: if you leave a stone unturned, it’ll turn on you. His ass caused everything to go down. I turned on him. And it was a good thing, too, because his ass had taken my man’s gun and put it to his head. If I would not have turned back, a good man would have been dead. I took care of business then.”
Trina looked at her husband. “You’re a cop without a license, Reno. You give street justice. Because cops operate within the law, they get to pat themselves on the back when they gun down the bad guy. They get metals and raises. You get nightmares and guilt. But you do the right thing, Reno. I know you do.”
Reno felt a wellspring of love for Trina when she said those words. He stared at her with nothing but affection in his eyes. But he knew her like he knew his name. She still needed to talk to him. Something was bothering her. “Why did you wait up for me, Trina?” he asked her. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
Trina didn’t know how to say it without getting him upset, even after she had just praised him, so she removed her glasses, looked over at him, and just said it. “Amy came by to see me today,” she said.
Reno hesitated, which Trina knew usually meant what she said had hit a nerve. Then he leaned back on the sofa and crossed his legs. “What did she want? I told her ass to stay away from you.”
“She said the real reason you fired her last month wasn’t because of your business partners, but because she refused to sleep with you.”
Reno hesitated again, which concerned Trina. “That’s a lie,” he finally said.
“She said the reason Quinn was promoted was because she slept with you.”
“That’s a lie too. She’s lying. I never slept with Quinn.”
“Did you try to sleep with Amy?”
“I never slept with Amy either.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Reno gave Trina a hard stare. “I never slept with her, I never tried to sleep with her.”
But then he had that flashback again. It was a month ago and he was in Hawaii. He closed the deal for a PaLargio in the Pacific and was celebrating. Amy was his senior executive assistant and was on the trip with him. She was his designated driver. And he needed her. She got him back to the hotel in one piece.
But the rest of the night was a blur. He couldn’t remember shit. And then that next morning. He woke up in bed, with Amy beside him. He didn’t realize she was naked until she got out of bed. She denied anything happened, and his penis wasn’t moist. She gave him some cockamamie story about sleeping in the same bed with him to prevent him from trying to get more booze. Why was she naked? She always slept naked, she claimed. But he never told Tree. His story would sound as cockamamie to Tree as Amy’s sounded to him.
“What, Reno?” Trina asked.
Reno looked at her. “What?”
“What were you thinking about?”
“What are you talking? I told you I never had sex with Amy, and Quinn neither, and didn’t want to have sex with either one of them. I don’t cheat on you. Never have, and I never will. Now are you going to believe me, the man who loves you, or some desperate trick trying to get herself employed at my expense? Which is it going to be, Tree, because I’m not dealing with this Amy nonsense over and over again. I don’t want that woman. I never wanted that woman. What’s the problem here?”
It was that simple, and that complicated to Tree. Because Reno sized it up perfectly the way he usually did. Who was she going to believe? Her husband, whom she knew loved her and respected her above anybody else, or Amy? A woman she didn’t really know at all.
She put her iPad aside, and her glasses aside, and she went to Reno. He pulled her onto his lap and kissed her. She made her choice. She was casting her lot with Reno.
Sal and Gemma actually applauded when Reno and Trina entered the restaurant.
“Very funny,” Reno said as Trina and Sal hugged, and Reno and Gemma hugged. They all sat back down.
“You’re late,” Sal said to Reno as they sat down. “Which
I expected. You’re always late. But you outdid yourself this time, Pal.”
But Gemma was more concerned about Trina. “How are you feeling?” she asked. “When Sal told me what happened, I was shocked. I mean I can’t imagine how terrifying that had to have been.”
“It was tough, girl,” Trina said.
“For real. But Reno found a way.”
Gemma smiled. “He always does when it comes to you.”
“Tell her, Gem,” Reno said. “Tell her what a special man she has.”
“Nope,” Gemma said. “I’ve got a special man. She’s got you.”
Trina and Sal laughed, and Trina and Gemma high-fived.
“Okay,” Reno said, nodding his head. “Gemma got jokes. Gemma’s blind too, if she think Sal’s something special. But that’s cool too.”
“Yeah, sure,” Sal said. “She got you good. Just admit it.”
“He admits to nothing,” Trina said, and even Reno had to laugh about that.
“So how’s Tommy?” Reno asked. “He’s still in South America?”
“He was in South America. He’s in Japan now with Liz.”
“You and Gem still headed that way?”
“Yup. After dinner. It’s mainly a business trip, Tommy and I have a merger meeting, but I’m sure Gem and Liz will get in some fun time.”
“You and Tommy need to have some fun too, Sal,” Trina said. “Japan is a beautiful, romantic place. Have some fun while you’re there. You work too hard.”
“He hardly works,” Reno corrected her. “What are you talking?”
“Whatever, Reno,” Sal said.
“Anyway,” Trina said. “I know I just got here, but I need to freshen up.” She grabbed her purse. “You’re game, Gem?”
“Always,” Gemma said and grabbed her purse too. Their husbands stood as they headed for the ladies room. Then Reno and Sal sat back down.
“Everything okay with Trina?” Sal asked.
“Yeah. She’s good.”
“What’s the line on that hit-and-run? You buying that accident shit?”
“Hell no. It was no accident. That Maggie Vinson, the lady I told you about, she thought Trina was having an affair with her boy toy.”
Sal was surprised. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“I kid you not. She wanted Tree dead, but it flipped on her.”
“And what about the boy toy?”
“I flipped on him. He grabbed a gun and tried to start some shit. I finished it.”
“Damn right,” Sal agreed. “You can’t leave stones unturned, or they’ll turn on you.”
“Speaking of unturned stones.” Reno leaned back. “Remember Amy Shumer?”
Sal nodded. “That girl that used to work for you? Yeah, sure. What about her?”
“Trina hired her to work at Champagne’s.”
“Get the fuck out of here! I hope you shut that down.”
“I shut it down,” Reno responded. “I even threatened her ass.”
“Trina’s?”
“No, idiot! Amy’s.”
“Don’t call me an idiot, all right?”
“But even after I threatened her ass,” Reno continued, “she showed up again.”
“Get the fuck out of here! She didn’t believe you?”
“Apparently she didn’t because she went there. She told Tree she wouldn’t let me sleep with her and that’s why I fired her.”
“I’ll be damn. Tree fell for it?”
“No. But she asked me a lot of questions.”
“You told her what went down?”
“’Hell no. The truth is too fucked up. I’m not taking that chance. Trina might believe something actually happened if I tell her the truth.”
Sal looked at Reno askance. “Something might have happened,” he said. “Your ass was too drunk to know the difference.”
“Nothing happened.”
“You don’t know that, Reno. You were drunk.”
“I wasn’t that drunk,” Reno said firmly.
“Then why can’t you remember that night?” Sal asked. “Why is it all a blur to you?”
“I don’t cheat on Katrina. I wouldn’t do that to her. I didn’t do that to her.”
“That you’re aware of,” Sal said.
“I didn’t cheat on Trina,” Reno said. “I know that much. And not a fucker alive is going to tell me different.”
Sal reached out and he and Reno fist-bumped. “I hear you, brother,” Sal said. “And normally I would disagree with your ass. I would think you should tell Trina, especially with Amy out there making noise and trying to get into her good graces.”
Reno considered Sal. They argued like cats and dogs, but he respected the man. “So you think I’m doing the right thing? You don’t think I should tell her either?”
“I don’t think you should. I mean, when you told me the story after it happened it sounded like bullshit to me. And I’m not your wife. I mean, you’re in beautiful Hawaii with a beautiful assistant. You manage to get stone-cold drunk, and lo and behold, you wake up with a naked lady in your bed. Yeah, she’ll believe that. Sure, she will.”
“But that’s how it happened,” Reno said.
“Good luck convincing Trina of that. She’ll think about all those rumors down through the years about you cheating on her, and it’ll be too much. She’ll leave your ass and take those children with her. And no human being on the face of this planet with blame her.”
Reno nodded. “Yeah,” he said, his blue eyes stormy. “My greatest fear will come true.” Then he shook his head. “And that’s exactly why I didn’t tell her. That’s exactly why I will never tell her.”
“Misunderstandings,” Sal said, “can get you divorced.”
“Damn right they can,” Reno agreed.
“What about Amy?” Sal asked.
“I’ll keep her ass in check. She told Trina one story already she doesn’t believe. She’s not going to believe any different version.”
Sal frowned. “Wonder why she lied? Wonder why she didn’t just claim you both were drunk and slept together in Hawaii?”
“Because then she would implicate herself and Trina wouldn’t give her that job she desperately needs. She’ll be the bad guy too. But if she claim she was the innocent all along, and I was pursuing her, she would still stand a chance with Tree. And you know my wife. She’s all about second chances.”
“You’d better hope she has a second chance to give to you,” Sal said. “Because you’re going to need one if she ever finds out about what really went down in Hawaii.”
Then Sal laughed and gulped down his beer. But Reno couldn’t even crack a smile. He was a strong man. The strongest man out there, some would argue. But the idea of losing Trina terrified him. That wasn’t a chance, not even one built on truth, he was willing to take.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Trina looked at the changing landscape as Reno drove his Porsche slowly through the streets of their town. But it wasn’t familiar landscape that led to either their estate, or their penthouse at the PaLargio. She looked at Reno. “Where are you taking me?” she asked him.
“To privacy. At least for a couple hours.”
“A couple of hours? What for?”
Reno looked at his wife. “I need to release inside of you with no restraints, no lowered voices, no holding back.”
Trina felt the heat just from Reno’s gaze. “Oh,” she said, nodding her approval. “I see.”
He returned his gaze to the road. “I wanted to do this all evening. But Sal wouldn’t shut his big fat mouth.”
Trina laughed. “He was in a good mood. He and Gemma both.”
“Yeah, she was running her trap too,” Reno said. “They were like two noisy-ass peas in a pod.”
But as the terrain looked more and more unfamiliar to Trina, her attention returned to their purpose. “Why aren’t we going to the house?” she asked him. “The children are at the penthouse. We can have privacy at the estate.”
But Reno
was already shaking his head. “It’s too damn far away. I don’t want to wait that long. I can’t wait that long.”
“So where are you taking me then?”
“Motel.”
This surprised Trina. “A motel? Reno, you own a hotel. A luxury hotel. You have private rooms on top of private rooms.”
“And if I show up at the PaLargio and take you into some random room and do what I intend to do to you, they’ll hear us from the top floor to the bottom floor. We won’t hear the end of it. I’m not going where everybody knows my name.”
Trina smiled. “You sound like that song from Cheers.”
“That’s the point. I don’t want Cheers. I want privacy with my wife.”
Trina laughed as Reno drove up to the front entrance to the Rook Motel. “Wait here,” he said, got out, and walked into the lobby.
Trina leaned back and watched him. He wasn’t getting any younger, her Reno, but he was still her boo. She loved him. She loved his look and his style and his strength. She and Reno had their differences, but they made love just as hard as they made war. And she loved that about him. Never a dull moment with Reno, she thought, as he returned with a key and a smile.
She nodded her head when he got back into the car. “You look like a kid about to go into a candy store,” she said, and Reno laughed.
Amy Shumer ran past her friend Gail as she hurried, once again, to her bathroom. Gail followed her, and stood at the doorway as Amy upchucked in the toilet. Amy then sat on her bathroom floor, in case more wanted to regurgitate.
“I thought it was called morning sickness,” Amy said. “Not night sickness.”
“It’s morning, noon, and night for some ladies,” Gail responded. “I’ve had three kids. Trust me, I know.” Then she stared at her friend. “You’ve got to tell him. You know that, right?”
“No, I don’t know that. He’s already threatened me for being around his wife. What do you think he’ll do to me if he finds out I’m pregnant?”
“He had to know there was a possibility,” Gail said. “His ass didn’t use a condom.”
“His ass was drunk, I told you that,” Amy shot back. “He’s going to declare it never happened. He’s going to call me every liar in the book and try to do I don’t know what to silence me. And you expect me to waltz up to a man like that and bust out with the big news?” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.
Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 Page 11
