Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12

by Mallory Monroe

  Gail smiled. “At least there’s one good thing that could come out of all of this.”

  Amy looked at her. “What?”

  “Your money troubles will be over. Because say what you will about Reno Gabrini, if that DNA test proves that he is indeed the father, he’s going to take care of his kid.”

  “I’m not worried about how he’ll treat his child. Because you’re right. He’ll take care of his kid. I’m worried about how he’s going to treat the mother of his kid. That’s what’s keeping me up nights.”

  But Gail had no sympathy for her friend. “You should have left that man alone,” she said. “Because he might have been drunk, if I believe your story, but you weren’t. You knew what you were doing.”

  Amy shook her head. Gail spoke the truth. It was a painful truth, she thought. But it was nothing but the truth.

  And she began to upchuck once again.

  Reno had her legs opened wide across the bed, and his naked body was perched between them. His tongue was licking her pussy so slowly that Trina felt every lick as if it was a spark of electricity rushing through her body. And he wouldn’t ease up. He licked and licked. He licked so long that Trina could feel her clitoris pulsating even when his tongue wasn’t touching it.

  And then he began to eat.

  That was Reno’s best skill, Trina thought. He knew how to eat her. He knew how to part her folds and go down on her so hard that she lifted her upper body to endure the ecstasy of the sensations. She was breathing with labored breaths, as he ate her.

  Then Reno moved up, straddling her naked body, and he kept moving up until his penis was in her mouth. And it was her time to go down on him.

  Trina wrapped her small hand around his large cock as she licked and sucked.

  “Aaah,”Reno said as he splayed his open hands against the wall. “Tree,” he added, as he closed his eyes, leaned his head down, and enjoyed the sensations. This woman was the love of his life, and the idea that she would think he would prefer any woman above her was beyond nuts to Reno. She was who he wanted. She had what he wanted.

  But her oral became too expert. He was going to cum if he didn’t pull it out of her mouth, and put it in her vagina. He moved down, lifted one of her legs, and eased his fully aroused wet dick into her fully saturated pussy.

  And the grind began. Reno stared at Trina, and Trina stared at Reno, as they made love. Her hair was like a bang across her forehead, and his thick hair was all over his head, and she could not have looked better to him, and he could not have looked better to her. Reno was so overcome by his feelings for her that he fondled her breasts, and then leaned down and kissed her hard and passionately, as he fucked her.

  And then the reason for the motel room came into play. Because Reno cut loose and began to pound into her. Trina held on, enjoying every second of his roughness, as the bed bounced and her yells of joy resounded throughout the room. They had on the television, and it was blaring, but nothing was going to muffle those sounds.

  In the room next door, in fact, two teenagers in heat had to stop their lovemaking to listen to Reno and Tree’s. Because they put them to shame. They could hear how hard he was pushing it deeper and deeper into her, and how deliciously she was receiving it. And the bouncing bed, and the grunts and groans, it was an education for them.

  And it lasted. Back in Reno’s room, he made love to Trina longer than even he thought possible. Until Trina finally came, and he followed her.

  By the time it was over, they were both so drained that Reno rolled off of her, and did not have the strength to pull her into his arms. He reached for her, but she had to do the work. She came to him.

  Trina smiled. “I married an old man,” she said, as she went.

  Val Gabrini heard the front door of the penthouse open and close, and she smiled. “About time,” she said jovially as she put the last dish in the dishwasher and hurried toward the living room. “I was starting to think you guys weren’t coming home,” she added, as she turned the corner.

  But as soon as she turned the corner, she realized it wasn’t Reno and Trina that had arrived to relieve her of her babysitting duties, nor was it even Jimmy. She stopped in her tracks. It was a man. A man she’d never seen before in her life.

  And just as she began to scream, the man in front of her, Carlo Minatare, pointed his gun and put a bullet in her brain.

  Shock was still on Val’s pretty face, as she fell to the floor.

  Dommi, in the penthouse playroom, looked up from his video game when he heard the scream, the gunshot, and then the fall. He wanted to cry Val’s name, but he remembered what his father told him. If something odd happened, Reno told him, he was to get defensive. He was to make sure his sister was safe, and always look for a weapon.

  Dommi dropped his controls, and grabbed Sophie, who was also in the playroom playing with her dolls. “Come on,” he whispered to her, as he took her by the hand and hurried her under the bed. Then he pointed his finger at her the way his father pointed his finger at him. “Stay here,” he said, “no matter what.”

  And Sophie, a slave to her big brother, did as she was told.

  Dommi then hurried to the closet, grabbed his baseball bat, and then ran up front to see what was going on.

  When he saw Val on the floor, and the blood, he became so stunned that the bat dropped from his hand. And then he saw the man. And the man was coming toward him. He picked up the bat and started swinging. The man laughed. This was ridiculous. No contest.

  And it wasn’t. Because the bat was easily taken from Dom. And then the man was upon him. He fought and tried to scream, but his scream was muffled. And then there was darkness. And then Dommi felt a needle prick. And then he fell asleep.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Reno and Trina entered the lobby of their hotel hand in hand. They spoke to all of those who were speaking, which was pretty much their entire staff, and then they made their way toward their private elevator.

  “I told you,” Reno said as they walked. “Everybody knows your name around this joint.”

  Trina smiled. “I’m glad we did it that way,” she said. “It was really good and refreshing.”

  “Good my ass,” Reno responded. “It was the best.”

  “It was close, you’re right.”

  Reno looked at her. “It was close? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It was almost the best I’ve ever had. A close second. But Bugsy was still better.”

  Reno stopped walking, and wouldn’t release her hand so she was forced to stop walking too. It took all Trina had not to laugh. “Who the fuck is Bugsy?” Reno asked.

  “Just this guy I dated before I met you. Now he was something else.”

  Reno stared at her with a look so sincere Trina couldn’t hold it in any longer. She laughed. “You know I’m kidding, boy,” she said as she wrapped her arm around his arm and pulled him along. They continued to head for the private elevator. “I don’t know why you don’t know when I’m joking. You’re my boo. What’s wrong with you?”

  Reno smiled and shook his head. “Your boo,” he said, as they made it to the elevator and he swiped his keycard. “Yeah, I’ve got your boo alright. I’ve got your boo right here.” Reno looked down. Trina laughed. The doors opened and they stepped onto the elevator. But just as the doors were about to close, Jimmy ran on too.

  “There you are!” He slid between the closing doors, just barely making it. “You guys are just getting back from dinner?”

  “I thought you were babysitting,” Reno responded. “You and Val.”

  “Val is. I had a fight to handle.”

  “A fight?” Reno asked. “Which lounge?”

  “None of the lounges,” Jimmy said. “The fight was in the casino. Two old ladies with oxygen tanks fighting over some equally decrepit old man. It was ludicrous.”

  Trina laughed. “I’ll bet they were having fun, though. Nothing ludicrous about that!”

  The elevator doors soon opened, and deposi
ted them into the penthouse itself. They walked around, toward the living room. But Reno saw blood before he saw anything else, and he stopped his wife and son in their tracks, pulled out his gun, and moved in front of them. That was when he saw Val, on the floor, gurgling.

  “Dear Lord,” Trina said, when she saw it too.

  Jimmy was the last to see it, and when he did, his heart plummeted. “Val!” he yelled, and ran to his wife. “Oh my God, Val!”

  And as soon as Reno and Trina realized the scene, and saw that Val had in fact been shot, they both came to the same conclusion and ran as if their lives depended on it toward their children’s rooms.

  “Dommi! Lexie!” Reno was crying as he ran.

  “Dommi! Sophie!” cried Trina as she ran.

  First they ran into the Nursery. No one. Then Dom’s room. No one. Then the playroom, their hearts pounding as if they were going to explode with anguish. And that was when Reno saw his baby girl, beneath the bed.

  “Lexie,” he said, relieved, as he ran to her.

  “Daddy!” Sophia said as she reached for Reno and he lifted her into his arms.

  “Oh, baby,” Trina said. “Where’s Dom?”

  “Where your brother, baby?” Reno asked too.

  But Sophia didn’t know. All she knew was what Dommi had told her. “He told me to stay put. And I stayed put.”

  “Did you see anybody, darling?” Trina asked her.

  “Nobody, Mommy. Nobody.”

  “Did you hear anybody?” Reno asked her.

  She nodded her head.

  Reno and Trina exchanged a glance. Then he quickly checked the closet to make sure their unwelcomed guest wasn’t in that room, and then he pulled out a second hand gun and gave it to Tree. “Lock it and wait here,” he ordered her, as he hurried out of the playroom and closed the door behind him.

  Trina hurried to the door and did as Reno ordered her to do. She locked herself and their daughter inside.

  Reno hurried through his entire penthouse, checking it, calling his son’s name, and then he made his way back into the living room. “How is she?” he asked Jimmy. But Jimmy was cradling her, rocking her in his arms: too devastated to speak.

  “Did you call 911?” Reno asked him.

  He nodded. “I called. But she don’t look good, Daddy.”

  Reno got down on his knees beside his son. Reno squeezed his son’s shoulder, and pulled out his cell phone. “How the fuck could this happen?” he asked.

  The penthouse security chief, Mike Jannick, answered the call. “Yes, sir, boss?”

  “Get a crew up here now and get your ass up here with them. Somebody kidnapped my son and shot my daughter-in-law. Right under your fucking nose!”

  “What?” Jannick was stunned.

  “Get here now!” Reno killed the call. And then he looked at Val. “Dear Jesus,” he said. And then his cell phone rang. He immediately answered. “This is Reno.”

  “No cops,” a disguised, muffled voice said on the other end. “Nobody is to know about your son. The cops can never know that your son has been kidnapped.”

  Reno’s heart dropped. He had been hoping against hope that Dommi had somehow escaped. “You have my son?” he asked, and Jimmy looked at him.

  “I have little Dominic,” the voice said. “And I will kill little Dominic if you don’t do exactly as I tell you to do. You will not involve the police. You will not involve the FBI. You will not even involve your cousin Sal and cousin Tommy. This is going to be between you and me. Or that little rascal of yours, Dominic Gabrini, Junior, will be dead. No ands, ifs, or buts about it. Do we understand each other, Mr. Gabrini?”

  “How do I know he’s alive?” Reno asked.

  “Say hello to your father, Dominic?”

  A voice came onto the phone. “Daddy.” Reno’s heart slammed against his chest. “Daddy, help me!”

  “Are you hurt, Dommi?” Reno asked him.

  “No, sir. But they’re mean, Daddy. They say they’re going to finish you.”

  “You do whatever they tell you to do. You hear me, Dom?” He knew his son. He was a hard-head if ever there was one. “You hear me, son? Don’t worry about what they say about me. I’m fine. We’re all fine. You do whatever they tell you to do.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I’ll get you home safe, son. I promise you.”

  “You tell the cops or anybody else about your missing son,” the muffled voice returned on the other end, “then your missing son will become your dead son. You hear me, Gabrini? You fuck with me, and your boy is dead.” And then the call went dead.

  “Wait!” Reno yelled, rising to his feet. “Motherfucker!”

  “Who was it?” Jimmy asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  Jimmy looked back at his wife. She was breathing, she was still alive. But barely. “Hold on, Val, okay? The ambulance is on its way. It’s going to be all right. Please, hold on!”

  Then the door opened swiftly, and Jannick and an army of men hurried in.

  “What happened?” he asked as he entered, his eyes looking at Val.

  But Reno’s head was spinning. He could hardly believe what was happening. He hurried out of the room, down the hall, to the playroom. He knocked on the door. “It’s me, Tree,” he said, and Trina unlocked and opened the door. When she saw Reno’s face, her heart fell. “What is it? Is it Val?”

  Reno’s hard blue eyes began to water. Trina grabbed hold of his coat lapel. “Reno, what is it?”

  “They took Dommi, babe,” Reno finally said. “They took our boy!”

  Trina began shaking her head, staring at her husband and shaking her head. “No,” she said. “No!” Memories of Reno’s other son Nicky, and what those mobsters did to him, flashed through her head. Not her baby boy. Not Dommi! She couldn’t take it. She wasn’t going to be able to handle this. And before she realized just how emotional she had become, she began to collapse.

  Reno quickly grabbed her, and his baby girl in her arms, and held them up.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  It was eight the next morning. Val had been in surgery through the night. Reno and Trina sat on either side of Jimmy in the hospital waiting room, with both of them holding one of Jimmy’s hands, and Sophia was asleep on her father’s lap. Reno didn’t want to bring his baby to a place like this, but Trina wasn’t letting Sophie out of her sight. They took Dommi. They wasn’t taking Sophie too.

  Buddy Wellstone, Val’s father, was also in the room. He was pacing the floor in his imported suit and alligator shoes, now one of the most successful realtors in Vegas thanks to the major business Reno sent his way. But he’d give up that success in a heartbeat if it could change this fateful night, and what happened to his little girl.

  “Look like they would have told us something by now,” Buddy said as he paced. “I’ve had surgery before. It never took this long.”

  Jimmy knew what his father-in-law was going through. He was feeling the same pain. He got up, and went to Buddy. “She’s going to be all right, Dad,” he said, and squeezed his shoulder. “Let’s go get some coffee.”

  But Buddy was reluctant to leave the ER area, even to get coffee. He looked at Reno.

  “If the doctor comes in,” Reno said, “I’ll hit you up on your cell, Buddy. Go with Jim.”

  That seemed to be enough. Buddy nodded, he trusted Reno. And then he and Jimmy left.

  Trina looked at Reno. “Have you heard anything?”

  “Nothing. But my men are out there, blanketing this city. If there’s something to be found, they’ll find it.”

  “What about the cameras at the PaLargio? How did that guy get inside the penthouse?”

  “Inside job,” Reno said. “One of my men was paid handsomely to turn off all cameras and to give him access up. He tried to claim he forgot to turn them on, including the backups, but I didn’t buy it. He’s gone now.”

  Trina knew what that meant. The horrible things Reno had to do! “Are you going to call Sal and Tommy?” she aske
d.

  “They said Dommi’s dead if I do.”

  “You believe them?”

  “I have to. For Dommi’s sake.”

  “Whoever has him knew about your relationship with Sal and Tommy,” Trina pointed out.

  “Which narrows it down to just about everybody,” Reno pointed out.

  “But don’t you think we need their help?”

  “Hell yeah we need it, Tree. We need all the help we can get. But what do you want me to do? These fuckers might be serious. I don’t know that they aren’t. I’m not risking it. Besides, they’re too far away anyway. Tommy’s already in Japan and Sal and Gemma are almost there. I’m not waiting for any return flights. This shit ends today.”

  Then Reno ran his hand over his tired eyes, and exhaled.

  “Dom will be okay, honey,” Trina said, rubbing his back. “He’s a fighter.”

  “He’s a handful,” Reno said.

  Trina couldn’t agree more. “He’s going to talk those people to death. They’ll probably throw him back to us just to shut him up.”

  Reno smiled an affectionate smile just thinking about his son. But then he thought about the alternative, and how they could just as easily kill Dom if he got on their nerves that badly, and his smile was gone.

  He handed Sophia to Trina and stood up as if he couldn’t bear sitting still another moment. With one hand on his hip and the other hand coursing through his hair, he began walking around the room like a wounded animal. He tried not to think about his deceased son Nicky, and how he was unable to save him, but he couldn’t stop thinking about that hellish time. Until the door opened, and two of his men, Jannick and Debrosiac, walked in.

  Reno hurried to them, and Trina, hoisting Sophia onto her hip, hurried too. “What you got?” Reno asked them.

  Jannick looked at Trina as if he didn’t know if he should talk in front of her.