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

by Mallory Monroe

  “Yes, sir,” Dommi said, and he and Sophia were off and running around again.

  Reno heard a car pull up on the driveway. “I think they’re here,” he said.

  Buddy turned his meats one more time, closed the grill tops, as Reno rounded up his children.

  “They’re here,” he yelled, and Dommi took Sophia by the hand and ran with her to the patio. Buddy picked up Sophia and headed inside the house, but Reno stopped Dommi and pulled him back.

  “What did I do?” Dommi asked: his usual refrain.

  Reno knelt down to his son. “You didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I saw the way you took your sister’s hand just now and helped her to the patio. I wanted to thank you again for how you protected your sister from those bad guys that day.”

  “I told her to stay under the bed no matter what.”

  “That’s right, and that was exactly the right thing to do. You’re a hero in my book. You know why?”

  “Yes, sir. Because heroes look out for the ladies and the babies first.”

  “That’s right. You always make sure your sister and mommy are safe before you do anything else.”

  “And then you find a weapon,” Dommi said.

  Reno hated that his so-young son had to know about weapons, but he had to. He frowned and patted Dommi’s stomach. “That’s right, son,” he said. “Then you find a weapon.”

  “When are you going to teach me how to shoot, Daddy? I know boys younger than I am and they go hunting with their daddies and they know how to shoot a rifle. I can’t even shoot a gun.”

  “Lord have mercy,” Reno couldn’t help but say. The idea of his son with a gun terrified even him. Dommi might gun down everybody in sight just to see what would happen. “Get up,” he would say after shooting everybody. “Why won’t y’all get up?”

  “Let’s go say hey to Auntie Val,” Reno said instead, and Dommi, remembering why they were having this cookout in the first place, took off running. Reno wiped his forehead with the back of his hand as if he just dodged a bullet.

  When he made his way through the sliding glass door, through the kitchen, and into the living room, Jimmy was holding Val’s hand as she walked gingerly to her sofa. When she sat down, she reached for Sophia. Buddy sat the little girl on her lap.

  “You look wonderful, baby girl,” Buddy said to Val as Reno arrived. “Don’t she look good, Reno?”

  “She looks great,” Reno said with a smile and moved over and kissed her on the cheek. Jimmy could see Val blush. “Welcome home,” Reno said to her.

  “Thank-you,” Val responded.

  “Why do you walk so slow?” Dommi asked her. “I can walk way faster than you.”

  Jimmy looked at his baby brother. “Get a bullet through your brain and see how fast you walk then,” he snapped.

  “James!” Reno warned. “Don’t give him any ideas.”

  Buddy laughed.

  “Where’s Ma?” Val asked.

  “She’ still at Champagne’s finishing up,” Reno said. “She and Gemma are still there. But they should be on their way soon.”

  “They’re alone?” Val asked. She was still traumatized by events and Jimmy knew it. He placed an arm around her waist.

  “Sal’s with them. He’s on guard duty tonight.”

  “Oh, good,” Val said, smiling. “That’s alright then.”

  “Sal’s back in town?” Buddy asked. “Man, am I behind the times. I thought he and Gemma were still in Japan.”

  “They been back,” Reno said. “And Sal still won’t let me forget the fact that I didn’t call him and Tommy as soon as it all went down.”

  “Those kidnappers said they would harm you-know-who if you called them.”

  “I told him that,” Reno agreed. “But you know Sal. I should have found a way.”

  “I don’t know how,” Buddy said. “It was handled in less than twenty-four hours.”

  “But you know Sal,” Reno said again. “If he can find a way to be pissed with me, he’ll find it.”

  They all laughed, including Val, whose only ill effect of her ordeal were headaches, which the doctor said should go away soon too.

  “Let me get back to my meat,” Buddy said, hurrying back toward the patio.

  “Smells delicious,” Val said. “I can’t wait!”

  Reno shook his head. “And here I was thinking you were a, what-you-call those people, Jimmy? A vegetation?”

  Val covered her mouth with laughter. Jimmy shook his head. “A vegan, Dad. A vegetarian.”

  “Right, that,” Reno said. Jimmy started laughing too. “What? What’s so funny?”

  “Yeah,” Dommi asked. “What’s so funny?”

  Then he and Reno looked at each other. Reno shook his head. “That brother of yours,” he said.

  Dommi shook his head too. “That brother of mine,” he agreed.

  “You gals ready?” Sal asked again as he looked at his Rolex again. “I don’t want to hear Reno’s mouth.”

  “We’re just about there,” Gemma said as she and Trina were shutting down the last two of their registers.

  But then knocks were heard on the door.

  “Nope, we’re closed,” Sal said, as he sliced one of his fingers across his throat as if that was the symbol for closed.

  When Trina looked up and saw who it was that had knocked on the locked store door, she frowned. “What does she want?” she said aloud.

  Sal looked at Trina. “You know her?”

  “That’s Amy Shumer, Sal. She used to work for Reno. I’m positive you saw her around his office before. She was his right-hand woman.”

  Sal looked at her again. “Oh, right. Her. Yeah, I remember her ass. The troublemaker.”

  “That’s the one.”

  “I thought you told her you didn’t believe her lies about Reno.”

  “I did tell her.”

  You wanna see what she wants?” Sal asked.

  “No,” Trina said. “But I’ve got a feeling I’d better. Let her in, Sal.”

  “Looks like she’s becoming a stone unturned,” Sal said as he began heading for the door. “Reno’s slipping. He should have handled this a long time ago.”

  “He did handle it,” Trina said. “I thought I had too when I told her I wasn’t hiring her.”

  “Well she apparently didn’t believe you,” Sal said, as he began unlocking the door. “But if she tries any bullshit tonight, I guarantee you she’ll believe me.”

  “Hello, Sal,” Amy said when he opened the door.

  “You know me like that?” Sal asked her.

  She smiled. She wasn’t about to get into it with the likes of him. “I need to speak with Mrs. Gabrini.”

  “Why you wait until closing time to show up?”

  “I just got off. I had to work the day shift.”

  “The what shift?” Sal asked.

  “May I come in?” she asked.

  Sal looked around the parking lot. Then he let her in and locked the door back. But he remained behind her as she walked up to the counter. Trina and Gemma walked from behind the counter and up to Amy.

  “What is it, Aim?” Trina asked her.

  “Hi,” she said to Gemma.

  “What is it, Amy?” Trina asked again. She wasn’t playing around with this child any longer.

  “I heard about your daughter-in-law,” Amy decided to say. “How is she?”

  “She’s recovering.”

  “Is it true she was shot?”

  “What the fuck that got to do with you?” Sal asked, forcing Amy to glance at him.

  “What do you want, Amy?” Trina asked again. “And I know whatever it is doesn’t concern my daughter-in-law. What do you want?”

  Amy knew there would be resistance. Just not this fierce. And with Sal here too! But this may be the last chance she had before Trina shut her out completely. She was not going to be deterred. She made up her mind last night. She was struggling, thanks to Reno nobody was going to give her a real job ever again, and s
he was carrying a goldmine in her belly. If she could get to Trina first, before Reno made her bend to his will the way he made everybody bend, she could get paid. She could be set for life and didn’t have to deal with asshole Reno ever again.

  “Can we talk in private?” she asked Trina.

  “Hell no,” Sal said.

  “No,” Trina said. “What you have to say you can say in front of my family. Now what do you want? I thought I made it clear that I’m not going to be able to hire you.”

  “That’s not why I’m here.”

  Trina considered her. More bullshit. She should have known. “Why are you here then?”

  Amy would have preferred to ease into the reason, but Trina was being a bitch and wasn’t going to let her. So she didn’t stutter either. “I’m pregnant, Mrs. Gabrini,” she said.

  Sal was floored. Gemma was floored. Was she trying to imply that Reno? They both looked at Trina.

  Trina was staring at Amy. “Is that supposed to matter to me?” she asked her.

  “I’m pregnant with Reno’s baby,” Amy said point blank.

  Something rose up in Trina that was so ugly that she couldn’t help herself. She slapped Amy so hard across the face that Amy stumbled back into Sal. Sal caught her, and then moved around her, as if he had to protect her from Trina. And he did. Because he knew the truth.

  Amy, still feeling the sting, held the side of her face. She looked at Trina. “It’s the truth,” she said. “You don’t have to believe me, but it’s the truth!”

  “I thought he harassed you,” Trina said. “I thought he wanted it so bad and you wouldn’t give it up. You were on lockdown, let you tell it. I thought that was the truth. Now you’re pregnant?”

  “I didn’t give it up,” Amy said. “He took it.”

  “That’s a lie!” Sal fired back. “Reno don’t have to take shit and you know it!”

  “It’s the truth!” Amy shot back. “We were in Hawaii when it happened. I was never going to say anything, even after he fired me on those trumped up charges I wasn’t going to say a word. Until I found out I was pregnant. I knew I had to let you know the truth, Mrs. Gabrini. He raped me. And now I’m pregnant. What are you going to do about it?”

  Trina started shaking her head. Amy was lying. She knew she was. And all she could feel was anger toward her. “Why are you telling me about it? It’s not my baby, if there is a baby in that belly of yours. Why didn’t you go to Reno?”

  Amy hesitated. She glanced at Sal. “Could we speak privately?” she asked again.

  “No, we can’t speak privately,” Trina snapped. “So stop asking. No!”

  Amy let out a deep-seated exhale, and pushed on through. “If I tell Reno, I know he’ll want this baby and I will have to deal with him for the rest of my life. You’ll have to deal with me for a very long time, too, Mrs. Gabrini. But I’ll be willing to change all of that.”

  Sal frowned. What the fuck?

  “For a price, the right price,” Amy said, “you can get rid of me, and I’ll get rid of the pregnancy. And I’ll leave town forever. Reno will never even know there was a pregnancy.”

  Sal and Gemma couldn’t believe it. They looked at Trina.

  But Trina wasn’t trying to hear this nonsense. She had already sized Amy up and determined her to be a fraud. Because Trina believed Reno. He said he never slept with Amy and there was no doubt in Trina’s mind. He never slept with this woman. She was out for money just as Trina thought, and she was willing to lie, cheat, and steal to get that money. “You’ll get rid of a child that may not be Reno’s to begin with,” she said to Amy, “and expect me to pay for that? Do I look that stupid to you?”

  “It’s Reno’s kid,” Amy said firmly. “There’s no doubt about it. You can wait and see if you want to, but once this baby is here, it’s here. And that little money you’ll give to get rid of me will be peanuts compared to what I’ll be asking for once this baby arrives.”

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Trina said. “Leave. Now! Sal, get her out of here, will you please? I’m not listening to this craziness another second.”

  “Hold on, Tree,” Sal said and everybody looked at him. But he didn’t care. He knew the truth.

  But Trina could hardly believe her ears. Fly-off-the-handle Sal was telling her not to fly-off-the-handle? “Hold on?” Trina asked him. She had a puzzled look on her face. “Hold on for what, Sal?”

  “Don’t tell me you believe her lies,” Gemma said to her husband, puzzled too.

  “Just hold on, alright?” Sal seemed irritated. Then he calmed back down. He looked at Trina. “I think we need to go talk to Reno.”

  “Talk to Reno?” Gemma asked. “But why? Reno will kill this fool if she got in his face with this nonsense. You know how he is about his family.”

  But Sal was staring at Trina. “We need to withhold judgment,” he said with all sincerity in his eyes, “and go see Reno.”

  And it was that look in those eyes of Sal that cut Trina short. Because she knew Sal. He was not a man who did anything just for the hell of it. He had a darn good reason or he would not have bothered.

  Trina was so nervous that she could feel her heartbeat hammering. “I’ll get my things,” she said, and walked away.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Because of the subject matter, Sal made the executive decision to take the ladies to Reno’s penthouse at the PaLargio and have Reno meet them there. Reno didn’t know why, and he was pissed that Sal refused to discuss it over the phone, but he knew Sal too. He would not have asked for this meeting if it wasn’t vital.

  But Reno felt his heart drop through his shoe when he walked into his and Trina’s penthouse and saw, not just Trina, Gemma, and Sal sitting in the living room, but Amy Shumer was sitting there too.

  He continued walking toward them, but not nearly as swiftly. “What is she doing here?” he asked.

  “Sit down, Reno,” Sal said.

  Trina and Gemma were seated on the sofa, while Sal sat in one chair, and Amy sat in the other one. Reno sat beside Trina. “What’s this about?” he asked her.

  Trina looked at him. “She’s pregnant, Reno.”

  Reno’s heart dropped through his shoe. Just the look on his face confirmed a lot for Trina. She couldn’t believe it. “It’s true?” she asked, stunned.

  “What’s true?” Reno asked, trying to regain his composure. “It’s not my baby!”

  “Then why did you look like that?” Trina asked him. “Why did you have that look on your face?”

  “What are you talking? What look?”

  Trina stared at her husband as if she’d never seen him like this before.

  Sal looked at Amy. “Tell him what you told us.”

  Amy swallowed hard. Telling it to Trina was one thing. Telling it to Reno was something altogether different. “I told them about what happened in Hawaii.”

  Reno looked at her. He wanted to dispute her. He wanted to say it was all a pack of lies she was about to tell. But he didn’t. He didn’t say a word. And his silence spoke loud and clear to Trina.

  “I told them how you kept harassing me for sex, and how I didn’t want to have anything like that to do with you.”

  Reno frowned. “What?”

  But Amy pressed on. “I told them how you forced me to have sex with you---”

  “That’s a lie!” Reno yelled. “That’s a gotdamn lie!”

  “What happened, Ree?” Sal asked him. Reno looked at him. “No lies. Tell Trina the truth.”

  Gemma was surprised to hear her husband say such a thing, as if he knew something already. She looked at Reno.

  Reno ran his hands through his already messy hair and looked at his wife. Trina was staring at him. “What happened, Reno?” she asked him. “You said, you told me you never slept with her.”

  “I didn’t!”

  “You did!” Amy fired back. “You know you did!”

  “Shut the hell up!” Trina yelled at Amy. This was stressful enough. She looked at her husband
. “What happened, Reno?” she asked.

  Reno could already see the hurt in Trina’s eyes. And he felt like crap because he was always the source of her pain. He rubbed his fingers across his forehead. “She went to Hawaii with me,” he said.

  Trina braced herself. It was one thing to suspect something awful happened. It was another thing to begin to hear the full extent of that awfulness.

  “I closed the deal for a PaLargio in Hawaii, and, as you know, that was a big deal. And I celebrated that night at some local club.”

  “You celebrated with Amy,” Trina said. This wasn’t general. He needed to own his shit.

  But Reno shook his head. “Not just Amy,” he made clear. “My entire negotiating team. We celebrated. Amy was my designated driver.”

  “You didn’t have a driver?”

  “I mean, yes, I had a driver, but she was designated to see me safely back to my hotel room.”

  “And your driver couldn’t do that?”

  Reno looked at Trina. “Yes, he could have done it, but it didn’t happen that way, okay, Tree?”

  “Don’t you dare get snippy with me,” Trina said. “I didn’t fuck her. You did!”

  “I didn’t,” Reno said. Then he leaned forward, placed his elbows on his thighs, and covered his face. “At least I don’t think I did.”

  Trina frowned. “What?”

  “I was drunk, Tree. I don’t remember shit about what happened after I left that club. All I know was that I woke up the next morning and Amy was getting out of my bed.”

  “Naked,” Sal said.

  Reno nodded. “Naked,” he said.

  Trina’s heart was pounding. “Were you naked too?” Trina asked him.

  Reno nodded. “Yes. But my dick was dry.”

  Sal frowned. “What the fuck does that matter?” he asked. “It don’t take long for no dick to dry! That don’t absolve you of shit!”

  Reno looked at Trina. “I didn’t cheat on you, Tree. She might have tried something with me, but I wasn’t a participant. I swear to you I wasn’t. I don’t cheat on you! I was drunk as a motherfuck, yeah, I was drunk. That’s on me. But fifty women could have been in that bed with me that night and I wouldn’t have known it.”

  “But it wasn’t fifty women,” Amy said. “It was you and me.”