“You think her ass the one called the cops?” Sal asked.
“No. She wouldn’t do that. She knows my background.”
Sal frowned. “What background?”
“She knows I’m a Gabrini, Unc, come on now. Stop treating me with kid gloves. You know what I’m talking about. You know I know what I’m talking about.”
“You don’t know shit!” Sal said. “Your ass think just because you turned eighteen, you’re grown as I am! You don’t know shit!” Then Sal frowned. “Shit!” he said again, and then walked behind his desk and picked up his desk phone.
“Who are you calling?” Dommi anxiously asked. “You can’t call Pop. He’ll kill me if he finds out what happened.”
“If I don’t kill your ass first,” Sal said as he pressed buttons. Then placed the call on Speaker as he listened to the rings.
“This is Captain Norred, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department,” the voice said on the other end. “How may I assist you?”
In Sal’s other life, he and Tommy had followed in their sadistic father’s footsteps and became cops too. Tommy, their father’s favorite, rose up the ranks to become an honest, decent captain. Sal, Tommy’s favorite, was promoted to sergeant by Tommy, but unlike Tommy, Sal was crooked as the day was long. But he still had connections on the Force. “Hey, Red, it’s Sal,” he said.
“I recognized the number,” Norred said. “What’s up, Sal?”
“I hear there was a little commotion over at Mo’s tonight.”
“Little my ass. I’m over here right now.”
“What happened?”
“One guy dead. One guy clinging to life.”
Sal looked at Dommi. Dommi’s heart dropped when it was confirmed. He had already figured that the one guy he couldn’t stop himself from destroying, the leader, didn’t make it. But it still hurt to hear.
Sal’s heart dropped, too, for Dommi.
“You should see these guys,” said Norred. “They look like somebody took a fucking meat cleaver to’em.”
Sal stared at Dommi.
“Especially the dead guy,” Norred continued. “I’ll call you a liar to your face if you tell me that’s a human over there. That’s how fucked up he is.”
“Which hospital are they taking the other guy?” Sal asked.
“Memorial.”
“Any video?”
“Not viewed yet,” said Norred, “but confiscated. A bloody brick too.”
“Who’s got possession now?”
“I do,” said Norred. “Who else? I’m the fucking boss on this crime scene.”
Sal took comfort in that. Norred had been on his payroll for years. “Lose the video and the brick, as far as the police department is concerned,” Sal ordered, “and then get that brick and every reel of those videos to my guys.”
“Why? Who’s on the video? You?”
Sal didn’t respond.
“Not you,” said Norred. “Too messy a scene for your work. But whoever it was went buck wild on these two. One of your hardheaded made men pulled this shit, I’ll bet.”
“Get every reel to my guys,” Sal said again.
“Why are you telling me that again? You know I got you, Sal Luca. What, do I look stupid over here? You gave me the order. I’ll handle it.”
Sal exhaled again. “Thanks, Red,” he said, and hung up the phone. Then he looked at Dommi. Kid gloves time was over. “Go to the bathroom and clean your ass up,” he said to his nephew as he picked up the phone again and pressed more buttons. “And then let’s go.”
“Go?” Dommi asked. “Go where?”
“It’s Sal,” Sal said on the phone.
Dommi knew it was one of Sal’s men, and that was why he didn’t have it on Speaker.
“I want you to get some guys over to the hospital,” Sal continued talking on the phone. “Yes, tonight, when else? Next week? No, over at Memorial. A guy who was in a fight over at Mo’s tonight should be there. He’s supposedly clinging to life. I need you to cut the cling.”
Dommi stared at his uncle. As a major boss, he probably had to make those kind of life and death decisions all the time.
“And then contact Red,” Sal continued. “He’s got some videotape I want you to personally confiscate. That’s right. For my viewing pleasure only. And a bloody brick. Confiscate that too. Got it?” Apparently his guy said that he understood, and Sal ended the call.
“Go where, Uncle Sal?” Dommi, who hadn’t budged, asked him again.
Sal frowned. “Didn’t I tell you to go get your ass cleaned up?”
“But where are we going?”
“I’m taking you home. To Reno.”
“To Dad?” Dommi was shocked. “But he’ll kill me, Uncle Sal!”
Sal gave Dommi a slick look. “For defending yourself?”
Dommi hesitated, because he knew his uncle knew that wasn’t the reason. “For taking it too far,” Dom admitted.
“Right,” said Sal. “That’s exactly what we were trying to tell your ass earlier in this very room! Now get your ass in that bathroom and clean your ass up!”
Dommi exhaled. He’d put his foot in it this time, and somebody was dead. They weren’t just trying to scare him with those knives. They were going to kill him if he had let them. He knew he was right to defend himself, and to defend Mariah on top of it.
But he also knew he’d taken it too far.
He knew that too.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Reno Gabrini, along with his security chief, ran through the doors of his casino like two bats out of hell, and saw the commotion right away. The big guy was body slamming the little guy onto one of Reno’s Roulette tables, and the people scattered.
As his patrons tried to grab their chips that had been tossed in the melee, Reno ran up to the big guy, grabbed him from behind, and put him in a chokehold. Reno was a muscular guy, but even his muscular arms were straining to keep his inebriated and obnoxious guest restrained. His security chief, who had grabbed the little guy, was having an easier time of it.
But Reno was strong if he was anything, and he managed to lift the big guy off of his feet and body-slam him, stomach-first, onto the textured carpet. Reno, still on the guy’s back, still with a chokehold around the guy’s fat neck, and still with the guy struggling to break free, leaned his mouth to the guy’s ear. “Where do you think you are?” he asked him between clenched teeth. “Think I’ll let you destroy my casino? Think I would let that happen, you pile of shit?!”
“Help,” the man was saying, struggling to breathe. “Help, I can’t . . . Help.”
He was barely audible. But Reno heard him. “You’re going to get your big ass up, walk out of this casino, and never come back. You understand me?”
The man was nodding. He’d agree to anything to get Reno’s pressure off of his neck. “Yes. Yes. I understand!”
Reno released the pressure and the man, relieved, gasped for air. Reno stood up, and the man stood up too.
But as soon as the big guy was on his feet, he felt Herculean again and whirled around and took a swing at Reno’s head.
But Reno had the instincts of a boxer, and as soon as he could feel the whiff of a punch coming his way, he ducked. And then he came up swinging.
But all it took was one hit, a powerful uppercut on the man’s chin, and the guy suddenly stumbled sideways, and then fell straight out.
Reno’s security detail had run from across the opposite side of the casino, where a verbal dispute between two ladies had gotten out of hand and had commanded their attention, just as Reno had knocked the big guy out cold.
“Get him out of here,” Reno ordered.
“Him, too, Boss?” the security chief asked as he stood up the smaller guy. “He says he was just minding his own business.”
“What did the cameras say?”
“He was mouthing off just like the other guy,” said his chief.
“Then yes, him too. What are you asking me for? I don’t wanna have to come down here again tonight to
deal with his sorry ass. Get him out of here too!”
“You heard the man,” the chief said to the guards and they escorted the little guy, and dragged along the big guy, who was slowly coming to, out of the casino.
Reno opened his well-worn suit coat and exhaled. His chief stood beside him. “It’s gonna be a long night,” he said.
Reno was about to respond, but he saw a scene that caught his attention. Just as the troublemakers were being escorted out of the casino, Sal and Dommi were walking in. Dommi had changed into one of Sal’s shirts, which meant there was no longer any blood on his clothes or face, but Reno knew his son. Even from that distance away he could just feel the heaviness that surrounded Dommi. And Reno also knew Sal Gabrini, and Sal wasn’t going to be escorting Dom into that casino, after midnight, for no reason. He forgot about his security chief, and headed toward them.
“What’s up, Sal Luca?” Reno asked as he approached them.
But that look on Sal’s face, a look of disgust and anger mixed up with pain, said it all to Reno. And Sal shook his head.
Reno’s heart dropped, as he glanced at Dommi, but he took his cues from Sal. Instead of even discussing it in public, Reno kept walking, and they followed him. Out of the casino and onto Reno’s front private elevator, they still didn’t say a word.
It wasn’t until they were inside of the penthouse, and Dommi was plopping down on the living room sofa, was a word spoken. Trina was still up, and was coming from behind the full-sized bar with a glass of wine in her hand.
“Hello, Sal,” she said, although she was looking at Dommi.
“You people keep some late hours around here,” said Sal.
But Trina was in no mood for small-talk. She, like her husband, knew Sal wasn’t there for his health. “What’s wrong?” she asked, looking from Dommi to Sal.
“Where’s Sophie and Carmine?” Reno asked.
“In bed sleep,” said Trina. “What’s wrong?” she asked again.
“Trouble,” Sal said. “Also known as Dommi.”
Trina already knew it concerned Dommi. “What happened?” she asked in a voice almost airy, as she sat beside Dommi on the sofa. Dommi’s head was leaned back, with his long, natural eyelashes making his big eyes appear almost closed. He was tired, emotionally shot, and it showed. “Tell me what happened,” Trina said. Then she looked at Reno. Reno looked at Sal.
“His ass got in a fight tonight,” Sal said, “over at Mo’s.”
“And?” Reno asked.
“And it didn’t go well. It didn’t go well at all.”
Trina’s heart was pounding. “What happened, Dommi?” she asked her son.
Dommi rubbed his forehead, but he didn’t look at his mother. His eyes still were shielded by his beautiful lashes. “They came at me,” he said, “when I was trying to stop them from gang raping a friend of mine.”
“Gang rape?” Trina asked. “Did they do it?”
Dommi shook his head. “No. I got there before they could.”
Trina nodded. “That’s a good thing.”
“Who were they ganging up on?” Reno asked. “That big girl from the graduation?”
Dommi looked at his father. How in the world would he know that it was her? “Yeah,” he said.
Trina slapped Dommi upside his head.
“I mean yes, sir,” he said quickly, before his mother could slap him again. Then he frowned at her. “I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful, though.”
“You weren’t trying to be respectful either,” said Trina.
“So you saved that girl from an awful fate,” Reno said. “So far so good. Now tell me the not-so-good part.”
They all looked at Dommi. When Dommi didn’t say anything, and before Reno could knock Dom upside his head and make him talk, Sal spoke up.
“One of the guys he jumped,” Sal said, “is in critical condition at the hospital. The other guy’s . . . dead,” said Sal.
It was as if life itself seeped from Reno and Trina. “Oh, no, Dommi!” Trina said. “You had to?”
“I had to, Ma,” said Dommi. “I had to! They came at me with knives. All three of’em came at me like that. That shit was gonna jump off whether I fought back or not. What was I supposed to do?”
But Reno nor Sal was buying that explanation. Because they knew Dommi too well. Because they knew he had no stopping sense, just like their Uncle Mick used to be. Just like both of their fathers were.
“What happened to the third one?” Reno asked. “He’s dead too?”
“He got away,” said Sal. “I’ve got my guys confiscating the video now. We’ll take care of his ass.”
“And the guy in the hospital?” Reno asked. “Gotta take care of his ass too.”
Sal nodded. “I’m on it,” he said.
Trina shook her head. It was the very life she didn’t want for her son, but it was now upon him.
“Were there any other witnesses?” Reno asked.
Dommi shook his head. “No,” he said.
“What do you mean no, boy?” Trina asked. “That girl was there. Wasn’t she? The one you rescued?”
“But she didn’t see anything. I made her get out of there, and she did. I left when I started hearing sirens.”
This surprised Reno. “Somebody called the cops?” he asked.
“Don’t know,” said Dommi. “I guess.”
“Then that means there were witnesses, Dom!” Reno said.
“You think that girl called the police?” Trina asked Dom.
But Dom shook his head. “Like I told Uncle Sal, she wouldn’t do that.”
Reno and Trina exchanged a glance. He seemed mighty certain about what another human being would and would not do. But that was for another day.
Sal’s cell phone rang. He looked at the Caller ID, and then he put the call on Speaker. Which meant, Reno and Trina knew, that it was news about Dommi’s situation.
“Yeah?” Sal asked into the phone.
“We can’t get near him, Boss,” said one of his men over the phone.
Everybody looked at Sal. Sal frowned. “What do you mean you can’t get near him?”
“We can’t get near him! That hospital is like a fortress.”
“Call Red,” said Sal. “Tell him to make his guys ease up. Tell him we have work to do there.”
“It’s not the cops that’s the problem. Red handled that.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“The guy in the hospital? His own guys are guarding him,” Sal’s man said. “And they’ve got the place virtually on lockdown. You’d think Mick Sinatra was in this bitch.”
Reno exhaled. Trina rose to her feet. Dommi leaned forward. All three were staring at Sal.
“Are you trying to tell me that the fucker that got clocked is mob?” Sal asked.
“I don’t know about that,” said Sal’s man. “I’ve never seen these guys before. But it’s something like that.”
“Which means the dead guy--”
“Is connected to these guys,” said Sal’s man. “Right. We’re trying to figure out what that connection is, but I’ll tell you this much, Boss: it’s big. Whoever the fuck these people are? They’re big.”
“Take some pictures of the guards, and the guy in the hospital,” Sal said. “Send them to me.”
“Got it,” said the guy, and Sal ended the call.
Trina couldn’t believe it. Reno either. “Of all the motherfuckers he had to fuck with,” Reno said, “he picked some fucking mob guys?”
“We don’t know that yet,” said Sal. “We don’t know who they are.”
“And one got away,” said Trina. “Don’t forget about him.” And then she looked at Dommi, and shook her head again.
Reno looked so flustered that Dommi felt a need to explain himself. “I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody, Pop,” he began.
But Reno was too angry to listen. “Shut the fuck up!” he yelled as if he wanted to jump out of his skin. “Shut the fuck up!”
Dommi rammed
his back against the sofa. He was angry too. But he knew that those three people in that room with him were the last three people he could take it out on. If he still wanted to live.
Sal exhaled. “I’ll hit the streets,” he said. He was looking drained too. “I want to personally secure all video, and that brick.”
Trina frowned. “What brick?”
“What’s possibly the murder weapon,” said Sal, and they all looked at Dommi. “I’ll see what I can find out,” Sal added.
Reno nodded. “Thanks, Sal,” he said, heartfelt.
Sal nodded too. He and Reno fought tooth and nail most times. But they shared a bond too. “We’re family,” he said. “When one family member fuck up, we all fuck up.” He said this and then looked at Reno. Reno understood what he meant. They failed Dommi. They should have put their busy-ass lives aside, and realized sooner where his bad-ass behavior was going to lead. But it was there now. What happened that night, they now realized, was the aftermath of when a funny, cute, mischievous kid grew the fuck up.
It wasn’t cute anymore.
It damn sure wasn’t funny anymore.
Sal went over to Trina and gave her a goodbye kiss. He pulled her into his arms, and held her too. He knew Trina was dying inside.
Then he gave Dommi a slap upside his head as he walked by him.
“Ouch, Uncle Sal!” Dommi said angrily in response. But Sal didn’t give him a second look. He left.
Reno looked at Trina. “Go get some rest,” he said to his wife. “I’ll be up there in a few minutes.”
Then Reno looked at his son. Any spark he had in his eyes when he looked at Trina, was gone when he looked at Dommi. “Come with me,” he said to his son.
Dommi rose to his feet, knowing he was in for a confrontation with the man he feared most in this world, and began following his father toward his father’s home office. He looked back at his mother, who stood there with folded arms and was staring at her son with daggers in her big, hazel eyes. His parents were both gangster. He knew it. The world knew it. How the hell, Dommi wondered, did they expect him to become anything different?
But as soon as they entered Reno’s office, and Dommi closed the door behind them, Reno, with an open hand, slapped Dommi down to his knees. “That’s for running your ass to Sal instead of bringing your shit to me!” Reno yelled as Dommi dropped.
Reno Gabrini: The Trouble with Dommi Page 6
