MOB BOSS 3: LOVE AND RETRIBUTION

by Mallory Monroe

  “Would be downright disrespectful,” said his second-chair attorney. “I agree with Carl that we should shut down for a time.”

  The third attorney nodded. “Me too,” he said.

  “Not me,” Reno said, siding with Lee. “I understand how you’re looking at it. You’re looking at it from a public relations angle, I get that. But I have to look at it from a long term business angle. We were already bleeding revenues, gentlemen. And I don’t mean in drips. Although the casino is still thriving, the hotel is only at a third capacity and the lounges are almost deserted-looking late at night. People are gambling here, may get a drink at the bar here in the early hours of the night, but they aren’t staying here. They’re going to our competitors to stay. If we close now, that casino revenue will be gone, the hotel and lounge revenues will be gone, thousands of employees will be out of a job. And it’ll be as if we’re confirming that this place is tainted, and is closed because of the taint. I’m with Lee on this one. Our customers may never come back.” Reno shook his head. “No, gentlemen. That’s a risk too high for me to take. I can’t take that risk.”

  “But have you considered your wife?” his lead attorney asked.

  Reno’s jaw tightened. How dare that asshole mention his wife, as if Reno wasn’t considering her every moment of every second of every day? He had already decided that Trina was going to Tommy’s place in Seattle to recover, and he was going to be by her side there, until she was herself again and until he could figure out the who, what and why of that “penthouse massacre.” But that was none of the business of some punk lawyer who was going to get paid no matter what decision Reno made. The fewer people who knew his and Trina’s whereabouts, the better.

  “Don’t worry about my wife,” he warned.

  The lawyer suddenly realized his blunder. “I didn’t mean any disrespect, Mr. Gabrini,” he clarified, but Reno had already moved on.

  “What about advertisers?” Reno asked, and as soon as he asked it, he heard his wife scream.

  Reno and Lee were up and running before the team of lawyers knew what hit them. Reno ran down the hall and slung open the door of the bedroom, his heart about to go into some kind of cardiac arrest, until he saw her. She was still asleep, her head turning side to side, her mouth intermittently mumbling and screaming, still caught up in her nightmare.

  “Get rid of the suits,” Reno ordered Lee as he moved toward the bed, “and you can go too. I’ll get with you in the morning.”

  “Right,” Lee said, glancing at Trina, wondering if she was ever going to be all right, and then he left, closing the door behind him.

  Reno sat on the bed beside his wife. “Tree,” he said, gently shaking her.

  When she did open her eyes, and saw that it was him and not her nightmare, she lifted up and fell into his arms.

  Reno closed his eyes tightly as he held her. “It’s all right,” he said. “It won’t be like this for much longer, babe, I promise you.”

  He knew he could have let her go back to Seattle with Tommy, while he stayed in town, took care of business, attended his mother’s funeral, and met up with her later. But Tommy had meetings and could only be there for her just so much. And that would have been unacceptable. He wasn’t about to allow anyone other than himself or Tommy to be his wife’s protector at this point. Especially when he knew so little about what kind of war, just that it was a war, that was being waged against him. He had no choice, none at all, but to keep her here.

  He then looked at her, placed his hands on the sides of her face. “It was just a dream, babe,” he said. “Just a nightmare. But we’ll be out of here soon. You’ll get some fresh air, have a change of pace, you’ll be okay.”

  “Are we protected, Reno?” Trina asked her husband.

  “Oh, yeah, we are. Completely. Tommy’s people are all over this joint.”

  Trina smiled at his choice of words. “Not your people?”

  Reno nodded. “Not until I get a handle on what happened here, no. I’m playing it super-cautious, babe. And that’s why,” he said, lying her back down, “I need you to get your rest. Tomorrow will be a new day and after Ma’s funeral we’ll be out of here for a spell. Just you and me.”

  Trina smiled. “I’ll like that, Reno,” she said, touching his wrinkled shirt. Then she frowned.

  “What is it, sweetheart?”

  “You look rumpled,” Trina said, still fumbling with his shirt lapel. “I’m not taking care of you right.”

  “Oh, babe,” Reno said smilingly, leaning down to her, his forehead pressing hers. “Nobody, and I mean no human being on the face of this earth, could take better care of me. It’s an impossibility, Tree.”

  “You’re just saying that.”

  “Okay, keep talking, I’ll be showing you in a minute.”

  She smiled, understanding clearly what he meant.

  He looked down, his lips a mere wisp from hers. “Because as soon as you’re back on your feet again, and have your strength again, that’s exactly what I’m going to do. Show you just how well you take care of me.”

  Trina stared at him. It was all so different now. Because she knew how he felt now. She, too, had blood on her hands and she knew how it felt.

  “Don’t worry, Reno,” she said, her hand now tracing his gorgeous face. “I’ll look out for you.”

  Reno chuckled. “I know you will, sweetheart,” he said, and they continued to stare at each other. Soon Reno’s stare once again moved down, from her eyes to her mouth, and Trina, too, began to feel the heat. And when his mouth moved ever so gently down to hers, and kissed her tenderly, and passionately, she wrapped herself into his arms, and returned his passion.

  But she knew Reno wasn’t taking it to the next level. Not yet. Not here. Not until after they were safely away from Nevada, a place she knew Reno now thought of as the scene of the crime, and all of this craziness that swirled around them.

  And she was right. He removed his clothes and got in bed with her. He pulled her into his arms, and kissed her again. But then he held her, comforted her, stayed right there with her, for the remainder of the night.

  At that same time, in Seattle, Tommy and Shawna had their dinner, a steak and broccoli medley, and afterwards Tommy walked around the table and pulled back her chair. His eyes were hooded and lustful, as he could not get over how sexy she looked in his long-sleeved, oversized dress shirt she had chosen, as she always did, to change into.

  As usual, too, she had only the middle section buttoned, teasing him with her shapely thighs below and her half-exposed, big breasts above. And when she stood up, he took her hand and escorted her upstairs, no questions asked, no second thoughts although he knew they both should have had plenty, to his bedroom.

  He now sat on the edge of his bed, the last of his clothing already removed, as he lifted his shirt over her head, rendering her naked too. When he opened his legs, with his erected manhood bidding her to come, she came.

  As soon as he touched her, as soon as he pulled her against his ribbed stomach and wrapped her into his powerful arms, she felt that surge of excitement that only he could make her feel.

  She closed her eyes as he rubbed her down, as his mouth found hers and began kissing her with that slow intensity she loved. It was always their first line of contact, mouth to mouth, and it always felt so good to them both that they lingered there. For the longest time they lingered there. Until the feel of her big breasts flopped against his chest, rubbing against him, caused him to leave her mouth and find her nipples.

  Her body arched backwards as he ravaged her breasts, nibbling on her with such an appetite that she found her hands in his hair to ease the intensity of the delight. All she could feel were her nipples expanding under his expert tongue, until they were swollen with pleasure.

  And then he lifted her higher, until her legs were across his shoulder and her body was leaned back in his arms, her buttocks in his hands, her womanhood in his face. Exactly where he wanted it.

  He ate her
greedily, the aroma of her so intoxicating that he couldn’t stop eating her. And she didn’t want him to stop, as his tongue burned her clit and scorched her so deep inside that her abdomen constricted, causing her body to move up and down like a cresting wave. She found herself panting rather than breathing.

  And when he was finished, when he had pleasured her so long that her insides were red with heat, she got down, on her haunches, and began pleasuring him.

  “Ah, Shawnie,” he said as soon as her sweet lips touched his manhood and she took him all in. His lean, muscular body stretched out backwards onto the bed as the intensity now seared him. His manhood began to swell to where the veins began to strain, as she moved up and down his ridges and curves like a woman who knew exactly what she was doing.

  Shawna did him unlike any other woman ever could. She didn’t speed-suck him, as women her age, those twenty-somethings, always did him. It was as if they wanted to prove to him that they were good at head or generally good in bed, when they, in Tommy’s opinion, weren’t very good at either.

  But Shawna took it slow, moving her mouth over his rod with an almost rhythmic lick and suck, lick and suck, a grab and tease-bite, up and down, top to bottom, until he could feel the feeling to the roots of his hair. He placed his arms over his forehead as she did him, as she kneeled down between his legs and made him feel like that rod was life food to her.

  Tears wanted to come into his eyes as he felt the tenderness, the love in her mouth. He didn’t know what it was, couldn’t describe it to save his life, but she had it. Whatever it was, ShoShawna Shanks, above any woman he’d ever been with in his entire life, had it in spades.

  So much so that he had to stop her flow or he would be coming right in that beautiful mouth of hers. He therefore pulled her up to him, laying her first on top of him face to face, kissing her again with a long, purposely slow and drawn out kiss. And then he turned her to where her back was against his chest, so that her legs could open and he could finger her. And he did. Long and slow, with one and then two and then three fingers slipping into her already wet folds. Sliding in and sliding out. And then, when fingering her was not enough, he slid his already mammoth rod into that juicy freshness he always dreamed of feeling again.

  There was always a pride of ownership whenever he entered her, as if he just knew no other man on the face of this earth could give her what he was about to give to her. And he gave it to her for the longest time, sliding and gliding all over her pussy like a man obsessed with the territory. And when it got to be too comfortable, too relaxing, too wonderful for him to bear, he slung her onto her back and turned from easy gliding into hard fucking that made the headboard bounce in rhythm with their every movement.

  Shawna loved how Tommy could keep it up for so long with her, pleasuring her to levels she only got to experience when she was in his bed. And she held onto him as he rode her hard, as the sweat dripped from his body by the sheer longevity, by the sheer magnitude of his output. His body language was all about pleasing her. It was all about taking both of them to heights beyond their previous highs. And his body worked hers to near both of their breaking points. She looked over his shoulder and could see his ass tightening and slapping as he kept whipping into her, dazzling her with his prowess, making her so aware of what she could have all the time, if only she would have accepted his proposal.

  But as soon as she even thought to consider leaving her life and coming to his, a thought that had been coming more and more frequently of late, he released inside of her with such a fierce release that his entire body seemed to spasm. And then performed a final push-in that pushed her over the top too.

  She screamed his name when she came, her nails scratching his back when she came. Her body felt fiery, her vagina so alive she could feel the veins of his rod against her walls. Her body tightened and tightened, as he continued to gyrate, until it was impossible to constrict anymore.

  And then they both crashed back down and he eventually slid off of her altogether. They, at first, laid side by side, so drained they couldn’t speak even if they wanted to. And then, like a sudden wind, reality hit. This wasn’t going to last. This was only temporary. They both had their own separate lives to lead.

  She turned, in tears, into his arms.

  Tommy closed his eyes, and pulled her closer against him.

  “I don’t want to leave,” she said regrettably, the way she always said after their lovemaking.

  Tommy used to always tell her to stay then, since she didn’t want to go. But not tonight.

  “If you stay,” he said, “wouldn’t you be missed by one of your boyfriends?”

  He almost never mentioned her boyfriends. But he asked anyway, because he knew the pain that he would feel when she eventually left, pain that he knew would be unbearable. He wanted to keep it real.

  Shawna, however, wondered what boyfriends he was referring to, and wanted to say so. “There’s nobody missing me,” she said instead.

  “I doubt that,” Tommy said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

  Shawna hesitated. She had to tread carefully. She even tried to smile too. “Is what you’re really saying, Gabrini, is that you’ll miss me when I’m gone?”

  Tommy pulled her closer. “You know I will, don’t play with me like that.”

  Shawna’s heart plunged. She looked at Tommy. “I didn’t mean---”

  “Why did you come early, Shawnie, and you tell me the truth?”

  “I told you the truth,” she said, slightly offended. The fact that he always became angry after their wonderful lovemaking wasn’t new to her, but she was hoping for a pass this night. “I wanted to be with you,” she went on. “I needed to be with you.”

  When he didn’t respond, when he didn’t pull her tighter into his arms or kiss her forehead or give her some indication that he was pleased that she still needed him, she turned defensive again.

  She attempted to be lighthearted. “Sometimes I feel like a nut, okay, and sometimes I don’t.” She said this with a forced smile. “I felt like a nut. A big nut, that is.”

  Tommy would usually smile too, to ease the pain. But not tonight. “Doesn’t all of your other boyfriends have nuts?” he asked her.

  She looked at him, realized he was not going to play along this time, and moved out of his embrace. “It’s not the same thing, and you know it. I don’t even. . .”

  Tommy looked at her, her back now to him. “You don’t even what? Have a boyfriend?”

  “That too.”

  Tommy stared at her bare, brown back. “What are you saying, Shawnie?”

  Shawna thought about her answer, and then turned onto her back. “I’m saying what I just said. I don’t have any other man fucking me. None. Nada.” She looked at Tommy. He was staring at her. “Just you.”

  Was she joking? Was she about to break out with that killer smile the way she sometimes would do to him just when he thought she was seriously discussing their plight? “Since when?” he asked her. He was certain this woman, this magnificent specimen of a woman, had to beat them off of her.

  Shawna stared at the ceiling. She knew she was revealing far more than she had ever planned to reveal. “Since I first met you,” she admitted.

  Tommy could hardly believe it. He stared into those big, brown eyes. “Are you saying, are you telling me that in all of these four years that we’ve been on and off, and even when you turned down my marriage proposal a year ago, you haven’t been with another man?”

  She stared into his eyes. Tommy thought he knew her so well, but he really didn’t know her at all. Because if he knew her, he would not have asked such a question.

  “That’s what I’m saying,” she finally said.

  Tommy frowned. “Then why did you turn me down, Shawnie?” His green eyes were blazing now. “Is it your job? Do you have to have thrills in your life? Is that it? Because if it is you can work with me, in my security firm.”

  And she’d be right under his thumb, she thought. Jus
t as she was with Alex.

  Which, Tommy sensed, was the real point. “I’m not Alex, Shawnie.”

  “I know that.”

  “I don’t beat women.”

  “He didn’t beat me, either.”

  “He beat you down emotionally, which is just as bad as taking his fists to you.” Tommy exhaled. “I’m not like that.”

  “I know you aren’t.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  Shawna exhaled. It was so complicated. “He was good too.”

  Tommy looked at her. “Who was good too?”

  “Alex. He was good too. Just like you. He accepted me, warts and all, just like you. And I fell for it. Lock, stock and barrel. Got married, moved into the big house, became Mrs. Alexander Grant. And it was good. It was all good. Until my clothes were too revealing. And my hair, so long and flowing, was a tad too sexy. And I talked too loud at parties and who was that guy that was undressing me with his eyes and why did I let that other guy whisper in my ear and who are those girlfriends of yours and why do you have to have a girls night out and why do you have to be a cop anyway?” She exhaled. Caught her breath. “Then it became as simple as one question: what kind of a job is that for a woman?”

  She closed her eyes. “And little by little I submitted to this good man Alex. I loved him and loved him unconditionally. He loved me that way too, before we got married. Before the ultimate commitment came and I became his. He still loved me, but with so many conditions that I forgot where he ended and I began. And I realized he didn’t love me at all because he spent our entire marriage trying to destroy my image, and mold me into his.”

  She frowned, just remembering that life. “So for the sake of my marriage I resigned from the police force. Gave up a job I loved. I had been on my own since I was a teenager, had nobody, and the thought that I could be loved by such a wonderful man made me want to please him. I mean I was going to do everything I could to hold onto my marriage. But you know what changed my mind? What made me get up and do something? It was a very minor thing. We were dressing for his parents’ anniversary party. And I knew I was dressed exactly the way he loved me to dress. Hair, makeup, jewels, all had his prior approval. And we were standing outside, waiting for the car to come around. He kept looking at me. Then he told me to go back inside of the house and change perfumes.”