As the plane taxied to a halt, Tommy, Shawna, and Carmine stood up too.
“This is the deal,” Reno said, putting on his suit coat. “I want the ladies to remain on the plane.”
“On the plane?” MarBeth asked. “Why can’t we wait at Somers Point, Reno?”
“Because I said you’re waiting on the plane, MarBeth,” Reno shot back. “No hood in their right mind is coming anywhere near this airstrip to do any hit. This is the safest place to be right now. That’s why everybody came. So I don’t have to be worrying about it. Me and Shanks will go and have a little talk with Vito, you guys will stay here.”
“I’m going too, Reno,” Tommy said.
Reno looked at his cousin, at his expensive tailored suit, at his perfectly groomed hair and nails. Tommy used to be a cop, and a damn good one, but now he was a businessman first and last. He was no hood. “I need you to stay here, Tom, with Trina,” Reno said.
Tommy wanted to look at Shawna, because she was what his every decision was about. But he, instead, stared at Reno. “I can’t do that,” he said. “I’m going with you.”
“And I said I need you to stay here with Tree.”
“No.”
“Whatta you mean no?”
“No, that’s what I mean. Hell no. I’m not sending my woman into a dangerous situation while I stay here and babysit yours. I love Tree, but I’m going with you and Shawnie.”
Shawna wanted to tell Tommy that she could take care of herself, and she knew she could. But lately it felt kind of good to know that he wanted to help.
Reno ran his hand through his already ruffled hair. “Now, look---”
“If it was your lady going to meet Vito,” Tommy asked, “what would you do?”
It was similar to the question Reno had posed to Tommy the night before. Trina smiled and looked at Shawna. Shawna blushed to the roots of her hair.
Reno exhaled. “All right,” he said. “But Carmine you stay here with Tree and MarBeth.”
“Ah, Reno!” Carmine started but Reno gave him a look so ice cold, he stopped his whining. “Sure, Reno,” he said with a truckload of reluctance. He was tired of being left with the females.
Reno leaned over to Trina, kissed her on the lips. “I’ll be back,” he said.
“You’d better,” Trina said, holding onto his coat lapel, fighting back tears.
Reno stared at her longer, and then looked at Carmine. “Take care of them.”
Carmine nodded. “Don’t worry, Reno, I will.”
When Reno and Tommy got off of the plane, Carmine slung off his suit coat and angrily, decisively, threw it to the floor.
***
The rotund Vito Giancarlo walked through the reception area of his doctor’s swanky office with his snow white Persian cat in his arms. It was a familiar scene, the mob boss and his cat, although many of the staff assumed him to be a wealthy, kindly old man who, in their estimation, wouldn’t harm a flea.
The limo that brought Vito to the doctor’s office pulled up to the curb to pick him back up as soon as Vito stepped outside. The driver/bodyguard got out and opened the back passenger door as was always the case. Vito walked across the sidewalk, paying more attention to his purring cat than to his driver, and got in.
He didn’t realize he had company until he looked up and saw, seated across from him, Reno and Tommy Gabrini.
“What the hell,” Vito started and looked at his driver/bodyguard as the driver got back into the car behind the steering wheel. When the driver turned around and removed the chauffeur’s cap, and her long, black hair cascaded down, Vito frowned. “Shanks? What the hell are you doing here? Where’s my driver?”
“Where you think?” Reno asked. Then he smiled a chilly smile. “I’m not the only one with a security breach, Vito.”
Vito stared at Reno as if he was disappointed in him. “I told you I had nothing to do with that PaLargio hit,” he protested. “I had nothing to do with it, Reno! You’re persecuting the wrong man.”
“Where’s Eddie?”
Vito could hardly believe it. “What? You trying to be funny here? You trying to take the knife and twist it, Reno? Eddie’s dead and you know it!”
“Then why didn’t you retaliate? You know MarBeth was responsible, why didn’t you hit back?”
Vito looked less sure now, as his double-chin sagged even more. Tommy looked at the much-feared Vito Giancarlo and saw nothing but an old, fat man with too many ghosts.
“I said I wasn’t going to retaliate, I said it to your face. I keep my word.”
“Bullshit!” Reno yelled. “Why didn’t you hit back, Vito, if Eddie was iced? If your son, your flesh and blood, was shot down like a dog in the street?”
“You’re my godchildren, you and MarBeth.”
“Where’s Eddie, Vito?”
“I told you Eddie’s dead, Reno.”
“I was told you’re trying to pull a Partanna on me.”
“A Partanna? What the hell’s a Partanna?” When Reno would not entertain his ignorance, Vito sighed. “Eddie is dead,” he said. “But his death was sanctioned.”
Tommy looked at Reno. Reno frowned. “Like hell. Sanctioned by who?”
“By me, all right? Satisfied? Now I said it. By me, his old man! I sanctioned it!”
Tommy stared at the old man. “Why, Vito?” he asked him.
Vito stared past them. “He was a disgrace. He had become a disgrace. I put up with everything. His lies, his cheating, his stealing, I put up with it. He was my boy, my child, so I put up with it. But he hated me, blamed me for his mother dying when he was a baby. I didn’t have nothing to do with that, she died of a heart attack, but he was convinced my lifestyle caused her to have the heart attack. Eddie, he wasn’t a very bright boy. He was what you call a dull bulb in the drawer.”
“Why did you sanction his death?” Tommy asked again.
“Because he was a disgrace, didn’t you hear me the first time, Dapper Tom?” Vito calmed back down. “It started when he started selling drugs like some two-bit hustler, selling drugs to little kids. When I told him I didn’t tolerate that bullshit, he left. Only he didn’t leave the game. He offered himself to Frank Partanna.”
“To Frank?” Reno asked. “Eddie worked for Frank?”
“He needed him for that Vegas hit, when he took out your father and brother, Reno. Frank knew that if Eddie walked up to Paulo, to your dad, there would be no alertness. Then the others could take him on out. That’s how it really went down.”
Reno was floored. “Geez,” he said.
Vito continued. “When I found out about it, I kept his ass away from Partanna’s organization. I even sent him, under guard, to Russia until the heat was off. One of his guards was Joey Laster.”
Reno and Tommy exchanged a glance. “Joey Laster used to work for you?” Tommy asked.
“Yeah, he did. He was a loyal kid. He was the one who told me about Eddie getting hooked up with some Russia mafia types while he was away and now was running weapons for them and selling drugs for himself on the side.”
“Joey was a dealer too,” Tommy said.
“Yeah, he was. To keep an eye on Eddie. And he was doing a good job at it, too. Eddie had no idea he was relaying intel back to me. But then when MarBeth found out---”
“About Joey the boyfriend selling drugs?” Reno asked.
“MarBeth found out that Eddie was with Partanna’s men when they iced your old man and your baby brother. And she wanted revenge.”
Reno stared at Vito. Tommy was staring too. “MarBeth wanted revenge? How the hell did MarBeth find out?”
“Through her fucking around with Joey, how the hell should I know? But she found out. And wanted to take Eddie out. She blamed him for what happened to her family. And she blamed you, too, Reno.”
Reno knew MarBeth harbored some anger over what happened, but she had directed all of that anger, he thought, at him.
“So I figured enough was enough,” Vito went on. “Eddie had to go. He h
ad disgraced my good name enough. He had defied me on every turn. So I agreed to let her do it.”
“Wait a minute here,” Reno said, confused. “Are you telling me that you agreed to let MarBeth ice Eddie?”
“He was a disgrace, Reno.”
“But . . . .” Reno couldn’t begin to wrap his brain around what Vito was saying. Eddie might have been a lowlife, but he was Vito’s lowlife. How could he sanction the murder of his own son?
“She was bloodthirsty,” Vito said, rubbing his cat now, feeling more confident that Reno wouldn’t do anything rash. “She wanted Eddie’s blood.”
Tommy swallowed hard, his eyes riveted on Vito. “Who else’s blood did she want, Vito?” he asked him.
Vito didn’t skip a beat. “Why, Reno’s, of course,” he said.
Reno snorted. “What else is new?”
“But she couldn’t kill her own brother,” Vito said, “not even MarBeth was that coldhearted. I am, but not MarBeth. Because she loves you as deeply as she hates you, Reno. She’s a very confused girl. But she had no problem whatsoever, however, taking out her brother’s heart. Whom, she rightly surmised, was your wife.”
Reno frowned. “My wife? What the fuck are you talking about, Vito? You’re telling me that my own sister orchestrated the hit on the PaLargio? Are you telling me that MarBeth had her own mother killed?”
Vito was shaking his head. “Everything went wrong,” he said. “Because she did me a favor and was willing to take the heat for it, she asked me to get her people up to the penthouse, to make your people stand down so her people could take care of business. She told me it was going to be a quick in and out. They had one target they were supposed to take out. But those fools she hired didn’t try to just take out Katrina. They tried to take out everybody in the house!”
But Reno was still lost. He was still frowning. “What are you telling me, Vito? You’re telling me that. . . that MarBeth wanted my wife. . . That. . . .” Reno’s heart was barely beating, and his voice began to sound faint. “Are you saying to me that MarBeth wanted Trina dead?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, Reno,” Vito replied.
And as soon as it hit, it hit like a sledgehammer.
“God, no!” Reno screamed as Shawna turned back around and took off in that limo so fast that all three men in the back bucked forward. She slung the limo around corner after corner and was speeding as if it wasn’t her first time driving such a long machine. She hung a U-turn so hard that all of the men in the back slid against the doors.
“God, no!” Reno kept saying as he pulled out his cell phone, too nervous to even dial the numbers. It flipped out of his hand.
Tommy grabbed it and dialed for him.
“Don’t let this be happening again,” Reno was saying. “Please don’t let this be happening.”
Tommy looked at Reno, as Trina’s phone began to ring. And closed his eyes and prayed as fervently in silent, as Reno was praying aloud.
Trina and Carmine were seated side by side in the front of the plane when her cell phone began to ring. And then the world became senseless.
MarBeth, who was seated just behind them, immediately stood to her feet, pulled out her revolver, and then walked in front of the twosome and fired a bullet through the head of her own husband.
Trina screamed and quickly tried to stand, as Carmine’s blood splattered all over her, but MarBeth just as quickly slammed her back down. Trina tried to reach for her phone.
“You answer it, you’re dead,” MarBeth warned. And then she smiled. “Not that you aren’t already, anyway.”
Trina stared at her sister-in-law. Beyond stunned. “What are you doing, MarBeth?” was all she could ask. Then she looked at poor Carmine, who was now slumped over beside her, blood everywhere. “What have you done?”
“I’m the bitch who took out her own mother,” MarBeth said, her bottom lip trembling at the mere thought of how everything had gone so awry. “It’ll take absolutely no thought whatsoever for me to take you out too.”
Tears wanted to shed in Trina’s stunned eyes, but she knew that would be exactly what MarBeth wanted.
And her phone stopped ringing.
“What did I ever do to you?” Trina asked her sister-in-law.
MarBeth smiled. “You’re kidding right? I know you are not asking me that question.” Then MarBeth’s voice rose achingly loud. “What do you think you did to me, you black bitch? You hit the scene, distracted Reno, and then half of my family was taken out! My father and my brother. The good half. And you have the nerve to ask me what you ever did to me?”
MarBeth sat down, across from Trina, her gun still pointed at her. She looked like some wild woman to Trina, like a total stranger.
“It won’t work, MarBeth,” Trina said, wondering what would Reno say. “Not here. The pilot’s probably running back to the plane right now. They probably already heard that gunshot.”
“They didn’t hear shit!” MarBeth snapped, not bothering to look away from her intended target. “Now shut the fuck up and wait.”
Trina wanted to ask what it was they were waiting for, but she wasn’t about to risk it. MarBeth had always had some chip on her shoulder. She’d always been the one to give Reno the hardest time. But never could Trina have thought she’d stoop to this.
So she waited.
And prayed.
It took less than fifteen minutes for the limo to arrive at the plane site. Reno, Tommy, and Shawna jumped from the limo and ran toward the plane, none of them answering Vito’s relentless questions about what was going on. But as soon as they did jump out, Vito, nobody’s fool, got out as quickly as his big bulk and age would allow, got behind the wheel of the limo, and took off.
The pilot, who was joking around with some of the baggage handlers, saw his bosses running toward the plane and began running across the tarmac too.
“Where the hell were you?” Tommy was yelling, his one hope, that the pilot would have been able to help Carmine contain MarBeth, gone.
“I was just over there talking, Tommy. I was--”
But nobody cared what he was. Reno, Shawna and Tommy all entered the plane in swift succession. But as soon as they saw first Carmine slumped over, and the blood, and then MarBeth standing there, with Trina standing in front of her, they stopped in their tracks. Although Reno already had his gun drawn, MarBeth had hers against the side of Trina’s head.
“Shanks, Tommy, put those hands where I can see them,” MarBeth ordered, although her brother was the only one who had his gun drawn. But somehow, it seemed to Shawna, MarBeth was certain Reno would not fire.
Shawna and Tommy, however, did as she commanded. “Come further in,” MarBeth said. “So I can see your pretty faces.”
All three did as she commanded, with Reno in front, Shawna just beside him, and Tommy beside her, his body slowly moving in front of her.
“Close the door,” MarBeth ordered and the pilot did as he was commanded.
Reno looked at Trina, whose face was such a mask of anguish that he almost felt like taking that gun and ending her pain right here and right now. Because as surely as he was standing there, if something was to happen to Tree, it would amount to the same thing. It would be as if he had taken that gun, and killed her himself.
Reno’s heart was hammering, but he knew if anybody was going to diffuse this situation, it was going to be him. He looked at his sister, tears in his eyes.
“MarBeth,” he said, shaking his head, looking down at bloody Carmine, a man he loved, and back at her, “talk to me.” They were far beyond the point of no return, and Reno knew it. Which made it horrific. Which made the terror of this moment feel like thick shards of glass in his throat.
“Talk to me, Mar,” he said again.
He looked so pitiful and said it so heartfelt that those tears Trina had fought so hard to keep at bay, came anyway.
“I was waiting for you to get back,” MarBeth said, fighting her own tears. “I wanted you to see this for yoursel
f.”
“See what, MarBeth? That you murdered a good man like Carmine, your own husband, in cold blood?”
“None of this would have happened, Reno, if you would have listened to me. But you never listened to me. You just ordered me around, me and Franny, like our opinions never counted to you. But you was so in love, when you barely knew this woman, but you was acting like you was so in love.”
“I love you too, MarBeth.”
“You never loved me! Never! Don’t tell that lie! I loved you,” MarBeth said, tears now in her eyes. “Everybody loves Reno. But Reno only has eyes for Trina. His Tree. Well I’m about to chop down this tree.”
“MarBeth, talk to me,” Reno said hurriedly, panicky. Keep her focused on him, he said to himself. Keep her hate directed at him. “I won’t know if you don’t tell me.”
“You should have helped Pop. When you found out Frank Partanna was gunning for Pop, you should have helped him. But you didn’t. You left it up to Carmine and Dirty, Reno. Carmine and Dirty! Two losers! Then to put salt in our wounds by giving the PaLargio to this bitch.”
Reno frowned. “I didn’t give the PaLargio to anybody.”
“You made her president, it’s the same thing, Reno! You didn’t make me and Franny nothing. When you left, and I asked you if me and Franny could work there, could learn the business, you told me no.” She paused. “You know why you said no?”
“I didn’t want my sisters to bear that burden.”
“That’s a lie!” MarBeth shot back. “You didn’t want anybody to get in the way of Katrina’s ascension to the top. She was always your first and last concern and you know it! Her, above family, Reno. Her?”
MarBeth cocked her pistol. Shawna looked at Reno, stunned that he hadn’t made a move.
“MarBeth, please don’t do it,” Reno said as tears like blood dropped from his eyes. “Please don’t make me do it. You take out Tree, I’ll have to take you out.”
MarBeth laughed. “And that’s supposed to scare me? You already took me out, Reno, when you married this bitch!”
MOB BOSS 3: LOVE AND RETRIBUTION Page 13
