“I don’t know. What’s in it for me?”
Reno hesitated. “Depends on what you want. It’s been a long time. Your wants may have changed.”
She didn’t respond to that.
“Can we meet and discuss it?” Reno asked her.
“Where?” she answered.
“At my cabin,” he said. “Where we used to always meet.”
Sal smiled. Reno was good. If they returned to the place of their numerous rendezvous, she would feel more at ease. She would think this was a return to those good old days, rather than any suspicion that he was on to her part in this scheme.
“When?” she asked.
“Tonight,” he said, and then glanced at Tree. He hated that she had to hear this, but he knew she had to hear it. “I need to find those two guys,” he continued. “I’ll bring what I have on them. We’ll relax, relieve that stress, and then get down to business.”
Trina stared at Reno. He was a smooth operator, alright.
There was a longer than usual pause, and then she answered him. “We can meet tonight,” she said. “I’m free early, around eight. But then I have a dinner date with my husband.” She paused again. “But you knew I’d be free, didn’t you? Even after all these years. You married that woman and forgot about me. I thought I could get over you too. But it hasn’t worked. One phone call, and I’m remembering again.”
Reno looked at his Rolex. “I’ll see you in a few hours then,” he said. “I really need your help, Kim.”
“I’ll come through. I always have. You give me what I need, I’ll give you want you want. That’s how it’s always worked with us. No strings. Right?”
“Right,” Reno said. They said their goodbyes. And Reno ended the call.
“You two were almost talking in code,” Trina said. “What is it that she wants in return for the intel on those two agents? You?”
“My dick,” Reno said bluntly, as if he was saying she wanted his tie or his shoes.
Trina was floored by his lack of disgust. “And you’re going to give it to her?”
“I’m going to make sure my guys pick up those fuckers who want to blackmail you, and those two cocksuckers are going to lead me to the Iceman, who wants to murder you. I’m going to get every one of those assholes by any means necessary. Including Kim. I’m going to send a message to anybody listening that fuckers who fuck with my wife will get fucked, I don’t care who they are. That’s what I’m going to do. How I get it done is my business.”
Trina stared at Reno. She already knew he was a man who would do anything to protect his family. What made her think there were limits?
Reno began heading to his office inside the penthouse. Trina and Sal followed him. He pressed a button, opening a wall that contained his massive gun collection, and began arming himself.
“Take a crew with you, Reno,” Sal said.
“Get a crew out there,” Reno said, as he began strapping on firearms, “but make it clear to them they will work in a backup capacity only. They stay out of sight. Kim will be off the grid, but she’s not stupid. I take the lead on this one.”
“What about the children?” Trina asked. “I’ll feel better if we bring them here.”
Reno and Sal both shook their heads. “You never move anybody unless you have no choice,” Sal said. “I’ve already called for additional security at Jimmy’s house, and I’ve already notified Jimmy. He’ll protect them.”
But Reno could tell Trina was still uneasy. She wanted their children with her. “Sal is right,” Reno said. “Everybody stays in place. These people want that money first. They aren’t trying to get into any war with me. That’s why they needed that test run with Jimmy’s situation. That’s why they led you to believe the Iceman wouldn’t be out for another month. It’s all about intimidation. It’s all about keeping you in their circle of terror. They don’t want any more problems. Going after anybody else would be too many problems. Besides, my men will be bringing them in. I’ll have Kim’s ass with me. Everybody stays put.”
Then Reno, strapped and ready, kissed Trina on the mouth, and began heading out.
Trina was about to just let him go. It was tough enough. But she couldn’t. Because he was doing all of this, risking his own life once again, for her. And she ran to him, turned him around, and hugged him with a mighty hug.
“That’s more like it,” Sal said, beneath his breath.
Reno’s eyes were tightly shut, as he held onto the love of his life.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
She arrived on time, but Reno was already there, sitting on the sofa, a glass of wine in his hand.
Kim Galecki smiled when she saw him. She was amazed at how great he still looked. “It’s been a long time, Reno,” she said, as she sat on the sofa beside him and dropped her shoulder bag to the floor beside her feet. “A really long time.”
“How have you been?” Reno asked her, giving her a look over. She was always older than Reno, and her age was showing now, but she was still beautiful.
“I’ve been marvelous,” she said. “And you?”
“I’m making it.”
She stared at him. He was a true lost, even though she never really had him. “Aren’t you going to offer me a drink?”
“Aren’t you going to tell me about the scheme?”
Her smile froze. “What scheme?”
“Do I look stupid to you, Kim? You’re acting as if I’m a fool.”
Her heart began to pound. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about you and your flunkies attempting to rob me out of twenty-five million dollars. That’s what I’m talking about! Now are we going to continue to play games or are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on?”
Kim had forgotten how hard-edged Reno could be. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Reno picked up a remote and pressed the Play button. A middle-aged white male appeared on the television screen. It was one of the notification agents that had met with Trina. He was seated in Reno’s safe house, in a chair. He was tied. He appeared to have been worked over. But Reno wasn’t looking at the screen. He was looking at Kim. And from the sudden sullen look on her face, he knew he had her. “Sticking by that story?” he asked her.
She was shocked. She never dreamed he would have assumed her involvement. She had been so careful!
“It started with that female, didn’t it?” Reno asked. “What’s her name?”
Reno continued to surprise Kim.
“What’s her name?” he asked again.
Kim knew she had to stop bullshitting him to stay alive. She knew she had to come clean on the small stuff, and lie like hell on the matters that could get her killed. “Felicity,” she said.
“Yeah, her,” Reno said. “Felicity. My wife had been out of town for ten days, and suddenly a dead ringer for my wife shows up in my casino. She work for you, too. Doesn’t she?”
“She’s a hooker I occasionally hire.”
“What was her angle?”
“She was supposed to distract you.”
Reno stared at Kim. “Distract me? Why?”
“I have my contact. After you dumped me, I kept a line of communication open.”
“Who?” Reno asked, although he already knew. “Quinn, right?”
Kim just stared at him, refusing to answer, but her non-answer told Reno all he needed to know. It was Quinn. But he decided not to push it. He had Kim exactly where he needed her to be. She still thought she stood a chance. She still though she was getting out of this alive. She still thought she could tell part of the story, and that would be enough to keep him guessing. She thought wrong, but that was Reno’s business. “Why did you need to distract me?” he asked again.
“I heard how you kept your oldest son under your thumb at all times, and always knew his every move. But we needed Jimmy that night. We hired one of his friends---”
“Finn?”
Kim nodded. “Yes. Finn. His friend and coworke
r. Jimmy should never hire friends. You told him not to, over and over, but he kept doing it anyway. He’s a very loyal young man. But we knew his weakness. His wife Valerie wasn’t giving it up the way a young, virile man had to have it. So we paid Finn to set him up. Then we paid Finn to get lost. Finn gladly did both. My friend, or you might say my mole at the PaLargio, handled that particular transaction.”
Reno couldn’t wait to get his hands on Quinn. Trina never liked her and always wanted her out, but he didn’t feel justified in firing her. She worked too hard. She was one of the best assistants he’d ever had. He never dreamed she’d turn on him like this. But he miscalculated. He felt as if he was miscalculating too much!
“Jimmy’s hooker was our test run,” Kim continued. “We needed to see how you would respond if we blackmailed your son before we made contact with your wife. We needed you out of the way so we could set up your son. Felicity was supposed to keep you busy while Jimmy did his thing. But she failed me too.”
“Where’s the tape?” Reno asked.
“What do you want from me? You have Cameron, the notifications agent. I guess you have Jamison too.”
“Smart guess.”
“So what do you want from me?”
“Give me the tape of my wife. The original with the date and time.”
“Twenty five million is the price, Reno.”
“Fuck that. Give me the tape.”
“Give me a counteroffer,” Kim said.
Reno stood up quickly, pulled out his gun, and shot her in the arm.
She screamed, grabbed her bleeding arm, and looked at him, stunned. “What have you done? I could lose my arm!”
“Give me the fucking tape or you’ll lose a lot more than an arm.”
But Kim was in agony. “How could you do this to me?” She was looking at the blood. She was removing her scarf from around her neck nervously and wrapping her right arm.
But Reno was unimpressed. He aimed his weapon at her left arm. “Do I need to do it again?”
“Okay!” she cried. “I’ll get it!” Then she looked up at him. “Promise me you’ll let me go if I give it to you.”
“You’re in no position to bargain. Who the fuck do you think you are? Give it to me, Kim.”
“Promise you’ll let me go.”
Reno grabbed her bag and upturned it, all of her things flying out. As he suspected, the tape wasn’t there.
“Reno, promise me,” she begged.
“Where’s the tape, gotdammit! I’m not fucking with you!”
“Promise me!”
“I promise. Now turn it over.”
Kim hesitated, but Reno had always been a man of his word. With her good arm, she reached inside her jacket and pulled out the small DVD.
Reno grabbed it from her, and walked over to the DVD player. He put it in and pressed Play. It was the original, date-stamped to prove it, showing a very young Trina Hathaway grabbing a lamp and slamming it over Stokey’s head. He stopped the tape, took it out, and put it in his own jacket pocket. Then he looked at Kim.
She stood up. “You promised me, Reno.”
“You terrorized my wife. You blackmailed my wife. You set up my son. And you think I’m going to promise to let you walk out of here to continue to terrorize them? I promise you alright. I promise I am going to end your shit right here.”
Kim was devastated. “But you promised! You promised to let me live!”
“I promise you won’t be getting out of here alive. I promise you that. I don’t leave stones unturned. You picked the wrong one when you targeted my wife. What did you think I was going to do? Let you walk away from something like that?”
Kim, knowing the end was near, panicked. And she ran out of options. So she tried to make a run for it. She didn’t even make it to the front door.
Reno lit her up. Three shots. Her knees bent, and then she fell. Just like that.
He walked over to her, towering over her dead body, and stared at her. They had a history. They had some good times. But he had no regrets. She decided to play games with his wife’s life. He decided to play for real with hers. He pulled out his cell phone, and ordered his cleanup crew to get to the scene and clean up.
Reno sat quietly in his car and waited for his cleanup crew, the backup crew that was within a couple minutes of the cabin, to arrive. He and Kim had a lot of memories in that place, and he was sorry it had come to this. But nobody was going to blackmail his wife, and so much as threaten to send her away to prison for life, without facing his retribution. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t vile. That didn’t mean he took pleasure in payback. He didn’t. He was a man who believed in God, who believed in heaven and hell. He was no bloodthirsty psychopath. But when sharks were circling his wife, he either had to kill the sharks or let them take out his wife. Reno wasn’t that kind of man. They weren’t touching his wife.
When his crew finally arrived, he drove away from the cabin and pulled out onto the long, quiet road that led back into the city. And then he phoned Trina.
“Reno?” She said his name as soon as she answered the phone.
Reno smiled. “I’m okay.”
“It’s done?”
Reno nodded, and then a frown appeared on his face. “It’s done. We have the two agents in the safe house. They’re refusing to talk, but that’s where I come in. I need to find out where Iceman Nelson is hiding his ugly mug. Once I track his ass down and do to him what he thought he was going to do to you, it’ll be over.”
“Be careful,” Trina said.
“What, do I look like I don’t know how to be careful? I will. You just remain at the penthouse with Sal.”
“Don’t worry about that. Sal won’t let me go anywhere even if I tried.”
That was exactly why Reno was thankful to have Sal on his side. He could handle a stubborn lady like Tree. “Have you checked on Jimmy and the kids?” he asked.
“I just called them. They’re fine.”
Reno nodded. “Good,” he said, as he drove through an intersection. He looked out of his side window and saw the SUV coming up to the stop sign, certain it was going to stop. But when it accelerated instead, and was coming straight for the side of his Porsche, Reno’s instinct kicked in and he knew he had to act.
“Motherfuck!” he said out loud.
“Reno?” Trina asked, when he said that word.
But Reno couldn’t answer. He floored it. He gave it his all to speed his Porsche away from that speeding SUV, and burned rubber getting away. And he almost got away.
But the Van was coming too fast and already had the advantage of surprise. It clipped the very back of Reno’s Porsche and caused the Porsche to careen wildly, spinning, and then flip and flip and flip like a racing car, or a toy, and then land on the side of the road on its four, now busted tires. It was smoking, and mangled, but still standing.
And the men in that SUV, Iceman Nelson, and his henchman Copperton Pechetti, descended on that Porsche just as Reno Gabrini was lifting his face out of the airbag. His mind and every ounce of his awareness was telling him to run, but his body wouldn’t cooperate. It was telling him to sleep. It was telling him to sit still. It was shutting down.
Debrosiac couldn’t stop pacing as Jimmy sat on his living room sofa and watched him move. Something was going down, but Jimmy didn’t know what. His father, once again, kept him out of the loop. But it was something big. He’d never seen Debrosiac, his father’s right hand man, this antsy.
But then a cell phone rang. It was Debrosiac’s. He moved away from Jimmy to answer it. That was strange to Jimmy too. His father might have kept him out of the loop, but what the fuck was Debrosiac doing? If his father was calling to tell him that the coast was clear, or even that there was trouble brewing, it was Debrosiac’s job to let Jimmy know. But instead, he was acting as if the last person who needed to know what was going on was Jimmy. Keeping him out of the loop was one thing. Subterfuge, as Jimmy was beginning to think Debrosiac was up to, was another thing. And
Reno always taught Jimmy to be wary of strangeness. If it smelled like a rat, his father always told him, it was a rat.
Debrosiac ended his phone conversation and went to the front door. When he opened the door, and two men walked in that Jimmy didn’t recognize as Reno’s, or even Uncle Sal’s men, Jimmy knew it was a rat.
“Who are they supposed to be?” he asked.
“Security,” Debrosiac said. “Don’t worry about it.”
Debrosiac closed the front door and walked further over to huddle with the two men. Jimmy quickly stood up. Debrosiac looked at him. “I’m going to check on the kids,” Jimmy said, and headed out of the living room. Debrosiac, to his relief, continued his clandestine conversation.
But as soon as Jimmy got out of Debrosiac’s eye shot, he ran to the family room. Dommi and Sophie were sitting on the sofa watching some sitcom on Nick at Nite. This was past their school night bedtime and they were loving it. But Jimmy ran to Dommi. He had to handle Debrosiac and those two men. He knew it was going to be dangerous. But he had to give Dom and Sophie a fighting chance. He had to rely on Dommi.
“Get your sister,” he whispered to him frantically, “and go through the garage door. Run for your life. You hear me, Dommi? Don’t trust anybody. Run!”
Dom looked at Jimmy, saw the fear in his eyes, and Dom didn’t ask questions. He grabbed Sophie by the hand, putting his finger to her lip to let her know to remain silent, and took off running out of the side door that led into the garage. Only Dom ran toward the keyring in the family room and grabbed the keys of Val’s more sensible car, her Chrysler 200, a car with an automatic transmission compared to Jimmy’s five-speed, and then headed out.
Jimmy hurried to a chest in the back of the family room, unlocked it quickly, grabbed a gun, and then hurried back up front, the gun at his side.
When Debrosiac turned and saw that Jimmy had returned, he immediately pulled out his own gun. But Jimmy was already locked and loaded and he fired. It was a rat. He shot Debrosiac straight through the heart, and then aimed his pistol at the other two.
But the other two were fast on the draw and faster still on their feet. They took cover as Jimmy aimed and fired at them, and began to fire back. Jimmy ducked behind the sofa, lifting his head to fire as he was fired upon. Because he knew the deal. If he didn’t take them out, they were going to take him out. And dying alone like this, without even knowing if his baby sister and baby brother were okay, wasn’t an option. Jimmy fought for his life.
Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair Page 16
