Munford pressed the remote control and the flat screen TV on the living room wall came on. It was a live shot of a big, quiet home. Tony’s home. Reno stared at Tony as Tony stared at the screen.
“Nice house,” Tony said, refusing to reveal anything.
Reno picked up the telephone on the table beside his chair without looking away from Tony. “Now,” he said, and then hung up.
As Tony believed would happen, the house, almost immediately after Reno hung up, went up in a ball of fire. Reno watched as Tony tried with all he had not to appear disturbed. But he was. Reno knew hidden fear like he knew the back of his hand. Tony, he knew, was mortified.
But Tony continued to play the game. “Good,” he said with a crooked, nervous smile. “I didn’t like that house anyway.”
Reno nodded to Munford and Munford pressed the button on the remote control again. Another live feed appeared on the flat screen TV. This one was a picture of a bakery on a street in Kentucky. A very familiar bakery to Tony. Reno stared at Tony. Tony’s jaw tightened.
People came in and out of that bakery for what seemed like forever. Nothing happened. Then one person in particular, a woman Reno knew was Tony’s woman, came out of the bakery. Reno picked up the phone then.
“No!” Tony shouted and lurched at Reno. The guards slammed him back down.
“Now,” Reno said into the phone’s receiver. And within a moment’s time, a young man appeared on screen and walked up to Tony’s woman as if he was simply walking by. Only this young man turned back around, pulled a gun, and shot her in the back of her head. She didn’t see it coming. The young man then put his gun back into his pocket and walked out of view as casually as he had come into view. The woman fell to her knees, and then onto her face. And that was the end of Tony’s façade.
He looked at Reno. The fear was now all over his face. “You heartless sonafabitch!” he screamed.
“Oh, that’s fucking rich,” Reno couldn’t help but reply. “Coming from you, that’s really fucking rich.”
“Fuck you!” Tony yelled back. “I didn’t go this far with you, Reno. I didn’t go this far with you!”
But Reno smiled. And nodded, once again, to Munford.
Munford pressed the remote control button again. Another live feed. This one outside a daycare center. Tony’s heart pounded as he tried to stand up, but the guard forced him back down.
“You wouldn’t,” he said to Reno. “You couldn’t!”
But Reno picked up his phone.
“You can’t,” Tony said. “Reno, no. Please no. Reno, please no!”
But Reno smiled that chilling smile at Tony again. And spoke into the receiver.
“Now,” he said and Tony, horrified, looked at the screen again. A man drove into the parking lot of the daycare, got out, and headed for the entrance.
“No,” Tony cried. “Those are my babies. This can’t be happening. You can’t let this happen, Reno! They’re kids. What are you doing? They’re babies!”
Tony was on the edge of his seat as the man pulled out a gun, checked how many rounds he had in the chambers, and then concealed it back into his pocket. And then he entered the daycare.
“No!” Tony screamed. Guards held him down, but he kept squirming and trying to break free. “No!” He kept screaming. He couldn’t stop screaming. “Reno, no. Please make him stop. Please pick up that phone and tell him to stop! Reno, make him stop. Make it stop!”
Reno angrily jumped from his chair and stood in front of Tony. “Beg, motherfucker!” he yelled. “Beg, you bastard, beg!”
And Tony begged. He begged and he begged for the life of his children. He wanted Reno to show him the sympathy he didn’t show to Reno. He wanted Reno to prove just how broken and how soft the rumors around Vegas claimed he was.
Then Reno, without warning, pulled out his gun and shot Tony between the eyes. He shot him dead. And just like that, the begging, the squirming, the pleading stopped. And peace and quiet returned.
Reno knew the truth. He knew that the man who entered that daycare center would soon be walking back out. Without harming a flea. Tony’s two small children would remain untouched. Reno knew the truth. But even at the moment he took his last breath on the face of this earth, Tony didn’t.
Reno stared at Tony’s lifeless body. He stared at the man who had caused him so much grief.
“Now, Tufarna,” Reno said to him, “we’re even.”
Grace McKenzie drove onto the circular driveway of Tommy Gabrini’s Seattle home and stopped at the steps. She looked over at her passenger and smiled. “Thanks for everything, Tree,” she said.
“You know you’re welcome, girl,” Trina replied. “We’ve got to spend a full day together again. I know you’re a busy CEO now, but hey. You can pamper yourself every now and then.”
“Oh, I plan to. I work entirely too hard. Tommy gets on my case about it all the time. But then he’s one to talk.”
“I’m saying,” Trina said. “I’ve been living in his house for two months now and he’s rarely ever even in town. How can you guys maintain any kind of relationship with Tommy gone all the time like that?”
Grace looked away from Trina and stared out of her car’s windshield. “It’s been tough, I’m not even gonna tell any stories.” She looked back at Trina. “It’s been hard.”
Trina’s question was meant to be more of a rhetorical question, but she apparently had hit a nerve. “Has it been hard because he’s always out of town, or is it because of the other thing?”
Grace smiled. Trina had a way of slicing through the bull. “The other thing,” she said.
Trina exhaled and looked out of the windshield too. “He’s a Gabrini man, Grace.”
“And I know what you said. I know I have to trust him.”
“You do. There’s no two ways about that. You have to trust him completely.”
“I expected drama,” Grace admitted. “I expected a woman or two to try to break us up. But it’s been a constant thing. And then there’s all of these new allegations. Even my friends wonder if I’m being a fool for Tommy.”
Trina looked at her. “Well are you?” she asked her.
“No! Tommy wouldn’t hurt me, I know he wouldn’t. It’s not him. It’s me. I’m used to dating nice looking guys, but I guess I’m just not used to loving a man whose so in demand.”
Trina laughed.
“You know what I’m saying?” Grace asked.
“I know exactly what you’re saying. You don’t wanna be that girl who loves a cheating man. You don’t wanna be her. I know what you’re saying.”
“I wish I could be like you. I wish I could tell all those females to go screw themselves and go on with my life with Tommy.”
“Hold on there, now. Don’t sing my praises too fast. I wasn’t like me, either, when I first met my husband. He was quote, unquote, ‘in demand’ too, as you put it. My so-called friends were calling me a fool too. They declared I was clueless and Reno was cheating on me right under my very nose, oh, I went through it too. They just knew I was that girl.” Trina looked at Grace. “But I knew I wasn’t. There came a time I had to decide if I was going to listen to the echo chambers, or listen to my man. I listened to my man.”
Grace nodded. Then shook her head. “Gabrini men,” she said and she and Trina laughed and high-fived. They kept their hands clasped.
“You’ll learn,” Trina said as the double doors to the residence opened and Tommy began walking down the steps. “We’re black girls. We don’t be trying to let these men make fools out of us. But being with a Gabrini is different. You either trust him completely, or you shouldn’t be with him. Point blank period. That’s what I had to learn. And you’ll have to learn to trust unconditionally.”
She noticed that Grace was now looking past her and toward the steps. Trina turned and looked too. When she saw Tommy coming toward them, she smiled. “Especially if you plan to be with a man as fine as Tommy.”
Grace smiled. She knew what she had.
That wasn’t the problem. Figuring out how to keep what she had was the problem.
Tommy walked around to the driver side and Grace pressed down the window. Tommy, as usual, was flawlessly put together in his dark-brown polo shirt and light-brown dress pants. His brownish-blond hair was perfectly groomed in a straight-line cut.
“Hey, babe,” he said to Grace and kissed her on the lips. “Enjoyed yourself today?”
“Very much,” Grace said.
“So what do you have to show for this entire day of pampering?” He asked this as he looked down at her sizeable breasts.
“I have absolutely nothing to show,” she said. “That was the point.”
“Oh, no,” Tommy said jokingly. “You’re beginning to sound like Tree. Don’t you corrupt my baby,” he warned Trina.
Trina laughed. “You did that yourself when you bothered with this sweet, innocent child.”
Tommy and Grace both laughed. “Very funny,” he said. Then he turned far more somber.
Trina stared at him. Her heart began to pound. “What is it?” she asked him.
He didn’t know how else to say it. “Reno’s back, Tree,” he said.
Trina’s heart dropped through her shoe. She hadn’t seen or heard from Reno in two months, when he drove his family to Seattle, handed them to Tommy, and left. He had to do what he had to do, he said at that time. And she knew she couldn’t stop him.
Now he was back.
She got out of the car and walked deliberately slow into the house.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Trina walked up the stairs of Tommy’s massive home and then began to walk along the second floor corridor. She stopped first in the Nursery. Dominic Gabrini, Junior was safely in his bed and sound asleep. And Reno wasn’t in there.
Then she walked to the room beside the Nursery. Jimmy Mack Gabrini was in his bed too, and asleep too, and his Nurse looked up from a book she was reading. Two months after he was shot, two months after they had at first thought he was dead on the spot, he was still hooked up to I-Vs and Oxygen and his head was still wrapped in bandages. That bullet caused a lot of damage, and he had a long road to recovery. But thank God, Trina thought as she stared at him, a full recovery was expected. But it was going to take time.
She remembered what happened that day as if it happened yesterday. It had been a hellish scene. Tony Tufarna forced Reno to choose a family member for execution and Reno chose his oldest child. Trina was begging him, through her taped mouth, to choose her, but Reno chose Jimmy.
And when that shot was heard, when that blast sounded, Trina thought she was going to die where she sat. She cried unlike she had ever cried before. She felt the kind of pain that should have taken her away from this world. She thought it was over. There was no way, no way at all, that she and Reno could pick up the pieces after something like that.
It wasn’t until Sal removed her tape and untied her hands did she realize how badly they had underestimated God’s grace. She pulled Jimmy into her arms just to hold his lifeless body. She pulled him into her arms to comfort his soul. But then she realized, as she held him, that she wasn’t holding a dead body. There was still life in that body. It was faint, and slipping fast, but it was life.
While Sal called 911, Reno had lifted his son’s body from the sofa and was trying to run all the way to the hospital with his son in his arms. He was just that spooked. They had been granted a reprieve, and he was determined to not let this one fail. But fortunately for all of them, the ambulance came. And Jimmy, to his parents eternal thanks, was saved.
Trina still trembled when she thought about that day. And there were many times when she couldn’t pull herself to think about it. But Reno was back. He always gave them strength.
She walked to the only other room that he could be in. Her room. She slowly pushed open the door and looked into the room. As soon as she saw him lying across her bed, naked as a jaybird, she dropped all pretense at coolness.
“Reno!” she yelled as she closed the door and ran to him.
He lifted his head when he heard her yell, and he smiled, then he laid his head back down. And waited for the pain.
Trina jumped on top of him as if he was a trampoline and he wrapped her into his arms. It had been two months since he held her. Two long months since he felt her and smelled her and tasted her. And he couldn’t wait another second.
She was kissing him with sweet little kisses all over his face. She’d never seen a more beautiful sight in her life. But Reno placed his hands on either side of her face and focused her attention. Not on the excitement of the moment, but on him. They stared into each other’s eyes. But this time no tears were shed. This time no sense of dread overtook them. Love was in their eyes. Hot, burning love.
Reno looked at her mouth. He dreamed of that mouth every night he laid down his head. Now it was within an inch of his own. And he wanted it so badly that he knew he could harm her. He therefore had to wait, calm himself down, and then ease down slowly and gently until he felt her warm lips and the texture of her skin.
He kissed her long and hard. He kissed her with the kind of passion he displayed the first time they ever made love. For the longest time they laid there, with him completely naked and her completely clothed, and kissed and sucked and licked as if her face, and his face, were as new to them as the day.
Then Reno’s control began to show some weakness. He slung open her blouse, causing the buttons to careen across the room, and lifted her bra. He wanted to taste her breasts and he didn’t want to wait to taste them either. Two months, in his book, was long enough.
He devoured her breasts. He sucked and his licked and Trina leaned her head back and enjoyed every moment. She knew he was going to have his way with every inch of her body, and she began removing her skirt and panties to ensure he had easy access. Lust was mainly her reason, but Reno’s penchant for ripping off her clothes whenever he was especially horny, was another reason.
But she was right. He was going to have every inch of her. He began moving down her body with kisses all the way to her vagina. By the time he arrived at her vagina he turned her onto her back, wedged himself between her thighs, and licked her down. He licked and sucked and kissed and tasted until her pussy was so wet, so red, and so wrinkled that there was nothing else Reno felt he could do but fuck it.
He moved up the length of her wonderful black body and guided his dick deep inside of her. He began pulsating immediately. His eyes became hooded immediately. And Trina held onto the bed as tightly as she could. She knew she was in for a ride now. She knew Reno was going to go to town on her pussy if his penis was throbbing this hard this soon.
Reno got on his knees and grunted as he fucked her. He kept his strokes steady, and he kept his mind on nothing but those strokes, but that legendary control of his wasn’t holding up at all. He was ready to cum almost immediately.
He looked at Trina. She, too, was grunting from the intensity of his fuck. She was going to break at any moment too. She wasn’t going to last worth a damn either. And the reality of it made Reno love her more. Even in his weakness she allowed him to stay strong.
And she came first. At first he wondered if she was faking it. Trina had never cum this quickly. But then he saw her eyes roll back and felt her muscles tighten around his dick so hard that he thought he was going to explode. There was no faking that.
He came almost immediately after she did. He poured into her with a release that shook his entire body. But even as he poured, he couldn’t stop. He laid down and grabbed her into his arms. “Trina,” he cried as he held and fucked her. “Trina,” he continued to cry and fuck.
Until he released every ounce he had within him.
When he first arrived back at Tommy’s house, he held his baby, and then went into Jimmy’s room and held his son. Now he was holding his woman. He was holding her tightly. He was back. He almost felt like his old self again.
Later, Reno, in a pair of pants and a t-shirt, was standing in the living
room at the back window, staring out at the peaceful lake. Tommy and Grace were seated on the patio staring at that lake too. Dommi was seated on a blanket, playing with his toys.
Trina came downstairs in a pair of shorts and one of Reno’s shirt. Her first instinct was to run into his arms. But she didn’t. She walked over to him and stood beside him, instead.
“Think they’re make it?” Reno asked as he stared at Tommy and Grace.
Trina was too busy staring at him. He looked gaunt to her, as if he had lost weight and wasn’t taking care of himself at all. Her heart ached for him, and for all the terrible things he undoubtedly had to do.
“Yes,” she replied. “They’ll make it. Me and you on the other hand.”
Reno looked at her. He smiled, but it wasn’t a strong smile. His look turned serious. “I was going to do what I had to do to Tufarna,” he said, “and then I was gonna do what I had to do to myself.”
A distressed looked came over Trina. “Oh, Reno,” she said with feeling.
“Then I thought about my son. My other son. I thought about Jimmy.” Reno’s heart squeezed at just the mention of that name. “I thought about Jimmy, and I asked myself a question. I asked myself if Jimmy would be pleased with me. If Jimmy was in my face at that moment in time, would he say he survived therefore I should let it go? Would he consider me a quitter for even thinking about ending my existence? Would I be Dad in his eyes, or Pop?”
Tears appeared in Reno’s eyes for the first time in two months. Tears were already in Trina’s.
“What did you conclude?” she asked him.
“That it didn’t matter,” Reno said. “Jimmy’s alive. Thank God. But I can’t keep beating myself up because I had to make a decision. He told me even today that I made the right decision. It was either him or you, or Dommi, and he knew it.”
“It couldn’t be Dommi,” Trina said.
MOB BOSS 6: THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI (Mob Boss Series) Page 16
