“My people drew blanks too,” Tommy said, sitting down. “But Uncle Mick’s people didn’t.”
Reno and Sal looked at Tommy. “What do you mean? Mick knows something?”
Tommy nodded. “Mick knows something,” he said.
Finally, Reno thought with great relief, they were getting somewhere!
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“So what is it?” Sal asked his brother. “What does he know?”
“There were no associates of the Johnson brothers behind that ambush.”
Reno was floored. “What do you mean?”
“They don’t have that kind of muscle behind them,” Tommy said. “They were contained within themselves just like we always thought.”
“Then who pulled off that bold shit?” Reno asked. “Who had the balls to target my family?”
“That’s the part Uncle Mick doesn’t know,” said Tommy. “But he says it wasn’t the Johnsons or anybody affiliated with the Johnsons. Nobody in their circle has that kind of muscle. Nobody in their circle would be that bold. But--”
“But what?” Reno asked.
“Uncle Mick believes the Johnsons were ordered to threaten you by somebody with real muscle. Somebody big. And that person didn’t give a damn about the Johnsons being taken out. That ambush of Tree and the children wasn’t about revenge for what happened to the Johnson brothers. We’re on the wrong track, he believes, if we keep going down that road.”
Reno opened his suit coat and let out a harsh exhale. “So we’re back to square one?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” said Tommy. “It’s the beginning again.”
The door to the office opened, and Jimmy peered inside. “Hey, Pop,” he said. But when he saw his boss and cousin, the man he called Uncle Tommy out of respect, he smiled and went on in. “Hello, sir!”
Tommy looked at his young employee. “Hey, Jim, how are you?”
Jimmy went further in and shook Tommy’s hand. But he could tell something was wrong. “What is it?” he asked.
“None of your business,” Sal said. “You’re the legit side of the family. Let’s keep it that way.”
“No, but for real, though,” Jimmy said. “What’s happened?”
“Nothing happened,” Reno said. “You heard your Uncle Sal. Nothing.”
“I get it. You still haven’t found out anything about that ambush. Have you?”
Sal smiled. Jimmy was quick, he’d give him that. “That’s right.”
“But it was people inside the Johnson family. We still know that, right?”
“We don’t think so, no,” Tommy said.
“No? Then who was it?”
“We don’t know, Jimmy,” Reno said. “We don’t know a damn thing.”
Jimmy exhaled. “Great,” he said. “Just great. Anyway, I’ll be home.”
“You’re just coming in?” Reno asked.
“Yes. I’m an adult now, Pop. It’s allowed.”
“Why aren’t you heading to work?” Reno asked him.
“I’m off today. Uncle Tommy gave me the day off.”
“So who were you out with?” Tommy asked him.
“Oprah,” Jimmy said proudly.
Sal frowned. “Oprah Winfrey?” he asked.
Reno frowned. “Yeah, Sal. Oprah Winfrey. My son was out with Oprah Winfrey.”
“Ain’t her ass a little too old for him?” Sal asked.
“Oh, for crying out loud, Salvatore!” Reno decried as Tommy grinned, and then bust out laughing. “You know that boy isn’t taking Oprah Winfrey on no damn date! He’s talking about the girl that works for Gem and Tree.”
“Oh. That Oprah! Well hell, how was I to know? I hear that name, I don’t think about some chick working at Champagne’s. I think about the one and only Oprah like everybody else with a brain does. But you, on the other hand--”
“Bye fellas,” Jimmy said quickly before the back-and-forth began, and hurried out of the door. He smiled as he made his way onto the elevator, and up to his floor.
When he stepped off, he spoke to a maid who was walking by, and then a kitchen worker with a tray filled with empty dishes in his arm. And then he went up to his apartment door.
He swiped his key, but as he was opening his door, he didn’t realize the kitchen worker had doubled back and was right behind him. And when he realized it, it was too late. The kitchen worker shoved Jimmy into his own apartment, knocking him down to the floor, and closed the door.
Then he immediately dropped the tray, got down on his knees, and began punching Jimmy to subdue him.
But Jimmy wasn’t about to go down without a fight. He fought back violently, and nearly got the upper hand. But knocks were heard on the door and the intruder quickly got off of Jimmy and ran and opened it. Then a second intruder, disguised as a kitchen worker too, entered the apartment, closed and locked the door, and pushed Jimmy back down just as he was getting back up. And a fair fight suddenly became a vicious tag-team. The second intruder immediately covered Jim’s mouth with duct tape, and then proceeded to tape his arms and legs.
Jimmy struggled mightily, but he was easily outmatched.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Reno was walking out of his office with Tommy and Sal, to walk them to the elevators, when he suddenly, painfully bent over.
Sal frowned. “Damn, Reno! What’s wrong with you?”
Reno, shocked, stood back upright. “Felt like somebody just gut-punched me,” he said.
Tommy smiled. “You’re getting old, that’s all,” he said. “Real old.”
“If he’s getting old,” Sal said, “what are you getting? Your ass as old as his ass.”
“Sal defending Reno?” Tommy asked with a smile. “That’s a first.”
But Tommy noticed Reno looked suddenly unwell. “Ree, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Reno said, although his face looked distress. “I don’t know what . . .” Then, suddenly, Jimmy’s face flashed into Reno’s memory, and Jimmy appeared to be screaming, but making no noise. Then it all just disappeared.
Reno’s heart dropped. “He’s in trouble,” he said, and began running for the elevator.
“Who’s in trouble?” Tommy asked, as he and Sal began running with him.
“Jimmy,” Reno said. “My boy is in trouble. Don’t ask me how I know that shit, but I know it. Jimmy’s in trouble!”
And that was all Tommy and Sal needed to hear. They were right there with Reno as Reno repeatedly pressed the button, as if to will the elevator door to open. But it didn’t open right away. So he took off running for the stairwell. Tommy and Sal ran with him.
When they made it upstairs, and made it to Jimmy’s apartment, Reno used his master key to unlock the door.
As soon as they hurried in, they heard loud noises coming from the bedroom, as if somebody was struggling against someone else. And to a man, they didn’t delay. They ran toward that noise.
When they made it to the bedroom, they saw Jimmy, tied down on the bed but still fighting for his life, and two men over him, one with a knife coming down toward his throat, about to kill him.
Reno flung his body on top of the man with the knife and both of them fell to the floor. The second man tried to pull a gun, but Tommy punched the guy and Sal knocked the gun out of his hand. Tommy then grabbed for the second man, to finish him off, but he was able to get up from the floor and run. Tommy ran after him.
The man with the knife was still struggling with Reno. Sal quickly picked up the gun and ran and placed it at the man’s head. Nobody wanted to fire a shot inside the PaLargio and create a panic, but they’d fire a volley of shots if they had to.
Sal placed that gun to that man’s head should it appear that Reno was going to lose the battle. It was the back-up plan.
But the gun wasn’t necessary. The man kept fighting Reno, despite the gun, but Reno was too strong. He turned that knife away from his own face, and turned it to the man’s chest instead. But then it got hard again, as the man fought to keep that k
nife at bay. But Reno had anger on his side. This was the man who had that same knife to his son’s throat. This was the man who just tried to kill his oldest child.
Reno garnered all the strength he had, took that knife and plunged it right through the man’s heart.
And it was then, and only then, did the man give up the fight. He dropped dead.
But Tommy was still running. He was running to catch up with the second assailant. The man had run into Jimmy’s second bedroom and slammed the door. Tommy knocked it down with his broad shoulders just as the man lifted the window and looked back at Tommy, as if threatening to jump if he came any closer.
But Tommy wasn’t playing that shit with him. He ran to him anyway. They needed answers that he could provide. But the man wasn’t threatening. It was no fake. He jumped up onto the window sill just as Tommy reached for him, and then he jumped out of the window.
“Nooo!” Tommy yelled as he leaned over, grabbing for the man. The man ten feet, twenty feet, thirty feet, before he splattered all over the sidewalk. Even a man like Tommy, who’d seen it all, couldn’t bear to see that. He looked away.
But he couldn’t dwell on it. He had to make sure the others were alright.
He ran back into Jimmy’s bedroom, to make sure they had that scene under control, too. They did. Reno was untying Jimmy, and Jimmy was making clear he’d never seen those guys before in his life.
And then, the front door was opened, and everything went still.
Tommy, Sal, and Reno pulled out their guns, ready to fire on sight if they had to. Tommy and Sal looked to Reno, and Reno looked at Jimmy, making it clear to him that he had better stay quiet. But then a voice came from the living room. A voice with an Hispanic accent. And they all relaxed.
“Mr. Jimmy?” the voice was calling. “Mr. Jimmy?”
“Just a moment, Maria,” Jimmy said as he got off of the bed and attempted to make it up front.
“Who’s that?” Tommy asked.
“Carmine’s nanny,” Jimmy said. “I hired her to stay with Maddie last night.”
They all put their guns away as they followed Jimmy upfront. To make sure she wasn’t in any way involved.
Maria was surprised when not only Jimmy walked up front, but three additional men. She knew Mr. Reno. Reno, in fact, was her employer. And she knew Mr. Sal, too. But it was her first time seeing the other man, a man, she quickly decided, might have been the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. “Hello,” she said.
“What do you want?” Reno asked it in his normal, impatient way.
Him, Maria thought, she did not like. But he was the one who signed her checks. “I wanted to know if the baby could have lunch with the other children,” she said mainly to Jimmy. “They’re asking for her.”
But Jimmy was confused. “What are you talking about? Maddie’s already with the children. Isn’t she with you?”
“No, sir. She’s with you.”
“With me?” Jimmy was shocked. “What are you talking about? I left her with you last night. I told you to take her to the penthouse with you when you went to work this morning.”
Then his heart began to pound. “You didn’t take her to the penthouse this morning?”
“I was going to, but her grandfather came and got her. He said he wanted to take her downstairs for breakfast, and would take her to you. He said you told him to pick her up.”
Reno was shaking his head. “Buddy wouldn’t pull no shit like that. He knows how our protocol works. He would have told one of us.”
“You ever seen Maddie’s grandfather before?” Tommy asked Maria. “Other than Reno, and before this morning, I mean?”
“No, sir.”
“What difference does that make, Tommy?” Sal asked. “We need to find out what Buddy’s ass is up to.”
“Describe him,” Tommy said to Maria.
“The grandfather you mean?”
“Yes,” Tommy said. “Describe him.”
“He wore a dark suit. He was kind of tall, like you. He was white like you. He had blonde hair--”
“Motherfuck!” Reno said.
“White?” Jimmy was stunned. Reno immediately began phoning Buddy Wellstone, Maddie’s maternal grandfather.
“How long ago did he pick her up?” Sal asked.
“Four, five hours ago. I had to be to work upstairs, and I was about to take her upstairs with me. Did I do something wrong?” she asked nervously. “You told me he had clearance, Mr. Jimmy. You said her grandfather was on the list of people who could get her.”
“Her grandfather is black, Maria. He’s no white guy. He’s black like me! You gave my baby to a stranger!”
Maria covered her mouth in shock.
“And not just any motherfucking stranger,” Sal said. “A stranger up to deadly shit.”
“Answer the damn phone,” Reno was saying anxiously as he had the phone on Speaker, and all it was doing was ringing.
And then Buddy finally picked up. “Reno, hey,” Buddy said.
“Tell me you know where Maddie is,” Reno said nervously.
“Yeah, I know where she is.”
Jimmy snatched the phone from his father. “You do?” he asked.
“Jimmy? This Jimmy?”
“Yes, sir. You know where Maddie’s at?”
“I thought she was with you. I thought you were going to be off work today, and she was going to be home with you.”
Jimmy dropped the phone and took off upstairs, to the penthouse. Sal hurried behind him.
Reno looked at Maria. “And you’re certain she’s not upstairs?”
“I’m certain, Mr. Reno,” Maria said. “I gave her to the man who said he was her grandfather. I gave her to him.”
“What did Maddie say? Why didn’t you ask Maddie?”
“She was sound asleep,” Maria said, tears in her eyes. “I didn’t want to awake her. She was sleeping so peacefully.”
Reno and Tommy looked at each other, pain in both of their eyes. “What the fuck?” Tommy asked.
“Reno?” Buddy was saying over the phone. “Tell me what’s going on. Reno?”
Reno was still stunned as he picked up his cell phone. “Get over here now, Buddy,” he said into the phone. “We’ve got ourselves a big-ass problem.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“These are so gorgeous,” Tommy Gabrini’s wife, Grace Gabrini, said as she, Trina, and Gemma checked out Champagne’s Spring collection. “Great buy, Gem.”
“I had to have every color as soon as I saw it on the runway,” Gemma said. “Some of our ladies are going to snatch those up right away.”
“I know you’re right,” said Oprah, the store’s manager, who was also unpacking boxes. “I already got my eye on that green one.”
“I got my eye on that red one,” said Trina, and they all laughed.
Then suddenly the doors of Champagne’s were opened, and Johnny Modane, the chief of Trina’s security detail, hurried inside.
“We must leave now, Mrs. Gabrini,” Johnny said urgently.
“What’s happened?” Trina asked. “Something’s happened?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Johnny said, and then he looked at Grace and Gemma. “We have orders to bring you in, too, Mrs. Grace Gabrini, and you, too, Mrs. Gemma Gabrini.”
They all were perplexed, but they didn’t delay. They knew the drill. When Security told them it was time to go, it was time to go. No discussion. They all began hurrying for the exit. Oprah just stood there, stunned.
“But what happened?” Trina was asking as they hurried. “Tell me what happened?”
“We don’t know ourselves yet, ma’am,” said the chief. “But it concerns your son.”
“Which son?”
“Jimmy,” he said.
“Jimmy?” Oprah said as her heart began to pound. She dropped the box and began hurrying toward them. “What’s wrong with Jimmy?”
Trina looked and saw the distress on her face. Oprah loved Jimmy, and Trina knew it. “You’d better come
too, O,” she said. “You’d better come too!”
Oprah hurriedly placed the CLOSED sign on the store’s display window and hurried out of the store with the Gabrini women, locking the door behind them. The chief placed the three wives into the same SUV, but he placed Oprah in the SUV just behind theirs. She might have been Jimmy’s girlfriend, but she was not a Gabrini. He was not going to break protocol. If personal information was discussed while they were on their way, he could not have her privy to it. But Oprah didn’t mind. Just as long as she was going to be able to check on Jimmy!
The chief got into the car with the Gabrini wives and the convoy of SUVs, five strong, took off.
“Just tell me this,” Trina said anxiously to the chief, “is Jimmy alright? Just tell me he’s alright.”
But the chief could only shake his head. “Don’t have that information at all, ma’am,” he said. “We were told to secure you, and Mrs. Grace Gabrini, and Mrs. Gemma Gabrini, and bring all three of you in.”
Trina immediately pulled out her cellphone, to call Reno, but it went straight to Voice Mail.
Gemma phoned Sal. The call went to Voice Mail too.
Grace tried Tommy. He answered on the first ring. She placed him on Speaker. “What’s going on, Tommy?” she asked him. “Is Jim okay?”
“Everybody’s okay,” Tommy said quickly, and every lady in that car sighed relief. “You’re on the way?”
“We’re in the car now, yes,” said Grace. “But what’s happening?”
“Who’s listening to this conversation?” Tommy asked.
“Just me, Tree, and Gemma,” Grace said. “And Security.”
“There’s been a snatch,” Tommy said.
“Oh, my God,” said Grace.
“They took Jimmy?” Trina asked anxiously.
“No,” Tommy said. “But they did try to kill him.”
An audible gasp filled the car. “They tried to kill him?” Trina asked. She couldn’t believe it! Then she thought about what Tommy had said. “But you said there was a kidnapping. Who did they take?”
Tommy exhaled.
Reno Gabrini: Turn Back Time Page 9
