Reno and Son: Don't Mess with Jim (The Mob Boss Series)

by Mallory Monroe

Jimmy laughed. “It already is, Dad,” he said, and allowed the doors to close.

  The doorbell started ringing once again by the time Val made it downstairs. “Coming! I’m coming!”

  She hurried into the foyer and swung open her front door. “You are so early,” she said to whom she thought would be Jimmy.

  But just as she said it, she realized that there were two men standing on the other side of her front door, and neither one of them was Jimmy. And she also realized, by the look in their menacing eyes, that she’d better close that door right back.

  She hurried to do just that, determined to lock them out, but they just as quickly forced it back opened, knocking her down by their brute force alone, and entered her home. They slammed the door shut.

  Val didn’t waste time. It was a matter of life or death, she knew it instinctively. These men didn’t come for anything less. She jumped up and began running, heading for the back door, fighting to get away from them. But she was no match for either man. They tackled her, knocking her, a vase, and a chair to the floor. She kept clawing, trying to get away, but they grabbed her by the legs and pulled her back. The last thing she saw, as one of the men then straddled her, was a fist, a big, white fist, coming straight toward her terror-stricken eyes.

  Reno, in his vast casino, sat on a stool at one of the dollar slot machines. He was leaned back, his arms folded, his body turned away from the machine. He was, instead, laughing and talking with two of his customers- an older couple from Maine, and a younger couple from Hawaii.

  “But she was right,” the older male stated. “It’s time to live a little.”

  “Damn straight,” Reno echoed. “You paid your dues.”

  “We’re retired now. We paid our dues, that’s right. It’s high time we get out and see the world. So that’s why we came to Vegas.”

  “Are you glad you did?” Reno asked him.

  The man was thoughtful. “It’s a very fast place,” he said. “I’ll be honest with you. A lot of chicanery going on around here.” Reno laughed. “So this may not be the best spot for us overall. But I’m glad we got to try it out; to see what the fuss was all about.”

  Reno looked at the younger couple. The female, dressed in a halter top to accentuate her massive boobs, couldn’t stop smiling, while her young man looked more uptight than happy. With a dame that looked like her, Reno understood why. “What about you guys? Glad you came too?”

  “Oh, yes, sir,” the girl eagerly responded. “We love everything about it here.”

  “Well good. Glad to hear that.” Reno saw Jimmy enter the casino out of the corner of his eye. Jimmy looked around, saw his father, and hurried in that direction. “We try our best to give all our patrons the time of their lives. We have it all here, you know. Not just the gambling.”

  “Oh, we know. We went to one of the shows last night.”

  “Oh, yeah? Which show?”

  “The fire eating show,” the girl said and giggled. “It was scary.”

  “Dad,” Jimmy said as soon as he arrived.

  Reno could see the anxiety in his son’s eyes. He looked at his guests. “Don’t let me keep you. Continue to enjoy yourselves. Anybody gives you any problems, come find me.”

  “Thanks so much, Mr. Gabrini,” the girl said, and the couples said their goodbyes and left.

  Reno looked back at Jimmy. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s Val.”

  “Yeah?”

  “I went to her house because this was going to be our big night.”

  “Right.”

  “But she wasn’t there. She never answered her door.”

  “Maybe she went off someplace.”

  “But her car was in her driveway, and she wouldn’t answer her cell phone either.”

  “Did you call her old man?”

  “I called him, I called Ezra and Brandy and all of her friends, I called everybody. But nobody’s seen or heard from her.”

  Now Reno was concerned too. “What about inside the house? Saw anything out of the ordinary?”

  “I didn’t go inside. I don’t have a key.”

  Reno frowned. “Who’s talking about a key? You didn’t figure out a way to get your ass inside that house and see what was going on?”

  Jimmy felt flustered and inadequate. “No,” he admitted. “I thought that maybe she knew what was coming tonight, the proposal I mean, and didn’t want to deal with it. She didn’t want to tell me no to my face. So I left. But after I started calling around looking for her, and nobody heard from her, I got more concerned. And came here. To you.”

  Reno nodded. Jimmy was still so young. “You did right, son,” he reassured him as he stood up. Then he began heading for the exit. Jimmy didn’t know where he was going, or what the plan was, but he followed him anyway.

  The Porsche drove onto the driveway of Val’s home and Reno, on the passenger side, and Jimmy, the driver, got out and headed for the front door. Jimmy had been calling the house phone and Val’s cell phone the entire drive over, but with no response. And now Reno was pulling out some crowbar looking pop-a-lock gizmo that caused Jimmy to feel like the lookout. They knew her, and she was his lady, but that didn’t change the fact that they were breaking into her home. A major felony in every jurisdiction. But Jimmy was so concerned about Val that, at this point, he didn’t even care about the risk.

  After a lot of finagling, the door finally popped open. And Reno and Jimmy went into.

  As soon as Reno saw the state of the house, he pulled out his gun.

  “What is it?” Jimmy asked, moving around his father to see for himself. That was when he saw the disarray. His heart dropped. Something had happened here. Something horrific.

  “Val?” Jimmy yelled, panic already in his voice. “Val!”

  Reno pulled out a second firearm, and handed it to Jimmy. He motioned for Jimmy to search the dining room and kitchen areas while Reno searched the downstairs bedroom. Neither found anything.

  So they went upstairs.

  Jimmy led the way, as he hurried into her bedroom and Reno checked the other bedroom. Nothing. No sign of any struggle. No sign of anything out of order. Reno then joined Jimmy in her bedroom, where Jimmy was checking her closet.

  “She’s not here,” Reno said, looking out of the window, “but something definitely happened to her.”

  “But what?” Jimmy asked, stumped.

  “Hell if I know,” Reno said. “There appears to be,” he said, but then he frowned. Then he moved away from the window.

  “What?” Jimmy asked.

  Reno began hurrying out of the bedroom.

  “What is it?” Jimmy asked, hurrying behind him.

  When they made it downstairs, Reno turned to Jimmy. “Give me a couple minutes, then I want you to go out of the front door, leave the front door open, and turn back toward the house as if you’re talking to me.”

  “Why?” Jimmy asked.

  “Just do it,” Reno said and hurried out of the home’s backdoor.

  Jimmy hated being kept in the dark, but he knew he had to trust his father in matters like these. So he waited a few minutes as he had been instructed, and then he went outside. He left the front door open, and began talking as if Reno was standing at that door.

  “But Dad, you don’t understand,” he was saying as loudly as he could.

  Across the street, two houses down, a blue Ford Taurus was parked at the curb. The man behind the steering wheel was staring at Val’s house and watching Jimmy intently. His car was so tinted that he knew he couldn’t be clearly seen at all.

  The backdoor of the car suddenly opened, Reno jumped inside, and before the man could reach for his gun, Reno had his own gun at the back of his head. “Move and you’re one dead motherfucker,” Reno said. “So give it your best shot. Please.”

  The man lifted his hands. “What do you want?”

  “Give me your gun.”

  The man did as he was told.

  “And your other one.”


  The man reached into his sock and handed Reno his backup gun.

  “Now put your hands where I can see them.”

  The man placed his hands on the steering wheel.

  Reno pulled out his cell phone. Called his security chief, told him to get a team over to Val’s. Then he called Jimmy. He could see Jimmy still standing at the front door, talking believably to nobody.

  Jimmy answered his phone quickly. “Where are you?”

  “Across the street. In the blue Ford. Close Val’s door and get over here.”

  Jimmy, amazed, looked across the street. He hadn’t even noticed any Ford. Then he quickly closed the door, although Reno’s pop-a-lock device wouldn’t allow it to lock anymore, and made his way to the car. When he got into the backseat, he saw that his father had a gun to the man’s head.

  “Who is he?” Jimmy asked.

  “Who are you?” Reno asked the man.

  “I’m minding my own business, what are you doing?”

  “Where’s the girl?”

  “What girl?”

  Reno slammed the man’s head against the steering wheel. A cut ensued and blood immediately began to trickle out. “Where’s the girl?”

  “What girl?”

  Reno slammed the man again, this time drawing more blood.

  The man was anguished now. “What’s your problem? I told you I don’t know nothing about no girl!”

  “If you don’t want to die today, you’d better.” Before Reno could finish his sentence, the sound of a car slamming on brakes and then a flurry of gunfire erupted. Reno reacted by slamming Jimmy’s body down into the floor of the car, and then he got on top of his son, shielding him.

  The driver tried to escape the car, but Reno fired back at the shooters and then grabbed the driver and slung him into the backseat, where all of the shots were being directed. The guy immediately became the human shield, taking a series of bullets, as Reno protected Jimmy. When the shooters realized their error, that they were actually shooting their own man, the wheels squealed again, and the car took off.

  Reno didn’t breathe during the entire ambush, because his son was in that car, but now he not only breathe, he took charge again. “Drive,” he ordered a shaken Jimmy. “Get us out of here before the cops come!”

  Jimmy jumped over the seat, cranked up the car, and they took off.

  Reno grabbed the wounded driver and placed him onto the backseat, pointed the gun at him again, and wanted answers. He knew the guy only had a matter of minutes to be on this earth, and he had to act quickly.

  “Where is Valerie?” Reno asked him.

  “I’m shot,” the driver was moaning.

  Reno pressed the gun against one of his wounds, causing him to scream in pain. “Where’s the girl, I’m not fucking with you anymore! Where’s the girl?”

  “I don’t know,” the man yelled out, wincing as he did. “I’m shot!”

  “We’ll drop you at the hospital if you tell me where they took the girl.”

  “Take me to the hospital!”

  “Talk then motherfucker! Where’s the girl?”

  “I told you I don’t know. They told me to watch out, let them know if Jimmy showed up. They said they just wanted to scare his old man.”

  Reno frowned. Jimmy, who was driving furiously, looked through the rearview. “Scare me?” Reno asked.

  “That’s what they said,” the man said. “They wanted to scare his old man.”

  “Who wanted to?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Reno pressed into the man’s wound again. The man screamed out in pain again. “I don’t know,” he yelled. “It was a blind call. I keep an eye out on the place and then the money would be in my account. That’s all I know. That’s it!”

  “Who do you work for?”

  “I work alone. I’ve never worked for anybody.”

  “Give me a name, I’m not fucking with you now!”

  “I don’t have a name! I only run in the blind. Please get me some help! I’m dying here!”

  Reno leaned back. Pain had a way of eclipsing all else. He was now convinced the guy knew nothing more. He looked around, waited until Jim turned a corner on a side street, then he opened the car door and pushed the man out of the door. The car kept going as Reno closed the door back.

  Jimmy, stunned, looked at his father. “I thought we were going to drop him at the hospital.”

  “A man who tried to kill us? Yeah, right. His ass better be glad I dropped him at all. No mercy, Jimmy, remember that. In that bar brawl, that drunk was hitting on your woman. You beat his ass, and that’s enough of a payment for that crime. But in a case like this, when you’re dealing with fuckers who would just as soon take your life, you’d better take theirs.”

  Jimmy nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said, as he looked through the car’s mirror at the man lying in the street. Soon to be dead, if not dead already. Those bullets might have been positioned enough to give the guy a few more minutes to live, but that push from this car took those minutes away. But then Jimmy thought about Val, and where in the world was she, and he had no mercy. He glanced at his father through the rearview. “What do we do now?”

  “Go home,” Reno said, flustered and even more concerned. “We go home and we regroup.”

  TEN

  Trina was sitting the casserole in the oven when she heard the front door open and close. “That you Reno?”

  “Where are you?” Reno yelled back.

  “Kitchen.”

  When Reno entered the kitchen, looking as if he’d been in a battle, and Jimmy was with him, looking the same, her heart dropped. She began to remove her cooking gloves. “What’s wrong?”

  Reno sat at the kitchen’s center island. Jimmy stood beside his father, pressed his hands face down on the countertop, and dropped his head. He was exhausted too.

  Trina looked at her husband. “Reno, what happened?”

  “Val’s gone.”

  “Gone? What do you mean she’s gone?”

  “She’s been snatched. Kidnapped. Somebody took her.”

  Trina placed her hand to her heart, shocked. She looked at Jimmy.

  “We went to her house and it was ransacked. There had been some struggle, that’s for sure. And then we were ambushed.”

  Trina frowned. “Ambushed? You mean the kidnappers were still there?”

  “Let’s just say they came back.” Reno’s cell phone rang. He looked at the Caller ID, and then answered quickly. “Yeah?”

  Trina looked at Jimmy. “She’s going to be okay, Jimmy.” Jimmy looked up at her. Tears were in his eyes. Trina reached out and squeezed his hand. “You know your father. He’ll take care of it.”

  Reno finished his conversation and killed the call.

  Jimmy looked at him. “Who was it?”

  “My guys. They were able to get my car away from Val’s house.”

  “No cops were there?”

  “Not at her house, no. Why would they? A few neighbors called only after they started hearing shooting, not at Val’s house, but on the street. Nobody looked out to see what was going on until the shooting completely stopped, and by then we were gone. But they did identify the car that had been parked there. But the car wasn’t my Porsche, but that blue Taurus. The cops are swarming the area looking for that blue Taurus.”

  “You think they’ll find it here?”

  “Here?” Trina asked.

  “We brought it here,” Jimmy told her. “It’s here.”

  “Not anymore,” Reno said. “My guys took it and disposed of it as soon as we drove up.”

  But Trina was still concerned. “But why would you bring a car that was involved in a crime to the PaLargio? We don’t need that kind of heat, Reno.”

  “What heat? A blue Taurus was here. So what? It was here, just like thousands of cars are here every day. Now it’s gone, just like thousands of cars come and go every day. I know what I’m doing.”

  Trina would never dispute that.

  But
Val was on Jimmy’s mind. “What about Val, Pop? Where could she be? They said they took her to scare you.”

  Trina frowned. “To scare you? Why would they think they could scare you?”

  Reno shook his head and ran his hands through his messy hair. “Who knows. It could be anybody, everybody.”

  “But why would they think kidnapping Val would scare you?”

  “Yeah, Pop,” Jimmy said. “Kidnapping Ma, yeah, I can see them doing that to scare you. But Val? Val’s my woman, not yours.” Then Jimmy stared at his father. “Maybe they saw you at that bowling alley the other night, when you were grinding on Val.”

  Reno looked at his son. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. Yup. Gotta be.” Then Reno became angry. “Get the fuck out of my face with that nonsense! If anybody’s trying to send me a message, that means they know me. And no serious fucker alive will think kidnapping my son’s girlfriend is going to scare me. It’ll anger me, but it for damn sure won’t scare me.”

  Jimmy knew it was true too. Which made it all the more baffling. “Maybe the guy was lying,” Jimmy said. “Maybe it wasn’t like he said.”

  “What did he say exactly?” Trina asked.

  Jimmy couldn’t remember exactly what the guy had said. He looked at his father.

  Reno exhaled. “He said whoever took Val did so to scare me.”

  “So who are they? Did the guy say?”

  Reno shook his head. “He doesn’t know. They paid him on the blind.”

  “What’s that?”

  “It’s when they pay without letting the person they’re hiring know who hired them,” Jimmy responded. “Mobsters do it all the time.”

  Reno glanced at Jimmy. How would he know what mobsters did all the time?

  “Uncle Sal told me,” Jimmy said, in answer to his father’s unasked question.

  “But it still doesn’t make sense,” Trina said. “Everybody knows you’re married, and they know Val isn’t your wife.” Then Trina had a thought, a very clear thought. “Oh, my goodness,” she said.

  Reno and Jimmy both looked at her. “What is it?” Reno asked her.

  She looked at Reno. “Tell me exactly what that guy said.”

  “I told you already.”