Reno drove up in his Porsche, with Jimmy following closely behind him in his Dodge. When they both got out, Sal followed them to the trunk of Jimmy’s car. Jimmy opened it.
Sal, wearing gloves, nodded his head. “He looks like a Garcetti alright.” Then he smiled and looked at Jimmy. “You can pick’em, you know that?”
Jimmy was too distressed to smile.
“Yeah, you ought to be upset,” Sal said. “Bringing all of this shit on your old man. You’re the oldest. We expect you to be the example for our younger kids, Jimmy. For Dom and Sophie and me and Tommy’s kids. What are you doing?”
“I know I messed up, Uncle Sal,” Jimmy said. Reno and Sal were not brothers, but were first cousins. But that didn’t stop his children from referring to Sal and Sal’s brother Tommy as their uncles. “I just didn’t think it would come to this.”
“Guess what they call this kid, Sal?” Reno asked.
“What?”
“Noon Devil.”
Sal frowned and looked at Jimmy. “You make a deal with a guy who has a name like that? Are you nuts? Fuckers with names like that don’t have a conscience, Jimmy. They don’t give a fuck. You don’t make deals with soulless men. Your ass better be glad he’s the one dead.”
A chill ran down Jimmy’s spine. He knew it too.
Sal looked at Reno. “What you need, Reno?” he asked.
“Get rid of it,” Reno said.
“Consider it done,” Sal said, and motioned toward his men.
Two of his men took the body out of the trunk, and put it inside the van. The van, with both men inside, took off. The third man asked for Jimmy’s keys.
Jimmy handed them to him, and the guy cranked up and took off too.
“What’s he doing with my car?” Jimmy asked.
“Sterilizing it,” Sal said. “So there’ll be no evidence. He’ll get it back to you, player. Don’t worry.”
Jimmy wanted to smile, but he was still too distressed.
Reno looked at Sal. “If talk about whatever happened to Nunzio Garcetti shifts to my son--”
“And it will,” Sal said.
“I want you to steer all talk to me,” Reno said. “I want you to drop the word that I was the shooter, not Jimmy.”
Jimmy frowned. “You can’t take the fall for what I did.”
“What about that nightclub where it happened?” Sal asked Reno. “There might be tape.”
“My men took care of that,” Reno said. “They’ve got the tape.”
Sal nodded. “Good.” Then he looked at Reno. There was no better father alive, in his view. “So you want to take the rap for Jimmy Mack?”
“I have to,” Reno said, “or Jimmy will be dead inside a day.”
Sal knew it too. Jimmy, who didn’t really know shit, looked at his father.
“I need the heat to come to me and me alone,” Reno said.
“What’s your thinking?” Sal asked. “Beyond protecting Jimmy, I mean.”
“He might still want to go to war,” Reno said. “His ass crazy like that. But if he knows it’s me he’ll be fighting, and not just my son, he’ll think twice how he’ll wage it. I can get in his head. It’ll give me at least a semblance of an advantage.”
Sal nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll try to set up a meeting. I don’t know if he’ll go for it, though.”
“He’ll go for it,” Reno said. “He’ll be too afraid not to. And Sal,” Reno added.
Sal turned back toward him.
“Insist on this spot as the meeting place,” Reno said.
Sal nodded. “Okay.”
“I’ll gather up a crew of men, mine this time, to get in position in every hiding hole around this spot before you make the call. You have your men in place too, just in case. Then I want you to get the word out.”
Sal couldn’t believe it. “You want my men involved, and you want me to get the word out? This is some backward shit, Reno.”
Reno frowned. “What?”
“Since when did I become your enforcer? Since when did I start working for you?”
“Since your favorite nephew got his ass in a sling,” Reno responded, “and I’ve got to use all the strength I have to get him out of it.”
Sal nodded. He was a father now. He knew what that responsibility meant. “Good answer,” he said. “So I guess I’m your muscle now.”
“Now?” Reno asked with a smile. “Your ass has been my muscle since you were ten years old and wouldn’t stop following me and Tommy around. We used to order you to go beat this one up, or that one up, while we handled the real work.”
“Yeah, right,” Sal said, with a smile of his own.
Reno looked at his cousin. He knew they had a complicated relationship, but Sal always came through for him in the pinch. “Thanks, Sal,” he said, as both men half-hugged, half shook hands.
Sal and Jimmy did the same. But then Sal pointed at Jimmy. “You’re still my favorite nephew,” he said. “You’re like a son to me. But you have got to get it together, Jimmy. You’re in the big leagues now. All that schoolyard shit don’t fly in our world. You understand me? The stakes aren’t in winning fist fights and getting the girl. The stakes are deadly in our world.”
Jimmy nodded. “I understand, Uncle Sal,” he said.
“I know you do, son,” Sal said, squeezing Jimmy’s arm. Then he smiled. “Whoa. What are you trying to do?” He squeezed Jimmy’s muscular arm harder. “Bulk up like me?”
Jimmy smiled. “Whatever, Unc,” he said, as Sal grinned, got in his limousine, and was driven away.
But when Jimmy looked at his father, still smiling, and Reno did not return the smile, he exhaled. “It was an accident, Pop. Noonie pulled a gun. I had no choice.”
“If I live as recklessly as you do,” Reno said, “I’d have guns pulled on me every day of the week. But that doesn’t happen to me. You know why it doesn’t? Because I don’t live recklessly. Because I don’t go to nightclubs looking to start a fight with the guy who could have snitched me out to the cops and got my ass put in prison for life!”
“No, you wouldn’t fight him,” Jimmy agreed. “You’d kill him, but you wouldn’t fight him.”
Reno looked at Jimmy. “So you’re a wise guy now?” But the one thing about Reno: he never argued against the truth. “Just get your ass in the car,” he said.
Jimmy smiled, and got in the car.
Trina and Val were sitting in the living room when Reno and Jimmy finally returned home. It had been hours since they left, as Reno and Sal had to get their men in hiding at the meeting place before the meeting took place. Trina went to Reno, pulling him in her arms. Val and Jimmy not only didn’t hug; Jimmy didn’t understand why she was there at all.
“What are you doing here?” he asked her. “Where’s my daughter?”
“My daughter’s asleep in the Nursery,” Val said. “And I was ordered to come here by your father, thank you very much.”
“You don’t have to talk to me like that,” Jimmy said.
“You don’t have to talk to me like that,” Val responded.
“Alright, that’s enough,” Trina said, as she and Reno walked toward the sofa. “Just cut that shit out and cut it out now. Nobody wants to hear you two bickering. Nobody wants to hear that shit!”
“I’m sorry, Ma,” Jimmy responded. He walked over to a chair and plopped down.
Val could see he was in a bad place, but she wasn’t exactly thrilled either. “I just want to know what’s going on,” Val said. “What happened?”
“We have a situation,” Reno said. “And I want my grandchild in the PaLargio until we get it straightened out.”
“Is Jimmy involved?” Val asked, glancing at Jimmy.
Reno and Trina exchanged glances. “Yes,” Trina said honestly.
“So that means Maddie’s in some sort of danger because she’s his child?”
“No,” Jimmy said. “Maddie’s not in any danger. Don’t even think that, Val.”
“Well what am
I supposed to think, Jimmy? You aren’t telling me anything. All I know is that her father’s involved in some ‘situation,’ quote unquote, and I don’t even know what it is.”
“Just cool it, Val,” Reno said as his cell phone began ringing. “This isn’t a picnic for any of us.” He glanced at the Caller ID, and saw that it was from Sal. He walked away from the group. “Hey,” he said into the phone.
“He wants a meeting,” Sal said.
Reno stopped walking. “Now?” he asked.
“Tomorrow night. I told him he came at you, and you had no choice.”
Reno looked at Trina. And Jimmy. “He agreed to the place?” Reno asked.
“He agreed,” Sal responded.
Reno exhaled. “I’ll be there,” he said.
But when Reno hung up the phone, Trina and Jimmy both were by his side. “When?” Trina asked.
“Tomorrow night.”
“I’m going with you, Dad,” Jimmy said.
“No, Jimmy,” Trina said.
“I have to!” Jimmy looked at Reno. “Dad, I have to. This is my mess. I did this. I have a right to look him in the eye. I have a right to be there.”
“Reno, it’s too dangerous,” Trina said anxiously.
“Ma’s right,” Val said, anxious too. “It’s too dangerous.”
But Jimmy would have none of it. “I have to go, Dad,” he said. “Sheltering me now is stupid.”
All eyes were on Reno. Reno continued to stare at Jimmy. “You’ll be there,” he said to the consternation of both Trina and Val. “But you won’t be looking anybody in any eye,” Reno added. “Your ass will stay out of sight. But you created this mess. You’re right about that.”
But later, after Reno and Jimmy went upstairs to shower and change, Val looked at Trina. “Why didn’t you fight harder to keep Jimmy out of this?” she asked.
Trina looked at her as if she had grown a third eye. “And who was I supposed to fight?” she asked. “Reno? What he says goes. That’s the way it is in this family.”
“Well I think this family needs a shake up,” Val said. “Jimmy’s no thug like Reno. Reno has no business letting him go on some gangster run with him, and you know it, Ma.”
Trina looked at Val. “Go check on your daughter,” she said calmly.
Val wanted to continue to make her points known, but she also knew Trina. And she knew Trina didn’t play. She began heading for the Nursery.
“And Val,” Trina said as Val walked past her.
Val turned around. “Yes?”
“Call my husband a thug again,” Trina said, “and I’ll show you how thuggish I can be. You’re a sweet girl, and I love you. But you will not disrespect Reno.”
Val swallowed hard. She understood she had crossed the line. “I’m sorry, Ma. I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. I just don’t want anything to happen to Maddie’s father. She really loves Jimmy.”
Trina stared at Val. “And what about you? Do you still love him, Val?”
Val had to think about it, which answered the question for Trina. “Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don’t,” she said. And then she headed for the Nursery.
Trina could have spent hours unpacking that answer, but she didn’t even spend a second. She was too busy thinking about Jimmy, and Reno, and this meeting they were about to have. This Fats Garcetti was supposedly a very bad man. And Jimmy had killed the man’s son. And now they were going to meet with him? Trina went over to the sofa and laid down. She rubbed her forehead, fighting back anxiety. She hated times like these.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The next night, Fats Garcetti sat like a lump on a log as Reno’s limo arrived at the same location behind the old bar.
“That him?” Jimmy asked as he sat beside his father looking out of the limo’s window.
“That’s him.”
“Big guy.” Fats was easily four hundred pounds. “But I guess that’s why they call him Fats.”
Reno looked at Jimmy. “Figured that out, did you?”
Jimmy smiled. “Whatever, Pop!”
But Reno wasn’t smiling. He knew how easily these situations could turn, despite all the planning. “Wait here,” he said to Jimmy, and got out of the limo.
Reno walked up to Fats. Fats smiled. “Hello, Dominic! It’s been a long time. I knew you before they started calling your ass Reno.”
Reno smiled. They shook hands. “How you been, Fats?”
“I’ve had better nights.”
Reno nodded. “It was an accident.”
“No, it wasn’t. Oh, you might not have planned to shoot him, but it was no accident. Know how I know?”
Reno was interested.
“Because I know my son,” Fats said. “I’m the one who gave him his infamous nickname. He was an evil boy even in childhood. I couldn’t stand the sight of him. I knew this night was coming. I was just surprised that it came by your hands. By the hands of my old friend.”
They were never friends, and Reno knew it. But mobsters like Fats always pretended. They always called an adversary a friend if that adversary was more powerful than they were. Reno knew the game.
Inside the limo, Jimmy watched. The first sign of trouble, he was ready.
But Reno and Garcetti were still coming to terms. “I’m sorry for your loss,” Reno said. “He might have been a problem, but he was your son. Your problem.”
Fats smiled. “That is true. But I’m a different kind of cat. I don’t like to have problems. You got rid of one for me. Thanks.”
This was a setup. Reno would bet the farm on it now. Nobody was this accommodating to the man who just confessed to murdering their child, even a problem one. Nobody! Reno placed his hands in his pockets.
Fats stood up. “I’m going to reward you,” he said, “by walking away. It’s as simple as that. I will wash my hands of this entire affair, and call us even.”
Fats extended his hands. “See you around, Reno,” he said.
Reno pulled his hand out of his pocket, but it wasn’t an empty hand to shake Fats hand. Reno pulled out a gun and, without hesitation, lifted it to Garcetti’s forehead and pulled the trigger.
But just before Reno’s gun fired, before there was any evidence that anything was going sideways, the trunk of Fats limo opened, and two men with rifles peered out, ready to take Reno out.
Reno was quick, he was able, after killing Garcetti, to turn swiftly and take out one of the gunmen. But as he was firing on one, the other one had him dead to rights. But Jimmy jumped out of the limo and shot the second gunman. He fired a precision shot that killed the second gunman on sight.
As more of Fats hidden gunmen came out of his limo with their weapons drawn, ready to finish what their comrades in the trunk couldn’t, Reno and Sal’s men came out of the woodwork, ready to finish the job, with the opposite outcome, too.
When Fats men saw Reno’s firepower, they stopped in their tracks.
“Drop all weapons,” Reno ordered as Garcetti’s men looked around. “You don’t want to go to war with the Gabrinis. You just don’t.”
The men knew it too. They thought it was Reno alone. He was known for handling situations alone. But not this time. He not only brought his son with him, but an army of men too. They laid their weapons down.
Jimmy exhaled a sigh of relief. If so many guns between their men and Fats men would have started blaring, his father could have easily been killed.
But Reno didn’t sigh any relief. He was still at war. He was set up. Fats didn’t come to talk; he came to kill. As soon as Fats men laid their weapons down, Reno put a bullet through each and every one of their skulls. Jimmy was astounded. He thought the fight was over. Why would his father kill defenseless men?
Then, as if a light suddenly flashed in Jimmy’s head, he realized why. Kill or be killed, his father always taught him. And in this world, where late night rendezvous like this were common, it made perfect sense.
He walked up to his father. Reno was still staring at the men he had just down
ed.
“Leave no stone unturned,” Jimmy said. “Right, Dad?”
Reno looked at Jimmy. “Absolutely right,” he said. Then he stared at his son. “Good shot,” he added.
Jimmy beamed.
“Your ass faster than every one of my hired guns.”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Jimmy asked. “You’re my Dad.”
And it was Reno’s time to beam. Then he saw his men looking, and cut that shit out. “Bury their asses,” Reno ordered. “And make sure they’re a long way from Vegas when you do.”
When Reno and Jimmy got back into their limo, and fled the scene, Reno placed an arm around his son and leaned him against him. “Thanks, son,” he said, and kissed him.
Jimmy smiled and snuggled closer against Reno. He was satisfied, but it was an uncomfortable satisfaction. Because Jimmy realized a truth. He realized the only way he was ever going to live up to his father’s expectations was to become a part of his father’s life. Not the business end. He already blew that. But the part he knew long ago he always seemed to be better at doing: the underworld part. The gangster part. This part.
“Whenever you need a hired hand,” Jimmy said, “I’m available.”
And although Reno laughed, Jimmy didn’t. Jimmy was dead serious.
Trina was upstairs by the time Reno and Jimmy made it back home, but she was nowhere near asleep. She, in fact, was sitting up in bed, waiting anxiously for his return. She desperately needed to know how it went.
But when Reno came upstairs to their bedroom, and closed and locked the door, he had a different need.
“Get out of those clothes,” he said to her, as he began removing his own clothes.
Trina had never seen Reno this desperate. Something had either gone terribly wrong, or something clarifying had occurred. Something so clarifying that it was terrifying to Reno. But she didn’t hesitate. She removed her clothing too.
And Reno, once naked, got on the bed, slid her body down, and opened her legs. He laid down, with his head between those legs, and began eating her as if he craved her.
Trina arched and ended up on her elbows as Reno’s tongue took her to that sensual place.
Reno Gabrini: I'm Losing You Page 11
