Reno Gabrini: I'm Losing You

by Mallory Monroe

  Reno folded his arms, and stretched his legs across the floor. “Why are you not in bed?” he calmly asked. Not because he was calm, but because he was too tired to exert any more energy.

  Here goes, Dommi thought, as he began his well-thought-out, and well-rehearsed speech. “I’m different, Daddy,” he said to Reno, who just stared at him. “I’m not like kids my age. I have to be me, okay? I don’t need all of that sleep like Sophie does. Give me three or four hours, and I’m good. Which means I’m like you. Staying up a little later does nothing to my body or my mental functions because, technically, I should be allowed to go to bed no earlier than two in the morning. It’s not even nine-thirty yet. I’m early still. I’m good.”

  “Are you finished?” Reno asked.

  Dommi didn’t like the sound of that. “Yes, sir.”

  “Take your ass to bed,” Reno ordered.

  Dommi frowned. “But Dad!” he pleaded.

  Reno stood up and Dommi, knowing who he was dealing with, jumped up and began to run out of the family room. But Reno, knowing the effect he sometimes had on his children, remembering what he did to Val, exhaled. “Come here,” he said to his son before he could get out of the room.

  Dommi, nervous, first hesitated, as if he had a choice, and then slowly walked toward his father. Dommi knew his daddy was not like his friends’ daddies. He didn’t get Time Out or long lectures on comportment when he misbehaved. He got his butt whipped. He’d be wise, he felt, to be cautious.

  “Yes, sir?” he asked when he arrived at his father’s side.

  Reno leaned down, lifted his son into his arms, kissed him on the lips, and then held him tightly. Dommi, surprised, gladly laid his head on his father’s shoulder.

  Reno held him even tighter. He loved the smell of his children, the feel of his children. But he closed his eyes because he worried himself sick about his children. Dommi and his slickness. Jimmy and his sensitivity. Sophie and her beauty. They were all vulnerable in this world they had to live in. He had to protect them all. Maybe slick-ass Dom most of all.

  Just as he was about to sit Dom back onto his feet, Dom looked him in his eyes. “I told a lie,” he said.

  Reno stared at him. “What lie?”

  “Mommy didn’t say I could stay up late. She said I couldn’t. I lied to Jimmy.”

  That’s my boy, Reno thought. “I know,” he said. “Don’t let it happen again.”

  “So you’ll tell Mommy I told the truth?”

  “I’ll tell Mommy you lied,” Reno said.

  Dommi’s big eyes saddened.

  “I’ll also tell her that after you lied, you told the truth.”

  Dommi smiled and hugged his father again. Then he jumped down and ran to his bedroom. He was in bed and under covers before Jimmy could finish his laugh, grab his ham-and-cheese sandwich, and make his way into the family room too.

  “What did you do to him?” he asked as he entered the room. “Beat his ass?”

  Reno walked over to the loveseat Dommi had just vacated, and laid down on it. “Where’s Sophia?”

  “Sleep. So is Maddie. Dominic is the only incorrigible in this family.” Then Jimmy had to catch himself. “Other than me,” he added.

  Reno smiled as Jimmy lifted his father’s legs, sat down on the loveseat too, and placed his father’s feet across his lap. “But he still has me beat,” Jimmy said. “He’s still the real bad boy up in here. You’re just fronting. Dommi’s the real thing.”

  Reno smiled again. But then he stared at his oldest son as he ate his sandwich. All three of his children were biracial, but Jimmy was the only one whose mother was not Reno’s current wife. He was different that way. And in more ways than one, Jimmy was the heart of the family, the most sensitive one. He was tough too. He couldn’t be a Gabrini and be a jelly back. But he had heart. A little too much for Reno’s taste. “I saw Valerie tonight,” he said.

  Jimmy didn’t look at his father, at first. He took another bite of his sandwich. But Reno knew he was chomping at the bit to ask that follow up question. “Where?” he asked.

  “Downstairs,” Reno said. “In the casino.”

  “Was she alone?”

  “No,” he responded. Then he hesitated. “I almost beat her ass,” he said.

  Jimmy looked at his father then. “You almost beat her? Why?”

  “I slapped her around a little, but it could have gotten worse.”

  “Why? What did she do?”

  “She showed her bony ass in my establishment with some man she met. She was over in Lovers Lane kissing on him and letting him rub against her. And when I took her in the back room to tell her about herself, she came onto me.”

  Jimmy shook his head. He knew about Val’s monster crush on Reno. Her kissing on some other guy was no big deal to him. They were separated, probably headed to divorce court, he really didn’t give a shit like that anymore. But her disrespect by still trying to get into his own father’s pants, was what made him almost despise her.

  “Why is she still your wife?” Reno asked his son. “Why haven’t you took her ass to divorce court?”

  “We have a child, Pop.”

  “Fuck that! She’s disrespecting this family and you need to handle that, Jimmy.”

  “You mean like you handled it? Should I slap her around too?”

  “Get your fucking facts straight,” Reno shot back. “She slapped me.”

  Jimmy was stunned. Then he frowned. “She slapped you?”

  “So damn straight I slapped her around. Bitch better be glad I didn’t put her six feet under. You don’t fuck around with me, Jimmy. Not even my children get away with that privilege. She knows that.”

  Jimmy agreed. He sat his sandwich on the side table. “I don’t know what’s gotten into, Val, Dad,” he said. “It’s like she thinks it’s all a game. She’s a great mother to Madison, and she’s doing great in real estate with her father, but she’s a lousy wife.”

  “You weren’t exactly the model husband,” Reno responded, “so don’t even try that shit with me. Both of your asses could have improved. But that’s beside the point now. The damage is done. You too need to resolve this.” Then Reno stood up. “I’ve got to get back to work.”

  Jimmy stood up too. “You need to get some rest, Dad.”

  Reno pointed at Jimmy. “You need to handle your business.”

  “I’m handling it! I told you already.”

  “So what are you going to do?”

  Jimmy hesitated. “I don’t know yet.”

  “Well your ass need to figure it out. She brought that shit to my house. To my house! And it’s still a debate for you? You still haven’t figured this shit out yet? You let your wife run wild!”

  “You mean like you’re letting yours run wild?”

  As soon as Reno heard that putdown, he swung on Jimmy. But Jimmy knew his father. He knew his every move. He ducked. Reno missed wildly.

  “Get out!” Reno said angrily as his cellphone began ringing. “Get the fuck out of my house and get out now!”

  “With pleasure,” Jimmy said, grabbing his sandwich and heading out of the family room. “I’ll get my daughter and gladly go. Ma isn’t here to give you that nightly pussy you act like you always have to have and you wanna lash out at everybody else!”

  “Say another word, boy!” Reno warned.

  Jimmy was still upset as he left the room, but he kept his mouth shut.

  Reno looked at the Caller ID on his cellphone. When he saw that it was from Al Calanesi, his man in charge of Trina’s security detail, he answered quickly. “What?”

  “She was chummy with another guy. Kissing, hugging, by the water.”

  Reno frowned. “By what water?”

  “They were on the beach at the hotel,” Calanesi said. “The guy came up to her.”

  “Anybody we know?”

  “Yup. The guy she met in Kingman. In Arizona.”

  Reno exhaled. “Photos?”

  “Already on the way.”

>   “I’ll be in touch,” Reno said, and ended the call. He wasn’t terribly concerned, since he knew Trina wouldn’t do that to him. But he always had that fear about those persistent guys who wouldn’t stop until they had a piece of his gorgeous wife. And now that she was running around the country promoting Champagne’s franchise deals, and running around the country without him at her side to keep the dogs away, it was those doggish men, of whom he once was a part of the pound, that kept him up nights.

  Within seconds after Reno ended the call, his message alert sounded. He looked at the photographs that had been text to him. When he saw the photographs, and saw the mystery man in those photos, his heart began to pound. Trina had her eyes closed when the guy hugged her, as if she needed that hug. As if she was just lonely enough, and vulnerable enough, to take the plunge. He hadn’t exactly been the model husband lately.

  He hurried out of the family room. “Jimmy!” he yelled. “Jimmy!”

  Jimmy hurried out of the Nursery carrying his sleeping baby girl. “What is it, Pop? What’s wrong?”

  “I need you to stay here and keep the children,” Reno said, hurrying toward the exit. “I’ve got to go.”

  “Will you make up your mind?” Jimmy asked. Then he frowned. “Go where?”

  “Florida,” Reno said. He was already heading out of the door.

  Trina had his private plane with her in Miami, but not having access to his own plane didn’t slow Reno down. He called Sal, who also lived in Vegas, and borrowed his.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Al Calanesi and four other well-dressed Italians ran up five flights of stairs from Trina’s hotel suite on the twenty-first floor until they made it to the twenty-sixth floor. All had their weapons drawn. All were so afraid they could hear each other’s hearts pound.

  “Which one?” Calanesi asked anxiously as they ran into the corridor.

  “2645,” one of his men responded. “2645!”

  Calanesi saw 2633, and began running further down the corridor. When they arrived at 2645, Calanesi knocked.

  “Come on,” he said in a low voice as no response was forthcoming. He had to knock two additional times. “Come on!”

  When there was still no response, he looked at Luke Brizio, his second-in-command. “Do it,” he said.

  Brizio swiped a master keycard they bribed out of a member of the housekeeping staff, and entered the hotel suite. They went from room to room, like men searching like madmen, their weapons at the ready. But nobody was there. They even went out on the balcony, a balcony that overlooked the beachfront property, but it was empty too.

  “Damn, damn and damn!” Brizio said. “This shit ain’t funny anymore!”

  “When the fuck was it funny?” Calanesi asked. “When he finds out . . .” He couldn’t continue. He began leaving the room.

  “Where are we going now?” Brizio asked, as he and the men followed Calanesi.

  “We’ve got to keep searching,” Calanesi said. “We’ve got to keep searching!”

  They left the hotel suite and made their way to the elevator this time. All five men got on, Calanesi pressed the Lobby button, and they rode down in a state of repressed panic.

  “A conference,” Calanesi said, shaking his head. “A fucking conference and we still fucked up.”

  “I don’t see where he could blame us,” one of the other men said. “We followed protocol. We did nothing wrong.”

  “Yeah, you tell him that,” Brizio said. “See how well that works out for you.”

  As soon as the elevator stopped and the men stepped out, yet another group of well-dressed Italians entered the hotel’s lobby. They met midway.

  “Anything?” Calanesi asked as they met.

  “Nothing,” the oldest of the group responded. “We been all over this place, Boss. We got nothing.”

  “Same here,” Calanesi said. “Nothing. And he’s on his way.”

  The door to the lobby opened and another one of their members peered inside. “He’s here,” he said.

  Calanesi and Brizio looked at each other, knowing there would be hell to pay, and then all of the men nervously made their way outside. The limousine drove under the portico and stopped at the entrance. Calanesi moved in front of the group and opened the limo’s backdoor. The boss had arrived. And they knew the drill. The shit just got real.

  When Reno stepped out, he had only just to button his suitcoat and shake Calanesi’s hand when he heard the news. “She’s not in her suite, Reno,” Calanesi said.

  Reno looked at the chief of Trina’s security detail. At first he didn’t understand what he meant. There was no context. And then he realized what he meant, and frowned. “What do you mean she’s not in her suite? It’s two in the morning! Where is she?”

  Calanesi ran his hands through his already tussled hair. “We don’t know.”

  Reno was stunned. He shifted his weight. His men almost collectively backed up. “What are you saying to me, Cal? Are you telling me you don’t know where my wife is? Are you saying you lost track of where my wife is?”

  “We turned this entire place upside down, Ree. We turned all of this city upside down!”

  “And?” Reno asked, his face now a combination of fear, confusion, and anger.

  “And nothing,” Calanesi said with defeat in his voice. “We turned up nothing. We can’t find her!”

  Reno’s heart began to pound. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He pulled out his cellphone.

  “No need to try to call her,” Calanesi said, as he pulled out a cellphone and handed it to Reno.

  Reno recognized it as Trina’s phone immediately, which created another level of panic. “Where did you get this?” he asked.

  “In her hotel suite. She left it in her suite.”

  What the fuck, Reno thought. He knew Trina never left her cellphone behind! He immediately put in her password and turned it on. He searched the Log. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Every name he recognized. And her last correspondence was a text message to their son Dominic.

  Reno looked at his security chief. “What about the guy? What did he say?”

  Calanesi looked puzzled. “What guy?”

  “What do you mean what guy?” Reno was frowning again. Had he ever had a security chief this inept? “The guy she was seen with. The guy you sent me photos of. Where’s his ass?”

  “I didn’t think he mattered at first,” Calanesi said. “She left him at the beach, and he didn’t try to follow her upstairs, so I assumed he was a one-off. A wise guy trying to get some.”

  “Where is he?” Reno asked. “You questioned him?”

  Calanesi ran his hands through his hair again. “No,” he said, with pain in his eyes. “We figured he was just some one-off looking for action. That’s how he came across. He wanted some.”

  “You told me that already! Don’t say it again. Where is he?”

  Calanesi hated to admit it. “We don’t know, Reno. He’s not in his suite either.”

  Reno knew better than this. He knew better than this! But he also knew he had to keep his wits about him. For his wife’s sake. He had to find his wife! “How many men are on it?”

  “Everybody we’ve got in town,” he said. “We only discovered her missing within the last half hour when I called her cellphone to notify her that your plane had landed. But I got no response. When we knocked on her door, we still got no response. We had to commandeer a master key from one of the housekeepers to get inside her room. That’s when we discovered she wasn’t there. That’s when we tore this hotel upside down looking for her. I even dispatched men to her parents’ home.”

  “Her parents are in Mississippi at a church event,” Reno said.

  “Nobody was there,” Calanesi said. “She wasn’t there. But we kept searching, Reno. We even made some phone calls to some local bosses, men who respects you, and they’ve got their people asking around too.”

  Reno couldn’t believe it. “You called mob bosses about my wife, but you didn’
t bother to call me?”

  “I assumed we’d locate her before you made it to the hotel.”

  “You assumed?” Reno asked, as his anger rose to a deafening level. He was depending on Calanesi to protect his wife, and he dropped the ball big time. Making assumptions he wasn’t paid to make. Making calls he wasn’t authorized to make. And Reno couldn’t bear it. He took his fist and, right in front of that hotel, knocked Calanesi on his ass. “Assume you’re fired, motherfucker!” he yelled as Calanesi hit the ground. “Assume that! And if something happens to my wife, if a hair on her head is harmed, assume it’s not over. Not by a longshot. Assume that too!”

  Reno looked at his second-in-command. He looked at Luke Brizio. “You’re in charge now.”

  Brizio stood erect, as if he was doing more than taking on a new job, but was also accepting the responsibility of that job. “Yes, sir,” he said.

  Reno looked at Calanesi again. “Safe house his ass,” he said to Brizio, “until my wife turns up.”

  “We’ll get right on it, sir.”

  And then Reno, flanked by most of his wife’s security detail, entered the hotel.

  Brizio tried to help Calanesi to his feet, but Calanesi slapped his hand away. “Get the fuck away from me!” he said angrily.

  Reno also discovered, moments later, that Calanesi had attempted to secure video from hotel security, but was unsuccessful. Reno had to call in favors from a local mob boss with influence in that town, but he got it done. He was in the security booth, viewing video, within fifteen minutes.

  Security had to fast forward through hours and hours of tape, but Reno finally saw what he was looking for. He saw his wife. He saw Trina, smiling and entering the lobby around ten that night, and Garry Marshall, smiling too, waiting for her. They left by cab shortly thereafter. They left together. Reno leaned forward, with his reading glasses on, as he continued to search diligently through frame after frame. But there was no video of them coming back.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Nearly an hour later, as Reno sat alone in the lobby, the doors slid open and Trina and Garry, still smiling and laughing at some apparent joke, walked in. When Trina saw him, sitting there, her heart rammed against her chest. “Reno?” she asked.