A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy (16 page)

“Hell, yeah, I’ve been this way.
 
And you know why I’ve been this way!
 
I don’t know who else is out there gunning
for me.”

“Nobody’s gunning for you.
 
It’s all settled now.”

“Yeah, it was all supposed to be settled when Frank
Partanna died.
 
It was all supposed to be
settled when we left for Georgia.
 
But it
wasn’t.”
 
Reno gripped his steering
wheel.
 
“How many times do I have to tell
you that you’re not the wife of some ordinary Joe?
 
You’re the wife of a man like me, Tree, a man
with some serious mob entanglements.”
 

Trina looked at him.
  
She hated when she worried him like this.

But Reno would not let up.
 
“I’m sorry, but it’s a fact.
 
And no, I’m not a mob boss and no I’m not in
the mob, that shit ain’t true.
 
But that
doesn’t mean I don’t have entanglements.
 
My old man practically ran the east coast once upon a time.
 
Since his death, his enemies have decided
that I’m their enemy.
 
You have to
understand that.”

Trina exhaled and leaned back.
 
“I do understand it, Reno, but you have to
understand my position, too.
 
I don’t
like the idea of having to check in or have somebody with me all the time.
 
It’s suffocating.”

“It’s not all the time, Tree, and you know that.
 
When the heat is on, the heat is on.
 
And I’m sorry but I’m not about to sit back
and let those fuckers use you for target practice just because you need your
freedom.
 
You’re free.
 
You can go anywhere you damn well
please.
 
But not alone.
  
I don’t care how you feel about
it,
you are not running around here alone.
 
I will not subject my wife and unborn child
to that kind of jeopardy.
 
You understand
me?”

Trina didn’t answer.
  
She folded her arms.

“You understand me, Tree?”

“Yes, I understand you,” Trina snapped.
 
“I don’t like it, but I understand it.”

Reno stopped at a red light and exhaled.
 
Then he thought about something.
 
He looked at Trina.
 
“And what the fuck Jazz got to do with this?
 
Where did you grab her up from?”

“She was living in that rooming house.
 
I came to get her.”

Reno glared at his wife.
 
She looked so elegant to him with that fur
halo on her head.
 
“You came to get her?”
he asked.
 
“What, her old man was beating
on her or something?”

“No, she fell on hard times and I decided to help
her.
 
That’s all.”
  

 
The light
changed and Reno began driving again.
 
“Help her how?”

Here goes, Trina thought.
 
“I’m moving her into the PaLargio until we
can figure out what to do next.”

“You’re moving her. . .”
 
Reno couldn’t believe it.
 
“Trina, I know better than that.”

“It’s only temporary.”

“The same girl who’s running around this town talking
about I’m having affairs with women and totally disrespecting me is the same girl
you want to move into our home?”

“Our home is a hotel, Reno.”

“I don’t give a fuck if it was a hovel!
 
I don’t want that chick anywhere around
me!
 
No.
 
You give her a few bucks and throw her ass right back where you dug it
up from!”

But Trina knew she had to battle Reno here.
 
“She’s my friend, and I’m not throwing her
anywhere.”

“Yeah, okay,” Reno said, shaking his head in that way
that Trina knew meant defiance.
 
“I bet
her ass won’t be staying at the PaLargio.”

“I’ll bet her ass will be,” Trina replied.

Reno looked at her, and then looked back at the road,
and then looked at her again.
 
He was so
angry he could barely see straight.

And the argument continued in the Penthouse, when
Jimmy arrived with Jazz at his side.
 

“Oh, hell no,” Reno said as soon as he walked into
the living room and saw Jazz standing there.
 
She and Jimmy had just arrived and Trina was closing the door.
 
“Get that bitch out of my house and get her
out now!”

“Reno!” Trina said, amazed by his language.

“Oh, so it’s like that, Reno?” Jazz asked.

“Yeah, it’s like that,” Reno replied.
 
“It’s exactly like that.
 
Trina may have caught amnesia but I
haven’t.
  
I remember well when you worked
here and began spreading all those rumors about me sleeping with every female
in sight of the Strip.
 
I remember that
well, Jazz.
 
I remember all that shit you
tried to break up me and Tree, I remember that, too.”

“That is so not true!” Jazz insisted.

“It is true!” Reno insisted louder.
 
“You’re a backstabbing bitch who disrespected
me and you disrespected my wife and now you have the gall to show up in my
home?
 
Get the fuck out of here!”

“That’s enough, Reno,” Trina insisted, to Jazz’s
relief.
 
“She’s not staying in the
penthouse, but she’s staying at the PaLargio until she can get back on her feet.”

“Thank-you, Trina,” Jazz said to hurt Reno.
 
“You know me.
 
You know what he’s saying is no-where near the truth.”

“Yes, it is true,” Trina said, looking at her
friend.
 
Jimmy looked at her.
 
“Reno doesn’t lie,” Trina continued.
 
“What he said is true.
 
You misused our friendship when Reno, on my
word
,
 
allowed
you to work here.
 
You did do that.
 
You’ve been insinuating about his fidelity to
me since I married him, you did that, too.
 
I’m not gonna even front.
 
But
that was on me.
 
This time I’m giving you
a helping hand because you need it, and it’ll probably be the last chance you
get to get your act together.
 
But don’t
claim my husband is lying, because he’s not.”
 

“And that’s why I want her ass out of here right
now!” Reno proclaimed.
 
“You can find her
a room somewhere, you can do what you have to do, but she’s not staying
here.
 
Not at the PaLargio!”

“She is staying at the PaLargio, Reno,” Trina
said.
 
“And she’s staying as my guest
until we can work something out.
 
It’ll
only be for a few days, until after Christmas, but she’s staying here.”

Reno looked at her.
 
He couldn’t believe she would defy him like that, and especially over
some piece of trash like Jazz.

“Jimmy,” he said, “take that woman to the lobby and
wait until you hear from me.”

“Jimmy,” Trina said with equal conviction, “take Jazz
downstairs, get the key to one of the empty rooms, and take her and her luggage
to that room.”

Jimmy looked from Trina to Reno.
 
Reno was staring at Trina.
 
He couldn’t understand it.
 
Why would she go out on a limb for a
so-called friend like that?

“What should I do, Pop?”
 
Jimmy asked his father.
 

Jazz was astounded when Jimmy called Reno ‘pop.’
 
She looked at him.

Reno exhaled.
 
“Do what my wife tells you to do,” he said to Jimmy, and then looked at
him.
 
“Always.”

Jimmy nodded his head.
 
His father was a strange dude, he
thought.
 
He was tough as nails about
everything in this
world
 
Except
Trina.
 
He acted
like mush when it came to Tree.

“Yes, sir,” he said, and escorted a triumphant-feeling
Jazz out of the penthouse.

Reno then looked at Trina.
 
“Don’t you ever defy me like that in front of
my
son.
”

“I wasn’t defying you, Reno, but I’ve got to help
Jazz.”

“Why?” Reno asked with a frown.
 
“She’s not worth it, Trina.
 
You know she’s not!”

“I know Jazz has problems, I know that.
 
And she’s about as reliable as a baby.
 
But she was a friend when I needed one, when
I was down, too.
 
She didn’t turn her
back on me.
 
She didn’t say I was too
lowly for her friendship.
 
She befriended
me.
 
And I can’t forget that.
 
You say you don’t have amnesia, well neither
do I.
 
I remember Jazz when she was my
best friend.
 
She’s had a lot of
setbacks, and yes, they were all of her own doing.
 
But I still can’t forget what she did for
me.
 
She’s not dirt to be tossed
out.
 
She’s a human being who used to
have a lot of heart.
 
And I think the
least I can do right now is help her.”
 

Then Trina got to the crust of the matter.
 
“But for the grace of God, Reno,” she said,
“Jazz could have been me.”

But Reno wasn’t buying that.
 
He shook his head.
 
“No,” he said.
 
“You wouldn’t have pulled the shit that woman
pulled.
 
Here I am hiring her to work in
my establishment and she’s sleeping with the guests and pulling all kinds of
stupid shit.
 
No.
 
Don’t you dare compare yourself to that
heifer.
 
You’re
nothing like her.”

“I still have to help her.”

“Then you give her some money, drop her ass off at
some other hotel, and wash your hands of her.
 
You would have done your part.”

“That’s not doing my part,” Trina said. “That’s
kicking her to the curb.
 
That’s treating
her like she was never a part of my life.
 
I can’t do that.
 
Not now. Not two
days before Christmas!
 
You didn’t see
that room I took her from.
 
You didn’t
see the loneliness in her eyes, and the tears.
 
I saw that.
 
And that’s why she’s
staying here at the PaLargio until she can come up with a plan.
 
That’s the least I can do.”

“She’s not staying here, Trina.”

“Yes, she is, Reno.”

Reno stared at her.
 
If she was anybody else he would have knocked the shit out of her.
 
But she was Trina.
 
He knew he could never hurt her.
 
But right now he had to get from around her.
Right now he couldn’t stand the sight of her and didn’t trust his anger.
 

“Fuck it,” he said angrily and left, slamming the
door behind him.

Trina closed her eyes.
 
She hated when they argued.
 
But she knew, deep down, that Jazz was at the
end of her rope.
 
Trina had to not just help
her, but show her that she was willing to risk some peace in her own life to
help Jazz find some peace in hers.
 
She
had to show her that she was worth it.
 
Reno couldn’t understand that, because he’d never known what desperation
felt like.
 
Trina did, when she first
came to Vegas after an abusive relationship and couldn’t find a friend.
 
Jazz befriended her at her lowest point.
 
Trina felt strongly that it was her turn to
return the favor.

Cheri Dallas was coming into the lobby of the
PaLargio just as Reno was tearing out.
 
He seemed so upset that he walked right past her without saying a
word.
 
Only a woman, Cheri had decided,
could make a man that mad.
 
And given
that it was Reno who was so upset, she further reasoned, that woman had to be
Trina.

Knowing a possible opportunity when she saw one, she
turned back around and headed out of the PaLargio, too.

“Get my car,” Reno ordered the valet as soon as he
made his way outside.

“Oh, Mr. Gabrini,” the stunned valet said, “yes,
sir.
 
Right away, sir.”

As the valets scrambled to accommodate the boss,
Cheri arrived by Reno’s side.
 
He wore
one of his double-breasted Armani suits, a pair of his imported Italian shoes,
and his hair, for once, wasn’t a total mess.
 
He looked gorgeous, Cheri thought.
 
“Going my way?” she asked, and Reno turned, surprised to see her.

“What’s that?” he asked her.
 
He was so consumed with anger that he could
barely pay attention.

“I said are you going my way?”

Reno’s eyes moved down, at her breasts, and then back
into her pretty face.
 
He was in one of
those places of anger where he just didn’t give a damn.
 
Trina came from a different place than he
came from.
 
Where he came from you didn’t
bring your enemies into your home, it didn’t matter how good they used to
be.
 
But she always had such a soft spot
for Jazz of all people.
 
For that bitch of all people.
 
And Reno didn’t like it.
 
He didn’t give a fuck right here and right
now.