A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy (19 page)

Trina walked over to the bed and sat beside him.
 
Reno was astounded to see her beside
him.
 
He felt like the most contagious
man on the face of this earth and she was sitting beside him?
 
He expected her to recoil from him, not come
to him.

“What are you doing, Tree?” he asked her.
 
“Didn’t you hear what I said?
 
Didn’t you hear what I just told you?”

Trina furrowed her brows.
 
“Yes,” she said.
 
“I heard you.”
 
Then she shook her head and looked at
him.
 
“But I don’t believe it.”

Reno stared at her.
 
“How can you not believe it?
 
It
happened, Trina.
 
I told you it happened.
 
I was in her house---”

“And you woke up and your penis was inside of her, I
know what you said.
 
But I don’t believe
you would have done that to me, Reno.”

“I was drunk!
 
I was---”

“Do you have any recollection of touching her like
that?
 
Or kissing her?
 
Anything?”

Reno shook his head.
 
“No.
 
Before I woke up, the last
memory I had
was
at the bar.”

“What was happening?”

“I was talking on and on, I don’t even know what
about, and Cheri was. . .”

Trina stared at him.
 
“Cheri was what?”

“She was helping me into the car.”

“Your car?”

“Yeah.
 
On the passenger side.
 
And then she was driving.”

“She was driving your car?”

“Yeah.”
 
Then Reno shook his head.
 
“And the next thing I remember is waking up
on a sofa, with Cheri naked on top of me, and my dick was wet.”

Trina felt sick just hearing him
say
that.
 
She had to hesitate.
 
Then she nodded her head.
 
“But you don’t ever remember touching her?”

“No.
 
I
remember throwing her off of me when I realized what had happened.
 
And then she said it was all my doing, that I
forced her or something.”

Trina nodded her head again.
 
“Yeah, I don’t believe it.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Yes, I believe you!
 
I believe you think you fucked her.
 
But I don’t believe you did.
 
Not
her.
  
I know Cheri.
 
She’s been eyeing you too long.
 
I think that bitch set you up.”

Reno stared at Trina.
 
“You think she set me up?
 
Because I was drunk?”

“Yes, Reno.
 
I don’t believe for a second that you were so
overcome with lust for her that you would do that to me.
 
There’s nobody on the face of this earth
that’s gonna tell me that.”

Reno’s heart began to soar.
 
Then it sank again.
 
“But I was inside of her, Tree.”

“Yeah, well, she must have put you inside of
her.
 
If you were
ever
 
there
.”

“What do you mean if?”

“Was your penis inside of her when you woke up,
Reno?”

Reno thought about it,
then
shook his head.
 
“Damn if I know.
 
I saw that bitch naked and on top of me and I
knocked her off of me.”

“So what makes you so certain you were inside of her
then?”

Reno was too ashamed to even discuss it.
 
“It was wet,” he said.

“What?”

“My dick was wet.”

Trina looked at him.
 
She almost smiled.
 
“Oh, Reno,
that horny bitch could have wet you herself.
 
I wouldn’t put it past her.
 
Not
Cheri.
 
She always knows what she’s
doing.”
 
Then Trina shook her head.
 
“I don’t know how, but that bitch set the
whole thing up.
 
I’d bet money on it.”

Reno loved Trina at this very moment.
 
Not because he believed that she was right,
but because she believed that he wouldn’t hurt her like that.
 
“I wished I could be certain.”

“Just think about it, Reno.
 
Think about how your dick feels whenever you
make love to me.”
 
Reno began thinking
about it.
 
Then he remembered.
 
He remembered the pulsating, the throbbing he
always felt whenever he was with Tree.

“Did it feel that way after you were with Cheri?”
Trina asked him.

“Hell no,” Reno said.
 
“My dick, yeah, it was a little aroused, but compared to how it normally
is when I’m getting down like that it was practically limp with Cheri.”

Trina smiled.
 
“There’s not a woman alive who has had that dick of yours up inside of
her as much as you’ve had it up inside of me, and I will tell you here and now
that never, not ever, was there any limpness in it.
 
None.
 
And I’m certain all of those skank-ass girls
you used to date would say the same thing.
 
No, Reno.
 
You didn’t fuck that
heifer.
 
She’s lying through her teeth.”

Reno kept thinking about it.
 
Trina was right.
 
This shit wasn’t as plain as he had
thought.
 
Not at all.
 
“I wouldn’t put it past her,” he said.
 
“She’s been itching to wrap that pussy of
hers around me for so long that I could hardly bare it.
 
If she wasn’t such an excellent general
manager, I would have gotten rid of her by now.
 
But she’s too good to cut loose.
 
At least she was.”

“Don’t cut her loose too quickly.
 
Let’s first see what game she’s playing
at.
 
She may try to cry rape.”

Reno thought about that.
 
“She might,” he said.

“What are we gonna do if she goes that route?”

“We’ll deal with it.
 
I’m just going to cool it until we hear from her.
 
If I know Cheri she’ll come with some deal
completely favorable to her.
 
Let’s let
that play out first.”

Trina agreed.

But Reno still shook his head.
 
He was still overwhelmed.
 

Trina looked at him.
 
“What is it?” she asked him.

“You,” he said.
 
“Words can’t describe, Tree,” he started, and then he became overcome
with emotion and tears began to return.
 
He pulled Trina into his arms.
 

“Oh, Tree,” he said.
 
“I thought I lost you.
 
I thought
I had lost you and the baby.
 
I thought I
blew everything---”

Trina pulled back and placed both hands on Reno’s
face.
 
“I’m going to say to you what you
always say to me.”

“What’s that?”

Trina smiled.
 
“I know your ass,” she said, and Reno chuckled.
 
“And I know there is no way under the sun
that you would stick your dick up in Cheri Dallas unless you were knocked out
drunk unconscious near death.”
 
Reno
laughed this time.
 
Then Trina’s look
turned serious.
 
“And even then you
wouldn’t have done it,” she said and shook her head.
 
“No, babe.
 
That ain’t you.
 
Cheri picked the wrong dick to stick up her
ass this time.”

Reno laughed again.
 
“You sound like me, you know that?
 
I’m rubbing off on you, Tree.”

“About damn time,” Trina said, and they fell, once
again, into each other’s arms.
 

“Thank-you, babe,” Reno said, “for
believing in me.”

“Always,” Trina said.
 
“But what are we gonna do about Cheri?
 
She just may cry rape.”

Reno shook his head.
 
“I don’t think so, but we’ll see.
 
She may try that shit if I fire her.”

“But you have to fire her.”

“I know that,” Reno said.
 
“And I will.
 
I’ve just got to be creative about it.”

Then Trina smiled.
 
“And here you were thinking you had got some on the side.”
 

“I certainly didn’t remember any of it.
 
Not a moment of it.
 
I’m just glad you understand, Tree.”

“I have to.
 
If
I can’t trust you after all we’ve been through, then we may as well pack it in
and call it a day.”

Reno smiled.
 
“And that’s not about to happen.”

“Yeah, right.
You were
packing it in just because some woman set you up.”

“No, I was pretty sure she had set it all up.”

“Quit lying!” Trina said with a smile.
 
“You were crying like a baby.
 
‘I thought I lost you, Tree.’
 
You thought you had screwed that woman.”

“I thought it originally, but then I started thinking
about it.”

“Yeah, right, Reno.
 
Right.”

“I was thinking about it!”

“Think about it while you get up and get in the tub,”
Trina ordered, rising to her feet.

Reno stood and looked sidelong at her.
 
“And when did Reno die and make you Reno?” he
asked her.

Trina fought back a smile.
 
“Just get in the tub, boy,” she said, and
slapped his butt.

“That hurt!” he said, holding his stinging butt.
 
But he did as she commanded.

CHAPTER NINE

Later that morning Cheri scrambled to talk to
Trina.
 
She needed Trina to believe every
word of what she had to say.
 
She needed
Trina to believe her and turn against Reno.
 
Then she stood a chance.
 
She had
to get to Trina.

But every time she dropped by, Trina wasn’t in her
office.
 
It wasn’t until midday, and on
Cheri’s third trip, did Trina’s secretary tell her that she was in luck: the
boss was in and had agreed to meet with her.

Cheri entered slowly.
 
She had to sell her story as if it was the undisputed truth.
 
That was why she walked in as if she was all
about business. She even held the same clipboard in her arm that she was often
spotted with as she made her rounds at the PaLargio.

Trina sat behind her desk and stared at Cheri.
 
Cheri felt uncomfortable after doing what she
did with that woman’s husband, but she still stood tall.

“What is it, Cheri, I’m very busy,” Trina said.
 
After what Reno had told her she couldn’t
stand the sight of the woman.
 
But she
kept her cool.
 

“We need to talk,” Cheri said.

“What about?”

“Your husband.”

Trina hesitated.
 
She hadn’t expected her to be this blunt.
 
She offered her a seat.

Cheri sat down in front of Trina’s desk and crossed
her legs.
 
Trina leaned back in her tall
executive chair and crossed hers.
 
“Go
on,” she said.

Cheri didn’t beat around the bush.
 
“Reno spent the night with me,” she said
pointedly.

Trina couldn’t even pretend to be shocked.
 
She was too disgusted to pretend
anything.
 
“He slept with you?”

“Yes.
 
And it
wasn’t an innocent sleep, either.”

What a way to put it, Trina thought.
 
And Cheri was so matter-of-fact about
it.
 
“What do you mean it wasn’t
innocent?”

“I’m just going to say it, okay? Your husband, my
boss---”

“He’s not your boss.
 
I’m your boss.
 
But go on.”

Cheri detected some hostility there.
 
She began to wonder if Reno had already told
her what had transpired between them.
 
If
he had, Cheri knew it would be his version of events against hers.
 
He probably claimed it was all her fault.

“It wasn’t my fault,” Cheri said quickly.
 
“He invited me to go to a bar with him.
 
So I went.
 
And he kept drinking and drinking and he got a little drunk.
 
But after he drove me home---”

“After he drove
you
home?
I thought you said he
was drunk?”
 
The idea of Reno driving
drunk was another big lie.
 
Reno would
never do something that irresponsible.

“I didn’t say he was drunk.
 
I said he got a little drunk.
 
He was able to drive.
 
Goodness, Trina.
 
I’m only the messenger here.
 
Don’t shoot the messenger.”