A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy (23 page)

Fran parked her BMW in the no-parking zone at the
hospital’s entrance, tidied her makeup in the car’s rearview mirror, and then
stepped out and slowly walked through the entrance doors.
 
She wore leper print pants that made her look
fat as hell,
Dirty
thought, but he didn’t follow her
to criticize her.
 
He and his posse had
been trolling around Vegas in a beat up Ford, keeping a low profile in case
Reno still had his dogs out even on Christmas day, when he saw his wife’s BMW blow
through a red light.
 
Since no security
appeared to be on her tail, he and his friends followed her.
 
And they ended up here, at the hospital.
 

A million thoughts ran through Dirty’s head.
 
She was visiting a friend.
 
That could be it.
 
But Fran was never that kind of friend.
 
It had to be family to get her to go inside a
hospital, or some sickness that had her in pain.
 
Since she looked fine to Dirty, even after
the beating he had put on her, he assumed it was family.
 
Meaning Reno.
 
Which pleased
Dirty
no end.
 
Had some bastard finally put
Reno in the ground, he wondered.
 
Had
some wise guy finally got the job done?
 
Was his days of running now over?

And he was curious enough, and felt he had skin in
the game enough, to go and see for himself.

Reno sat in Trina’s hospital room and held her
hand.
 
She was hooked up to all kinds of
monitors, but her color was returning and she was looking better than she
looked at the house.
 
That helped Reno to
relax a little more.

“The doctor said you’re going to be just fine,” he
told her as he sat beside her.

She nodded her head and placed her fingers between
his fingers.
 
She looked okay, but her
spirits seemed low.

“What’s the matter, sweetheart?” he asked her.

Trina started to tell him that nothing was wrong, but
then she shook her head.
 
“Roller
coasters,” she said.

Reno’s heart began to pound.
 
He knew what she meant.
 
“Tired of the ups and downs?”

She looked at him.
 
Her hazel eyes looked troubled.
 
“We were having such a good time.
 
Tommy was in town and Jimmy Mack was like a little kid and I felt so
wonderful.
 
It was such a nice start to
our Christmas.
 
And to
end up here.
 
Like this.”

“Don’t you worry about that, darling.
 
We’ll still have a wonderful Christmas.”

“So Bob said I could go back home today?”

Reno hesitated.
 
“They want to keep you overnight for observation.”

“Oh, Reno, no!
 
Not on Christmas!”

“Just overnight, babe,” Reno said, squeezing her
hand.
 
“Then you’ll come home.
  
I know how you feel---”

“You can tell them to let me go now.
 
They’ll do whatever you say.
 
You can hire doctors to be at home with me.”

“But the equipment won’t be there,” Reno pointed
out.
 
“I can’t take that chance that
something could happen and they don’t have what they need to save your
life.
 
I can’t do that.”

“
Nothing’s
gonna happen,”
Trina insisted.
 
“I wanna go home, Reno.”

“I know you do.
 
And I want you home.
 
But not today.
 
You’re
staying here overnight and I’m staying here with you.”

Trina shook her head.
  
“No!
 
Not you too, Reno.
 
I’m not
ruining your Christmas, too.”

Reno smiled.
 
“You aren’t ruining anybody’s anything.
 
Besides, we already voted on it.”

“You voted on it?”

“That’s right.
 
And I’m staying, Tommy’s staying, and Jimmy Mack’s staying, too.
 
We’re going to bring Christmas to you.”

Trina thought about it.
 
She had dreaded the idea of being alone
anyway.
 
Then she smiled.
 
“Wasn’t Tommy upset when he found out that
you and I were his Christmas gift?”

Reno laughed.
 
“How did he say it? ‘
Hell nall!’
 
Yeah, your boy was highly pissed.”

Trina laughed.
 
“He’s a good guy, Reno.
 
I’m glad
he was our gift.”

Reno squeezed her hand again.
 
“You’re my gift, babe, and don’t you ever
forget that.”

Dirty had followed Fran inside the
hospital, and at a safe enough distance, into the maternity ward.
 
That surprised him.
 
That more than likely meant that Trina was
the patient, not Reno.
 
But damn, he
thought as he stood near an unlocked supply closet should he need a fast
hideaway.
 
Trina couldn’t
ben
any more than five months.
 
Which meant there had to be
some problems with the baby.
 
Which meant Reno was undoubtedly by her side freaking the hell out.
 

But that realization spooked Dirty.
 
There was no way he was going to get into any
confrontations with a bastard like Reno Gabrini, not if he valued his
life.
 
Just the thought of it made him
almost turn around and leave.

But then he saw Reno, with Fran and Tommy beside him,
walk out of the maternity ward and head for the elevators.
 
Dirty immediately thrust
himself
into the supply closet to get out of sight.
 
But he looked on with envy as the threesome waited at the elevators.

Tommy looked dapper as usual,
Dirty
thought, in his yellow cardigan and hyper-expensive trousers.
 
Dirty wondered where the black chick
was.
 
He couldn’t recall a time when
Tommy came to Vegas without some black female on his arm.
 
Even when he was still with Shanks and before
Shanks stood him up at the altar, he would always bring some black chick to
town with him.
 
Which disgusted
Dirty
no end.
 
Of all
the Italian ladies Tommy could have, he always had to go and dredge himself up
a nigger.
 
Even when they were kids Tommy
preferred that brown sugar.
 
And she had
to be hot too.
 
That was always Dapper
Tom.
 
He always had to have the best.

It was no surprise to Dirty, however, that Reno
looked the opposite of Tommy.
  
There was
never a strand of hair out of place on Tommy Gabrini and never an unpolished
shoe or wrinkled suit anywhere near Tommy’s body.
 
Even the yellow cardigan he sported today
looked brand new.
 

But Reno?
 
His hair was always a mess from his constant
need to ruffle it, and although his clothes were just as expensive as Tommy’s,
he wore them as if he’d just thrown them on.
 
Dirty had never met a man like Reno, who could look so
unshaven sometimes but still be the best looking man in the room.
 
Years ago he used to be big time jealous of
Reno and Tommy.
 
Dirty would be breaking
his neck to impress the ladies, spending every dime he had to get up their
asses.
 
All Reno and Tommy had to do was
show up, and the ladies were at their feet.
 
It was so unfair to Dirty back then.
 
And even now, as he hid out in some musky closet like the chump Reno
always took him for, it was still unfair to him.
 
Some guys had all the luck,
Dirty
thought.

But when they stepped onto the elevator, and Fran was
with them,
Dirty
saw another option.
 
Some guys got all the breaks, he thought, and
maybe he was one of those guys.
 
He
viewed their absence as a break.
 
He
viewed their absence as a chance to go onto that ward and have a little talk
with Trina.
  
She was always the sensible
one.
 
If anybody could get Reno to stand
down and give
Dirty
another chance, it was Trina.
 
It wouldn’t be easy, she was a bitch
sometimes too, but it might be the only option he had left.
 
He couldn’t approach Fran.
  
But if Trina set something up, maybe Fran
would go along with it.
 
And as Dirty
searched around and found some old scrubs in a bin, he knew it was a long
shot.
 
But as he slipped on a pair of
those scrubs, he also knew it might be the only shot he had left.

He left the supply room, and headed for the maternity
ward.

Although Jimmy Mack was in the room with Trina, the
curtain had been pulled around Trina’s bed to allow the nurse to check her
vitals.
 
Jimmy sat on the opposite side
of that curtain strolling through his cell phone’s text messages.
 
Many girls were texting him and wishing him a
Merry Christmas, and even more were inviting him to this Christmas party or
that one.
 
But he didn’t respond to any
of them.
 
After what he went through in
Crane, Georgia with one girl in particular, he wasn’t interested in hitching
his wagon to anyone right now.
 
He
enjoyed hanging out with his old man and Trina.
 
Even in this hospital room.

What he didn’t know was that
Dirty
was outside of that hospital room.
 
Dirty, in fact, was searching each room on the maternity ward in an
effort to find Trina’s.
 
And then, after
spotting the Gabrini name on the whiteboard outside of one of the rooms, he
moved to open the door.
 
He nearly
tripped up, however, when a nurse came out of the room just as he was about to
go in.
 
He kept walking past as if he
hadn’t been about to enter at all.

But then he doubled back after the nurse walked away,
looked around at the near-empty Christmas day ward, realized that no-one was paying
him any attention, and then slid inside.

And there was Trina.
 
The curtain had been drawn around her, but the nurse had pulled the
front end open as she left so that Trina was now visible to anyone walking into
the hospital room.
 
And anyone walking
in,
was visible to her.

Dirty closed the door.
 
And hurried to her side.
  
“I need your help, Tree,” Dirty said with
desperation in his voice.

Trina frowned.
 
“What are you doing here, Dirty?” she asked him.
 
Jimmy immediately jumped up and slid the
curtain back.
 
To his amazement, Dirty
Marcasi was standing at Trina’s side. He hurried toward him.

“Stay out of this boy,” Dirty said, but he was
backing up as he said it.
 
“This is
between me and Tree.”

But Jimmy would have none of it.
 
It would be different if it was Fran that
Dirty
was trying to talk to.
 
That would be between husband and wife.
 
But this was Reno’s wife he was trying to talk to and Jimmy knew his
father well enough to know that he would have Jimmy’s hide if he allowed Dirty
anywhere near Tree.

That was why he didn’t delay.
 
He slammed Dirty against the side wall.
 
Trina sat up and grabbed the telephone, but
Reno’s phone number was in her cell phone’s memory.
 
No way did she know it by hard.
 
And her cell phone was back at home.
 
She, instead, started pressing the emergency
button next to her bed.
 

“What are you doing,” Dirty yelled as he and Jimmy
scuffled.
 
“What are you doing, you black
motherfucker!”

Dirty thought he had the upper hand, but Jimmy
slammed him back against the wall.
 

“I can talk to my sister-in-law if I want to!” Dirty
was yelling.
 
:I
just want to talk to her!”

“Talk to me!” Jimmy demanded.
 
“Why you need to talk to the woman in the
room?
 
Talk to the man!
 
Talk to me, punk!”

Dirty couldn’t believe how strong the kid was.
 
And how much, to his horror, he reminded him
of Reno!
 
He fought back hard, but Jimmy
was too strong.
 
So
Dirty tried one of his tried and true, “dirty” maneuvers, a technique that
always got him out of rough spots in the past.
 
He tried to head-butt Jimmy.
 
But Jimmy saw it coming and weaved to the
left, missing the blow.

Then Jimmy, a fast learner, head-butted
Dirty
, causing blood to suddenly gush out from Dirty’s
forehead.