A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy (5 page)

BOOK: A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy
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And they did drive off well before Jimmy Mack could
get anywhere near them.
 
Jimmy, in fact,
stopped running as the car turned the last corner inside the parking lot and
headed out onto the highway.
 
By the time
Reno ran up beside his son, the car was clean out of sight.

Jimmy looked at Reno.
 
He could see that he was visibly shaken.
  

“What are we gonna do, Pop?” he asked him.

But Reno was too confounded to say a word.
 
He didn’t know what to say, let alone what he
was going to do.
 
His face looked filled
with fret and dread.
 
Maybe he was
overreacting, he thought.
 
This was Trina
Gabrini they were talking about, after all.
 
This was his wife, after all.
 
And
he had to trust her.
 
He had to believe
that the guy was just an old friend, or even some relative of hers that she
just happened to be affectionate toward.
 
But he was certain she wasn’t about to let that character get anywhere
near first base with her.
 
Not Trina
Gabrini.
  
She wasn’t like that.
 
And nobody was going to ever convince him
that she was that kind of woman.
 

But that didn’t stop the worry and anguish.
 
The not knowing was the bear.
 
And it was an odd position for Reno to be
in.
 
During his entire marriage to her
he’d never been placed in a position like this.
 
But he knew Tree.
 
He knew
her.
 
He had to trust his wife.

Nevertheless, he got on his cell phone and called his
security chief, and every man he knew in that line of work, to drop whatever
they were doing and hunt her down.
  
He
and Jimmy would do the same.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 
 

CHAPTER TWO

 

Many hours later Reno was still pacing inside their
penthouse apartment on the top floor of the PaLargio.
 
He couldn’t stop pacing the floor.
 
He had a glass of gin that he would
occasionally drink, but mostly he had it to his forehead to ease his
intensifying headache.
 

His suit coat had long been discarded, and now he
moved around in his dress pants, expensive imported dress shoes, and a bright
blue dress shirt whose shirt tail hung down over his butt.
 
His chestnut brown hair was its usual
messiness
,,
but only on steroids this time.
 
He looked worn.
 
He looked puzzled.
 
He only trusted two people in this entire
world one hundred percent.
 
Just two people.
 
One
was his cousin and best friend Tommy Gabrini.
 
The other one was his wife.
 
He
trusted Trina with his life.
 
But to see her hugging that man.
 
To see her smiling at that
man.
 
To see her driving off with
that man was just too much.
 
What in the
world, Reno wondered, was going
on.

He had men out searching for Trina.
 
He and Jimmy had covered the town searching
for her.
 
But they turned up
nothing.
 
Now it was nightfall and Reno
was not only angry with her, but he was worried sick about her.

He heard the door knob turn.
 
He quickly turned toward the front door.
 
It opened.
 
To his everlasting relief, it was Trina.

“Reno?” she said, surprised to see him.
 
“Why aren’t you working?
 
You don’t usually get home until after
midnight.”

It sounded like an indictment to Reno.
 
Was that why she fell into another man’s
arms?
 
Because he
worked too much?

“Where you been?” he asked her.
 
“Fran got back here hours ago.”

“I know.
  
I
was just. . .”
 
She began walking toward
the bedroom.
  

Reno began following her.
 
“You
was
just what?”
he asked as they walked.
 

“I was at the mall,” she said and Reno stopped in his
tracks.
 
Trina never lied.
 
Why didn’t she mention the man she had left
the mall with?
 
What was going on here?

When she realized he had stopped walking, she turned
around.
  
The look on his face, as if he
somehow knew what she had been up to, made her flushed with shame.
  
She walked up to him, kissed him on the
lips, and threw her arms around him.
 

Reno closed his eyes tightly as he held her.
 
He had to stay calm.
 
She’d explain everything in time.
 
And they’d laugh about it later.
 
Trina wouldn’t cheat on him.
 
That was for damn sure, he thought.
 
But that didn’t stop his heart from
hammering.

When they stopped embracing, Reno kept his arms
around her waist and looked into her bright hazel eyes.
 
Trina wouldn’t hurt him, he kept telling
himself.
 
Trina wouldn’t do that!
 
But as the thought of another man touching
her overtook him, he suddenly felt emotional and pulled away from her.

“Wash up,” he ordered her.
 
“Dinner’s getting cold.”

Trina was surprised.
 
“Dinner?
 
You cooked dinner?”

“Yes, I cooked dinner,” Reno said as if it wasn’t his
first time cooking her anything, even though it was.

Trina was thrown.
 
Did he know?
 
Was that why he
looked so pitiful and had actually picked up a pot in a kitchen and cooked
something?
 
But he couldn’t know.
 
Fran wouldn’t have told him.
 
She wouldn’t have.
 
Or would she, Trina thought and then
dismissed such a thought.
 
She couldn’t
even think about that right now.
 
“Okay,”
she said.
 
“I’ll wash up.”

 

Trina had to stifle a giggle when she saw Reno with
his little apron on.
 
She sat at the
dining room table as he held the pan and placed a heap of sautéed shrimp and
pasta in some kind of Alfredo sauce onto her plate.
 
A simple and enticing looking meal, it
seemed, although food was the last thing on Trina’s mind.

Reno placed double the portion on his plate, took the
pot back to the stove, and came and sat at the head of the table.
 
He poured them both some wine and then held
her hand and led the Grace, thanking God Almighty for the food they were about
to receive.
 
Afterwards, he kept her hand
in his.

“Where’s Jimmy Mack?” Trina asked as she stirred her
food.

“He’s shadowing Lee Jones.”

Trina looked at Reno.
 
“Lee?
 
Why Lee?”

“I want him to learn the nuts and bolts of this
place.
  
One day, when you and me can’t
or don’t want to continue to run things around here, the PaLargio will belong
to him.
 
Lee can show him everything he
needs to know.
 
Lee worked his way up in
my organization.
 
That’s what I want
Jimmy to do.”

“I don’t think we’ll have any problems with him.
 
He’s a good kid.”
 
Then Trina thought about her own predicament
and that sense of dread overtook her again.
 

The security intercom buzzed.
 
Reno reached beneath the table and pressed
the button.
 

“Yes, Pete, what is it?”

“Excuse me, sir, but Miss Dallas wishes to see you.”

“Not now.”

“Yes, sir.”

Trina was pleased that he never went running when
Cheri called.
 
Not because Cheri, as
Reno’s general manager, was a bad employee, because she wasn’t.
 
She was tough and smart, and both qualities
were essential in their line of work.
 
But Trina was responding on a personal level.
 
She’d heard all of those heartless rumors
about Reno having an affair with the beautiful Cheri Dallas, and she’d heard
them even before Cheri came to work at the PaLargio.
 
The only reason Reno hired her, the rumors
went, was because he wanted to be able to take her into one of his hotel rooms
and fuck her whenever the need struck.
 
It was foolishness to Trina, especially since she knew Reno never
“fucked around” on the job, and she largely ignored the rumors.
 
But that didn’t mean she didn’t pay
attention.
 

Cheri always tried to present herself as somebody who
abhorred even the appearance of indiscretion, but Trina wasn’t buying it.
 
She saw how Cheri looked at Reno when she
didn’t think anybody was watching her.
 
She saw how she gave him that extra smile.
 
Cheri had a thing for Reno, and Trina wouldn’t
be surprised if Cheri herself didn’t have a hand in spreading all of those
vicious lies about some affair.
 
But it
was Reno who owed his allegiance to Trina.
 
It was Reno she took her cues from.
 
And from what Trina was seeing, Reno wasn’t having it.

But as quickly as he returned his attention to Trina,
the intercom buzzed again.
 

“What the,” he started.
 
“Yes?” he said curtly after pressing the
buzzer.

“Excuse me, again, sir, but Miss Dallas says it’s
urgent.”

Reno fumed.
 
“I
don’t give a good
got
damn what Miss
Dallas says,” Reno barked.
 
“I’m having
dinner with my wife.
 
Tell her either she
handles it or get Lee Jones.
 
But she’d
better not disturb me again.”

“Yes, sir,” Pete said, and Reno clicked off.

Trina shook her head.
 
“Cheri needs to quit,” she said.
 
“She keeps running to you when she knows she should let me or Lee handle
it.
 
I’m the senior president of
PaLargio, Inc. and now that you’re back you bumped Lee over to Chief Operating
Officer.
 
Why’s she going over our heads
to you?
 
It makes no sense.
 
And she’s not the only one, either,
Reno.
 
They all keep running straight to
you.
 
That’s why you never get home
before midnight as it is.”

Reno looked at Trina as he took a bite of food.
 
There it was again.
 
That
never getting home until midnight
line.
 
“What about you?” he asked her.
 
“What have you been up to today?”

Trina moved food around on her plate as she thought
about her still real and present situation.
 
That queasy feeling that had gripped her for days returned.
 
“I was in the office this morning trying to
review all of our one-week-only acts with my staff, and then this afternoon
Fran and I went to the mall.”

Reno stared at his wife.
 
“Fran left you there, though, right?”
 

Trina hesitated again.
 
“Yeah, she did actually.
 
But it was no biggie.
 
I’ll just know not to go anywhere with her
again.”

“So how did you get home?”

Again, Trina hesitated.
 
“Friend.”

Reno continued to eat, but didn’t take his eyes off
of her.
 
“A friend?”

Trina took a tiny bite of food and nodded her
head.
 
“That’s right.”

Reno sat his fork down.
 
He couldn’t play games.
 
“Who?”

“A friend.”

“A guy?”

Trina hesitated.
 
“Yes.”

“So what’s his name?”

“What difference does it make?
 
Just a friend.”

“Don’t you talk to me with that
tone.
 
What’s his name?”

Trina hesitated again.
 
“Bob.”

“Bob?”

“That’s right.”

“So who’s this Bob character?
 
You never mentioned some friend named Bob
before.”

“There was nothing to mention.
 
He’s nobody.”

“He’s nobody?”

“He’s nobody.”

“Nobody that you let feel on you in the mall.
 
Nobody that you let hug on
you in the mall.
 
Nobody that you left with from the mall.”

Trina looked at him.
 
“What?”

BOOK: A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy
8.16Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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