Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (20 page)

Trina laughed.
 
“That’s Reno’s car.
 
He’ll be Mr.
Flash until the day he dies, I declare he will.
 
That’s just how he rolls.
 
Not
that I want a hoopdee, either, don’t get me wrong.
 
I like to style like any other girl.
 
Just my kind of style, that’s all.”

“If I know a guy like Reno, he’s not going to
accept any wife of his driving around in just anything.”

“That’s true, too.
 
So I know it has to be something special, or Reno’s
not going for it, but it was going to be anyway.
 
I mean I’m practical, but I’m no fool.”
 
Sully laughed.
 
“I like nice things as much as the next
girl.”

“I’m surprised he doesn’t have you under lock
and key, to be honest with you.
 
Beautiful woman like you.”

Trina liked Sully least when he threw in his
little flirtatious comments.
 
But he was
a player from way back, she knew that, too.
 
But she liked him enough to deal with it.
 
She was willing to take the good in Sully,
and, unless it got out of hand, ignore the bad.
 

“I had a driver-slash-bodyguard in Vegas,” she
said, ignoring his compliment, “and I knew I had to be subjected to that out of
an abundance of caution with Reno.
 
But
during the hot season, man please. Reno did have me under lock and key.
 
I couldn’t go anywhere unless he went with
me.”

Sully looked at her.
 
“The hot season?
 
What’s the hot season?”

Trina realized she had said too much.
 
It was easy to talk to Sully.
 
Maybe too easy, she was beginning to
realize.
 
But she wasn’t going to lie,
either.
 
“Reno is not now nor has he ever
been in the mob, okay?
 
But his father
was in the mob.
 
Deep
in it.
 
And Reno sometimes got the
blowback.
 
So when something mob-related
would happen and there was fear of retaliations, it would be the hot season.
 
Reno was super-cautious with me then.
 
But here, in Crane, he promised to take a
different view.
 
He was granting me my
freedom.”
 

Sully smiled.
 
“A well-deserved freedom I’m sure.”

“I don’t know about that.
 
But I appreciate it, that’s for sure.”

And then the Porsche arrived.
 
Reno, his hair a sexy mess Trina noticed
amusingly, hurried toward the entrance.
 
He left his suit coat in the car, revealing a well-built body that gave
strength to his powerful look.
 

“You made it,” Trina said with a smile.

“Just barely,” Reno said as he leaned down
toward her.
 
He smelled that wonderful
perfume of hers as he kissed her on the mouth.
 
Then she scooted over and he sat down beside her.

“What’s up, Sully?” he asked as the two men
shook hands.

“Nothing much, Reno.
 
What’s
up with you?
  
Trina said you were the
kind of man who’d be late for his own funeral.”

“Oh, she did, did she?” Reno asked, looking at
Trina.
 
“Bet I won’t be late for hers.”

They all laughed, with Reno reaching over and
slinging his arm around her.
 
“But she’s
right.
 
I got held up with the lawyers
this time.”

“Over Clauson’s?”

“Hell nall.
 
PaLargio.”
 
He looked at Sully.
 
“I’m giving
up the day to day operations and
there’s
always
glitches and other responsibilities I have to legally sign off on. It’s a drawn
out process.”

“But still worth it?”

“You’d better believe it.”
 
He looked at Trina.
 
“As long as this lady here is happy,” he
said, “then I’m happy.”

“Then you’re a very happy man,” Sully said
with a smile, and Reno loved that.
 
He
laughed too.

“You’re all right, Sully,” he said, and then
his cell phone rang.
 
When he saw it was
Clauson’s, he answered.

“This is Reno,” he said.

“How you doing, Mr. Gabrini?”
It was Jeff Casgrove’s voice.
 
Jeff was the executive chef at
Tavern-In-Gray, one of the restaurants at the PaLargio.
 
Reno had ordered him to Crane after he met
with the kitchen staff.
 
He also ordered
him to bring along a bartender.

“So you made it?” Reno said into the phone.

“Yes, sir.”
 
At the
PaLargio, Reno didn’t allow many members of his senior staff to call him by his
first name the way he was allowing the staff at Clauson’s.
 
But when he first acquired the PaLargio, it
was a different day and time.
 
He still
had points to prove and wanted to make it clear that yes, he was young, but he
was the head man in charge.
 

Here, in Crane, those days of proving points
were long gone.
 
He, thankfully, had
arrived
big time and had no more points to prove.

“You’re at Clauson’s now I take it?” Reno
asked.

“Right again.
 
We just arrived.”

“We?
 
Who’s
we?
 
Who did you bring along to teach my
bartending staff a thing or two?
 
Ralph?
 
Alfie?”

“Richie,” Jeff said.

Reno frowned.
 
“Richie?
 
What the fu. . .” Reno
realized where he was and lowered his voice.
 
“What’s
Dirty
doing here?”

“It wasn’t my call, Mr. Gabrini.
 
I had Alfie in mind.
 
But you know Richie.
 
He used to be one of the best bartenders
around.”

“I know that.
 
But what the
fuc. . .
But what does that have
to do with now?”

“And he insisted,” Jeff went on.
 
“He went to our brand new general manager,
throwing his weight around as your brother-in-law, you know how he is, and she
didn’t know any better.
 
He scared her
enough that she gave in.
 
And the next
thing I know he was on the plane with me.”

Reno exhaled.
 
“All right,” he said.
 
“It’s done
now.
 
Just hold tight until I get
there.
 
I’m having lunch now, so I’ll be
there after lunch.”

“Yes, sir,” Jeff said and Reno killed the
call.

Trina looked at him.
 
“So I guess that means we won’t be going car
shopping today?”

“Not today, no,” he said.
 
“But tomorrow I’ll devote my entire day to you
and your car.
 
You go home, get online,
and see if anything tickles your fancy.
 
And if not, tomorrow I’m all yours.”

Trina smiled.
 
Reno was always promising her tomorrows.
 
He thought coming to Crane and taking over a much smaller establishment
would be a piece of cake for him.
 
But
she knew better all along.
 
You can take
a job away from the workaholic, but you can’t take the workaholic away from a
job.

But at least he was enjoying being busy.
 
She had feared that he would have too little
to do.
 
“Okay,” was all she said about
it.
 
Reno leaned over
and kissed her on the lips.
 
He loved the
way she
was so understanding
.

Sully loved it too.
 
And he saw an opening he planned to later
exploit.

 
After
Reno placed his drink order, and after all three placed their lunch orders,
they all got down to business.
 
Sully
explained what Ponder was about and how he envisioned a role there for
Trina.
 
When the pitch was over, Reno
leaned back.
 
And
looked at his wife.

“You sure you want to take on something like
this?”

“I’m positive,” Trina said.
 
“The kids there are wonderful and Sully will
be right next door if I mess up.
 
I think
I’ll enjoy it.”

“But Director of Student Services?
 
That
sounds like a major understating, Tree.”

“But it’s not,” Sully explained.
 
“She’ll be there to make sure the students
are on track and have the tools they need to either reenter school or get their
GEDs.
 
She’ll be on top
of things, that’s
all.”

“At first he had wanted me to help teach the
students,” Trina said.
 
“But I wasn’t
feeling that.
 
I didn’t feel qualified to
do that.”

“But you feel qualified to be the director?”

“It’s not like that, Reno.”

“I just don’t want you out on a limb, here,
that’s all I’m saying.
 
I don’t want
anybody setting you up for failure.”

“I wouldn’t do that, Reno,” Sully said,
offended. “I would never do that.”

“I understand you’re saying that but, excuse
me, I don’t know you from Adam.
 
We met
and you seem like a nice guy, but this is my wife we’re talking about.
 
And I’m looking out for my wife.
 
Nobody’s screwing over Mrs. Gabrini,
understand?
 
Nobody’s overworking her or
giving her their headache or problems or problem kids, I don’t care who it
is.
 
You feel me?”

“I feel you,” Sully agreed.
 
“But you need to understand that I wouldn’t
do that to Tree.
 
I only suggested we
create the director’s position for her because of who she is.
 
I felt anything less than that would be an
affront to her, and to you, as her husband.”

Reno liked his style.
 
“Good answer,” he said with a smile.

“Am I or am I not a smooth operator?” Sully
asked with a smile.

“Oh, you’re smooth, all right,” Reno said with
a kick of his leg.
 
“Smooth as
silk.”
 
And both men laughed.
 

When the laughter died, Reno nodded his
head.
 
“Okay,” he said and Trina smiled
too.
 
“But look out for my wife, man,” he
warned.
 
“If anything happens to her at
that Center of yours, you answer to me.”

Sully extended his hand.
 
“Don’t even worry about it, Reno.
 
I got this.”

“Oh, you got this?
 
Oh, yeah?”
And for
some reason that Trina knew she would never understand, the two men ended up
arm wrestling right there at their table.
 
Both had thick muscles, and both strained their muscles in a hard fought
battle that ended, as Trina expected it would, with Reno flattening Sully’s
arm.

She shook her head.
 
“Men,” she said, and they both laughed.

CHAPTER TEN

“The door’s open,” Reno said after hearing the
knocks on his office door.

The door opened and Nell peered inside.
 
“Jannie said you wanted to see us, Reno?”

“Yeah, Nell, come on in,” Reno said with a
wave.
 
She, Mondo, and Barkley stepped
inside.
 
Already in the office was Dirty,
standing against the wall, and Jeff Casgrove, seated in front of Reno’s
desk.
 
Jeff stood to his feet when the
threesome walked in.

“Good morning,” Jeff said as they approached.

“Good morning,” Nell and Barkley replied.

“Guys,” Reno said, “I want you to meet
Jeff---”

“Casgrove,” Mondo finished for Reno and
extended his hand.
 
“It is a pleasure,
sir.
 
Armondo Pardeau
at your service.”

Jeff and Mondo shook hands.

“Jeff is the executive chef at a restaurant
inside the PaLargio in Vegas,” Reno said.
 
“Although I suspect you already knew that, Armondo.”