Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (41 page)

“Where did they take him?” Reno wanted to
know.

“We don’t know yet.”

“Are you looking for him, Tommy?”

“Of course we’re looking for him!
 
Of course we are!
 
Your people from Vegas, my people from
Seattle, and the Atlanta muscle.
 
Everybody’s on it, Reno.
 
Everybody’s looking.”

“That fucker’s crazy, Tommy.
 
I saw it tonight.
 
He’s certifiable.”

“I know.”

“He thinks I ordered the hit on Eddie
Giancarlo.”

“You?”

“He thinks it was me.
 
I’m telling you he’s a fucking lunatic!”
 

“And that’s what we count on,” Tommy said,
nodding.
 
He was in suspenders, his sidearm
revealed.
 
“The fact that he isn’t
rational works in our favor.
 
He won’t
harm Jimmy unless you’re right there to witness it.
 
Don’t worry.
 
We’ll get Jimmy before he even thinks about his next move.”

Reno closed his eyes and placed his arm across
his forehead.
 
He was suffering a massive
migraine on top of the pain.
 
But none of
it could compare to the ache he felt for his son.

There was a knock on the bedroom door.
 
Tommy went to the door as Trina placed a cold
compass on Reno’s forehead.
 
There was
security inside and out of the home.
  
Tommy opened the door.
 
It was
Copeland, one of their inside guys.

“Reno’s got company,” Copeland said.

Reno looked up.
 
“Who?” he asked.

“You not gonna believe this, but Vito
Giancarlo’s outside.”

Reno sat up on his elbows.
 
Tommy and Trina, shocked, looked at him.
 
Then he
laid
back
down.

“Bring him up, Cope,” he ordered.

While Copeland went to retrieve Vito, Reno
fought against the pain to sit up.
 
“Put
me in the chair,” he said to Trina, and she and Tommy did as they were told.

By the time Vito and his big bulk made it up
the stairs, Reno was upright in a wing back chair.
 
Another chair had been placed there, for Vito
to take a seat.

“Tommy, how you doing?”
Vito asked as he entered the room, breathing
heavily.
 
“The gout got me this week,” he
said.
 
“Ever had gout before?”

“No, Vito,” Tommy said.
 
“Never had gout before.”

“You don’t want it, either.”
 
He then looked at Trina.
 
“Hello lovely Katrina.
 
How are you, my dear?”

But Trina wasn’t playing along. “Have a seat,”
she said.

Vito smiled.
 
“I see Reno’s rubbing off on you.”
 
Then he turned to Reno.
 
“Hello, son.”

Reno wasn’t playing along, either.
 
“Sit down,” he said.

“Oh,” Vito said, sitting down.
 
“A husband and wife tag team.
 
Okay.”

“What do you want Vito?”

“You don’t look so good.”

Trina folded her arms.
 
Some nerve, she thought.

“What do you want, Vito?” Reno asked again.

Vito exhaled.
 
“I can tell you what I don’t want better.”
 
He looked at Reno.
 
“I don’t want a mob
war
 
No
way, shape, or form.”

“Have you mentioned that to your son?”

Vito stared at Reno.
 
“My son?” he asked.
 
“What are you needling me?
 
My son is dead. MarBeth saw to that.”

“Your other son, Vito.
 
Luigi
Johnny Drago.
 
Don’t fuck with me.”

It was obvious that Vito had no idea that
Drago had spilled the beans.
 
But like
every knock in his life, Vito always recovered.
 
“Okay, he’s my son.
 
It wasn’t any
big secret.
 
Nobody asked, so we didn’t
say.
 
I felt I could protect him from my
lifestyle better that way.
 
But of course
it didn’t work,” Vito said this with a laugh.
 
“He went down the drug path, same as his no-good brother.
 
But what can you do?
 
You raise them the best you know how, but the
rest is up to them.”

“What do you want, Vito?”

“I want peace, Reno.
 
I’m getting too old.
 
I need peace.”

“Give me back my son right now, and you’ll
have your peace.
 
Fuck around with my
son, and you’ll never again know the meaning of the word.”

“First of all,” Vito said, his fat jowls flapping,
“I don’t have your son and don’t know Johnny has him, either.”

“Then I suggest you find out.
 
If peace is what you want.
 
Or I declare, Vito, you’re being burying
another son.”

“Don’t you threaten
me!
”
Vito spouted.
 
“I came here to reason
with you, Reno.
 
I didn’t come here to be
insulted.”

“Where does Drago have my son?”

“I told you I don’t know!
 
But okay, I’ll find out.
 
I’ll find him.
 
But you’ve got to give me some time.”

Reno stared at him.
 
He always told his father that Vito was a bad
bet.
 
He always claimed to know
everything, but what he needed to know, he didn’t even want to know.
 
He was a jelly back, if you ask Reno.
 
A powerful tub of Jell-O.

“Tomorrow, Vito,” Reno warned.
 
“I want my boy home with me tomorrow.
 
Or all hell’s gonna break loose.”

“You speak in such dramatic terms.
 
Let’s keep this civil, Reno.”

“Fuck civil!” Reno roared.
 
“Get my boy back home to me!”
 

“Who do you think you’re talking to?
 
I’m Vito Giancarlo here.
 
I’m no hood from the street!
 
I’m Vito Giancarlo!”
 
Vito, as usual, spoke his name with such love
and affection for himself.
 
Then he
calmed back down.
 
“Okay,” he said.
 
“Tomorrow.
 
I’ll be the go-between, and I’ll get your boy
home tomorrow.”

Trina and Tommy were relieved.
 
But Reno wasn’t uncorking champagne just yet.

Vito extended his hand.
 
Reno, however, didn’t shake it.
 
“Bring Jimmy
back
 
home
first,” he said.

Vito smiled.
 
“My godson.”
 
He looked at Tommy.
 
“He’s my
godson, and this is how he treats me.
 
You know I don’t keep up with Johnny’s craziness.
 
You know I don’t.
 
But you hold me responsible?
 
I told you I would get your son back to
you.
 
I told you I would.
 
But you can’t shake my hand?”

“I’ll shake it when I see my son,” Reno
reiterated.

Vito exhaled.
 
Then stood up.
 
Tommy braced himself.
 

“You’ll get your son,” Vito said.
 
“Just give me the time to take care of
it.
 
I want peace, Reno.
 
I buried one boy.
 
That’s enough.
 
I have to have peace.”

Reno stood up.
 
How he managed to do that without even wincing was amazing to Trina and
Tommy.
 
“Bring him back unharmed, and
you’ll have your peace.
 
Harm any part of
him, and peace will be the last thing on the face of this earth you’ll ever
have.”

Vito eventually left.
 
Reno, still weak and in pain, nearly passed
out after he did.

But he rested in hope after Vito left.
 
Because if ever Reno planned to hold a man to
his word, it was now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Tomorrow started out slowly, with no word from
Vito or Jimmy or Drago or anyone.
 
Reno had
willed himself to get up and about, but he was going nuts as he waited.
 
And Trina wasn’t too much better.
 
Sully came by, and asked if he could be of
any assistance, but Reno thanked him and told him no.
 
They had it under control.
 
Trina, to Sully’s dismay, didn’t bother to
show her face.
 

Tommy came back, after a long night in Atlanta
on a hunch that Drago might be holed up there, only to end up with
nothing.
 
His people and Reno’s people
were working all of the hot spots, from Vegas to Jersey to right here in
Crane.
 
But nothing was turning up.
 
Not even Vito’s word.

“Where’s Tree?” Tommy asked as he sat in the
living room with Reno.
 

“Resting,” Reno said.
 
“If I slept two hours all night, she slept
maybe one hour longer.
 
I had to
literally carry her to bed and make her get some rest.”

“She stands by you, Reno,” Tommy said.
 
“You’re blessed.”

Reno ran his hand through his thick, brown
hair, turning it into more of the messy pile it already was.
 
“I’ve been praying for that boy harder than
I’ve ever prayed in my life.
 
Drag better
not harm a hair on his head.”

Then Reno’s cell phone rang.
 
For the first time all day.
 
He answered on the first ring, certain it was
Vito.
 

But it wasn’t.

It was Drago.

“Hello, Re-Re,” he said into the phone.
 
“Remember me?”

“Where’s my son?”

“I’ve finally decided on how to proceed.
 
First, you’ll get a finger in the mail.
 
And then maybe, I don’t
know,
a toe or an arm.
 
And then a head.”

“Motherfucker!”
Reno screamed, rising to his feet.
 
“You lay a hand on that boy and I’ll tear you
apart piece by piece!”

“You shut the fuck up!
 
Who are you to tell me?
 
I’m telling you!
 
I have the upper hand here.
 
You ordered my brother’s death, now I’m
ordering your son’s death!”

 
“It’s
me you want, why don’t you come after me?
 
Why are you playing this sissified witch hunt shit?
 
Come on, Drag.
 
You and me.
 
Let’s get in a room and duke it out!”

“I’ve been in a room with you, remember?
 
I think I got the better of that exchange. So
shut the fuck up!”

“Why don’t you come after me?
 
Since you claim I ordered the killing.
 
Come after me!”

Trina appeared on the landing, as Reno’s loud
voice had awakened her.

“It’s more fun this way,” Drago said into the
phone.
 
“It’s far more fun this way.
 
Like now, for instance.
 
All of the carnage, Reno.
 
All of the pain.
 
It’s more fun like this.
 
You took my brother, I’m gonna take your
son.
 
But then I thought, why not take
his sister, too?”

Fran, Reno thought.
 
He kidnapped Fran?

“Bye Re-Re,” Drago said laughingly, as killed
the call.

“He’s after Fran,” Reno said breathlessly to
and Tommy immediately began phoning the PaLargio.

When Dirty came on line and said Fran and
everybody else were fine, Reno still didn’t relax.
 
“Did he eyeball her?”

“Yes, she’s right here,” Tommy said and handed
Reno the phone.