Reno Gabrini: For His Lover (The Mob Boss Series Book 14) (18 page)

Reno looked at the principal.
 
“Why didn’t you call me when he got back up on that table?” he asked.

“If I phoned you every time Dominic misbehaved,” the
principal said, “I’d be calling you all day.”

Those should have been fighting words.
 
What parent wanted to hear that kind of shit
from some stuffy-ass principal?
 
But Reno
knew the man spoke the truth.
 
Dommi knew
how to behave around him and Trina.
 
He
respected and feared them above any human beings alive.
 
But they appeared to be the sum total of who
he respected.
 
They appeared to be the
sum total of who he feared.

Reno didn’t argue.
 
He
just waited for his son, and then left.

Jimmy Gabrini was still in town, with plans to return to New
Hampshire later that day, when he received the call from his father.
 
Meet him, he said, at Skelton Park.
 
He needed to talk to him.

But when he arrived, he saw two sights.
 
His father was sitting on the bench by the
lake, with his legs crossed and his arm draped over the back of the bench.
 
But he also saw his baby brother, standing
near the water’s edge, tossing rocks into the water.
 
But of course Dommi, being Dommi, wasn’t just
tossing rocks.
 
He was trying to hit some
of the geese.
 
Jimmy shook his head as he
began heading toward the bench.

“Hit one again,” Reno warned Dommi as Jimmy walked up.

“But it was an accident, Daddy,” Dommi responded.

“And my shoe up your ass will be accidental too,” Reno shot
back.

Jimmy smiled.
 
“Hey
Dad,” he said as he sat beside him.
 
“Shouldn’t that little rascal be in school?”

“All the good it does him,” Reno said.
 
“Come here,” he said to Dommi.

Dominic dropped his supply of rocks and hurried up to his
father and brother.
 
He smiled.
 
“Hey, Jimmy,” he said, and fell against Reno.

Jimmy ruffled Dommi’s curly hair.
 
“How you doing, boss?” he asked him.

“I like when you call me that.”

“You like being called boss?”

“Very much so, yes,” Dommi said, and Jimmy laughed.

“He would like that,” Reno said.

“So what gives, Pop?” Jimmy asked.
 
“What’s with the meeting?
 
And where’s Ma?”

“New York,” Dommi said.

“She’s not there yet,” Reno said.
 
“But she’s on her way.”

“On your plane?” Jimmy asked.

“Of course on my plane,” Reno said.
 
“What do you think I’m going to let my wife
fly commercial?”

“You let your son fly commercial,” Jimmy said with a
smile.
 
He was not looking forward to
that long-ass flight back to New Hampshire later today.
 
“Uncle Sal usually let me take his plane,” he
added, “but he’s out of town.”

“He’s always out of town,” Reno said.

“I don’t know why Aunt Gemma puts up with it.
 
I’d tell him to go take a hike.”

“Yeah, like you told Val to take a hike, right?” Reno asked.

Jimmy hesitated.
 
“Dom,” he said, “why don’t you go toss some more rocks?
 
I want to talk to Dad for a minute.”

“But I don’t want to toss more rocks.”

“Tough,” Reno said.
 
“Do as your brother said.”

Dommi didn’t like it, but he knew he couldn’t dispute it
either.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said, and headed
back to the water’s edge.

Jimmy looked at his father.
 
“I don’t get you, Pop.
 
You know
all the shit I did.
 
Including what went
down at that lodge.
 
But yet you act as
if what Val did is the greater sin.”

“Because it is,” Reno said firmly.

“But why?”

“Because she’s your wife, and you wouldn’t have done what you
did at that lodge if her ass didn’t put you in that position.
 
She’s your wife.”

“You said that already,” Jimmy said.
 
“I’m her husband.
 
So what?”

“A man has to be able to trust his wife above any human being
walking the face of this earth.
 
If a man
can’t trust his wife, what is he?
 
Val
cheated on you.
 
Where is the trust?”

“It’s being rebuilt,” Jimmy said.
 
“Because news flash, Pop: I cheated on her
too.”

“I know that.”

“And with a transvestite to boot.”

Reno frowned.
 
“What
are you bringing that up for?
 
I know what
you did.”

“Did you ever do something like that?
 
Did you ever have sex with a woman who turned
out to be a man, Pop?”

“Hell no,” Reno responded.
 
“I never had sex with a man period.
 
What are you asking me that for?”

“Because imagine how Val felt when she found out that her
husband had done just that very thing you seem disgusted by.
 
I didn’t just cheat on her with a woman.
 
I cheated on her with a woman who turned out
to be a man, and I kept going.
 
I didn’t
pull out.”

“Okay, knock it off!” Reno decried, amazed that his son would
get that graphic with him.

Jimmy smiled.
 
His
father really was some kind of serious homophobe.
 
“The point I’m making, Pop,” he said, “is
that Val had the rawer deal.
 
But she
forgave me.”

“Sure she did,” Reno said.

“She forgave me,” Jimmy repeated himself.
 
“She didn’t forget it.
 
She didn’t suppress the pain it caused
her.
 
But she forgave me and we were
trying to move on.”

“Until she just so happened to fall in bed with the stud.”

“The stud I took out,” Jimmy said.
 
“Which is yet another thing she has to deal
with.”

“Stop making excuses for her,” Reno said.
 
Then he exhaled.
 
“Look, I love Val.
 
She’s my daughter-in-law and I treated her
like a daughter.
 
She’s the mother of my
grandchild.
 
But you’re my boy.
 
And I have to look out for you.
 
It wouldn’t be so unforgiveable if it was
just the cheating.
 
That was bad enough,
I’m not saying it wasn’t.
 
It was.
 
But she told our family business to that
fucker, Jimmy.
 
She told him about Dommi
and how he drove that car that day.
 
Her
loose lips almost cost us custody of Dom and Lexie.”
 
Lexie was Reno’s nickname for his daughter
Sophia, and just the thought of what could have happened still choked Reno
up.
 
“She almost forced my children to
spend the night with strangers.
 
They were
almost placed into state custody.”
 
Reno
shook his head.
 
“That’s too much.
 
Nobody will ever pull that shit on me and
mine and not have to deal with my wrath.”

“She loves you, Dad.
 
You know she does.
 
And you know
she’s a good girl overall.
 
But it broke
her heart when you put your hands on her.”

“She’d better be glad that’s all I did to her.
 
Who the fuck does she think she is?
 
I put my hands on you and Dommi, and on
Lexie.
 
And on Trina’s ass too if she
messes up.
 
And Val thinks she’s
immune?
 
If she’s in this family, she’s
under my authority.
 
If she can’t deal
with that, then keep her ass away from me.”

Jimmy looked at his father.
 
He was getting more and more territorial the older he became.
 
It was as if his wife and children were life
itself to Reno, and anybody who hurt them had to pay a hefty price.
 
No matter what his family did to deserve the
hurt.

“Anyway,” Jimmy said, certain he was not going to get his
father to understand what moving on really meant, “you wanted to see me?”

Reno calmed back down.
 
“Yeah,” he said, and then he called Dommi over too.

Dommi sat between Reno and Jimmy as Reno turned his hips
toward them.
 
This wasn’t easy for him,
but he knew it was necessary.
 
“I wanted
to meet with the two of you,” he said, “so that you can tell me what I’m doing
wrong.”

Dommi looked at his father, shocked that he would ever admit
to doing anything wrong.

Jimmy, too, was surprised.
 
“What do you mean?” he asked.

“What kind of a father have I been to you two?” Reno asked.

Dommi, puzzled, looked at Jimmy.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Jimmy said.

“Why were you in that parking lot about to do what you were
about to do?” Reno asked Jimmy.
 
“Why
were you standing on the lunch table acting at fool at school?” he asked
Dommi.
 
Then he frowned.
 
“What am I doing wrong?” he asked.

Jimmy leaned forward.
 
But Dommi decided to answer.
 
“They let me get away with stuff,” he said, “so I do it.
 
You and Mommy don’t let me.
 
So I don’t do it when I’m around you and
Mommy.
 
But that’s not your fault.”

“Is it your fault?” Jimmy asked his kid brother.

“It’s nobody’s fault.
 
It just is.”
 
Then Dommi turned
back to his father.
 
“You’re mean, maybe
that’s what you’re doing wrong.
 
You’re
really, really, really mean.
 
But you’re
not mean all the time.
 
When you’re not
mean, you’re great.
 
Except when you beat
me.
 
I don’t like you very much
then.
 
When the pain stops, I love you
again.
 
So I would say you’re like a
9.5.”

“If I’m so great,” Reno said, “why don’t you listen to me,
and behave?”

“But I do listen to you, and I do behave when you’re
around.
 
And when Mommy’s around.”

Reno looked at his son.
 
“Do you hear yourself?
 
You only
behave when we’re around?
 
What do you do
when we’re not around?”

Dommi smiled.
 
“It’s on
then!” he said.
 
“It’s fun time then!”

“That’s not how it works, Dommi,” Reno corrected his
son.
 
“You behave yourself whether I’m
there or not.”

Dommi saw an opening, and took it.
 
“Did you behave when your daddy wasn’t
around?” he asked his father.

Jimmy smiled.
 
That boy
was too smart for his own good.

Reno knew it too.
 
And
that was why he knew he couldn’t bullshit him.
 
“No,” he admitted.

“Well then,” Dommi said with a smile.
 
“I’m just like you!”

Reno exhaled.
 
“Yes,
you are,” he said.

“Little Reno,” Jimmy echoed.
 
“That’s Dommi through and through.”

Dommi smiled.
 
He was
proud to be his father’s son.
 
He was
proud of that moniker.

Then Reno, knowing Dommi already was probably a lost cause,
looked at Jimmy.
 
“What about you, Jim?”
he asked.

“You aren’t doing anything wrong, Dad,” Jimmy said.
 
“Are you hard on us?
 
Yes, you are.
 
Are you a tough act to follow?
 
Yeah, you are.
 
It’s hard to live
up to your example.
 
I mean, our dad is
the most powerful man in Vegas.
 
That’s
what that magazine said.
 
How do I top
that?
 
I’m just proud you’re my Dad.
 
I’m proud to walk in your shadow.”

Reno smiled.
 
And he
pulled Jimmy in his arms.
 
Dommi leaned
into his father too, and Reno included him in the hug.

Later that night, Reno was in bed, lying on his back, unable
to sleep.
 
All he could do was think
about Trina.
 
He wanted to call her.
 
He wanted to talk with her until he fell
asleep.
 
But he knew that wouldn’t be
fair to her.
 
She rarely got break. If it
wasn’t the kids pulling on her apron, it was Reno pulling on her panties.
 
She was getting it from both ends.

He grabbed the remote, and turned on the television.
 
After changing nearly twenty different
channels, he settled on
Bad Grandpa
,
a so-called comedic movie that wasn’t funny at all to Reno.
 
But at least it was something too different
to watch.
 
Then knocks were heard on his
bedroom door.