Reno Gabrini: For His Lover (The Mob Boss Series Book 14) (3 page)

He leaned back.
 
He
knew Dominic had it in him.
 
He knew it
the night he told Paulo to kiss his ass, took off for Vegas, and made a name
for himself.
 
He made good.
 
Paulo was proud of him.

But he’d never tell him about that pride.
 
They didn’t have that kind of
relationship.
 
But he could show him how
he felt.
 
His actions could speak for
him.
 
That was why he came.

“He’s coming now, boss,” said Alberto, his limo driver, and
Paulo sat erect.
 
This was his son, for
crying out loud, and he was sweating like some
got
damn kid.
 
But that was
how Reno affected him.
 
Nobody elicited
more emotions within him, good, bad, and ugly emotions, than his oldest
son.
 
He lost a good man when he lost Reno.
 
He lost a natural born leader.
 
Now he had a bunch of wise guys who together
couldn’t measure up to one Reno.
 
But he
brought it on himself.
 
He went too far
that night and Reno ran away from his poison.
 
It was his own damn fault.

One of Reno’s guards opened the back door of the limo, and
Reno got in and sat in front of his father.
 
The door closed behind him.

“Hey, Reno,” Alberto said.
 
“Long time, no see.”

“How you doing, Albie?”

“I’m doing great.
 
And
I know you are.
 
Quite a set up you got
here, Reno.”

“Thanks,” Reno said, and then turned his attention to his
father.
 
“Vinny said you wanted to see
me?”

Unlike his father, Reno wasn’t sweating like some kid or
filled with regret like some loser.
 
He
was filled with pain.
  
This was the big
man he used to respect above any other man.
 
This was the man he wanted to be like once upon a time.
 
Until he saw the other side of him, and
realized what kind of man he truly was.
 
Because any man who would try to rape an innocent girl, was not somebody
he was going to ever respect again.
 
But
this was his father sitting across from him.
 
His father.
 
Despite himself, he
still loved him.

 
“You’ve got Vinny
working for you,” Paulo responded.
 
“He’s
a good man.
 
That’s a good choice.
 
I taught you well.”

“You wanted to see me?” Reno asked again.

Paulo smiled, but inwardly he ached.
 
Dominic had turned into such a handsome,
strong man.
 
He was no longer that
nineteen year old kid who took that midnight bus out of Georgia just to get
away from him.
 
He was the man Paulo
always knew he’d become, and the man he most wanted to take over his
organization.
 
Maybe this goodwill
gesture by him would someday lead to a step in that direction.
 
Maybe.
 
“Congratulations on your grand opening,” he said.
 
“It’s packed out front.
 
I would have had to park a mile away if I
didn’t have connections.”

He smiled after he said that, but Reno didn’t return his
smile.
 
“What do you want, Pop?” he asked
him pointblank.

Paulo had hoped for an invitation inside.
 
To see the place.
 
But he knew it was too soon in their
so-called reunion.
 
He got down to
business.
 
“Do you know Elena Tufarna?”
Paulo asked him.

Reno was surprised by his question.
 
Elena Tufarna once owned the PaLargio.
 
“Why?”

“She’s dead, right?”

“Yeah, she’s dead.
 
Why?”

“She has a daughter.”

Reno frowned.
 
“She has
a son.
 
A worthless piece of shit named
Tony Tufarna.
 
He ran the PaLargio in the
ground, ran it into bankruptcy, and I took it over.
 
Elena has a son.”

“And a daughter,” Paulo said.
 
“Jeneen Tufarna.
 
And it’s this
daughter that brings me here tonight.”

Reno was intrigued now.
 
What in the world would his father have to do with Elena‘s
daughter?
 
“She never mentioned any
daughter.
 
But what about her?”

“She didn’t know her mother had died, or that her brother had
assumed ownership of this place.”

“Her brother assumed it and lost it.
 
He went bankrupt.
 
This place was on life support and was
already in Receivership when I purchased it.”

“I got that,” Paulo said.
 
“But here’s the thing,” he added, leaning forward.
 
“She has a will.”

Reno stared at his father.
 
Alberto even looked through the rearview at Reno’s father.
 
“A will?” Reno asked.

“She has a will.
 
A
will that her old lady, that Elena Tufarna, drafted before she died.
 
A will that gives the PaLargio, not to her
brother, but to her and her alone.
 
She’s
declaring that her brother had no legal right to the PaLargio to begin
with.
 
He had no legal rights whatsoever.
 
Which means, her lawyer is asserting, that
you ain’t got no rights to this piece of paradise.
 
You had no legal right to purchase property
that belonged to her.”

Reno frowned.
 
“You’re
shitting with me,” he said.

Paulo exhaled and leaned back.
 
“I wish I was, son.
 
I wish I was.”

“How the fuck you know all of this?
 
What does any of this have to do with you?”

“My consigliere is a close personal friend of her
attorney.
 
Her attorney schooled him on
what was going on.
 
He schooled me.”

“And you believe that shit?” Reno, still stunned, asked his
father.
 
“You believe she didn’t know her
own mother had died?
 
Where the fuck has
she been?”

“In Perth, Australia,” Paulo said.
 
“And you know where Perth is?”

“How should I know where it is?” Reno asked.

“It’s at the bottom of the world, that’s where it is,” Paulo
said.
 
“She and her mother had been estranged
for years.
 
Since she was born from what
I’m hearing.
 
Her old man took the
daughter and moved to Perth.
 
The mother
took Tony, the son, and remained in the States.
 
Her father was one of these weirdo outdoorsman in Australia.
 
Lived off the grid for years.
 
He and the daughter lived like fucking
hermits down there.”

Reno shook his head.
 
This shit was going into crazy zone.

“It’s a fucked up family, okay?
 
They ain’t like our family.”

Reno looked at his father with shock in his eyes.
 
Not like their family?
 
Their family was fucked up too!

“When she found out her mother had died, she went to the
attorney that my man happens to know,” Paulo continued, “and presented her
papers.
 
The original copy.
 
He, naturally, took the copy into his
possession, since the original is the only document that could prevail as
legally binding in a court of law.”

Paulo leaned forward.
 
“But this is where I come in.
 
I
got my consigliere to arrange a meeting with her and her attorney.
 
She has agreed to meet, Reno.”

Reno knew what his father meant.
 
It was his chance to make sure she didn’t
make trouble for him.
 
“When?”

“Tonight.
 
Now.
 
Because, unless you agree to her terms, she
has every intention of showing up here tonight, in front of all these cameras
and hot shots, and claim what belongs to her.
 
She still has that intention, but her attorney has advised her to at
least meet with you first.
 
To see if you
guys can cut a deal.”

“What about this attorney of hers?” Reno asked.
 
“Is he legit, or in your pocket?”

“He’s a close personal friend of my consigliere,” Paulo
said.
 
“What you think?”

Reno nodded.
 
And
exhaled.
 
And agreed to the meeting.

Three hours later, Reno thought he heard footsteps.
 
He anxiously stopped digging to listen, but
then he heard nothing.
 
He kept
digging.
 
His shirt was drenched in
sweat, his arms felt like lead, his heart felt as if it would pound out of his
chest.
 
But he stood in that hole and
kept tossing dirt.
 
Two feet deep.
 
Then three feet.
 
He gripped his shovel and kept on digging.
 
Four feet.
 
Five feet.
 
He’d never been this
anxious, this desperate, in his life.
 
It
was past midnight, he was alone in woods so dense he wondered if he’d ever be
able to find his way out again, but he kept on digging.
 
He was a strong young man.
 
He could dig all night if he had to.

But he stopped at six feet.
 
He had to stop at some point.
 
He
lifted his body out, along with his shovel, and tossed the shovel aside.
 
He looked around.
 
Listened closely.
 
Nothing.
 
Just the sounds of silence.

Certain the coast was clear, he hurried to the trunk of his
car, grabbed her body, and dragged it through the high weeds and thickets until
he was at the grave.
 
She was a small
woman, but she was dead weight, and it took all he had to drag her.

Then he looked around again, his heart pounding.
 
Satisfied he was still alone, he heaved her
lifeless body into the grave.
 
He heaved
it as if he was heaving his own body into that grave.

He stood there, breathing so heavily his shirt was rising and
falling with every breath, as her body ended in a curl that was almost a fetal
position.
 
As if she left this world the
same way she came in.
 
He hated that it
had come to this.
 
He wished it wouldn’t
have had to come to this.
 
Her mother was
a wonderful woman.
 
Reno knew her mother.
 
But this one here, the daughter, was a
bitch.
 
She was worse than her
brother.
 
Now she was out of the way.
 
Now nothing was standing in his way.
 
He hated that it had to turn out like this,
but she left him no choice.

He stared at her body a little longer, crossed his chest,
said a prayer, and then grabbed the shovel and started covering her with the
dirt he had just moments before unearthed.
 
He covered her until she was six feet under.

He stood there again, his heart filled with regret
again.
 
But it was done now.
 
He made the decision and had no choice but to
stick by it.
 
He grabbed the shovel,
walked back to his car, and tossed it into the trunk.
 
After closing the trunk, he got in his car
behind the wheel.
 
He was panting
now.
 
He was beyond exhausted now.
 
As he cranked up to leave, he knew pure
adrenalin would propel him forward.

But before he left, he grabbed the paper that set on the
passenger seat.
 
He grabbed the paper
that started all of this.
 
Read it
again.
 
And again.
 
And then finally tore it to little pieces.

Because Reno Gabrini was not going out like that.

Because nobody was going to take the PaLargio away from
him.
 
Nobody.
 

Not even its rightful owner.

Present Day

The bedroom door sprang open and Dominic, Jr. and Sophia
Gabrini ran across the room and jumped onto the bed, their backpacks bouncing
as they jumped.
 
Their father, Reno,
asleep on his back, opened his eyes as soon as he felt the bounce.

“Hey there,” he said half sleepily, half smilingly, as he
hugged his two youngest children and pulled them closer.

“Why aren’t you up yet, Daddy?” Little Sophia asked him.

“He just went to bed,” said his wife and their mother, Trina
Gabrini, as she walked toward them.
 

“Why do you work all day and night?” Dommi asked him.
 

“Good question,” Trina said, her arms folded as she stood
beside the bed.
 
Reno and his late hours
had been a bone of contention in their marriage for years.
 
“And I’m sure there’s no good answer.”

“I work all night,” Reno said to his son, “to keep you living
large, little man.”

“Oh go on!” Dommi said with a smile, and Reno tickled him,
causing him to laugh loudly.

“Okay guys, tell Daddy goodbye.
 
It’s time to go,” Trina said.
 
She was dressed for work, in a pale blue skirt
suit, and the kids wore their schools uniforms: black shirt, khaki pants for
Dommi.
 
White shirt, plaid skirt for
Sophia.
 
Their father, who had literally
just gotten home a couple hours ago, wore nothing beneath the covers.

The kids kissed their father, said their goodbyes, and hopped
off the bed.

After Trina leaned down and gave him a goodbye peck too, he
kept his arm around her and held her there.
 
Then he looked beyond her.
 
“Wait
for mommy downstairs,” he ordered his children.

“But we’ll be late,” Dommi said.
 
When Reno gave him that chilling look Dommi
knew so well, he changed his tune.
 
“Yes,
sir,” he said, and he and Sophia left the room.

Trina smiled.
 
“Stop
treating him like he’s one of your wise guys,” she said.

“When he stops acting like a wise guy, I’ll stop treating him
like one,” Reno responded.
 
“Now kiss me
like you mean it,” he said, and Trina dutifully and gladly placed her hands on
the side of his in-need-of-a-shave face and kissed him passionately this
time.
 
So passionately that he kicked the
covers off of him, pulled her on top of him, grabbed her ass beneath her skirt
and squeezed it, as they kissed.

Dommi, on the landing, tiptoed back toward the bedroom, and
was about to peep inside.

“Dommi’s looking!” Sophia yelled from downstairs as he
peeped, and Reno looked beyond Trina.
 
When he saw Dommi’s little biracial head coming around that corner, he
tossed a pillow at him.
 
“Boy!” he
yelled.
 
But he missed.
 
Dommi had already taken off.
 
He ran down those stairs so fast he nearly
fell.

Trina laughed and got back up.
 
“I’d better go anyway,” she said, and headed
toward the exit.

Reno watched her tight ass as she walked.
 
He was too tired to wake her up for sex when
he plopped down in bed five this morning.
 
He was just too tired.
 
Now he
craved her.
 
“I’m going to be all over
that tonight,” he warned her.

“Bye boy,” Trina responded playfully, glancing back at him
with a whimsical smile, as she left.

Reno, satisfied that his family was okay, turned over on his
stomach, and, within seconds, was fast asleep.

Jazz Hannity stopped her Kia Sophia in front of the Shady
Ranch Bar and Grill near the outskirts of Vegas, and entered the dark, dingy,
smoke-filled bar.
 
She spotted Andre
Jackson as soon as she entered, and headed in his direction.

“This better be good,” she said as she flapped her bag onto
the counter and sat on the bar stool beside him.
 
“I’m tired, I’m hungry, I barely have gas to
get back home.
 
Do you realize how far
out this is?
 
Your ass better make it
worth it.”

“Are you done with the complaints?” Andre asked with a smile.

“Boy, I ain’t playing with you,” Jazz said as she pulled a
cigarette out of her bag.
 
“What you
got?”

Andre didn’t like her tone.
 
In fact, he liked nothing about Jazz Hannity.
 
Except her proximity to the Gabrinis.
 
Except for the fact that she could get them
in the door.
 
“I told you I was going to
make it happen,” he said.
 
“Didn’t I tell
you that?”

“It just better be worth it,” Jazz responded, lighting
up.
 
“That’s all I’m saying.”

Andre handed her his cellphone.
 
She began swiping through a serious of
pictures.
 
“Are those worth it?” he
asked.

Jazz was smiling.
 
The
more she swiped, the more she liked what she saw.
 
“When did you take these?”

“Tonight.
 
They left
before you could get here.
 
But they were
right here, Jazz.”

Jazz was stunned.
 
She
looked at him.
 
“They were here?
 
In
Shady’s
?”

“In Shady’s, girl.
 
I
was shocked myself.
 
Big wigs like them
think we’re too stupid to know who they are.
 
That’s why they run to places like this to have their little affairs.
 
But I know Reno Gabrini.
 
I’d know that fucker anywhere.”

Jazz puffed on her cigarette and looked at more
pictures.
 
She felt as if she had just
won the lottery and, if she played her cards right, would collect
handsomely.
 
“This could be our ticket,
Dre.”

“Ticket my ass,” Dre said.
 
“This could be our passport out of this bitch forever.
 
We do this right, we can make a fortune,
Jazz.
 
A
got
damn fortune!
 
But that’s
only if your calculations are right.”

“They’re right.
 
That’s
why I asked you to follow him.
 
I knew
sooner or later his ass would mess up.
 
I
knew sooner or later the real Reno Gabrini would stand up and prove me right.”

“And that’s what I call standing up,” Andre said.
 
“All hugged up with her like that?
 
All intimate like that with a woman that
ain’t his wife?
 
But will it be enough?”

“No,” Jazz said bluntly.
 
And handed him back his phone.
 
“Not for Trina.
 
She thinks Reno
can walk on water.
 
We’ll have to damn
near catch him in the act before she’ll believe it.”

“But these pictures are some damning shit,” Dre said.
 
“You saw how close they were.
 
That ain’t no friendship kind of close.
 
That’s fuck buddy close.
 
This Trina will have to be a fool in love to
think it’s anything but what it is.”

“I know that and you know that.
 
But you don’t know Tree.
 
She’s stupid loyal to his ass.
 
She wasn’t loyal to me, and I was her friend
before she knew Reno existed, but she’s loyal like a crazy woman to him.”

“What we need,” Andre said, “is for the woman in these pictures,
his lover, to cooperate with us.
 
If what
you’re saying is true, we’ve got to catch him in the act.”

“We’ve got to catch him in the act,” Jazz said again, nodding
her head.
 
She had lost considerable
weight from her younger days, but was still voluptuous.
 
“That’s the only way Tree will believe
it.
 
But why in the world would that
woman cooperate with us, Dre?
 
What’s in
it for her when she’s got the prize in her bed already?”

“We’ve got to hope she’s no fool,” Andre said.
 
“We’ve got to hope she understands that she
might have Gabrini in her bed for a minute, but his wife has him in her heart
forever.
 
If she understands she’s just
another one of his hoes to be exposed and dumped, she might just play ball.”

Jazz still seemed unconvinced.

“Just let me check her out,” Andre said.
 
“I’ll see just how badly she can use a big
payday too.
 
Because if we can get her on
our side?” he shook his head.
 
“
Got
damn, Jazz.
 
The sky would be the limit for us.”

“It’s a win-win for me, Dre, you just don’t know.
 
Me and Tree used to be closer than
sisters.
 
We were tighter than tight when
we worked at Boyzie’s.
 
Now I’m some
got
damn hairdresser on my feet all day
long, barely able to pay my bills, and she’s Mrs. Las Vegas.
 
Even got her own clothing store.
 
She kicked me to the curb, Dre.
 
She did me wrong.”

Even Andre could hear the bitterness in her voice.

“She kicked me to the curb like I was a piece of garbage,”
Jazz continued.
 
“But now that shit is
turning.
 
Now she’s going to be the one
feeling the pain.
 
She’ll finally see
what I’ve been telling her all along.
 
She’ll see for herself that her man ain’t shit, never was shit, and
never will be shit.
 
He love her and
fifty other women beside.
 
That’s what I
used to tell her.
 
But she wouldn’t
listen.”

Was this about getting paid, Andre wondered as he listened to
Jazz, or about revenge?
 
Then he realized
everything was.

Jazz puffed on her cigarette as if she was reliving old
scenes in her head.
 
“But I’ll give it to
Reno,” she said.
 
“He’s a cheating dog,
with all kinds of women.
 
But he loves
Trina the most.
 
She’s his number one,
that’s why he married her.
 
And Trina
loves him to death.
 
Against anybody’s
better judgment, she loves that cheating dog.
 
I can’t wait when that love shatters in her blind-ass face and she realize
I was right all along.”

But Andre had his doubts.
 
Jazz could see the trepidation in his eyes.
 
“Why are you looking like that?” she asked
him.
 
“It’ll work.”

“We’re playing with fire, Jazz.
 
We’re playing in the big leagues now.
 
Reno Gabrini?
Damn
.
 
If this shit ignites
the wrong way, we’re burned.”

Jazz began dousing out her cigarette. “I know.
 
But what you don’t understand is that this is
the first break I’ve had in years.
 
Years!
 
And you’ve said so
yourself.
 
I was Trina’s best friend
though.
 
I should be living like a queen,
not like this.
 
But I first have to get
Reno out of the way.
 
If she can turn on
him, and I can be the person who showed her the light, then I’m back in her
good graces.
 
I’m back in, Dre.
 
And now we have proof.
 
We’ll need more, because I know Trina, but at
least I know my gut wasn’t wrong.”

“And we’ll get more proof, don’t worry about that,” Andre
assured her.
 
“I’ll get the woman in
these pictures to turn.
 
Don’t worry
about that.”

“Because once I’m back in,” Jazz said, “the money will flow
like a river.
 
Trina’s always been
generous that way.
 
She’ll give me my
heart’s desire, and you’ll be right by my side, once Reno and his longtime
bullshit is finally exposed.
 
That what I
said to Trina time and time again is right.”

“You were right about another thing too,” Andre said.

Jazz looked at him.
 
“What’s that?”

“When Gabrini goes to do his dirt, he goes alone.
 
I didn’t spy any of his Security following
him.”

“Yet he has them following around Trina like she’s the one
messing up,” Jazz said.
 
“I used to tell
her it’s his ass that needs GPS.
 
But she
wouldn’t listen.”