Reno Gabrini: For His Lover (The Mob Boss Series Book 14) (6 page)

But that was only part of the issue.
 
Jimmy was a babe magnet himself.
 
He couldn’t count the women who wanted to get
inside of his pants on a daily basis.
 
They sensed he had a big cock, and they wanted to ride it.
 
Getting a woman wasn’t a problem for
Jimmy.
 
It was keeping a woman.

And not just keeping her, but keeping her satisfied day in
and day out the way his father knew how to do.
 
Jimmy’s stepmother, Trina, loved his father to death.
 
She’d do anything for him.
 
And Reno would do anything for her.
 
Jimmy used to think that maybe he and Val
could have that same kind of relationship.
 
But every time they seemed on their way, either he would mess up or she
would shut down.
 
And he couldn’t deal
with an inattentive wife.
 
His sex drive
was too strong.
 
It was so strong, in
fact, that many days he could hardly contain himself.
 
Like right now he wanted to do Val
again.
 
He wanted to ram his cock inside
of her until she came.
 
But he already
knew she wasn’t about to go along with that.

He also knew, as he turned over and tried to lay down a few
minutes longer, that he was going to make his marriage work.
 
He was selfish, she said, and thought only of
his career.
 
And maybe she was right
about that.

But he was going to do better by her.
 
He was going to do everything in his power to
make Val proud of him again.
 
Because it
was Val he wanted.
 
No other human being
had his heart the way Val had.
 
He just
had to get her to believe it too.

Reno thought he was dreaming.
 
He thought he heard ringing in his dream: that was how hard he
slept.
 
When he realized it wasn’t a
dream, but instead was his cellphone ringing, he reached over to the nightstand
and attempted to grab it.
 
When he opened
his eyes and realized his phone was not on the nightstand, but most likely
still in his pants pocket where he had left it earlier that morning, he tossed
the covers off of him, got his naked body out of bed, and hurried to the area
where he remembered leaving his pants.
 
But his pants, nor his suit coat or underwear, were where he had tossed
them.

He looked over, realized Trina was no longer in bed, and knew
what she would have done.
 
She was not
going to pick up after him any longer, she had proclaimed for the millionth
time, but yet in still she took his entire suit of clothes and folded them over
a chair.
 
That was her idea of not
cleaning up after him.
 
It was just the
opposite to Reno.

When he finally hurried over to that chair, grabbed his phone
out of his pants, he answered without looking at the Caller ID.
 
“This is Reno,” he said as he headed back
toward the bed.

“Reno, it’s me.”
 
It
was Trina.
 
“I need you to come to
Dommi’s school.”

Reno frowned.
 
“Why?
 
What’s going on?”

“These damn social workers trying to take Dommi away from
us.”

Reno’s stopped in his tracks.
 
“
What
?”

“Ain’t this some shit?
 
They’re trying to claim we’re unfit parents who don’t know how to raise
our own son.
 
They’re trying to take
Dommi, Reno.”

Reno hurried back to where his clothes were.
 
“You’re there now?”

“I’m here.
 
I’m right
in the main office.
 
I’m looking these
fools right in their faces.
 
They better
not try that stupid shit with me.”

“Don’t let them take him off of school property,” Reno ordered
as he dressed.
 
“Once they get him in
their system, it’ll be a hellava lot harder to get him out.”

“I wish they would try to take my child away from this
school,” Trina assured him.
 
“They’d have
to kill me before I let that happen.”

Reno loved Trina’s toughness.
 
He loved that she could stand in the breach for the sake of their family
when he wasn’t there.
 
“And call our
attorneys,” he said to her.

“That’s my very next call.
 
They’ve got cops here and everything, Reno.
 
We need to know our legal rights.”

“And we may need them to bail both our asses out of jail if
those idiots try to get away with this shit.
 
I’m on my way.”

Then he heard that undertone of concern in Trina’s voice,
that undercurrent that made it clear to him that she wasn’t feeling as brave as
her bravado would suggest.
 
“Hurry,
Reno,” she said.

Reno let out a harsh exhale.
 
“Hang in there, babe.
 
I’ll be
there.”
 
He ended the call, tossed his
cellphone onto the bed, and dressed in a rush.
   

Val sat quietly in the parking lot of the Las Vegas outlet
mall and waited.
 
This was the real
reason for her journey back home, not that cockamamie story she told Jimmy
about finding the rest of her portfolio.
 
And she hated lying like that.
 
But all of her life she’d done what everybody else wanted her to
do.
 
She was in real estate because that
was what her father wanted.
 
She got
married so young because that was what Jimmy wanted.
 
She had a baby, when she would have rather
had her career together first, because that was what all of her friends declared
was what married ladies did.
 
They had
babies.
 
They got that part of the
bargain out of the way first.
 
And she
moved to New Hampshire,
New Hampshire
of all places, because that was what her father-in-law wanted.
 
Jimmy needed the change, Reno believed.
 
She would be saving Jimmy from the fast life
if she relocated with him.

But when the car drove up beside her rental car, which was
supposed to be her cue, she remained where she was.
 
She continued to sit quietly in her car, as
if she was still thinking about the decisions she’d made in this life.
 
As if she was totally ambivalent to the
decision she was about to make that would allow her to reverse course and
travel her own path.

Kapper Cole, a tall black man with a muscular frame, sat in
the car that had driven up and waited.
 
He knew this was a hard decision for Val, and he didn’t want to rush
her.
 
But as she continued to just sit
there, as if she didn’t realize he had arrived, he almost blew his horn.
 
But that would only bring attention to them,
something neither one of them wanted.
 
So
he got out of his car, and got into hers.
 
Her door wasn’t even locked.
 
That
was how far gone she was.

“What’s the matter, Val?” he asked her.

Val didn’t look his way.
 
She continued to stare at the mall on the far end of the lot.

“Valerie,” he said, “what’s wrong?”

Val finally looked at him.
 
When she did, and saw his face, she smiled.
 
But the guilt was still there, and was eating
her alive.

Kap was no kid.
 
He
was, in fact, nearly sixteen years her senior.
 
He knew exactly what she was going through.
 
He placed her hand in his.
 
“We don’t have to do it, if you don’t want
it.”

“But I want it,” Val said.
 
“That’s what hurts.”

Kap understood that too.
 
But he had no answers for her guilt.
 
But he did have an answer for her desires.
 
“We’ll try another day,” he said, patting her
hand.
 
Then he released her hand and
moved as if he was about to get out of her car.

But Val panicked, as he knew she would.
 
“Wait,” she said anxiously.
 
He looked at her.
 
She looked at him.
 
Then she exhaled.
 
“I’m coming with you.”

She grabbed her purse and got out of her car.
 
Kap got out too.
 
He walked her around to the passenger door of
his car, helped her in, and then got in under the wheel.
 
He looked at her.
 
He pretended to be the gentleman he was
not.
 
“Are you sure?” he asked her.

Val nodded, and then smiled.
 
“I’m sure,” she said.

He cranked up, like the son of a gun he was, and drove them
away.

Andre Jackson walked out of the diner with a cup of coffee in
his hand and made his way to the parked Corolla.
 
When he got in behind the wheel, he handed
the cup to Zell.
 
He was so nervous he
could feel the sweat trickling down behind his ears.
 
And they were only just beginning.
 
“Did he show yet?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Zell Tufarna said as she took a long sip of the
warm brew.
 
She was a small white woman,
with short hair and a face made less attractive by her downturned mouth.
 
“I only wish I could see his hateful face
when it happens.”
 
She was on the
passenger seat, with binoculars on her lap, as she watched the fancy private
school from the diner’s parking lot across the street.
 
“His kid goes to this fancy school and I can
barely pay my rent.”
 

Then she looked at Andre.
 
He was a handsome black man who was only with her, she knew, because of
the big payday at the end of the rainbow.
 
If all went according to plan, she was going to become the rightful
owner of the PaLargio.
 
She was going to
return that crown jewel to the Tufarna family.
 
Andre, as her man, was going to reap those benefits too.
 
But the lengths they had to go through to get
to this point was wearing on them both.
 
Especially Zell.
 
“Are you certain
she’s going to go through with it?” she asked him.

“Yes, I’m certain.
 
That’s the only thing I’m certain about.
 
She hates Gabrini as much as you do.
 
She’s glad to help.”

“What if she finds out about us?”

Andre glanced at her, and then continued to stare at the
school.
 
“She won’t,” he said.

“But what if she does, Dre?
 
What if she realizes it was all a scam?”

“I told you to let me worry about her.
 
You just focus on Gabrini.”
 
Then he sighed.
 
“I wish I felt good about this.
 
But I don’t see how this is going to work,
Zell.
 
All of this cloak and dagger
shit.”

“Father says it’ll work,” Zell reminded him.

“I know what your old man said.
 
He says a lot of things, and then trots us
off to do his dirty work.
 
But what are
you
saying?” Andre looked at her.
 
“Is this our war or his?
 
How do
you
feel about all of this?”

“I feel we have to take care of this.
 
Reno Gabrini stole my birthright and I have
to take it back.”

“But that was so long ago.
 
And why can’t we just confront him head on?
 
Why all of this plotting and scheming?”

“Because my father is right.
 
When you’re dealing with a lowlife like Reno Gabrini, you have to come
at him sideways, around the way, and always where it hurts.
 
Not where it’s legal or right.
 
He doesn’t give a snatch about legal and
right or he would not have done what he did to us.”
 
Then she looked at the private, exclusive
school again.
 
“It’ll work,” she
said.
 
“You just let me and my father
worry about the details.”

But Andre was still antsy.
 
“It was better when it was the two of us.
 
We could plan logically.
 
Not with all of this hit him where it hurts
shit.
 
We had a plan.”

“And before he got involved that was all we had,” Zell
pointed out.
 
“A plan.
 
We planned.
 
We had no proof.
 
We had no way of
asserting our rights in a court of law.
 
All we had was what we were told.
 
Now we’re no longer planning, but executing.
 
He’s able to bring our plans to fruition,
Dre.
 
And this is only the beginning.”

Andre sat erect.
 
“There’s a speedster,” he said as a car zoomed past the diner and turned
into the school’s parking lot.

Zell’s eyes sparkled.
 
“It’s him,” she said anxiously as she sat her coffee in one of the cup
holders and grabbed the binoculars.
 
She
zoomed in as Reno’s Porsche parked alongside his wife’s Mercedes.
 
He jumped out, in his dress pants and dress
shirt that was half tucked in and half tucked out, as if he made only an
absentminded attempt to dress properly.
 
He also wore sunglasses as he ran up the steep steps toward the school’s
entrance.

Zell removed the binoculars and nodded her head with
satisfaction.
 
“And now it all begins,”
she said with what her brother could only describe as a smile.
 
But a smile most reptilian.

Reno pulled open the double doors of Dommi’s school and ran
across the hall to the main office.
 
His
heart was hammering when he saw Trina standing at the reception desk with her
arms folded.
 
She was dressed primly, in
yellow heels and a pair of light-gray dress slacks, a yellow sleeveless shirt,
and a gray sweater flapped down her back with its arms tied around her
neck.
 
She was dressed beautifully.
 
But he could see the fear in her eyes.

She hurried toward him as soon as he hurried in.
 
“Reno,” she said as if his name alone gave
her relief.

He pulled her into his arms.
 
“Where is he?” he asked.

“In Principal Ansley’s office,” Trina said.
 
Reno looked beyond her.
 
The school’s resource officer, a local cop,
was guarding the principal’s door.
 
“They’re questioning Dommi, Reno.
 
They wouldn’t let me in.
 
I
contacted Vic Vereen and he’s on his way, but he said the police and social
workers have a legal right to question Dom out of our presence if we’re the
ones being accused of abusing him.”

Reno frowned.
 
“Abusing
him?
 
How the fuck are we abusing him?”

The receptionist and others behind the desk looked at Reno,
as if the
F
word were foreign to
them.
 
But Reno didn’t give a fuck.

“You wait here,” he said to his wife as he hurried toward the
principal’s office.
 
But Trina was right
behind him.
 
When the officer saw them
coming, he stood erect.
 
“You have to
wait out here, sir,” he said.

“I want to see my son,” Reno said.
 
“They have my son in there and I demand to
see him.”

“I don’t care what you demand to see,” the officer said.
 
“You aren’t going in this room.”

Reno’s anger flared.
 
“And who’s gonna stop me?” he asked.
 
“You?”

“That’s right,” the officer said confidently.
 
“You may play gangster in that casino of
yours, but you aren’t getting away with that behavior at my school.”
 
Then a voice laced with contempt came out.
 
“Now sit your ass down and wait your turn,”
he added.

Reno couldn’t believe this clown was talking to him that
way.
 
Trina couldn’t believe it
either.
 
And when Reno defied him, when
Reno pushed his arrogant ass aside and went into that office anyway, Trina was
right behind him.
 
She knew they were in
trouble now, defying a cop like that, but she also knew the stakes.
 
Once those social workers got their child in
state custody, there would be mountains to climb to get him back.
 
If they ever got him back!
 
Reno was right.
 
They weren’t about to let some misguided
strangers take their son away from them.
 
Not without a fight.

When Reno and Trina barged into the office, Dominic, who had
been sitting in a chair against the wall, being drilled by some female and what
appeared to be a plainclothes detective, ran to his parents as soon as he saw
them.

Principal Ansley rose to his feet in umbrage.
 
“What is the meaning of this, Mr.
Gabrini?
 
We already told your wife we
had to do this outside of your presence!”

“I don’t give a fuck what you told my wife!” Reno
blared.
 
“What right do you have
interviewing my son like this?
 
He’s a
kid!
 
You can’t just take him in some
backroom and question him like he’s some
got
damn
criminal!”

“Actually we can,” said a tall, thin woman with an unusually
long face.
 
She rose to her feet.
 
“I’m Sharon Blum, and this is Sergeant
Crowston.”
 
He rose too.

Reno didn’t care who they were, and wanted to tell them so,
but he knew he had to get his anger back under control. But before he could get
there, the disrespected police officer barged in.
 
“You’re under arrest, Mister,” he said
angrily, his fat face beet red as he grabbed Reno’s hands to cuff them behind
his back.
 
“You are so under arrest!”

But the cop’s superior, Detective Crowston, called him
off.
 
“Just hang on,” he said.

“Hang on?
 
But he
manhandled me, sir,” the officer decried.

“A man with a gun let a man without one manhandle him?” Reno
asked.
 
“I don’t think so.”

“I do,” Crowston, who couldn’t stand those gangster Gabrinis,
replied.
 
“I know my officer is not
lying.”
 
But he also knew, if they were going
to ever get their paws into this wise guy, it wasn’t going to be because he
manhandled some beat cop.
 
“Wait
outside,” he ordered the cop.
 
The cop
looked hard at Reno, seething with anger, but he obeyed orders and left the
office.

“Now will you tell me what this is about?” Reno asked the
long face woman.

“The Abuse Registry received an anonymous report this
morning, sir,” she said, “and we have to investigate the allegations.”

Reno frowned.
 
“What
allegations?”

“Allegations of child endangerment and child neglect,” she
said.

“They asked me questions about what happened at Jimmy and
Val’s when I was driving the getaway car,” Dommi said.

Trina’s eyes stretched and Reno’s heart pounded when Dommi spoke
out loud about a situation that occurred a few months earlier.
 
Reno knew he had to play it off.
 
“What are you talking about, boy?” he asked.

“What are you talking about, child?” Trina asked, playing it
off too.

But Dommi, to their horror, obliged them.
 
“They wanted me to tell them about the time
when I had to get Sophie away from the killers.
 
So I put Sophie in Val’s car and drove it away.
 
But it didn’t do any good.
 
They caught her anyway.
 
And then they kidnapped me too.
 
These people here, including that horse-face
lady, told me they already knew all about it.”

The principal angrily corrected Dommi on using impolite
verbiage to describe the social worker, but Trina looked at Reno.
 
It wasn’t as if Dommi was lying.
 
Not about that woman’s face, but especially
not about what happened that day.
 
Everything he said had, in fact, happened!
 
But they were cooked if these sanctimonious
do-gooders discovered that they were actually on to something.
 

Reno removed his shades.
 
They worked to shield his eyes from the morning sun, but his eyes still
looked bloodshot and drained.
 
“Are you
telling us,” he asked, “that you believe these fairytales?”

Good move, Trina thought, and nodded her head.
 
“And that’s all they are,” she said.
“Fairytales.”

“Monumental fairytales,” Reno echoed.
 
“And you’re standing here telling us that you
believe this nonsense?
 
Getaway cars and
killers?
 
Kidnappings?
 
Our ten-year-old innocent little child
driving a car?
 
Are you serious?
 
You made me leave my busy office to come down
here for this bullshit?”

“Watch your language, sir,” the principal insisted.

“I’ll watch my language when you watch your step,” Reno fired
back.
 
“This shit ain’t funny.
 
How would you feel if I accused your kid of
this kind of foolishness?”