Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) (12 page)

Jimmy
gave a snort that was laced with bitterness.
 
“No thanks,” he said.
 
“I’ll never
fall in love again.”

“Oh,
Jimmy,” Trina said regrettably as she stared at her handsome stepson.
 
Four months ago he was severely wounded by
one of his father’s enemies.
 
Except for
the occasional migraines that he would have to endure for the rest of his life,
he was physically fine again.
 
His
recovery, by all accounts, had gone remarkably well.
 
He believed he was completely back to normal,
and Trina agreed that he was physically back.
 
But not emotionally.
 
That ordeal
had taken quite an emotional toll on Jimmy.
 
He was still the same kind, funny, considerate Jimmy, but that trusting
spirit she used to love about him was gone.
 
Completely.
 
She wanted him to
know, however, that it didn’t have to stay away.
 

“Don’t
say that,” she said to him.
 
“You’re much
too young to be thinking like that.”

“But I
couldn’t take another heartbreak, Ma,” Jimmy said honestly.
 
Trina was the person he often confided
in.
 
“I can’t trust people like that
anymore.
 
I mean look at you.
 
You and Dad have a wonderful relationship but
even you don’t know what he’s up to all day.
 
He could have another family somewhere for all you know.”

“Oh,
Jimmy!” Trina said with a smile.
 
He was
her stepson, a young man Reno fathered years before she ever met him.
 
But because his now-deceased mother was also
African-American, which made him a biracial young man, he was always mistook as
Trina’s biological child.
 
She nor Jimmy,
and especially not Reno, ever bothered to correct that assumption.
 
“My husband does not have another family
somewhere, okay?” she said to him.

“But
you can’t be certain, Ma.”

“Oh
yes I can,” Trina replied firmly, although she was unable to suppress a
smile.
 
She found Jimmy’s concerns more
humorous than bothersome.
 
“I am
absolutely certain that my husband doesn’t have another family, another wife
and child, tucked away somewhere.
 
Not
Reno.”

“Okay,
okay, I agree with you,” Jimmy said with a smile of his own.
 
“Maybe that’s taking it too far.”

“You
think?”

“Not
another family,” Jimmy conceded.
 
“He
doesn’t have another family.
 
But he can
have another woman somewhere that takes up a lot of his time.
 
That’s possible.
 
Especially if you listen to what they keep
saying all the time.”

Trina
frowned.
 
“What who keeps saying all the
time?”

“People
around town.
 
Everywhere I go I hear
it.
 
They claim Pops be fooling with this
woman over here or that woman over there and I just stopped listening to
it.”
 
Then he glared at his stepmother
with concern in his eyes.
 
“I know you
have to hear it too.”
 

Trina
stopped flipping through the catalogue and paused.
 
Then she nodded her head.
 
“Yeah, I hear that nonsense, Jimmy, I’ll
admit that.
 
From the day I decided to
hitch my wagon to Reno’s train I’ve been hearing it.
 
It used to bother me, oh, how it used to
bother me, I’m not gonna even front.
 
I
used to go to Reno with that nonsense and I could just see the disappointment
in his eyes.
 
He thought I knew better
than that.
 
At first I didn’t.
 
In fact, it was more likely than not in my
book that Reno was cheating on me.
 
At
first.”

“But
now you’re certain he’s not cheating?”

“No,
I can’t say I’m certain about that.
 
But
since I’ve gotten to know the heart of Reno Gabrini, the odds have
improved.
 
Tremendously.”

“So
it’s no longer more likely than not?”

“It’s
still more likely than not, but in Reno’s favor.”

“It’s
more likely than not that he hasn’t cheated on you, than he has.”

“Right.”

Jimmy
loved Trina’s trust in his father.
 
He
absolutely admired it.
 
He nodded.
 
“Maybe one day I’ll get there too.
 
Maybe one day I’ll meet the right girl that I
can marry and settle down with.
 
But that
day seems like a lifetime away, Ma.
 
Because even with what you’re saying about Dad, I still can’t see
it.
 
I mean, these women out here love
rich, powerful men.
 
And even I can see
how these women are easily attracted to Dad.
 
Girls my age are always trying to get me to give him their numbers, like
I’m that stupid.
 
Like I’m gonna give my
dad their number so he can cheat on my mother.”
 
Jimmy shook his head.
 
“Like get
real.”

Trina
laughed.
 
Jimmy was her ally and always
would be.
 
She knew it like she knew her
own name.
 

“What
about you, Jim?” she asked him.
 
“I know
Reno wants you to start taking college courses at UNLV and soon he expects you
to be ready to handle a management job at the PaLargio.
 
But what do you want to do?”

Jimmy
thought about it, as he had been thinking about his future a lot lately.
 
“I know Dad gave me an apartment at the
PaLargio, but I want to get my own place, away from the PaLargio.
 
Ever since that shooting, he treats me like
I’m some little kid.
 
A couple of my
friends came over to see how I was doing the other day, and Dad had the nerve
to walk up and ask them all kinds of questions about who their parents were and
where did they live and it was so embarrassing.
 
He can be so. . .”

“Concerned?”
Trina asked.

“Yeah,”
Jimmy replied.

“And
kind.
 
And loving.
 
And caring.
 
And considerate.”

Jimmy
smiled.
 
“Okay, I get your point.
 
But still, Ma.
 
I’m a grown-ass man now.”
 
Trina laughed.
 
“Not some kid.
 
He wouldn’t have allowed his old man to treat
him the way he treats me.”

“If
that’s the case then maybe you need to stop allowing him,” Trina
suggested.
 
“But I personally don’t think
that’s the case.
 
Reno doesn’t like weak
men, so the fact that he wants to keep tabs on you doesn’t mean he thinks
you’re weak, Jimmy.
 
In fact, he knows
you aren’t.
 
He told me so himself.
 
The fact that he has to know where I am all
the time doesn’t make me weak either.
 
Because it’s not about who we are that makes him keep tabs on us,
Jimmy.
 
It’s about who he is.
 
I’m the wife and you’re the son of Reno
Gabrini.
  
He’s no mob boss, you and I
both know he’s not, but he has enemies in the mob.
 
Many enemies.”

“For
real though,” Jimmy said with a laugh.
 
Trina looked at him.
 
It always
concerned Reno that Jimmy found his connections to the mob as the best thing
about him.
 
“Some of my friends think
he’s the biggest Mafia guy in America,” Jimmy continued.
 
“I keep telling them he’s not, but they don’t
believe me.”

Then
Jimmy heard a car door slam.
 
“He must
have finally finished his phone call,” he said as he stood up and walked over
to the window.
 
“Yep,” he said.
 
“He’s coming.
 
Looking all serious, like he’s still upset about whatever he was talking
about on the phone.”

“Great,”
Trina thought.
 
           
Reno could be a handful when he was in a bad mood.
 
And then she smiled.
 
“Jimmy,” she said and he turned to her.
 
“Remember that routine we talked about?
 
Let’s put a smile on his face for a change.
 
He’s serious all the time.
 
If we make coming home such a joy to him,
who
 
knows?
 
Maybe he’ll work harder to be home more.”

Jimmy
laughed.
 
He knew exactly what she was
talking about.
 
“This is insane,” he said
happily as he made his way into the hall. “I love it!”

It
would be another couple seconds and then Reno was unlocking the door and
entering the home.
 
As soon as he did, it
was Dominic, rather than Trina, that greeted him grandly.

“Daddy!”
he yelled, jumped down from the sofa by turning backwards and then sliding
down, and ran to his father.

“There’s
my boy!” Reno said with his own grand smile as he bent down with his arms wide
open and then hoisted his son into the air when he ran up to him.
 
“How have you been, little fellar?”

Reno
kissed him and held him tightly against his body.
 
Then he walked toward the chair flanking the
sofa, looking at Trina, whom he also wanted to hold in his arms, as he walked.

“Don’t
you find it strange, Daddy?” his son asked him.

Reno
looked at him.
 
“Don’t I find what
strange?”

“I
don’t know,” Dominic said, hunching his tiny shoulders. “Ask Jimmy!”

Reno,
now standing beside the chair, looked at Trina for clarity.
 
Trina was suppressing a laugh.
 
She was amazed that their little boy gave her
just the opening she needed.
 
“Oh, Reno,
you won’t believe the news!”

“What
news?”

“You
won’t believe what happened!”

Reno
was now concerned.
 
“What is it?”

“Dr.
Marshall gave Jimmy this experimental treatment that has changed his life!”

Reno
frowned.
 
“An experimental treatment?” he
asked.
 
“Where does he get off giving my
son some experimental treatment?”

“But
it’s revolutionary, Reno.
 
It was
supposed to cure his migraines, but it did so much more.”
 
Then she yelled toward the hall.
 
The puzzled look on Reno’s face was priceless
to her.
 
“Jimmy, come and show your
father the good work Dr. Marshall has done!”

Jimmy
came out of the hallway walking as if he had some serious issues.
 
He had one feet turned sideways and was
dragging it, while his arms swung loosely and wildly away from his body as if
he was disjointed.

“See,
Reno,” Trina said cheerfully.
 
“See!”

Reno,
however, was alarmed.
  
He sat the baby
in the chair, but his eyes never left his approaching son.
 
“What’s wrong with him?” he asked.

“It’s
the treatment, Pop,” Jimmy said, trying with all he had to suppress his own
laughter.

“Isn’t
it great?” Trina added.

“Great?”
Reno asked, staring at his son.
 
“What’s
great about it?”

“It’s
the great treatment he gave him!”

“But
what’s wrong with him?” Reno asked again.
 
“He looks like a fool!”

“A
fool?” Trina asked as if she were stunned.
 
“What are you talking about?”

“Why
is he walking like that?”

“Like
what?” Jimmy asked as he continued to drag his feet and sling his arm around
the living room.
 
He wanted to laugh so
bad he was about to pee in his pants.

“And
his arms,” Reno said, still alarmed.
 
“What’s wrong with you, boy?
 
What
did that joker do to you?
 
Where the fuck
is that doctor, anyway?
 
What has he done
to my child?
 
I’m gonna kick his boney
ass!”

Jimmy
fell in the chair next to Dommi and was rolling with laughter.
 
He couldn’t hold back any longer.

Reno
was confused.
 
“You think this is
funny?
 
You look like a
got
damn Cyclop and you think it’s
funny?”