Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) (21 page)

“That’s
Lefty.”

“How
did you know what car he drove?”

“You
pick out the nicest car in the parking lot and you’ve got Lefty’s car.
 
He’s that kind of guy.”

“You
think he’s going to meet up with the woman that paid him?”

“I
know he is.”

“But why
would he go now if she’s supposed to meet him tomorrow night?”

“If
his story is true, then maybe he wants the rest now so he can get lost for a
few days until he thinks the heat is off.
 
I’m the heat,” Reno added as he glanced at his son.

“And
if his story’s not true?”

“He’s
going to warn her.”

“If
it is a her,” Jimmy added.

Reno
liked that addition.
 
“Right,” he said.

As
they drove across Vegas, careful to keep a distance from Lefty, Reno had a
depressing feeling that he already knew where this was heading.
 
And sure enough, when Lefty’s Corvette drove
up to the gate outside of the mayor’s home, Reno’s heart tightened.
 
It was Belle.
 
The woman Lefty was going to meet was Belle Patrone, his old friend.

He
continued to drive away slowly when Lefty turned into the driveway and headed
for the electronic gate, but he couldn’t escape the sad truth.
 

Jimmy
looked at his father, confused that he didn’t stick around to confront this
woman, if indeed she resided at that residence.

“You
know who lives there?” he asked his father as he was driving away.

“Yup.”

“Somebody
important?”

“If
the mayor is important, then I’d say so, yeah.”

Jimmy
stared at his father.
 
“The mayor?” he
asked, astounded.
 
“You think the mayor
paid Lefty to ram your car?”

But
Reno wasn’t answering questions.
 
He had
too many of his own.
 
With the most
urgent involving Belle Patrone and what in the world was she up to?

EIGHT

Tommy
sat with his leg crossed and stared at Grace as she discussed business with the
chief financial officer of Trammel, and reviewed a stack of documents.
 
Sal sat beside his brother, staring at her
too.
 
They were twenty-six thousand feet
above the ground, flying to Vegas on Tommy’s private plane, and Grace was
concluding last minute business before she could relax.
 
It had been a week since Cam’s suicide
attempt and all three were glad to be leaving Seattle, at least for a little
while.

Sal
leaned against his older brother.
 
Both
were in shirtsleeves and ties, although Dapper Tom, as he was also known, wore
matching suspenders.
 

“How’s
she holding up?” Sal asked in a lowered voice.

Tommy
also leaned against Sal.
 
The two men
were now shoulder to shoulder.
 
“Better,
I think, now that she’s leaving.”

“And
that fucker who ruined her day is still hanging on.”

Tommy
nodded.
 
“That’s the last word I heard on
his condition.
 
The doctors seem to think
he’ll pull through.”

“There
are ways he can get pulled back in,” Sal said.

Tommy
looked at his younger brother.
 
They used
to be cops together, officers of the law, and were now legitimate
businessmen.
 
Whereas their cousin Reno’s
father chose to walk the Mafia plank, they were the Gabrinis whose father chose
law and order, and his two sons followed in his footsteps.
 
But lately Tommy had been wondering about Sal
and if he had crossed over to the mob side.
 
Tommy knew his brother better than any other human being alive.
 
He knew he’d never work for any mobster.
 
But he was beginning to wonder if he had
become one himself, and had others working for him.
 
It concerned Tommy to such a degree that a
few months back he had some of his security people check it out.
 
But they turned up blanks.

“I
don’t want him pulled back in,” Tommy said.
 
“It’ll be better for Grace if he pulled through.”

Sal
hadn’t thought about that.
 
If Cameron Birch
died it could mess with Grace’s mind for years to come.
 
“I guess you’re right,” he said, “given who
Grace is.
 
I mean she’s nice and all
that, but she’s no Trina, that’s for sure.”

Tommy
wanted to give his brother a glaring look, but he didn’t bother.
 
He continued to stare at Grace.
 
He’d heard criticism from all corners about
his relationship with Grace McKenzie and how she wasn’t good enough for him, or
how she wasn’t sophisticated enough, or how she wasn’t well established in her
own right to claim a prize like Tommy.
 
She was CEO and majority shareholder of Trammel now, and by all accounts
was a very good manager, but as far as the critics were concerned she didn’t
build that either.
 
That was all Tommy’s
doing too. But since most of those critics were various ex-girlfriends he had
dumped in favor of Grace, he dismissed their complaints out of hand.
 
But Sal was another story.
 
Sal was known as Tommy’s shadow.
 
They were closer than brothers.

“What
exactly is that supposed to mean?” he asked his brother.

“It
means what it means,” Sal said in usual Sal fashion.
 
“She’s whatta you call fragile.
 
She hasn’t hardened yet.
 
She will, after she marries you and becomes a
Gabrini she’d better, but she ain’t there yet.”

Tommy
continued to look at Grace.
 
She wore
reading glasses and was now off of the phone and paying full attention to the
documents before her.
 
He didn’t want her
to become hardened.
 
He didn’t want her
to become jaded and accustomed to violence and upheaval the way Reno, mostly
through no fault of his own, forced Trina to become.
 
He hated that Grace had to witness that scene
with ShoShawna Shanks, his now deceased ex-girlfriend.
 
He hated what that sick-ass Cam forced her to
go through.
 
He wanted her to remain who
she was: kind, strong in her own way, loving and sweet.
 
He didn’t ask some sophisticated she-woman to
be his wife because that wasn’t who he wanted to bear his name.
 
He wanted Grace.
 
He knew her first order of business would be
to have his babies and be a good and loving wife to him.
 
She’d have her career too, and he wanted that
for her, but her family would always come first.
 

After
more than a few moments of Tommy and Sal both sitting across from her staring
at her, Grace finally felt their stares and looked up over the top tip of her
reading glasses.
 
When she looked up, and
those big brown African eyes of hers stared back at Tommy, his heart squeezed
with love.
 
No, she wasn’t a hardened,
sophisticated lady of the world, but she was everything he wanted in his lady,
in his wife.

“What’s
wrong?” she asked him.

He
smiled that smile that always brightened up a room.
 
And always forced Grace to smile too.

“Nothing
at all,” he said.
 
“Just enjoying the
view.”

“Here,
here,” Sal agreed.

Grace
loved those two guys.
 
Sal was turning into
one of her closest allies, a person she could actually confide in when Tommy
was out of town and she needed somebody to talk to.
 
And Tommy had been great.
 
Ever since that horrible episode with Cam,
he’d remained in town and had her in his arms every single night.
 
Mostly they slept at his house, but
occasionally they slept at hers.
 
In
their entire courtship, Tommy was often out of town as much as he was in town.
 
But they’d never spent as much time together
as they were spending now.
 
Grace found
that she liked it better this way.

“So
tell me, Grace,” Sal said, “how’s being boss been treating you?
 
Me and Tommy both have been bosses for years
and it’s always a motherfuck.
 
But what
has it been like for you?”

Grace
inwardly chuckled at Sal’s unbridled tongue.
 
“It’s been good. . . and challenging.
 
People who knew me back when I was Jillian’s assistant now seem to feel
entitled to all kinds of promotions and perks and special recognition from me.”

“Like
Nayla,” Tommy said.

“Right,”
Grace agreed.

“I
don’t like that girl,” Sal said.
 
“Something about her I don’t like.”

“The
feeling is mutual I assure you.
 
She
calls you a little racist.”

Tommy
laughed grandly, causing Grace to laugh too.
 
Sal, however, was offended.
 
“Yeah, I got a few names I could call her ass too, and they won’t be
nice I can tell you that.”
   

“But
seriously, Nay’s okay,” Grace said.
 
“We’ve been friends since forever.
 
But I know what I’m getting with her.”

After
a few more minutes of small talk, the conversation stalled.
 
Tommy was staring in a different way at
Grace, and Grace was staring at Tommy.
 
And then Tommy folded his arms and positioned his crossed leg higher on
his lap, as if to conceal what was becoming an expanding erection.
 

But
he wasn’t concealing a thing from Sal.
 
Because
Sal knew his brother.
 
He knew when Tommy
wanted to fuck.
 
He therefore excused
himself to the back cabin of the private plane, and closed the door.

Tommy,
grateful to his younger brother, uncrossed his legs, and told Grace to come to
him.

Grace
gladly sat her papers aside, removed her glasses, and went to be with
Tommy.
 
They’d had sex in many places,
including limousines and even in his own restaurant, but they’d never had it
thousands of feet above ground.
 
Somehow
she suspected that that was about to change.

And
she was right.
 
Tommy wanted her.
 
He opened his legs, lifted her on his lap
with her back to him, and completely removed her panties, placing them in his
pants pocket.
 
Then he placed his fingers
in her cunt and began to slowly, delicately get her ready.

He
closed his eyes as the feel of her caused him to continue his expansion, an
expansion that had the zipper of his pants already strained.
 
She groaned as he opened her legs wider and
massaged her pussy deeper with his expert fingers.
 
He wanted to lick her, but decided to let that
wait for later.
 
In a more private
place.
 
Grace could never control her
screams whenever he licked her.
 

Grace
was completely contented just the way he was doing her now.
 
His experience with the ladies was expansive,
and it showed every time he did her.
 
And
he did her often.
 
So often that
sometimes she would be sore for days on end.
 
Especially on those nights before he left town on business, and couldn’t
seem to get enough.

When
Tommy felt she was finally ready and able to bear him, he positioned her just
right and slid his completely aroused dick deep into her vagina.
 
She let out a repressed moan when she felt
the fullness of him, and continued to sigh and moan as he pulled her body
toward him and away, toward him and away, as she rode his dick.
 
Tommy had his mouth kissing her neck as she
rode him hard.
 
Until even he, the
ultimately experienced Tommy, couldn’t suppress the feeling any longer and let
out his own guttural groan.

“Tommy,”
Grace admonished as she rode.
  
“Sal will
hear us.”

“Let
him hear,” Tommy said.
 
“Right now, my
sweet baby, I don’t give a fuck.”

Grace
smiled as she leaned back against Tommy.
 
“But he’ll know what we’re doing.
 
Sal will know.”

“Not
unless you tell him.
 
And you aren’t telling
him,” Tommy said in that sensual voice Grace loved.
 
“Are you, Grace?”