Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) (29 page)

“Of
course not.
 
But Belle tried it
anyway.
 
So we paid her a visit.”

Tommy
frowned.
 
“We?” he asked, glancing at
Grace. “What do you mean
we
? Are you
telling me, are you saying that you took Grace with you on a
mission
?
 
Are you out of your fucking mind, Reno?”

“Keep
your shirt on, Tommy.
 
I had it under
control.”

“You
bastard!” Tommy yelled and then swung hard at Reno.
 

Reno,
however, managed to duck and then body slam Tommy against the brick wall.
 
The two men were tussling for a fight, but
Sal and Jimmy moved quickly to break it up.
 
Grace was screaming for Tommy and Reno to stop it.

“All
right that’s enough!” Sal said after they managed to pull the two men apart.

“What
the fuck is wrong with you?” Reno asked Tommy.

“What
the fuck is wrong with you?” Tommy asked Reno.
 
“How dare you put my woman in harm’s way like that!
 
You had no right taking Grace on any
got
damn mission!”

But
Jimmy jumped in, defending his father.
 
“He wasn’t going to let anything happen to her,” he said.
 
He, too, was stunned by the scene. In all of
his time knowing Tommy and Reno, he’d never known them to so much as raise a
voice at each other.

Sal,
however, took a different view.
 
He
defended his brother.
 
“You were wrong
for that, Reno,” he said.
 
“You would
kill me and Tommy both if we put Trina in any kind of harm’s way.
 
And you know it!”

“I
wasn’t in harm’s way,” Grace finally was able to say.
 
“Stop talking about me as if I’m not
here!”
 
Then she looked at Tommy, his
hair remarkably, given how sweltering
 
hot it was, perfectly groomed.
 
“Do you want me safe and clueless, or do you want me to be able to
defend myself?”

“You
don’t understand, Grace,” he started, but she would have none of it.

“I do
understand!
 
I’m going to be a Gabrini,
Tommy.
 
Reno’s teaching me what I know
you won’t!
 
Trina didn’t start out tough
like she is now.
 
Reno taught her how to
be tough.
 
He taught her how to look out
for herself.
 
If I’m going to make it in
this family, I need to learn!”

Tommy
knew it was true, but he hated that it was true.
 
He didn’t want her to be tough.
 
Shanks was tough.
 
He’d had enough of tough in his life.
 
He wanted her to be Grace, that same girl he
first met who didn’t believe in open relationships and went to church every
Sunday.
 

But
he understood exactly what she meant.
 
He
understood it completely.

He
looked at Reno.
 
“So what’s the next
move?” he asked.

Reno
hesitated, still huffing and puffing himself.
 
Then he let out a harsh exhale.
 
“We go see Lefty,” he said.
 
“And
that’s only if he’s still in town.”

Tommy
looked at Jimmy.
 
“Take Grace to
Trina’s.”

“But
why, Tommy?” Grace asked.
 
“I thought you
were going to let me learn?”

“You
are learning,” Tommy said.
 
“You’re
learning to do what I tell you to do.”
 
He looked at Jimmy again.
 
“Take
her to Tree.”

Jimmy
nodded.
 
“Come on, Grace,” he said.
 

Grace,
at first, was hesitant.
 
But Jimmy
smiled.
 
“No need to complain,” he
said.
 
“They do me the same way.
 
We’re Adam of the Cartwright family.
 
From Bonanza, remember?
 
Everybody got to go with the posse, but Adam
always had to stay at the Ponderosa.”

Grace
didn’t quite know what he was talking about, but Trina once told her best.
 
Tommy, and Tommy alone, had to wear the pants
in their household or it would be a household he wouldn’t be in for long.
 

She
went with Jimmy.

Reno,
Sal, and Tommy, however, got in Reno’s Bentley and drove to the Smoke-N-Gun
tavern.
 
As soon as they drove up, and
all three stepped out, they stood out like a sore thumb.
 
But Reno didn’t care.
 
He and Tommy headed for the entrance, while
Sal headed around back.
 
The same yellow
Corvette that Reno had followed previously was in the parking lot now.
 
Even money would say Lefty was therefore
onsite.
 

And
he was.
 
He was in the back of the
tavern, in the pool hall, shooting a round with a customer.
 
As soon as he looked up and saw Reno
approaching, he thought about it and then made a decision to flee.

He
tossed the pool stick at Reno, causing Reno to knock it aside with his arm, and
then Lefty was gone.
 

Down
the narrow back hall, through the narrow galley-style kitchen, and out of the
backdoor.
 
He was big, but he was
fast.
 
He jumped from the porch, ready to
run around front and jump into his Corvette.
 
But Sal, who was seated on the porch, jumped down too, grabbed him from
behind in a chokehold, and held him there until Reno and Tommy walked calmly
out of the back door, and up to their target.

“You
can either walk with us calmly,” Reno said to Lefty, “or we can beat the crap
out of you and put you in the trunk.
 
But
either way, you’re coming with us.”

Lefty,
who was breathing harder than a marathon runner, knew when the gig was up.
 
He calmed down, and followed them.

“I’m
telling you the truth!” Lefty screamed, the blood trickling down his nose and
mouth.

“No,
you’re not, Lefty!” Reno screamed back.
 
“Now quit fucking with us!
 
Why
did you keep going?”

“I
didn’t!”

“I
saw it on videotape you idiot!
 
Now tell
me the truth!”

They
were in one of Reno’s safe houses.
 
It
was small and generic, not unlike the one Belle had been staying in, but only
it was purposely hot and muggy, with no air conditioning, no creature comforts.
 
Reno was handling the interrogation.
 
Tommy was against the side wall, and Sal was
behind Lefty, in case he tried something crazy.

Reno
grabbed Lefty by his blood-stained collar and sat him upright in the
chair.
 
“I’m going to ask you one more
time,” Reno said.
 
“Why did you go to the
mayor’s house?
 
Why?
 
You knew I was following you, didn’t
you?”
 

“No!
 
I didn’t know anything!”

Reno
kneed him in the groin, causing Lefty to grab his penis with both hands and
bend over.
 
“Stop lying to me,
Lefty!”
 
Reno sat him back upright.
 
“I’ll kill your ass if you keep lying to
me!
 
Now why did you pretend to go to the
mayor’s house, and as soon as I drove off, why did you drive off too?
 
Why?”
 

When
he didn’t immediately respond, Reno kneed him again.

Lefty
let out another howl of pain, bent over again, and then decided he had no
choice but to surrender.
 
He’d always
heard that Reno Gabrini was a sadistic bastard if you crossed him.
 
He wouldn’t let up until he got every ounce
of blood out of you.
   

“She
told me,” Lefty said, and Tommy and Sal also looked at him, “that you would
probably find out that I paid Ollie to ram your car, and that you’d in all
likelihood come to the Smoke-N-Gun and confront me about it.
 
She said if you did, that I was to tell you
that I don’t know the name of the person who paid me, and that I was to meet
her that next night.
 
Which is what I
told you,” he added, wiping more blood from his nose.

“But
if you acted like you believed me, and claimed that you’d be back tomorrow
night then, I was to immediately get in my car and drive to that address. I
didn’t know the mayor lived there, I declare I didn’t!”
 
Then he calmed back down.
 
“She said you would more than likely be
following me, so I was to wait at the gate until you drove off.
 
Then I was to drive off.”

“Why?”
Reno asked, completely confused.
 
“Why
would she tell you to do something that lame?”

“I
don’t know why!
 
How should I know
why?
 
She’s your damn sister, not mine!”

Reno,
Tommy, and Sal all looked at Lefty with shock on their faces.
 
What did he just say?

“What?”
Reno asked.
 
“Belle Patrone told you she
was my sister?”

Lefty
looked at Reno.
 
“Who the fuck is Belle
Patrone?”

Reno
glanced at Tommy and Sal.
 
Tommy began
walking toward him.
 
“Who told you to
drive to that house?” Tommy asked as he headed their way.

Lefty
realized a shift in the room.
 
The
seriousness was now elevated and they were now surrounding him.
 
“You didn’t know?” he asked Reno.

“Know
what?” Reno asked him, his face a mask of confusion.

“That
your sister paid me to ram your car,” Lefty said.
 
“Your sister Fran was behind the whole
thing.”
 
He laughed.
 
“You didn’t know?” he asked again.

But
Reno’s head was filled with possibilities.
 
Fran?
 
That couldn’t be!
 
He looked at Tommy and Sal.
 
Their minds were racing too.
 
And then all three of them, as if by kinesis,
reached the same conclusion at the same time.
 
Fran was babysitting Dominic.
 
Fran had the baby.

Reno
took off out of that house like a bat out of hell.
 
Tommy took off right behind him.
 
“Don’t worry,” Sal yelled as they ran.
 
“I’ll take care of this fucker here!”
 

Then
he looked at Lefty.
 
“How much did she
pay you?” he asked him.

Lefty
was still in severe pain.
 
“Couple
thousand,” he replied.

“Tut,
tut, tut,” Sal said, shaking his head.
 
“That’s going to be the toughest two grand you ever made in your life.”

“Where
are you, Jimmy?” Reno yelled into his phone as Tommy drove his Bentley as fast
as he could along the winding Vegas roads.
 

“I
just dropped Grace off at Champagne’s.
 
I
was heading back home.”

“Get
to Fran’s house as fast as you can get there!
 
Get Dommi from her!”

“What’s
wrong, Pop?”

“Just
do it, Jimmy!” Reno yelled.
 
“Just
fucking do it!”

But
Tommy was driving so fast, they made it to Fran’s house first.
 
Reno jumped from the car while it was still
running and ran inside so fast that he had to hold onto the doorknob to keep
from slinging himself to the floor.
 
Tommy ran in, just as fast, after him.
 

But
it was all too late.
 

There
was no sign, no sign at all, of Dominic nor Fran.

Trina,
Gemma, and Grace were opening up the just arrived boxes of new summer
sportswear when Reno and Tommy walked into the boutique.
 
Trina, especially, knew something was
wrong.
 
One look at Reno’s sunken face
told her that something was very wrong.

She
walked toward him with a slow, almost prodding walk.
 
She only had eyes for him.
 
“What happened?” she asked him.

As
Grace went to Tommy, and Tommy pulled her into his arms, Reno placed his hand
on either side of Trina’s small arms.
 
Her big hazel eyes glistened with fear.
 
He would have preferred an assassin’s bullet than to tell Trina anything
like what he was about to tell her.