Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) (3 page)

Reno’s
throat constricted when he saw her vagina.
 
It had been sliced open.

“I
had to have eighty stitches,” she said.
  
“Eighty stitches!
 
That doctor
said I’ll never be able to have children when all I’ve ever wanted was to get
married and have children.”
 

She
paused, to collect herself again.
 
“And
while I was bleeding, and in all that pain, he did me again.
 
And again.
 
He said it worked.
 
I was in so
much pain I felt like my stomach was exploding, and he was enjoying
himself!”
 

She
looked at Reno.
 
“He didn’t just rape
me,” she said.
 
“He brutalized me!
 
And you want me to drop the charges?
 
You want me to let him get away with this?”

Reno
leaned against the table and rubbed his forehead.
 
Somehow he knew, because Bruno was involved,
that it was going to be far worse than his old man had suggested.
 
“No,” he said.
 
Then he frowned.
 
“Of course not.”

His
reaction surprised Myra.
 
She expected
him to continue to blame her.
 
She
expected him to still claim she brought this on herself.
 
She stared at him.

“Close
your legs,” he ordered her, and then began walking around the room.
 

She
did as he ordered, but continued to stare at him.
 
Maybe he would help her.
 
Maybe he was as ethical as they claimed and
he was her ticket out of this nightmare.
 
“Can you help me, Mr. Gabrini?” she asked.
 
“I’m so afraid of him.
 
I don’t go anywhere anymore.
 
I have this guy friend who brings me to work
and take me back home.
 
It’s like living
in a cage when I did nothing wrong.”

Reno
continued to pace the room.
 
Myra could
tell he was bothered by what she showed him.
  
She could tell he hadn’t expected anything like that.
 
And she was going to play on that sliver of
humanity she saw in him.
 
“Can you keep
Bruno away from me, Mr. Gabrini?
 
I feel
like he’s watching me.
 
I feel like he’s
waiting for that right moment to harm me again.
 
I know you came here to help him, but I’m the one who need your
help.
 
And I know you don’t know me like
that, and I know you probably don’t think that highly of me, but I need help,
Mr. Gabrini!”

Reno
looked at her with an incredulous look on his face.
 
“I don’t think highly of you?” he asked.
 
“Are you serious?
 
You’re a racist piece of shit to me, that’s
how highly I think of you!
 
If I help,
and that’s a big-ass if, it won’t be because of your stank ass.
 
It’ll be because of other females out there,
who aren’t whores or racists or opportunists like you, but whose only crime was
to fall for scum like Bruno.”
 

Then
he exhaled.
 
“I was asked to offer you
money to skip town.
 
But that won’t solve
the problem.
 
If Bruno went this far with
you and gets away with it, he’ll go even farther with other girls.
 
And unlike you, some of those other girls
might just be worth a damn.”

 
Myra wanted to lash back, but she knew he was
right about Bruno.
 
Bruno had to be taken
off the streets or he not only might brutalize some other girl, but he might
come back to finish what he started with her.
 

But
she knew she was taking a risk.
 
Reno
Gabrini could be playing her too.
 
He
could still be sympathetic to Bruno and playing her for all she was worth.
 
But it seemed unlikely to her.
 
He was a respected businessman who owned the
PaLargio for crying out loud!
 
Why would
a man like him play her?
 
Why would a man
like him be so beholden to Bruno?

She
decided to play her trump card.

“I
recorded it,” she finally said.

Reno
looked at her.
 
“You recorded what Bruno
did to you?”

“You
can’t take it,” she warned.
 
“If anything
happens to me the cops will be notified and the tape will automatically go to
them.”
 
She knew it wasn’t true, but
Gabrini didn’t know that.
 
“I’ve got it
set up like that.
 
Anything happens to me
and the cops get the tape.”

“Just
show me what you’ve got,” Reno said dismissively.
 
The idea of her threatening him was too
insulting to even dignify.

She
hesitated but then pulled her cell phone from her uniform pocket.
 
She pressed numerous buttons until she found
the right recording.
 
Then she pressed
play and handed the phone to Reno.
 

And
there it was.
 
The video began with Myra
working feverishly to put her phone in position.
 
At first the phone’s video camera was facing
her.
 
Then she sat it on the nightstand
and pointed the lens in front of her, at her open legs.
 
She was naked on the bed.

And
then Bruno appeared in the frame, mouthing that he “found something,” as he
positioned himself between her legs.
 
The
camera revealed that he was wielding a small steak knife, even as Myra was
asking what was it that he had found.
 

And
then he was slicing her, and she was screaming.
 
It was a painful video to watch.
 
And just as she said, he then began to fuck her as she bled and
screamed.
 
It angered Reno just watching
it.
 
To Reno, it didn’t get any sicker
than this.

When
the video ended, he looked at her.
 
“Does
the DA have a copy?” he asked.

But
before she could answer, there were knocks on the door and then the door was
opened.
 
It was Trina Hathaway.

“Okay,
Myra, now, you said ten minutes.”

“I’m
coming.”

“It’s
been half an hour already.”

“Ah,
keep your shirt on, lady!” Reno angrily shot back at Trina.
 
“She said she’s coming!”

Trina
looked at him.
 
She looked him up and
down.
 
It was arrogant pricks like him
that made her all the more determined to get far away from Boyzie’s as soon as
any one of her job applications came through.

“You’ve
got five minutes,” she said to Myra.
 
“If
you aren’t working your station in five minutes, then it won’t be worked.”

“Okay.
 
I’ll be there.
 
I promise.”

Trina
knew Myra’s promise wasn’t worth the breath it took to say it, but it didn’t
matter.
 
Trina meant what she said.
 
No Myra in five minutes and her station would
go uncovered.
 
Period.
 
She therefore slammed the door, and left.

Myra
looked at Reno.
 
“I’ve got to get back
before she goes to Boyzie.”

“Answer
my question,” Reno said.
 
“Does the DA
have a copy of this tape?”

Myra
shook her head.
 
“No,” she said.
 
“I haven’t shown it to the prosecution.”

“And
why the hell not?
 
They saw the extent of
your injuries already.
 
Why didn’t you
show them the video to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was Bruno who
caused those injuries?”

“Because
I don’t trust them either!
 
I’m not
mentioning this tape until I get on the witness stand.
 
They won’t be able to lose it or suppress it
or try to silence me then.
 
Bruno’s old
man is Mafia.
 
He probably owns half of
those people in the prosecution’s office as it is.”

“It
ain’t that serious, trust me,” Reno said.
 
“Bruno’s reach, or even his old man’s reach, doesn’t dip nearly that deep.
 
But that recording changes everything.”

“How?”
 

Reno
exhaled.
 
“Well, we have two
choices.
 
You can testify and take your
chances that the Mafia community, of which I am not a part, will let you live
after snitching on one of their people.
 
Or you can take this money Bruno’s family is offering you, and get the
hell out of Dodge.
 
It’s up to you.”

But,
as Reno suspected, it turned out to be an easy choice for Myra.
 
She accepted the money on the spot and didn’t
even wait around for Reno to facilitate her move out of town.
 
She left on her own.
 
She left with fire under her feet.

Reno
handed the tape over to the Dolph the next day.
 
Dolph told him that he would handle it.
 
Although Reno knew his idea of handling it would be far less than how
Reno would handle the beast, out of respect for the Dolph he allowed him to
take care of the problem himself.
 
It was
his son, his problem.
 
And, to Dolph’s
credit, he did work Bruno over bad enough that he required
hospitalization.
 
Although Bruno didn’t
do time for his crime, since the star witness had fled, he didn’t exactly get
away with it, either.

Two
months later and Frank Spillane walked around the massive casino until he
finally saw his boss.
 
He was at one of
the blackjack tables and was schmoozing patrons and joking around and being
regular Reno on a Friday night in Vegas.
 
Frank knew how Reno hated to be bothered when he was with his
customers.
 
They were the heartbeat of
the entire operation, he always said, and nothing else mattered when they had
his attention.
 

But
Frank had a problem.
 
A major
problem.
 
If it could wait, he wouldn’t
hesitate to come back another time.
 
But
it couldn’t wait.
 
He headed in Reno’s
direction.

The
entire table was laughing, and Reno was enjoying the good time.
 
“I’m telling you the truth,” he said as the
laughter began to lessen.
 
“The guy come
at me like I’m some fucking novice and he’s gonna show me how it’s done.”

“He’s
gonna show you?”

“He’s
gonna show me!
 
He’s gonna show me, Reno
Gabrini, how to kiss a woman.”
 
They all
laughed again.
 
“I’m serious here.
 
Y’all laughing, but I’m serious.
 
A guy who spent half his fucking life behind
bars, surrounded by rough-ass men day in and day out, is gonna show me how to
kiss a woman.”

“Hey,
boss,” Frank said as he arrived.

“So
what did you do, Reno?
 
You let him show
you, or did you tell him to kiss your ass?”

“I
let him show me, all right.
 
Then he woke
up and got serious!”

“Boss.”

“What?”
Reno asked irritably as he turned to the sound.
 
“Don’t you see me talking here?”

“We’ve
got trouble.”

“What
kind of trouble?”

“The
real kind.”

“Where?”

“Upstairs.”

“Upstairs
where?”

“Upstairs.
 
In the hotel.”

Reno
knew what that meant.
 
Trouble in one of
the lounges, or even in the casino, wasn’t the same as trouble in a hotel
room.
 
That kind of trouble was usually
so serious that it was criminal.

“Don’t
win too much of my money,” Reno said to the crowd at the blackjack table.
 
“I’ll be back.”

And
Reno and Frank made their way across the massive casino to the private
elevators in the back of the hall.
 
Reno
knew not to ask any questions until they were alone on the elevator, and the
door was shut.

“What
happened?” he asked.

“Three
guys,” Frank said as he pressed the twelfth floor button, “got rough with a
girl.”

“Gang-raped
her?”

“Repeatedly.”