Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) (32 page)

Then the door to the
house could be heard opening from the back.
 
Tommy pulled his weapon and headed in that direction.
 
But it was only Jimmy.
 
With a still badly beaten Lefty Gromes.

Jimmy, with a gun to
Lefty’s back, pushed him into the living room.
 
Although Jimmy knew his father would be staring at him, Jimmy was too
busy staring at Belle.
 
And just as he
expected, her facial expression changed as soon as Lefty entered the room.

“I thought Reno told you
to stay with the ladies,” Sal said in an accusatory tone.

“Trina can handle the
ladies,” Jimmy said.
 
“I had business to
take care of.”
 
Then Jimmy looked at
Lefty.
 
“Is that her?” he asked him.

Lefty was already nodding
his head.
  
“That’s her,” he said.
 
“That’s Fran Marcasi.”

Reno, Tommy, and Sal were
stunned.
 
But none more so than
Reno.
 
He stared at Lefty as if there had
to be some mistake, and then he turned a hard stare Belle’s way.
 
And that confidence, that pride, that
arrogance, was gone.

“I don’t know what he’s
talking about,” she said, her voice now deflated.

“She’s the one who paid
me half of the money upfront,” Lefty said.
 
“She’s the one who told me to go to the gate of that mansion and then
keep driving after Reno drove by.
 
She’s
the one.
 
She told me her name was Fran
Marcasi.
 
She told me she would pay me
the rest of my money if I did everything she told me to do.”

“What made you think
there was some mix up?” Tommy asked Jimmy.
 
Reno, still stunned, looked at his son.

“It had to be,” Jimmy
said.
 
“I knew Aunt Fran wouldn’t kidnap
Dommi.
 
I knew she wouldn’t.
 
Something wasn’t right.
 
So I asked Ma for a picture of Aunt
Fran.
 
She gave me one.
 
And I paid a visit to Lefty.
 
Showed him the picture.
 
He claimed he never saw her before.
 
So I asked him to describe this Fran
Marcasi.
 
He described a woman all right,
but it wasn’t Aunt Fran.
  
With a little
persuasion,” Jimmy said, highlighting the fact that he held a gun, “he agreed
to take a ride with me.”

Reno was alarmed by his
son’s actions, and damned proud of him.
 
But he wasn’t distracted by it.
 
He, in fact, pulled his gun from his side holster and was now staring at
Belle.

“You kidnapped my son
and
my sister?” he asked her.
 
His face was filled with rage, anguish, and
confusion.
 

But Belle was still in
denial.
 
She was still shaking her
head.
 
“No, I didn’t,” she insisted as if
her life depended on it.
 
“I told
you----”

“Don’t you lie to me!”
Reno roared so loudly that it nearly broke Jimmy’s eardrum.
 
Reno then took his gun and slammed it into
Belle’s face.
  
She howled in pain.

“Reno, you have to
believe me!” she cried.

“Where are they,
Belle?
 
If you don’t tell me where they
are in two seconds I’ll blow your fucking brains out!”

“I told you I don’t---”

Reno pistol-slapped her
hard again.
 
“Where are they, Belle?
 
I don’t want you to tell me any
got
damn thing but where I can find my
family!
 
Where are they?”
 
He pistol whipped her, slapping her again and
again.
 
But she still refused to admit
anything.

Then blood started
streaming from her mouth.
 
And it seemed
to change her again.
 
She smiled.
 
To everybody’s shock, she actually
smiled.
 
She knew it was over for
her.
 
She knew it.
 
And she wasn’t going out like a chump.

“Big Reno Gabrini,” she
said through her smile, the blood on her teeth.
 
“The big man Reno Gabrini himself.
 
Devastate lives all up and down the east coast and think nothing of
it.
 
Forget the people who used to care
about you.
 
Forget all about us.
 
But you’re all Mister Big Shot now.
 
Marry you some nigger bitch and have yourself
some nigger children and you’re the cat’s meow now.
 
And you expect me,
me
, to care about
your
family? You expect me to care what happens to your sister and your nigger
child?
 
Are you fucking kidding
me???”
 

She spit the blood from
her mouth.
 
“Fuck that bastard!” she
screamed.
 
“Fuck your whole family!
 
Just like you fucked mine.
 
What about mine, Reno?
 
You didn’t give a shit about mine, but you
expect me to care about yours?
 
Fuck you,
Reno!
 
I’ll die before I tell you
anything!
 
I’ll be buried in my grave
laughing while you cry!
 
And you’re gonna
cry, Reno.
 
You’re gonna cry this day.”

Reno stared at Belle with
a kind of hatred that alarmed even Tommy.
 
“Everybody out,” he said without looking away from her.

“Out?” Jimmy asked.
 
“Why do we have to leave?”

“Don’t you know
 
nothing” Sal asked him as he began shoving
him and Lefty out.
 
“Plausible
deniability,” he said.

“But--,” Jimmy started,
upset.
 
But Sal would have none of
it.
 
He grabbed Jimmy and Lefty, and
forced them out of the backdoor.

“You too, Tommy,” Reno
said, still staring at Belle.

Tommy stared at his
cousin and best friend.
 
He knew what
Reno was doing.
 
Reno never wanted blood
on Tommy’s hands.
 
Reno always ended up bearing
these burdens alone.

“Sure?” he asked him.

“Positive,” replied Reno.

Tommy didn’t like it, but
he honored his cousin’s wishes.
 
And
left.

Reno, however, was still
staring at Belle.

“So what, you gonna shoot
me now?” she asked him.
 
“You think I
care about you shooting me?
 
And you’re
so protective.
 
You didn’t want your
black boy of a son to see you shoot me, did you?
 
Is that it?
 
Because I don’t care, Reno.
 
I
don’t care.
 
You can’t hurt me with your
bullets.
 
I don’t give a fuck!
 
I’m gonna be laughing tonight.
 
You’re gonna be alive and crying.
 
I’m gonna be dead and laughing!”

“You’re going to be dead,
all right,” Reno agreed with her.
 
“But
it’s going to be difficult to be laughing if you have nothing to laugh
with.”
 
He said this and then shot her,
at pointblank range, in the mouth.
 
It
ripped her lips apart and shattered her teeth and tongue.
 

She was still alive as
the blood poured out.
 
She still showed
fading signs of life in her eyes.
 
A life
filled with fear and anguish and pain were still in her eyes.
 
And Reno stood there and watched that flicker
of life as it slowly flicked out.
 
He didn’t
know where his family was.
 
And maybe he
would never know.
 
But at least he knew
no bitch like this would ever laugh at him again.
 
At least he knew that.

But the drive back home
was an unbelievably anguished one for Reno.
 
He was no further ahead of the game than he had been yesterday, when his
son was snatched.
 
And what about
Fran?
 
Was she kidnapped too?
 
Did Belle orchestrate this disaster herself?
Or did she have help?

Jimmy left his car at
Belle’s safe house and rode back in his father’s Bentley.
 
Reno’s cleanup crew arrived before they left
and was tasked with getting rid of Belle, Lefty, and any evidence of any crime
whatsoever.
 
They were also tasked with
tearing that house apart in the off chance that Reno’s family could be hidden
there.

Jimmy sat in the backseat
with his still distraught father, while Sal drove and Tommy sat on the
passenger seat.
 
The conversation was
muted, with most of it centering on Belle’s decision to die rather than tell
what she knew.
 
It confounded them all,
especially Reno.
 

Jimmy looked at
Reno.
 
He looked drained beyond
measure.
 
Jimmy knew how much his father
hated to go there, he hated it with a passion, but he had to.
 
Jimmy didn’t see where he was left with a
choice.

“You did what you had to
do, Pop,” he said to his father.
 

But Reno would not be
comforted.
 
He ignored his son.

“She wouldn’t tell what
she knew, and you couldn’t let her get away with that.
 
I’m proud of you, man.”

Reno looked at his
son.
 
“You’re proud of me?” he
asked.
 
“I don’t know where your baby
brother is, where my baby and my sister are, and I didn’t have what it took to
scare a woman into telling me shit, but you’re proud of me?
 
Don’t you dare set your standards that low,
you hear me, boy?
 
I’m your father, and I
love you, but I didn’t do anything to be proud of.
 
It’s gonna break Trina’s heart when I walk
through that door without her baby.
 
And
you’re proud?”

Sal glanced at Tommy and
then at Jimmy through the rearview.
 
Reno
was in a terrible way, and all of them knew it.
 

And when they drove up to
the house, just as a cab was turning into the driveway, they also knew that
Reno’s mood wasn’t going to lift any higher.
 
Something was up.
 
Maybe whoever
took Fran and Dommi was now elevating the game.

“Who the fuck is that?”
Sal asked as he drove nearer.

“Floor it, Sal,” Reno
ordered as he pulled out his weapon.
 
Tommy and Jimmy did the same.
 
Sal
sped up and hurriedly turned onto the driveway, blocking the cab.
 

“Tommy, you and Jim get
inside and make sure everybody’s safe in there.
 
Sal, you come with me,” Reno ordered and he and Sal jumped from the car
and hurried toward the cab.
 
Tommy and
Jimmy headed for the house.
 

Reno ran up to the cab,
pulled open the door, and Sal grabbed the driver by the catch of his collar and
slung him out of the automobile.

“I no bad!” the driver
started yelling, with his hands in the air.
 
“I no bad!”

“Who are you?” Reno
asked.

The man, a
Korean-American with a thick accent, was shaking his skinny head.
 
“I nobody.
 
I cab driver.
 
They told me come.
 
They pay me come.”

“Who paid you?” Reno
asked.

“Lady.
 
Lady pay me come.”

“What lady?” Sal
asked.
 
“What’s
 
her name?”

“She no tell.
 
She wave down cab at street.
 
On street.
 
Tell me bring him here.
 
She pay
me bring him here.”

“Bring who here?” Sal
asked.

“Him,” the driver said
and pointed toward the backseat.
 
Reno
quickly slung the driver aside and leaned his head inside the car.
 
Seated on the backseat, in a car seat, was
Dommi.
 
Looking fit and happy.
 
He even smiled.
 
Reno nearly died with joy.

“Daddy!” Dommi said,
reaching his little brown hands for his father.

“Oh, my precious baby,”
Reno said, reaching for his son.

“Ree, wait!” Sal
yelled.
 
“Is this bitch rigged?” he asked
the cabbie.