Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12

by Mallory Monroe

  Bam!

  It was so sudden that Trina’s entire body rammed against her steering wheel and the airbag immediately deployed. Trina was wearing a seatbelt, or she would have been thrown through that windshield.

  Another Bam!

  Trina didn’t know what had hit her, it sounded like a car ramming into the back of hers, but that second hit was so decisive that she lost control of the wheel. She felt the car lose traction, become airborne, and fly over the small bridge rail and slam into the river below.

  As soon as the car began to float half up and half already submerged, Trina knew she was in danger. She was pushing down the window and unbuckling her seatbelt, trying with all she had to get out, fighting to get out, as the mighty river waters rushed in.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Reno, in the backseat of his limousine, spent the balance of his ride home reading over a stack of run-of-term contracts. He felt behind and bothered. He looked up from the paperwork at the town around him. He was going home earlier than he usually did, but that was because of Trina. He hated when she was upset, and she was highly pissed with him. He had to make this right. Not that he was backing down from his position regarding Amy Asshole. He wasn’t. She was not going to be hanging around his wife. But he had to make it right with Tree.

  Jimmy’s Camaro was parked in the round of his circular driveway when his limo arrived. Trina’s Benz wasn’t present, but if she was in for the evening she usually garaged it.

  When his Driver opened the back door, Reno shoved the contracts into his briefcase, and got out. He headed up the steps as the door was opened by his Butler, and Reno walked in.

  “Hey, Dad,” Jimmy said as his father entered the huge family room. Val was there also. “You’re home early.”

  “Where’s everybody?”

  “Val is helping Dom and Sophie get changed for dinner. The school called and we picked them up. I thought Mom was with you.”

  “She’s not with me,” Reno said. “Why would she be with me? And what do you mean the school called?”

  “The school called. Mom hadn’t picked up the Dommi yet. So Val and I picked up them both.”

  That didn’t make sense to Reno. He pulled out his cell phone.

  Jimmy watched his father as he stood there in his designer suit looking tattered and worn. His hair was a veritable mess. But, according to every female who worked at the PaLargio, he was still sexy as hell. “I heard you and Mom had a knockdown drag-out,” he said.

  Reno looked at his son as Trina’s phone went to Voice Mail. “Who told you that lie?”

  Jimmy smiled. “So you and Mom didn’t have an argument?”

  “You didn’t say argument.” Then Reno spoke into the phone. “Tree, call me. Where are you?” He ended the call and looked at Jimmy. “You said a knockdown, drag-out. That’s not an argument, that’s a fight.”

  “Whatever, Pop. You know what I meant.”

  “Where did Mom say she was going?” Reno asked him.

  “What?”

  “When you called her about the kids. Did she say where she was going?”

  Jimmy frowned. “Dad, were you listening? Of course not, what am I saying? Mom didn’t call us. The school called. They couldn’t get in touch with Mom. They don’t even try to get in touch with you.”

  Reno frowned. “Are you telling me you haven’t heard from your mother?”

  Jimmy now realized the problem too. “That’s what I’m saying,” Jimmy said.

  Reno immediately pulled up the GPS he had in Trina’s car. Jimmy hurried over to him. “What does it say?”

  “Ambelin bridge.”

  “She’s driving across it?”

  “No,” Reno said. “She’s on it. She’s stationary. Dear Lord.” He began hurrying for the front door. “Val?” he yelled.

  Val hurried to the top of the stairs. “Sir?” she asked.

  “Keep my children,” he said, and hurried out of the door.

  “What happened, Jimmy?” Val asked her husband.

  “Call 911. Tell them there’s a woman in distress on the Amberlin bridge.”

  “Is it Ma?” Val asked, but Jimmy was gone. Val pulled out her cell phone and immediately dialed 911.

  Reno and Jimmy arrived ahead of the police as Jimmy’s Camaro stopped at the top of the small, little-traveled viaduct of a bridge. But there was no Trina, and no Mercedes Benz.

  “Are you sure this is the spot, Pop?” Jimmy asked his father.

  Reno was already checking the GPS again. And again it showed the bridge.

  “This is the place,” Reno said firmly, unbuckled his seatbelt, and got out of the car. Jimmy then pulled the car over, and got out too.

  Reno went to the rail and looked over into the river. He saw nothing. But he felt something. Something strong.

  “What are you doing, Pop?” Jimmy asked. “We need to keep driving. Maybe she’s around here somewhere.”

  Reno leaned over the rail even further, and even further still, and what he saw caused his heart to hammer.

  “Sweet Jesus!” He was hysterical as he ran as if his life depended on it to the bottom of the bridge, and then over the side rail. Jimmy was running behind him, asking what did he see. Normally, he would outrun his father. But not this time. Reno was running down that embankment with a maniac’s speed.

  And that was when Jimmy saw it too. Trina’s Mercedes, half engulfed into the river, with the top half still visible. Trina’s head could be seen at the inside roof of the car, breathing through what appeared to be the slimmest pocket of air. But she was trapped inside.

  Sirens could be heard as Reno and Jimmy made it to the car and did everything they could to open the door, to push the window down further, to get Trina out. Reno pounded his entire body against the car. “Hold on, sweetheart,” he was saying. “Hold on!”

  Jimmy ran back up the embankment. “The jaws of life!” he cried to the rescue workers who had arrived. “We need the jaws of life!”

  It took an eternity to Reno, and he didn’t think his heart could take it, but the workers ran down with the Jaws of Life and somehow, miraculously, managed to free Trina. Reno was able to pull her out of what should have been her certain death. She was still alive, to Reno’s great relief. But he shuddered to think what could have been her outcome.

  While the hospital was performing their battery of tests, Reno phoned one of his assistants and ordered her to go to the penthouse, pick up clothing Val had picked out for Trina (undergarments, jeans, a t-shirt), and then bring them to the hospital. When Trina returned to the hospital room, she took a hot shower, changed into those clean clothes, and was now freshly washed and sitting on top of the twin-sized hospital bed with her back against the even smaller headboard. Reno, in his well-worn, now dried suit, sat beside her and had her snuggly in his big arms. Jimmy was in the small private room also, pacing the floor and talking to Val on his cell phone, as they waited for the test results. He seemed lively and refreshed too, but he wasn’t. There was a horrific sense of what-could-have-been that stifled the air in there and that none of them could shake.

  Trina laid her head on Reno’s shoulder and he snuggled her closer. She didn’t feel physically ill at all, except for a little exhaustion, but she was still shaken. She remembered just being there, in that car, her mouth hovering just above the waters as if God Himself had given her that life source she had to have to stay alive. And she held on for dear life. She held on for her children. She held on for her husband. She held on for herself! And when she saw Jimmy at the scene, and her beloved Reno, her faint heart grew so hopeful, and she became even more determined to hold on.

  When the authorities pried her out, and she floated into Reno’s arms, she held onto him like she had never held onto another human being before. She laid her head on his broad shoulder then too. He had to ride with her in the ambulance, because she wasn’t letting him go.

  “You’re okay?” Reno asked her for what had to be the thousandth time.

  “I
’m okay,” replied Trina. And then there were knocks on her hospital door.

  But it wasn’t the doctor who entered the room. It was a cop. Reno could smell one a mile away.

  Jimmy could too. “I’ll call you back,” he said into his cell phone, and ended the call.

  “Mrs. Gabrini?” The detective was looking at Trina and Trina alone.

  “Yes,” Trina responded. “May I help you?”

  The officer smiled and moved toward her bed, extending his hand. “I’m Detective Luscent, ma’am.” They shook hands.

  “This is my husband, Dominic, and my son James.”

  The detective nodded toward Reno as if he knew “Dominic” very well. There wasn’t a cop in Vegas who hadn’t at least heard of the head of the Gabrini clan, and Luscent was no exception. Luscent then nodded toward Jimmy. He knew of him too. “I’m here to make sure the officer on scene had recorded your remembrance of the events correctly,” he said to Trina.

  Trina was all ears.

  “According to the officer, you said you felt a jolt, as if you’d been hit from behind.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And then the next thing you knew you had lost control of the wheel and was careening and then sailing over the bridge rail.”

  Trina nodded. “That’s what I remember, yes.”

  “Before the crash, do you remember seeing any cars behind you?”

  Trina thought about that. Then she shook her head. “No. It just doesn’t be that many cars on that road. That’s why I went that way.”

  The detective didn’t understand. “You went that way because there aren’t many cars on that road?”

  “I drove that way so I could think and clear my head without the bother of traffic.”

  Reno’s jaw tightened. He knew exactly why she felt a need to think and clear her head, and it was all because of his ass.

  The detective, however, was in the dark. “May I ask what were you clearing your head from?”

  “It was personal,” Trina quickly responded. “It had nothing to do with what happened on that bridge.”

  Luscent smiled. “Are you sure about that, ma’am? What may seem trivial to you could be the break in the case we need.”

  “No case is going to break over that,” Reno said impatiently. “She said it was personal. Move on.”

  The detective didn’t like Reno’s comment and immediately became defensive. “You may be in charge of the PaLargio, Mr. Gabrini,” he said, “but I’m in charge of this investigation. And I’ll move on when I feel it’s time to move on.”

  Reno gave the detective a cold stare. Luscent felt the chill, and moved on. “We have no reason to believe that it was nothing more than a simple hit-and-run at this point,” he said. “We have no suspects either, but we’ll continue to investigate.”

  “Thank-you, detective,” Trina said.

  “You’re welcome, ma’am,” Luscent responded with a slight nod of his head. He looked at Reno one more time. “We’ll be in touch,” he added, to Trina, and then left.

  Jimmy walked over to his father. “What do you think, Pop? You think this was a simple hit-and-run like the cops think?”

  “It was a hit-and-run,” Reno said, “but it wasn’t simple.”

  Trina looked at Reno too. “Why not?” she asked him.

  “Because nothing is. Not when it comes to us.”

  Trina exhaled. That was the truth.

  After the doctor confirmed that all X-rays were negative, Trina, Reno, and Jimmy headed out of the hospital and was relieved to feel the cool night air against their tired faces. A limo was parked and waiting near the exit doors, and so was Debrosiac, one of Reno’s “street” security. He was standing further away, purposely in the shadows. He knew Reno was well trained and would see him. And he did.

  “Get Tree into the limo,” he ordered Jimmy, and then walked over to a man Jimmy did not realize was even there, until he saw his father heading in that direction. Jimmy looked at Trina, astounded.

  “Did you see that guy there?” he asked her.

  “No. But that’s why your father hires men like that. They know how not to be seen.”

  “Damn he’s good,” Jimmy said. And that awesome sense of responsibility, of following in his father’s footsteps when he knew he wasn’t worthy to put on shoes that grand, burdened him again. But he did as he was told and helped Trina into the limousine.

  Reno walked over to Debrosiac and they shook hands. “What you got for me?”

  “We found the video before the cops could get a hold of it,” Debrosiac said, and handed Reno his smartphone. It showed the copy he had made of the video.

  “Where was it?” Reno asked as he watched the video.

  “The one you’re watching now is the one across the river at the tire plant.”

  The video showed a car, a Bentley, ramming Trina’s car from behind. Reno saw Trina’s car spin out, lose traction, and then sail over the rail. His heart was in this throat when he saw that it was even more horrific than he had thought. What angered him, however, was when the driver, instead of stopping to help his wife, to make sure she was okay, or even to call in an anonymous tip to the cops, sped away. “Motherfucker,” Reno said.

  “The next video,” Debrosiac said, “shows the driver. It was taken by a business camera at the bottom of the bridge. And it’s a good shot, boss.”

  This Reno had to see. But when he saw the driver, and saw that it was some chubby, middle-aged white woman, he looked at his man. “She was the driver?”

  “She was the driver,” Debrosiac said. “It looks real random, boss. Like she did it and just didn’t give a fuck.”

  “Yeah. Like Tree’s life wasn’t shit to her.”

  “That’s why I love street justice,” Debrosiac said. “You may not be able to stop the crime, but you can get even.”

  Reno looked at him. “You got it?” he asked.

  Debrosiac smiled as if he was full of himself. “We got it, boss,” he said. “Name and address.”

  Reno exhaled. That was why he hired Debrosiac: he knew how to take care of business. Then he handed Debrosiac back his phone and walked over to the limo.

  Jimmy was standing outside, completely expecting to get in his Camaro and go while his father got in the limo and escorted Trina home. But when Reno came with a different plan, Jimmy knew then he should have known better all along.

  “Take your mother home,” Reno said to his son. “I’m going to drive your car.”

  But Jimmy wanted a piece of the action too. “I can go with you, Dad,” he suggested.

  But Reno would have none of it. “You can do what I said,” Reno said firmly, and looked at his son as if he dared him to question it.

  Jimmy rolled his eyes but walked around, to the other side of the limo, and got inside.

  Reno leaned in at the open door. He reached for Trina’s unbuckled seatbelt and moved to buckle it, as if he was protecting precious cargo. “I’ll be home soon,” he said to her as he buckled her in.

  Trina looked at her husband. He had news. But she also knew it was the nature of their business and she wasn’t about to tell them not to handle it. “Be careful, Reno,” she said.

  “I will,” he said. “You can bank on it.”

  Trina smiled weakly. Reno stared into that face he loved more than life itself. And kissed her on the lips.

  Maggie Vinson stood at the mirror in her high-rise condo’s bedroom and put on her lipstick. It was her final prep before it was time for her to go. When she finished, she stood there, and smiled. The Botox was working nicely, and that powder concoction she applied to the back of her hands were covering up the liver spots as well as she could have hoped. She looked good and felt good. She was good to go.

  She grabbed her clutch and keys off of her bedroom dresser and made her way through the hallway that led to the front of her house. But when she got up front, she was astonished to see two men, both looking like respectable businessmen, sitting on her couch.
r />   “Nice sofa,” Reno said as his open hand rubbed across the expensive leather. “What’s it called? Caribbean leather?”

  Maggie was stunned. “What are you doing in my home? Who are you?”

  “Carribou leather? What’s it called?”

  Maggie quickly pulled out her cell phone to dial 911. The second man in her home, Debrosiac, pulled out his gun. “Put it away,” he ordered her.

  When Maggie saw that gun, her cell phone dropped from her hand. “Who are you?”

  “Corinthian leather,” Reno said. “That’s it! That’s what it’s called.” Then he looked her dead in the eye. “You hit my wife’s car today.”

  “I what? I didn’t---”

  Reno became unhinged. “Don’t you lie to me!” he yelled, and Maggie jumped back. “You hit my wife’s car today. That’s no question, lady. It’ a fact!”

  Reno stood up, buttoned his suit coat, and began walking toward Maggie.

  “It was an accident,” she said. “I called the police afterwards.”

  “No, you didn’t. I told you not to lie to me.”

  “I was going to call the police. I really was. But I already had a DUI on my record---”

  Reno nodded. He was now toe to toe with Maggie. “So that was it?”

  Maggie nodded. “Yes.”

  “It was all about you.”

  Maggie quickly shook her head. “No. I didn’t mean---”

  “You didn’t just hit her car,” Reno said. “You saw her lose control of that car. It’s on film. You remained there, watching in horror, as her car flew over that bridge rail. You saw the whole thing. But instead of calling 911 the way you was about to do when you thought we were your common variety intruders, you drove the hell off. You left my wife to die.”