“Is that why you fired her?” Trina asked, ignoring Amy.
“I fired her ass because she had no business being in bed with me. She gave some lame excuse about trying to protect me from going to get more liquor, but I didn’t buy it. She was already on a short leash with me about going behind my back to my associates. That episode in Hawaii did it for me. She knew I didn’t play that shit.”
Trina was torn, he could tell she was torn. “I didn’t sleep with that woman like that, Tree,” he said. “I swear to you I didn’t. And all of this talk about her being pregnant---”
“I am pregnant!”
“How do we know that?”
“She’s pregnant, Reno,” Gemma said. “We gave her a home pregnancy test when she got here. We picked one up downstairs in one of the gift shops. I was in the bathroom with her the entire time. She’s pregnant.”
“But it’s not mine.”
“Maybe not,” Trina said. And then she looked at Reno. “But she’s pregnant. That we know for sure. You lied to me,” she said, with pain in her voice. “I know that too.”
“Do you believe me?” Reno asked her.
“You mean the first story you told, or this story?” Tears appeared in Trina’s eyes.
“I’m not lying to you, babe,” Reno said and attempted to place his arm around her waist, but she jerked away.
“Get away from me!” she said with a frown and stood up quickly. She moved toward the fireplace. “Stay away from me,” she added.
Gemma went to Trina and placed an arm around her. Because she knew the stakes. She knew if there was ever a crisis time in their marriage, and there had been many crisis times, this time was it.
“She’s talking about an abortion, Reno,” Sal said. “We pay her, she goes away.”
Reno frowned. “I’m not paying her a gotdamn cent!” Reno yelled. “That’s not my baby. She may be pregnant, but it’s not by me!”
“It is by you!” Amy shot back. “It is your child! You got me naked, you put your penis inside of me, and you fucked me!”
Reno jumped up and over the coffee table so fast that he was grabbing Amy by the throat, lifting her up, and running with her to the back side wall before Sal could get out of his seat. Trina screamed for Reno to stop, but Reno’s anger tuned everything out. This conniving bitch was costing him his wife and he was going to make her pay. He pulled out a knife, a switchblade, and had it at her throat by the time Sal was trying to pull him away.
“Reno, stop it,” Sal insisted. “Stop it, Reno!”
He wasn’t able to pull Reno away, but he was able to talk him back to his senses. Amy was in trembling with fear and hate for that man. “I hate you,” she said. “I hate everything about you.”
“Tell my wife the truth,” he said. “Did I touch you?”
But Amy had her own pain. “You ruined my life,” she said. “I’ve lost everything because of you. You’re going to pay me. I don’t want this baby. I’d rather die than to carry a child of yours to term.”
“I didn’t touch you!” Reno yelled.
“I tried everything,” Amy said. “I tried to get you hard. I tried to get you to pay me some attention for once in your life, but you still didn’t give a damn.”
Trina was staring at her.
“You still wouldn’t give me the time of day even in a drunken stupor. No matter what I did. No matter how hard I tried to get you up, you wouldn’t have an erection. You was dead to me. And then, after that humiliation, you had the nerve to fire me. To fire me? Just because I slept naked beside the man I’ve loved for years! A man who never even asked when my mother died, when my sister died. You never cared anything at all about me.”
“Are you pregnant?” Sal asked her.
“Yes, I’m pregnant,” Amy spat out. “And don’t ask me who the father is because I don’t know and I don’t care. Some random guy I picked up at a bar. I worked every night, I took home a different guy after each and every one of my shifts. Just to get pregnant. Just so I could get even with you.”
Tears were now running down her face. Now that the truth was coming out, Reno eased up. Sal backed off too.
“I never touched you,” Reno said again. “You are not carrying my baby.”
Amy looked at him with pure hatred in her eyes. “Feel better now?” she asked. “I gave you my life. I worked my butt off for you and gave you my life. And you wouldn’t even give me a child.”
Reno tossed the knife aside. He was sorry about Amy’s misguided life, but her lies was ruining his marriage. He didn’t give a damn about her pain.
“I never was a promiscuous girl,” Amy continued, with Trina and Gemma especially riveted to her story. “But when you wouldn’t be with me, when you fired me, I had to do something you see. I had to get pregnant. I had to get something out of this. Since you didn’t want me, and wouldn’t give me a child, at least I could get some money out of it. I could abort whoever baby is in my stomach now, get the money, and start over. So I got the job at McHale’s, worked the day shift, and pretended to run into your wife by accident.”
“You planned that too?” Gemma asked her.
“I planned everything,” Amy responded. “I was going to get mine. Reno didn’t want me, but I knew, if I could get in good with his wife, she would believe what I told her about being impregnated by her husband. But he threatened me and no matter what lie I came up with, she was sticking by her man. So I had to go to rape. When I found out I was pregnant, I had to tell her about it. I was sick in the hospital these last few weeks and couldn’t tell her anything. Until now.”
“One way or another,” Gemma said, “you were determined to destroy Reno’s marriage. Is that it?”
“He destroyed me! Why should he be happy? He was going to give me something. If no baby, if no job, at least I was getting money out of it. That was the least you could have done for me, Reno. You owe me.”
Reno looked at her when she said those words. “I owe you?” he asked. “I don’t owe you shit! You knew I was a married man. What the fuck you falling in love with a married man for? What about that, Miss Innocent? I wasn’t available but you didn’t care. Because it wasn’t about me anyway. It was all about you and your wants and your needs and your fucking craziness! I don’t owe you shit!”
Then Reno walked away. But as soon as he did, Amy picked up the knife he had discarded.
Trina was the first to see her. “Reno!” she cried, and Reno ducked and Sal ducked and they both pulled out their weapons. But not before Amy took that knife, and stabbed it straight through her own belly. She didn’t even try to go for Reno. She went for herself. And her baby. She fell, eyes wide open, already dead, onto her face.
Gemma was in shock too, but she immediately called 911. Amy was already dead, it was obvious, but she called anyway.
Reno looked at her dead body, and then he looked at Tree. She was so anguished, so beside herself, that she could hardly stand.
He went to her, to comfort her, to apologize to her, to get on his knees and beg her to forgive him for lying in the first place, but she moved away from him. She refused his touch.
And she, with Gemma following her, headed for the exit.
“Where are you going?” Reno asked, grabbing her by the arm. “Tree, where are you going?”
But Sal hurried over and pulled Reno back. “Let her go,” he said. “She and the kids will be at my place, Reno. You’ve got to give her some time. You’ve got to give her space.”
Reno looked Trina in the eye, and Trina looked at him, and all each of them saw was pain. Reno let her go.
She and Gemma left. Sal placed his hand on Reno’s shoulder and squeezed. They would wait for the ambulance and the cops. They would go through all of the recriminations and propagations all over again. But they were Gabrinis. They were used to it by now.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The next day, Reno didn’t awake until noon. He had been with the cops late into the night and knew it was too late to disturb his
family at Sal’s. But as soon as he awoke, he was showered, dressed, and on his way to see them. His office was blowing up his cell phone, and every manager he had employed needed his input too, but he wasn’t thinking about any of that right now. He put on his imported suit, his imported shoes, and his Rolex and chain, and left his empty estate. He even turned off his cell phone, when the calls wouldn’t stop.
He drove his Porsche fast, changing gears and revving his engine as he tore up terra firma the way racers tore up Indy and Daytona. Most of the beat cops knew Reno Gabrini’s car and almost none of them had the nerve to ever stop him. So he drove with abandoned. His worse fear, that Trina would leave him and take the kids too, was being realized, and he had to put a stop to it now.
Sal said he had to give her time and space, as if this wasn’t something that could be resolved overnight, but Reno needed that kind of resolution. He was a desperate man. He couldn’t lose his family. He didn’t care what Sal said.
But when Sal met him at the front door, as if he was some intruder or something worse, Reno became angry.
“What’s your problem?” Reno asked him, attempting to muscle his way pass him. “I want to see my family and I want to see them now!”
“Hold on, Reno,” Sal said, keeping him back. They were outside, at Sal’s front door, and both men were aggressive. “Settle your ass down. I told you Tree needed some time and space.”
“She heard Amy. She heard that woman say with her own mouth that I never touched her. She tried to get me to do it, but even in my drunken stupor I didn’t do it. What time does she need now? Why does she have to have space now?”
“Because you lied to her, Reno,” Sal said angrily, and Reno stopped all movement. “Trina can’t get pass that yet.”
“But you know why I lied, Sal. You know I was protecting her, not trying to hurt her.”
“I know that. And I told her that. Trust me, I told her. But she’s not hearing it. She don’t give a fuck. You lied. You convinced her to believe a lie. Now Amy’s dead. An innocent baby is dead. It’s too much! This shit don’t end today, Reno. This won’t be resolved today. You’ve got to give her time.”
But space to Reno was code for separation. And separation led to divorce. He saw it happen with Tommy. He wasn’t losing Trina. He wasn’t going to ever let that happen. “Let me talk to her,” he said. “Let me talk to her and see Lexie and Dommi.”
“No, Reno,” Sal said.
Reno frowned. “What do you mean no?” He tried to push pass Sal. “I dare you to stop me!”
“You can’t see them, Reno, because they aren’t here.”
Reno stopped and looked at his cousin. “They aren’t here? Where the hell are they, Sal?”
“I let them use my plane.”
Reno’s heart dropped. The idea that his family would be off somewhere without him was a pain he couldn’t even describe. It was a pain that cut to the heart of him. They had to get away from him. They had to get away from the man who loved them more than life itself. Reno was devastated. “They took your plane?”
Sal nodded. “They left early this morning.”
“To go where?” Reno asked. “Where did they go? Where’s my family?”
“Trina went to Tommy, Reno. She went to Tommy. They’re with Tommy in Seattle.”
Reno’s racing heart actually slowed. It was still devastating. He was still losing his family. But if they had to be anywhere else, and if they had to be with anybody other than him, he would want them with Tommy.
“Tommy will take care of it, Reno,” Sal reassured him. “He always does.”
But that didn’t stop Reno from taking his own plane to Seattle. He couldn’t leave for some other man to do what he had to do. Not even Tommy.
He turned on his cell phone and answered his pile of messages while his plane flew the two-and-a-half hours it took to get there. He got work done, he communicated with his staff and managers, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Trina. There used to be a time when he knew he was no good for her. He even left her once, after his son died, and begged her to forget about him. Now the idea of not having Trina in his life, not waking up beside her and being with her, wasn’t something he could even entertain. He loved her with a mighty love. He couldn’t lose her.
He looked out at the clouds around him, and his heart was so heavy. He prayed. He prayed for his wife, for his children, he prayed to the good Lord to not let Trina slip away from him.
Tommy Gabrini sat by the poolside of his Seattle estate and watched Trina sit on the edge of his pool and wade her feet in the water while Dommi and Sophia were playing in the water with the aid of a nanny. The other nanny had Tommy’s baby girl Destiny in her arms, and was playing in the water with her too. Hell had gone in session last night, but thankfully the children didn’t know it. They thought they were on vacation. And Tommy and Trina aimed to keep them thinking that.
But Tommy was concerned about this development. When Sal told him what had gone down last night, and how close Reno and Trina were to a certain break-up, he didn’t hesitate. He told Trina to get the kids and come to Seattle. No ands, if’s or buts about it. She needed time and space. He could give her both.
But his motive wasn’t pure. He wasn’t helping her simply out of the goodness of his heart. He was helping her because Reno was his heart and he knew how a breakup with Trina would incapacitate Reno. Tommy had been through a divorce years ago. He knew how painful that could be. But he overcame it. He now had a new lady in Liz and was happy with his life. Grace, his ex-wife, had a new man in Ed and was happy with her life. They both had moved on long ago and were doing better apart. But Reno and Trina were different. They were the collective head of the Gabrini family. And the head was not going to be cut off.
After feeling confident that the kids were in good hands with the nannies, Trina got up from the side of the pool and walked over to Tommy. He was reclining on one of his loungers and she sat on the edge of the empty lounger beside him. She had on shorts and a t-shirt, and he had on trunks, but neither of them had any intention of getting in the water. They were prepared, however, in case they had to dive in for the children’s sake.
“They’re so happy,” Tommy said when Trina sat down. “As children ought to be. You, on the other hand.”
Trina looked at Tommy, as his handsome face glistened in the sun. “I’m a party pooper, right?”
“With cause,” Tommy said. “But yes.”
“I’m just glad the children doesn’t have to deal with it.”
“Not yet,” Tommy said. “But if A progress to B, they will be dealing with it.”
Trina stared at Tommy. Of all of the family, everybody went to him first for advice. Especially Reno. “You think I’m overreacting, don’t you?”
Tommy frowned. “No. Don’t even think that. He lied to you. You have a right to be pissed.”
Trina continued to look at him. “But?”
“I’m not the one anybody should come to for marriage advice, but . . . We’re talking about Reno, Tree.” Tommy said this and looked at her. “We’re talking about Reno. I can’t ever let you lose sight of that.”
Trina looked away, at the children. “I know,” she said. “And I won’t. But he didn’t have to lie. He could have told me the truth, no matter how far-fetched it seemed. Now I’m questioning everything.”
“Such as?”
“All those rumors, Tommy, about his so-called women. And I’m talking rumors that won’t stop.”
“What do they say? He’s sleeping around?”
“That my husband ain’t shit, basically, is what those women are telling me.”
“Yeah, sure,” Tommy said. “They tell you that while they’re busy scheming up ways to become the next Mrs. Reno Gabrini.”
Trina nodded. “I know that too,” she said.
“And again,” Tommy said, “this is Reno we’re talking about.”
Trina smiled. “Reno can do no wrong in your eyes, can he?”
�
��Hell yeah,” Tommy said with a laugh. “He does plenty wrong, trust me. In my eyes and everybody else’s. Then his look turned serious. “But he loves you. And he loves his children. That has to account for something.”
“And it does,” she said. But then a wary look smothered her hope. “But he lied.”
The French doors opened and Tommy’s butler stepped out onto the patio. “Mr. Gabrini has arrived, sir,” he said.
Tommy was surprised, and so was Trina, when Reno walked around the butler and headed toward the poolside. He was decked down, in a dark blue Armani suit and shades, and even his hair looked well-groomed for a change. Tommy couldn’t recall a time here lately when he looked better. But Reno’s eyes always told his story. And they were covered in dark sunglasses.
The children didn’t see him, or they would have gone nuts getting to him, as he made his way toward Tommy and Trina.
“I didn’t expect this,” Tommy said as he stood up.
“How are you, pal?” Reno asked as he and Tommy bear-hugged. But instead of a quick hit, they held on, holding onto each other because both of them knew the stakes. Reno’s eyes squeezed shut, because he knew he had to have it together when he faced Tree, but his heart was still hammering.
When they stopped embracing, Tommy looked Reno over. “You look great, Ree,” he said. “Blue suits you.”
“Thanks,” Reno said, as he glanced at Trina. “I see the kids are having a ball.”
“Yeah, they are,” Tommy said as he sat back down. “Dommi especially doesn’t realize you’re here yet or I doubt if there will be water left in the pool after he splashes his way to get to you.”
Reno smiled, but even Tommy could see it wasn’t even meant to be joyous. Then Reno looked at Trina. She was sitting there, in her shorts and t-shirt, looking sexy even thought that had to be the last thing on her mind. It had only been one night without her, but Reno missed her beyond belief already. “Hello, Trina,” he said.
Trina looked up at him. And Tommy was right. He looked absolutely gorgeous in his blue suit and shades. But if he thought all was forgiven just because he hopped a plane to Seattle, he was vastly mistaken. “Hey,” she said, and looked back at the kids.
Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 Page 16