“You invited them all?” she asked Reno.
“Hell yeah, I invited them. This is a big deal, Tree.”
Trina’s heart swelled with love for her man. Nobody but Reno could have pulled this off. And to keep it a secret from her too! She gave him a big, sloppy kiss right in front of everybody. She didn’t give a damn! Reno didn’t either. His penis was throbbing to get inside of her just from the passion she put in that kiss alone.
But all things, he knew, in time.
After Sal and Gemma welcomed them all with hugs and kisses, Trina and Reno did the same. Trina was overwhelmed with appreciation. Especially for Mick Sinatra. Not only was he considered the most feared mob boss in the world, and had to deal with that part of his life, he was also the CEO of a Fortune 500 company that kept him globe-hopping even more than Tommy Gabrini! But he found time to be there for her too.
“I don’t know what to say,” Trina said to him and Roz.
“It was our pleasure,” Mick said.
“You’re being bestowed such an honor,” said Roz. “We wouldn’t miss it for the world, girl.”
Grace and Tommy both voiced how happy they were to be there too. “We’re so proud of you, Tree,” said Grace. “You work so hard, and to finally be recognized by your peers for all you’ve done.”
“Thanks so much,” Trina said, near tears. “You guys don’t know what this means to me.”
“When Reno called us,” said Tommy, the man they called Dapper Tom for his unparalleled eye for fashion, “we were more than happy to move our entire schedules around to be here. We weren’t missing this.”
That charming Tommy, Trina thought, and gave him another hug!
And Trina and Reno appreciated all of their presence. It felt like a reunion. They sat down, talked, and enjoyed the evening.
But when the award ceremony began, and last year’s winner, who was presenting the award this year to Trina, got up to speak, you could hear a pin drop.
Especially when the speaker’s attention turned from Trina’s accomplishments, to her family.
“She is one of the few women in this country, and one of the first black women, to take her local clothing boutique national,” last year’s winner stood on that podium and proclaimed. “And at the same time she was accomplishing that feat, she was also working as President of the famed PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip. She achieved such an astounding level of success despite being a woman in a man’s world, a minority in a majority world, and a woman with four children to care for. Three of whom are still minor children.”
Reno placed his arm around her. A damn good mother, too, he thought.
But the woman continued. “She achieved such an astounding level of success despite the difficulties in her marriage.”
Everybody at the table froze, especially Trina. Did that witch just say what they thought she just said?
“But she stood tall despite the rumors of infidelity,” the past winner continued. “She stood brave despite the rumors of mob connections, of affairs, of all manner of unsavory, salacious behavior by her husband. We all know the gossip.”
Some in the audience snickered. Trina’s blood began to boil. Mick and Tommy and Sal and Big Daddy all looked at Reno. They knew him. Was he going to just sit there and take that shit?
But that was exactly what Reno did. He took it. This was Trina’s night. The news tomorrow was not going to be about how he showed his ass on her night. He wanted to choke that bitch on stage, it was true, but he didn’t show any emotion. He continued to keep his arm around Trina, and stare at the woman on the stage.
And the woman, as if completely oblivious to the insults she had just hurled, continued unabated. “But Katrina Gabrini took it all,” she said, “and withstood it all. She remains committed to excellence. She remains a proud woman blazing her trail in a world once the complete and utter domain of men. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you this year’s winner of the Chamber Prize for Business Excellence: Katrina Gabrini!”
Her family members stood to their feet. Everybody in the packed room stood to their feet. And Trina, smiling, gathered the hem of her gown and made her way to the podium. Reno was applauding the loudest and whistling his approval as she accepted the beautiful statue. She continued to soak up the applause until everybody stopped clapping and took their seat. And Trina took over.
“Thank you so much for this award,” she said. “I’m sure there are many in this town who would say you got it wrong this year. And maybe you did. But what I know for certain is that what you said about my husband was wrong. You got that all wrong.”
That’s right, Tree, Sal said to himself. Tell her ass!
Trina turned and looked at the woman presenter who now sat on the stage with the other past winners. “Dead wrong,” she added.
The woman gave an arrogant look away, but Trina didn’t care. She turned to the audience. “The truth is, I wouldn’t be here if it had not been for that man right there.” She pointed at Reno. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that man the lady who introduced me dismissed as my problem. Dominic “Reno” Gabrini is not my problem. Never was and never will be. He’s my hero. He stood by me and all of my shit too. Nobody knows about that! Hell, we aren’t the perfect couple and we will never go around pretending to be perfect. We’re fucking Gabrinis, okay?”
Everybody laughed, especially Reno and the others at their table.
“There’s nothing perfect about us,” Trina continued. “But we know how to love each other, and support each other, and stand up for what’s right. I was waiting tables in a strip joint when I met Reno Gabrini, and he owned a hotel! Did he look down his nose at me? Did he dismiss me as some one-off? No! He saw beyond my station in life and gave me a chance. He’s been my rock. There’s no way I’m going to stand up here and let some bitch tell me he’s my problem!”
Trina’s family applauded vigorously, along with many in the audience. Mick Sinatra, leaned back and relaxed, laughed. He always did like Trina’s feistiness.
Reno loved it, too, and was proud of her. But as he took in that feeling of pride, he looked around, something he was accustomed to doing. At first, he didn’t notice anything unusual. And then he noticed something subtle, but odd.
It was speech time, which meant the bar was closed, but yet the wait staff, one waiter on either side of the room, kept progressing toward the front of the room. That made no sense to Reno. Why would they be in the room at all right now? Reno had been at too many of these functions, including hosting more than a few at the PaLargio, to know that nobody was allowed to order anything during speech time. It just wasn’t done! But they were moving toward the front as if they were looking to do just that.
Or looking to do something else.
Reno, who was sandwiched between Mick and Sal, leaned against Mick. But before he could say a word, Mick spoke. “The waiters?” he asked.
Reno looked at him. “You see it too?”
Mick nodded. “I see it.”
“You packing?” Reno asked him.
“Does the sun shine?” Mick asked him.
Reno’s heart was pounding too hard for him to smile, or he would have.
“You take care of your side,” Mick said. “I’ve got mine.”
Reno was grateful to have him!
Then Reno leaned against Sal, who sat on the other side of him. “You see what I see?” he asked him.
“Those waiters?” Sal asked. “Hell yeah I see it. Tommy already put me on alert. You figure they trying to make some noise?”
“May be. Tell Tommy and Big Daddy to protect the wives if shit goes down. You handle that asshole on your side. I’ll get on that stage and protect Tree.”
“Got it,” Sal said and leaned toward his brother, who sat on his other side. Tommy then alerted Big Daddy.
But these were seasoned men. Veterans of every type of street war imaginable. They all looked as if they were looking at that stage, enjoying every min
ute of Trina’s speech. In truth: they stopped listening to Trina’s speech. Their entire focus was on those two waiters. Reno even looked back, to see if he saw anybody making a move as if he was going to be a third agitator. To his relief, there was none.
And the stage was set.
All they had to do was sit back and wait for the fireworks.
CHAPTER NINE
Reno suspected those fireworks would begin just after Trina’s speech, when the audience was expected to rise to their feet in applause. That way, the waiters would be shielded by the crowd and free to do their dirt in the privacy of raucous anonymity.
But because they were seasoned veterans of the highest order and were already anticipating the end of Trina’s speech as the moment of truth, Reno, Mick, and Sal all rose to their feet just before the end of the speech, and just ahead of the crowd rise. They rose as soon as they saw both waiters do what they were expecting them to do and reach inside of their white coats. As soon as they saw the metal, they didn’t hesitate. Mick and Sal fired first. Both waiters tried to continue pulling their weapons out anyway, but Mick and Sal fired again.
At the sound of the first gunfire, the respectable crowd turned into an each man for himself gang of cutthroats, and began screaming and running hysterically, trampling their fellow humans, and running for their lives. Reno jumped onto the stage and pushed Trina to the floor. The others on stage got down too, to avoid stray bullets.
Big Daddy and Tommy grabbed Roz, Jenay, Grace, and Gemma, and kept them down beneath the table. But the bullets only had a chance to fly one way. Mick had killed the waiter to his right, and Sal had killed the waiter to his left, with two shots each. They knew what they were doing. They shot to kill.
But as Mick and Sal ran to the waiters to confirm that they were dead, and as they checked to see if they had ID on them, Reno still felt an inkling. And when he looked up, expecting danger from the back of the room, he saw, instead, movement out of his peripheral vision. He turned quickly to the side of the stage. The man he recognized as one of the chamber members pulled out a gun and was about to fire it at him and Trina. But as soon as Reno turned his way, and he made eye contact with Reno, the man took off out of a side door.
Reno looked at Trina. Was she going to be okay? But Trina was better than okay. “Go get his ass, Reno! Get his ass!”
And Reno, pleased that he had a wife who understood threats would still be threats until they were eliminated, took off stage right and out of that side door too.
Reno saw only the back of the gunman as the gunman turned a corner, and he put on his afterburners and ran as fast as he could. When he turned the corner, too, he saw the man still running.
He chased that man, determined to catch him. He wasn’t sure who they were gunning for tonight: him, Sal, Tommy, Mick Sinatra, or even Trina herself. It could have been any of them! He just knew they were there, and they were after a member of the family. Which meant, in his eyes, they were after them all.
And he was gaining on the man. Not because Reno was some world-class athlete. He wasn’t particularly in shape. But the guy was older and bigger and wasn’t fast. Nor savvy, Reno thought, as the man ran into an alley that any fool would have figured was a bad idea.
Reno followed him into that alley and caught him there. It was perfect for him! Now maybe he’d get some answers too!
But as soon as he captured the guy, and got on top, straddling him, a car could be heard speeding up and slamming on brakes at the top of the alley entrance. Reno turned to look and only had time to see a window go down and a rifle come out of the window: ready to fire.
Reno grabbed the guy he was straddling, rolled to his side with the guy as his shield, and fired back as he took incoming from the man in the automobile. The gunman in the car fired round after round. A hail of bullets. Reno fired back, too, but had to keep retreating behind the man who was now a bullet-ridden, dead shield.
This continued uncomfortably long for Reno until shots were fired from someone behind the car. The gunman in the car, realizing he was no longer the only big gun on scene, pulled his rifle back into the car and the car’s driver sped off.
Reno remained where he was. He didn’t know if the shooter that had fired on the car was friend or foe. He wouldn’t know that until he saw the face.
When Sal and Mick ran into that alley, with their guns drawn, Reno finally let go of his dead shield. And he fell onto his back. It was a close call.
Too damn close!
CHAPTER TEN
Trina was out of the tub and in bed by the time Reno had gotten in and out of the shower. He got in bed behind her.
After several minutes of them just lying there in total silence, she turned to him. He wanted to talk, and she knew why. But before he could get a word out, she placed her finger on his lips. “Don’t,” she said. “I know you don’t know shit about what happened, so don’t try to claim it’s your fault. Because it’s not.”
She could see that disappointment in Reno’s eyes. He hated what happened. He hated it with a passion!
“It’s not your fault,” Trina said again, knowing him all too well. “But I know you’ll find out who’s behind it and take care of it.”
Reno looked at her. “Damn right I will,” he said. “But are you alright, Tree?”
“For the tenth time I’m fine, Reno. I’m fine.”
“But they ruined your night.”
“Oh, hell no they didn’t,” Trina said, and Reno laughed. “They might have tried to, but I enjoyed that evening. It didn’t end the way I would have wanted, but at least nobody died.”
Reno looked at her. Was she serious?
“At least nobody who wasn’t trying to kill us,” Trina clarified, and Reno laughed again.
“I’m just sorry it had to happen,” he said. “Now the media is going to talk about the shootout rather than your accomplishment.”
Trina knew it too. “Yeah, I know. But that can’t be helped, Reno. And it’s not your fault.”
“Those assholes!” Reno said with clenched teeth. “I’ll get their asses, don’t you worry. I’ve got every available man on the case. So does Sal, Tommy, and Mick too. We’ll find out who’s responsible. We’ll get those bastards!”
“They’ll get theirs, Reno,” Trina said. “Don’t let them get in your head like that. It’s you I’m worried about. Sal said it was a close call when he and Mick ran out there to that alley.”
Reno would have rather Sal didn’t bring that up, but it wouldn’t be Sal not to. “I’m okay,” he said. “You know I’m okay.”
Trina looked down at his sinewy body, his thick dick, and she smiled a mischievous smile. “Yes, you are,” she said, to his delight. And then she straddled him, with her bare ass in his face, and began giving him head.
Reno rubbed and squeezed her tight brown ass and then he was licking her and mouth-fucking her from behind. His dick felt as if it was on fire the way she was rubbing it and sucking it, and Trina’s vagina felt inflamed too from Reno’s expert tongue. She was on the verge of an orgasm almost right away, right in his face, it felt that good.
Reno was on the verge, too, as his dick kept expanding in her small hand. But as his precum began to leak, he knew he had to put a stop to this. He wanted a maximum bang. He wanted to be deep inside of Trina!
He leaned her head up from his dick, and laid her back on top of his now sweat-filled chest. He guided his dick inside of her vagina with one hard thrust.
Trina arched when she felt the pain of his fullness, but then he began stroking. Nobody stroked like Reno! And the more he fucked her, the more her own precum became a full-blown orgasm and she was lifting her legs and making squeeze motions with her ass and giving him total access. She came hard.
Reno came, too, just as Trina was feeling the fire. And when he caught fire, he needed to pound.
Still on fire, he flung her off of him, onto her back. He got on top of her, entered her again, and began fucking her harder and harder. The more he po
ured out, the harder he fucked her. So hard that by the time he had no more juice left, and she was filled to capacity too, he collapsed on top of her. Then he looked at her, smiled as if he saw just how satisfied she was, too, and collapsed again.
Trina held him in her arms. It had been another harrowing night for them. And although it wasn’t something anybody could completely get used to, it no longer crippled them. For Reno and Trina, who were the first of the Gabrinis to get married, and was well experienced with nights like that, it was just another day in paradise.
Just another day in the Gabrini life.
Sal and Gemma spent the night at Reno and Trina’s penthouse, and they were fucking too. Since their son, along with Reno and Trina’s kids, were at Jimmy’s apartment inside the PaLargio, they decided not to wake him, but to wait until morning to take him home. But they had stress to work out. And like Reno and Trina, they were working it out. Just as hard.
They were in bed, in a spoon position, and Sal was pounding Gemma’s ass. He wasn’t holding back. He leaned even closer against her, and squeezed her breasts even harder, as he fucked her. It had been tough letting another man protect his wife, but he knew he had the best shot at the gunman on his side, and he had to take it. He didn’t know who they were after. Nobody knew at that point. But his people were on it. Reno’s people were on it. Mick and Tommy’s people were on it. They were going to find out.
But as they laid in that bed, all Gemma could think about was how great Sal’s cock felt inside of her. She wasn’t trying to do anything at that point but enjoy that moment.
And she was enjoying it almost as much as Sal was.
Almost.
Because Sal was in another world whenever he fucked Gemma. Everything about her turned him on. From her smile. To her sweet smell. To her sleek body. To her dark skin. She was the definition of sexy to him. And he was taking advantage of her sexiness. He was pounding her ass.
Reno and Sal Gabrini: Fire with Fire Page 5