And when they came, they came together. Sal poured into her. She leaned back against him, he pushed hard against her, and they released all tension, all stress, all memories of that hellish night, into each other’s body.
Until Gemma turned to Sal and they collapsed, too: into each other’s arms.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
FIVE DAYS BEFORE THE ARREST
“Good morning, sir.”
“Morning, sir.”
“Sir, good morning!”
Reno grunted at the greetings. Was Monday morning ever a good morning? He made his way toward his office inside the PaLargio where his aides were already there, trying vigorously to get this celebrity performer or that celebrity agent to talk to them instead of what they really wanted: an audience with the man himself.
His Casting Director, Jalen Parker, the man responsible for making sure they had the right acts for their various showrooms, was following him into his office to address that very concern. “It’s getting out of hand, sir,” he said as they entered. The office was chaotic: filled with Reno’s army of aides.
“What’s getting out of hand?” Reno asked him.
“These requests, sir! Nobody wants to sign a contract anymore unless they speak directly with you and get your personal assurances. Just because you made a phone call to that circus performer, I don’t even remember his name, and his stupid butt broadcasted it all over his Facebook page. Now everybody wants the same curtesy.”
Reno walked behind his desk. Three other managers were waiting at his desk to get his input on their issues too. Reno opened his suitcoat and placed his hands on his hips. He looked tired already. “What do you want me to do about it, Jay?” he asked Jalen. “How the fuck you expect me to handle that? I can’t call all those people. I’m not calling all those people!”
“I understand that, sir.”
“Then understand it and get the fuck out of my face about it!”
Reno’s PaLargio was the only hotel and casino on the Strip that routinely hired blacks into upper management positions, and Jalen was one of those hires. But he was new. He wasn’t yet accustomed to Reno’s wrath. He looked unsure how to respond to that. So he just followed his instincts.
“That won’t solve the problem, sir,” he said, and the three managers around the desk looked at him as if he was nuts. Nobody talked back to Reno Gabrini that way!
Reno found his comeback odd too. He frowned. “What won’t solve the problem?” he asked him.
“If I get out of your face,” said Jalen. “We will still have the problem I brought to you when I got into your face.”
Reno stared at the young guy. He had balls. He liked that. “So how do you suggest I solve this problem?”
“Give my guys the authority to pull a contract outright if the celebrity or the agent refuses to deal with your assigned employee. Once the word gets out that the PaLargio will drop them like hot potatoes if they make those kinds of unreasonable requests, and that word gets out on Facebook pages, too, then I think we will at least see a decline in this sudden need to have to speak directly to you first. Because it’s getting out of hand right now, sir.”
Reno nodded. It was a decent solution, but only up to a point. “They have the authority to pull contracts on second tier performers. On first tier performers? No way. They’ll have to run it by me first.”
It wasn’t what Jalen was hoping for, since most of the PaLargio’s performers were first tier, but it was something. “Yes, sir,” he said.
“And make sure none of that bias shit crops up as a deciding factor with the contracts they pull,” Reno added. “If I start seeing a pattern where only white men or black men or whatever the hell is their preferences start getting preferential treatment and others get pulled, then it’s going to be your ass on the grill, you hear me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Monitor that shit. Don’t just give an assignment and leave them to their own devices.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Now get the fuck out of my face like I already told your ass.”
Jalen smiled. He was understanding his grouchy boss more and more. “Yes, sir,” he said, and left the office.
But just as the other managers were attempting to over-talk each other to get Reno’s attention next, Sal walked into the office. They knew then they had to take a backseat again. They moved over to the conference table to wait their turn.
“One day your office will look like a regular office,” Sal said as he walked toward the desk. “Not a fucking hangout corner.”
“Kiss my ass, too, Sal,” Reno said.
Sal smiled. “I’ll kick it. Now I’ll do that!”
Reno looked at his beloved cousin. “News?” he asked.
Sal nodded. “News.”
Reno looked at the employees in his chaotic office. “Everybody out!” he ordered.
They all immediately rose to their feet, grabbed their phones or laptops or iPads and made their way out of the office. When the door closed, Sal shook his head. “Peace at last! I don’t know how you work around all that fucking noise.”
Reno sat down. “If I sold flowers, I’d have a nice, quiet shop. But I don’t sell flowers. I sell bets and dreams. Gambles. How the fuck you think it’s going to be around here?”
Sal smiled and sat down in front of Reno’s desk.
“What did your men find out?” Reno asked him.
“It was a hit alright.”
“Who on?”
Sal looked at Reno. When he didn’t say the name, Reno knew who. “Damn,” he said.
“That’s what we’re hearing.”
Reno hated to hear that. Why couldn’t they have targeted him. Not his wife! “But who would want to harm Trina? Who’s behind the hit? I know that guy in the alleyway, the one who ended up being my shield, was on the Chamber. But who was he?”
“He worked for the Selassie crime family. Those two so-called waiters did too.”
Reno was surprised. “Selassie?” he asked. “Pump Futarda heads that family.”
“No shit? Like I don’t know that. I know it, alright. And what I’m hearing is that Pump personally gave the order to hit.”
But Reno was even more puzzled. “What the fuck Pump got against my wife?” he asked. “What are you hearing about that?”
“Not a damn thing,” said Sal. “Nobody knows why. Maybe he’s going after what you love. Maybe it’s personal between him and Trina. I don’t know.”
Reno frowned. “Personal? What do you mean personal between him and Tree? My wife doesn’t know that killer! What are you implying?”
“I’m not implying anything! I’m just giving you the scenarios.”
“There’s no scenario on this planet where my wife would have something personal going on with Pump Futarda! So get that bullshit out of your head.”
“Alright already, Reno! Keep your fucking shirt on! I know it’s hard to take. I’d be upset, too, if it was Gemma they went after. But you know what I was talking about. Just giving possibilities. That’s all. Stop being so fucking sensitive!”
Reno knew it too. “I apologize, alright? I just didn’t wanna hear that they targeted Tree. I didn’t wanna hear that shit. But at least we know who’s behind it.”
“But with that knowledge,” Sal said, “we still have a problem.”
Reno looked at him. “What problem?”
“If we go after Pump, will the other families in Vegas defend him and go after us? They have a syndicate going you know.”
“You think they’ll start a war over Pump, even if he came after us first?”
“They might. Like I said: they have a syndicate now. A pact. But that’s why I set up a meeting with the top three families in Vegas. They’re all in that syndicate.”
Reno leaned back in his chair, and stared at Sal. “You’re going to be at that meeting, too, right? Since you’re the top of the food chain in this town. Since you run the biggest mob ring in this town.”
“Sounds like
gibberish to me,” Sal said as he stood up and buttoned his double-breasted suit coat. “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Reno laughed. “On your tombstone it’s gonna read: The Mob Boss Who Died Denying Involvement.”
Sal couldn’t help but laugh. “Fuck you,” he said. “Just be at the meeting. Tomorrow. High noon. At Slappey’s.” And Sal left.
Reno hesitate, and the smile was gone. Trina was the target, dammit! He would have preferred any news but that news.
He pulled out his cell phone as he got up from his desk and began walking toward his office exit. He phoned Stef Siranno.
“Sir?”
“I want a wall-to-wall blanket on my family,” Reno ordered.
“Wall-to-wall, yes, sir.”
“And after you tighten it up,” Reno added, “double it.”
“Yes, sir. That bad, sir?”
“I don’t know yet. But until I find out, consider it that bad.”
And Reno ended the call.
He made it downstairs and into the hectic lobby just as Trina was heading for the exit. “There you are,” he said to her as they met up.
“What are you doing down here?” Trina asked him. She was dressed beautifully for work, in a form-fitting light blue dress with sunglasses to match. “Heading out?”
“No. Just wanted to see you off.”
Trina smiled and placed her Louie Vuitton bag on the fold of her arm. “I’m alright, Reno.”
Reno placed his hand on her lower back as they both walked out of the automatic lobby doors. “Didn’t say you weren’t alright.”
Trina glanced at him. Something more was on his mind. But she knew Reno. He’d spill the beans eventually.
The Valet had opened the front driver side door to Trina’s Mercedes-Maybach and stood at the door, but when he saw the boss walking with his wife, he got out of the way. Reno held the door as Trina got inside.
“I’ll see you tonight,” Trina said, closing the door and pressing down the window. “Don’t work too hard.”
“Your ass can use that advice too,” Reno said and she smiled. He loved her smile. So much so that he leaned in and kissed her on the lips.
But his look was so disconcerting that Trina couldn’t let it pass. “Okay, what gives? What’s wrong, Reno?”
Reno didn’t want to tell her, but he knew he had to. “I need to tell you something,” he said.
Trina stared at him. What now, she wondered. “Get in,” she said.
Reno walked around to the passenger side door and got into her Mercedes, closing the door behind him. He turned to Trina. “You were the target,” he said.
Trina removed her shades. “Me?” She, like most, assumed it might be one of the men in the family, like Mick Sinatra. “But why,” she also asked, “and who’s targeting me?”
“Why, we don’t know. Who? Some local mobster named Alfred Futarda. Everybody calls him Pump. Pump Futarda.”
A concerned look appeared on Trina’s face. “And you think he’s targeting me?”
“That’s what Sal’s men found out. My men haven’t found out that shit. But Sal has those deep connections.”
“So you believe it?”
“I’m going with it, yeah. Sal’s men are the best of the best. But at the end of the day, it’s because of me. He’s targeting you to get to me. Why? I don’t know yet. I just want you to be on alert. I’ve ordered a tightening of your security, so you’re going to see more than the usual. But your ass be careful too. If you have to leave Champagne’s to go anywhere, you run it by me first. Got it?”
Trina nodded. “I’ve got it,” she said.
Reno could see the anguish in her eyes. She was getting tired of this shit too. “It’ll be okay, Tree,” he said. “You’re tough. You can take it. I don’t call you Tree for nothing.”
Trina would have none of that. “You call me Tree because it’s short for Trina and your ass was too lazy to say my full name.”
Reno laughed. “That too,” he said, although they both knew Tree had been her nickname since childhood.
But Trina looked forward. This was no laughing matter to her. “Okay, Reno, I’d better get to the store. Gemma is in court this morning so I’m going to have to sign off on inventory.”
“In other words, get lost?” Reno asked.
Trina tried to smile. “In those exact words,” she said.
Reno smiled again, leaned over and kissed her again, and got out of her car. He stood there as she drove away. Something was off about her response. Something was wrong!
But as he walked back into his lobby pondering it, his cell phone rang. When he saw it was from Lakeview, Dommi and Sophia’s new private school, he answered quickly. “Yes, hello?”
“Mr. Gabrini?”
“Yes. Are my children alright?”
“No, sir. There’s been an incident. A very serious incident. You and your wife need to come now.”
Reno’s heart dropped. Had his security tightening come too late? Had his stupid ass dropped the ball to his own children’s detriment?! He nearly dropped his phone as he took off.
CHAPTER TWELVE
“What did I do?” Dommi was asking as he sat in the principal’s office beside his sister. When no one answered him, he asked again. “What did I do?”
“Just be quiet, Dommi,” Sophia said. She had been hauled to the office too. “Wait until Daddy gets here, and he’ll take care of it.”
“But what did I do? I have a right to know what I’m supposed to have done wrong?”
“Dom-mi! What did I say? Daddy and Mommy will take care of it. Not you! Just shut it.”
But Dommi still could not accept what was happening to him. It wasn’t his fault. He didn’t start anything. But he sure as hell finished it!
It started just after the bell rang. He was leaving his Geometry class, minding his own business, heading to his locker. Two students, boys he didn’t even know, came running to him. He didn’t know them, but they knew him.
“Dommi! Dommi!” they were yelling.
Dommi frowned, and turned their way. “What is it?”
“It’s your sister. This boy beating up your sister!”
Dommi couldn’t believe it. “Where?”
“Breezeway 12,” one of the boys said, and Dommi dropped his Geometry book and took off. One of the boys, hoping to curry favor with the toughest and richest kid in the school, picked up Dommi’s book and ran behind him.
But Dommi was no match for anybody else when he was desperate. He ran like the wind. He ran up a flight of stairs until he was on the second floor, and around three corridors until he was on breezeway 12, in seconds. And that was when he saw it. A small crowd of students had gathered around. And some boy, some guy bigger and taller than even big-for-his-age Dommi, pushed Sophia to the ground as if she was a piece of trash.
When Dommi saw it, he broke through the crowd, rushed at the boy with his head down like some bull rushing a bullfighter, and barreled into the boy’s stomach with his head. The boy toppled over, and Dommi was on him.
Two teachers, both female, had tried to break it up when the boy first started abusing Sophia, but when Dommi arrived on scene with that crazy headbutt, they backed up and ran for reinforcements.
But nobody was waiting for any such authority. Dommi had the boy down, was on top of him, and was punching him senseless. He punched him with both his fists. He punched him until he saw bruising. And then he got up, lifted the boy up with all the strength he had, and tossed him over the bannister.
The crowd that had been egging Dommi on went silent. They were astonished. They knew he was a tough cookie, but they had no idea how tough! They ran to the bannister to see if their fellow student was alive or dead. It was that serious.
But the bully was alive, and got back up on his feet. He was also embarrassed as hell, and angry. But Dommi didn’t care what he not. He ran to his sister to make sure she was okay.
But then that same boy, refusing to be ou
tdone, started running back up the stairs.
“He’s coming for you, Dommi!” one student yelled.
“Coming for me?” Dommi asked angrily. “Coming for me?”
“Dommi, wait!” Sophia said, grabbing at her brother, but Dommi was in his own world. A world where he wished a joker would try to come at him like that! And he ran down those stairs to meet the boy!
But when the boy saw Dommi coming like some raging bull, he changed his mind, turned back around, and hightailed it back down the stairs.
“Yeah, run, motherfucker, run!” Dommi yelled as the students laughed. “Your ass better run!”
But the next thing Dommi knew the police officer assigned to the school, whom they called a resource officer, was grabbing him and Sophia and escorting them to the office. The boy who started it all? They didn’t even question him! At least not from what Dommi could see.
And when a new face came into the office, the Assistant Principal, he asked his question again. “What did I do?” he wanted to know.
Outside, in front of the school, Reno’s Porsche and Trina’s Mercedes both arrived one behind the other one. Reno hurried to her car and opened the door for her.
“Have you found out anything?” Trina asked as she hurried out of the car, lifting her shades up onto her hair.
“I haven’t found out shit,” Reno said as they ran toward the entrance. “They said they can’t discuss it over the phone.”
“These people are gonna give me a heart attack,” Trina said. “I declare they are!”
Terrified at the thought of anybody harming Trina, Reno placed his arm around her waist and hurried into the school with her. They were told to go into the principal’s office.
The principal, Eddie Joshua, stood to his feet when Reno and Trina walked in. A school resource officer was also there, a tall black guy, and so was the assistant principal. But Reno and Trina were looking at their children.
“You guys okay?” Trina asked as she hurried to them.
Reno and Sal Gabrini: Fire with Fire Page 6