But Sal, a mob boss in his own right, wanted it spelled out. “Is his life on or off the table?” he asked Vecoli.
Vecoli, this time, did at least glance at the other dons. But he answered for them all. “On,” he said.
Sal nodded. Reno was pleased as well.
But after small talk about Vegas in general and the cops cracking down in particular, they began leaving. But before they made it to the door, the door flew open, one of the guards, Vecoli’s man, ran in holding his stomach, and then collapsed on the floor.
They all pulled out their weapons and ran to the open door. And what they saw stunned them. It was a bloodbath. Every one of their men were shot dead. All shot with silencers. Nobody inside had heard a sound!
Reno, Sal, and all of the dons pulled their weapons. “Lock it down!” Sal yelled and Reno attempted to close the door back. But gunfire, still with silencers on the weapons, began ricocheting off of the door before Reno could slam it shut, and one don, Vecoli himself, was shot in the chest and went down.
But when the door was kicked open, and the gunmen came in with their barrels blazing, Reno and Sal weren’t surprised this time. They fired back, as did the remaining dons, and took their attackers out quickly. Nobody on their team were hit. It was a successful counterstrike.
But as soon as they were about to go to the downed don, to see if Vecoli was still alive, the back door to the station was knocked down and more gunmen ran in.
“This way!” one of the remaining dons said, and he and his counterpart ran for the front exit. But that would have left them too exposed, and Reno and Sal knew it.
Reno looked at Sal, and Sal looked at Reno, and with no other viable options that they could see, they jumped onto the fireman’s pole and dropped down to the floor beneath. The two remaining dons, once the firepower from the gunmen in the back of the station became too great, turned from their original plan and headed for the pole too. But their attempt failed. The fact that they didn’t move when Reno and Sal moved, but opted to head for the front exit didn’t help. The fact that they were too old for such an athletic move didn’t either. But were gunned down. They never stood a chance.
But the gunmen, some five men strong, weren’t too old, and were very athletic. They slid down the pole, too, and was shooting as they went down. To their surprise, there was no return fire.
When they made it on the bottom floor, and looked around, they saw no one. They heard no one. The leader of the pack motioned for two of them to go to the right, two to the left, and he was going to stay where he stood.
And they looked around. They knew there was no way out. Reno and Sal had to be in that building still! All they had to do was find them.
Reno and Sal were still in the building. When they had slid down the pole to the first floor, they stopped, mid-slide, and positioned their bodies on the wood beams that decorated the first floor ceiling. They were wedged in that ceiling and had the perfect view of all five gunmen.
But they also knew they had to be careful. If they shot too soon, they might not get all five, and would be exposed and vulnerable to an easy counterattack. They had to get all five the first time!
Reno looked at Sal. Sal motioned for him to get those two that went left. He would get the two that had gone to the right, and then they both would have to quickly turn and get the leader of the pack. It was risky, because the leader might just get them before they had a chance to pivot, but it was a chance they had to take.
Reno looked at Sal and nodded his understanding of Sal’s plan. And with their guns aimed on their targets, and before the men could leave the room, they pulled their triggers.
They took out the first four men easily. They didn’t know what hit them or from where it was coming.
But the leader proved worthy of his title, and turned quickly firing shots. He got one round off that barely missed Sal. But before he could get that second round off, Reno and Sal both were firing. And they took him out.
But they both were veterans at this shit. They did not make a move. And it was a good move, too, because within seconds three more men slid down that pole and began looking around for the target.
Reno mouthed to Sal, “save one,” and they fired at two of the gunmen, killing them both. When the third one turned to fire, Reno yelled, “Save your life! Put it down!”
But the young man kept his gun trained on Reno and Sal. And kept backing up as if he was going to get away.
But Sal’s eyes were on that trigger. And as soon as he was about to pull that trigger, Sal fired instead, killing him. They needed intel, but intel wasn’t shit if that gunman would have killed them.
But they waited again. Just in case there were more gunmen gunning for them. And waited. Nothing. Nobody else came.
It appeared over.
Reno and Sal made their way down from the ceiling, but both men were spooked. Because they knew it wasn’t over. Who the fuck would kill all three dons like that? They knew it had only just begun.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“It’s not necessary, Reno.”
“It’s necessary if I say it is.”
“But Reno!”
“Don’t Reno me.”
“Reno!”
“Look, Tree.” Reno tossed a pair of Trina’s panties into her suitcase and looked at her. They were in their bedroom, at the penthouse, and Trina was resistant. “It won’t be for long. I can promise you that. Once I meet with who I need to meet with, and get this shit handled, then you and the kids can come back home. But not before I get this shit handled!”
“But why is it suddenly so urgent?”
“Because a cop is dead. You heard those cops last night when they were questioning us. If it wasn’t for that couple coming out and seeing Holder pull a gun on me, and they saw how he tried to shoot Sal, our asses would be in jail right now. But what if they would have come out when I hit his ass with your car? What if that poor-ass restaurant would have had working cameras? We dodged a bullet last night. And that shit that went down earlier today? They’re killing dons now. Who the fuck does that? No, Tree. We dodged more than a few bullets earlier today. We aren’t dodging any more. Now it’s other fuckers’ time to do the dodging.”
“But all the way to Florida? I have a business to run, Reno! I have obligations to meet.”
“It won’t take long, I promise you. But you’ve got to let me handle this, Trina. You’ve got to.”
Trina saw that determination in Reno’s eyes. And she knew there would be no changing his mind. “What about Dommi?” she asked.
“I told you he’s staying with me.”
“Why can’t he come too? I don’t want him in any danger. Just because Holder said the DA and the special crimes unit had to investigate that school fight further doesn’t mean it was true. He was crooked as hell. Maybe he was lying about that too.”
“I checked with the authorities,” Reno said. “It’s true. He wasn’t lying. Dommi can’t leave the state until their investigation into that fight he had at school is complete. You and Sophie will have to go without him, and stay in the safe house in Florida where your parents and Carmine already are.”
Trina was shocked that they were already placed. “You already placed them in a safe house?”
“Yes.”
“And Dommi has to stay here with you?”
“Yes, Tree, yes.”
“You have to keep him under your thumb, Reno. You give him an inch, he’ll take a town.”
Reno smiled. “I know that. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of him.”
Trina knew he would. “What about Jimmy?”
“He’s staying put. He can handle himself. And before you say it, yes, you can handle yourself too. But I need you to protect Carmine and Soph and your parents. I need you out of harm’s way or I won’t be able to concentrate the way I need to concentrate.”
“But why can’t we just stay in a safe house here? Why do we have to go all the way to Florida?”
“There�
��s too much heat around this place right now,” he said. “They’re coming at me in directions I don’t understand, and I’m not fucking around with them another second. I want my family out of here. I’m not fucking around.”
Trina looked at Reno. The stress on his face was palpable. That was why she went to him and pulled him into her arms. They held on tight.
“It’s going to be alright, Tree,” Reno said. “It’s going to be alright.”
But how many times, he wondered, had he told her that lie.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
THREE DAYS BEFORE THE ARREST
“Ready?”
Dommi stood up from the living room sofa and placed his bookbag over his shoulder. “Yes, sir.”
Reno looked his son up and down. He was dressed in the school’s uniform of khaki shorts and a dark blue polo shirt, and looked like a very handsome, obviously biracial young man. “You look very nice, Dominic,” Reno said to him.
“Thanks,” Dommi said. “So do you. For now,” he added. Because, in his eyes and the eyes of all who knew Reno, he always looked good first thing in the morning. His hair was always neatly combed. His expensive suits were always immaculate. But by midday, it would look as if he hadn’t combed his hair in days and had slept in that same immaculate suit. He worked hard. Reno always left it all on the court. And, by day’s end, it always showed.
But as father and son headed downstairs, out of the lobby, and into Reno’s Porsche, it was all about Trina, as Reno knew it would be about. He had not told Dommi about his mother nor sister’s whereabouts. He couldn’t risk him slipping up and mentioning it to anyone.
“Mommy was already gone when I got up this morning,” he said. “So was Sophie.”
“You’re spending the day with Jimmy at his office. She’s spending the day with Mommy at hers.” It was a lie, but, in Reno’s mind, a necessary one.
“Why do I have to dress up like I’m going to school though?”
“Because you are. It’s a school day, not a fun day. Jimmy is going to give you school work to do until I pick you up this evening. It’s not going to be hangout time. But until I’m sure there’s no breach of security at your school, I’m keeping you and Sophia out of there.” The fact that the school had suspended Dommi for a week after that fight was a part of the calculation too.
“I knew that cop was crooked,” Dommi said about the now-deceased resource officer. “He was always looking at me like I was a piece of trash.”
Reno glanced at his son. “Oh, yeah? And what did you do about that?”
“I looked at him like he was too,” said Dommi.
Reno smiled, and then laughed. That was his boy through and through!
But when they arrived at a red light, and Reno strummed his steering wheel and casually looked to his left and then to his right, which was his normal routine, his heart nearly fell through his shoes. He couldn’t believe it! Because, sitting to his right, four lanes over, was the man his men had been searching for since that attack on Sunday: Pump Futarda himself! He was sitting behind the wheel of an old Mercury as casual as casual could be. He wore a baseball cap, as if he was trying to conceal his identity, and his hair looked more gray than black. But Reno would recognize that fucker anywhere!
And when the light turned green, Futarda, who appeared to not have seen Reno at all, took off.
To Reno’s dismay, lanes of morning rush-hour traffic separated them, but he knew he had to do what he had to do. He had to throw his driving experience weight around.
And he did. He sped up as soon as the light turned green and changed one lane by cutting in front of a car that had been driving beside him. The driver of that car angrily blew his horn.
“Gosh, Dad,” Dommi said, “why did you do something like that? That’s how road rage is born.” Then Dommi grinned. “I like it!”
But Reno had to concentrate. At least now he was a little closer to Futarda’s car without being too close, and would be able to follow more parallel to him. Because he was going to get that motherfucker. He was going to capture him and find out for himself what madness was driving him to target Trina. He had to get him!
His security team, in a vehicle behind him, wasn’t able to get over as easily as Reno was able to maneuver, but they kept trying. It was uncharacteristic for Reno to pull a driving stunt like that, so they knew immediately that something was up. They just couldn’t figure out what.
Not that they had time to. Within seconds of Reno getting over one lane, he suddenly made another defensive driving move and got over yet another lane. His security detail was now two lanes over from the boss. The detail head, on the passenger seat, immediately got Reno on his car phone.
Dommi pressed the screen’s button for his father when the call came in. “Hello?” he asked.
“What’s going on, Boss?” the detail chief asked Reno.
“I got my eyes on Futarda,” Reno explained. “He’s in the far-right lane in that green Mercury.”
“Mother fuck,” said his detail chief, as he looked over and saw the car in question. “Get over to the right lane,” he said to his driver. “Fuck the traffic and get all the way over. Futarda’s in that green Mercury!”
But when Futarda suddenly turned off at the exit, Reno’s heart pounded. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” he yelled and didn’t hesitate for one second. He knew he had to do what he had to do once again, but in an even more defensive fashion.
Reno veered his Porsche into the third lane, nearly hitting the car that had been driving beside him, but then veered again, into the fourth lane where that car had to slam on brakes to avoid a collision with Reno. And without a second to spare, Reno sped off of that exit ramp, too, and was back on the trail for Pump Futarda.
His security detail, however, wasn’t nearly as fortunate. They had to go up to the next exit before they could even think about getting off, which was going to take considerable time given the traffic, and even that was going to require maneuver after maneuver to get into that fourth lane.
But Reno couldn’t wait around or explain where he was or none of that shit. His security team had GPS on his car. They would have to find him that way.
When Reno rolled to the red light at the off ramp, he just caught the tail end of that green Mercury already on the street, turning at the corner onto a different street.
Reno, making sure the coast was clear, ran the red light and took off after him. He glanced at Dommi, who seemed to be enjoying the chase, and knew Trina would kill him if she found out he was taking their precious son on a chase of this magnitude. But what the fuck she expected him to do, he wondered? He didn’t plan to see Futarda on that highway. He didn’t plan to see that fucker until he was coming up on his ass with both barrels blazing. But there he was, turning a corner, and Reno wasn’t about to lose him.
He didn’t. Reno shifted to high gear and sped up to that same corner and turned it too. And there was the Mercury, turning yet another corner. Reno followed him that way for three more blocks, all the while being careful to keep his distance but even more careful to not lose sight of that Mercury.
Until there was another turn, but this time onto a street where there was only one house. And that one house as far back off from the road. It was fronted by a long driveway that led up to a two-story, wood-framed, ordinary house. So ordinary that it would have been shocking to learn that a powerful mobster like Pump Futarda lived there.
But then again, Reno thought, as he drove past the driveway to the end of the street, that was probably why nobody was ever able to find him: he was hiding in plain sight. Not living lavishly, but ordinarily. Something no Gabrini could ever even comprehend.
Reno parked near the end of the street and was able to look over and see the Mercury through the trees that surrounded the house. He also saw Pump Futarda get out of that Mercury, with a newspaper and a Danish in his hands, and go inside of the house.
“What now?” Dommi asked his father.
But Reno didn’t respond to h
im. He pressed the icon for his security detail on his car phone screen. “Where are you?” he asked his chief.
“Still in even heavier traffic, and it’s moving at a snail’s pace. The next exit is another two miles away. We’re fighting to get over to make it.”
“I’m going in,” Reno said as he pressed in a combination and opened a compartment beneath his glove compartment. Dommi’s eyes stretched when he saw the firepower inside. “My son is in my car,” he added. “I want one of you to get him out of here as soon as you arrive.”
“Yes, sir. As soon as we get there, sir.”
Reno ended the call and grabbed two of the guns out of the locked box, and then slammed it shut. He looked at Dommi. “Keep your ass in this car, with the doors locked,” he ordered, “until I either get back here, or one of my guys get here. You understand me?”
“Yes, sir.”
“This shit ain’t no video game, Dommi. This shit for real. Keep your ass in this car.”
“I will, Dad, dang. You only have to tell me once. You know me!”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Reno said. “Don’t be you.” Then Reno was uncharacteristically frank with Dommi. Sometimes he felt as if his son could handle it. Sometimes not. This time: he felt he could handle it. “I’m going after the man that tried to hurt Mommy the other night,” he said to his son. “I have to get him.”
Dommi nodded with a determined look in his eyes. “Yes, sir,” he said.
Reno squeezed Dommi’s arm. He wished he wasn’t cut out for this kind of life like Jimmy wasn’t, but that was not the case with Dommi. He was cut out for it as sure as Reno and Sal and Tommy were cut out for it. It was in his Gabrini DNA.
And Reno, with both guns in hand, got out of his Porsche, motioning for Dommi to lock the doors, which Dommi did. When Reno saw that he did, he took off toward Futarda’s domain. Only he didn’t go up to the front door, he made his way around the side, searching for security cameras. He did not see any.
Reno and Sal Gabrini: Fire with Fire Page 10