When she saw Dommi up front, she smiled as if nothing never happened. “Hey, Dom,” she said.
Dommi didn’t say anything. Reno began driving. “What’s going on?” Amber asked.
“I told you I wanted to talk to you,” said Trina.
“Yes, ma’am. But you said it was about my relationship with your son.”
“That’s right.”
“We don’t have a relationship,” said Dommi.
“But I’m sure she means if we decide to have one, silly,” said Amber and jerked her long, blonde hair out of her face.
“Who were those guys that tried to gang-rape Mariah last night?” Trina asked her point blank.
Amber was shocked, and tried to act surprised by the insinuation. “Ma’am?”
“Who were those guys?” Trina asked again.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Somebody tried to gang-rape Mariah? I know they said they found a body behind Mo’s or something, but I had no idea somebody tried--”
Before she could finish her sentence, Trina grabbed Amber by her long, blonde hair and jerked her face toward Trina’s face. Amber cried out, causing Reno to look through the rearview, and Dommi to turn around.
“Look, Bitch,” Trina said to Amber. “My husband and I didn’t come all this way to listen to your bullshit. Who were those guys?”
“You’re hurting me!”
“Who were those guys?” Trina asked again, pulling her hair harder.
“Please, Mrs. Gabrini, stop. Please make her stop, Dommi!”
“Tell her what she’s asking,” Dommi said. “Who were those guys?”
“Okay, I’ll tell you,” Amber said to Trina. “Just stop hurting me.”
Trina hesitated, but then she let her hair go. “Now talk,” she said.
“I don’t know their names,” Amber said.
Trina was about to grab her hair again. “But I know somebody who does,” Amber quickly replied. “He’s the one who knows them.”
“Who?” Dommi asked.
“Guy named Jaylin,” said Amber.
“How do you know this Jaylin?” asked Trina.
“When I needed somebody to . . . handle Mariah, I went to Jay. We kick it sometimes. I knew he knew a lot of thug people. I told him about Mariah, and how ugly she is.” Amber said this and looked at Dommi.
Reno and Trina hoped Dommi didn’t take the bait. That was what Amber was testing. How he truly felt about Mariah. They hoped he understood that.
Dommi apparently did, because he didn’t leap to Mariah’s defense. He just listened.
“I also told him how big she was,” Amber said, “ and he said he knew this really kinky guy who liked big women.”
“Which one was that?” Dommi asked.
“The one in the hospital?” Trina asked.
“The one somebody beat to death,” said Amber, and she looked at Dommi.
“So they showed up at Mo’s to gang-bang an innocent girl?” Trina asked.
“She’s no innocent,” said Amber. “And it was all for fun, anyway. I never dreamed somebody would get killed behind it!”
“And you didn’t care, did you?” asked Dommi.
“To be honest, no,” said Amber. “They’re no kin to me.”
Dommi couldn’t believe her attitude. But Reno could. And he knew what needed to happen.
Nobody had realized that Reno had driven onto the site of an abandoned building. He began driving around back.
“Where can we find this Jaylin?” Trina asked.
“At the poolhall on Gatlin. He owns it.”
“He owns it?” Trina asked. “This Jaylin is a grown-ass man?”
“Yeah, so?” asked Amber. “Same as the grown-ass man that was killed in that alley, and the grown-ass man that was beat up in that alley. They’re all grown.”
“Just like your ass,” said Trina, and then Reno stopped the car.
Reno looked at Amber through the rearview. “Get out,” he said to her.
Amber was confused. Because they were grown men? “Excuse me?”
“You heard him,” said Trina. “Get out of the car.”
Amber was nervous. But she’d heard a lot about the Gabrinis and their reputed mob ties. She got out and walked toward the front of the car.
Then Reno looked at Dommi. “Get out and handle it,” he said.
Dommi looked at his father, and then he nodded. He got out of the car.
Reno pressed down the passenger side window. “Proportional force,” he said to Dommi.
Dommi nodded, and began walking toward Amber. But Trina was worried. “Is that a good idea, Reno? What if he over-handles it?”
Reno was staring at Dommi. “He’ll be alright,” he said.
Trina and Reno both were staring, not at Amber, but at their son as he walked over to Amber. Trina’s heart squeezed when Dommi quickly pulled out a gun and put it, not up to Amber’s head, but inside her mouth. Amber’s knees buckled with fear.
“Say a word to any human being about what happened at Mo’s and my part in it,” Dommi said to her, “and you won’t be hurt at all. You will be dead. You and every member of your fucking family. You hear me girl? We don’t play that shit. If you never learn anything in your miserable life, you learn that. You can’t win fucking with Gabrinis. Got it, Am?”
Amber was nodding so nervously she began to piss down her legs.
Dommi removed the gun from her mouth. “You got it?” he asked her again.
“I got it. Please, don’t hurt me, Dommi. I got it!”
“And keep your slimy ass away from Mariah,” he added, “or you’ll hear from me.”
“I don’t even know her anymore,” Amber said, as the snot dripped from her nose. “Or you either!”
Dommi looked at her. And then he released her so violently that she fell to the ground. She remained there, looking up at him.
But he looked around, to ensure nobody was lurking around, and then he put his gun away and headed back to his parents’ car.
Trina was shaking her head. “Damn. He’s a natural, Reno,” she said.
Reno was nodding his head. “Gotdamn right he is,” he agreed.
“I had no idea those were fully grown men he beat up in that alley,” said Trina.
“Me either. Dommi failed to mention that part. But him, I’m not worried about. He can take care of himself, that’s for damn sure. It’s the destruction he causes in the process, and how that not-thinking-it-all-the-way-through shit can do his ass in, that worries me.”
Trina nodded too. “Right,” she said as Dommi got in. And Reno sped off.
CHAPTER TWELVE
After dropping off Trina and her Mercedes, Reno and Dommi piled into Reno’s Porsche and made their way to the poolhall. Trina had protested. She wanted to go search down that Jaylin character too. But Reno had his limits.
“No,” he said bluntly.
“But what if you need---”
“No,” Reno said again and gave Trina that certain look. It wasn’t the same chilling look he gave to Dommi and his other children. It was a look that made clear where her safety was concerned, she was not to question him. It was that I can show you better than I can tell you look that Trina knew too well. She backed off.
But as soon as father and son walked into the poolhall, both in their expensive suits and looking like the very mobsters they didn’t want to emulate, all eyes were on them. Because they were in a poolhall on the seedier side of town. Because they both wore suits. But mostly because every con in Vegas knew who Reno Gabrini was.
At first, to Dommi, there didn’t appear to be anybody in charge. Just a bunch of muscle heads hanging out. But Reno saw the head man as soon as they walked in. Dommi was looking at the reaction of the people to his presence. Reno was looking in corners. Smart men knew to always hang where there was an easy out. The front door was never an easy out.
In one of those corners was a tall black guy who began to slowly creep backwards as if he was trying to
plot his getaway. Bingo, Reno thought. That was the boss. That was Jaylin.
And as soon as Reno’s eyes met Jaylin’s eyes, the big guy took off, through a back hall.
“Get his ass!” Reno yelled to Dommi. He knew his son was way faster than he ever was. He knew Dommi could run rings around him.
And Dommi didn’t hesitate. He looked where his father was looking and saw the guy running down that back hall. He took off after him with that speed Reno knew he had, while Reno took off out of the front door.
The back door at the end of the hall flew open, and Jaylin, no running slouch himself, ran like the wind. Dommi was shocked at how fast the guy was, but he was fast too. And he ran behind him.
Dogs were barking as they ran through a back alley.
A mother with two small children grabbed them and pulled them back when the two men ran through the alley and across the sidewalk. Then they ran down the street.
Reno had gotten in his Porsche and now it was swerving around the corner as soon as Dom and Jaylin started running down the street. But Jaylin suddenly ducked into another alley, causing Dom to follow him, and causing Reno to upshift again and speed past the narrow alley, around the corner, and make his way toward another side street. And then he floored it.
And it worked. Because as soon as Jaylin ran out of that second alley, and across the sidewalk, Reno sped his Porsche right toward Jaylin so fast that as soon as Jaylin saw that sports car heading his way, he stopped in his tracks in stunned horror.
Reno, surprised that he stopped, slammed on brakes, causing his car to lurch from side to side as he struggled to maintain control of the powerful vehicle. A lesser man would not have been able to. But Reno wasn’t a lesser man. He maintained control as his car came to a complete stop within a half-inch of Jaylin’s stalled body.
And then Dommi ran out of that alley, across that sidewalk, and jumped on Jaylin, knocking him to the ground.
Reno sped around to the side of both men. Dommi grabbed Jaylin up and threw him into the two-seater, and then Dommi squeezed in too. They hadn’t expected to have to transport his ass or Reno would have kept Trina’s Mercedes. But they transported his still-stunned ass through those streets until Reno had turned enough corners, and left the immediate area. He found a good spot, a vacant lot on a dead-end street, and drove onto it. Vegas, to Reno, was the tale of two towns. The part everybody knew about and visited and loved. And this part.
Dommi got out of the car and slung Jaylin out so violently that Jaylin was thrown onto the dirt.
Reno, ever careful to look around and make sure they had no witnesses, walked around and gave Jaylin a swift kick. “Get your ass up!” he yelled.
Jaylin stood up, and then Dom slammed him against the car and held him there by the catch of his shirt.
“Tell us everything you know,” Reno said to Jaylin, “and don’t leave shit out.”
“What am I supposed to know?” asked Jaylin.
Dommi immediately began hitting Jaylin, with powerful licks, in his belly. “Am I refreshing your memory?” he yelled at him. “Am I refreshing your fucking memory?!”
“She needed some guys to fuck him up,” Jaylin quickly said. “She wanted me to find some guys. That’s all I know.”
But what he was saying didn’t make sense to Reno. Dommi either. “Fuck who up?” Reno asked Jaylin.
Jaylin looked at him as if he was crazy. “Your son,” he said as if it was an obvious fact. “What other motherfucker I’d be talking about?”
Dommi hit Jaylin again in the gut, causing Jaylin to bend in half in agony. “Remember who you’re talking to!” Dommi yelled.
But Reno knew he needed to take emotion out of it. He needed to back up, and listen. “Who’s she?” he asked Jaylin. “Who wanted you to find some guys?”
“And watch your mouth,” Dommi warned, as Jaylin stood back up erect.
“Amber,” Jaylin said. “Amber Petersen.”
“She wanted you to find guys to fuck up Dominic?”
Jaylin nodded. “Yes,” he said.
“You’re a lying motherfucker,” said Dommi. “Why would Am want me fucked up?”
“I’m just telling you what she told me,” said Jaylin. “I don’t know that girl like that. She’s good for a good fuck. That’s why I do her favors. That’s all I know about her.”
“What about the big girl?” asked Reno.
Jaylin frowned. “What big girl?”
“The girl she got those guys to gang rape,” said Dommi. “Don’t act like you don’t know what we’re talking about!”
“I don’t know!” Jaylin responded, forcing Dommi to hit him in the gut again.
But Reno wasn’t even looking at them. He saw what looked like a homeless man come from around a side wall much further away. The guy was putting his pecker back into his pants as if he had been back there peeing. When the homeless man saw Reno, Dom, and Jaylin, he quickly backed back behind the wall, like a man who didn’t want any trouble. But it was enough for Reno.
“Put him in the car,” Reno ordered Dommi. “We’ve got eyeballs.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Reno took no chances this time and drove to one of Sal’s safe houses around Vegas. He had the codes to all of them. This one, on the outskirts, was good for what they considered low-value targets. People who were incidental to the people they were after. People like Jaylin.
Reno pulled out his cellphone, typed the address into the app, and then typed the code into the keypad in his car. The garage door opened, and he drove into the garage. When the garage door was closed, the door inside the garage leading into the house opened, and the three men went inside.
The house was stark, and barely furnished at all, because it wasn’t meant as a hangout. This was meant as a one-off. And Dommi didn’t waste time. He grabbed Jaylin and slammed him down into a chair, and Reno got in front of him. The fact that Dommi, not Mariah, might have been their target kept Reno on edge.
“Why would Amber want you to find guys who could fuck up my son?” Reno asked him.
“I don’t know why. I’m trying to tell y’all. She didn’t tell me why and I didn’t give a fuck. I did a favor. That’s all I did. I put her in touch with the guys who could do what she wanted.”
“Harm my son?”
Jaylin nodded. “That’s what she said.”
“And she never mentioned any gang raping?”
“No! Never. Maybe that was part of the plan, to get your son to react or some shit like that, but she didn’t let me in on any of that. She just wanted Dominic Gabrini fucked up. She said everybody else she went to wouldn’t touch him with a ten-foot pole, because he was your boy.”
“Then why did your ass touch it?” Dommi asked.
“I didn’t touch it! I wasn’t fucking up any kid of Reno Gabrini’s, I’m not crazy. She just wanted the names of some guys who were crazy like that. She gave me what I wanted, which was some ass, and I gave her what she wanted. Which was some names. That’s all I did. She’s the one who went to’em. She’s the one who hired them.”
”For a price?” Reno asked.
“I guess so,” said Jaylin. “They may have been crazy fucks, but giving them ass wasn’t going to be enough to get them to go after your kid.”
But Dommi was shaking his head. “He’s lying, Pop,” he said. “I don’t believe a word he’s saying. He’s lying.”
Reno knew that was a possibility, too, but he also knew they needed to hear everything he was telling them, lies or not. “Who are those guys?” he asked Jaylin.
“Guys,” said Jaylin. “This is Vegas. You know what I mean.”
“No, we don’t know what you mean, asshole. Make it plain. Are they mob guys?”
“Yeah,” said Jaylin. “But not like what you know. Not like all them fuckers in your family.”
Dommi hit him hard across the face, causing Jaylin to whiplash.
Reno held onto Dommi’s hand as Dommi was about to give him another lick. “Which mob?” Reno
asked.
“You better tell your boy to cut that shit out,” said Jaylin.
“Which mob?” Reno asked again, still holding onto Dommi’s hand.
Jaylin said nothing, which surprised Dommi. Why was he suddenly clamming up?
“Who do they work for?” Reno asked anxiously this time, certain the shit was about to hit the fan.
“They didn’t work for anybody,” said Jaylin.
Reno stared at him. “Then who were they? They were in a mob family?”
Jaylin nodded. “One of them, yeah.”
“Who?” Reno asked.
Jaylin exhaled, as if he knew he couldn’t delay the truth from coming out much longer.
“Who?” Reno asked again, this time his face unable to conceal his fear.
Jaylin looked Reno dead in his eyes. “Coba,” said Jaylin.
“Coba?” Reno asked. But Jaylin kept looking at him as if he knew exactly who he meant.
“Who?” Reno asked again, frowning. But then it hit. And when it hit, it hit like a ton of bricks. He could hardly believe it. He wasn’t understanding it right. He couldn’t be understanding it right! “Cobahara?” he asked Jaylin.
Jaylin nodded. “That’s who Coba is. And you know it.”
“Are you telling me--,” Reno started to say, but Jaylin started smiling and nodding his head.
“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Jaylin said. “Your stupid fuck of a son just iced, not some random dude’s kid, but Ken Cobahara’s kid.”
Reno’s heart fell through his shoe, and his face turned ash-white.
Dommi could hardly believe the change in his father’s appearance. “What is it, Pop?” he asked him. “Who’s Coba? Who’s Cobahara, Pop?”
Reno couldn’t move. It was as if he’d just been hit by a train.
“Pop, what is it?” Dommi asked. “Pop!” But Reno continued to just stand there, as if he was internally weighing all of the horrific possibilities. “Pop, tell me what’s wrong,” Dommi asked him again.
“Call your uncle,” Reno finally said, and he was barely able to get the words out.
Reno Gabrini: The Trouble with Dommi Page 9