And then there was the final photo where they were walking through the double doors of that restaurant, and Jody had his big ass hand on the small of Trina’s back.
Reno stared at that last photograph, and the fact that this man was touching his wife so intimately, and then he began walking again.
Only Reno was walking much faster now.
FIVE
“A toast,” Jody said as he lifted his glass toward Trina’s. They were at a booth inside the Carlton and had already placed their dinner orders. Now they were having a toast.
“And to what are we toasting?” Trina asked as she lifted her glass too.
“You, my dear,” Jody said. “Always you.”
Trina smiled, clanked her glass with his, and then sipped from her wine, looking at Jody as she did. He was definitely a looker, she thought, and had that swag in spades. But she didn’t get it. His showing up like this felt too surprising, too out of the blue for her comfort. She needed to keep this strictly business.
“You said you turned Moniff’s around,” she said. “It’s a high end clothing store just like mine.”
“Exactly,” Jody said.
“So how did you manage that? I heard they were doing even worse than Champagne’s. I heard they were in receivership.”
“They were close to that point, yes,” he said. “But I came in and didn’t just look at their books, but I looked at their approach as well. And you know what I found?”
“What?” Trina asked, completely interested.
“I found they had a high-end store with very low-end expectations. They were having sales and store busters and come one, come all just to move merchandise.”
“That’s what we have too. You have to have sales.”
“Why, Tree?” Jody asked. “Why would a high-end store like Champagne’s and Moniff’s need to put their clothes on sale?”
“Not just to move merchandise, although that’s critical,” Trina said, “but to drive in some foot traffic.”
“But what kind of foot traffic, Tree? Any random person off the street, or the kind of clientele that you know you will need to sustain your business in the long run? Wealthy people aren’t looking for deals. They’re looking for uniqueness, for some serious quality. The fact that they have to pay more is actually a turn-on for them. I mean, think about it. When you go shopping, what do you look for? The latest sale, or something different, something funky, something that makes a statement about you?”
Trina smiled. “You are so right, Jody. You are so right!”
“Sales and bargains may drive in the sales and bargains crowd, but they won’t do a thing for the kind of clientele your store is aimed at. The sales and bargains crowd, in fact, may run away the very customers you need. They don’t want to be like everybody else. They don’t want to walk down a street and see some regular girl in their outfit. They’ll never shop at Champagne’s again. So that’s what I do. I sell attitude. I change the entire mood of a business.”
“And it works?” Trina asked.
“Hell, yeah, it works. I utilize this brain the good Lord gave to me for optimum effect.”
Trina nodded. Yes, you do, she was about to say, but then she saw something very familiar in her periphery. When she looked toward the entrance, and saw her husband walking toward her booth, a part of her wasn’t surprised at all, and a part of her, the bigger part of her, was shocked.
“Reno?” she asked as he approached.
Jody, watching her, turned to where her eyes had wandered. And coming toward them was the man he used to work for. A man who fired him just for, in essence, calling his wife hot. He didn’t expect to see him tonight. But there he was, in his rumpled suit and messy hair, looking as if he couldn’t care less about fashion. Here goes, Jody thought, as he stood to his feet and buttoned his own expensive, but far better preserved, suit.
“What are you doing here?” Trina was asking her husband as Jody stood.
“I saw your car outside,” Reno lied. He looked at Jody.
“Hey, Reno,” Jody said with a smile. “Long time, no see.”
Reno looked him up and down. Handsome bastard, he thought. “How are you?” he asked.
“I’m good,” Jody said. “It’s good to see you again, man. I know we parted on less-than-friendly circumstances.”
Reno looked at Trina. She knew it too.
“So I suggest,” Jody suggested, “we start over again.” He extended his hand. “I’m Jody Parks. I take it you’re Katrina’s other half?”
Reno knew Jody’s old tricks. But before he blew his cool completely he had to make sure he was up to them right now. “Her better half,” Reno said with a mild smile as he shook Jody’s hand. Trina and Jody both were surprised.
“We were just talking about good business sense,” Jody said.
“Oh, yeah?” Reno said as he sat in the booth beside his wife. “That sounds all warm and fuzzy.”
Jody laughed, sitting down too. He knew he had to tread lightly with Reno.
Reno looked at his wife. “Speaking of warm and fuzzy,” he said as he leaned over to her and kissed her on the lips.
Trina inwardly smiled when he kissed her, although she was pissed that he had followed her, or, more likely, had her followed.
“How are you?” he asked her.
“I’m great. And you?”
“What are you doing here? I thought I told you to stay away from this character.”
Jody was surprised he had gone there this quickly, but Trina wasn’t. “He has some great ideas that could help me turn Champagne’s around. That’s what he does now. He’s a turnaround expert.”
“Oh, yeah? And what’s he good at turning around? His own bullshit?”
Jody laughed. “No, Reno. I’m good at turning around businesses. I take failing businesses and turn them around. Businesses like Champagne’s.”
“All Champagne’s need is a change in location. I put that store inside the PaLargio and it’ll run itself. Tree wouldn’t have to lift a finger. The solution is already at her fingertips. She doesn’t need you to tell her shit about that store.”
It was the first sign of Reno’s infamous temper. But it was subtle still, although both Trina and Jody felt the heat.
“Anyway,” Jody said, “I thought I could impart some of the lessons I’ve learned so that she could make her store a success right where it is. Which, if I understand her correctly, is what she ultimately wants.”
Reno stared at him. “And what’s the bottom line?”
“He says I need to change my perspective,” Trina said.
“She needs to change the way she views her business,” Jody added.
“No shit?” Reno said. “It’s just a mind thing, is it? It’s all in her mind?” Reno couldn’t believe Trina was sitting up here buying this crap. “So what does she have to do? Will the people in? Believe they’ll come, and they’ll come?”
“Reno, don’t start. It’s not like that. He’s giving me some good advice.”
Reno didn’t like the fact that she would let this guy within ten feet of her, let alone take his advice, but he held his peace.
“I apologized to Trina,” Jody said, “so I think I should apologize to you. Last year, when I intimated that your wife had some kind of interaction with me that wasn’t appropriate, I was as wrong as I could be. And I apologize for that. Will you accept my apology?”
Reno stared at him, as if he was genuinely touched by Jody’s apology, but Jody knew better. Reno was never touched by anything. He just didn’t want to show his true colors in front of his wife. “Yeah, sure,” Reno said without blinking an eye. “I accept it.”
Trina looked at Reno, amazed. “You do?”
Reno leaned back. “Why not? We’re all adults here. Used to be good friends. I have enough sense to know people can change. Most times they don’t, but sometimes they do.”
“And I have changed, Reno. I have a steady girlfriend, a thriving business, things are going better than
I ever thought they could when I left the PaLargio.”
When he left the PaLargio, Reno thought snidely. His ass was fired, but he was talking as if he simply walked away.
But Reno went along with the game. Trina was desperate to find a solution, anything to aid her business without his intervention, and then Jody comes along. With all of this great advice. And Trina was eating it up. So Reno held his peace. He even laughed and talked and placed his own drink and dinner orders. And then Trina needed to get some relief.
“Excuse me guys,” she said as she moved to get up. She had to use the restroom. She hated that she had to leave these two alone, but she had no choice. She really did have to go!
Reno stood, let her out, and then watched as she headed for the restrooms. He especially watched the various men watching her, prompting Jody to laugh.
Reno looked at him. “What’s so funny?” he asked.
“I see you’re very protective of your wife. And I don’t blame you. You can never be too careful nowadays.”
Reno studied Jody. Then he sat down, but not on the booth seat across from Jody where he and Tree had been sitting, but right next to him. Jody was immediately on guard.
“So, Reno,” he said nervously, “how about those Knicks?”
They both were from the New York/New Jersey area and grew up as Knicks fans. But Trina was out of sight now. Reno was done with the games.
“You’ve got all of this advice for my wife, do you?”
Jody’s heartbeat was quickening. “I was giving her some business pointers, yes.”
“You were giving my wife business pointers? Does that make sense to you? That you, a man with a small, shitty-ass business of his own, is going to give the wife of a man who owns one of the largest businesses in the entire state of Nevada some fucking business advice? That’s fucked up, wouldn’t you agree, Jody? I mean, wouldn’t even a fucked up sonafabitch like you would have to agree with that?”
“I’m not going to sit up here and take your insults, Reno,” Jody said angrily.
But Reno was angrier. He slung a gun out of his pocket, put it underneath the table, and pressed the barrel against Jody’s testicles. Jody wanted to jump out of the booth, but Reno pressed harder.
“You willing to sit up here now?” he asked him.
“Reno, this isn’t funny.”
“Funny? You think I’m trying to be funny? You think I play games, Joe? You’ve known me a long time. We used to run together, remember that? Have you ever known me to play games?”
Jody was sweating now, as his heart was racing with fear and his eyes were watering from just the thought of what one wrong move by Reno’s hand could do to him. He stared at Reno as if Reno was his lifeline. “No,” he said. “You don’t play games.”
“I do not. Even as a child I couldn’t do it. Hide-n-seek? Fuck that. Patty cakes? I got your cakes right here! But you get my point. Don’t you, Joe? If I wasn’t down with the game-playing as a kid, when the only thing a kid was good for was playing games, then imagine how much I hate it now?”
Reno turned serious, and pressed the barrel of his gun harder against Jody’s testicles, causing Jody to wince in pain. “Let me make myself perfectly clear,” he said. “You like my wife. I get that. You think she’s attractive. I get that too. You can think whatever you want to think about her. You can love her slamming body, her pretty face, her fingernail polish for all I care. It’s a free country and I don’t give a shit. But if you think for a second you’re going to seduce her or entice her or so much as speak a cockeyed word against her, then you’ve got another thought coming, brother.”
Jody was staring at Reno.
“I don’t know why you decided to pay her a visit. But I do know there’s a foul reason behind it. You’ve wanted my wife from the moment I introduced her to you. But I thought you were a loyal friend, and I dealt with that. But you showed me what you were about. You don’t know what loyalty means. And all of this shit about you changing, yeah, right. You change like a chameleon change.”
Then Reno pressed the barrel even harder. “Leave my wife alone,” he said. “Stay away from her or the next time, Jody, I will release this trigger. And there will be no question-and-answer session then. Just your balls flying like fucking balloons away from your ass.”
Reno stared at him longer. He remembered the man he used to know, and love. He remembered the man who disrespected his wife and had to leave his inner circle. And he hated that it had come to this, but it had come to this. He was an enemy now. There was no other way to view Jody Parks. And Reno never underestimated his enemies.
But that didn’t mean it wasn’t painful.
He withdrew the gun. “Get the fuck out of my face,” he said, put his gun away, and then stood to let Jody out of the booth.
Jody didn’t hesitate. He stood up, without attempting to explain a damn thing, and took off. He nearly ran out of that restaurant.
Once outside, he got in his car and took off. He nervously scrambled for his cell phone, found the number he needed, and pressed Send. He kept looking through his rearview mirror, to make sure none of Reno’s men were following him. But even though he didn’t see a soul, he still felt antsy.
“What?” the voice said on the other end of the line.
“I told you that fucker was crazy!” Jody yelled.
“Calm yourself down and tell me what happened. He showed up?”
“Hell yeah he showed up. Put a gun to my balls, man,” Jody said, and the guy on the other end laughed.
“That shit ain’t funny!” Jody screamed. “I almost pissed in my pants! Reno is crazy like that, I’m telling you. You’re messing with the wrong fucking one!”
“You don’t tell me who I’m messing with! I know his ass too.” Then there was a pause. “But I didn’t expect him to show up like that.”
“I didn’t either! I couldn’t believe it. It was working. I was doing just like you said. Her business was failing and I was selling her the answer. And she was buying it big time. Then Reno shows up and she clams up like everybody in that family does whenever he comes around. And it was over. He warned me to stay away from her, and I’m not about to try that man again. He’s crazy, I’m telling you. He’ll blow my balls off just like he threatened. He’s nuts!”
There was another pause. “Okay,” the voice said. “We’ll have to come at it from a different angle.”
“What angle?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“I figure my work is done,” Jody said. “I talked to her. I would have regained her confidence if Reno wouldn’t have shown up. Now it’s impossible. I figure I’m done.”
“You figure wrong,” the voice said. “Your ass isn’t anywhere near done. Nobody’s done until Reno falls.”
“Then shoot the motherfucker and drop his ass! What’s with all of this subterfuge and shit?”
“What an idiot! You think that’s all it takes? A bullet? I kill Reno, then what? How is he going to suffer if he’s dead? Knowing that joker I’ll probably be taking him out of his misery. No. We stick to the plan.”
“But the plan failed!”
“Plan B motherfucker! Haven’t you ever heard of a plan B?”
Jody closed his eyes. He was in bed with the devil. He knew it when they first came to him. He should have said no and let them ruin him right then and there. Because if they didn’t play this exactly right, and if this so-called plan B failed too, he was going to be the one suffering. And Reno was going to be the administrator of that suffering.
Within minutes of his departure, Trina returned to the table. When she saw Jody was no longer sitting there, she hesitated. Then sat down in the seat across from Reno. She folded her arms.
“What did you say to him?” she asked him.
“What do you mean?”
“What did you say to him, Reno, you know what I mean.”
Reno leaned back. “We talked, that’s all.”
“About me?”
“Yeah,
about you. So? I talk about you all the time.”
“Do you follow me all the time?”
Reno hesitated. “I told you I saw your car---”
“That’s bull, Reno! You have ninety-nine places you need to be, but coming across town to this nothing restaurant isn’t one of them. You wouldn’t be passing by this place unless you came by for a very specific reason. One of your goons saw me with Jody and ran and told it to you like the spineless yes men every last one of them are.”
Reno frowned. “Don’t you talk about my men that way.”
“I’ll talk about your men any gotdamn way I choose! Especially if you’re going to have them following me everywhere I go. I could understand if something was going down and you want your family protected. I could understand that. But nothing’s going on. There’s no heat around you. Yet you still have me followed like some gotdamn kid. And I don’t like it! Jody is an old friend. He said something stupid once, yes, but that doesn’t mean he’s vile through and through the way you make it seem. All he wanted to do was have dinner and talk about ways for me to improve my bottom line. That’s all. But now you ran him away too. All he wanted was to talk, Reno.”
“Yeah, sure.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what I said.”
“What did he do that’s so wrong?” Trina had a flustered look on her face right now. “All we did was laugh and talk and come over here to have dinner. That’s all he did. What’s so wrong about that?”
Reno didn’t feel like arguing with her. And she was right: he had too much to do than to sit up here trying to convince her that all of these so-called male friends of hers had one thing in mind for that friendship. He began to rise.
“You’re going to just leave? Tell me something, Reno!”
“Stay away from him,” Reno said firmly. “How about that?”
“Why?”
“Because I said so.”
“Not good enough. Why?”
“Because he wants to fuck you,” Reno said plainly. “Is that good enough?” Then he paused, staring at her. “I’ll have a car waiting for you after you have your dinner,” he said, and then he began to leave. But then he turned back around, went to her, and kissed her on the lips. He stared into her bright eyes. “You’re going back to the store?” he asked her.
Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full Page 5