“That’s it. Why?”
“Because you won’t do! I was hoping we had a credible witness.”
Lee and Reno both looked at Shelton. “A credible witness?” Reno asked. “Lee’s a credible witness. He has a stellar reputation, what are you talking?”
“But he also happens to be your best friend,” Shelton pointed out. “That won’t wash. We need an independent witness, somebody with no skin in the game.”
“But Lee’s also a highly respected man,” one of the senior assistants said, and then all the other senior assistants started voicing their opinions about Lee, about Shay, about the entire affair too.
They were still voicing those opinions when Trina walked into the office. They didn’t see her, but Reno did, and his burdened heart lifted. And he hurried to his wife. Without saying a word to each other, they embraced. Reno closed his eyes tightly as he held her. It wasn’t because of what Shay’s allegations would put him through that hurt him the most, but what those allegations would put Trina through. Would put his family through.
When they stopped embracing, Trina studied him. “It’ll be all right,” she said reassuringly.
Reno nodded. “I know,” he said.
Then Trina looked around. “So what’s going on?” she asked. “What’s the game plan?”
And as soon as she asked it, too many voices tried to answer. Which was Reno’s management style. He liked to hear all kinds of disparate opinions. But it wasn’t Trina’s style at all.
“All right that’s enough,” she said over the noise. “Lee and Shell, you guys stay. Everybody else? Get out.”
Although it was obvious that the senior assistants did not like it one bit and wanted very much to remain a part of the action, there was also no hesitation on their part. Because there wasn’t a fool in the bunch. When Trina spoke a word to her husband’s staff, it was as if Reno had spoken it himself. And every one of them knew it. They left.
Then Trina walked over to the desk and leaned against the front of it. “What are our options, Shell?” she asked the attorney.
“It depends on a number of things,” Shelton said. He much preferred Trina’s one-on-one style over Reno’s chaotic, everybody has a say, madhouse style. “First and foremost, it depends on whether or not the allegations are true.”
“They’re not true,” Trina made clear. “They’re a pack of lies.”
Shelton, however, looked at Reno.
This angered Reno. “What are you looking at me for?” he blared. “You heard my wife. It’s not true. None of it!”
“Good. Okay,” Shelton said. “Then I say we call a press conference.”
“And say what?” Trina asked.
“We tell it all. We tell how much trouble she’s given Reno and his staff since she’s been headlining at the PaLargio. We dig into her past, find out about all of her bad relationships and if she ever made these types of allegations before. We pay friends and relatives to turn on her and plant stories in the press about her bad behavior and legendary temper. We,” he started to continue, but he noticed Trina was shaking her head. “No?” he asked.
“No,” Trina said. “What you’re suggesting sounds too much like blaming the victim.”
“What victim?” Lee asked.
“I know what you’re saying, Lee, but that’s how her legions of fans will see her. As the victim. It’ll backfire on us with the public if we take Shell’s approach. It’ll hurt Reno, it won’t help him. It could hurt the PaLargio.”
“It’ll be one of many approaches, Mrs. Gabrini,” Shelton pointed out. “I assure you. But it’ll also be a good first step. A press conference is a good way for us to get back on offense.”
“No,” Reno said as he made his way to the front of his desk and stood beside his wife. “I agree with Tree. Bashing Shay just makes us look petty. I want dirt on her, you’d better believe I do, but I’m not going before any cameras to ditch the dirt. Just get me the dirt,” Reno said.
“So you don’t mind looking guilty in the eyes of the public?” Shelton asked.
“I don’t give a fuck about how I look in the public,” Reno shot back.
Just as he did, Jimmy Mack came hurrying into his office. When he saw his parents, he stopped. “Did you guys hear the news?” he asked.
Reno hated that his son had to hear about that garbage. “We heard,” Trina said.
Jimmy hurried to them. “She’s lying,” he said as he approached them. His handsome face looked puzzled. “Why is she lying like this?”
Reno and Jimmy were now face to face. The last couple of times they were face to face, it wasn’t pretty. First, Jimmy had Reno pinned to the ground, his fist balled up as if he was ready to strike. Then Reno was calling Jimmy’s woman a whore, which Jimmy still was trying to get over. Their relationship had shifted since he met Melita. There was serious growing pains there now, as if Jimmy was fighting to come out of his cocoon and Reno was fighting to keep him in it. But their love was still rock solid. Nobody was ever going to get in the way of Reno and his son. Reno was going to see to that. He pulled Jimmy into his arms, closing his eyes tightly as he held him.
Jimmy hugged Reno vigorously too, and fought back tears as he held him. Trina looked at father and son and her heart swelled with relief. Reno handled things differently than most fathers did, but his heart was always in the right place. Sometimes Jimmy didn’t understand that. But he would, Trina decided as she watched him. Because there was a time when Trina didn’t understand it either. Now she understood it completely.
Father and son stopped embracing. And Jimmy suddenly felt protective of his father. “Want me to handle it, Pop?” he asked him.
Although Trina and Lee smiled, Reno didn’t. Because he knew Jimmy was fast becoming the kind of man who would soon be more than capable of handling it. And that side of Jimmy worried him sometimes. “No, son,” he said. “I got it. But thanks.”
“It’s crazy out front,” Jimmy said. “With all of those reporters, I mean.”
“It was like that when I tried to drive in too,” Trina said. “I had to take my car all the way around to the private entrance, something I hate doing. But the paparazzi were everywhere.”
“That’s going to be our biggest enemy, Reno,” Lee said.
“The media?” Jimmy asked.
“The media,” Lee said.
“But why? I mean, yeah, right now they’ll be hounding us. I can understand this being a hot story for a day or two. But not long term.”
“Oh, I would beg to differ with you on that, Jimmy Mack,” Lee said.
“But she made the allegation. Pop’s denying it. The cops are investigating it. What’s there to report on after that?”
“Shay Grayson is considered to be on the same level as a Beyoncé in the eyes of the public,” Lee said, “or a Madonna, or a Lady Gaga. She’s a pop princess. And she’s accusing Reno Gabrini, a superstar mogul in his own right, of trying to rape her. The paparazzi is going to play this up big time. Good looking casino owner with ties to the mob---”
“I don’t have any ties to the mob,” Reno corrected his friend.
“Your father was a mob boss, Reno, come on,” Lee explained. “Your ties, as far as the press is concerned, runs deep. The mob boss and the pop queen. That’s the headline. They’re going to have a field day with this.”
“So what is this?” Trina asked. “What’s the motive here?”
“Who knows?” Shelton responded. “But we’ll do everything in our power to find out.”
Reno looked at Lee. “You figure those clowns made it inside too?”
“Oh, yeah,” Lee said. “I ordered Security to stay on alert for any press people, but that’s a herculean task given how big that casino is, and how big this hotel is.”
“Get downstairs,” Reno said. “We’ll have to pull a fast one on them. You’ll make some kind of announcement over the intercom that all members of the media should go to the Blue Room for a press conference with me. Something like that. When you round t
hem all up in the Blue Room, then kick all of their asses out. Every one of them. Tell them they’ll be trespassing if they come back. They’ll probably be back anyway, disguised as tourists, but at least that’ll give us some time.”
“I’m on it,” Lee said, stood up, and left.
“Where’s Shay now?” Trina asked Reno.
“Holed up in her hotel room.”
“You mean to tell me she’s still here?” Jimmy asked. “That bitch is still in our hotel?”
“Her attorneys probably advised her to stay put,” Shelton said. “Because if it is some sort of publicity stunt, everything will revolve around this one location. It’ll keep the media focused and on her side, and her fans on her side, while the pressure will be on Reno for whatever it is she wants from him.”
But Reno could tell Trina wasn’t feeling it. “What is it, babe?” he asked her.
“This doesn’t feel like a publicity stunt to me,” Trina said. “I saw her allegations. It all seemed as if it wasn’t about her. It was about you. She was doing this to you, not to further any self-interest of hers, but to hurt you. This doesn’t feel like a publicity stunt to me.”
“Then what does it feel like to you?” Shelton asked.
Trina had to think before she answered. “It feels like extortion,” she said. “It feels like she knows she has something on Reno. Something big. Something so devastating that she can lie blatantly on him and believe she can get away with it without sullying her own reputation. This feels like extortion.”
Trina said this and looked up at everybody in the office. Everybody in the room, especially Reno, was staring at her.
But less than an hour later, Reno wasn’t just staring at her, but ordering her to leave Vegas.
“This isn’t necessary, Reno,” Trina said as she reluctantly packed her suitcase.
“It’s necessary,” Reno replied. They were in their bedroom. Reno was slumped in a chair, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles, while Trina was packing. And neither one of them was thrilled.
“But running away like this,” she said. “I don’t want to run away.”
“I’m sending you and the baby to Tommy’s,” Reno said. “That’s not running away.”
“But I don’t feel this is necessary.”
“I don’t care what you feel about it, Tree, you aren’t staying here. They are not going to be parading your face all over the TV every time you step out of your front door. We live in a hotel, remember? There’s thousands of people with cameras inside this hotel and our casino. These magazines will pay top dollar to get that photograph of the longsuffering, misbegotten wife. So around every slot machine is some fool taking your picture in hopes of getting themselves a big payday. I’m not allowing that. Not with you. I’m sending you and Dom to stay with Tommy until I can get this resolved.”
“But what’s to resolve, Reno? She lied. That’s it. That’s all.”
“That’s not all. Not according to me.”
Trina stopped and looked at him. Her face betrayed her anxiety. “You believe there’s more going on here. Don’t you? You don’t believe this came out of the blue.”
“I never believe that, Tree. You said so yourself. Coincidences do not happen in my life. I have too many enemies out there. Things don’t just happen in my life. I keep feeling like something’s bubbling, beneath the surface, waiting to explode.”
“Pop! Pop!” Jimmy’s voice could be heard entering the house and hurrying down the hall. Trina’s heart began to pound at the frenetic sound in Jimmy’s voice.
“We’re in here!” Reno yelled and looked at Trina. What now, was the look on his face.
“She recanted,” Jimmy said as soon as he entered their bedroom, his smartphone in his hand. “She took it back!”
Trina frowned. “Already?” She sat down the pair of underwear she was about to put in the suitcase, and walked from around the bed. “She’s recanting already?”
“She went on YouTube and said it was all lies.” Jimmy went to his father and handed him the phone. “She recanted the whole thing.”
Trina went over to Reno, too, and sat down on the arm of his chair, her small body leaning against his larger frame as Reno played the video on Jimmy’s phone. Jimmy knelt down on the opposite side of his father’s chair and watched too.
And there was Shay Grayson, seated in a lighted room, looking beautiful in her pearl white dress. She had the nerve, Trina thought, to be smiling. She had just accused a good man of trying to savagely rape her, but she was smiling now.
“I was under a lot of stress about performing every night,” she said on the video. “The fact that I was contractually obligated to do so for an entire year was getting to me. I’ve never done a Vegas show before, at least not for an entire year. I wanted out. Since he wouldn’t let me out of my contract, I lashed out. It was wrong, it was wrongheaded, but that’s what I did. Mr. Gabrini never behaved inappropriately towards me. Never. He’s been quite the gentleman, actually. And my behavior sullied his reputation. And for that, Mr. Gabrini, I am deeply sorry. I will continue to perform at the PaLargio at my highest level, as I have done every night since I’ve been here, and I hope we can move on from here and continue to have a positive business relationship. Thank-you all, and good day.”
And that was it. The video went dark. Trina and Jimmy looked at Reno. “Is it true, Pop?” Jimmy asked. “Did she try to get out of her contract?”
“Hell nall,” Reno said with an edge in his voice. “Her career wasn’t where it used to be. She hadn’t sold out stadiums in years. She needed the PaLargio more than we needed her.”
“Then why would she tell such a lie, and then take it all back?” Jimmy asked. “I mean, what performer in her right mind would admit to lying to get out of a contract? Nobody’s going to want to ever go into a contractual relationship with her ever again. She may want out again and may lie on them too.”
“And she looked so happy,” Trina said, “as if she was so relieved. As if the allegation was enough. As if a burden had been lifted from her.
Reno froze in place. Trina and Jimmy both felt the change in him.
“What is it, Ree?” Trina asked.
“What you said earlier,” he said. “You said it didn’t feel like a publicity stunt. You said it felt like extortion. Like she wasn’t trying to help herself, but was trying to hurt me.”
“Right.”
“It is extortion,” he said, as if he was convinced now. “But she wasn’t trying to extort me. Somebody was trying to extort her.” He said this and looked at Trina. “That’s why the allegation was enough. You were right about that too, Tree. All she had to do was get that allegation out there, and then she was released from the burden.”
“That’s why she was smiling,” Trina said. “Because the burden had been lifted.”
“Right.”
“And she immediately uploaded that video to YouTube recanting her story because it wasn’t her story to begin with.”
“Right,” Reno said again, loving how quickly Trina caught on. And then he stood up. Trina and Jimmy stood too. Reno began heading for the exit.
“Where are you going?” Trina asked him.
“To ditch the dirt,” he said. “To unearth the truth. Jimmy?” he asked.
“Yes, sir?” Jimmy responded, certain Reno was going to tell him, as he always did when he had to take care of this kind of business, to stay there and protect his wife and baby.
But Reno surprised him. “Come with me,” he ordered.
Jimmy could hardly believe it. He wanted to smile like some kid and thank his father for finally treating him like a grown-up, but he did no such thing. He simply nodded his head and hurried behind him.
“And Tree?” Reno said to his wife, just as he was about to leave out of the bedroom. He looked back at her with a look of complete confidence in his eyes. “Protect our child,” he said.
Trina’s heart swelled with pride and emotion. Reno now knew she was capable, al
l by herself, of doing that very thing. “I will,” she said just as confidently.
And Reno and Jimmy were off.
ELEVEN
Shay Grayson lay asleep in bed, her sleep mask covering her eyes, her naked body snug beneath the coverings. The naked man that had been asleep beside her had already been snatched out of bed. Now it was Shay’s time.
She screamed in fear when they grabbed her and slung her across the floor of the darkened bedroom. She scratched and clawed and kicked, but the men were too big and strong. She didn’t stand a chance.
But she didn’t stop until she was dragged into the front of the suite and deposited at the feet of Reno Gabrini. Reno sat in a chair in the middle of the room, with Jimmy Mack beside him and ten of his best men covering the room. The man who had been in bed beside Shay, was now sitting on the floor against the wall, trembling in fear.
Shay removed her sleep mask, looked at her terrified boyfriend, and then looked at Reno. “What do you want?” she asked him. “I apologized. It’s over. What more do you want?”
Reno stared at her.
“Can I at least put on some clothes?” she asked, looking down at her naked body. “Well can I? Reno? Reno!”
“Let’s get one thing straight,” he said. “If you have the impression that you’re running something here, you’re under a false impression. You don’t run shit here.”
“I apologized, Reno! There’s nothing else I can do!”
“Who threatened you?”
Shay stared at him. The change in her demeanor was subtle, but Reno saw it. “Nobody threatened me, what are you talking about?”
“Who threatened you?”
Shay hesitated again. “I told you I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“What did they have on you? Drug tape? Sex tape? Lesbian love affair? What?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Say that again,” Reno said, “and you’ll regret it. I assure you. Now you tell me the truth, Shay. Why did you lie on me? Who put you up to it?”
“Nobody put me up to it! Nobody! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full Page 11