Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full

by Mallory Monroe

  “So you recruited him.”

  “Didn’t have to. The homework was already done. His debt would get paid by a certain third party if he successfully cozied-up to Mrs. Gabrini. That was the deal. I’d get my money, since I for damn sure wasn’t going to get it from him, and he’d be debt free. At least free to rack up another trail of debt with me.” Compton said this with a smile too. “But he’s a smart cat, that’s why I kept letting him buy on credit. I knew he would be useful eventually. And he was taking care of business just like he was supposed to take care of business. Ladies like Jody and your wife was no exception. She liked that big, strapping, handsome black man. Until you interrupted his flow.”

  “Fuck his flow,” Reno said, and Compton laughed.

  “But that’s the deal, man. He was supposed to get close to your wife.”

  “Why would anybody want him close to my wife?”

  “Inside intel, if you ask me. But I’m just guessing. It’s not for me to know, and I for damn sure don’t care.”

  Reno didn’t want to ask the ultimate question too soon. That could end the conversation before he had all of his questions answered. “What about Shay Grayson?” he asked on a hunch. “She one of your customers too?”

  “Most definitely,” Compton said without hesitation. “One of my most faithful customers. But I’m sure you already knew that. Considering.”

  “Considering what?”

  Compton didn’t respond to that.

  “You recruited Shay too?”

  “Like I said, the work was already taken care of. I didn’t have to recruit anybody. They were already recruited. This certain third party knew I could persuade them to handle it. So I was paid to persuade. And I’m very persuasive.”

  “Are you saying Shay Grayson owed you money too?”

  “Come on, man! Money isn’t her issue. Being found out is. Being exposed is.”

  “As an addict?”

  “Among other things. Oh, I’ve got a treasure trove on that girl. She’s a freak from another planet! She was an easier recruit than Jody Parks.”

  Reno was impressed with his candor. But he knew that could be a set up too. “Why would you do this certain third party all of these favors?” Reno asked him.

  “Money.”

  “Your business is doing well, from everything I’ve heard. You aren’t exactly starving.”

  “Yeah, but it’s not every day somebody’s got the guts to go after the Gabrinis. That’s why they came to me. They knew I would be, how do I put it? A sympathetic ally.”

  “My son didn’t kill your brother,” Reno said flatly.

  “I don’t know that.”

  “Like hell you don’t. Those cops killed the kid that iced your brother.”

  “Yeah,” Compton said, “or they silenced the witness that could have fingered your son.”

  Reno knew trying to convince him of Jimmy’s innocence was pointless. “Who’s pulling the strings? Who’s this certain third party?”

  Compton frowned. “Lee Jones,” he said matter-of-factly. “Who the fuck else?”

  Reno’s heart slammed against his chest.

  Compton smiled when he sensed Reno’s distress. “Everybody in Vegas knows he can’t stand your ass. Everybody knows, that is,” he added, “except you.” Then he laughed. “That’s why I loved it. The PaLargio’s main man has been playing the great Reno Gabrini like a fiddle, and your Mafia ass didn’t have a clue! In the name of my brother’s memory, in the name of revenge alone, it doesn’t get any better than this!”

  Jimmy woke up later that next morning alone in bed. Which wasn’t unusual. Melita was an early bird. He was certain she was already in the kitchen as she usually was, preparing breakfast or just working on her computer.

  But when he got out of bed and saw a thin trail of blood on the hardwood floor, he frowned. “What the fuck?” he asked.

  He stood up, and began following that trail as it continued out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen. But Melita wasn’t in the kitchen the way she usually was in the mornings. But that trail of blood was there.

  He continued to follow the trail across the kitchen floor. He wanted to call her name, but words wouldn’t come. He couldn’t take his eyes, his hammering heart, or his concentration, off of that trail of blood.

  When he opened the kitchen door that led into the mudroom, where the trail still led, his heart dropped. No longer was there a trail of blood, but a bloodbath. On the walls, on the door, all over the floor. Blood everything.

  And that was when he panicked.

  “Melita!” he yelled. “Melita!”

  He searched the home, outside the home, calling her name. But there was no Melita. There was no response. Just the echo of his own voice.

  Reno sat on the front edge of his desk, his arms folded, as he listened to one of his young staffers make a pitch for why he felt he should become his chief of staff. The office was filled with such staffers, all hard at work, but this young man had an audience with Reno. Reno’s mind, however, was a million miles away. He had to think this thing through. Something was off about the whole thing, and he had to think it through.

  They were pointing the finger at Lee. First Shay accused Lee, and now Compton Durail was declaring Lee Jones, Reno’s best friend and right hand man, was out to get him. Lee Jones, Comp said, was playing him like a fiddle. Reno hadn’t told a soul. Not even Tree. She’d be as devastated as he was, and he was already devastated for both of them.

  But the young man stayed in his face, making a compelling case for himself. He wasn’t his smartest staffer, he was telling Reno, but he was his toughest. “And in our line of work,” the young man had the nerve to say, “toughness trumps smarts any day of the week.”

  Reno glanced at Boz, his security chief, who was also in the office. “Get a load of this kid,” Reno said jokingly. “Think he’s got the balls to move me out?”

  “He wish,” Boz replied, only he wasn’t joking at all.

  And that was when Jimmy entered the office, walked straight up to his father, and put a gun to his father’s head.

  The staffers gasped and jumped from their seats and Boz immediately moved to pull out his own weapon. But Reno held up a hand, ordering his man to stand down. Reno kept his eyes on his son.

  “Jimmy,” he said calmly, “pull that trigger now, or put that gun down.”

  Jimmy was trembling with anger.

  “Jimmy,” Reno said again, “pull that trigger now, or put that gun down.”

  Jimmy’s anger was already frayed, but when Reno repeated those words, his anger dissolved into despair. Which was what it looked like to Reno all along.

  Jimmy’s hand went limp and he removed the gun from his father’s head. Boz hurried over and took the gun out of Jimmy’s hand.

  Reno was still staring at his son. His despair was palpable. He looked at his staff. “Everybody out,” he said to them. And he didn’t have to ask twice. They were glad to go.

  “You too, Boz,” Reno said to his security man. Boz didn’t like it, but Reno was the boss. He left too.

  Now it was just father and son. And son was anguished.

  “What happened?” Reno asked him.

  “You know what happened,” Jimmy replied. “What did you do to her, Pop? How could you do that to me? You know I love her!”

  “Tell me what happened.”

  “Just tell me she’s alive. Tell me your men didn’t kill her.”

  Reno stared at his son. What the fuck! “Jimmy, what happened? Tell me what happened!”

  Jimmy looked at his father. It was the first time he realized his father might not have in Melita’s disappearance. Which scared him even more.

  A puzzled look engulfed him. “What are you talking?” he asked his father.

  “What are you talking?” his father asked him.

  “You don’t know? You didn’t order it?”

  “Order what, Jimmy? Tell me!”

  If Reno wasn’t behind it, J
immy thought, then who was? Knowing that his father wasn’t the mastermind made it more, not less, terrifying.

  “Melita,” Jimmy said.

  “What about Melita?”

  “I woke up. There was blood. In the mudroom, everywhere. And I can’t find her. I searched the house, I searched the neighborhood, I called her cell phone fifty times. But I can’t find her. I thought you. . . I thought you. . .”

  Reno ran his hand through his hair. Ever since Shay Grayson made that allegation against him, he’d been on edge, waiting for that next shoe to drop. He knew it wasn’t over. Jody Parks proved that. He had his people listening for chatter, to find out if any heat was on the street behind him, but nothing was turning up. Now this. They snatched Jimmy’s girlfriend just after Reno made clear there would be no marriage. As if whoever snatched her wanted to make sure Jimmy blamed Reno.

  It was all coming back to Reno.

  Somebody had a powerful motive against Reno.

  And he remembered what Compton said. Lee Jones was the one. He was the hater. He couldn’t stand Reno’s guts and everybody knew it. He was playing Reno. And everybody knew it.

  “Let’s go,” Reno said to his son, as he began walking toward the door.

  “Shouldn’t we call the cops, Pop?” Jimmy asked, still reeling by what he witnessed this morning, by the implications of a stranger abduction.

  “Let’s go!” Reno ordered this time, and Jimmy didn’t hesitate this time. He followed him.

  Lee Jones looked up from his desk when Reno and Jimmy walked in. He started to smile and welcome them, but he saw that cold look in Reno’s eyes.

  “Reno, hey,” he said. “What are you doing here?”

  But Reno wasn’t in the mood for conversation. He walked past Lee’s desk to the window behind him. Then he lifted the window, grabbed Lee violently, and slung his upper body out of that window.

  “Pop!” Jimmy yelled, stunned witless.

  “Reno, I can fall!” Lee was shouting. They were on the thirtieth floor and there wasn’t even a ledge outside. “What are you doing, Reno? Reno, I can fall!”

  But Reno knew exactly what he was doing. He had to hear the truth. Not some watered down version of the truth. But the gospel truth. “Admit you lied to me!” he yelled to his best friend.

  “Reno!”

  “Admit you lied!”

  “Reno!”

  “Pop!”

  “Admit you lied, motherfucker, or I’ll splatter your ass on that sidewalk, you know I will! Admit you lied!”

  Reno pushed Lee’s body further out of the window.

  “Okay!” Lee yelled. “I lied! I lied! I lied!”

  It broke Reno’s heart to hear him say it, but he pulled him back in. Jimmy was able to breathe again, and Lee moved over to the side wall, and then slid down to the floor.

  “Get up,” Reno ordered, but it was impossible. Lee’s legs were like mush and his heart felt as if it had been rammed down his throat. He could hardly speak, let alone move.

  Reno sat down too, behind Lee’s desk, and turned the swivel chair to face him. This wasn’t exactly easy for him either. But he had to know the truth. He was tired of this shit now.

  “Tell me,” Reno said

  Lee leaned his head back and stalled, like a man who knew he was on borrowed time.

  “Where’s Melita?” Jimmy asked him. “Do you know what happened to Melita?”

  “No,” Lee said. “I don’t know anything about that. I don’t. . .” He looked at Reno. “They made me,” he said.

  “Who made,” Jimmy started, but Reno cut him a look that stopped him cold. And Reno looked at Lee. He stared at Lee. He had to hear everything now. No more half-tales. Everything.

  And Lee continued telling it. “They said they’d kill her if I didn’t do it.”

  “Kill who?” Reno asked.

  “Melita?” Jimmy asked.

  “Tracy,” Lee said. “Our daughter.”

  Reno couldn’t believe his ears. “Your daughter? What daughter? You don’t have a daughter!”

  “Yes,” Lee said, nodding his head. “I do. And they found out about her. And they took her.”

  Jimmy looked at his father. Reno leaned forward, staring at Lee. “Somebody kidnapped your child?”

  “Yes. They said Shay had to make that public accusation against you, or they would kill Tracy.”

  Reno frowned. “But why would Shay agree?” he asked. “Why would she care?”

  Lee grimaced, as if the pain of just saying it was excruciating. “Three years ago, Shay was staying here, at the PaLargio. She was taking a few days off from her world tour, you remember. We. . . we hooked up. It was nothing to either one of us. She just had to have it all the time and I was just as good as anybody, I guess.” He exhaled. “But she got pregnant.”

  Jimmy was astounded. “Shay Grayson is the mother of your daughter?” he asked.

  “That’s why she made that accusation,” Lee continued. “To protect our child. We kept Tracy away from the spotlight. Far away from it. Shay went to Paris to have her, in a private villa, and we kept her away from the limelight. Nobody knew. Not even my best friend,” Lee said and looked at Reno.

  “But somebody took the kid?” Reno asked.

  “They took her. They found out where she was and took her. That’s why we had to do it, Reno. They already had Trace when they contacted me. They already had her. They let her go as soon as Shay’s allegations against you went public. And we put our child into hiding again. That’s why Shay was able to recant her story so quickly.”

  “Who took her, Lee?” Reno asked him.

  Lee frowned. “Nunzio,” he said. “I didn’t know who at the time, but I later found out it was Nunzio Bucardi.”

  Reno frowned. “Nunzio? He used to run with Frank Partanna.”

  Lee nodded and gave Reno a knowing look. Frank Partanna was the very mob boss who had killed Reno’s mob boss father years ago. Reno had ordered a retaliatory hit, taking out Partanna and most of his lieutenants, and he ordered those deaths on the day he married Trina.

  “But I heard Nunzio died recently,” Reno said.

  “He did,” Lee said.

  Reno stared at him. “You did it?”

  “I paid to have it done, yeah.”

  This hurt Reno to his core. “But why didn’t you come to me?” he asked him.

  “Why do you think, Reno? You nearly killed me even when you wasn’t certain I had something to do with those allegations. Imagine what you would have done to me if you knew I was behind it?”

  Reno frowned. “You were protecting your child, Lee! I would have done the same thing you did if somebody would have grabbed Jimmy or Dommi, what are you talking? I’m not heartless!” Reno said this in such a heartfelt way that it broke Jimmy’s heart.

  Then Reno thought about it. “Nunzio Bucardi?” he asked. “What would he have against me?” Then Reno’s face lit up. And he remembered Monk Maretti, and how he was one of Frank Partanna’s lieutenants too, and how he was one of the ones killed that day on Reno’s orders. And how his girlfriend at the time, the same girlfriend who left Reno to be with Monk, was . . . Reno looked at Jimmy. “Melita,” he said out loud.

  “What about her?” Jimmy anxiously asked him.

  Then Reno remembered what she said to him in that mall parking lot. You took my heart, she’d said, but one day somebody’s going to take yours. Monk Maretti was her heart, and he was killed on Reno’s orders.

  Tree was Reno’s heart.

  He hurried from behind that desk.

  “Pop, what is it?” Jimmy asked, astounded by his father’s sudden movement.

  “Get Boz, Lee!” Reno yelled as he ran. “Tell him to get a crew to Champagne’s!”

  Lee quickly stood to his feet to do Reno’s bidding.

  “Champagne’s?” Jimmy asked as he hurried behind his father. “Why would she be at Champagne’s?”

  But Reno wasn’t answering. He was too busy running and on his cell phone at the same
time. He was calling the guard he had watching Trina, so that he could make sure she was alright, and with his second phone he was calling Tree herself. But neither picked up. Both phones just kept on ringing.

  NINETEEN

  Five minutes before Reno had phoned Trina’s bodyguard, Melita Murphy was driving into Champagne’s parking lot. She spotted the bodyguard’s car easily. She’d already scoped him some time ago, when she ordered Comp to have Jody Parks take Trina out to dinner. The bodyguard started taking pictures of the twosome as they entered the Carlton, then he apparently fed those photos to Reno, and Reno suddenly showed up. So Melita already knew which car, and the man in that car, belonged to Reno. She parked her car behind his.

  She got out, like a normal high end customer, and began walking pass the bodyguard’s car. He had his window down, and was watching her threw his car’s mirror, but as she approached him she dropped her gloves, turned around to stoop down, and revealed her panties as she picked them back up. When she continued walking, she knew she had his undivided attention. But not on her. On her body. And that was why, when she pulled out her silencer gun, and shot him in the head, he didn’t know what hit him.

  As his body slumped over dead, she placed the gun back in her purse and kept on walking. She walked swiftly toward Champagne’s. His phone started ringing before she entered the door.

  Inside the store, Trina’s cellphone was ringing too. Only it was in her bag, and her bag was upstairs, locked in a drawer, in her office. She saw Melita walk in, and it surprised her to see her there. But there were two other customers in the store, and Trina was assisting them both. As usual this early, she was the only person in the store.

  “Hi, Mrs. Gabrini,” Melita said with a grand smile as she entered the small store.

  Trina looked up, from a customer she was assisting, and waved without any grand smiling, and she continued to assist her customer.

  Melita walked around the store, as if she were looking at clothes, but really she was checking out the personnel. Nobody was in there but Trina and the two customers, from what she could see although she wasn’t sure if anybody was upstairs. And the cameras were all over the place. But she didn’t care about detection. She wanted Reno to see her killing his wife. She cared about doing the job and getting it done. Then she was going to disappear. She’d done it before. After Monk died she dropped off the face of this earth. Didn’t want to have anything to do with anybody. But she kept up with Reno. She watched him from a distance, studying her boyfriend’s killer, and she learned his weakness. She was standing at the counter watching his weakness right now.