But as she stood at that counter, she reached over and pulled the plug on the store phone.
“I’ll be with you in just a moment,” Trina said to her as she hurried behind the counter to ring up her customer’s purchases. The other customer was leaving without buying anything and Melita knew, as soon as this last customer left, she had to make her move and make it fast. And afterwards, from a safe distance away, she would watch Reno mourn his beloved’s death. And his son, Jimmy, would mourn too and grow bitter about how she so easily manipulated him. And Reno would be even angrier, and would track her down like an animal, but he’d never find her. He’d never rest, because he’d never find her. And then, and only then, would Melita feel as if they were even.
The store phone upstairs started ringing as the customer grabbed her bag of purchases, said her goodbyes, and left. Melita knew now was the time. She had to strike now.
Trina wondered why the phone on the counter wasn’t ringing, but the one upstairs was, but Melita distracted her.
“Back away from the counter,” she said before Trina could reach for the unplugged cord.
Trina looked at her. “Excuse me?”
Melita pulled out her gun, pointed it directly at Trina. Trina immediately backed up. “Oh. So you heard me after all?”
Trina’s heart hammered. Her eyes stared, not at the gun, but at Melita. “What are you doing, Melita?”
“I’m pointing a gun at you, that’s what I’m doing. I’m about to murder Reno’s heart, that’s what I’m doing.”
She began walking behind the counter. Trina’s eyes were moving from side to side, to see what she could grab, what she could turn into a weapon, as she came.
“Just like Monk was mine,” Melita continued, “you’re Reno’s. I loved Monk. I loved him so much. And he loved me. We were going to get married.”
“But you’re going to marry Jimmy now,” Trina said, although she couldn’t care less about what she was saying. It was all about stalling, all about searching for something she could use.
“That’s right,” Melita said. “I was in love with Jimmy and going to marry him. Give me a break,” she said as if she was offended. “Even your dumbass should know better than that. What would I want with some kid like him? Jimmy got me in the door. That’s all. I could have gotten in through Reno, trust me on that. Reno still wants to fuck my fine ass. You saw how he was looking at me. But I hate the sight of him now, and couldn’t bear him touching me.”
She was face to face with Trina now. “We were going to be married,” she said. “Monk loved me and we were going to get married. But on the day Reno married you,” Melita said, pressing the barrel of the gun against Trina’s temple, causing Trina to wince, “he ordered the murder of my beloved.”
Trina shook her head. “No.”
“Yes!” Melita screamed. “Yes he did! Monk was working for Frank Partanna and Reno ordered the hit on all of them! Including the man I loved!”
“Who’s Frank Partanna?” Trina asked. She knew exactly who he was. She knew he murdered Reno’s father. But she had to buy some time.
“He was marrying you,” Melita said, ignoring her question, “while Monk was being shot down like a dog! And that’s why,” she added, pressing the barrel harder, “I’m going to shoot you down the same way!”
“No,” Trina said, shaking her head, tears in her eyes. She had nothing. Nothing she could grab. Nothing she could fight with.
“Yes,” Melita said. “Oh, yes. I’ve been waiting for this too long. I wanted Reno to worry about you. About Jimmy. About that big-headed baby of yours.” Then she smiled. “Jimmy thinks I’m dead. I set it all up this morning. And he thinks Reno killed me. So I assure you, Reno is very occupied right now. Jimmy loves me and he’ll kill his father if he thinks he harmed me. But Reno will beat him to the punch. You don’t just shoot down Reno. So he’ll probably have to kill Jimmy this morning, which would be like icing on the cake. His son dead by his own hands. It’ll be fantastic! And then you will be dead too. His wife. His heart. You are going to die this morning, Mrs. Gabrini.”
“No,” Trina said again, crying but thinking, wishing she had a busier store and a customer would come through that door. Anybody to distract this fool! And where, she wondered, was the guard Reno had watching her?
“You’re going to die this morning,” Melita said again. “Yes, you are. And I’m going to dance on your body after you fall.” She was just about to pull the trigger. But Trina screamed and bum rushed Melita like a bull, throwing her body against her and immediately dislodging the weapon. Melita scrambled to pick it up, but Trina knocked her down and went for the gun herself. And they started fighting.
Melita was no match for Trina. She was pulling Melita’s hair and kicking her and knocking her in the face every chance she could. Trina was fighting for her life and she knew it. But she had to get that gun. She couldn’t let Melita get that gun!
But Melita was closer and more agile, and she got it. She snatched up the gun just as Trina was about to and, scrambling on her back, she pointed it at Trina. “Try me again, motherfucker!” Melita yelled. “Now get your ass up!”
Melita got to her feet. “Get up!” she yelled at Trina, and Trina slowly stood up. She fought gallantly. She knew she kicked Melita’s ass. But Melita ended up with the gun. Melita ended up with Trina’s life in her hands. And Trina suddenly felt, for the first time, that it might be over after all. For the first time in her life, she felt hopeless.
“Reno!” she cried. “Reno!” she screamed.
“You want Reno?” Melita asked, glad to exploit her weakness.
“I want Reno,” Trina said, refusing to deny it.
“Beg for him,” Melita said. “Beg all you want. But you’ll never get him.” She cocked her pistol. “You’ll never see him alive again!”
“Drop it, Mel, or I’ll blow your brains out!”
Trina couldn’t believe it. It was Reno! He and Jimmy had just ran into the store and his weapon was drawn.
But Melita was quick. She grabbed Trina, put her in front, and pressed the gun against the side of Trina’s face.
“You’ll have to blow her brains out first!” Melita yelled.
“Drop it,” Reno said, walking toward the counter, refusing to drop his weapon, refusing to take his eyes off of her. “You will not harm my wife.”
But Jimmy was stunned. “What are you doing, Lita?” he asked her. He could hardly believe his eyes. “What are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
“What are you doing?”
“Stay out of this!” she yelled.
“Stay out of . . . what are you talking? That’s my mother, Melita! Why would you hurt my mother?”
“The same way your father hurt me! He killed my man, the love of my life! Now I’m killing the love of his!”
“But you said you loved me, though,” Jimmy said, still confused. “You said you wanted to be with me!”
“I wasn’t thinking about you!” Melita said with purposeful hate. It cut Jimmy like a knife. “I wanted to hurt your father! I tried everything! But I knew nothing was going to work until I got her!”
And Melita cocked her weapon again, and Reno didn’t hesitate. He shot Melita. He shot her in the only part of her body showing, her shoulder. And as she grabbed her shoulder by reflex, the gun dropped from her hand.
Although Trina was traumatized, and terrified, she wasn’t so thrown that she couldn’t grab that gun Melita had dropped. She grabbed it as quickly as it fell from Mel’s hand. Reno jumped over the counter, and pushed Trina out of the way just as Melita was about to rush her, to take the gun away. The door to the store flung open, and Reno’s men rushed in. They had left the PaLargio just behind Reno, but Reno was driving like a wild man and left them far behind.
Melita, still in pain, still holding her bleeding shoulder, looked at Reno with pure hatred in her eyes. “You should have killed me,” she said. “You’ll rue the day you didn’t kill
me. Your wife will rue the day. I won’t rest until I do to her what you did to my man. I won’t rest, I tell you, until I see her sleeping in her grave!”
Reno stared at her. And he didn’t blink. “I’d much rather see you sleeping in yours,” he said, and shot her between the eyes.
She just stood there, as if she couldn’t believe this was her end, and then she dropped down hard, with a powerful thump. As if she was dead, and there was no doubt about it.
Reno exhaled. He felt like a brutal animal sometimes, having to do this unspeakable thing over and over. But he had to do it. Nobody was going to make it their life’s work to end his wife’s life, and live to tell about it.
“Clean this shit up fast!” Reno ordered his men, and they hurried to collect the body, to clean up the blood, and to remove all cameras.
Reno looked at his wife. She hated, too, that that painful last step always fell on him, and she hurried into his arms.
His heart was still pounding. He thought he was going to have a heart attack getting over here. He missed so many signs. He should have seen this coming like a Mack truck, but he didn’t see shit.
“You’re going to be fine, babe,” he said as she looked up to him with such innocent, bewildered eyes. “We’re going to be fine.”
“I called for you,” she said, “and you came.” The tears returned. “You came,” she said again, and then fell into his arms again.
She looked down, at Melita, as Reno’s men rolled her in a rug to prepare to discard her. And then she remembered.
Oh my Lord, she thought, and quickly looked at Jimmy.
Reno was already looking at him. He was just standing there, looking lost, Trina thought. And she and Reno walked over to him, and pulled him in their arms. They expected him to ask why. They expected anger, sadness, bitterness from him. But they got nothing. He said nothing. He hugged his parents, but he didn’t say a mumbling word.
Reno pulled back and looked at his son. “I’m sorry, Jimmy, but I couldn’t allow her to be around to terrorize my wife.”
Jimmy finally nodded his head, and spoke up. “I know that,” he said firmly. “Bitch got what she deserved.”
He said it, and he looked tough when he said it, but then he broke down into tears and fell, once again, into his parents’ arms.
EPILOGUE
He ran to the elevator but couldn’t wait. So he took the stairs. Two at a time, three at a time, until he was on the third floor. He rounded the corner, to the nurse’s station, but the only nurse back there was on the telephone. He tried to get her attention, and kept demanding her attention, but she kept holding up a meaty finger. He had to wait, she said. But he couldn’t.
He ran down the corridor, looking in every room he passed, until he looked in the fourth room on the right hand side, and saw Jimmy. Sitting there. Like nothing never happened.
He hurried into the room and rounded the curtain that kept any passerby from viewing the patient. When Jimmy saw him, he smiled.
“Hey, Pop,” he said.
“Hey, Pop?” Reno asked, looking at the empty bed in the room. “How could you say a thing like that? Where is she? Is she all right? They told me they rushed her to the hospital, that’s all they knew. I said what are you talking? But that’s all they knew.”
“I’m fine, Reno,” Trina said as she was coming out of the bathroom. She wore the same pants and blouse she wore this morning. And she looked fine to him. Which puzzled him.
“They said they rushed you to the hospital,” he said, “and here you come walking out like Miss America.”
Jimmy laughed.
“I feel like shit,” Trina said. “Does that help?”
“But what happened?” Reno wanted to know.
Trina sat on the edge of the bed. “Nothing happened. I got a little dizzy.”
Reno frowned. “Another one of your fainting spells.”
“No,” she started.
“Yes,” Jimmy finished. “Only she passed out this time.”
Reno exhaled, opened his suit coat, and placed his hands on his hips. “I knew it would come to this. I knew if I let you keep that store where it was you were going to work yourself into the ground---”
“It’s not like that, Reno,” Trina said.
“It’s exactly like that. I give you the green light to stay where you are, and you’re falling out and being rushed to the hospital and you expect me to believe that’s normal behavior.”
“I’m not working too hard.”
“Like hell you aren’t!”
“I’m pregnant,” she said.
“Every night you . . .” Reno stared at her. Jimmy started smiling. “You’re what?”
“Pregnant,” Trina said. “I’m fine, but I’m pregnant.”
Reno’s heart swelled with excitement. Another son? Or maybe a daughter this time. But then he remembered. Wait a minute. “But is it safe?” he asked her. “At your age, I mean.”
Trina took the pillow off of the bed and flung it at Reno. He ducked.
“Good move, Pop!” Jimmy said.
“I don’t mean it like that!” Reno clarified. “I mean, when we had Dommi, and that was three years ago, the doctor said it was risky for a woman over thirty even then. Now you’re three years older. I just. . . I didn’t mean it like that.”
Trina smiled. Being angry with Reno was an impossibility. “Come here,” she said.
Reno went to her. They clasped hands.
“I want you to promise me something, Reno,” she said.
“Anything,” he said.
“Wrong answer,” Jimmy said.
“I want you to promise that you will not be crazy with this pregnancy like you were with Dommi.”
“Crazy? Who was crazy?”
“I mean it Reno!” Trina said. “I was contemplating murdering you back then!” Jimmy laughed. The Nurse entered the room.
Trina looked at the nurse, then looked back at her husband. “Will you promise me, Reno?”
Reno looked at his wife, and exhaled. “I promise,” he said with a smile.
“Thank-you,” Trina said heartfelt.
“Here’s the prescription for your prenatal vitamins, Mrs. Gabrini,” the nurse said cheerfully. “The only recommendation is that you follow up with your OB/GYN.”
“I will.”
“She will,” Reno said.
“We don’t have a wheelchair available now,” the nurse said, “but you should be fine.”
“I’m fine,” Trina said, grabbing her purse off of the bed and standing up.
“What are you doing?” Reno asked.
Trina looked at him. “What do you think I’m doing? I’m going home.”
“Where’s the wheelchair?”
“I don’t need a wheelchair.”
“Yes you do!” Reno insisted.
“Didn’t you hear the lady? She said they didn’t have one available right now.”
“Bet I’ll find you one,” Reno said and began hurrying toward the exit. “No wife of mine is walking anywhere in that condition. You’re pregnant, for crying out loud. What wrong with these people!”
“Oh, Jesus,” Trina said, shaking her head, unable to contain her happiness and what she knew was going to be her frustration. “That man is going to drive me up several walls!”
Jimmy laughed, but it was no laughing matter to him. He’d give his right arm, and a leg and an ear beside, to have that kind of love, that kind of devotion, that kind of care in his own life.
But he knew Trina was right. Reno, more so than the pregnancy, was going to be a handful.
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Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full Page 20