Jimmy’s heart was pounding at the thought of Ashley involved in this. “You’ll tell them she had nothing to do with it, Coop. You’ll have to convince them.”
“They won’t believe us!” Ashley yelled out as if to get it through his thick skull. “Especially when they find out.”
Jimmy didn’t understand. “When they find out what?”
Ashley looked at Cooper and then folded her arms. She shook her head.
“What?” Jimmy asked, his heart pounding. “Find out what?”
“That she’s on probation,” Cooper said. “That she’s on probation for drugs.”
Jimmy looked at Ashley. He couldn’t believe it. “Drugs?”
“I had just turned eighteen when it happened, and was hanging out with the wrong crowd. I was driving this dude’s car and he had drugs in them. I didn’t even know they were in the car. But the cops wouldn’t believe me when I told’em they didn’t belong to me. They gave me a suspended sentence and put me on probation, but I can’t violate my terms, Jimmy, or they promised I would do some serious years.”
Cooper finally looked at Jimmy. “Now you see, Mack?” he said. “We can’t call no cops. At least not with this body still in our house.”
Jimmy felt as if he was on information overload. His girl, the woman he loved, was on probation for drugs and he didn’t even know about it. And now this. A dead man right at his feet. And they didn’t want to call the authorities. Which was crazy. They had to call the authorities! What else could they do?
Now Jimmy felt as if he was grasping at straws. “Maybe you can say Ash wasn’t here,” he said to Cooper. Given the severity of the body situation they had on their hands, her drug arrest had to take a backseat.
“That won’t work either,” Cooper said.
“Why not?” Jimmy asked. “You can say she showed up after you called 911.”
“And all it will take is one neighbor saying they saw her outside in the yard earlier today, or opening the door for you, or whatever. And then we’d get an additional charge of lying to police.”
Jimmy shook his head. This was like a nightmare. “So what are you gonna do, Coop? What can you do?”
Cooper looked at the body again. “We’ve got to move it,” he said.
Jimmy looked at him. “Move it? Move what? This body?”
Cooper and Ashley both looked at Jimmy, as if they both had reached that conclusion before he even arrived there. “Yes,” Ashley said.
“Are you out of your mind?” Jimmy replied. “We can’t move a body!”
“We have to, Jimmy!” Ashley said, running to him and throwing her arms around him. She looked up into his face with those same puppy dog eyes he fell in love with. “Or they’ll put me and my brother in prison. You’ve got to believe me. I couldn’t survive something like that. I’d kill myself before I could handle something like that!”
“But moving a dead body!” Jimmy was still unable to work his brain around such a crazy thought.
“After we move it we’ll call the police. We’ll call anonymously and tell them where they can find the body. But they won’t be able to trace him to this house.”
“But how do you know?” Jimmy asked. “What if he told his friends he was coming here? What if a neighbor saw him come here?”
“They we’ll say he came over, but then he left,” Cooper said. Then he exhaled. “There’s no other way, Mack,” he said.
But Jimmy wasn’t ready to believe that. He pulled out his cell phone. Ashley immediately grabbed it from him. “What are you doing?” she asked him.
“I think I should call my father.”
“What?” Ashley and Cooper both said simultaneously, as if Jimmy calling his father was no different than him calling the cops.
“You know you can’t call your father, are you nuts?” Cooper asked him.
“But you don’t understand. He can help us.”
“No!” Ashley said forcefully. “He doesn’t even like me. I saw how he was looking at me at the Shell. There’s no way he’ll help me.”
“But he will!”
“No, Mack, no!” Cooper said. “Now either you help us, or you leave. Those are your options.”
Jimmy looked at his best friend and his girlfriend. And then he looked at that poor guy on the floor. It was an overdose, how could they be blamed for that? But Jimmy realized how. Because they were young, and Ash had a record already, and because he died doing drugs in their home. They probably didn’t stand a chance.
Trina stood in the middle of the empty storefront with Gemma Jones and Liz Mertan flanking her. The realtor, a tall, thin woman with long red hair, was singing the praises of the place. But Trina remained, as she had with all those other “wonderful” places, unconvinced.
“What’s the matter this time, Tree?” Gemma asked her. “It’ll be beautiful once we get it painted and get the floors redone, and get furniture in here.”
“I’m sure it will be. But I’m just not convinced that this is where I want to stake my claim. I’m not sure if this is the best location in the entire city that we can get. Location is everything when we make this kind of deal.”
“It’s not our first choice, no,” Liz admitted. “The Pa-Lar-gi-o would be our first choice,” she added. She purposely pronounced the name of Reno’s hotel and casino with an overplay on the word that many upscale wannabes assumed sounded chic. To Trina, however, that overplay made the hotel’s name, and the wannabe pronouncing it, sound more cheeky than chic.
“This is a good location,” Gemma said. “Is it choice? No. Is it on the Strip? No. But it’ll be a good start.”
“I still don’t understand why you won’t at least ask your husband if he could make room for us at the Pa-Lar-gi-o,” Liz chimed in. She was unabashedly disappointed that Trina was being so stubborn. She thought Trina’s only claim to fame was the fact that she married well, and now she didn’t want to use those connections to get further ahead? It made no sense at all to Liz.
But Trina wasn’t trying to hear her. She moved away from the girls and walked over to the large picture window in the front of the store. She could see it. She could see the mannequins in the window and the glam clothes all over the store. But was this the best spot, she kept asking herself as she looked out into a fairly busy area. The Strip, no doubt, would be the best spot, and the PaLargio even better, but she wasn’t dragging Reno into this. He didn’t have a foot of space to spare at the PaLargio and she wasn’t going to abuse her privileges as his wife to cause somebody else to lose their prime location. Reno respected her integrity above all else, and she intended to keep it that way.
Her cell phone began to ring just as she was about to turn around and agree to the location for their new boutique. She assumed it was Reno checking up on her, but when she looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Jimmy, she quickly answered. Although he was Reno’s son from another woman, Trina loved that sweet young man as if he were her own.
“Hey, Bud,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Where are you?”
“I’m looking at some real estate. Where are you?”
“I’m over on Clydesdale, at this bar called the Pointe. You know where that is?”
“Sure I know the Pointe. But the point is, why are you in a bar, young man?”
“It’s a long story, Ma. Can you come?”
“Can I come? When?”
“Now,” Jimmy said. “I need your help.”
Something in the way he spoke made Trina certain that he was in trouble. Maybe it was all those years dealing with bad news boyfriends who had that same hesitation in their voices whenever they phoned her with bad news. “But you’re okay, though, right?” she asked him.
“Yeah, sure, I’m . . .,” Jimmy started. Then that hesitation again. “Yeah, I’m okay,” he continued. “But can you come?”
“Yes. Yes, of course I’ll come. I’m on my way.”
“Thanks, Ma. I’ll be in a booth near the back, just pass the bar.”
“I’ll be there,” Trina said, and ended the call.
“You have to go?” Gemma asked her.
“Yes,” she said as she placed her phone back into her purse and began to head for the exit.
“But what about this location?” Liz asked her.
“I’m in,” Trina said. “Draw up the paperwork,” she said to Gemma. “And I’ll sign.”
Gemma and Liz smiled and high-fived in a hand-clasp. But Trina didn’t look back. Jimmy was on her mind.
But as soon as she got into her Mercedes and began driving away, she called Reno. Jimmy undoubtedly phoned her because he was into something he didn’t want Reno to know about, but Reno was his father. He, Trina felt, had a right to know.
It would take several rings before he answered. Which undoubtedly meant, she knew, that he was overwhelmed with work once again.
“Tree, I’m busy,” he said when he did bother to answer.
“Too busy to talk to me?”
“Never,” he quickly recovered in a voice so distracted that Trina knew he was lying. “What is it?”
“It’s your son,” she said.
“Tell Crawley I’m not signing that clown show again, I don’t care how much it’s supposed to benefit charity. Write a check to charity and cancel the show. What about our son?”
“I thought I told you to take it easy, Reno.”
“I am taking it easy. This is easy for me. Now what’s this about our son?”
“He phoned and asked me to meet him at the Pointe.”
“The Pointe? That shithole over on Clydesdale?”
“That’s the place.”
“What the fuck he’s doing over there?”
“He didn’t say over the phone. He asked me to come. He said he needed my help. I thought you could meet us over there too.”
“Where are you now?”
“I’m heading to the Pointe as we speak.”
“Like hell you are,” Reno said firmly. “You turn that Mercedes around right this minute and come straight home.”
Trina couldn’t believe it. “But he called me!”
“I don’t give a fuck who he called! You bring your ass home, Tree. Now.”
“But what about Jimmy?”
“I’ll handle Jimmy. I’ll go and see what he wants.”
“But Reno!”
“Don’t you but, Reno me, Tree. I mean it now. I don’t want you anywhere near that drug-infested hellhole over there. Nowhere near it! So bring your ass home.”
Trina knew Jimmy was going to feel betrayed when Reno showed up instead of her, but what could she do? Show up anyway? She could, but only if she wanted Reno’s foot up her ass.
She turned her Mercedes around, and headed back home.
CHAPTER FIVE
“She’s taking her pretty time getting here,” Cooper said as he upturned another glass of beer. They were in a back booth at the Pointe, with Cooper seated on one side and Jimmy Mack and Ashley on the seat on the opposite side. Cooper had his feet up on the table.
“She said she’ll be here,” Jimmy Mack said. “She’ll be here.”
“This is turning into a nightmare!” Cooper said anxiously. “What if they find us? What if they rush in here with guns blazing?”
“They won’t find us,” Jimmy Mack reassured. He knew they were in trouble, but he didn’t see how getting all unhinged the way Cooper was would help anything. “I lost them. They have no idea where we are.”
Which Ashley knew was the problem. Jimmy had managed to lose them. Now what were they supposed to do? Eddie never told her what she was supposed to do if Jimmy lost his tail. In their nervousness as they got the body out of the house, she left her cell phone at home. She went to the bathroom, to try and use a phone of any of the females that were hurrying in and out, but nobody had a phone. Or at least that was what they told her.
“What I don’t understand,” Jimmy said, “is who was following us, and what did they want?” He said this and stared at Cooper.
“What are you looking at me for?” Cooper asked nervously. “I’m as in the dark about all of this craziness as you are! I was hanging out at the house. Now I’m sitting in a bar with my friend’s dead body in the trunk of my best friend’s car. A dead person who died at my house. I can’t begin to think about who was following us. That’s like another load of crap I have to deal with when I can’t deal with the crap I’m already in right now.”
“But it still doesn’t make sense,” Jimmy said.
“It makes sense,” Ashley said. “You saw all those drugs that guy had. He probably was a dealer. They probably followed him to our house and now they’re looking for their money, or their drugs, or both! They may even search my house,” she added, as she was beginning to panic too. “They may try to plant drugs in my house and claim---”
She looked up and stopped talking.
Jimmy looked at her. “Claim what?” he asked. Then he looked where she was looking, and Cooper turned and looked where they were looking.
Coming into the bar, not from the front door but from a back door they didn’t know the bar had, was Reno Gabrini. He wore shades over his eyes even though it was late evening, and had two burly bodyguards walking just behind him. Cooper’s heart dropped. Jimmy’s heart soared.
Cooper looked at him. “You said you wasn’t calling your old man, Mack! You said you was calling Miss G.”
“That’s who I called,” Jimmy said, pretending to be just as annoyed. “She must have phoned him.”
Jimmy, in truth, was banking on Trina’s loyalty to his father when he first offered to phone her. Coop and Ash were so dead-set against him phoning Reno, that they viewed Trina as a good alternative. They didn’t know, but Jimmy did, just how close and loyal she was to his father.
Reno removed his shades when he arrived at the booth.
“How did you know I was here?” Jimmy asked his father.
While Reno’s guards surveyed the half-empty room, Reno surveyed the threesome in the booth. That fast-behind Ashley was behind this shit, he could feel it in his bones. “Let’s go,” he said.
“Go? But Dad you don’t understand. My friends need help. I was playing basketball when---”
Reno looked at his son. “What are you deaf? What did I just say? Let’s go. Now. All three of yous.” He added this he in his still-distinct Italian-style Jersey accent and phrasing.
All three stood and followed Reno as he headed back out the way he entered. The bodyguards then followed them.
Jimmy could see two cars parked behind the bar: his father’s Porsche and a dark SUV. Cooper and his sister glanced at each other when they saw the two vehicles. Especially the Porsche. Reno Gabrini was the last human being on earth Cooper wanted Jimmy to call! He knew Mr. Gabrini. He’d seen him around the PaLargio ever since he first started hanging with Jimmy Mack. He saw how he would lose his cool at the drop of a hat and everybody in that entire organization acted as if they were scared of their own shadows whenever he was anywhere near them. That was why they put the body in Jimmy’s car. They were certain Jimmy would be too afraid to call his father if he was knee-deep in it too. But, Cooper thought angrily, he called him anyway!
Jimmy, however, felt as if his back was against the wall when he decided to put that body in his car. Ashley would have been accused of murder and who knows what else if the cops would have found that body in her house. He couldn’t let that happen. He would take some serious heat for it, especially now that his father was involved, but he couldn’t sit back and let Ashley end up in prison because of his fear and inaction.
Reno walked over to his Porsche and leaned against it, folding his muscular arms as he did. He was dressed in an expensive suit, but a full day of work and more work had rendered it rumpled and stained, which was usually the case with Reno and clothes.
Jimmy and his friends followed Reno, rumpled clothes and all, while the bodyguards walked around the place to make sure it was still a secure location for Reno to be in.
>
“Okay, talk,” Reno said when all three stood in front of him.
Cooper and Ashley looked at Jimmy. Jimmy was always amazed at how tough-talking Coop always got so quiet whenever Reno was around.
“I was playing basketball,” Jimmy began. But his father cut him off.
“I’m not talking to you,” Reno said. “You,” Reno then said to Cooper. “Tell me what happened.”
Cooper swallowed hard. “Nothing happened. I don’t know why Mack called you in the first place.”
Jimmy looked at Cooper. “What are you nuts? You have to tell him, Coop.”
“There’s nothing to tell,” Cooper said angrily, staring at Jimmy.
Jimmy looked at his father. “There’s a dead body in the trunk of my car,” he said as if he still couldn’t believe it himself.
Reno unfolded his arms and his two guards, hearing this news from where they were, looked over too. “A what?” Reno asked, astounded.
Jimmy felt a surge of tears. He wanted to fall into his father’s arms at just the thought of the mess he was in, but he beat back the urge. “A guy, a dead guy. His body is in my trunk.”
Reno frowned. “Who the fuck is it?” he asked, still unable to believe it.
Jimmy looked at Ashley, a move that led Reno to look at her too. But Ashley looked at Cooper.
“Lamar,” Cooper said. “His name is Lamar. I don’t know his last name.” He said this as tears began to appear in his eyes.
But Reno wasn’t buying it. It seemed to him that Coop made up that name off the top of his head. Something wasn’t right here. Something stank like shit to Reno here. “Why is this Lamar in my son’s car?” he asked Coop.
“It’s not our fault,” Ashley decried.
Reno looked at her. “What?” he asked irritably.
“It’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything wrong so you can step off right now and stop trying to pin it on me.”
Oh, yeah, Reno thought. Something was seriously fucked up here. “Who said anything about pinning anything on you?” he asked her.
“I know what you’re trying to do, but you can forget it. It’s not my fault and you aren’t going to make it my fault!”
MOB BOSS 6: THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI (Mob Boss Series) Page 6