“Then you’ll what?” Reno asked, moving even closer still to his son. “Then you’ll what?”
Jimmy started to back up, but he couldn’t. “Then I’ll kick your ass, that’s what!” he roared.
But as soon as he uttered those words, Reno roared back. Only his roar was with action, not words. He slammed his fist so hard into Jimmy’s face that Jimmy fell straight down onto his butt.
“Reno, no!” Trina screamed, but Reno was in the zone and she knew it. There was no stopping him now.
Reno grabbed his son by the catch of his t-shirt and slung him back on his feet, then slammed him against the wall.
“The day you think you’re a badder motherfucker than I am, is the day you leave this earth. You understand me, boy? You don’t ever,” Reno said, pulling him off the wall and then slamming him back against it, “speak to me that way. Not ever! Do you hear me? I’ll touch that bitch if I wanna touch that bitch and you’re not gonna do a gotdamn thing about it! You just keep your ass right here with my wife until I get back. And I mean keep it here! Do I make myself clear, James?”
Jimmy knew his father’s ruthlessness. He knew he would be fighting Mount Everest if he tried to battle him. He knew one day they would do battle. If he was ever going to be his own man and stand on his own two feet they had to do battle.
But this was not that day.
“Yes, sir,” he said with no affection at all.
Reno’s anger subsided when he saw that bitterness in his son’s eyes. It broke his heart to have to go there with his child, but what could he do? Jimmy was becoming another Reno. Jimmy now had that kind of fearless, and therefore reckless swag that could get him dead before he was twenty. And the thought of it scared Reno shitless. That was why he was so tough on his son. He had to make certain that in this life Jimmy Gabrini, who feared no man, always feared him.
Reno looked at Trina, who looked almost distraught, which pained him even more. And then he left.
Trina looked at Jimmy. He just stood there like some wounded animal. She knew it was coming, so she went to her stepson. And pulled him into her arms.
The tears that Jimmy had fought so hard to suppress in front of his father, suddenly broke free.
Reno slapped Ashley so hard across her face that her fake eyelashes flew off. Cooper, who sat across the room and was held down by two of Reno’s men, screamed for him to leave his sister alone.
But Reno ignored him.
“I want the real story this time,” Reno said as he towered over Ashley. “Not the bullshit story, but the real story. Now who paid you? Who is he?”
They were in the soundproof basement of the PaLargio. Ashley was seated in a chair in front of Reno, and Cooper was seated across the room, guarded by Lou and Artie. Both siblings had tears in their eyes, but Ashley’s eyes were almost swollen shut from Reno’s beating. Cooper could not believe that his best friend’s father could be this heartless. He’d heard all of those rumors about Reno Gabrini being Mafia, but Jimmy insisted to him that it wasn’t true. And he had foolishly believed Jimmy.
“I told you nobody paid me anything,” Ashley declared again. “Lamar overdosed on those drugs!”
“Bullshit!”
“It’s the truth!”
“It’s bullshit!” Reno said again. “That boy didn’t O.D. on shit and you know it!”
“He did overdose!” Cooper shouted across the room. “Ask Jimmy! Jimmy saw him!”
“Was that before or after somebody stabbed Lamar three times?” Reno shouted back. “Or are you saying he stabbed himself three times?”
Ashley glanced over at Cooper. Cooper looked at Reno.
“What,” Reno asked, “you think we’re fucking novices here? You think we wouldn’t check that body out? You’d just tell us he overdosed and we’d just believe it?”
Cooper hesitated. He already knew they were in over their heads. He already knew it. “He was stabbed?” He asked this as if he was attempting to convince Reno of something that was inconvincible to Reno.
“Oh, yeah,” Reno said. “You didn’t know?” Then he looked at Ashley. “I’ll bet sis here knew all about it. He was stabbed multiple times. Probably happened four or five hours before she bothered to call my son. All of the stab wounds were in his back, you see, because whoever did it were reasonably sure my son wouldn’t bother to turn him over and check him out that way. And they, unfortunately, had read him right. But they hadn’t read me at all.”
Cooper swallowed hard.
Reno shook his head. “No, Coop, drugs didn’t kill that young man. Man killed that young man.” Then Reno looked at Ashley. “Several men, in fact. Professional men.” Reno squeezed her reddening cheeks and then lifted her head to his face. The pain for Ashley was excruciating. “Now you listen here you little tramp. You tell me who those men are and you tell me now, or I’ll snatch your tongue out of your throat and ram it up your ass! Who paid you? Who tried to frame my son?”
She still remained defiant. Reno therefore pulled out a switchblade knife and flicked it open. As soon as Ashley realized what he was about to do, her shell cracked.
“I don’t know who they were,” she cried. “He was already dead when they brought him to our house.”
“When who brought him to your house?”
“Some men. We never saw them before. They had already killed him. He was already dead.”
“Who did they work for?” Reno asked her.
But she wouldn’t say. Cooper looked at his sister. He couldn’t believe it.
“Tell him, Ash,” he insisted. “Tell him what you know!”
It pained Ashley to say it, but she knew she had no choice. “Eddie,” she said.
Reno frowned. “Eddie? Who the fuck is Eddie?”
Ashley swallowed hard. “Eddie Dreeson.”
Reno stared at her.
“You know him boss?” Lou asked.
“I know him,” Reno said, but he was still staring at Ashley. “How do you know him?” he asked her.
“I know him. What difference does it make how?”
Reno slapped her again. “Contrary to popular belief,” he said, “I’ll hit a bitch. Now you answer my questions, girl, before I kick your ass too. What’s the relationship?”
“Tell him, Ash!” Cooper yelled.
“I’m his girlfriend,” she said.
Reno knew it. He knew a whore when he saw one. “So Eddie’s men dumped the body at your house?”
“Yeah. I had nothing to do with it.”
But Reno didn’t care. Eddie was on his mind. “Who paid Eddie?” he asked her.
“Nobody paid him. Why would somebody have to pay him?”
“Because he’s a small-time nobody who wouldn’t have two nickels back to back. Now who paid him?”
“I told you I don’t know.”
Reno slapped her again. She cried out in pain. “Don’t fuck with me, girl!” Reno yelled. “Who paid Eddie Dreeson to set up my son?”
“Tony!” she screamed.
“Tony who?”
“Tony Tufarna!”
Reno looked at her as if she had suddenly grown fangs. “Tony Tufarna?” he asked her, amazed. “What the fuck?”
“I never met him. He’s Eddie’s friend. I only heard them say his name a couple times. But he was supposed to pay us.”
Reno ran his hand through his hair. “How much?”
“How much what?”
“How much was Tony Tufarna supposed to pay Eddie Dreeson?”
Ashley hated the sight of Reno Gabrini. And she wanted to lash back at him. But she knew she couldn’t. And she knew lying would only make it worse. “Two hundred thousand,” she said.
Reno was about to run his hand through his hair again, but he froze. He looked at Lou and Artie. Both were floored. Two hundred thousand? This shit was serious now, both of their faces seemed to say.
But neither of them had to tell that to Reno. He knew it was serious all along. The money, and the fact that Tony Tufarna’s n
ame had surfaced, only confirmed it for him. He knew when a dead body was involved that this was some serious shit already.
Reno left the room, motioning for Lou to follow him.
Once out into the corridor, Lou closed the door.
“Last I heard Tony Tufarna was some broke-ass salesman in Kentucky somewhere,” Lou said.
“Well he’s apparently back in Vegas.”
“Gunning for you?”
“And the PaLargio, no doubt about it. He’s one of those fuckers who’ll blame the world for his own failures.”
Lou exhaled. “That’s very bad news. Especially if he’s willing to float the kind of dough that girl’s claiming.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Think he’s got backing?”
“He might. I can’t imagine Tony with that kind of money muscle. Not that fool.”
“And who’s Eddie Dreeson?”
Reno shook his shoulder. “A nobody. He deals in stolen goods mainly, and fake shit, like fake Rolexes and Air Jordans. He runs his clip joint mostly out of Compton.”
“Compton? In L.A.?”
Reno nodded. “That’s the place. But he makes his home here in Vegas.” Then Reno shook his head. “And my son’s woman is his woman. If I wasn’t a gentleman I’d kill her ass.”
“That nice ass? I’d fuck it first,” Lou suggested.
Reno smiled wearily. “Me too,” he said. Then he exhaled. “Find the boyfriend. Find Eddie Dreeson. And get the word on the street that I want the hook in Tony Tufarna.”
“To talk or to kill?”
“Say talk.”
“What about those two in there?”
Reno exhaled. Jimmy wasn’t going to like it, but he couldn’t help that now. “Get a crew over to the safe house, over to number ten, and take them there. Put Briggs in charge in case there’s some monkey business with the girl.”
“Yes, sir.”
“He’s to keep them there until he hears from me personally.”
“What about Coop? You think he’s involved too?”
“Yeah. Oh, yeah. Maybe not like she is, but he’s involved. Besides, I don’t know what I don’t know right now and I’m not taking any chances. If Tony’s in this it may very well be open season on Reno again. So everybody’s a suspect until I close that season back down. Got it?”
Lou nodded, as if he lived for this shit. “Yes, sir, boss,” he said. “I got you.”
Reno walked away, knowing that every order he gave to Lou would be carried out meticulously. But just the thought that he had to go back down this road again angered Reno. Just when peace and quiet were the norm for them, he had to go back down this hellish road. And he was angry about it.
Lou saw that anger. He saw it when Reno slammed his fist into the wall, as he walked away.
Jimmy and Trina both stood up from the sofa when Reno returned to the penthouse. Trina could see how drained he was. Jimmy couldn’t see anything but the fact that Ashley wasn’t with him.
“Where’s Ash and Coop?” he asked his father.
Reno sat down in the chair flanking the sofa and spread his legs wide. Trina hurried to get him something strong to drink. Jimmy sat back down.
“Where are they?” he asked his father again.
“Where’s Dommi?”
“He’s asleep. What about Ash and Coop, Pop?”
“They’re safe,” Reno said.
“What do you mean safe? Where are they?”
“What I said. They’re safe.”
“But what do you mean?”
“Jimmy, what did I tell you?” Trina said this in a warning tone from the bar. And Jimmy knew then to back off. Trina had already told him that Reno was not going to respond to the bum-rush and he was wasting his time attempting to get him to respond that way. So he waited while Trina prepared the drink. He waited while Reno leaned his head back and closed his eyes.
But as soon as Trina walked back over to the chair and handed Reno that glass of Scotch, he pounced. “What do you mean by safe, Pop?” he asked again.
But Reno ignored him again and drained down a big chunk of his drink.
“Pop?” Jimmy asked, getting seriously annoyed. “I need to know where Ashley is. Why don’t you just tell me where she is?”
Reno hesitated. “I’m having them moved to one of my safe houses,” he said.
Jimmy jumped to his feet. Even Trina, who was already standing, looked at Reno.
“A safe house?” Jimmy asked. “You’re going to hold them against their will?”
“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh, Ree?” Trina also asked.
But Reno was firm about his decision. “What’s harsh? They better be glad that’s all I’m doing.”
“But why are you holding them?” Jimmy wanted to know. “They told you what happened. They told you he overdosed and why we had to move the body.”
“Yeah, they told me a lot of things. That’s why they stay under my thumb until I get to the bottom of this.”
“But this has nothing to do with you! You can’t go around kidnapping people like this.”
“Oh, yeah?” Reno said and Trina could see that he was getting worked up again. “If those people are going around attempting to set up my son then I’ll do whatever I need to do to them.”
“But they’re kids, Reno,” even Trina had to say. “To detain them against their will is going too far.”
Reno looked at her. Then he sat his drink on the coffee table and stood up. “Going too far?” he asked. “You think what I did was going too far?”
Trina wasn’t going to back down. “Yes,” she said. “I think it’s going too far. They’re kids.”
“Those ‘kids,’ as you call them, didn’t hesitate to try and frame my son. His so-called girlfriend didn’t bat an eye when she called him over to her house to initiate that set up. He could be facing a murder rap or worse right now, thanks to those ‘kids.’ She admitted she and her real boyfriend were looking for a big payday when she hooked up with Jimmy, and guess who they were planning to be the bank? So excuse me if I don’t give a flying fuck about those ‘kids!’ They’re no innocents!”
“I didn’t say they were innocent,” Trina said. “But all I’m saying is that they shouldn’t have to be detained like this. You might be compounding the problem.”
“So what are you trying to say, Tree? That I don’t know what I’m doing?”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying?”
“I’m saying you’re overreacting, that’s what I’m saying!”
Reno looked at Trina, his voice rising. “Overreacting?” he asked as if he was shocked she would have said that. “They bring this shit to my doorstep and I’m overreacting? Kiss my ass, Tree. Kiss my ass for even saying something like that!”
“Ashley and Cooper aren’t like these hardened gangsters you’re used to dealing with, Reno,” Trina said, staying firm. “Yes, they may have done something wrong.”
“Those angels? No!” Reno said this sarcastically.
“They may have done something wrong,” Trina continued, ignoring his sarcasm. “But that doesn’t give you a license to imprison them. Because that’s exactly what you’re doing. You hated that they were trying to do that to Jimmy, but then you turn right around and do that to them.”
“I’m not doing shit to them that they didn’t bring on themselves!” Reno roared. “Those fuckers started this! Those fuckers agreed to take money in exchange for destroying my son!”
But Trina wasn’t trying to hear him. And he wasn’t trying to hear here. And it went on and on like that. Jimmy could not believe how angry both of them were getting. He thought he was hot. But Reno and Trina were taking heat to another level.
Reno, in fact, became so beside himself with anger that he eventually, after an especially bitter exchange, grabbed Trina by the arm and began all but dragging her to the office just off from the living room. Trina was protesting, and even Jimmy was ask
ing Reno why was he manhandling her that way, but when Reno threw Trina into that office and then slammed the door shut, Jimmy knew to back off.
But the arguing continued in there. Jimmy could hear them both go at it. Jimmy could hear Reno continue to call out Ashley and Cooper as if they were terrorists or something, and he could still hear Trina refuse to buy what he was selling. Over and over they argued like this. Until Jimmy heard a slap.
And he couldn’t believe it. A slap? He hit her?
Jimmy immediately hurried to the office and slung opened the door. Reno was standing there with his hand on the side of his face and Trina was standing there with her hand, open palm, still in mid-air. It was obvious who had slapped whom.
“Don’t you dare talk to me that way!” Trina said.
“No, you’re right,” Reno said. “Talking’s over!” He grabbed Trina by the arm again and began hurrying her to the couch in the office. When he saw Jimmy and that open door, he yelled. “Close that gotdamn door!” he said and Jimmy, terrified, quickly stepped back out of the office, and slammed the door shut.
Reno sat on the edge of the couch and slung Trina across his knees, her ass turned to him.
“What are you doing?” Trina was protesting. “Let me go! Reno, let me go!”
But Reno was in that zone. Talking was over, as far as he was concerned. He slung down her pants and panties, took his open hand, and began spanking her bare butt in a way that was meant to punish.
“Reno stop!” she kept screaming. “Stop! I don’t give you permission to do this!”
“Good,” he said as he continued to beat on her ass. “I don’t want your permission!”
“But it hurts!”
“It’s supposed to hurt.”
“Reno, you’re hurting me!”
And it was only then did Reno stop. It was only then did he realize just how red her ass had become, and how out of control he was becoming. He stopped, but he wasn’t through.
He stood her back up to where she was standing between his legs. His hands were on her narrow waist.
“You listen to me, Katrina Gabrini, and you listen good. I run this family, do you understand me? I wear the gotdamn pants in this house, not you! I respect you and I love you above any other human being on the face of this earth, but when I make a decision that I know is best for this family, you will not defy that decision. You don’t know half the crap I know when I decide the way I decide so stop second-guessing me! I’m getting tired of that shit, Tree.”
MOB BOSS 6: THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI (Mob Boss Series) Page 8