Trina couldn’t believe he came back at her that way. But then again, Reno always came hard. And she was tired of it. “Stop the car,” she said to their driver.
The driver looked through the rearview, at his real boss: Reno.
But Trina was angry. “Stop the car!” she yelled again. “Stop this damn car!”
The driver slammed on brakes. And Trina began getting out.
“Okay, Tree, that’s enough,” Reno said. “Let’s talk this shit out.”
But she wasn’t trying to hear him. She got out.
Reno leaned his head back in frustration, and then punched the back of the front seat. But then he got out too, and hurried to his fast-walking wife. The driver drove slowly just behind them.
“Trina,” Reno said, trying to catch up. “Trina. Tree!”
But Trina kept walking. Reno wasn’t the only stubborn Gabrini in their family.
But she was no match for Reno. He overtook her quickly, grabbed her by the arm, and turned her around. They were on a side street in Vegas, and it was almost midnight. But Reno still could see the pain in his wife’s beautiful eyes.
“I was wrong,” he admitted.
Trina just stared at him. It took a lot for Reno to apologize, and she knew it.
“I shouldn’t have let it escalate, and clocking that guy the way I did was definitely an escalation.”
Reno frowned, as if he was more self-aware than Trina realized. “I always pull this shit. You’re right about that. I used to see my old man pull that shit, and hated it like you hate it. But now I’m doing it. Now I’ve got that same trigger-temper his ass had. And the last thing on the face of this planet I ever wanted was to be like him.”
He looked at Trina. “But I am like him. And I’ve got to recognize it and change it, Tree. I know that. But you can’t talk shit about leaving me and don’t expect a reaction from me.”
Trina knew that to be the truth too. “I just don’t want our children fatherless, Reno. All I could think about were the children. I don’t want Jimmy to have to bury the father he idolizes. I don’t want Dom and Soph to know what it’s like to not have a father to watch them grow up, and graduate college, and have children of their own. And protect them. Although, admittedly, Dommi is probably going to end up protecting all of us.”
Reno smiled.
“But those are the stakes, Reno,” Trina continued. “Our children. Our family. Me! I couldn’t make it without you, Reno. You need to understand that when you make the decisions you make.”
“And I will, Tree,” Reno said, pulling her into his arms. He knew he had her back now. “I promise you I’ll never be that impulsive ever again. It won’t happen again, Tree. I promise you that.”
Trina placed her hands on the sides of Reno’s intense, handsome face, and smiled. “That’s a promise you’d better keep, old man,” she said. Then her face turned intense. “Will you give me your scout’s honor?” she asked him.
Reno frowned. “As in boy scouts? Hell no! What the fuck I know about boy scouts? That I cannot do. But street honor? That I can do.”
Trina smiled, kissed him, and then they linked arms and made it back to the car. Reno’s word was good enough for her.
But then a chill came over both of them as they realized how sideways the night had turned. How a man lost his life because of Reno’s reaction, and his reaction to Reno. They realized just how hanging by a shoestring their lives really were.
They got in the car, and got away from there.
CHAPTER THREE
Two days later and the laugher roared high above any other sounds in the festive casino and Reno Gabrini, the owner, sat on an elevated chair in the back of the room. With his legs crossed; with his expensive suit well-worn and wrinkled from another long day at the office, he held court with guests and dignitaries the way he usually did on Thursday nights.
The guests of honor this time, the men his security allowed to approach him, were three brothers from Henderson. They were all wealthy businessmen, too, but they weren’t there to gamble on games and slot machines. They were there to gamble on Reno. They wanted a piece of his action. The PaLargio was just designated the most successful hotel/casino combo in Vegas history, and they knew it could only go higher from there. With its chain of smaller hotels gaining steam in that middle-class, mid-level market across the country, The P was going places. They wanted to go too. They wanted Reno to franchise one of his regional hotels to them.
But Reno was no undisciplined ego-freak like most Vegas owners. You couldn’t flash big money in his face, or even a big gun, and get him to bow down. He’d tell you where you could put that money, and that gun too while you were at it, and the brothers knew it. They also knew complementing his hard ass didn’t work either. But underdog sob stories might.
“We started from nothing, too, Reno,” said the oldest one, a man they called Big Bog. “But we had big dreams. Like you.”
“Just hustlers trying to make a living,” said the younger brother. “Like you. But yet we turned a nothing nightclub into a hundred-million-dollar-a-year chain of nightclubs across this country. Everything we touch turns to gold, Reno. Like you. If we partner up, and you let us put our feet in the hotel business, there’s no limit to how high we could go together.”
But Reno was only half-listening to the brothers’ hard pitch. Mainly because he wasn’t about to give up rights to any of his hotels to anybody for any reason, especially to men he didn’t know like that, and they were wasting his time. But also because his wife, along with her friends, had just entered the casino.
Trina met the two ladies less than a year ago, and they became fast friends. What he liked about her new friends, unlike her other group of friends, were the fact that they weren’t sitting around living off of some man’s big paycheck and gossiping about everybody and everything all night long, but were successful in their own right.
What he didn’t like was that they both were single. Both were married when Trina first started hanging with them, but now they both were divorced. And gorgeous. And every time the two of them and Trina walked into a room, every man in that room took notice.
Reno had no problem with men going hard when Trina’s friends entered a room. But he had loads of problems when they went hard for Trina. And he was staring hard at every man who was staring at Tree. Most men would be proud to have a wife that garnered that kind of attention just by entering a room. But Reno, knowing how doggishly determined men could get if they wanted a particular woman, wasn’t one of those men.
Especially after what happened two nights ago in that club. He knew Trina didn’t have the stomach for much more of that, and he, in truth, didn’t either.
When it appeared as if he wasn’t paying the Johnson brothers any attention at all, not even fake attention, but was too busy checking out some good-looking females, they went harder.
“People said we didn’t stand a chance,” Big Bog said desperately.
They wanted this merger. That was why, they knew, Koba’s men selected them. He wanted inroads into Reno’s magical hotel business, and so did they. They get in the door, was the plan, and then, together with Koba Sorzi, take the whole thing over. All of it, including his Vegas goldmine!
But it wasn’t going to be easy. Koba knew it too. He wanted them to threaten Reno if Reno didn’t at least consider the offer. He wanted them to play hardball. If Reno tried to hit back at them, he wanted them to take Reno out. With the head of the snake gone, as Koba saw it, taking over would be easier.
But the Johnson brothers were nobody’s fools. They knew Reno had an entire family of the toughest muscle around, from Mick Sinatra on down, who wouldn’t take too kindly to an assassination of one of their own. The brothers would threaten if Reno didn’t bite. They’d be willing to go that far. But no more.
“We were always the underdog,” Big Bog continued. “They said we were just good old boy losers. That’s what they used to call us, Reno. Losers. Like they used to call you.”
Those last words got Reno’s attention. He looked at Big Bog. There wasn’t a motherfucker alive ever called Reno Gabrini a loser, and Big knew it. And Reno knew he knew it. “Cut the bullshit,” he said to him.
Big Bog’s eyes stretched. This wasn’t going the way they had hoped. He tried to smile it off. “What bullshit, Reno? I wouldn’t come at you with no bullshit. I’m just saying we had to claw and fight for everything we have. Like you had to. When you first came to Vegas, you didn’t have shit either.”
“When I first came to Vegas my old man was the biggest mob boss on the east coast, and everybody in Vegas knew it. There was no starting from nothing. I started with a name. And a reputation. And your asses know that. Cut the bullshit before I cut this meeting.”
The other two brothers looked at Big Bog, their big brother. They were already hesitant about getting in any business relationship with a mob-connected guy like Reno Gabrini to begin with. They were crooked, alright, but at least they weren’t beholden to mob types. They felt that they were, in a lot of ways, scarier than any mob figure because they didn’t have to answer to any syndicate. And this thug had the nerve to speak to Big so disrespectfully?
“Let’s go,” one of the brothers said to Big Bog. “We don’t have to take his shit.”
Reno frowned. The nerve of these fuckers! “Then get the fuck out of here,” he said angrily, looking at the brother. “I don’t have to take your shit either, you little cock-sucking bastard! Who the fuck you think you’re talking to? You can kiss my ass and get the fuck out of my establishment, that’s what you can do!”
As soon as he said those words so harshly, Big Bog grabbed Reno by the catch of his collar and pulled him up from his chair, an act of aggression that was never done on Reno Gabrini. His security guys immediately closed ranks, but Reno lifted a hand and held them back. Not because Big Bog had not committed a punishable offense, but because Trina was in that casino with her friends, and he had made a promise to Trina. He was not going to go down on Big in front of them.
Big, clueless to Reno’s thoughts, felt Reno was not responding because he knew what Big was capable of. And Big gave Reno an earful. “Don’t you ever speak to my baby brother that disrespectfully ever again,” he said. “We know who you are. We know your ass slept your way to the top, that’s how you got the PaLargio, so don’t pretend you’re some fucking business genius. You were just a boy toy who knew how to fuck, and it paid off for you. But our asses will be back. And next time we won’t ask for a piece of the action. We’ll just take it. Cock sucker,” he added, and then released Reno with a hard push.
Reno’s security team were stunned. They didn’t understand what was wrong with their boss. Why was he letting this asshole so much as lay a finger on him, let alone issue a threat to him? What the fuck!
But as the Johnson brothers walked away, looking at Reno’s security as if they were daring them to do something, nobody else may have understood Reno’s lack of reaction, but Reno understood it. Trina and her friends were walking up just as the Johnson brothers were walking away.
Trina saw the man jack Reno up, and she saw how he didn’t react, but she knew he was fuming inside. But she loved that he held his peace. He didn’t jeopardize his life over a few words by some nobody asshole looking to make a name for himself. She knew it was tough on him.
She gave him a big hug. “Hey, babe,” she said.
“Hey.”
“Hello, Reno.” Nonarni Marigold was the one he liked the most. She owned a catering service that was taking Vegas by storm. But he like her mostly because she had guts, like Trina.
“How are you, Narn?”
“I’m good, Reno. And you?”
Reno didn’t respond to that, as the second lady, Patricia, spoke and he spoke back. She was a funeral home director, imagine that, but was as nice as nice could be.
“So what’s up?” Reno asked.
“A girls’ trip,” said Nonarni.
“Excuse me?” Reno asked.
“They’ve planned their annual girls’ trip,” said Trina. “They want me to go with them this year. I told them you had to sign off on it.”
“What kind of girls trip?” Reno asked.
“We thought we’d go to Jamaica for a few days,” Patricia said.
“Jamaica?” Reno asked. “The fucking capital of the world? I don’t think so!” Reno could see all of those Jamaican hunks come onto Trina day and night, and suddenly Tree gets her groove back and won’t need him anymore? No fucking way!
But Nonarni and Pat were surprised by his reaction. Pat especially thought he’d be pleased to have a little space from his wife, given his reputation for infidelity. Their ex-husbands used to cherish whenever they went on girls’ trips!
Besides, Trina was so tough. She was their leader for crying out loud! Why would she even need his permission? They both looked at Trina.
Pat decided to get bold. “It’s not like he has to sign off on it,” she said. Nonarni elbowed her. Was she nuts? She knew what kind of temper Trina had!
And, true to form, Trina looked at Pat with a frown on her face. “What did you say?”
“You aren’t his child,” Pat said, not backing down. “That’s what I said! You’re his wife. An equal partner, right? Why should you have to get permission from him? Does he get permission from you when he leaves town?”
Not again, Trina thought. She kept her distance from her other friends because of their interference in her marriage. Now Pat was going down that same road too? She knew she had to nip this in the bud. “Okay,” Trina said firmly, “I see I need to school your ass.”
Nonarni smiled. That was Tree! But Pat was not amused. “School me?” Pat asked.
“First of all,” Trina said, “it’s not about getting permission. It’s about this man is my husband, I’m on his team, he’s on my team. We have children together. I’m no free agent anymore. I can’t just pick up and leave as I please. I ask him. If he has a problem with it, then there’s a problem. But that problem is not your business.”
“So you aren’t going then?” Pat asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Trina said quickly, and Nonarni laughed. “He’s going to have to come up with a better excuse than the one he just gave,” Trina added, “but that’s my business. I’ll handle that.”
Then Trina, tired already, ended it. “Anyway, ladies,” she said, “we had a nice night out. We really enjoyed ourselves. Let’s keep it that way. We’ll talk later.”
They understood they were being dismissed, although Pat was still inwardly fuming. She didn’t like being handled the way Trina just handled her. But they said their goodbyes, anyway, and left.
And Trina turned to Reno. “Don’t start,” Reno said. “You aren’t going to Jamaica. Find somewhere else.”
“Like where, Reno?” Trina asked.
“Like Budapest. Like Siberia. Hell, I don’t know! Go to Afghanistan. But your ass ain’t going to Jamaica without me as your escort.”
“Don’t you mean my prison guard?” Trina shot back.
“Whatever the fuck you wanna call it,” Reno said. “You aren’t going.”
Trina shook her head. She was too tired to get caught up in his bullshit. She knew he would come around, anyway. He didn’t have to tonight. “I’m going to bed,” she said, and began leaving the casino.
Reno watched her leave. He watched her tight ass, especially. And he wanted some. Bad.
He was about to leave, too, to get some, but his Security chief stepped up.
“You okay, Boss?” he asked him.
Reno looked at him. “Yeah, I’m okay. What kind of question is that? Why wouldn’t I be okay?”
“The way you handled the Johnsons, I mean. That’s not like you. There was a time you would have beat his ass until he didn’t have breath in his body.”
He was right. But that was before Trina threatened to leave him if he kept going hard like that. And Trina just so happened to be in the casino at that cruci
al moment!
But Reno didn’t sweat it. He wasn’t petty like that. Besides, he thought, as he left his man’s side, there was more than one way to skin a cat. He learned that from Tommy Gabrini.
Way more.
CHAPTER FOUR
The Johnson brothers were in their limousine, leaving the PaLargio, when the call came in. Not from Koba, but from his man Artie.
“How did it go?” Artie asked.
“He turned us down,” Big Bog said. “As expected.”
“How did he handle the threat?”
The brothers smiled. “He didn’t like it, but so what? He didn’t fight back.”
“He didn’t?” Artie sounded surprised.
“Reno’s gotten soft. He’s on Easy street now. The P is now the most successful hotel/casino in the country. He doesn’t wanna make waves. Tell Koba we’re pulling this shit at the perfect time.”
“I’ll let him know,” Artie said. “And this is good. Because when he doesn’t want waves is exactly the time for the waves to come. And when we finish, he’s going to think he’s giving us a franchise when he’s really giving us the PaLargio Hotel and Casino lock, stock, and barrel.”
The brothers laughed. “That’s what I’m talking about!” said Big Bog. They were all in.
“What happens next?” Big Bog asked Artie.
“The next step happens next,” Artie said. “No matter what, we stick to the plan. Give Gabrini a couple days to understand that you meant business, and then approach him again. In the meantime, we ramp up the pain. We call in our lady. She’ll be a nice piece of eye candy when we need a distraction.”
“I’m shocked a lady like her would agree.”
“She owes Koba her existence. She would have been assassinated a long time ago, if it wasn’t for him. She has no choice.”
“And the pain?”
“If our research is correct, that black wife of his is his weakness. He’ll do anything for her. We’ve got to see that he has to.”
Reno Gabrini: Turn Back Time Page 2