“They needed us when you used to run to Tommy all the time. What’s changed?” he asked again.
“And I need my parents,” Trina admitted. “That’s what changed. This has affected me in ways I didn’t see coming. I’m used to this shit.”
Her parents, especially her father, a former pastor, showed their displeasure with her language.
“I’m used to it,” she corrected herself. “Why am I acting like this new to me? But that’s how it feels. It feels new. And different. And scarier than it used to feel. It feels like it’s closer to my children than it used to be. I had to get them out of Vegas.”
“I hate to say it,” Cecil said, “but Reno has enemies in Las Vegas, yes, he does, but he’s got them all over the globe, too, baby girl. I don’t know if leaving Las Vegas behind is the same thing as leaving his enemies behind. They’re everywhere!”
Trina exhaled. “I know.”
“What does Reno have to say about all of this?” Earnestine asked. There was a time when she felt Reno’s mob ties made him an unsuitable son-in-law. Now she was his biggest supporter. “I know he’s not going to like the fact that you left him and took his kids away from him too. You did it before and it nearly killed him, Katrina. Why are you taking that man through this again?”
“What do you mean taking him through something?” Cecil asked his wife. “He’s the one taking her through! He’s the one with all these enemies. He’s the one responding to every slight like he’s still some kid on a playground. Somebody’s got to put the children first.”
“Reno does, and you know it, Cecil,” Earnestine said. “Don’t even try that with me.”
“He puts his children first always,” Trina agreed with her mother. “That’s without question. But this is beyond that. And I don’t know how to fix this. I just know I needed to get myself and those children out of Vegas.”
“Does he at least know where you are?” Earnestine asked Trina.
“Yes. He knows.”
“Does he agree with this?”
“He doesn’t,” Trina said bluntly. “No.”
“And all of this security. My, my, my. You’d think Johnny Mathis or somebody like that was visiting us.”
“Johnny Mathis?” Cecil asked incredulously. “Girl please! That child probably doesn’t even know who Johnny Mathis is!”
“Or Al Green, then,” said Earnestine. “Or Diana Ross. I don’t know any of the new people names. I’m just saying that’s a lot of security for one woman and three kids. Reno loves his family.”
“You may see it as a positive,” Cecil said, “but I don’t. I see it as Reno loves to spy on his family. Namely Tree.”
“That’s not true, Cecil, and you know it,” Earnestine quickly said. “Those security people are not allowed to spy on Katrina.”
“They can’t run and tell Reno every little thing she’s doing, no,” said Cecil. “They can’t spy on her, but Reno can spy on her any time he wants. And they have to tell him anything he asks. They have to. He’s the one signing their paychecks.”
Then Cecil looked at his daughter. “But forget Security. What’s the plan? What are you going to do? School’s tomorrow. Are you going to enroll the kids down here?”
Trina gave up altogether on her plate of food, dropped her fork, and sat back in her chair. “I don’t know, is the honest answer,” she said. “Their school has a virtual school for kids who can’t be there in person, so they can get their lessons from there. They’ll be alright short term.”
“But long term?” Earnestine asked.
“I haven’t figured that out yet. None of that. I just needed to get away from Vegas.”
“You needed to get away from Vegas,” Cecil asked, “and Reno?”
Trina couldn’t even fix her mouth to say such a thing. She never wanted to get away from Reno. Reno was her life! But the children had to come first.
She rubbed her forehead. And closed her eyes. “I think I’m going to go lay down,” she said. “I have a headache.”
And she got up, and headed for the bedroom.
But once she did lay down, and eventually fell asleep, it wasn’t a peaceful rest at all. She started dreaming. And it was all about Reno.
He was standing on a fog-covered bridge, on top of the ledge, with his arms spread wide. Trina was running up the bridge, trying to get to him, but she knew him. He was an emotional man. He left her for nearly a year, and refused to tell her where he was, when his son from a prior relationship died. He blamed himself then. She knew he was blaming himself now. That was why she was running to him.
And just when she was there, and was reaching out to grab him, to tell him she was back, Reno gave up and plunged into the ocean beneath them. Trina screamed, and reached over the ledge, but Reno kept falling and falling and falling.
And when he was just about to hit the water with a force that was certain to take him out, Trina woke up with a hard lift up of her upper body. A body filled with sweat.
She laid back down, nearly hyperventilating, as she rubbed her pounding head. What was she doing? Why was she adding to Reno’s stress? He didn’t mean for those gunmen to target his family so boldly the way they did. He would die for them; he would never allow anybody to just hurt them like that. What was she thinking? Reno wasn’t the enemy. His enemies, and the men who did that shit to them, were the enemy!
She got out that bed and went to her parents. They had cleared away the morning dishes, and were reclined on their balcony.
“What happened to you?” Earnestine quickly asked, noticing the sweat all over her body.
“Me and the kids are going home,” Trina said.
“Already?” asked Cecil.
“About time,” said Earnestine.
“Yes,” Trina responded to her father. “Already.”
“What the devil changed that fast?” Cecil asked.
Trina walked up to the railing and held onto it. “I did,” she said. “I realized what I should have realized all along. What I let fear keep me from realizing.”
“Which is?” Cecil asked.
Trina turned toward her parents. “We’re a family,” she said, “and Reno is the head of our family. Not me. Reno is. We’ve got to sink or swim as a family.”
“And the children’s safety?” Cecil asked. “That don’t matter anymore?”
“Yes, it matters. Of course it does, Dad! But I also realized another truth. I’ve got my children here in Miami Beach relying on strangers to protect them when there’s no man alive that can protect them better than their own father. Who can better protect them than Reno?”
“Not a living soul,” Earnestine said. “He’d die for them kids. And for you, too, Tree. You better recognize.”
Trina actually smiled. Her mother trying to be hip made her smile.
“I’ll have to agree with Earnie on this one,” Cecil said. “That husband of yours is a strong man. Don’t know if I know any man stronger. He’s a tough cookie.”
But Trina and the kids weren’t thirty minutes in the air, on Reno’s private plane heading back to Vegas, when the call came in from Jimmy about that tough cookie. Reno, Jimmy said, was in trouble.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
“What do you mean he’s in trouble?”
Trina was on the plane, sitting alone in the back working on an inventory list for her clothing store, when Jimmy’s call came in. Was he telling her that Reno was depressed because of their absence? That was going to change, she would assure Jimmy, because she and the kids were on their way back home even as they spoke. Jimmy didn’t know it. Reno didn’t either. It was going to be a surprise, and a welcomed relief, she knew, for Reno.
But then she realized something else was going on. Jimmy wasn’t just sniffling because it was cold even in Vegas. He was sniffling because he was crying. And that fact shocked her. Was Reno that depressed? “Jimmy, what’s wrong?” she asked him.
“It’s Dad,” he said.
“I know it’s Dad, boy! What about
Dad?”
“I was driving him to the airport. He was planning to get on Uncle Sal’s plane and come get you. He was going to order you to come back home. At least, that’s what he said. But as I was driving, he started grabbing his chest.”
“His chest?”
“I asked him if he was okay,” Jimmy said. “But he couldn’t speak to me, he was in that much pain. Then he slumped over in the car. He fell over. They think it’s a heart attack, Ma. They think it’s a heart attack!”
Trina jumped up from her seat in total shock. Reno was having a heart attack? She couldn’t believe it! Reno never got sick!
Dommi, who was further up front with his siblings, saw his mother jump up. He hurried to her.
“Where is he now?” Trina was asking Jimmy on the phone. “He’s in the hospital? He’s under a doctor’s care?”
“Who, Ma?” Dommi asked her. “Dad?”
“He’s in the ambulance on his way to the hospital,” Jimmy responded to Trina’s questions. “I’m driving behind them. He looks bad, Ma.”
“Is he still conscious? Was he still conscious when they put him in the ambulance?”
“I couldn’t say,” Jimmy said. “He was . . . It was like he couldn’t respond to me.”
Trina’s heart dropped. “Oh, my God,” she cried. “Oh, my God!”
Her wail was so painful that Sophie and the baby heard her too.
“What’s wrong?” Dommi asked, his heart hammering too. His mother wasn’t that kind of lady to just be crying out. “What’s happened to daddy? Something happened to Daddy?”
Trina looked at Dommi, and nodded her head unable to stop her tears. Dommi hurried to her, and pulled her into his big, protective arms. Then he took the phone from her. “What is it, bro?” he asked Jimmy over the phone.
When Jimmy told Dom, he frowned. He wanted to cry. His father having a heart attack? But he knew he had to be strong for his mother.
“Just take care of Mom,” Jimmy said, and ended the call.
Dommi held Trina tighter. The idea of his father in medical trouble was a shock to his system. They weren’t used to Reno being the one down and out. It just didn’t happen in their family. And he wasn’t sure how to react.
He held Trina tighter. “I got you, Mommy,” he said. “It’s gonna be alright. I got you.”
Trina was glad Dommi was there. He was her little helper sometimes. But Reno was her rock. And he was the one in trouble. Even Dommi’s words of encouragement were just words to Trina. Just words.
She closed her eyes, and prayed for Reno.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Sal Gabrini stood on the tarmac in his double-breasted suit, looking exactly like the mob boss they all knew he was, as the plane touched down and Reno’s family deplaned. Trina was a nervous wreck, and so were the children. There was no way, Trina felt, to keep the truth from them this time. They got off of that plane and ran to Sal.
“How is he?” Trina asked him, the baby in her arms. “I haven’t been able to talk to him at all.”
“Nobody has,” Sal said. “He’s still in Testing,” he said, as he gathered the family in his arms. “That’s all they’ll tell us. They’re still running tests.”
Sal kept his arm around Trina’s waist as they walked to one SUV in a line of SUVs waiting to escort them in. “I made a bad situation worse when I left town,” Trina said. “If Reno doesn’t pull through, I’ll never forgive myself.”
“Don’t you dare let him off the hook that easily,” Sal responded. “His ass better pull through. He doesn’t have another option. It’s either he lives, or I kill him. Those are his choices. His ass will live.”
Trina felt reassured by Sal’s presence, but that still didn’t negate her deeper concern. Especially since Sal didn’t really know anything either.
They piled into the SUV and, along with five additional SUVs filled with their security detail, drove away from the airport and straight to the Vegas hospital. A security detail was at the hospital, too, waiting at the entrance doors, ready to escort them inside.
Trina, still carrying the baby, was the first to get out, and then Dommi and Sophie jumped out too. With Sal bringing up the rear, they hurried inside the hospital under guard, and upstairs to Reno’s room. Trina was determined to get answers. No more he’s in testing bullshit. Jimmy couldn’t get any answers, and even powerful Sal Gabrini couldn’t either. But she was determined to find out more.
But when they entered Reno’s hospital room, they not only saw Jimmy sitting in a chair in the room, but they saw Reno too! He was sitting up in bed, looking tired but otherwise fine. They all sighed relief. And ran to him.
“Daddy!” Sophie cried, as she ran.
“Daddy!” Dommi cried, as he ran.
Carmine just cried, too, as Trina hurried to Reno, and he reached out his short, stubby arms to his father.
Sal saw those arms and shook his head. “That boy fatter than a tanker truck,” Sal said as he watched little Carmine. “What y’all feeding his ass?”
But nobody was answering questions. They were too busy loving on Reno. And Reno, pleasantly surprised to see his entire family, was too busy loving on them. “What are you guys doing here?” he asked them as his children piled on top of his bed, and on top of him.
“Mommy said we were going back,” said Dommi. “We were on the plane heading back home to you when Jimmy called with the bad news.”
Reno looked at Trina as she handed the baby to him. “That true?”
“It’s true,” she said, a twinkle in her eyes. “We were coming back home.”
“But why?” Reno asked as he held his youngest child. “What changed?”
It was the same question Trina’s father had asked her, and she had the same answer. “I did,” she said. “I came to my senses. We’re a family. We stick together. Rain or shine.”
Reno smiled. “Damn right,” he said.
“Damn right,” said Sal.
“But what about you?” Trina asked Reno. “What did the doctors say? Did you have a heart attack?”
“A heart attack? Hell nall,” Reno said. “After running every test known to man, they said it wasn’t my heart at all.”
Trina smiled. “It wasn’t?”
Reno was relieved too. “No.”
“Then what was it, Ree?” Sal asked.
“A panic attack,” said Jimmy. “The doctor just told us.”
Sal was stunned. “A panic attack? What are you kidding me? I thought that only happened to little old ladies.”
The children laughed. Reno looked at Sal. “I got your old lady right over here, alright, Sal? Keep going with the little old lady jokes. Right over here!”
Sal laughed too. But Trina was still in her feelings, and could barely muster another smile. With Carmine on top of Reno, and Sophie on the bed right beside Reno, and Dommi on the bed beside Sophie, Trina sat down on the edge of Reno’s bed. She and Reno stared intensely into each other’s eyes. Reno placed her hand in his.
“I was so worried about you,” Trina said. “We all were. You had poor Jimmy crying.”
“Of course he was crying,” Reno said. “He’s my son. My oldest child. He loves his old man.”
Dommi grinned and looked at Jimmy. Jimmy was smiling, but obviously embarrassed too. “Thanks a lot, Pop, for making me look like chump of the year in front of Uncle Sal.”
“Uncle Sal?” Dommi asked. “What about me? He’s making you look like a chump in front of me too.”
“Alright, Peacock Gabrini, hold your horses there,” Sal said. “You’re a tough kid, I’ll give you that, but you’re no Sal Gabrini yet.”
Jimmy laughed hard and loud.
But it was the name that threw Dommi. “Don’t call me that,” he said to his uncle. “Why y’all keep calling me that? That’s not my name!”
Even Sophie and the baby were laughing. “Peacock Gabrini,” Sophie said. “I told him that’s his nickname now, but he doesn’t want to accept it.”
�
�I’ll never accept it! I have too much going for myself, too much pride in myself, to accept a stupid name like that.”
“And that’s why people will always call you that,” Sophie said. “Because of that very pride and arrogance. You’re a show off, Dommi. I mean Peacock.”
They laughed again.
“Don’t you have a baby doll you need to dress or put to bed?” Dommi asked Sophie.
“Why you keep bringing up baby dolls when you get upset with me?” Sophie asked. “I don’t even like those things. You’re the one who said you wanted to get a job putting the arms and legs on baby dolls, not me.”
“I was kidding!” Dommi insisted. “And you know it, Soph.”
“I remember that,” said Sal. “I remember Tree bought him a bunch of armless and legless dolls and he had to put them back together again because of that so-called joke.”
“But I was joking, Uncle Sal. I didn’t mean that shit!” Dommi immediately covered his mouth when he used the profane word, and looked at his parents.
But they were still staring at each other, and not even listening to all of that familiar back and forth.
“Are they keeping you overnight?” Trina asked him.
“They want to. Just for observation. But I don’t think I’m going for it.”
“But what did the doctor say caused the panic attack?” Trina asked.
“Anxiety mainly,” Reno said.
“You were worried about us,” said Sophie.
Reno placed his arm around her. “You know I was, baby. I was worried about all of you,” he added as his fingers rubbed Dommi’s arm too. “Doc said I got myself worried sick.”
“And I apologize for that, Reno,” Trina said.
Reno frowned. “What apologize? It wasn’t your fault,” he was quick to point out.
Tears appeared in Trina’s big, hazel eyes. “I shouldn’t have left you. I shouldn’t have taken the children away from their father at a time when they probably needed you the most. I was wrong for that, Reno. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t cry, Mommy,” Carmine said when he saw those tears.
Reno Gabrini: Turn Back Time Page 7