And that fact, that they would target, not the man, but his wife, a wonderful woman like Trina, angered Mick.
As the legend goes, whenever Mick Sinatra got angry, his target usually preferred to be eaten alive by sharks, or torn apart by mountain lions, rather than face his wrath.
But before those men approaching Reno’s SUV could even begin to fire their own weapons, Mick fired his, in rapid succession, hitting one and then the other one and then the third rooftop sniper in a row. They fell like flies. They never knew what hit them.
When the men coming toward Reno heard the gunfire, and looked over at their backup and saw them dropping, they immediately turned to fire. But Reno was firing first, hitting one of the captor’s guards. The captor holding Maddie’s hand immediately placed her in front of his own body and began backing back up toward the RV. The second guard, began firing back, but Reno took him out, too. Trina had the man with Maddie in her eyesight as she got out of the SUV and began running, her gun aimed, toward her granddaughter.
Maddie was crying and screaming as the kidnapper picked up Maddie and was still running backwards, toward the RV, with the gun to her head. She was his ticket out and he knew it. And even as Reno and Trina were running toward him, trying to get some angle of a shot that would not harm Maddie, Mick was getting from beneath the car, and was running toward the captor too.
As Mick joined them in the mad dash, both Reno and Trina were so focused on Maddie that they didn’t even notice his presence. They just knew somebody was running with them, probably one of Mick’s men, and that he was on their side. Their entire focus was on getting Maddie, and making sure that fool didn’t do her any harm.
But Mick knew what that captor was up to. He was running to get back inside of that RV. And unlike Maddie’s grandparents, who were hypercautious and wasn’t about to take any risky shot, Mick took a shot. He knew somebody had to or they might not see Maddie ever again. He aimed and he fired as they ran.
And he hit him! He hit the captor’s foot: the only thing that was out of the reach of Maddie’s dangling legs and body.
But the captor fell into the doorway of the RV when the shot came. He fell with Maddie on top of him. And somebody inside that RV dragged him on in and slammed the door.
Reno and Trina were not only shocked that Mick had took that shot with their grandchild so near, but that he was there at all! And that he came from where? They assumed he would send his men to do such dirty work. But he came himself. They couldn’t believe it!
But none of that shock stopped any of them, not for a second. They all kept running toward that RV, ready to snatch that door off its hinges if they had to, and kill those bastards and pull Maddie out of there. Trina brought up the rear, as she was aiming her gun at rooftop after rooftop, just in case they had yet another backup ambush planned, as Reno and Mick pulled on the door of the RV.
But just as they pulled on the door, the RV began pulling off. Trina didn’t hesitate. She ran back to Reno’s SUV, got behind the wheel, and headed toward Mick and Reno, who were running behind the RV.
Although the RV was bulky, it was still far faster than two men on feet. It took off, across the shopping plaza’s massive parking lot, and drove around back, behind the tall buildings where the three men Mick had killed had been positioned. Mick and Reno jumped into the SUV, and Trina took off after Maddie’s adductors.
But as soon as they made it behind the tall buildings, they saw a helicopter waiting. A fucking helicopter? Reno was stunned! Then they saw the injured captor, along with yet another man carrying Maddie, jump out of the RV and make a run for the helicopter. They were onboard, and the helicopter was taking off, by the time Trina was able to drive up to them.
Reno and Mick jumped out of the SUV, and both of them aimed their weapons at the helicopter.
But Reno, to his anguish, was the first to pull his gun down. “We can’t fire,” he reminded trigger-happy Mick. “Maddie’s on board.”
And her captors knew it too, as they sped away.
But Trina wasn’t giving up that easily. She sped after that helicopter, and followed it as fast as that SUV would allow her. But it was like boxing the wind. That helicopter was clean out of sight before she could even get out of the parking lot. It, and Maddie, were gone.
Mick was so angry he could hardly control his anger. He stomped his shoe and turned around in place. He hated defeat. He hated that those bastards got away with their child.
But Reno was on the phone, ordering his men to search for a helicopter in the sky. But he knew, given that they were in Vegas and Vegas always had copters bringing in high rollers every minute on the hour, that it was like telling them to search for a particular fish in the sea. It was an impossible request.
By the time Trina drove back to where he and Reno were, wiping tears from her eyes, she got out, too, and stood beside both men. Reno was breathing heavily, and was angry like Mick, but he had an advantage. He knew more than he knew before. “I know who has her,” he said.
Mick and Trina both looked at him. “You know?” Trina asked.
“I recognized the man with her. His name’s Artie. I know who he works for.”
“Who?” asked Mick.
Reno exhaled. Given who it was, that knowledge was even more painful than not knowing at all. “Koba,” he said.
Mick frowned. “Sorzi?”
Reno nodded.
“Shit!” Mick said.
“Who’s Koba?” Trina asked anxiously. “Who’s Sorzi?”
“Are you sure, Reno?” Mick asked him.
“I’m sure.”
“Kobayatti Sorzi?”
Reno nodded. “Yes,” he said, his voice defeated. “He works for Koba Sorzi.”
Trina wanted to ask who was this person yet again, but she could see in Reno’s eyes that the news had stunned him enough that he couldn’t explain it at that very moment.
And Mick just shook his head, as a pained look appeared on his face too. He knew about Sorzi, who put himself out as a businessman, but was crazy as a motherfuck. Him and that daughter of his. It was a fight Mick didn’t want to have to wage. But he knew they had to now.
He looked at Reno again. “We’re gonna need bigger guns,” he said.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
They moved the entire family out of the penthouse to Reno and Trina’s estate on the outskirts of Vegas. Security there didn’t have to include securing an entire hotel and casino. Just a big house. Besides, most of their men were still in the streets. Word was out for every man in every camp to find Koba Sorzi. Or Artie, his flunky. Or anybody else ever connected to the Sorzi brand. And the family, at the estate, were all working their phones.
Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, Mick’s older brother from Maine, had also arrived in town and was working his phones too. He didn’t have mob connections like his brother, but he had business connections. And those men got around too. Some might have heard of Koba Sorzi. Some might have done business with him in the past. It was a longshot, but they were trying anything and everything to find Maddie. Even Buddy Wellstone, Maddie’s maternal grandfather, was working his phones. They needed to find Koba, and they knew they needed to find him fast.
But Reno and Trina were upstairs, in their bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed. Because Reno had a story to tell. He had to tell Trina all about Kobayatti Sorzi.
“Before I met you, I was fooling around with his daughter,” he said. “It was nothing serious, at least not for me, and I thought not for her too. Her father was this major businessman, and I thought he’d make a good reference. Somebody I could have in my network of businessmen that I relied on. And it worked out fine for a while. Then I met you.”
There was a pause. Trina knew Reno was not practicing anything remotely resembling celibacy when they hooked up. It was no surprise to her that he was fooling with other girls.
“After I met you,” Reno continued, “I started ending shit. I started calling girls and telling them it wasn’t going
to work out. I did the same thing for Cari.”
“Cari?” Trina asked.
“Caribella Sorzi. His daughter.”
“Your girlfriend.”
“It wasn’t that deep. Nobody was that deep with me. But you.”
“But it was deep with her?”
Reno nodded his head, and frowned. “Oh, yeah. I’m talking out in the blue fucking yonder deep. But I didn’t know she felt that way.”
Trina didn’t even want to hear that. Men always pretended to be blind to women’s affection for them. She wasn’t buying it. “What happened?” she asked him.
“We went to dinner, so I could tell her I wasn’t going to be seeing her anymore. I felt I owed her that.”
“And?”
“And okay, I admit it. I didn’t want to make waves with her father, alright? I admit that. He was a very rich and powerful man. He might be somebody I would need in the future. Back then, I’m sorry, but the PaLargio came first, okay? That’s just how I handled myself. I had to think more than one way.”
“So you broke it off with her?” Trina asked. “Whatever it was.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“How did she take it?”
“She took it well. I didn’t expect her not to. We were just fucking buddies, let’s be honest here. I didn’t have any deep feelings for that girl.”
Trina exhaled. Men could be so callous with a woman’s heart. “So what happened?”
Another regretful look appeared in Reno’s tired eyes. “I was driving her home. We had a good meal, good conversation, and I thought she was fine.”
“But she wasn’t?”
“Nowhere near it,” Reno said. “First, she pulled out this cigarette lighter and tried to set my coat on fire.”
Trina was shocked. “What?”
“She tried to set me on fire! She kept flicking it and flicking it and placing it against my coat. I had to grab it from her and throw it out the window. ‘What the fuck’s wrong with you?’ I remember saying to her. But then she pulled out this knife.”
Trina looked at Reno. “A knife?”
“She apparently stole it from the restaurant,” Reno said, “that’s how dipsy this broad was. And she started trying to stab me. She said she knew about my other bitch, and if she couldn’t have me, nobody else was going to have me either. And she was stabbing at me and stabbing at me and I’m trying to drive and take that fucking knife from her at the same time.”
Reno paused. For a long time, he paused as if he was suddenly reliving that moment for the first time in years.
“What happened next, Reno?” Trina asked him.
“Then,” he said, his voice now melancholic and slow. He stopped, and started again. “As soon as I got that knife away from her, she grabbed my steering wheel.”
Trina waited for more. Reno was reliving it, and his words had to catch up with his emotions.
“It happened so fast. I was trying to throw the knife out of the window. That’s all I was trying to do. To protect both of us because it was obvious to me by then that this bitch was crazy! But she grabbed my steering wheel at that point when I had a very loose grip, and she flung it so hard to the left that we flipped over, and kept flipping.”
Trina’s eyes stretched. “Good Lord, Reno,” she said.
“I just remember feeling like some object was in my throat, and it was choking me, as we flipped and flipped and flipped. When we finally came to a stop, the fucking car upside down, her face was busted open and bleeding everywhere. Her teeth were knocked out. The girl who once was the most beautiful girl in the world, according to everybody who laid eyes on her, looked like a monster. And she was paralyzed on top of that. Even after years of rehabilitation and specialists her father brought in from around the world with promises year in and year out of miracle cures, she never walked again.”
“And you?” Trina asked. “What happened to you?”
“What usually happens to me when I fuck somebody over,” Reno said. “I walked away without a scratch.”
Reno laid back, his face still carrying the guilt of that night. Trina remained upright, but she looked at him. She wasn’t going to appease him. They never had that kind of relationship. “She was dead wrong,” Trina said. “Trying to kill you just because you didn’t want to be with her anymore is crazy. And you’re right, she had to be crazy to pull that shit. But playing with people’s emotions is wrong, too, Reno. That shit’ll get you killed.”
“I know that.”
“And you had to know, at some point, that that crazy lady was falling in love with you. Don’t tell me you didn’t know that. She might have fell for your dick first, but then she fell for you. And you had to know it.”
Reno exhaled. And frowned. “Yeah,” he said. “I knew that too.”
Trina rubbed her forehead. “And her father is the man who has our grandbaby?”
Reno nodded. “Yes. Artie’s worked for him for as long as I can remember. Koba moved her to Europe, first, where the best specialists were supposed to be, and Artie was right there with her. But then I heard they left there too and went somewhere else. I don’t know where and the person who was telling me didn’t know either. That was the last I heard about them.”
There was a long pause. “I married you not long after that accident,” he said.
Trina closed her eyes. She had no idea! Then she looked at Reno. “How did her father take the news?”
“I heard he was pissed. I guess he thought I should have stood by her.”
“Stand by the woman who tried to kill you? Fuck that.”
“I know,” Reno said. “But that’s how he felt. Even though I told him the story, and his daughter confirmed every detail, he never forgave me. It was all my fault in his eyes.”
“And you think he wants revenge for what happened to his daughter?”
Reno nodded. “That’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“But why now? Did she die and he wanted to right wrongs for her?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Then why now?” Trina asked again.
“I’ve been getting a lot of press lately about how the PaLargio is the most successful hotel/casino in the world. Maybe he was like you after that ambush with the children. Maybe it one too many accolades for the man who destroyed his daughter’s life. Maybe it’s as simple as that. One too many good stories about me. One too many depressing stories about his child. Or maybe his ass just got bored, and he wants to torment me. I don’t know. All I know is, he’s the only lead we have to find Maddie. And it’s a scary-ass lead.”
Then they suddenly heard a commotion downstairs. Raised voices and shuffling.
Reno rose up quickly, stood up, and then he and Trina hurried out of their bedroom. When they looked over the railing of the second floor staircase and saw Jimmy and Valerie, his ex-wife, yelling at and shoving each other, and Big Daddy and Buddy trying to break them up, Reno and Trina made their way downstairs.
Big Daddy and Buddy managed to pull the them apart by the time they made it downstairs, but that didn’t stop the recriminations.
“If she had been with me,” Val complained, “this would have never happened!”
“With you?” Jimmy asked incredulously. “I wouldn’t leave a pet rat with your irresponsible ass!”
“Irresponsible?” Val asked. “At least I don’t still live off of my daddy. At least I’ve got more pride in myself than that!”
“You and pride? Those two words will never go together!”
“Fuck you, Jimmy!”
“Fuck you!”
Big Daddy pushed Jimmy further away from Val. “Knock it off!” he yelled.
Jimmy knew what Big Daddy was capable of. He’d knock his ass out, and he knew it. He stopped his aggression.
But Val didn’t stop hers, although Buddy was holding her back. “I want my baby,” she was saying, tears now in her eyes. “Where’s my baby? I want to hold my baby!”
Trina, feeling Val’s pain
, went to her. “Val, they’re going to find her,” she said. “You hear me? They’re going to find her.”
Then Val broke down. She leaned against Trina. Trina placed her arms around her, and Val sobbed. She cried like a baby.
Reno didn’t care for Valerie Wellstone at all! She turned out to be all kinds of bad. But he wasn’t about to stop her from crying over her child. He was crying inside too. They all were.
Then Big Daddy’s cell phone rang. He looked at the Caller ID.
“Who is it?” Mick asked.
Big Daddy looked at his brother. “It’s Hammer Reese,” he said, and everybody paid attention. Hammer Reese, the brother of Carly Sinatra’s man Trevor Reese, was the former head of the CIA. Big Daddy placed the call on Speaker, and answered quickly. “Hammer, hey. You got some news for me?”
“Still not going to tell me why you need news from me?” Hammer asked.
“You’re still too intertwined with the Feds. We don’t need the Feds. Tell me what you know.”
“It’s my understanding, and I haven’t been able to independently verify this intel, so take it for what it’s worth. But it’s my understanding that Kobayatti Sorzi is holed up in a cabin in Alberta.”
“In Canada?” Big Daddy asked.
“In Lac la Biche, yes. In my neck of the woods. And he’s well off the grid. But if you feel it’s worth checking out, I can spot you to him.”
In their family of very strong men, the person in charge in any situation was always the one with the most to lose. That was why Big Daddy looked at Reno. Everybody else looked at him too. And Reno nodded his approval.
“Tell me how to get to his ass,” Big Daddy said to Hammer Reese, “and we’ll take it from there.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
“In the middle of fucking nowhere,” Reno said as he, Mick, and Sal sloshed their way to the hidden cabin. Tommy and Big Daddy were handling the home front. Worried sick, no doubt, but at least warm and comfortable. But Reno, Mick, and Sal were in Lac La Biche, a hamlet in Alberta, Canada, freezing their asses off. Their vehicle was near the main road, and it was a long, hard slog to that cabin. None of them were used to this kind of cold. Not even Mick.
Reno Gabrini: Turn Back Time Page 11