“Because you didn’t call, Reno. Because you keep having these all-nighters when I told you I don’t like it. Because if I pulled that shit on you, you’d beat my ass.”
“And I’d beat it because your ass wouldn’t have any business being out all night.”
“Oh, but you do?”
“Hell yeah I do,” Reno said. “Who runs a casino, Trina? Who runs a hotel? You?”
“Working hard is one thing. I’m not faulting you for working hard. I work hard too. But where are your priorities? You can’t just work all the time. Our children rarely sees you anymore.”
“Ah, come on! That’s bullshit and you know it.”
“It’s not bullshit!” Trina responded, refusing to back down. “They rarely sees you.”
“I’m not in the mood, Tree, I swear I’m not.”
“When was the last time you had dinner with your children? Tell me that!”
Reno exhaled. He knew he could do better, but most of the times it could not be helped. “There’s problems, okay?”
Trina stared at him. “Problems? What kind of problems?”
Reno gave up undressing and sat on the edge of the bed.
Trina walked over to him, and sat down beside him. “What problems, Reno?”
There were so many that Reno didn’t know where to begin. He ran his hands over his face. “I got a tip from one of my inside guys that the Feds are planning a raid.”
“To go through your books?”
“Yeah.”
“But so what, Reno? You keep meticulous books.”
“But my ass ain’t meticulous,” Reno responded. “That’s the problem. I have connections. The wrong kind, as far as the Feds are concerned. And besides, you never know with those guys, Tree. We may have missed something. We may have overlooked something that’s nothing to us, but criminal to them.”
“That’s what you were doing?” Trina asked. “Going over the books?”
“With a fine tooth comb,” Reno said. “Me and my whole team. Just to make sure. But you can never be too sure with those guys.”
Trina knew what he meant. “But why now?” she asked. “Who tipped them off?”
“Probably the same assholes who knew about Dom and Sophie’s kidnapping and tipped off those social workers. I’ve been asking around, to see if anybody heard anything about who could have called in that report. But nothing’s turned up.”
Trina wrapped her arm around his arm. “So what are we going to do?”
Reno took Trina with him as he laid back onto the bed. Trina turned sideways and wrapped her other arm across him. She looked into his worried face. “So you think there’s a connection between the person who told the authorities about what happened that night on that bridge, and this sudden raid they’re planning?”
“I think so, yeah.”
“But isn’t everybody who was involved in those kidnappings dead?”
“Yup. Every last one of them. That’s why this shit is crazy. The cops were called on that bridge after Sal took out Iceman Nelson, but they didn’t know anything about Dommi grabbing Sophie and making a run for it. They didn’t know shit about that.”
Trina let out a tired exhale. “When did your inside man say the Feds are going to show up?”
“It could be tomorrow. It could be a month from now. They haven’t set the date. I’d better be glad he heard about the raid at all.”
“That’s the truth,” Trina agreed.
Reno held Trina tighter, and then pulled her on top of him. He placed her chin in his hand and lifted her face. “I don’t want you worrying about it though. That’s why I don’t like to tell you this shit. I’ll worry for both of us.”
“I know you’ve got it under control,” Trina said with total confidence, which made Reno feel better. Then she laid her head on his chest and he continued to hold her. They just laid there in the silence.
“How’s the children?” Reno asked.
“Dom doesn’t care for tutoring.”
“He doesn’t care for school either. So what? He’s my son. School wasn’t exactly my thing either. Lift up.”
Trina lifted slightly, and Reno pulled down her pajama pants.
“Reno!”
He began rubbing and squeezing her ass with both hands.
“Reno,” Trina said, attempting to pull back up her pants, “the door is open. You know how Dommi is!”
“Then close the door,” Reno said, giving her a hard pinch and releasing her, “and bring your ass to me.”
Trina smiled, got up, and stepped out of her pajama bottoms. Then she hurried to their double doors and closed and locked them. Reno began rubbing his penis as he stared at her fine brown body, a body he knew so well, as she made her way back to the bed.
“I thought you were tired,” Trina said as she unbuttoned her top.
“I am,” Reno replied. “I’m wound-up. You’re going to wind me back down.”
“Oh yeah?” Trina looked at his ever-expanding dick. “That’s a lot to ask of one little lady.”
“Little?” Reno asked sarcastically and Trina removed her top and threw it at him.
Reno ducked, avoiding it.
“You’d better be glad I didn’t have a brick handy,” Trina said as she crawled onto his body. She was about to lick his penis, but Reno pulled her up further onto his body.
“Not this time,” he said. “I want that mouth on mine.” And as soon as he pulled close enough, he had his mouth on hers.
Trina closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around his neck as he kissed her hard. His hands moved down, as she knew they would, and gripped her ass as he kissed her. He was tried, she already saw that in his eyes, but he was hungry too. Reno was at his best, she felt deliciously, when he was hungriest.
Reno couldn’t stop kissing her. He had to turn down women all day long. Because every time he saw that great looking body, or that great looking face, he thought about this woman he had in his arms right now. Katrina. The love of his life. The woman who came to him when she was a waitress not looking for anything but a tip. And she changed his life, and his player heart, forever. Reno kept kissing her, and squeezing her ass, until his penis wanted her too.
He reached beneath her and guided it in. Trina was a wonderful feel, because she was always tight with friction. He was never able to slide into her with no resistance the way he did so many women of his past. He never had a moment, not a second, when he couldn’t feel the texture of his cock deep inside of her. He felt everything. That was the beauty of Tree. When he went inside of her, she made him feel every expanded vein of his erection.
And when he began to find his stride, he began making love to her with a need he encapsulated within his very soul. And he took his time with her. She was unwinding him. She was giving him that kind of wonderful calm and peace and sensuality that he needed desperately.
He made love to her with a gentleness that kept them both on the verge of cum the entire time. They kept kissing, and holding each other, and kissing again as he fucked her.
And when they actually came, it wasn’t about the intensity. They were already intense. But when they came, it was all about their togetherness. Things were never perfect in their life. They disagreed almost as much as they agreed. But they always had each other’s back.
And when they came, they both shuddered. Reno poured into her and she felt the release. He did everything to accommodate her, and she did everything to accommodate him. Each wanted the other one to enjoy the moment the most. Each wanted the other one to gain the greatest advantage. It was, for Reno and Trina, the very definition of love.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
She struggled to get there. She had been this close to saying no. But now that he was naked and on top of her, and now that his penis was pushed up into her as if it was stuck there, and now that she was opening her legs wider to receive all of him, there was no turning back. And as he fucked her hard, Val knew she didn’t want to go back. She was loving this. She couldn’t sa
y she was in love with him, but she loved what he was doing to her. He was older, he was big, he was exactly what she craved.
And he was good. He made love to her the way she wanted it to be. And he did her for the longest time.
But just as she was about to cum; just as he put his mouth on hers and began to kiss her as he fucked her, the door to the cabin was kicked open.
Kapper Cole, still pumping his ass off, turned to see what on earth had happened. For some reason he assumed it was the wind. For some reason he assumed the wind had blown the door wide open. But when he saw an assault rifle coming in with the wind, his heart panicked, and he rolled off of Val quickly, to take cover himself.
Val screamed as soon as Kap rolled off and she saw the rifle too. She quickly began moving back on her ass until her back was against the headboard, and she clutched the sheets against her naked body as if they held the power to stop a speeding bullet.
But before she could even look beyond the barrel of that gun, shots rang out. She ducked her head and curled her body as one, two, three, four shots were fired, and then she lost count. Because she screamed in one syllable screams with each of the first four shots, and then there was a continuous scream. But they were at Kap’s hunting lodge well off the beaten path. Screams were just forest noise out there.
Val could see Kap’s body being riddled with bullets. She could see his body bouncing with every hit. And it was all so surreal to her. It was like watching a movie that she wanted no parts of. But the bullets kept flying. One after another one. Straight into Kap.
It was only after the rifle was empty, and there were no bullets left, did she realize who had perpetuated this heinous crime. And even when she saw who, she still couldn’t believe it. The smoke had cleared, Kap’s body was no longer jumping with every hit, and the cold night air was rushing in behind the gunman as if it was disturbed too. Her heart stopped hammering and dropped through her entire body when she saw the gunman’s face.
“Jimmy?” Terror and amazement were in her eyes. “Jimmy?” It wasn’t possible!
But it was true. The gunman was Jimmy Gabrini. Her husband. And he was just standing there, holding the smoking gun.
“What have you done?” she cried. “You emptied that rifle in him. You killed him, Jimmy! What have you done?!”
Jimmy continued to just stand there. He stared at her nakedness. He stared at her fear. He stared at the betrayal her very presence confirmed. Then he looked at her dead lover. Her lover!
And he lifted his rifle again. She was wrong. He hadn’t emptied the chamber. He had one bullet left. Just one. And he wasn’t going to miss.
He stared at her, as if he needed to see her for the last time, to remember her, and then he pointed the rifle at her.
“Jimmy, no!” she cried, as she covered her head and tried to get away, but only managing to bump against Kap’s bloodied body. She screamed even more hysterically at just the thought of lying against a dead body, and she leaned away from him. And kept screaming. She couldn’t stop screaming. She lost her mind, forget her body, as she stared down the barrel of her husband’s gun.
Trina opened the door and saw the tutors hard at work with Dom and Sophie. She also saw that Nanny Pearl was close at hand. Not entirely unsurprising, Dom looked bored to tears, but he was nonetheless asking a ton of questions. Sophie was writing dutifully with a smile on her sweet face, as if it was her pleasure to learn new things. And Trina smiled herself. Two children could not have been more different. But both belonged to her and Reno. And she didn’t think it was possible to love them anymore than she already did.
But right now, she had to get to work. She closed the door of the library, walked over to the Queen Anne desk, grabbed her purse and keys, and was about to leave for work. But her cellphone began ringing. Assuming it was Oprah, wondering if she was on her way, she answered quickly.
But it wasn’t Oprah. It was Val.
“Ma?” she asked.
“Hey, what’s up?” Trina was about to grab her purse and keys, but she heard Val sniffle. She stopped all activity. “Val, what’s wrong?”
“Ma?” Val asked again.
“Val, what’s wrong?” Trina asked again, this time with panic in her voice.
“Jimmy shot Kap. He killed him, Ma.”
Trina’s heart hammered. “What are you talking about? Who’s Kap?”
“He shot him. He killed him, Ma. He killed him!”
“Where’s Maddie?”
“With my dad,” Val said. “He killed Kap, Ma. Jimmy killed Kap! He killed him! He killed him!”
She was hysterical now, and Trina knew this was too much for her to handle. She ran up the stairs and across the landing, yelling Reno’s name as she ran. When she ran into the master bedroom, Reno was in bed, asleep, their early morning sexual encounter still hanging heavy over the room.
“Reno!” she cried. “Reno!”
Reno finally heard her voice in his deep sleep, and woke up groggily. But when he saw Trina running toward him, a look of pure panic on her face, he lifted up. “What is it?”
“It’s Val,” she said, placing her phone on Speaker and then handing it to him. “She said Jimmy killed somebody, Reno!”
Reno snatched the phone from Trina’s hand and threw the covers off of his naked body. “Val?” he asked, as he got out of bed.
“He shot Kap,” Val said, crying. “He shot Kap. Kap’s dead!”
Reno looked at Trina with his who the fuck is Kap look. She shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. She didn’t know who Kap was either.
“Where are you?” Reno asked and motioned at Trina. Trina quickly grabbed a pen and paper and took down the address.
Reno was surprised that it was a Vegas address. “It happened here? You’re in town?”
“He killed Kap, Dad! He just broke in and killed Kap!”
“Where is he?” Reno asked anxiously.
“He’s here. But he’s dead.”
Reno’s heart dropped. “Jimmy’s dead?”
“Jesus no!” Trina cried and grabbed Reno’s arm.
“No,” Val said. “Kap is dead. Jimmy killed him!”
“Where the fuck is Jimmy?” Reno angrily yelled. “I don’t give a fuck about no Kap! Where’s my son?”
“Reno!” Trina admonished him.
Reno settled back down, rubbing his hair. “Where’s Jimmy, Val? Where’s your husband?”
“I don’t know,” she said in her crying voice. “He shot him and left. I don’t know where he is, why are you asking me that? I don’t know!”
“Okay, calm down,” Reno said. “Calm the fuck down! I’m on my way. Don’t open the door for anybody until I get there.”
“He kicked the door in.” Her voice was whiny now. “I put a chair against it in case he comes back, but he can probably get back in if he wanted to. He pointed that rifle at me too. He looked like he was going to shoot me too. But he left. Please hurry,” she added, with a plea in her voice. “I don’t know what to do!”
“I’ll be there, baby,” Reno said reassuringly, knowing that Val was all they had to find out what the hell happened. “Just wait until I get there.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t open that door for anybody,” Trina warned her, “until you hear from Reno.”
“Okay, Ma. I’ll wait.”
Reno ended the call and handed the phone to Trina. He hurried to their walk-in closet to put on some clothes.
“I’m going too,” Trina said.
“Like hell,” Reno responded.
“I’m going, Reno. He’s my child too. I may not have birthed him, but he’s my child too.”
Reno quickly slipped on a pair of jeans and sweatshirt and grabbed himself a pair of tennis shoes. He didn’t have the energy to argue with her. So he didn’t.
Val removed the chair from the door when Reno said it was him. Reno hurried in, with Trina right behind him. Val was so accustomed to seeing her father-in-law in a suit and tie, she almost questioned
his identity when he showed up in jeans, a sweatshirt, and tennis shoes. Was he in on it too, she wondered? She held a bottle of Mace she had in her pocketbook, and held it tightly. She was so afraid she couldn’t think straight. But she wasn’t so thrown that she couldn’t quickly close the door behind them.
But when Reno and Trina saw the dead body, they both stopped in their tracks.
“Geez,” Trina said with a frown, and turned slightly away. She was a Gabrini, but death still riled her.
“Who is he?” Reno asked.
“That’s Kapper Cole,” Val said, still torn up. “Jimmy did it. Jimmy killed him.”
“But who is he, Val?” Reno asked again with irritation in his voice. “Who the fuck is he?”
Val hesitated. But then she knew Reno would find out the truth. “He’s my friend,” she said.
Reno looked at her oddly. “Your friend? What kind of friend? And what are you doing with this friend out here in the fucking boonies? What’s going on here, Val?”
Val hesitated again. Trina understood already, and she knew Reno did too. She decided to move on. “Where’s Jimmy?” Trina asked her.
“I don’t know,” Val said, folding her arms and moving away from the door. “He came in and just kicked the door in and started shooting. He didn’t stop, Ma, he just kept shooting. He just kept shooting!”
Trina moved to Val and pulled her into her arms.
“What did he say when he was doing all of this shooting?” Reno asked. “Where did he go?”
“I don’t know,” Val said. “I told you I don’t know! He just left. He did his dirt and left!”
Reno was worried now. He and Trina both had been calling Jimmy’s cellphone nonstop on their ride over, with no response. Now he was on his cellphone again, calling the men he had phoned before he even left the PaLargio to keep searching for Jimmy, and for a crew to come to the cabin. When he ended the call, he looked at Val. “Okay, now, from the beginning,” he said, “you tell me exactly what happened and why were you here with this guy? What’s going on, Val? Tell us the truth!”
Trina released Val from her grasp, and Val folded her arms again. “It’s a long story, Dad,” she said.
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