“If I phoned you every time Dominic misbehaved,” the principal said, “I’d be calling you all day.”
Those should have been fighting words. What parent wanted to hear that kind of shit from some stuffy-ass principal? But Reno knew the man spoke the truth. Dommi knew how to behave around him and Trina. He respected and feared them above any human beings alive. But they appeared to be the sum total of who he respected. They appeared to be the sum total of who he feared.
Reno didn’t argue. He just waited for his son, and then left.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jimmy Gabrini was still in town, with plans to return to New Hampshire later that day, when he received the call from his father. Meet him, he said, at Skelton Park. He needed to talk to him.
But when he arrived, he saw two sights. His father was sitting on the bench by the lake, with his legs crossed and his arm draped over the back of the bench. But he also saw his baby brother, standing near the water’s edge, tossing rocks into the water. But of course Dommi, being Dommi, wasn’t just tossing rocks. He was trying to hit some of the geese. Jimmy shook his head as he began heading toward the bench.
“Hit one again,” Reno warned Dommi as Jimmy walked up.
“But it was an accident, Daddy,” Dommi responded.
“And my shoe up your ass will be accidental too,” Reno shot back.
Jimmy smiled. “Hey Dad,” he said as he sat beside him. “Shouldn’t that little rascal be in school?”
“All the good it does him,” Reno said. “Come here,” he said to Dommi.
Dominic dropped his supply of rocks and hurried up to his father and brother. He smiled. “Hey, Jimmy,” he said, and fell against Reno.
Jimmy ruffled Dommi’s curly hair. “How you doing, boss?” he asked him.
“I like when you call me that.”
“You like being called boss?”
“Very much so, yes,” Dommi said, and Jimmy laughed.
“He would like that,” Reno said.
“So what gives, Pop?” Jimmy asked. “What’s with the meeting? And where’s Ma?”
“New York,” Dommi said.
“She’s not there yet,” Reno said. “But she’s on her way.”
“On your plane?” Jimmy asked.
“Of course on my plane,” Reno said. “What do you think I’m going to let my wife fly commercial?”
“You let your son fly commercial,” Jimmy said with a smile. He was not looking forward to that long-ass flight back to New Hampshire later today. “Uncle Sal usually let me take his plane,” he added, “but he’s out of town.”
“He’s always out of town,” Reno said.
“I don’t know why Aunt Gemma puts up with it. I’d tell him to go take a hike.”
“Yeah, like you told Val to take a hike, right?” Reno asked.
Jimmy hesitated. “Dom,” he said, “why don’t you go toss some more rocks? I want to talk to Dad for a minute.”
“But I don’t want to toss more rocks.”
“Tough,” Reno said. “Do as your brother said.”
Dommi didn’t like it, but he knew he couldn’t dispute it either. “Yes, sir,” he said, and headed back to the water’s edge.
Jimmy looked at his father. “I don’t get you, Pop. You know all the shit I did. Including what went down at that lodge. But yet you act as if what Val did is the greater sin.”
“Because it is,” Reno said firmly.
“But why?”
“Because she’s your wife, and you wouldn’t have done what you did at that lodge if her ass didn’t put you in that position. She’s your wife.”
“You said that already,” Jimmy said. “I’m her husband. So what?”
“A man has to be able to trust his wife above any human being walking the face of this earth. If a man can’t trust his wife, what is he? Val cheated on you. Where is the trust?”
“It’s being rebuilt,” Jimmy said. “Because news flash, Pop: I cheated on her too.”
“I know that.”
“And with a transvestite to boot.”
Reno frowned. “What are you bringing that up for? I know what you did.”
“Did you ever do something like that? Did you ever have sex with a woman who turned out to be a man, Pop?”
“Hell no,” Reno responded. “I never had sex with a man period. What are you asking me that for?”
“Because imagine how Val felt when she found out that her husband had done just that very thing you seem disgusted by. I didn’t just cheat on her with a woman. I cheated on her with a woman who turned out to be a man, and I kept going. I didn’t pull out.”
“Okay, knock it off!” Reno decried, amazed that his son would get that graphic with him.
Jimmy smiled. His father really was some kind of serious homophobe. “The point I’m making, Pop,” he said, “is that Val had the rawer deal. But she forgave me.”
“Sure she did,” Reno said.
“She forgave me,” Jimmy repeated himself. “She didn’t forget it. She didn’t suppress the pain it caused her. But she forgave me and we were trying to move on.”
“Until she just so happened to fall in bed with the stud.”
“The stud I took out,” Jimmy said. “Which is yet another thing she has to deal with.”
“Stop making excuses for her,” Reno said. Then he exhaled. “Look, I love Val. She’s my daughter-in-law and I treated her like a daughter. She’s the mother of my grandchild. But you’re my boy. And I have to look out for you. It wouldn’t be so unforgiveable if it was just the cheating. That was bad enough, I’m not saying it wasn’t. It was. But she told our family business to that fucker, Jimmy. She told him about Dommi and how he drove that car that day. Her loose lips almost cost us custody of Dom and Lexie.” Lexie was Reno’s nickname for his daughter Sophia, and just the thought of what could have happened still choked Reno up. “She almost forced my children to spend the night with strangers. They were almost placed into state custody.” Reno shook his head. “That’s too much. Nobody will ever pull that shit on me and mine and not have to deal with my wrath.”
“She loves you, Dad. You know she does. And you know she’s a good girl overall. But it broke her heart when you put your hands on her.”
“She’d better be glad that’s all I did to her. Who the fuck does she think she is? I put my hands on you and Dommi, and on Lexie. And on Trina’s ass too if she messes up. And Val thinks she’s immune? If she’s in this family, she’s under my authority. If she can’t deal with that, then keep her ass away from me.”
Jimmy looked at his father. He was getting more and more territorial the older he became. It was as if his wife and children were life itself to Reno, and anybody who hurt them had to pay a hefty price. No matter what his family did to deserve the hurt.
“Anyway,” Jimmy said, certain he was not going to get his father to understand what moving on really meant, “you wanted to see me?”
Reno calmed back down. “Yeah,” he said, and then he called Dommi over too.
Dommi sat between Reno and Jimmy as Reno turned his hips toward them. This wasn’t easy for him, but he knew it was necessary. “I wanted to meet with the two of you,” he said, “so that you can tell me what I’m doing wrong.”
Dommi looked at his father, shocked that he would ever admit to doing anything wrong.
Jimmy, too, was surprised. “What do you mean?” he asked.
“What kind of a father have I been to you two?” Reno asked.
Dommi, puzzled, looked at Jimmy.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Jimmy said.
“Why were you in that parking lot about to do what you were about to do?” Reno asked Jimmy. “Why were you standing on the lunch table acting a fool at school?” he asked Dommi. Then he frowned. “What am I doing wrong?” he asked.
Jimmy leaned forward. But Dommi decided to answer. “They let me get away with stuff,” he said, “so I do it. You and Mommy don’t let me. So I don’t do it when I’m
around you and Mommy. But that’s not your fault.”
“Is it your fault?” Jimmy asked his kid brother.
“It’s nobody’s fault. It just is.” Then Dommi turned back to his father. “You’re mean, maybe that’s what you’re doing wrong. You’re really, really, really mean. But you’re not mean all the time. When you’re not mean, you’re great. Except when you beat me. I don’t like you very much then. When the pain stops, I love you again. So I would say you’re like a 9.5.”
“If I’m so great,” Reno said, “why don’t you listen to me, and behave?”
“But I do listen to you, and I do behave when you’re around. And when Mommy’s around.”
Reno looked at his son. “Do you hear yourself? You only behave when we’re around? What do you do when we’re not around?”
Dommi smiled. “It’s on then!” he said. “It’s fun time then!”
“That’s not how it works, Dommi,” Reno corrected his son. “You behave yourself whether I’m there or not.”
Dommi saw an opening, and took it. “Did you behave when your daddy wasn’t around?” he asked his father.
Jimmy smiled. That boy was too smart for his own good.
Reno knew it too. And that was why he knew he couldn’t bullshit him. “No,” he admitted.
“Well then,” Dommi said with a smile. “I’m just like you!”
Reno exhaled. “Yes, you are,” he said.
“Little Reno,” Jimmy echoed. “That’s Dommi through and through.”
Dommi smiled. He was proud to be his father’s son. He was proud of that moniker.
Then Reno, knowing Dommi already was probably a lost cause, looked at Jimmy. “What about you, Jim?” he asked.
“You aren’t doing anything wrong, Dad,” Jimmy said. “Are you hard on us? Yes, you are. Are you a tough act to follow? Yeah, you are. It’s hard to live up to your example. I mean, our dad is the most powerful man in Vegas. That’s what that magazine said. How do I top that? I’m just proud you’re my Dad. I’m proud to walk in your shadow.”
Reno smiled. And he pulled Jimmy in his arms. Dommi leaned into his father too, and Reno included him in the hug.
Later that night, Reno was in bed, lying on his back, unable to sleep. All he could do was think about Trina. He wanted to call her. He wanted to talk with her until he fell asleep. But he knew that wouldn’t be fair to her. She rarely got break. If it wasn’t the kids pulling on her apron, it was Reno pulling on her panties. She was getting it from both ends.
He grabbed the remote, and turned on the television. After changing nearly twenty different channels, he settled on Bad Grandpa, a so-called comedic movie that wasn’t funny at all to Reno. But at least it was something too different to watch. Then knocks were heard on his bedroom door.
“Yeah?” he yelled.
The double doors opened. It was Dommi in his pajamas. But because he knew better than to step foot in his parents’ bedroom without permission, and he had the memories of all of those spankings to prove it, he remained at the door. “I miss Mommy,” he said to his father.
“So do I, Dommi,” Reno responded without looking away from the TV. “Now go back to bed.”
“But we can’t sleep.”
“Close your eyes and count your blessings,” Reno said. “You’ll fall asleep.” Then he thought about what Dommi said. “Who’s we?” he asked and looked at his son. He’d better not have brought some stranger into their home.
Sophia came from behind her brother. “I’m we, Daddy,” she said.
Reno looked at his two young children. He knew Dommi was trotting out his cute little sister for the sympathy vote. Dom was that kind of kid. But even with that knowledge, Reno’s heart swelled. They looked so preciously pitiful to him. So starved for his affection. He exhaled. “Come on,” he said, and both smiled grandly and ran to his bed.
The children jumped into the bed, with either on each side of their father, and all three watched the movie. But when Dommi and then Sophia snuggled against Reno and began laughing at a comical funeral scene in the movie, and laughing uproariously, Reno began to ease up too. And he began laughing too. He pulled his children in his arms and they had a ball doing something as simple, and remarkable, as watching late night TV.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Where’s your lunch box, Lexie?” Reno asked as he stood at the front door and gave his children a final check.
“Oops,” Sophia said and hurried back into the kitchen. She had on her backpack. She had on the little skirt set she wanted to wear. But food? It was the last thing on her mind. But not on Reno’s. This was his job whenever Trina was away, and he always strived to get it right.
“I’ve got my lunchbox, Daddy,” Dommi reminded his father. “And my backpack. And everything else I’m supposed to have.”
“She just forgot, Dommi,” Reno reminded him. “It’s not the end of the world.”
“But she’s always forgetting something,” Dommi responded. “She’ll forget her body if it wasn’t on her head.”
Reno looked at his son and smiled. Then he laughed. “What you just said cannot possibly be right.”
Dommi frowned, and thought about what he said. And then Sophia returned with her little Disney lunchbox with pictures of Elsa and Anna from the movie Frozen, in tow.
“Ready?” Reno asked her.
“I’m ready,” Sophia said and she and her brother, followed by their father, hurried out of the penthouse.
After dropping them off at their respective schools, and praying to God that He protected them, he made his way to work. Back to the PaLargio. Thinking about how much he enjoyed being with his children last night and how much more enjoyable it would have been had Trina been there. They needed more nights like that as a family, and he determined to make it happen. But then his cellphone rang, and it brought him back to earth.
“The raid is underway, boss,” Josiah “Josie” Supino, his security chief, said breathlessly, as if he was running.
“Damn!” Reno said, hitting the gas of his car. He would have preferred to be there when they first arrived but, as usual, they outsmarted his ass. “Make sure everybody is at their stations,” he ordered Josie. “Nobody says anything without our lawyers present. Is Vic there?” Vic was Victor Vereen, one of Reno’s attorneys.
“No, sir, not yet.”
“Call him. Tell him to get his ass there stat. Get every lawyer on my payroll there! I’m on my way.”
“But that’s the thing, boss,” Josie said. “It’s not us. They aren’t going through the PaLargio’s books.”
Reno frowned. “What do you mean they aren’t checking our books? Then what books are they checking?”
“They aren’t raiding the PaLargio. They’re raiding Champagne’s.”
Reno couldn’t believe it. “My wife’s boutique? What the fuck for?”
“But that’s the crazy part, boss. They aren’t raiding her main location. They’re raiding her smaller store here inside the PaLargio. Like they don’t know what they’re doing.”
“Those fuckers know exactly what they’re doing,” Reno said angrily. “What the shit you mean? They’re raiding her PaLargio location to rattle my ass. To make sure I have a ringside seat. This is probably just the beginning. Have my people at their stations just in case.”
“Yes, sir. But why are they doing this at all, boss? Has anybody figured that out? And if they wanted to rattle you, wouldn’t they begin at the PaLargio itself? Not at some tiny boutique? Why start at Champagne’s?”
“I can’t answer any of your questions,” Reno said. “So stop the fuck asking them!”
“But what I mean is, they have to have a reason, don’t they? They can’t just raid Champagne’s unless they have probable cause. Did anybody tell you what they might be looking for?”
“No,” Reno admitted. “That sorry-ass inside man didn’t tell me Champagne’s could be a target. He failed to mention that little fact.”
“Maybe you aren’t th
e only one he’s feeding information to,” Josie said. “Maybe he’s being paid even more money to feed you information, and misinformation.”
“Yeah maybe,” Reno said. “But what the fuck am I going to do about it? He’s a federal agent. I’ve got enough heat on me right now. I’m not knocking off any Fed right now.”
“Has Mrs. Gabrini left town yet?” Josie asked. “Maybe she knows what’s going on.”
“She’s gone. She left yesterday. But get Vic over there and get everybody else in place.”
“Should I call Mrs. Gemma Jones too?”
“I think she’s in court, but see if her husband is in town. If he is, tell him to get over there too. I need them to see power there. I need them to understand who the fuck they’re fucking with.”
“I’ll get on it, boss,” Josie said. And Reno killed the call, and floored it.
Reno’s Porsche sped under the portico in front of the PaLargio’s entrance doors and he hurried out of his car. The valet supervisor immediately took charge of the boss’s car and was surprised by how fast he was moving.
“Everything okay, sir?” he asked, but Reno didn’t give him so much as a glance. He ran into his hotel.
Vic Vereen and Josie Supino were waiting for him in the lobby and hurried as soon as he entered.
“What are they doing?” Reno asked without breaking his stride. He was walking fast, nearly running, and Vic and Josie were struggling to keep up with him. “They’re going through everything,” Josie said. “Even boxes of clothes.”
Reno looked at his security chief. “Clothes? What the fuck for?”
“Because it’s their prerogative,” Josie said. “That’s what they told me. You know how those assholes are.”
“Do they have the proper paperwork?” Reno asked Vic, his attorney.
“Everything’s in order,” Vic said. “They knew better than to come here without the right credentials.”
“Gotdammit,” Reno said at just the thought of them outsmarting him. “What about my books? They mention anything about the PaLargio proper?”
Reno Gabrini: For His Lover (The Mob Boss Series Book 14) Page 14