Mob Boss Eleven- The Wrong One (The Mob Boss Series Book 11)

by Mallory Monroe

  “And have any of those women had a taste of that powerful instrument since he’s been married to Mrs. Gabrini?”

  “I haven’t spoken to anyone who’s had him since he’s been married to her, but come on now, Mo. He’s more discreet now. He only fools around with women who will not talk and tell his business. Because how many men with that kind of sexual prowess is going to give all of that variety up for just one woman? There is just no way. I don’t care what Trina thinks.”

  “And this clueless female is our only hope?”

  “Our only hope, Mo. There’s nobody else. We need her money and connections, and she’s going to need our know-how if she ever expects to be the successful do-gooder she strives to be. And he’s her money man, she just told us so. Every dime has to go through him.”

  “I sure hope we can get a final yes from her,” Maurice made clear. “Because I agree with you. It’ll be a win-win situation. We get to reopen and earn a decent living again, and she gets to go to sleep at night feeling a little less dirty from marrying a man like that. Women like her have to do good deeds, or that guilt will eat them alive.”

  Gennifer smiled mockingly. “And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?”

  Maurice smiled too. “Perish the thought,” he said.

  In the parking lot, Reno reached back into his car and grabbed his suit coat off the passenger seat. He was busy as hell, and didn’t have any time to kill, but Trina asked him to meet her over here. So he came. And when he saw her coming toward him, looking sexy in her pantsuit and heels, he smiled and lifted his shades, revealing deep blue eyes, and then slid them on top of his thick brown hair. “Here comes my bag of bones,” he said affectionately.

  “I’ve got your bag of bones right here,” Trina responded, using his favorite phrase.

  Reno laughed. And pulled her into his arms as soon as she arrived.

  “Thanks for coming, babe,” she said as he held her. “I know how busy you are.”

  He had not seen her since this morning. He soaked in her sweet smell as he wrapped his arms around her tighter, and then kissed her on the lips. But when they stopped embracing, he continued to hold her close to him as he looked around. It was not the best area, and it concerned him that it wasn’t. “You realize they’re selling drugs on that corner down there?”

  Trina looked down the street at the young men on the corner. Reno looked at her, at her gigantic hazel eyes as they carefully considered that corner. He loved the fact that she always had to see it for herself, and make up her own mind. Then she looked back at him. “I realize it,” she said.

  “You realize there could be a drive-by shooting at any moment and your ass could be right in the middle of it?”

  Trina didn’t blink. “I realize it,” she said.

  Reno stared at her. She was so tough now, and he was proud of his part in making her tougher. But she was sometimes fearless too, and too willing to take chances. He didn’t like that part about her one bit. He had to literally beat her ass a time or two because of it.

  He looked past her, at the humungous building before them, and at the two people standing there, all smiles, as if they were waiting for their lottery winnings. He began putting on his suit coat. “And you wanted me to meet you here why?” he asked.

  “I have an idea,” she said.

  Reno wanted to roll his eyes. “Not again, Tree.”

  “Just come and hear us out,” Trina said.

  “If it’s about opening another store, I don’t have to hear you out. The answer is no.”

  “It’s not about opening another store, Reno,” Trina said with a smile. “Just hear us out.”

  Reno smiled. “Do I have a choice?”

  Trina intertwined her arm in his. “None,” she said, and escorted him toward her two potential partners.

  Reno was reasonably certain that this meeting was going to be all about yet another how to overextend myself bright idea by Trina, and he was certain he was not going to like it. He put back on his shades.

  Gennifer and Maurice braced themselves as the power couple headed their way. It was now or never for their little venture, and they both knew it. They put on their best smiles. They outwardly displayed their best looks of sincerity. They inwardly prepared the best sales pitch of their lives. Because they knew this had to work. They knew it had to be the kind of sales pitch that would alleviate any of Reno Gabrini’s concerns, and tamp down any good reason he had to reject their proposal.

  But what they didn’t realize, as Reno approached them, was that he was already rejecting it. When it came to his wife overextending herself, they could try to sell him the moon, the stars, the lake and the sea. But he wasn’t buying any of it.

  “I want you to meet Maurice Pender and Gennifer Goff,” Trina said to Reno when they arrived at the building’s entrance.

  “How are you?” Reno asked the twosome.

  “We’re honored to meet you, Mr. Gabrini,” Maurice was the first to respond. “We’ve heard so many wonderful things about you. So many magnificent things.”

  Wrong approach, Trina thought, and she was right. Reno didn’t waste time. “You heard things,” he said to Maurice, “but none of them were wonderful or magnificent. None.” Reno looked Maurice in the eyes. “Let’s cut the bullshit. What’s this about?”

  Maurice and Gennifer exchanged a quick glance. What in the world, they wondered.

  But Trina didn’t wonder at all. She had already told them what in the world they were up against. They just didn’t believe her. “Gennifer and Maurice once ran Halperin House,” she said to her husband. “I’m sure you’ve heard of it.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard of it. It was a . . . what’s it? A shelter, right?” Reno asked.

  “For battered women, yes,” Trina responded. “It used to be housed in this building. Before it closed, Maurice was the executive director and Gennifer was the business manager. But after it closed, it left a major void in this city that they’ve been trying to fill ever since.”

  “A void they want you to fill?” Reno asked.

  “They want me to help fill, yes,” Trina responded honestly. “But it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. You know what it’s like here, Reno. You own the PaLargio. You see it every day. This is Vegas, and so many women are victimized here because of the atmosphere, and so many of these men think they can get away with it for those same reasons. A new, state-of-the-art battered women’s facility is exactly what’s needed. And the building is already in place. And with Mo and Gen, we have the brain trust. Liz knew I was interested in moving in this direction, so she put me in touch with them.”

  Reno looked at his wife. “A battered women’s shelter, Tree? So now you’re interested in battered women?”

  “I’ve always been interested in women period, Reno. I just didn’t know how I wanted to make something happen. I didn’t know how to turn my interest into action.”

  “But these two do?”

  “Yes, sir, we do,” Maurice chimed in, despite his previous slap down. “As your wife just so eloquently stated, we ran Halperin House.”

  “And apparently you ran it in the ground,” Reno pointed out, “because, as my wife also eloquently stated, it’s closed now.”

  Maurice wanted to lash back at Reno, but Gennifer took over. “Yes, you’re right, Mr. Gabrini,” she said. “It is closed, that is a fact. But we did everything in our power to keep these doors open. We worked for free for months on end to keep the doors open. For the sake of those poor women. But the economy took a nosedive and the funding dried up. The owner did all she could, but the money just wasn’t there.”

  At least the good looking red-head got to the point, Reno thought. He would rather deal with her. “So what do you want from my wife?” he asked Gennifer.

  “We want her to invest with us so we can reopen the shelter. We want to make sure that women of all backgrounds can feel secure in knowing that they have a special place to come. We want to provide love and comfort
and a safe place for the ladies.”

  “And this is the best news of all,” Maurice said with a confident smile. “The name will be changed and we will be calling it, not Halperin House, but Gabrini House!”

  Maurice said this as if that alone would seal the deal. Trina and Gennifer both wanted to roll their eyes. Didn’t Maurice get it yet, Gennifer wondered? This man did not like flattery. At all!

  But Reno was already over Maurice. He ignored him. “Again,” he said to Gennifer, “what do you want from my wife?”

  “We have the knowledge,” Gennifer said. “We can really help the ladies and make this work. But we need funding.”

  Reno nodded as if he figured it all along. “Money,” he said.

  “Money,” Gennifer agreed.

  Reno scratched his thick, unruly brown hair and then raked his fingers through it, tossing it even more. Gennifer loved the messy look of his beautiful hair, but she also would love to take a comb through it. And through the rest of him too, she thought, as she looked down at his sinewy form.

  “It’s about the money,” Trina said, “yes, it is. But it’s also about the cause.”

  “Let me get this straight,” Reno said to her. “You work at the PaLargio, and you’re my second-in-command there. You run Champagne’s, and you’re the owner, the manager, the stock clerk, and whatever else you need to be when you’re there. You’re the mother of my three children, two of which haven’t even started grade school yet. And you’re my wife, no easy task for any human being alive I will freely admit. But yet, on top of all of that, with all of that on your plate, you expect me to agree to let you bankroll and run a battered women’s shelter? Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “It’s not just me, Reno! I’ll be one of the investors, but I won’t run the day to day at all.”

  “That’s the same shit you told me when you wanted to open Champagne’s, Trina. The exact same shit! ‘I won’t run it at all, Reno,’ you said to me. ‘I’ll just put up the money. It’ll be easy. It’ll be a piece of cake!’”

  “That’s a gotdamn lie!” Trina shot back. “I never said anything about it being easy or any piece of cake. Why do you keep saying that?”

  “Because you implied it!” Reno responded. “Now you’re working at Champagne’s almost as much as you’re working at the PaLargio. Your children get glances at their mother. You’re so exhausted sometimes you look like you need to be hospitalized to get your ass some rest. And you think I’m going to go along with this? No. The answer is no.”

  “But, sir,” Maurice asked, “the building is already here. At least come inside. Don’t you want to look inside?”

  Trina and Gennifer couldn’t believe he asked that. Reno frowned. “Why the fuck would I want to look inside some gotdamn building? My wife has too much on her plate right now. That’s the issue. She can’t be a part of this. That’s the point. She can give a donation, but that’s it. She’s not partnering up with you. So you need to find yourself another sugar mama, oh, I’m sorry. I mean investor. This one is not available.” He looked at Trina. “Where’s your car?”

  “Reno---”

  “Where’s your car?” His tone was even firmer.

  Trina exhaled, mainly to control her anger. “It’s still at Champagne’s,” she said. “I rode with them.”

  “Let’s go.” He began leaving.

  Trina wanted to defy him. She wanted to tell him that this conversation wasn’t finished by a longshot. But she knew what that would get her. She looked at her would-be partners. “I’ll call you,” she said, and followed her husband out of the building.

  When they left, a bitter Maurice looked at Gennifer. “Did you see that? I hate him!”

  “But do you hate his money?” Gennifer asked. “We need the cash. Once we gain Mrs. Gabrini’s trust, then we can do what we need to do. His entire complaint was about how she’s stretched too thin as it is. That’s great for us, Mo.”

  Maurice looked at her. “Great for us? How is that great for us?”

  “Because if she agrees to partner with us, she’ll have to let us run it the way we see fit. She’ll be too busy to know the difference. We can do whatever the hell we want. And our cash flow will crank right back up, and right under her nose. And the money, once again, will pour like rain, and our high class living will return.”

  “And not a moment too soon,” Maurice said, and Gennifer laughed.

  CHAPTER TWO

  They were naked in bed. Trina was on top of Reno and his dick was already inside of her. But it wasn’t moving. It was sitting there, as if it was cuddled in a blanket. Reno was holding her, and her head was on his chest, and they both were attempting to finally come down from the hectic heights of the day.

  He began to rub her ass.

  “Dommi and Lexi asleep?” he asked her.

  “Lexi’s asleep. Dominic is nowhere near it.”

  Reno smiled. “That’s my boy.”

  Then more silence. More coming down.

  Trina looked up at him. She took her fingers and smoothed his hair out of his face. “There are so many women out there who need serious help, Reno,” she said.

  “I understand that.”

  “You see them up and down the Strip. They need help.”

  “Then write a check and help. That’s fine. Whatever you want to give, you take our checkbook and give it to them. But you aren’t putting your name on any new business venture.”

  “But they need a partner. I can’t just throw your hard-earned money at people. Money changes folks in very negative, nasty ways, and I’m not giving them that kind of incentive. If I’m giving big bucks, I’ll have to oversee those bucks. Down to the last dime.”

  Reno smiled and squeezed one of her butt cheeks. “That’s my girl,” he said.

  “But it’s not just the money they need,” Trina continued. “They need an advocate too. They need somebody with connections to keep the donations coming, because that initial investment will eventually dry up. They need---”

  “They need somebody to run the business end of their business enterprise,” Reno said. “And I’m sure they do. But that somebody will not be you.”

  “But Reno---”

  “Don’t but, Reno me. The answer is no. No more ventures. You’ve got too much going on now. Way too much. It’s my job to look out for you, Tree, and that’s what I’m going to do whether you agree with my decisions or not. You are stretched too thin.”

  Trina knew he spoke the truth, and she knew he was only looking out for her best interests just as he said, but she still felt strongly about that shelter. But she also knew that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it would take time to convince Reno. Champagne’s took a lot of convincing too, but he ultimately came around. She was banking on him coming around on this goal of hers too.

  She therefore laid her head back down on his chest, and left it alone. For now.

  And the quietness, the coming down from their hectic day, returned.

  “You’re heavy,” Reno eventually said, breaking the silence.

  Trina, surprised by his comment, lifted her head and looked at him. “I am not,” she declared.

  He smiled; pushed his dick further inside of her. She gave him a playful slap on the side of his need-of-a-shave face, and laid back down. “Very funny,” she said.

  “Wanted to make sure you were still awake.”

  “Still awake? Are you kidding? Armondo is rammed up inside of me. How can I sleep?”

  Reno frowned and glanced down at her. “Who the fuck is Armondo?” he asked.

  “It’s one of my nicknames for it. It’s a name I’ve always liked.”

  “Armondo? Get the fuck out of here! Get another nickname.”

  Trina had a great idea what kind of name he would like. “Yeah? Like what?”

  “I don’t know. Like Moby Dick. Or Escalade dammit. Or Humungous. How should I know?”

  Trina laughed. “Or, Pee Wee, how about that?”

  Reno pulled out, rolled her o
ff of him to where she was now on her back and he was now on top of her. She was still laughing, and he was smiling too. But when he looked down and saw her lying there, and those feelings of love welled up inside of him, all playfulness was gone. He no longer saw his wife. He saw his lover. He saw her gorgeous hazel eyes. And her flawless black skin. And the dark around her nipples. And the smooth, juicy texture of her mounds. He saw her stomach, that used to be iron flat but now held a small potbelly that surfaced after Sophia’s birth. She rid herself of every pound. But that little potbelly wouldn’t cooperate. Reno called it his belly; a reminder of the precious cargo she once carried for him, and he felt emotional every time he saw it.

  But his eyes moved down further, and he saw the lips of her vagina, and her lean, trim thighs. His dick throbbed at just the thought of what sweetness was between those thighs, as his eyes became enamored with the view.

  He parted her, with her thighs easily opening, and allowed his dick to guide itself back inside of her. And as soon as he made contact again, it was no longer funny to Trina either. Because he entered, not with a whimper, but a bang. Not with a glide, but a jarring shove. It was such a sudden and surprisingly forceful shove, her entire upper body lifted up. “Reno!” she screamed.

  “Does that feel peewee to you?” he asked her as he shoved it further in, and with even greater force.

  “No,” she admitted, shaking her head. “Nothing peewee about it. Not at all.”

  “Not at all?” Another shove.

  Another upper body lift up. “Not at all!”

  And then, when he was safely settled into her deepest pocket, and the tightness of her vaginal muscles settled around his rock hard shaft, he began to move.

  Her arms drop freely to her sides, and she closed her eyes as her small body rocked with his moves. His dick felt so alive, like a rich thickness inside of her that kept poking her and prodding her until every hot spot was inflamed.