“What time tomorrow?”
“Around eight was all she said.”
Reno stared at Lefty, then nodded his head. “I’ll be back tomorrow at seven. When she arrive, you point that bitch out to me,” he said.
Lefty seemed taken aback by Reno’s seeming capitulation, but gladly nodded his head. “I will,” he said. “Don’t you worry.”
“Fuck with me and you’ll live to regret it,” Reno warned. Lefty again promised to point her out to him tomorrow night, and that he wasn’t trying to fuck with anybody. And then Reno and Jimmy left.
Jimmy was stunned. “How can you believe that guy, Pop?” he asked as they made their way to the Mercedes. “That guy’s lying through his teeth.”
Reno got into his wife’s car and Jimmy got in on the passenger seat. “Pop,” he said. “How can you believe him?”
“I don’t believe him,” Reno said as he drove out of the tavern’s parking lot.
“You mean you’re not going to wait until tomorrow night?”
“Are you on drugs? Whatta I look like to you?”
“But you told him---”
“I know what I told him. He knows what I told him too.”
Reno drove down the street as if he was well on his way, but then he drove around the corner and came back onto the same street, and placed the car in park three doors down from the tavern.
“What are you doing?” Jimmy asked him.
“I’m waiting,” replied Reno.
“Waiting for what?” Jimmy asked.
But Reno didn’t respond. He was too busy staring at the tavern. Jimmy was always struck by how serious his father could always be, but seeing him now, handling his business as he liked to call it, was different. Reno had taken seriousness to another level. His intensity, his singular focus, unnerved Jimmy.
“Pop?” he asked Reno.
“What?”
“Why are you so serious? You already took care of the guy who actually rammed your car.”
Reno looked at him. “How would you know what I took care of?”
Jimmy decided to test a theory. “Mom told me,” he said.
“Quit lying. Trina didn’t tell you shit.”
Jimmy smiled. “Okay, she didn’t tell me. But I know you, Pop. I know what you’re capable of.”
Reno exhaled with a harsh exhale when his son said those words. Then he looked back out of the car’s window. Jimmy would never know how much the fact that he knew what his father was capable of hurt Reno to his core.
“What I don’t understand,” Jimmy went on, “is why it matters who paid the guy. The guy who actually did the deed has been taken care of.”
Reno looked at his son. “What are you an idiot? Yeah, the guy who rammed us was taken care of. But why did he ram me, Jimmy? That’s what you’ve got to know. Don’t you dare think that just because you’ve got the front man, the deed is done. Like hell it is! My wife, your stepmother, was in that car. That car rammed us from the passenger side, from the side where my wife was sitting. They could have killed Tree. I need to know who was behind this shit or it won’t end. So, yeah, I’m serious as a heart attack when somebody puts my wife in danger. Nobody’s taken care of until I get to the bottom of this. No fucker’s taking me down some blind-ass road again and I just sit back and let them.”
Jimmy understood exactly what Reno was talking about. He remembered just months ago when his father deposited him and Dommi and Trina in Seattle, and told his uncle Tommy to take care of them. For two long months they didn’t see Reno or hear from him. He had to walk that road alone. Jimmy couldn’t bear it if they had to go down that road again.
A banana yellow Corvette came out of the tavern’s parking lot and Reno took off following it.
“That’s Lefty?” Jimmy asked.
“That’s Lefty.”
“How did you know what car he drove?”
“You pick out the nicest car in the parking lot and you’ve got Lefty’s car. He’s that kind of guy.”
“You think he’s going to meet up with the woman that paid him?”
“I know he is.”
“But why would he go now if she’s supposed to meet him tomorrow night?”
“If his story is true, then maybe he wants the rest now so he can get lost for a few days until he thinks the heat is off. I’m the heat,” Reno added as he glanced at his son.
“And if his story’s not true?”
“He’s going to warn her.”
“If it is a her,” Jimmy added.
Reno liked that addition. “Right,” he said.
As they drove across Vegas, careful to keep a distance from Lefty, Reno had a depressing feeling that he already knew where this was heading. And sure enough, when Lefty’s Corvette drove up to the gate outside of the mayor’s home, Reno’s heart tightened. It was Belle. The woman Lefty was going to meet was Belle Patrone, his old friend.
He continued to drive away slowly when Lefty turned into the driveway and headed for the electronic gate, but he couldn’t escape the sad truth.
Jimmy looked at his father, confused that he didn’t stick around to confront this woman, if indeed she resided at that residence.
“You know who lives there?” he asked his father as he was driving away.
“Yup.”
“Somebody important?”
“If the mayor is important, then I’d say so, yeah.”
Jimmy stared at his father. “The mayor?” he asked, astounded. “You think the mayor paid Lefty to ram your car?”
But Reno wasn’t answering questions. He had too many of his own. With the most urgent involving Belle Patrone and what in the world was she up to?
EIGHT
Tommy sat with his leg crossed and stared at Grace as she discussed business with the chief financial officer of Trammel, and reviewed a stack of documents. Sal sat beside his brother, staring at her too. They were twenty-six thousand feet above the ground, flying to Vegas on Tommy’s private plane, and Grace was concluding last minute business before she could relax. It had been a week since Cam’s suicide attempt and all three were glad to be leaving Seattle, at least for a little while.
Sal leaned against his older brother. Both were in shirtsleeves and ties, although Dapper Tom, as he was also known, wore matching suspenders.
“How’s she holding up?” Sal asked in a lowered voice.
Tommy also leaned against Sal. The two men were now shoulder to shoulder. “Better, I think, now that she’s leaving.”
“And that fucker who ruined her day is still hanging on.”
Tommy nodded. “That’s the last word I heard on his condition. The doctors seem to think he’ll pull through.”
“There are ways he can get pulled back in,” Sal said.
Tommy looked at his younger brother. They used to be cops together, officers of the law, and were now legitimate businessmen. Whereas their cousin Reno’s father chose to walk the Mafia plank, they were the Gabrinis whose father chose law and order, and his two sons followed in his footsteps. But lately Tommy had been wondering about Sal and if he had crossed over to the mob side. Tommy knew his brother better than any other human being alive. He knew he’d never work for any mobster. But he was beginning to wonder if he had become one himself, and had others working for him. It concerned Tommy to such a degree that a few months back he had some of his security people check it out. But they turned up blanks.
“I don’t want him pulled back in,” Tommy said. “It’ll be better for Grace if he pulled through.”
Sal hadn’t thought about that. If Cameron Birch died it could mess with Grace’s mind for years to come. “I guess you’re right,” he said, “given who Grace is. I mean she’s nice and all that, but she’s no Trina, that’s for sure.”
Tommy wanted to give his brother a glaring look, but he didn’t bother. He continued to stare at Grace. He’d heard criticism from all corners about his relationship with Grace McKenzie and how she wasn’t good enough for him, or how she wasn’
t sophisticated enough, or how she wasn’t well established in her own right to claim a prize like Tommy. She was CEO and majority shareholder of Trammel now, and by all accounts was a very good manager, but as far as the critics were concerned she didn’t build that either. That was all Tommy’s doing too. But since most of those critics were various ex-girlfriends he had dumped in favor of Grace, he dismissed their complaints out of hand. But Sal was another story. Sal was known as Tommy’s shadow. They were closer than brothers.
“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” he asked his brother.
“It means what it means,” Sal said in usual Sal fashion. “She’s whatta you call fragile. She hasn’t hardened yet. She will, after she marries you and becomes a Gabrini she’d better, but she ain’t there yet.”
Tommy continued to look at Grace. She wore reading glasses and was now off of the phone and paying full attention to the documents before her. He didn’t want her to become hardened. He didn’t want her to become jaded and accustomed to violence and upheaval the way Reno, mostly through no fault of his own, forced Trina to become. He hated that Grace had to witness that scene with ShoShawna Shanks, his now deceased ex-girlfriend. He hated what that sick-ass Cam forced her to go through. He wanted her to remain who she was: kind, strong in her own way, loving and sweet. He didn’t ask some sophisticated she-woman to be his wife because that wasn’t who he wanted to bear his name. He wanted Grace. He knew her first order of business would be to have his babies and be a good and loving wife to him. She’d have her career too, and he wanted that for her, but her family would always come first.
After more than a few moments of Tommy and Sal both sitting across from her staring at her, Grace finally felt their stares and looked up over the top tip of her reading glasses. When she looked up, and those big brown African eyes of hers stared back at Tommy, his heart squeezed with love. No, she wasn’t a hardened, sophisticated lady of the world, but she was everything he wanted in his lady, in his wife.
“What’s wrong?” she asked him.
He smiled that smile that always brightened up a room. And always forced Grace to smile too.
“Nothing at all,” he said. “Just enjoying the view.”
“Here, here,” Sal agreed.
Grace loved those two guys. Sal was turning into one of her closest allies, a person she could actually confide in when Tommy was out of town and she needed somebody to talk to. And Tommy had been great. Ever since that horrible episode with Cam, he’d remained in town and had her in his arms every single night. Mostly they slept at his house, but occasionally they slept at hers. In their entire courtship, Tommy was often out of town as much as he was in town. But they’d never spent as much time together as they were spending now. Grace found that she liked it better this way.
“So tell me, Grace,” Sal said, “how’s being boss been treating you? Me and Tommy both have been bosses for years and it’s always a motherfuck. But what has it been like for you?”
Grace inwardly chuckled at Sal’s unbridled tongue. “It’s been good. . . and challenging. People who knew me back when I was Jillian’s assistant now seem to feel entitled to all kinds of promotions and perks and special recognition from me.”
“Like Nayla,” Tommy said.
“Right,” Grace agreed.
“I don’t like that girl,” Sal said. “Something about her I don’t like.”
“The feeling is mutual I assure you. She calls you a little racist.”
Tommy laughed grandly, causing Grace to laugh too. Sal, however, was offended. “Yeah, I got a few names I could call her ass too, and they won’t be nice I can tell you that.”
“But seriously, Nay’s okay,” Grace said. “We’ve been friends since forever. But I know what I’m getting with her.”
After a few more minutes of small talk, the conversation stalled. Tommy was staring in a different way at Grace, and Grace was staring at Tommy. And then Tommy folded his arms and positioned his crossed leg higher on his lap, as if to conceal what was becoming an expanding erection.
But he wasn’t concealing a thing from Sal. Because Sal knew his brother. He knew when Tommy wanted to fuck. He therefore excused himself to the back cabin of the private plane, and closed the door.
Tommy, grateful to his younger brother, uncrossed his legs, and told Grace to come to him.
Grace gladly sat her papers aside, removed her glasses, and went to be with Tommy. They’d had sex in many places, including limousines and even in his own restaurant, but they’d never had it thousands of feet above ground. Somehow she suspected that that was about to change.
And she was right. Tommy wanted her. He opened his legs, lifted her on his lap with her back to him, and completely removed her panties, placing them in his pants pocket. Then he placed his fingers in her cunt and began to slowly, delicately get her ready.
He closed his eyes as the feel of her caused him to continue his expansion, an expansion that had the zipper of his pants already strained. She groaned as he opened her legs wider and massaged her pussy deeper with his expert fingers. He wanted to lick her, but decided to let that wait for later. In a more private place. Grace could never control her screams whenever he licked her.
Grace was completely contented just the way he was doing her now. His experience with the ladies was expansive, and it showed every time he did her. And he did her often. So often that sometimes she would be sore for days on end. Especially on those nights before he left town on business, and couldn’t seem to get enough.
When Tommy felt she was finally ready and able to bear him, he positioned her just right and slid his completely aroused dick deep into her vagina. She let out a repressed moan when she felt the fullness of him, and continued to sigh and moan as he pulled her body toward him and away, toward him and away, as she rode his dick. Tommy had his mouth kissing her neck as she rode him hard. Until even he, the ultimately experienced Tommy, couldn’t suppress the feeling any longer and let out his own guttural groan.
“Tommy,” Grace admonished as she rode. “Sal will hear us.”
“Let him hear,” Tommy said. “Right now, my sweet baby, I don’t give a fuck.”
Grace smiled as she leaned back against Tommy. “But he’ll know what we’re doing. Sal will know.”
“Not unless you tell him. And you aren’t telling him,” Tommy said in that sensual voice Grace loved. “Are you, Grace?”
“I’m . . . no . . . I’m . . . not- oh, Tommy!” she whispered as the intensity rose. “Keep doing me, Tommy!
Tommy smiled. “Don’t you worry about that. Tommy’s going to do you until you can’t bear it. Tommy’s going to give it to you good, girl, because you give it to me better than any female I’d ever had.”
And he meant it too. There was something about Grace’s pussy that was magical to Tommy. He didn’t want any other. Just hers. She gave it to him just the way he loved to get it and he took it every chance he could. He wanted her just that badly. Just like he wanted her now, he thought, as they relaxed into their fuck and rode for nearly twenty straight minutes. Until first Grace came and then Tommy. In that order. Both straining out every drop as if there would be no peace until they took full advantage of every single ounce of cum. And then Tommy collapsed against her, completely spent.
“I love you, Grace McKenzie,” he said with a smile. Then his look turned serious. “I love you so much.”
Grace smiled and leaned her back harder against his front. “I love you, too, Thomas Gabrini. I love you, too.”
“And I love both of yous,” Sal’s Italian voice yelled out. “So shut the fuck up!”
Grace looked at Tommy with alarm. Tommy looked at Grace with surprise. And then they both broke into laughter. They laughed and they laughed. Sal eventually joined them, and laughed too. They laughed until their bellies ached. This, Tommy felt, was the beginning of a break all three of them needed. They couldn’t wait to get started.
Reno was on the grill and Jimmy was pouring ice in the ice
chest as their backyard was humming with festiveness. Fran had Dommi and was running him around the yard, and the music, that Italian old school that Reno loved so well, was blaring. This time it was Frank Sinatra singing Fly Me To the Moon, from his Sinatra at the Sands album. It was a selection, Reno also loved to point out, that had a Quincy Jones arrangement backed by Count Basie’s band. It was a classic, Reno pointed out.
Jimmy listened to his father, but his eyes couldn’t hide their boredom when he went from talking about Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis, Junior, which was bad enough, to Perry Como and Bing Crosby and Vic Damone. That was too much in Jimmy’s mind. But when Trina entered the backyard with Tommy, Grace, and Sal in tow, the festivities reached fever pitch.
“Tom-my!” Dominic screamed as soon as he saw him. “Tom-my!”
He jumped from Fran’s arms and ran to Tommy. Tommy grinned from ear to ear and bent down to scoop up the advancing child. Reno smiled and headed their way also, as did Jimmy and Fran. Jimmy, in fact, ran straight to Tommy too. Tommy held Little Dommi with one hand and embraced Jimmy with the other one.
Sal shook his head. “So he’s the only one you yahoos see,” he said as everybody laughed. “Tommy’s the only somebody standing up here. Fuck me and Grace. It’s all about Tommy!”
“We love you too, Uncle Sal,” Jimmy said as he hugged Sal.
“Nall now,” Sal said, backing off of Jimmy’s embrace, “go to Tommy. Tommy’s the man. I’m just visiting.”
“Oh, come here, you jerk,” Fran said and gave a big group hug to both Jimmy and her first cousin. Sal could no longer suppress his smile as they hugged.
“It’s about time you get here,” Reno said as he made his way to Tommy and Grace.
Grace braced herself. Reno wore a pair of Bermuda shorts and an oversized Hawaiian shirt. He wore sunglasses and had a can of beer and a cigar in his hand. He was tanned and gorgeous, she thought, with such attractive legs. But there was still something about him that gave her pause. She still got the feeling that he could be just as ruthless as he was friendly.
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