“Tree, you hold onto Lexie,” he said, using the nickname he occasionally used for his daughter. “I don’t want her sliding out of that belt.”
Trina thought that was wholly unnecessary, but she didn’t argue. She knew how difficult this ride was going to be for him.
Then Reno turned to Dommi. “Dom, I’ll hold onto you,” he said.
But Dommi, who caught on faster than most, looked at his father with glee in his eyes. “You don’t have to hold onto me,” he said. “I’m not scared.”
“Did I say you were scared, smart aleck? I said I don’t want you sliding out of that seatbelt.”
“But why would I slide out?” Dommi asked. “I’m not a baby.”
“Just let him hold you, Dommi,” Trina admonished. “All of that backtalk is unnecessary.”
“But why does he need to hold me?”
“Forget it already!” Reno shot back. “If your ass slide out of that belt and be bouncing off of those cables, it’s going to be your problem, you understand me?”
Trina hid her smile. Dommi shook his head. “It’ll be a sad day, Daddy,” he said, “when you allow your sweet, innocent baby boy to bounce off of cables and you do nothing about it.” Then Dommi batted his eyes at his Daddy. “A sad day.”
Sophie, however, who didn’t understand any of the sarcasm in Dommi’s joke, grinned. “Him crazy,” she said.
And then the ride began. Trina looked at Reno. The last time he went on one of these carnival rides was when Jimmy was a teenager. That didn’t go well at all. She could only hope this time would be better.
Reno had a similar hope, as he held on tightly. He smiled at little Sophie, who was sitting across the aisle smiling at him, and prayed for a safe trip. But as the ride continued to ascend higher than he thought he saw it ascending when he was on solid ground, he frowned. “Okay, why are they taking it so high?” he began asking nobody in particular. “Why they gotta take it so high?”
But when it stalled at the highest peak, and just sat there as a build up before its descent, Reno began looking around. “Why did it stop? What’s wrong with it? Why did it stop?”
Trina and Dommi were already smiling. But when Reno began to look as if he was going to panic, and started looking down at the crew on the ground, they couldn’t hold back. They began laughing.
“What the fuck you’re laughing at?” Reno yelled. “It’s stuck! Don’t you see it’s stuck?”
Others on the ride began laughing too. Reno couldn’t believe it. “What the fuck is funny? We’ll all gonna die and your asses laughing?” He began calling down. “Help!” he cried. “Help! Help!”
Sophie looked worried. Her eyebrows were furrowed. “Daddy, it’s okay,” she said. “It’s just a ride.”
Reno looked at his daughter, ready to cuss her ass out too. But then he saw her brown, angelic face, and her big innocent eyes, and that reassuring look she often gave him, and he settled back down. She was right. It was just a ride.
But his look turned decidedly sour when he looked over at Dommi, and across at Trina, and saw that they were still laughing. “Wait until we get back down,” he said to them. “Yeah, ah ha. Laugh now. But wait until I get your asses back on my turf. We’ll see who’s laughing then!”
Trina and Dommi, realizing Reno was not playing, cut the laughter quick. “It’s okay, Reno,” Trina explained. “It’s supposed to stop momentarily like this. It’s not broken or stuck or anything like that.”
Reno wanted to say he knew that, but he didn’t want to make any more of an issue of it. Especially when he looked over at Sophia. She actually smiled at him, and not the way the others were laughing at him either. And he managed to smile back. What was his problem? A baby was more calm than his big ass? He knew he had to reassure her. “It’s alright, baby,” he said, as he lifted his shades onto his thick, brown hair to make sure she saw his eyes. “Daddy’s alright.”
It worked. Sophia exhaled, and smiled, not a worried smile, but a freeing one.
But as soon as the ride left its stalled perch atop the track, and began to descend with one fast downward jerk, Reno’s calmness was over. He began screaming.
“What are they doing?!” he screamed. When he looked down, and it looked to him as if they were going to crash land into the ground, his scream became so high pitched, and so effectual that every soul on the ride was rolling in laughter. The operators on the ground were laughing too. Even Sophia had to laugh when her father let out such a high-pitched screech.
“Daddy,” Dommi said, patting him on the arm to get his attention, “Daddy?”
“What?” Reno said, between screams. “What?”
“You sound like a girl,” Dommi said.
Reno was livid. “I’m gonna kick your bony ass, Dommi, how does that sound? Talking about how I sound! We’re dying here and you’re worrying about how I sound?”
Dommi looked at his mother and they laughed again. But it was no laughing matter for Reno. Especially when the ride didn’t stop at the bottom, but suddenly flung back up in a fast climb to the top that took his breath away. He was holding onto Dommi now.
“What are they doing?” Reno asked, his face a mask of frowned anger. “Why do they keep slinging us around like this? This shit ain’t funny!”
But it was funny to everybody else on the ride. Just like the last time Reno was on a carnival ride, he was their entertainment, whether he wanted to be or not, and they were enjoying every second.
And when the ride stalled once again at the top of the track, and Reno started pointing at people angrily, they continued to laugh. “You think I’m fucking with you?” Reno asked. “I’ll bust every one of you fuckers upside your dickheads, keep laughing at me! Keep on!”
But the riders, who were mostly teenagers, continued to roar in laughter.
“Stupid motherfuckers!” Reno added.
“Okay, just stop it!” Trina scolded him, unable to completely stop smiling. “Just stop it right now. You’re the one acting stupid. Just settle yourself down and enjoy the ride like the rest of us. They’ll stop laughing if you stop acting a fool.”
“What fool?” Reno responded, ready to get into it with Trina. “Wanna come over here and say that to me?”
“Really, Reno?” Trina asked. “All of this over a kiddie ride? Really?”
And Reno realized just how true Trina’s words were. He was acting like a pure fool over a kiddie ride. A kiddie ride! What was wrong with him? He was becoming a carnival act himself!
But when the ride left its stalled perch once again, and jerked into that long, supersonic fast, downward spiral of a ride, Reno, who left his heart on the top perch, was reeling again. “We’ll all gonna die!” he cried. “They’re trying to kill us! Help! Help! Help! This ain’t nothing but murder! Help!”
By the time the ride was over, and they were all un-boarding, Reno looked outdone. His fellow riders, mainly the teenagers, were still smiling, but they had enough sense to hurry away from him too, just in case his threats weren’t as idle as they sounded. But his family, Trina, Dommi, and Sophie, were still inwardly laughing.
“You look tired, Daddy,” said Dommi, the most vicious of the three.
But Trina couldn’t help it. She joined in the viciousness. “Yeah, you do,” she said, unable to suppress her grin. “You look like you’ve been working on the railroad all your livelong life.”
“Fuck y’all!” Reno said, as he took Sophie’s hand and began walking away.
Trina and Dommi clasped hands, walking behind them, and laughing too.
CHAPTER TEN
As Reno and his family left the ride site and continued to walk around the amusement park, Felix and Junna, near the park’s entrance, knew it was time. They hated it, but they knew it was overtime. They had the kind of intel that couldn’t wait. The kind of intel that had to be acted upon. Felix pulled out his cell phone.
After texting Reno, he, along with Junna, watched and waited. They saw Reno suddenly pull out his cellphone
and read the text. Then they saw him frown as he began looking around the carnival, near the entrance gate as Felix had informed him in the text message where they were. When Reno saw them, he then said something to Trina, Trina took the hands of their two, young children, and then Reno began heading their way.
“See that nod,” Felix said to Junna when Reno gave a head nod.
“Yeah, I saw it. So?”
“So that’s Reno’s way of alerting the invisible security to move in closer, to blanket his family, to become visible all of a sudden. See that guy there, and that guy there, and that other guy suddenly right near Mrs. Gabrini? That’s how it works. You’re working for the real deal, you hear me?”
“That’s why I’m here,” Junna said. “His shit tight. I like that.”
“He’s not happy about our interruption, however,” Felix said.
“Yeah,” Junna responded as Reno made his way toward them. With his sunglasses in his hand, and his clothing consisting of a pair of jeans and a polo shirt, Reno fit the description of a ruggedly good-looking outdoorsman rather than the man he truly was. But both men could see the fire in his big, blue eyes.
Reno sat on the bench behind them. His back against their backs. “This better be good,” he said.
You know I wouldn’t bother you if it wasn’t, Felix wanted to say. “We’ve got a problem in our own backyard, boss,” he said instead.
This pique Reno’s interest immediately. “Our backyard?”
“The Bryant Hotel across the street?”
“What about that fleabag?”
“It’s been sold.”
“I didn’t know that bucket was on the market, or I would have brought it myself just to give it some class across from the PaLargio. But what does that have to do with me?”
“It’s right across from the PaLargio,” Junna said. Felix immediately elbowed him.
Reno turned toward Junna and frowned. “Who the fuck are you?” he asked.
“That’s Junna Parn,” Felix quickly said. “The new guy. I told you about him. He’s very handy with certain weaponry. The best in the business. I’m showing him the ropes.”
But Reno was unimpressed. “Show your ass outside that gate until we men finish talking,” he ordered Junna.
Junna, realizing how he walked right into that freight train, wanted to apologize. But Felix gave him a look that brook no debate. Junna got up and left.
“Sorry about that, Reno,” Felix said.
“Now tell me why the purchase of the Bryant Hotel should concern me? Tell me why you fixed it in your pea brain to bother me on a day I’m out with my wife and kids to tell me dumpster shit like that?”
“It was sold to Gianni Drake,” Felix said.
That changed everything. Reno was surprised. “Gianni Drake? What that fucker want with a hotel?”
“Who knows.”
“He’s Fed!”
“A field director with the FBI.”
Felix didn’t have to tell Reno about Gianni Drake. He used to give Reno fits back in the day. But he hadn’t heard his name in years. Now he was buying some rundown hotel across from the PaLargio? Reno knew that was no coincidence. “What’s the first read?” he asked his protocol chief.
“That he’s planning to compete,” Felix responded. “Why the fuck else would he buy that shithole? But if you’re asking me what we know? Nothing yet.”
“What do you figure is up?” Reno asked.
“I figure he wants to cripple the PaLargio, and then cripple you. He wants to make The Bryant the new PaLargio.”
“Even a pipedream would make more sense than that,” Reno responded. Then he raked his fingers through his already unruly hair. “What the fuck is Drake up to?” he asked.
“He’s Fed. Maybe he thinks he has enough muscle now to take the fight to you. Who knows? But it could get nasty, boss. I know that.”
Reno knew it too. He never took an adversary for granted. Even an old-ass one like Drake. “Get in touch with the big three in town,” he said.
“The big three casino owners?” Felix asked, for clarification.
Reno frowned. “Casino owners? I’m at the head of that food chain, what are they gonna do for me? Get in touch with the big three bosses in town.”
“The heavy hitters?”
“The heaviest. They all know me. Tell them I want a meeting.”
Felix knew that would be easy. All he had to do was say Reno’s name, and every one of those bosses would be willing to meet. “How soon you want to set it up?”
“Monday.”
“I’ll get on it.”
“Then call Sal Luca. I want him there too.”
“What are you thinking might work?” Felix asked.
“We’ll put the squeeze on his ass, just in case he is up to no good, which I have to assume he is. But he’s Fed. We have to be careful.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” Felix asked.
Reno frowned. “What’s with all the questions? That’s above your pay grade worrying about what may and may not work,” Reno said, rising and putting his shades back over his eyes. “Just schedule the meeting.”
“Yes, sir,” Felix said. But as Reno was about to leave, he stopped him. “Oh, and Reno,” he said. Reno looked. “I heard somebody’s trying to run Poker Lansky out of business.”
This interested Reno too. “Oh, yeah? Who?”
“I don’t know. But that’s what I heard. Thought you’d want to know.”
Reno nodded. He did want to know. And then he thought about an aside himself. “And Fee,” he added, just as he was about to walk away.
“Yes, sir?”
“Bring a rookie when you come to see me again,” he said, “and you and that rookie both will be finding new employment.”
Felix swallowed hard. “Yes, sir,” he said. And Reno left.
Felix stood up too, and headed for the gate. He was fuming that Junna had opened his mouth and nearly got them both canned. Who did he think he was dealing with?
That night, as Trina laid naked on her stomach and Reno slid his fully erected dick inside of her, and then laid down on top of her back, he was still thinking about that day. Not that ridiculous ride, and his embarrassing behavior on that ride, but what Felix Bartoni had told him. The last thing Reno wanted was war with anybody. The last thing he wanted was to put his family in jeopardy ever again. He needed to cut this off before it festered. He needed to put Gianni Drake and anybody else in cahoots with him firmly back in their place before they even thought about coming into his. Nothing short of Drake selling the Bryant Hotel to Reno would do.
“You aren’t with me, babe,” Trina said as she laid on her stomach with her face lying sideways in the middle of her clasped hands.
“Not with you?” Reno asked. “What are you talking? I’m doing this.”
“You’re doing it, and it feels good, but you aren’t with me. What’s going on?”
Trina was the only woman Reno ever knew who could hold a conversation while his dick was deep inside of her. But she seemed to be a master at it. And she was also the only woman who knew when he was full of it.
“What is it?” she asked again.
Reno stopped stroking, since she was right, and just laid there. Then he slid out and off of her. He wanted her, and was going to get her, but his mind was too scattered. And Trina didn’t accept his half-measures. Especially not in bed. “There may be some trouble in the pipeline,” he said.
Trina continued to lay on her stomach, but turned her head to face him. He was lying on his back. “What kind of trouble?”
“Fed boss named Gianni Drake.”
Trina stared at him. “What does he want?” she asked.
“He purchased The Bryant.”
“Across the street from the PaLargio?” They were spending the weekend at their home on the outskirts of Vegas.
“That shit bucket, yes,” Reno responded.
“But why?” Then she realized why. “To get under your skin, you thi
nk?”
“Gianni Drake don’t get under anybody’s skin,” Reno said. “If he’s coming this close to me, it’s for a reason. And he wants me to know that reason.”
Trina’s heart dropped. “Not war with the Feds?” she asked.
Reno nodded. “Maybe. Let’s hope not.”
Trina looked down the length of Reno’s fine body, and then laid her head on his big chest. She began rubbing his penis as she laid there. It immediately became aroused again. And he took her by the chin and lifted her face up to his. He saw the concern in her beautiful hazel eyes. “But I won’t let that happen,” he said. “You know that, right?”
She smiled. “I know, Reno. Of that I have no doubt.”
Reno stared at her. She was a woman who’d been through so much with him. But she always stood by his side. He kissed her. It was supposed to be a peck of gratitude. But she tasted so good to Reno that it became so much more.
He lifted her body on top of his and began kissing her madly. He loved her taste. Was getting drunk on her taste. They moved their heads from side to side as they lost themselves in their kiss.
And then it was time to ride.
Reno eased his penis back into Trina’s still-wet pussy, and she took over. Her tight ass moved up and down along his stiff, long rod in a slow-motion glide that left him laying his arms stretched out across the bed and his eyes staring at her with a hooded glare. The more she rode, the more hooded his look became. Until she was feeling it too, as his penis penetrated her deeper and deeper, hitting her sensitive spots repeatedly, and her eyes became as lust-filled as his.
He loved the way her eyes were half-closed and half-opened. He loved the way strands of her hair were on her forehead, nearly hiding one of her eyes. He placed her taut breasts in his hands and squeezed as she rode him. He wanted to suck them, but he couldn’t take his eyes off of her stunning face. She was sexier with age to Reno. And he was entranced by her.
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