MOB BOSS 2 (20 page)

Trina’s life was stil turned upside down. But his soul was stil in ruins. Al because of decisions, those shameful decisions, he was forced to make.

Fear and pain kept him in his seat.

“Helo Reno,” Trina said, staring at him. If someone didn’t realy know him, they would say he made it out just fine; that he made it through that horrible storm al right. But she knew him, and

she knew, when he looked up and she saw that devastation stil flickering like warning lights in his bright blue eyes, that he was a long way from al right.

“Hey,” he said, and he said it with a jerk in his voice, as if it pained him to say anything to her.

Which pained her even more. But what could she do? “Mind if I sit down?” she asked.

He rose in respect as she sat down on the seat Janet had just vacated. Trina had noticed, when she spotted him and was walking toward his booth, that the young woman had her hand over

Reno’s, and it unnerved her even more than this crazy trip had already unnerved her. But she had come too far to turn back now.

“Want something to drink?” Reno asked her. “What would you like to drink?”

“Nothing, I’m good.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

Reno hesitated. Seeing her again was affecting him to such an extent that he had hoped going to get her something to drink would give him the time-out he needed to exhale, to stop himself from

trembling. He sat back down.

Trina tried to smile at him. She was only mildly successful. “It’s been a long time, Reno,” she said.

It was such an understatement to him. Their whole meeting seemed like such an understatement. “Yeah,” he said. “It has been.” He leaned back, folded his arms. “You’ve been al right,

Tree? Been taking care of yourself?”

“I get by.”

“You’ve lost weight,” Reno noticed, looking down at her body. “Too much weight.”

“Just a few pounds.”

“A few pounds my ass. You’ve lost ten, fifteen I guarantee it.”

“Wel what do you expect me to do, Reno? Most days I can barely breathe and you expect me to eat?”

She regretted getting upset as soon as she did. But he was talking as if her life hadn’t been altered at al, and that angered her.

“Sorry,” she said.

“What you sorry about? You deserve to hate my guts, are you serious?” Then Reno settled down too, the pain becoming almost excruciating. And then Janet came over, which didn’t help.

“I’m getting ready to shove off, Reno,” she said, looking more at Trina than her boss.

“Al right, J, have a good night.”

Janet nodded her head toward Trina. “Who’s that?” she asked as if she had a right to know, a fact not lost on Trina.

“That’s my wife,” Reno said, staring Janet dead in her eyes. By her reaction it was obvious to Trina that she had no clue Reno was even married, let alone to a black woman.

This time she was staring at Reno. “Your wife?” she said. “You never said anything about a wife.”

“What are you my woman? When since I’ve got to tel you anything about my personal life?”

“You could have mentioned it.”

“Why?”

Janet didn’t know how to answer that.

“Just get outta here, al right?” Reno said, attempting to ease the tension he knew was quickly bubbling to the surface.

Janet stared at Reno a moment longer, looked at Trina, and then back at Reno. “Up yours, Reno,” she said as she left.

Trina smiled, although it was bittersweet. “Breaking hearts already?”

“Ah, she’s been in heat since I’ve been here. She’l have a new boyfriend soon and forget I even exist.”

“But she works for you?”

“She works for Tommy. This is his gig, not mine. I just manage the place for him. But he hires and fires and do al the personnel stuff.”

“Your request I’d bet.”

“Yeah, you’d win that bet,” he said.

“So” Trina said, looking around at the nice but smal restaurant, a restaurant that probably wouldn’t even be good enough to be alongside the chain of restaurants inside the PaLargio, “when you

left me is this where you came?”

Reno’s heart dropped. “I didn’t leave you, Tree. Don’t say it like that.”

“And how am I supposed to say it, Reno? I mean, you left me. That’s a fact. People ask me where’s my husband, and I tel them he left me. I don’t know how else I’m supposed to say that.”

“You make it sound like I didn’t love you and left you, when it was nothing like that.”
When I loved you too much
, he wanted to add, but didn’t.

Trina took his glass of beer and took a swig. Then she sat the mug back down and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. Reno found himself staring at those lips, remembering how they

tasted, remembering how
she
tasted. “The point is,” she said, “you came here. To work for Tommy.”

“I was just getting away. It wasn’t as orchestrated as al that. Tommy was my lifeline. He took me to his place out in Malibu first. I probably would have ended it al--”

“Don’t say that!” Trina yeled loud enough to get attention. Then she lowered her voice. “Don’t say that, Reno.” She looked up at him. “Please.”

Reno nodded. Some truth, he knew, was too hard to face. “Wel, thank God I’m here and I’m able to see your pretty face again.” And it was stil so gorgeous to Reno that he could hardly

Reno nodded. Some truth, he knew, was too hard to face. “Wel, thank God I’m here and I’m able to see your pretty face again.” And it was stil so gorgeous to Reno that he could hardly

contain himself from not going to her, and touching it, and kissing it, and reclaiming it. But he stayed where he sat.

A depressed look came over Trina. She leaned back. “I miss you, Reno,” she said and looked at him with narrowed eyes.

Reno nodded, drained more Guinness. “How did you know I was camped this way? Tommy?”

She nodded. “He came over to the PaLargio yesterday morning. Told me where you were. He said you’d probably kick his ass for teling, but he didn’t give a damn anymore. You were in

bad shape, he said.”

“Ah, what does Tommy know? Always getting into my business.”

“It’s my business too. He felt I needed to find out, one way or the other, what your plans were.”

“Plans? What plans?” Reno couldn’t shield his irritation.

“Are you coming back to me? Or is it over for good between us and I may as wel file for divorce?”

Reno’s heart dropped. He didn’t want to deal with this. He couldn’t deal with this right now. “How’s the PaLargio?” he asked her. “Tommy says you’re handling it like a champ, that you’re

running it and making it your own.”

“I get by. Tommy’s been a good advisor, and he’s surrounded me with some good people to help me out.”

“Good.”

“But it’s not the same without you.”

Reno hesitated. The idea of so much as seeing the PaLargio again pained him. “Yeah, wel. You get to see Ma and my sisters anytime?”

“I’ve seen them a couple times, yeah. They’re back at the family compound in Spring Valey.”

“And your parents, how’s it going with them?”

“Good. Mama’s fuly recovered and back to be her regular ornery self.” Reno smiled. “And Dad’s stil doing great. They visited me a couple times at the PaLargio.”

“Oh, yeah? How did they like it?”

“Loved it. As a place to visit, that is. But both times they couldn’t wait to get back to Dale.”

“Good ol’ Dale.”

“They love that new house you purchased for them. I didn’t even know you had purchased it.”

“Yeah, I took care of that while you were stil in that hospital in Dale. I didn’t want your mother to be released with no home to go to.”

Trina stared at him. “You’re a very thoughtful man, you know that?”

“No, because I’m not. I’m a ruthless man, a heartless man, a man who causes death and destruction everywhere he goes, and you’d be wise to never forget that.”

Tears suddenly appeared in Trina’s eyes, tears she quickly tried to wipe away, but they were there. She reached into her purse and grabbed a tissue, and looked out of the window. When Reno

realized she was teary-eyed, his heart dropped. He quickly stood up, slid on the booth seat beside her, and placed his arm around her.

“Tree, I’m sorry,” he said, his heart like a torrent of pain. “Please don’t cry.”

“I’m okay,” she said, looking away from him out of the window, her tissue now just clearing up any running makeup.

Reno looked up and was amazed that his staff was standing behind the checkout counter staring at the two of them. “What the fuck y’al looking at?” he yeled. And they quickly, with terror

now in their eyes, scattered.

Reno squeezed Trina’s shoulder. “Come on,” he said, feeling heady at being this close to her again, “let’s get out of here.”

They stood up and Reno kept his hand on the smal of her back as he walked her out of the restaurant. When they got outside in the damp night air, Reno exhaled.

“Better?” he asked her.

“Yeah, thanks,” she replied.

And for a few moments they just stood there, neither knowing quite what to say. “How did you get here? From the airport, I mean. You rented a car?”

“I caught a cab,” she said.

“Got a place to stay for the night? A hotel, I mean?”

Trina shook her head. “No, I didn’t think to . . . No.”

Reno nodded, his eyes unable to stop sliding down to her breasts, unable to stop thinking about how she felt in his arms. He, in fact, suddenly realized that his hand was stil on the smal of her

back.

“Come on,” he said and walked her to his Mercedes.

When they got in and Reno made the slow drive to his home, there was a sadness between the two of them that hovered like a death. He reached over and took her hand as he drove, and she

looked out of the side window, to avoid letting him see her tears. She was so hopeful on the plane, so determined to make Reno see the error of his ways and come back to her. But now she wasn’t

sure if it would even work if he came back. They had drifted so far apart!

She was stunned when he puled up into the driveway of a rinky-dink looking tiny house across the street from a lumberyard. And it was in the booneys too, with no other houses around that she

could see. Isolated. That, she guessed, after al, was the point.

They walked, side by side like strangers, into the smal home. But when they entered and closed the door, and the silence hit Reno like an old, familiar ache, before he even turned on a light,

before he could even think about the consequences, he pushed her against the closed front door and began kissing her.

It was so unexpected to Trina that she at first recoiled from his kiss. What was he doing? Why was he doing it? But as his lips seared into hers, as he pressed harder and harder and his tongue

forced her mouth open and he licked and prodded and filed her with that headiness only Reno could fil her with, she joined in. Placed her arms around his neck and began returning his kisses.

For the longest time they just stood there, against the front door, kissing. The sounds of their lips smacking, of their tongues exploring, of their moans and groans filed the quiet room.

Reno could hardly contain himself as he kissed her, as he leaned closer into her and kissed and kissed and couldn’t stop kissing her. His manhood was so huge, so thick, throbbing so intensely

that he unzipped his pants and sat it free.

It hit against Trina with a hard whack, it had been too long encaged, and Trina placed her arms completely around him as she felt his presence against her stomach. He lifted her and then slid his

hand underneath her skirt and removed her panties, sliding them off, placing them in his pant pocket, and then opened and wrapped her shapely legs around his body.

He placed his hand between her legs and began rubbing her, one finger and then two entering her womanhood and massaging her. He couldn’t stop kissing her as he felt his woman’s clit for the

first time in half a year. This was his woman, this was his clit, and he felt as if he was going to wiggle it off the way he couldn’t stop rubbing it, couldn’t stop experiencing its rough edges, couldn’t wait to taste its wetness.

He carried her into his bedroom, stil fondling her, stil kissing her, stil feeling his penis press against her in a cry for release. He had dreamed of her, of her body for so long that this felt so

unreal. But he didn’t think about it, he just felt it. This was a bad move, he knew it was the worst move he could possibly make. But what did they expect from him? How could he be expected to see

the love of his life and not want to be with her? Not want to make love to her with a tenderness that captured their long separation.

He laid her on his unmade bed and swiftly removed his shirt over his head, tossing it aside. Then he lifted her own blouse over her head, removed her bra and skirt, and began kissing and sucking

her breasts, one at a time, from one to the other, then both nipples in his mouth, his hand on her long neck as her head lobbed back in anticipation.

He moved down her body to her womanhood, his mouth so ready to taste her that he had to slow his flow, that he had to make sure he didn’t harm her. And when he tasted her, when his mouth

finaly made its way to her womanhood and he felt her creamy perfection on his tongue, when he inhaled that wonderful scent he stil knew so wel, his heart began to hammer. He didn’t deserve this.

He didn’t deserve to be so close to wonderment after al the pain he’d caused. But he couldn’t feel pain, not with Trina laying and wiggling right in front of him, her legs gapped open so wide, her

womanhood so ripe and ready. He couldn’t feel anything but joy, but lust, but complete love for this woman who was stil his woman and would always be his woman until the day he died.

He stood up, dropped his pants, and stared at her. She stared back, her eyes first staring at his massive, stiff rod she stil knew so wel, and then into his face. There was pain in both their eyes,