Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair (10 page)

Dom shook his head.
 
“No, sir.
 
Never.
 
I’ll never drive again for as long as I
live.”

“Drive?” Sophia asked.
 
“You cannot drive.”

“
Au contraire
,”
Trina said as she returned to the room with Reno’s plate of food.
 
“Your brother’s talents are endless.
 
He, in fact, can drive.”

Sophia looked at Dom as if she was seeing him for
the first time.
 
Dom, however, was
looking at his parents.

“Dinner still on with Sal and Gemma tomorrow night?”
Reno asked Trina.

Trina nodded.
 
“It’s still on.”
 
Then she stopped
and looked at him.
 
“Why?
 
Don’t tell me you can’t make it.”

“I can make it.
 
I want to make sure Sal makes it.”

“It wasn’t his fault,” Dommi said.
 
Reno and Trina looked at him.

“What?” Reno asked.

Dommi swallowed hard.
 
“What happened yesterday is my fault.
 
Not Uncle Sal’s.
 
I want to apologize to you and Mommy,” he
added.

Trina stood there and looked at him.
 
Reno began eating, staring at his son
too.
 
Then Trina smiled and opened her
arms.
 
It was exactly what Dommi was
waiting for.
 
He jumped from the table,
ran to his mother, and fell against her into her arms.

She kissed him on the top of his head.
 
“Your apology is accepted,” she said.

“Thank you, Mommy,” Dom replied, and then looked at
his father.

Reno looked at him with a look devoid of
warmth.
 
Dommi’s manipulating ass had to
learn a lesson.
 
But Reno’s hardnose look
didn’t last.
 
Dommi drove him all kinds
of crazy, but he loved him to death.
 
He
smiled and opened his arm too.
 
Dommi
smiled and jumped up onto his lap.
 
Reno
pulled both of his biracial children tightly, and held them close.

Trina smiled.
 
It warmed her heart.
 
She sat back
down.

Reno looked at her.
 
Even with no makeup, and even as she was dressed very conservatively in
a thigh-length gray suit coat that concealed her fantastic ass, she was still
the most beautiful woman in the world to him.
 
“How are you doing this morning?”

She nodded her head.
 
“I’m alright.
 
Once I get Dom back
on track in school today, I’ll be better.”

“The entire city will be better,” Reno said with a
smile.
 
“And safer,” he added.

“Speaking of city,” Trina said, “don’t forget the
luncheon today.”

Reno frowned.
  
“That isn’t today.
 
Please tell me
that is not today!”

Trina was not amused.
 
“It’s today, Reno.
 
Don’t even go there.
 
You forgot?”

He didn’t respond.

“Oh, Reno!”

“Don’t
oh,
Reno
me!
 
I don’t have time for some
idiotic luncheon.
 
I don’t have time for
that shit.
 
And it’s eleven o’clock in
the morning?
 
Who eats lunch that early?”

“Plenty of people, Reno.
 
And it’s not about how early it is.
 
They want to be out by one.
 
They have things to do too.
 
You’ve got to show up.”

“I’ll show up.
 
If I can get away.”

Trina gave him her best look of umbrage.
 
“You can and you will get away.
 
You’re the guest of honor.
 
You’re being handed the key to this city.
 
All you have to do is show up, attend a
program for a couple hours, and accept the key.”

“A couple hours of bad music, bad jokes, and bad
food.
 
That’s how those programs always
are.
 
And for what?
 
A freaking key that can’t even unlock a
freaking door!”

“It opens doors in the metaphorical sense, Reno,”
Trina explained.
 
“Owning a key to the
city says that you’ve arrived.
 
It says
you’re legitimate and the entire town recognizes your legitimacy.”

“It says I contribute money to the mayor’s
foundation and they want that money to continue,” Reno suggested.
 
“It will continue, because that foundation is
doing helpful things, but let’s not pretend this is about me and my good
works.
 
It’s about me and my
pocketbook.”
 
He was about to continue,
but his cell phone rang.
 
When he pulled
it out, and looked at it, he had to answer.
 
“Yeah?”

The caller was his front desk security chief.
 
“I apologize for disturbing you, sir, but
it’s Jimmy.”

“What about Jimmy?” Reno asked, and Trina looked at
him.

“He’s down here fighting a guest, sir, and he will
not listen to reason.”

Reno angrily removed the phone from his ear, and
then put it back.
 
“I’m on my way,” he
said, and ended the call.

“Come on, children,” Trina said as she lifted Sophia
into her arm and Dommi got off on his own.
 
“What about Jimmy?” she asked Reno.

Reno was rising and tossing a napkin onto the
table.
 
“A fight.
 
With a guest.”

Trina was surprised.
 
“A guest?
 
Don’t he realize we can
be sued?”

“Oh, he knows that well.
 
But does he care?
 
Hell no.”

Reno looked at Dom and pointed his finger.
 
“Fuck up again and you’re fucked.
 
You hear me?”

“I hear you,” Dom said, nodding.
 
“I hear you loud and clear.”

Reno stared at him a moment longer, and then he gave
him a kiss.
 
He gave Sophia a kiss, gave
Trina a kiss, and then he left.

“Can I go see Jimmy’s fight, Mommy?” Dommi asked.

“You know better than that,” Trina said, although
she was very worried.
 
“Daddy will handle
it.”

The argument had escalated to dangerous heights by
the time Reno got off of the elevator and made his way toward the front
entrance, where the disagreement was taking place.
 
Jimmy was jawing with a hotel guest about
some trash talking the guest had been doing.
 
But Reno knew his son.
 
He knew
that look on his face.
 
He began to
run.
 
But before he could get there,
Jimmy angrily decked the guy, jumped down on top of him, and began to go to
town on him.

Reno’s security chief was onsite, and could have
broken it up, but when he saw Reno running to the scene, he stood down.
 
Jimmy was in a foul mood this morning.
 
The worse the chief had seen in a long
time.
 
He would rather Reno handle it.

And Reno did.
 
As soon as he arrived, he grabbed his son off of the guest, and flung
him away.
 
And the guest, as Reno
expected, stood to his feet announcing his plans.
 
“I’m gonna sue!” he yelled.
 
“I’m gonna sue!
 
Jimmy Gabrini hit me first and everybody in
this lobby saw it!
 
I’m gonna sue!”

Reno extended his hand.
 
“I’m Reno Gabrini,” he said.
 
“Jimmy’s father.
 
May we speak privately, please?”

The guest didn’t shake his hand.
 
He straightened his now disheveled
shirt.
 
“What do I need to speak
privately with you for?
 
I’m not
playing.
 
I’m gonna sue!”

“Then let’s go settle it.”

The man looked at Reno.
 
He knew who Jimmy was by word of mouth last
night in the casino.
 
He knew he was the
owner’s kid.
 
This was the first time he
had any contact with the owner himself.
 
So he agreed to go into a backroom with Reno.
 
Jimmy followed them.
 
When the door was closed, Reno pulled out a
wad of cash, counted out a thousand dollars, and handed them to the guest.

“What’s this?” the man asked.

“A grand,” Reno said.
 
“Take it and scram.”

“Don’t give him anything, Pop!” Jimmy yelled.

“Shut the fuck up!” Reno yelled back at his
son.
 
“Keep your fucking trap
closed!”
 
Then he turned back to the
guest.
 
“Here,” he said, still offering
the money.
 
“Take it.”

But the guest was not amused.
 
“Are you joking?
 
Are you for real?
 
I can sue this place for tens of thousands of
dollars.
 
Why would I settle for a
grand?
 
I’m not taking shit and
scramming.
 
You scram!”
 
The man turned to leave.

Reno grabbed him by the arm and turned him
back.
 
“Either take this grand and
leave,” Reno said, “or lose an arm, a leg, and an eye while I’m at it.
 
And yes, you can still sue after that level
of beat down.
 
But I doubt very seriously
if you’re ever enjoy the money.”

The man was stunned.
 
Anybody else and he would have laughed at such an insulting way to
handle business.
 
But this was Vegas and
this was the owner of a casino.
 
He
didn’t know who this Gabrini person was, he was from Idaho, after all, but he
knew some casino owners had bad reputations.
 
Gangster reputations.
 
And that
look in this casino owner’s eyes made him doubtful that this man was
joking.
 
Therefore he didn’t smile
either. He liked his life just the way it was, and didn’t want to get mixed up
in craziness.
 
He snatched the money out
of Reno’s hand, and scrammed.

Then Reno looked at his son.
 
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he asked
him.
 
“You know you can’t fight any of
our guests!”

“He was mouthing off.
 
What did you want me to do?
 
Stand there and take it?
 
I’m a man, Pop.
 
Men don’t take that crap!”

Knocks were heard on the door.
 
Reno exhaled.
 
“What?” he yelled.

The door opened.
 
It was Lee Jones.
 
“You need to
come see this, boss,” he said.

“Come see what?”

“You need to come.”
 
Then he looked at Jimmy.
 
“Bring
Jimmy with you.”

Reno found that an odd request, but he and Jimmy
followed Lee to the elevator, upstairs, and into Reno’s suite of offices.
 
Trina, Dommi, and Sophia were also at Reno’s
office, sitting in his secretary’s waiting room.
 
Quinn Chan was just asking if she could
assist Trina in any way.
 
Trina said she
could not.
 
The other assistants sat
behind their desks and smiled.
 
They knew
Mrs. Gabrini was no fan of Quinn’s.

Now Reno, Jimmy, and Lee were coming through the door,
and Trina looked just as puzzled as Reno.
 
She stood up.
 
“What’s this
about?” she asked him as they walked up to her.

Reno stopped walking and looked at Lee.
 
He didn’t expect to see the rest of his
family sitting here.
 
“Was this
necessary?” he asked him.

“I called the residence first,” Lee said.
 
“I thought you would still be there.
 
When Trina answered, I thought she, as
President of this corporation, should see this too.”

“See what?” Trina asked.

“Let’s get inside,” Reno ordered.
 
He knew all eyes in that outer office were on
them.
 
Trina, Jimmy, and Lee began
heading into Reno’s office.
 
Reno,
however, stopped and looked at his two youngest children.
 
“Keep your butts in those seats until we
finish,” he said.
 
“Understand me?”

“Yes, sir,” Sophia quickly said.
 
Her small feet were barely over the seat and
were flapping wildly.

Dommi, on the other hand, wasn’t carefree at
all.
 
He appeared to Reno to be plotting
and scheming even as he sat there.
 
And
Reno gave him what Dommi knew as
that
look
.
 
Dommi nodded vigorously.
 
“I won’t move a muscle in this chair no
matter what,” he promised.

“Or that’ll be the last chair you sit in,” Reno
warned.
 
Then he looked, not at Quinn,
but at his secretary.

She smiled.
 
“I’ll keep an eye on them, sir,” she said.

“Thank you,” Reno said, and then headed in his
office too.

Jimmy wasn’t particularly concerned as they stood in
front of Reno’s desk.
 
Lee wasn’t on his
father’s security staff after all.
 
What
would he know?
 
Besides, Jimmy assumed
this emergency meeting had everything to do with some major contract dispute or
some other issue regarding one of their major talents.
 
They only booked superstars for their guests’
entertainment and it was always big news when one backed out or made
unreasonable demands.

But he assumed wrong.
 
As soon as Reno arrived and stood in front of
his desk too, and leaned against it, Lee aimed a remote at the big screen
television on the wall above the bust of Beethoven.
 
It was the same wall that Jimmy opened
without permission while Reno and Tree were sound asleep.

But before pressing Play, Lee spoke.
 
“Woody was doing his daily check,” he said to
Reno, “when he saw something pretty amazing.
 
He was too afraid to bring it to your attention himself.
 
He’s Office Security,” Lee added, “but he
felt this was too personal.
 
So he came
to me.”

Reno and Trina both were concerned.
 
Personal?
 
“What is it?” Trina asked.

“This,” Lee said, and pressed Play.

Jimmy nearly wet his pants when his image appeared
on the television screen, in the room behind the wall where his father kept his
safe.
 
He was opening up the safe.

Terrified, he looked at Reno.
 
But Reno, mystified, was staring at the
screen.
 
So was Trina.
 
Jimmy had no idea his father had cameras in that
little musky room.
 
He had no idea!

When Jimmy, onscreen, began taking wads of cash out
of his safe, Reno felt as if he had been punched in the gut.
 
He knew his sons were a handful.
 
He knew they required every ounce of energy
he had to make sure they didn’t go off any deep ends.
 
But he never dreamed his oldest boy, his
firstborn, would ever steal so much as a penny from him!
 
Or from anyone else.
 
But Reno stared at that screen.
 
He stared when Jimmy, apparently hearing
someone approaching, dropped the bag and left the room.
 
Then, a few minutes later, Jimmy returned to
the room, grabbed the bag filled with cash, and left again.
 
It was only then did Lee stop the recording.

It was also only then did Reno and Trina look at
Jimmy.
 
Jimmy was surprised that his
father’s look wasn’t filled with rage the way he expected, but
disappointment.
 
Deep
disappointment.
 
And hurt.
 
Deep, deep hurt.
 
That look alone broke Jimmy’s heart.
 
He hurt his father.
 
For the first time in his life, he hurt his
father.

Then his father hurried over to him and hurt him.
 
He hit him with a single punch.
 
Jimmy felt the sting in his jaw and buckled
his knees.
 
He was on the floor before he
realized what had just happened.
 
He
quickly began holding his jaw and moving it around as if he was afraid of
getting lockjaw.
 
He looked up at his
parents.

Trina often intervened when Reno got too rough with
their children, but she wasn’t about to intervene this time.
 
If Jimmy had not been Reno’s son, that one
punch would have been followed by fifty more warm-up punches and then his real
ass whooping would have commenced.
 
And
stealing from Reno?
 
She was as shocked
as her husband.

“What’s the meaning of this, James?” Reno asked in a
voice uncharacteristically quiet and unassuming.

Tears began to appear in Jimmy’s eyes.

“And stand your ass up!” Reno ordered.
 
Jimmy quickly stood up.
 

Trina and Lee exchanged a glance.
 
Lee had been a part of their family since
Trina first hooked up with Reno, but they were treading into family territory
they had never treaded before.
 
His look
seemed to ask for permission to leave.
 
Trina nodded.

“I’ll be in my office if either of you need me,” he
said to Reno and Trina.
 
He looked at
Jimmy again, and then left.

Reno was looking at Jimmy too.
 
He was staring at his son with such an
intensity that it terrified Jimmy just to look back.
 
“So you’re stealing from me now?” Reno asked
his son.
 
“You’re
stealing
from
me
?”

Jimmy swallowed hard.
 
“I wasn’t stealing,” he said.

“Bullshit!” Reno responded with so much emotion that
Trina touched his arm to help calm him back down.
 
He calmed down.

“I took it,” Jimmy clarified, “but I was going to
put it back.
 
I needed the money, Daddy.”

When Jimmy called him the more affectionate
Daddy
, rather than his usual
Pop
or
Dad
, it felt like another gut punch to Reno.
 
Had he failed him that miserably?
 
Did his own son hate him so much that he
would steal from him?
 
Was calling him
Daddy some kind of way of rubbing it in?

But Trina knew there had to be a huge
explanation.
 
She and Jimmy were
close.
 
Jimmy wouldn’t just steal like
this, and especially not from Reno.
 
Something was wrong.
 
“What did
you need it for?” she asked.