Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair (12 page)

“You are a tough guy,” Reno said.
 
“But you’re a guy.
 
We guys do stupid stuff.”

Jimmy stared at his father.
 
There was no other man more perfect than he
was to Jimmy.
 
“Have you ever slept with
a man before?” he asked him.

Reno frowned.
 
“What is that your business?”

Jimmy was shocked that he didn’t say no, or slap
him, outright.

“You did something stupid,” Reno said, “but you’d
better not let it happen again.
 
You’re
no bachelor.
 
You’re a married man with a
baby.
 
Did you wear protection?”

“Yes,” Jimmy said as if that went without
saying.
 
“Of course!
 
I would never endanger Val like that.”

“You wouldn’t endanger her,” Reno said, “but you’d
fuck around on her?
 
Is that it?”
 

“I was wrong,” Jimmy admitted.

“You can lose your family over that,” Reno reminded
him. “You’d better cut that shit out.”

“Have you ever cheated on Mom before, Dad?” Jimmy asked
his father.

Reno frowned again.
 
“What’s with you and my personal life?
 
I’m not the prick being blackmailed for banging a dude!
 
Don’t you worry about what I’ve done.
 
I’m telling you what you’d better not do
again.”

“I won’t,” Jimmy said.
 
“It was just that one time.
 
I’m not gay.
 
I know how much you’d hate me if I was.”

Reno was surprised by those words.
 
“I wouldn’t hate you, what are you talking?”
he asked.
 
“Look at me,” he added.

Jimmy looked at him.

“You’re my son,” Reno continued.
 
“I will always love you no matter what.
 
I can never hate my son even if you were
gay.
 
I’m not built like that.”

Jimmy’s heart soared with inward happiness.
 
“Thanks, Dad,” he said.

Reno, however, looked at him curiously.
 
“But, just so we’re clear, you’re not gay.
 
Right?”

Jimmy smiled.
 
“I’m not gay, Pop.
 
I’m a
heterosexual man.
 
I love women, and yes,
their equipment, way too much.”

Reno smiled too, and rubbed his son’s arms.
 
“Keep it that way,” he said.
 
“You have a wife, and a baby.
 
My
grandbaby.
 
I’ll tear you apart if you
hurt either one of them.”

“Don’t worry, Dad.
 
I won’t mess up again.
 
But I need
to say this.”

“Oh, Lord,” Reno said.
 
“Another confession?”

Jimmy smiled.
 
“Nothing like that, Dad.
 
I just
want to say that it’s great to know that if anything were to happen to me,
you’d take care of my family.”

That went without saying to Reno.
 
“Nothing’s happening to you,” he said
quickly.

Reno was tough as nails, but Jimmy also knew that
when it came to any talk of his family in trouble, he dreaded even thinking
about it.
 
“Anyway, thanks,” Jimmy said.

Reno squeezed his arm again.
 
“Now what about this asshole
blackmailer?
 
What’s the deal with that?”

“I’m supposed to contact him by this afternoon to
set up a meeting time and place.
 
I was going
to call Uncle Sal this morning and see if he can let me borrow a few of his
men.”

“You don’t need Sal’s men,” Reno said, pressing the
elevator’s Open button.
 
“You have
me.”
 
The elevator doors opened.
 
“Set it up.
 
But let it be late today.
 
I have some
damn luncheon I have to attend.”

Jimmy smiled as they stepped off of the
elevator.
 
He loved when his father took
control.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said.

“And you’d better pray to God Val doesn’t ever see
that tape.”

“But how can we ever be sure there won’t be any
copies out there, even after we pay the money?”

“First of all,” Reno said, “we aren’t paying
shit.
 
Second of all, if a fucker come at
you with blackmail, you’d better be willing to break every bone in his body to
ensure he doesn’t even think about releasing any copies to anybody.
 
And you make it clear to him that he’ll be
held personally responsible if any copy is released.
 
You beat them to within an inch of their
life, or don’t beat them at all.
 
That’s
the world your little curiosity has thrust you into.
 
And you’d better perform.”
 
Although, in truth, Reno was not about to let
Jimmy participate in any beat downs.
 
That was his wheelhouse.
 
He
wasn’t sending Jimmy anywhere near that road.

But Jimmy didn’t get the memo.
 
He nodded his understanding.
 
It all just got real to him right now.
 
And he was determined to make his father
proud of him again.
 
“Yes, sir,” he said.
 
“I won’t let you down.”

“Set up the meeting,” Reno said.
 
“Our place, our time.
 
And get your ass back in my office and tell
your mother you’re okay.
 
Between you and
Dominic, you have her worried sick.”

“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said, gave his father another hug,
and then hurried away.

“Which one is yours?” the woman at the wives table leaned
over and asked as the ceremony entered its second hour.

“The bored one,” Trina responded, and the woman
smiled.

Reno was on the dais inside the downtown rotary club
and was one of five guests of honor.
 
He
was to be given the greatest of the honors, the key to the city, and was
therefore slated to be the last one to receive the prestigious award.
 
But he was bored to tears.
 
Everybody could see that he wasn’t exactly
elated, but Trina saw it even more starkly.
 
He didn’t want to be there.
 
He
cared about as much for awards and recognition as he did for hemorrhoids and
gun shots.
 
But she made him come.
 
Because she felt he deserved it.
 
Nobody gave more to the poor in Vegas, to the
disenfranchised throughout the county, nor to making sure that their so-called
sin
city were inhabitable for good,
Christian families too, than Reno.

But despite her best efforts, Trina could tell how
angry he still was about being there.
 
She was in the audience at the center table, sitting with the wives of
the other honorees and with the wife of the mayor.
 
The mayor was presenting the awards.
 
Reno was sitting on stage in his black
tuxedo, with his legs folded and his hands clasped and resting on his lap.
 
His thick brown hair, which was usually in
eternal disarray because of his constant need to rake his hands through it, had
been freshly cut by the PaLargio barber just before they left the
penthouse.
 
And with his intense blue
eyes, his sculpturally handsome face, and his big, muscular body, he looked
gorgeous to Trina.
 
The best looking man
on stage.
 
But whereas the other four
honorees seemed tickled pink to be there, Reno looked glum.

And as the orchestra conductor played yet another
concerto, Reno closed his eyes a time or two, terrifying Trina that he was
about to fall asleep, but he opened them up again quickly.

“Which one is yours?” another wife, this one on the
opposite side of Trina, leaned over and asked her.
 
For some reason, and from the moment she
arrived, the wives had all gravitated to Trina.
 
Partly because of the warmth of her personality.
 
Partly because she was young and energetic
and they were middle-aged and pleased to be out on the town at all.
 
And partly, Trina suspected, because she was
the only African-American at the table while all of the husbands on stage were
white.
 
She intrigued them.
 
“Mine is the bald one,” the woman added.

“Mine is the bored one,” Trina responded to the
second wife, and she, like the first one, laughed too.
 
But like most women who noticed Reno for the
first time, the woman’s look lingered, and then moved downward toward the
obviously thick bundle between his legs.
 
Trina couldn’t help but smile.
 
Reno was the personification of sexiness.
 
It just oozed off of him like a sweet
smelling soap.
 
When the wife glanced
back at Trina and realized she’d been caught, that Trina saw her scoping out
her husband, the woman smiled.
 
And Trina
did too.

But it was no smiling matter when the mayor began
his presentations and Reno, to Trina’s horror, began to doze off.
 
He didn’t doze off through all of those
insufferable concertos.
 
He didn’t doze
off through all of those stale jokes the mayor had been telling.
 
He waited until the heart of the ceremony,
the awards presentation, to fall asleep!
 
Trina was livid.

She knew she had to do something.
 
Reno was a big-time snorer.
 
This event was being taped and was going to
actually be broadcast on local TV.
 
She
couldn’t have her husband sitting up there sleep on TV, as if he didn’t give a
damn.
  
He didn’t, but that wasn’t their
business.

With precious few options, Trina decided to
discreetly get the attention of the man sitting next to Reno.
 
Once the man saw her, she motioned for him to
elbow Reno.
 
She assumed he had enough
sense to
gently
elbow Reno, but the
man, instead, shook Reno hard.
 
Bad move,
and Trina knew it.
 
Because as soon as
the man touched Reno with such decisiveness, Reno not only woke up, but jumped
straight up out of his chair.
 
“
What, motherfucker
?” he yelled as he
jumped up.

Everybody in the room, including the mayor himself,
looked at this wild man.
 
Trina wanted to
ball up and die.
 
But she knew Reno still
needed her.
 
And sure enough, as soon as
he realized he wasn’t in his casino being bothered by some drunk, but was on
the dais in a prestigious rotary club, he looked out in the stunned audience
for Trina.

Trina calmly motioned for him to sit back down, but
he didn’t seem to understand what she was doing.
 
He just stood there like some doofus who’d
been dropped there from outer space.
 
She
tried again.
 
He looked even more
baffled.
 
Finally, through clenched
teeth, she mouthed,
sit your ass back
down,
and he finally understood.
 
Reno didn’t read lips, but he read Trina’s.
 
He sat back down.
 
The mayor told some stale joke to compensate
for the awkwardness, and continued the presentations.

Jimmy drove to the McDonald’s and parked next to the
gray Chevy Malibu the blackmailer said he would be waiting in.
 
Trent Chappell, in the Chevy, pressed down
his window and Jimmy pressed down his.

“You got the money?” Chap asked.

“You have the tape?”

“Yeah.
 
You
got the money?”

“Why else would I be here?”

“Don’t get snippy with me, lover boy.
 
I wasn’t the one banging that freak.”

Jimmy wanted to kick his ass, but if he didn’t stick
to the script he knew his father would kick his.
 
“Just get in,” he said, “and let’s get this
over with.”

Chap smiled.
 
“Well alright,” he said as if he was some cowboy.

He got out of his car, walked around to Jimmy’s
passenger seat, and got in.
 
He looked
around.
 
“Where’s the money?
 
I’m not giving up a damn thing without the
money.”

“Where’s the tape?” Jimmy asked.

“Show me the money, I’ll show you the tape,” Chap
said.

Jimmy hesitated, and then reached under his seat and
pulled out a plastic, see-through hermetically sealed bag.
 
Layers of money were seen.
 
Chap’s narrow eyes widened.
 
“Now we’re talking,” he said, reaching for
the bag.

Jimmy snatched it from his grasp.
 
“Are you crazy?
 
Where’s the tape?
 
You don’t get to take.
 
You get to give first.”

Chap smiled, reached into his pocket, and pulled out
a cell phone.

“The original?”

“No.
 
It’s a
copy.
 
Of course it’s the original!”

“Show me.”

Chap played the tape.
 
Based on the date and time showing on the
recording, Jimmy knew what he was watching was the original recording of his
regrettable sexual encounter in that hotel room.
 
“Satisfied, lover boy?”

“Just give it here,” Jimmy said, and Chap handed him
the phone.
 
Jimmy handed the bag to Chap.

“Later, lover boy,” Chap said cheerfully, stuffing
the bag under his shirt as he began getting out.

“Aren’t you going to count it?” Jimmy asked.
 
He wasn’t sure if there had been enough time.

“It looks right to me,” Chap said, anxious to get
away without a hitch.
 
He hurried out,
got in his car, and took off.

It wasn’t until Chap had turned out of the
McDonald’s parking lot and onto the little-traveled side street, did he realize
he wasn’t alone.
 
A figure sat up from
his backseat.

“What the hell?” he asked, terrified, nearly losing
control of the car, when he looked through his rearview and saw Reno
Gabrini.
 
He turned around quickly,
stunned, and then turned back around, his eyes moving like jumping beans
plotting his next move.
 
“What do you
think you’re doing?”

Reno put a gun to Chap’s head.
 
“Pull over,” he said.

Chap knew Reno Gabrini was not going to be as easy a
mark as Jimmy was, but he had to show some meddle.
 
“May I ask why?”

“If you want your head blown off,” Reno responded,
“go ahead.”

Chap swallowed hard, and pulled over to the side of
the road.

An SUV that had been driving behind Chap, pulled up
behind them.
 
Two men got out, opened the
driver door, and ordered Chap out.
 
Chap
headed to the SUV and was put inside.
 
Reno got out too, got his money from the front seat, and calmly walked
over to the SUV.
 
He got inside and
ordered the driver to take off.
 
The two
men that had gotten out of the SUV got into Chap’s car, and drove away.
 
Their job would be to ditch the car.

Inside the SUV, Chap and Reno were sitting in the
last two seats.
 
Chap was nervous as
hell.
 
This had not gone as planned at
all!
 
He thought Jimmy would be too
ashamed to rope his father in.
 
That was
the calculation all along.
 
Jimmy’s
shame.
 
But they had miscalculated badly.
 
Not only had Jimmy told his father about the
plot, his father had taken over.
 
It was
the nightmare scenario, the one Quinn assured him would never happen, coming
true.

Reno looked at Chap.
 
He remembered the face, but he couldn’t place him.
 
Every day he saw different faces in his
casino, in his hotel, or in any host of other businesses he owned.
 
Unless this guy was a regular, there would be
no reason for him to remember him.
 
But
he looked damn familiar.

“What’s your name?” Reno asked him.

“George,” Chap said.

“George what?” Reno asked.

“George Clooney.”

Reno smiled. “Very funny.”

“George Bush.
 
George Washington.
 
What
difference does it matter what my name is?
 
You just need to know that the people I do work for are going to be very
angry if I don’t show up with their loot.”

“Who are these people?”

“People who can fuck you up, boy, let me tell you.
That’s who?”

Reno couldn’t believe his nerve.
 
“People who can fuck
me
up?” Reno asked.

“That’s right,” Chap said confidently.

“You mean fuck me up like this?” Reno asked and hit
Chap so hard in his stomach that he doubled over.
 
It took his breath away.

“Or do you mean like this?” Reno asked and grabbed
him by the catch of his collar and beat him so hard that his head was pounding
against the window of the SUV, and blood was beginning to ooze.

“Now who are you working for, asshole?” Reno yelled
at him.
 
“How dare you threaten me!”

But Chap wouldn’t tell.
 
Reno continued his assault, beating Chap to
within an inch of his life, but Chap still wouldn’t tell.

When he finally let him go, Chap slumped over the
seat and passed on out.
 

Reno was impressed with a man who refused to
snitch.
 
He was a man after his own
heart.
 
But that didn’t help him find out
who set up Jimmy.

He looked at his driver.
 
“Drop me off at the PaLargio,” he ordered,
“and then take him to the safe house.
 
Call in Debrosiac to man the operation.”

“Torture?” the driver asked.

Reno nodded.
 
“Hell yeah.”

“To death?”

“No,” Reno said.
 
“I need answers.
 
I need to know
who set this shit up.
 
After we get those
answers, I’ll take it from there.
 
But
I’m sure they aren’t going to make any more moves right now, since they don’t
have the money, and we have him.
 
Torture
his ass to within an inch of his life, but don’t go over.”