Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair (16 page)

“No!
 
I don’t
want any money.
 
I have a job I
love.
 
I have a life I love.
 
Why would I want to jeopardize everything I
love?”

“Then why did you ask him to blackmail Jimmy?”

“Because I had no choice!”

Reno knew better than that.
 
“What’s that supposed to mean?
 
You had plenty of choices!
 
You could have said no.”

She was distressed.
 
“No, I couldn’t,” she said.

“You could have come to me.”

“No, I couldn’t!”

“Why the hell not?”

“Because I would have been fired and would have lost
everything I love!”

Reno frowned.
 
“What are you talking?
 
Who would
fire you?
 
You work for me.”

“And your wife,” Quinn said, her face unable to
conceal her anguish.

Reno was dumbstruck.
 
“My wife?
 
What does my wife have
to do with this?”

“You won’t believe me.
 
You’ll take her side.
 
You always take her side.”

Reno snatched her hair back again.
 
“What does my wife have to do with this?” he
asked her again.

“She’s the one who got me involved,” Quinn said in
pain.
 
“She’s the one who told me I had
to find somebody to deal with Jimmy, to blackmail him.
 
That’s why we had the video of Jimmy with
that male prostitute.
 
She set him
up.
 
She paid his friend Finn to get the
girl and then get lost.
 
She had the
whole thing filmed.
 
She’s psycho,
Reno.
 
She made me do it!”

“That’s a fucking lie!” Reno yelled, and released
Quinn’s hair from his grasp.
 
“That’s a
lie!
 
Why would Tree want to set up her
own stepson?
 
What the fuck are you
talking about?
 
Why would she do it?”

“You’ll have to ask her that,” Quinn said.
 
“But I swear to you, Reno, she’s the one.”

Reno was dumbstruck.
 
He wouldn’t trust Quinn’s word right now if his life depended on
it.
 
But why would she even go
there?
 
She had to know he’d kill her ass
if she was caught lying on his wife.
 
But
this shit wasn’t in a vacuum for Reno.
 
Trina had been acting strange the last few days, and she still hadn’t
produced these girlfriends she supposedly was hanging out with, nor had she
named the bar where they supposedly hung out.
 
But this shit about her setting up Jimmy was a lie.
 
Reno knew it was.
 
But he had to check it out.
 
Something was going on with his wife.
 
Something major.
 
He had to check it out.

Reno phoned Debrosiac and ordered him to take Quinn
to the safe house with her brother.
 
Once
Debrosiac arrived, he would make his way to the penthouse.
 
To Trina.

Trina bounced Madison on her knees and smiled whenever
the baby smiled.
 
“I love fat babies,”
Trina said as Maddie tried to put her knuckle in her mouth.

“Then you must adore, Madison,” Val responded with a
smile.
 
“Jimmy gives her anything she
wants.
 
All she has to do is point.”

“Reno’s the same way,” Trina admitted.
 
“This is going to be one spoiled child.
 
But greatly loved.”

Val nodded her head.
 
“Yes,” she agreed.
 
“She is much
loved.”
 
Then Val looked at Trina.
  
She knew she had to be delicate.
 
“He’s working late again, hun?” she asked
her.

Trina knew who she meant.
 
“Yup,” she said, still bouncing Maddie.
 
“He’ll never be a nine-to-five man.”

“Neither will Jimmy,” Val said.
 
“So I understand that.”

But Trina was no fool.
 
“But you have an issue you would like to
discuss?”
 
Trina looked at her.
 
“And it involves Reno.”

Val nodded.
 
“I know he cares about us,” she said.
 
“But sometimes I wonder.”

Trina stared at her.
 
“What do you mean?”

“The way he treats us.
 
Me and Jimmy I mean.”

“Say what you mean, Val.
 
How does he treat you?”

“Like the other day, in my case,” Val said.
 
“I came to the PaLargio to give Jimmy some
tickets he forget to take with him.
 
I
was dressed on the sexy side, I’ll admit it.
 
I had my jacket zipped down a little to show some cleavage.
 
But so what, right? I know who I belong
to.
 
But Reno comes up to me and tells me
to zip it up.
 
He says Jimmy can see my
cleavage, but so can all these other guys.”

“But that’s true, right?” Trina asked.

Val didn’t expect that response.
 
“I mean, yes, it’s true.
 
But so what?
 
You dress sexy.
 
I see you!”

“But I don’t dress sexy around Reno.
 
Not in public I don’t.
 
You have to use your brains, Val.
 
Zip it down a little if you like.
 
There’s nothing wrong with that.
 
But don’t do it when you’re around your
husband or mine.
 
They aren’t the kind of
men who like to see other men assessing their wives, or, in Reno’s case,
daughter-in-law.
 
You’re like a daughter
to him.
 
He’s very protective of you.”

Val didn’t like to hear that, and Trina could tell
it.
 
“I have a father,” Val said.
 
“I don’t see him as my father.”

“No,” Trina said, “you see him as your man.”

Val’s big eyes stretched even bigger.
 
“I do not!”

But Trina wasn’t playing games.
 
“You see that bundle between Reno’s legs and
can’t help but wonder how it’ll feel between your legs.”

Val was even more shocked.
 
“How can you say such a thing, Ma?
 
I would never---”

“I know you wouldn’t,” Trina interrupted her.
 
“I’m not saying what you would or wouldn’t
do.
 
I’m saying what you feel.
 
And I’m not mad at you, Val, don’t think that
I am.
 
We’ve been through this
before.
 
Women have a thing for Reno, I
get that.
 
And you aren’t immune to
it.
 
That’s why you can’t picture him as a
father figure.
 
He’s too sexy, he’s an
older man, and you have a thing for older men.
 
He’s your dream man.
 
It is what
it is.
 
I know it.
 
Reno knows it.
 
You know it too.”

Val felt so exposed that she felt ashamed.
 
But she knew she couldn’t lie to Trina.
 
She respected her too much.
 
She did love Reno
that way
, and she hated herself for it.
 
She hated the dreams she had of him.
 
She hated that she could see Reno pounding
his big cock into her while Jimmy was doing her.
 
She hated the idea that she didn’t want to
leave Vegas because she wouldn’t see him as often.

She looked at Trina.
 
“I love Jimmy,” she said.
 
“I would
never hurt him.”

Trina smiled.
 
“I know you wouldn’t.”

“Then why do I feel so guilty about not wanting to
him to take that job in New Hampshire?
 
Why do I feel like Reno is trying to get rid of us?”

“Because he is,” Trina admitted.
 
“But not for the reason you think.
 
He’s protecting Jimmy.
 
He doesn’t want him to go down the same road
he went down.
 
That’s his only reason.”

Val nodded.
 
Now she felt even worse.

“Oh, Val,” Trina said with a smile.
 
“Reno’s just a crush.
 
You have a crush on him, it’s no big
deal.
 
We all have our fantasy men.”

“But you’re concerned?” Val asked her.

“I’m concerned, yes,” Trina admitted.
 
“But it’s not about you hooking up with Reno,
because I know Reno’s not going to hook up with you.
 
My concern is when your young, pretty self
eyeballs another attractive older man.
 
And that particular older man is not only willing to hook up with you,
he’s willing to pursue you for that hookup.
 
That’s when you’ll be in trouble.
 
That’s when your love for Jimmy has got to be stronger than your
preference.
 
Because if it’s not, you
need to tell him so now.
 
New Hampshire
is not Vegas.
 
It’s loaded with older
men.
 
So moving to a state like that
might help Jimmy.
 
But will it help his
marriage?”

Val understood everything Trina was saying.
 
And there was an element of fear in her
heart.
 
But she nodded her head.
 
“I love Jimmy,” she said.
 
“And if moving to the east coast is going to
help him stay out of that gangster life, then I’ll make the move.”

“And you and your preference for older men?” Trina
asked her.

“I love Jimmy,” she said.
 
“He’s my preference now.”

Trina knew it sounded good.
 
She only prayed Val kept her word.
 
They were going to be less than a hundred
miles from Big Daddy Charles Sinatra, one of the sexiest men Trina had ever
seen.
 
She remembered how Val kept taking
peeps at him during their family reunion in Philly.
 
To be fair, Trina knew that every woman there
was eyeing Charles too.
 
But every woman
there didn’t have a thing for powerful, older men the way Val did.
 
It was different.

“You have to work at a marriage,” Trina said.
 
“I suggest getting yourself into somebody’s
church as soon as you make it to New Hampshire, and working hard at it.
 
You’re a very moral young lady.
 
You’ll do the right thing.”

Val smiled.
 
“Thanks, Ma,” she said.

A few minutes later, Reno was walking through the
door.
 
Val’s heart began to pound.
 
She couldn’t help it.
 
Trina saw the difference in her.

“I’d better get going,” Val said, as she took little
Maddie off of Trina’s knees and pulled her into her arms.
 
Her security blanket, Trina felt.

Val expected Reno to hurry over and play with Maddie
the way he always did, but this time he didn’t even break a smile.
 
“Hey, Val,” he said.
 
“Hey, Maddie Mae,” he said to his grandchild.

“We were just leaving,” Val said.
 
“Jimmy in the casino?”

“The Gray Room,” Reno said.
 
“Freckles the clown died.”

“Oh no!” Val and Trina said in unison.
 
Reno was surprised.
 
He didn’t think they knew who Freckles was.

“Sophie and Dommi are going to be so disappointed,”
Trina added.

“Maddie likes watching him too,” Val said.
 
“What awful news.
 
I’d better get down there.
 
See you later.
 
And thanks, Ma,” Val added, as she left.

Reno had his hands in his pockets and was staring at
Trina.
 
Trina already detected a mood
about him, but she assumed it was because of the fight they had three nights
ago and the fact that she wouldn’t discuss it any further.
 
She couldn’t.
 
She didn’t even know what they wanted yet and whether or not she could
handle it without Reno ever finding out.
 
He sat on the sofa beside her.
 
They were within inches of each other.
 
His hair was a mess, his suit was wrinkled and well-worn, and his eyes
were a combination of blue and red.
 

“You look awful,” she said.

He looked at her.
 
Her hair was immaculate, her clothes were understated and classy, and
her smooth brown skin radiated with warmth and beauty.
 
“You look wonderful,” he said.

Trina stared at him.
 
“Reno, what’s wrong?”

“You lied to me the other night,” he said
bluntly.
 
Trina’s heart began to
hammer.
 
“I haven’t figured out why,” he
added, “but you lied to me.”

Trina didn’t know what to say.
 
She wasn’t in a position to say anything
yet.
 
“What do you mean?” she asked.

“Does it have to do with Jimmy?”

Trina frowned.
 
“Jimmy?
 
Why would it have to do
with Jimmy?”

“Quinn says you were the one who set him up with
that tranny.”

Trina’s response was exactly what Reno knew it would
be.
 
She was floored. “She said
what
?
 
Why that bitch!
 
That’s a lie,
Reno!”

Reno placed his arm around her.
 
“I know it is.”

But she pulled away from him and stood up. “Then why
would you even fix your mouth to ask me something like that?”

But her response only angered him.
 
“Why do you think?” he asked, standing up
too.
 
“You still haven’t told me what you
were up to that night we were supposed to meet with Sal!”

“Are you for real?
 
You still haven’t told me what you’re up to
every
night when your ass comes home late!”

“You know what my ass is up to.
 
I’m working my ass off, that’s what it’s up
to!”

“And I’m not?
 
I’m the number two at the PaLargio, and I have a store to run!
 
You don’t think I work my ass off?”

Reno let out a sharp exhale.
 
“Yes,” he said.
 
“I know you do.”

Trina expected more fight out of him.
 
She was thrown.

“What’s breaking my heart,” he said, “is the fact
that I know something’s going on with you, but you won’t tell me what it is.”

“Because there’s nothing to tell, Reno.
 
I’m fine!”

Reno stared at her.
 
She wasn’t.
 
Not by a mile.
 
The stress in her eyes alone told him that
much.
 
But he knew she wasn’t ready to
confide in him yet.
 
And it hurt him to
his core.
 
Maybe they were losing
something.
 
Maybe he wasn’t her knight in
shining armor anymore.

He began leaving.

“Where are you going?” she asked him.
 
“Reno?”

But he didn’t respond.
 
When he walked out, he slammed the door
behind him.

Trina, upset herself, grabbed her cell phone and
called his office.
 
“Put Quinn on the
line,” she ordered.

“Ah, I’m sorry, Mrs. Gabrini,” Reno’s secretary
said, “but just a few minutes ago Quinn was escorted out of the building by
Security.
 
It doesn’t appear as if she’ll
be coming back.”