Reno Gabrini: Turn Back Time Read online

  RENO GABRINI

  TURN BACK TIME

  BY

  MALLORY MONROE

  Copyright©2019 Mallory Monroe

  All rights reserved. Any use of the materials contained in this book without the expressed written consent of the author and/or her affiliates, including scanning, uploading and downloading at file sharing and other sites, and distribution of this book by way of the Internet or any other means, is illegal and strictly prohibited.

  AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING

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  THE AUTHOR AND AUSTIN BROOK PUBLISHING.

  This novel is a work of fiction. All characters are fictitious. Any similarities to anyone living or dead are completely accidental. The specific mention of known places or venues are not meant to be exact replicas of those places, but are purposely embellished or imagined for the story’s sake.

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  RENO GABRINI SERIES

  IN ORDER:

  1. ROMANCING THE MOB BOSS

  2. MOB BOSS 2: THE HEART OF THE MATTER

  3. MOB BOSS 3: LOVE AND RETRIBUTION

  4. MOB BOSS 4: ROMANCING TRINA GABRINI

  5. A MOB BOSS CHRISTMAS: THE PREGNANCY

  6. MOB BOSS 6: THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI

  7. RENO’S GIFT

  8. RENO GABRINI: A MAN IN FULL

  9. RENO AND TRINA: GETTING BACK TO LOVE

  10. RENO AND SON: DON’T MESS WITH JIM

  11. MOB BOSS ELEVEN: THE WRONG ONE

  12. RENO AND TRINA: IN THE SHADOWS OF LOVE

  13. RENO GABRINI: A FAMILY AFFAIR

  14. RENO GABRINI: FOR HIS LOVER

  15. RENO GABRINI: I’M LOSING YOU

  16. RENO GABRINI: WHEN HIS WOMAN CRIES

  17. RENO GABRINI: THE MAN IN THE MIRROR

  18. RENO AND TRINA: LOVE ON THE ROCKS

  19. RENO GABRINI: TURN BACK TIME

  ALSO

  RENO AND SAL GABRINI: FIRE WITH FIRE

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  EPILOGUE

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Lac la Biche, a hamlet in Alberta, Canada

  Six Hours Earlier

  The snow sloshed like water beneath his heavy snow boots as he made his way across the field to the cabin in the woods. It was a harsh winter in the province, and Artie was feeling the pain of that harshness: it was ten below in a place so isolated, and so off the grid that there were no ways to communicate other than face to face. He wore a ski mask skull cap to keep his face from going numb as he knocked on the cabin door and then unnecessarily blew warmth into his already gloved hands.

  Koba Sorzi opened the door swiftly when he knocked. He had been waiting too long.

  “There were some glitches,” Artie said as soon as the door opened. He knew no one was allowed inside the home, so he had to remain in the cold. “But they still say yes. It’s a yes. It’s a go.”

  “When?”

  “Tonight. It begins tonight. With no let up.”

  Koba smiled. “That’s good.”

  “But don’t be too certain that it will work, my friend. The entire scheme is predicated on predicting his behavior. If our predictions are off, so is the plan.”

  “It will work, it will work! That’s not an issue. He’s as predictable as the rising of the sun. It will work. Finally that arrogant bastard will get what’s coming to him.”

  “And you, Kobayatti. What will you get?”

  Koba looked at his friend. “I’ll get his ace in the hole. The only thing he ever got right. I’ll get the PaLargio. Every brick. Every wall. Every inch. And then I’ll tear that motherfucker down brick by brick, wall by wall, inch by inch! Just like he torn down my Caribella.”

  His friend knew of what he spoke. He was there with him, and her, when it all went down.

  “All the money in the world didn’t help,” Koba continued. “Nothing could rebuild what he tore down. Now I put my money to a different use. To a destructive use that will finally bring my Caribella justice.”

  “But first?” Artie asked.

  “But first, they all must suffer,” Koba said. “They all must feel the pain I felt. The pain my Caribella still feels. Living in this jungle because she cannot bear civilization anymore. Her beauty gone. Her light that used to be her glory long since dimmed. He did that to her. And he will pay.”

  Then his look changed. It was already a menacing look to Artie. Now it was frightening. “First, we build the case completely based on my twenty-five years of knowing what he will do, and what he won’t do. Reno Gabrini, and all he holds dear, must first suffer. No mercy. No regrets. No mistakes.”

  “And if he’s killed prematurely?” Artie asked.

  “Reno? You speak as a man who doesn’t know him at all! There will be no such thing happening. Every detail is based on knowledge, not supposition. I know him.”

  “Okay,” said Artie, nodding his head. He still didn’t like the plan, but he wasn’t the boss. “Tonight is the night. It will begin. On your word, that is.”

  Koba looked at his friend. “They already know my word. I am a yes as well. Tell them to see to it,” he ordered.

  Artie nodded his understanding, and then hurried back through the slosh of snow and damp to relay the order.

  But as Koba closed the door, and looked upon the woman Reno Gabrini ruined, he smiled. For the first time in a long time she saw him smile.

  “Is it judgment day, Koba?” she asked him.

  “It will be,” he said. “Very soon, it will be.”

  She turned another page of a magazine so old the pages had yellowed. “Good,” she said. “Very good.”

  And so it begins, Koba thought, as he clasped his hands with relief, and anxiousness, and uncontrollable giddiness.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Excitement bounced off the walls in the nightclub as dancers danced and talkers talked and the music was the link: a live band alternating between rap, rock, and country. Reno and his cousin, reputed mob boss Sal Gabrini, were also there, in the VIP seats, doing what they usually did: arguing. This time over who could hold their liquor the best. Trina and Gemma were there, too, and they couldn’t stop laughing at the absurdity. Neither one of them, they both knew, could barely hold water. Forget liquor.

/>   “Just three beers and your ass was so drunk one time,” Sal was saying, “that you took home a woman so ugly you woke up screaming, thinking a giant rat had gotten in your bed!”

  “At least she was a living creature,” Reno said. “Two beers had you so drunk one time you dropped your drawers and was making love to a wheel on my car, so don’t even try that shit with me. At least mine was alive!”

  “Okay, enough of this,” Gemma said. “No more my balls are bigger than your balls games, guys,” she added.

  Sal frowned. “Who the fuck’s playing a game like that?” he asked.

  “You and Reno,” Trina said. “That’s all y’all play.”

  “Like hell,” Reno said. “I don’t go around comparing my balls to Sal’s. There’s no comparison!”

  “Yeah, right,” Sal said. “And what the fuck I care about your balls anyway?” Then he looked at Trina. “Reno rubbing off on you too much,” he said.

  “Let’s dance, Sal,” Gemma said. “We came here to dance. Let’s dance!”

  Sal took another bite of a hot wing, smiled, wiped his hands on a napkin, and then stood up. He reached out his hand to Gemma, and she gladly took it. She and Sal hit the dance floor.

  Trina looked at Reno. He was no dancer, but he knew Trina was. “Why not?” he asked, and Trina smiled too.

  But as soon as she was about to stand up and hit the floor with Sal and Gem, Reno’s cell phone rang. When he looked at the Caller ID and saw that it was Bo Jackson, the man in charge of exposing cheats in his casino, he knew he had to take the call.

  He held up a finger for Trina to hold on, and answered.

  “Bo, yeah? What’s up?”

  “We got us a high roller thief, Boss.”

  “How much so far?”

  “A hundred grand and counting.”

  “Shit! Blackjack?”

  “Blackjack.”

  And so it went. Reno had forgotten all about any dancing. Trina understood business; she had her own clothing business. She knew he had to do what he had to do. But she still wanted to dance. She got up, and decided to dance by herself.

  But Trina on the dance floor was an interesting sight. Most men knew she was Reno’s woman, and took pains to stay as far away from her as they possibly could. They didn’t want the kind of heat they knew Reno could bring anywhere near them.

  But some other men were clueless about who she belonged to, and decided she could belong to them. Like the one man who immediately hurried over to Trina as soon as she hit the floor. He started dancing with her.

  Reno had been listening to Bo give him a blow-by-blow on the sting the thieves were perpetrating inside the casino. But when he saw the man dancing with Trina, he took notice. Mainly because the man kept touching her and bumping into her. Which was bad enough. But when the song ended, and Trina made her way toward the bathrooms in the back hall, and the man began following her, he took more than notice.

  “I’ll call you back,” he said to Bo and ended the call quickly. He got up just as fast and headed for the bathrooms too.

  Down the isolated hall that led to the bathrooms, the man was handing Trina his card.

  “No thanks,” Trina said as she continued to walk.

  “Why not? Because you’re married? So what?”

  “No thanks,” Trina said again, still smiling.

  “It’s about time you stepped up your game, pretty lady. Come on take it,” he added, putting the card in her face.

  Now the guy was taking it too far. He was getting on her nerves. “No thanks,” she said firmly this time, without smiling.

  But he still kept coming at her. “But why not give me a try? Fine lady like you. Take a chance on me. What you got to lose?”

  “She said no thanks, Pal.” It was Reno’s voice, Trina knew, as she and her male pursuer turned around. Reno was coming up behind them in his Armani suit, walking in that strutting way that reminded her pursuer of those two-bit Italian gangsters he used to have to deal with in Philly. “What part of no thanks don’t you understand?”

  Trina was relieved. At least the guy was going to get the message now. Nobody but a few fools would ignore Reno.

  “Now get lost,” Reno added.

  But the guy was one of the few. “Who are you supposed to be?” he asked. “You wanna fuck her too? Fuck you!”

  As soon as those words left the guy’s lips, Reno balled up his fist and decked him with one punch.

  Trina was shocked. “Reno!” she yelled.

  “What?” Reno asked, surprised that she would be upset.

  “It wasn’t that serious, that’s what!” she yelled.

  But it was serious now because the man jumped back up to his feet. Only he jumped up with a knife in his hand.

  “Reno!” Trina yelled this time because she saw that knife and wanted to make sure he saw it too.

  Reno quickly turned toward the man after hearing Trina’s cry, just as the man lunged for him. Reno grabbed the man’s hand that was wielding the knife, and they fought strength-to-strength for dominance.

  Trina tried to pull the man away from Reno, to help Reno, but the man was way too big and he wouldn’t budge. Knowing how quickly and deadly a knife fight could turn, she ran up the hall for help. Reno could hold his own, and she knew he could, but that guy was so damn big!

  As soon as she turned the corner, she was relieved to see that Sal was already heading that way.

  “I saw Reno hurry back here,” Sal said. “Everything okay?”

  “He’s got a knife, Sal,” Trina said lowly but urgently.

  “Who’s got a knife?”

  “Some guy flirting with me. Hurry, Sal!”

  When Sal entered the back hall and saw Reno and the guy fighting over the knife, he ran down that hall. Just as he did, Reno and the man stood up against each other, mano-a-mano, and then the blade pushed through. And it wasn’t some small puncture wound either. It was a hard stab through the abdomen. Trina’s heart dropped as she ran behind Sal and saw it too. Did the guy stab Reno, or did Reno stab him?

  When the man began falling, the knife still stuck in him, she slumped in relief. But Reno wasn’t finished with him yet. He couldn’t allow a slow bleed, with the guy able to give a story to the cops, or anybody else, before he croaked. He pulled the knife out of the guy’s stomach as the guy dropped, to ensure a fast bleed.

  But it was obvious, as soon as the man dropped to the floor, that he was dead.

  Sal looked at Reno. “Go. Get out of here. Through the back. I’ll close this hall off and get any video. Our guys will clean it up.”

  Reno and Trina hurried around back as Sal called their driver. “Fast pick up,” Sal said over the phone. “And I mean fast. Around back.”

  The call worked. Within seconds of Reno and Trina making it around back, a car drove up and picked them up.

  They sat down, side by side, as the car sped off.

  Reno looked at Trina. He could tell she was pissed. “What was I supposed to do?” he asked her. “Let that fucker rape you?”

  “He wasn’t going to rape me, Reno. Quit that! All you had to do was let me handle the jerk. But no, you had to deck him!”

  “Yeah, I decked his ass. Nobody disrespects my wife. I don’t put up with that shit, and they know it.”

  Trina looked at him. She knew it too. “And I appreciate that, Reno. But that man is dead. Dead! For what? Getting fresh with me?”

  “He pulled that knife,” Reno said. “Did I pull a deadly weapon out on him? No. He could have got his punk ass up and fought like a man. But nooo. I hit him, he wants to kill me. I was trying to spare his stupid ass. I was going to grab that knife and toss it, then beat his ass man to man like it should have been beaten. But he had it pressed into my stomach. I could feel that blade trying to press through.”

  Trina was horrified as Reno talked. It was an even closer call than she feared. “You could feel the blade?” she asked him.

  Reno nodded. “It took every ounce of strength I had t
o keep it from pushing through, and then to turn it around. He wasn’t trying to fight back. He was trying to kill my ass.”

  Trina leaned her head back and closed her eyes. Even the driver glanced back at them. Reno Gabrini had more lives than a cat, he thought.

  Trina thought so too. But she grew up in rural Mississippi. She knew all about cats. She knew that, eventually, their luck ran out and you found them on the side of the road. Lucky Sam one day. Roadkill the next. And it was that thought, that she could lose her beloved husband over foolishness, and their children could lose their beloved father, that drove her fear.

  Then she shook her head. “It’s too much,” she said. She looked at her husband. “Sometimes it’s too much, Reno. You could have been killed. Just like that, you could have died in that hallway. And now some random is dead. For what? For what, Reno?”

  Reno hated it, too. He never intended to harm anybody on the face of this earth. Never! He just wasn’t going to sit back and let anybody harm his wife! “I told you what for,” he said.

  “If you would have let me handle my business the way I let you handle yours, then none of it would have happened like that.”

  “Yeah, right. And his ass was carrying that knife just for the hell of it? It was isolated back there. Nobody but the two of you were back there. Why did he look around before he followed you back there, Trina? I saw his ass look around!”

  “Maybe because he thought he was going to score with me, Reno. He thought I was that girl. Maybe that’s all it was all about.”

  “Well I made it about something else,” Reno said. “And then he made it about something else too. And when it gets like that? Fuck it. May the best fucker win!”

  Trina couldn’t believe his cavalier attitude. “Okay,” she said. “Keep pulling that shit. Keep going hard like some thug-gangster every time somebody says something you don’t like, or does something you don’t like. Keep going hard, Reno, as if you’re some dude with nothing to lose. As if you don’t have children, and a wife, who worship the ground you walk on! Keep going hard. And when I get tired of this shit and start going, too, and leave your ass, you’re get the message!”

  “Then leave!” Reno fired back angrily. “What the fuck I care?”