Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 Read online

  “That’s correct.”

  “The Pa-Lar-gi-o Katrina Gabrini?”

  An odd way to put it, Trina thought. “My husband owns the PaLargio Hotel and Casino, yes.”

  “Then I’m speaking to the right person. Your husband’s staff is rude. I went there with my wife, to celebrate her birthday, and that hotel staff treated us as if we weren’t good enough to walk in their presence. From the busboys to the valets to the front desk clerks and maids. Everybody was really rude. I don’t mean to disturb your lunch, ma’am, I’m not that kind of guy, but it was an awful experience. My wife left that place in tears.”

  Trina was surprised to hear this. And she couldn’t take it lightly. She never took personnel issues lightly. “Did you notify management?” she asked him. “Did you file a complaint of any kind?”

  “Oh, I made my displeasure known before we left. I spoke to some guy who claimed to be a manager or a supervisor or whatever, but all he wanted to do was give us one night free. As if that was going to do it. Even he made us feel like we were running a con just by complaining. As if money was the issue all along. It was very demoralizing, Mrs. Gabrini.”

  Trina was floored. She’d gotten a few complaints about staff rudeness, but nothing this broad. “What’s your name?” she asked him, as she pulled a small writing pad out of her Dior handbag.

  “Shaun Connors,” Shaun said and watched Trina rummage through her handbag for a pen. And he felt as if he was on cloud nine. He felt like a computer hacker getting his target to click on the link. By looking into his allegation, she was clicking on the link. And he considered himself in. But he would have to handle this budding power just right, or he would be right back out on his ass. Trina Gabrini would make the perfect sugar mama: she was young, rich, beautiful, and smart. He never had a mark who checked that many boxes before. And she belonged to Reno Gabrini too? He was beyond cloud nine! He couldn’t wait to gain that upper hand.

  “Spell your first name,” Trina said to him. “Is it S-e-a-n?” she asked him.

  “S-h-a-u-n,” he said, as she wrote down his name.

  Shaun wanted to put on the charm even as he stood there. He wanted to have her in his bed, not a week or a month from now, but tonight. But he knew that wasn’t going to happen. She wasn’t going to bite that fast. This was only the first round. He couldn’t overshoot the hole on his first swing of the club. He had to keep it all business all the time or a smart lady like her would see red flags and bounce. He was too desperate to let that happen. His old arrangement was over. He needed a new one. But he had to be careful.

  Trina looked up at him. “We pride ourselves in our customer service,” she said. “I’ll certainly look into it.”

  “And then what?” he asked her.

  “If I can determine what happened, I will make sure it doesn’t happen again to you or anyone else, and I will authorize a refund to you for the entirety of your stay.”

  Shaun shook his head. “You still talk like it’s all about money. I don’t need any refund, Mrs. Gabrini. I need heads to roll. I need to know that those people don’t still have their jobs.”

  Although this man was playing the victim so well that Trina almost felt foolish for thinking he had nefarious intentions when he first approached, she still didn’t let her guard down. It was another byproduct of being Reno’s wife: he taught her to take no-one at face value. “Heads could roll,” she assured him, “after I speak with the staff and find out exactly what happened.”

  “So you don’t believe me? A brother lodges a complaint, and even the owner’s wife thinks it’s a con.”

  Trina didn’t appreciate his tone. “I didn’t say it was a con. I said I will look into it.”

  “I’m not a fool, sister. I didn’t make this stuff up.”

  “I’m not a fool, either, brother,” Trina shot back. “I’m not going to take your word for it without conferring with the staff you’re accusing. It says nothing about whether I believe you or not. It says everything about how I handle my business.”

  Shaun inwardly smiled. Strong too. Which was going to make his job that much tougher. But he was up for the challenge. “I can respect that,” he said.

  And when he said it, the waitress finally arrived to take Trina’s drink order. “May I take your,” she started, and then she stopped.

  Trina looked away from Shaun and looked at the waitress when she realized the waitress had stopped talking midsentence. And when Trina saw who she was, she was floored too. “Amy?” she asked.

  Amy Shumer looked as flustered as she felt, but she managed to smile. “Hello, Mrs. Gabrini.”

  “What are you doing here?”

  Amy looked down at her waitress uniform. “Working,” she said with a smile, and looked back up at Trina. “Trying to earn a living.”

  “How long have you worked here? I come in here all the time.”

  “I’ve only been here for a couple weeks now. I mainly work the night shift, though.”

  “Oh, I see.”

  “This is only the second time I’ve been on the daytime schedule. I’m subbing for the regular. And I’m still going to work my nightshift. I need the cash.”

  Trina was still surprised. Amy had been Reno’s right-hand woman for years, one of the best executive assistants in the business, and then suddenly, a month ago, she was terminated. It shocked most of the staff at the PaLargio, including Trina.

  Shaun could tell Trina was no longer trying to pay him any attention. He needed to get out while he was ahead. He’d see her again. “I’ll wait to hear from you, Mrs. Gabrini,” he said as if it was not that big a deal to him either.

  “I’ll look into it,” was all Trina was going to promise him.

  “I appreciate that,” he said, and then headed back toward the bar.

  Trina, however, was more intrigued with Amy’s sudden appearance than any promise she had made to Shaun. “So you’re waiting tables now?” she asked her.

  “I hate it, but it’s the only work I could get,” Amy responded. “I have applications all over the place, but you know Vegas. It’s a small town. I was with Reno a long time. To suddenly be terminated like that made me poison in the industry. So I had to get outside of the industry to help pay my bills, until something else comes along.”

  “I had hoped to hire you on my staff,” Trina said. “I knew how good a worker you were, and I know how badly you and Quinn had clashed. But you cancelled the interview.”

  Amy knew that wasn’t the truth either. She knew Reno had gotten wind of her scheduled meeting with Trina, and he back-channeled and cancelled it himself. He even warned her to stay away. He was so afraid the truth would come out, and that it would ruin his precious marriage, that there was no telling what he might try. So she stayed away. But she couldn’t tell Trina that now. She needed her. “It was a very traumatic time for me,” she said. “I’m just starting to get back on my feet again.”

  Trina knew what it felt like to be powerless. She used to be a waitress herself when she first met Reno, and she had to claw and scratch for every dime she earned. She also suspected that Quinn Chan, Amy’s former assistant who was now Reno’s right-hand woman, had sabotaged Amy. Reno denied it, and so did Quinn, but Trina still had her suspicions. But when Amy didn’t show up for their interview, and wouldn’t return her phone calls, Trina moved on too. She had wanted to help Amy, and to hear her side of the story, but she wasn’t going to beg her to accept the help.

  There were also rumors that Amy had had an affair with Reno, and that was why he fired her, but Trina suspected Quinn of spreading that lie as well. Reno made clear that the rumor itself, whomever started it, was a big fat lie, and Trina believed him. But Amy was too good a worker to be cast aside as easily as Reno had tossed her, especially since Quinn was involved in the firing. Trina always did like Amy. She wanted to hear her side of the story. “Would you be interested in getting into management, Amy?” Trina asked her.

  Her eyes brightened. “Oh, yes, ma’am. Ver
y much so. I’ve been putting in applications everywhere.”

  “What does your schedule look like this week?”

  “I’m off tomorrow.” Amy could hardly contain her joy.

  Trina nodded. “That could work. Think you can come by Champagne’s and see me?”

  Amy smiled. “I would love to, Mrs. Gabrini!” But then she frowned. “Do you want me to meet you at the Champagne’s inside the PaLargio, or the one over on this side of town?”

  “The one over here,” Trina said.

  Amy was relieved. “In that case,” she said, “I’d be very pleased to meet with you.”

  “No promises,” Trina made clear. “But we’ll talk.”

  Amy nodded. “Thank-you so much,” she said. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Reno Gabrini’s office at the PaLargio was filled with managers and aides and was its usual chaos. His oldest son, Jimmy Mack Gabrini, was in the office with him, trying to get him to change his mind. He knew it was an uphill battle.

  “But it was a mistake, Pop,” Jimmy was saying as he stood beside his father’s desk. “Wally didn’t mean it. It was a mistake.”

  “Where?” Reno asked one of the three assistants that had contracts for him to sign. He had already read the first one.

  “Sign right there,” the assistant said. “One week only, with option to extend.”

  “Good,” Reno said as he signed. “Now get out of here.”

  The assistant smiled and headed out, making room for another assistant with another contract for him to review and sign.

  “Pop!” Jimmy said when it appeared as if Reno was going to read the contract instead of deal with his issue.

  But Reno was already upset. “Don’t you Pop me,” he said. “I told you that shit wouldn’t work, but you kept doing it.”

  “He’s a friend.”

  “And you don’t mix friends with business. Not ever! How many times do I have to tell you that?”

  “But, Pop, you can’t just fire him.”

  “Wanna bet?” Reno was reading the contract in front of him.

  “He knows better now,” Jimmy said. “I told him you don’t play that. But he didn’t mean any harm. He thought he was being cool with the girls by giving them free stuff.”

  “By giving them my stuff, you mean,” Reno corrected him. “Free my ass.”

  “But if you’ll give him a second chance, I’ll make sure it never happens again.”

  Reno’s big, tired blue eyes looked warily at his son. “I told you not to hire your friends in the first place, James. I told you that repeatedly. But you kept hiring them. Over and over. You’re the floor manager now, so I let you take care of it. But you didn’t do your job. You hired wrong and you didn’t cut your losses when it was obvious you hired wrong. He’s fired and he stays fired.”

  Jimmy wanted to fight harder for his friend’s job, but arguing with his father was like arguing with the Statue of Liberty. It was over for Wally. That was all there was to it. “Yes, sir,” he finally said.

  The door to Reno’s office opened, and Quinn Chan, his senior executive assistant, who supervised the other assistants, peered inside. “He’s here, boss,” she said.

  Reno looked up. Quinn was a beautiful African-Asian woman, very perceptive, very smart. “Where did you put him?” he asked her.

  “Presidential Suite. With all the trappings.”

  Jimmy was floored. “The P suite? But that’s for dignitaries only. The President of the United States. The Queen of England!”

  Reno stood up and grabbed his suit coat from off of the back of his chair.

  “Who’s in the P suite, Dad?” Jimmy was dying to know. “I didn’t see any dignitary on the manifest for today.”

  “Change it to one week only,” Reno said to his assistant as he put on his suit coat.

  “But, sir,” his assistant said, “they’re expecting the final terms today. They thought it was a done deal.”

  “They thought wrong,” Reno responded, pulling his shirtsleeves beyond his coat sleeve. “It’s not done until I sign it, and I’m not signing that until it’s changed. Change it to one week only.”

  “Dad,” Jimmy asked, “who’s in the P suite?”

  Reno began to walk from behind his desk. His assistant looked at another assistant and they both began to panic. “But, sir,” one of them said to Reno, who ignored her. She looked at Quinn for help.

  Quinn looked at her boss as he approached her. “I don’t think the kid will agree to sign a one-week-only, Reno,” she said. “He sold lots of records. He fully expects a term-of-show contract.”

  “I don’t give a fuck what he expects,” Reno responded with a frown on his face. “He’s not running this, I’m running this. And I don’t care how many records he sold. I never heard of him before and neither did anybody I asked. He gets one week to prove himself. If he’s good and the tickets are selling like hotcakes, we’ll extend the terms. If he’s as good as he claims to be, he shouldn’t worry about it. But I’m not putting the PaLargio on the hook for a term-of-show until I see what kind of fan base the kid really has. One week only.”

  Quinn, too, knew when arguing with Reno Gabrini was futile. “Yes, sir,” she said, as Reno walked past her out of the office and she and Jimmy followed behind him. She looked back, at the assistants, and shrugged her shoulder. Nothing she could do about it. But that didn’t ease the anguish on their faces. They were the ones who had to break the news to the obnoxious pop star.

  Outside of the office, Jimmy hurried up beside his father. “So who is it?” he asked. “Who’s so big that you would put him up in the best suite in the entire hotel?”

  “Mick Sinatra.”

  “But who’s that? I never heard of any Mick Sinatra!”

  “He’s Sal and Tommy’s uncle on their mother’s side.”

  Jimmy frowned. “But their mother’s dead. And when she was alive she hated them. They wouldn’t even let Uncle Sal attend her funeral. Why would you want to cater to her brother?”

  “Because I attended the funeral,” Reno said as they made their way to his private elevator. “I couldn’t stand Sprig either, but Sal wanted somebody from the family to go. Your Uncle Tommy wasn’t about to do it, you know how stubborn Tommy can be. So it fell on me. For Sal, I went to their mother’s funeral. That’s where I met Sinatra.” He swiped his keycard at the elevator, the doors opened, and he, Quinn, and Jimmy walked on.

  “But that still doesn’t answer my question,” Jimmy said as the elevator doors closed them in. “What entitles him to the P suite?” It was obvious to Jimmy that his father was holding something back.

  “Well, Pop? What gives?”

  “Nothing gives,” Reno responded. “He’s family.”

  Jimmy frowned. “How is he family?”

  “He’s Sal’s uncle on his mother’s die. That makes him your uncle.”

  “Pop, Sal isn’t even my uncle. He would have to be your brother or Ma’s brother to be my uncle.”

  “But you call him uncle.”

  “Because y’all act like brothers. That’s different. And besides, if this Mick Sinatra is on Sal’s mother’s side of the family, he’s no blood relative of ours.”

  “But he’s family, all right? He’s your uncle, four times removed, or your cousin five times removed, or however it goes. He’s Sal’s mother’s brother. Sal’s uncle. So whatever that makes him to you, that’s what he is.”

  Jimmy looked at a smiling Quinn and shook his head. “You have street smarts and that savvy business sense in spades, Pop,” he said to his father. “But book smarts?”

  “That ain’t me,” Reno said.

  “That ain’t you,” Jimmy agreed. But then his look turned serious again. “So because you met this Mick Sinatra at a funeral,” Jimmy said, “you’re suddenly tight with him?”

  “I don’t know about tight,” Reno said. “He’s not that kind of guy. But I heard of him back in the day. He was known
as Mick the Tick back then because of his explosive temper. He’s a legend where I come from. Back then if you crossed him, you were dead. Period. He was crazy like that. I had no idea he was a Sinatra until I saw him at the funeral and Sal’s cousin Brent introduced us. He was just Mick the Tick to me before then.”

  “Let me guess. And you two hit it off,” Jimmy said.

  “I don’t know about all of that either,” Reno said. “We had a drink together, we talked. I told him to drop by whenever he’s passing through Vegas again. He gave me a call last night. He said he’d be in town for a couple of days.”

  That still didn’t make sense to Jimmy. “And you set him up in the Presidential?” he asked.

  Reno frowned. Too many questions. “What are you worrying about it for? Stop worrying about it. He’s in the Presidential, that’s all you need to know. Your ass need to worry about your own responsibilities and stop meddling in mine.”

  “I was just asking a question!”

  “Stop asking questions. You don’t need to know everything. It’s not healthy.”

  Jimmy laughed. “You sound like a straight-up gangster, Pop,” he said. “As if, because I ask too many questions, you’re going to break my leg like some mob thug.”

  Reno looked at his son with a smile on his face. “Stranger things have happened.”

  “Yeah. Like sons killing daddies.”

  Quinn laughed.

  Reno’s smile left. “You’re trying to be funny?” he asked. “You’re a funny guy now? A fucking comedian?”

  “Stop asking so many questions,” Jimmy said, trying hard not to laugh. He loved it when his father was stumped.

  But then the elevator doors opened, and Reno stepped out first. Jimmy and Quinn followed, but then Jimmy pulled Quinn slightly back, leaving Reno ahead of them.

  Quinn was an attractive woman of African and Asian descent, with long black hair, and small, but pretty eyes. Although she was in her thirties and was close to his father’s age, which made her years older than Jimmy, he used to have a monster crush on her. And she was more than willing too. She even propositioned him. But that was before he met Val. He shut that door down, after his marriage. “Why is Pop putting some man I never heard of in the P suite?” he asked her. “And please don’t tell me it’s because he’s kin to Uncle Sal. Pop don’t even put Uncle Tommy up in the Presidential, and he loves and respects Uncle Tommy above any man alive.”