Reno and Sal Gabrini: Fire with Fire Read online

  The officers snickered.

  “They have eluded us for decades,” the sergeant continued. “But not anymore. And before the Feds get called in and take it away from us, we’re going to get credit for all of our good detective work. You hear me? This is an L.V.P.D. joint, and the Feds can kiss our Nevada asses and join us later!”

  They all applauded that.

  “I’m saying all that to say this: keep your guard up at all times because there will be resistance. We’re talking the Gabrini brand, and it’s a badass brand. Even Reno Gabrini’s wife, Katrina Gabrini, is as ruthless as he is. There will be resistance. There might even be blood. Just make for damn sure it’s not any of ours.”

  They laughed.

  “Alright, people!” The sergeant placed his hand on his gun holster. “Lock, load, and let’s get this show on the road!”

  They all eagerly got into their cars. And in a show of force unlike any seen around Vegas since the days of Bugsy Siegel, they made their way to the PaLargio Hotel and Casino, Reno Gabrini’s very domain, in the heart of the Vegas Strip.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Trina Gabrini placed another dish into the dishwasher while her two children, Dominic, Jr. and Sophia, ate breakfast at the center island. Dommi was wolfing-down his cereal. Sophie was barely touching hers. When Trina turned and saw it, she admonished her again. “You aren’t going anywhere until you eat your breakfast.” She walked over to the center island to pour herself a cup of coffee. “And I mean that, little girl.”

  “But I’m full already,” Sophia said.

  “Full of what?” Dommi was looking at his sister’s untouched bowl of cereal. “Hot air?”

  But Sophia would have none of it. “Mind yours, Dominic,” she said to her big brother. “This doesn’t concern you.”

  “You might be full, alright,” Dommi said, ignoring her warning, “but you ain’t full of no cereal!”

  “Dommi,” Trina said, “how many times do I have to tell you ain’t is not a word, boy?”

  “I know, Ma. You know I know that!” He grinned. “But it just sounds so good.”

  “Stop using it,” Trina said as she poured herself a cup of coffee, “I don’t care how it sounds. And eat, Sophie. I’m not telling your ass again.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Sophia said reluctantly, and began eating her cereal.

  It was a Saturday morning and they were in their penthouse at the PaLargio. Dommi was excited because he and Sophie were going to spend the weekend with their father’s first cousin, whom they affectionately called their Uncle Sal, and with his wife Gemma.

  Sophie, however, was excited, but worried too. “I thought we were going to spend the weekend at the house,” Sophie said. The house was their estate on the outskirts of Vegas. “I promised my friends they could come over this weekend. Now I won’t be home again. We never stay at the house anymore.”

  “Next weekend, I promise,” Trina said. “But I thought you enjoyed being at Uncle Sal and Aunt Gemma’s.”

  “I do! But I have obligations to my friends as well.”

  Dommi smiled. “What she know about obligations?” he asked with a grin.

  Trina smiled, too, as the front door of the penthouse opened. Dommi and Sophie both looked at their mother, which was heartbreaking to Trina. They were so accustomed to upheaval that anything out of the ordinary gave them pause.

  But when a very familiar voice could be heard asking, “where’s everybody,” they all calmed back down.

  “In the kitchen, James!” Trina yelled, and James Maxwell “Jimmy Mack” Gabrini entered the kitchen. Like Dommi and Sophie, Jimmy was biracial and Reno Gabrini was his biological father too. But unlike them, Jimmy’s biological mother was not Trina as most people thought, but was a now-deceased woman who was, like Trina, also African-American.

  “What’s up, Jimmy Mack?” Dommi lifted his bowl to drink half of his milk.

  “What’s up with you?” Jimmy sat on the stool beside Dommi at the center island. “I hear you’ve been making a name for yourself over at Lakeview.”

  “Don’t believe everything you hear,” Dommi said quickly.

  But Trina caught the conversation. “What kind of name he’s making?” she asked Jimmy. “Other than what he did in that fight?”

  “They say he’s got all those kids right under his thumb, and he’s only been in that school two weeks!”

  Trina gave Dommi a warning look. “Alright, boy, don’t pull that shit at Lakeview you pulled at your prior school. They don’t play that there.”

  Dommi put on his best innocent face. “Honestly, I don’t know what Jimmy’s talking about,” he said.

  “Don’t bully those children,” Trina said. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  Dommi was honestly offended. “I don’t bully anybody,” he corrected his mother with a sincere look on his face. “I look out for the kids that get bullied, yes I do. And I will continue to do so. Somebody has to. But I don’t bully anybody!”

  Trina knew it too, but that boy! “Just behave yourself,” she said. “That’s all I’m saying.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Dommi.

  “Any way,” Trina said, emptying the remainder of her cup of coffee in the sink, “I’m going to make sure Daddy’s okay, and then we’ll go downstairs to wait on Uncle Sal.”

  She left the kitchen. Jimmy looked at his younger siblings. “So how do you guys like your new school?” After security issues at their prior school, they both were transferred to Lakeview, a Kindergarten-through-12th-grade exclusive private school in Vegas.

  “I hate school,” Dommi said.

  “I love school,” said Sophia.

  “But how’s your new school?” Jimmy asked them.

  Dommi and Sophie looked at each other. “It’s okay,” they said with hunched shoulders, and both said it with the same lack of enthusiasm.

  Jimmy laughed. Although he was a rising executive in his Uncle Tommy’s company, he could still remember his own awkward school days all too well. “If you both are lukewarm, then that school must be doing something right!”

  CHAPTER THREE

  “Gemma likes her eggs over-easy,” Sal Gabrini said, “or she won’t eat them at all. Make sure you get that right.”

  “Over-easy,” said Neeco Gabrini, the man Sal only recently discovered was his father. “Got it.”

  “Got it,” echoed Bruce, a little person who arrived in the States, from Rome, with Neeco, and who was also Neeco’s best friend. “How do you like your eggs?”

  “Any way I can get them,” Sal said, and they all laughed.

  For years Sal thought his father was ruthless lawman Benny Gabrini. But after Sal and Tommy took a trip to Rome on their grandfather’s urging, it was discovered that Benny’s brother Neeco was actually Sal’s father, although Benny remained Tommy’s dad. It was a shock to Sal’s system. But a good shock. Benny had always treated Sal as if he hated him. Neeco treated Sal like a prince. He and Bruce lived in two of the numerous guest houses on Sal’s property, and Neeco and Sal’s family were getting very close.

  “And get some extra bacon,” Sal told his father as the three men stood in Sal’s kid’s room. “Lucky can chew on that shit all morning long.” Sal picked up his sleeping young son from his bed. “He loves it.”

  “Just because he loves it, Salvatore,” Neeco said, “doesn’t mean he should have it. It doesn’t mean it’s good for him.”

  Sal smiled. “Now your ass sound like Gemma.”

  Neeco laughed. “I’ll get what you ordered. Hopefully you’ll be back by the time I get back. I want you to be the one to explain to Gemma why I have all of this unhealthy food. But remember I must stop by the souvenir shop first. Bruce wants me to send more postcards to the villagers.”

  “They like that,” said Bruce.

  “You guys miss the village?” Sal asked.

  “Not me,” said Bruce.

  Sal looked at his father. “What about you, Pop? Are you homesick yet?”

&
nbsp; But Neeco shook his head vigorously. “That place? No way!”

  Sal laughed.

  “America is my home now. I am with you and Gemma and Junior, and all of the family. This is where I want to be!”

  Sal appreciated it. “I’ll pick up Reno’s kids and get back here as fast as I can. See you guys when you get back.”

  As Neeco and Bruce left out of the front door, Sal carried his young, sleeping son up the stairs and into his master bedroom. He laid him down, beside his sleeping wife, and then straddled her body with his arms, looking at her. When she finally felt his presence and opened her eyes, he smiled. She had the softest eyes he’d ever seen.

  But she was still sleepy, and closed her eyes again. “Leaving?” she asked him.

  “Yeah, I’m heading out. Are you excited?”

  Gemma Jones-Gabrini, his wife, opened her eyes again. Had she missed something? “Excited about what?”

  “Having Reno and Trina’s kids running around our house all weekend.”

  She smiled. “Hell no.”

  He laughed.

  “But Ree and Tree deserve a break,” she added.

  “Yeah, I agree,” Sal said. “The only reason I’m doing this shit. Besides, Reno wants me to have a man-to-man with Dommi. He says Dom thinks he’s top shit now that he’s thirteen and can smell his own piss.”

  “You’ll steer him right,” Gemma said.

  Sal stared at her. She never fully appreciated the extent of his lifestyle, and what he had to do to stay alive. She knew he was a mob boss. She was the only person he actually admitted it to. She knew he was in and was never going to be able to get out. But she had no clue, Sal thought, of just what that really meant. She had no clue of how much pressure and danger that title kept him under, and how much pressure and danger he had to keep other people under. He was no fucking role model. But he hoped, nonetheless, she kept that kind of faith in him.

  He kissed her on the lips. She smiled at him with her sweet, caring eyes. He never dreamed in a million years that his slick ass would marry a lawyer of all people, and a black lawyer at that. He used to be a racist cop that treated laws as if they didn’t apply to him, and had disdain for everybody who wasn’t Italian. But then he met the most wonderful woman in the world. He met Gemma. She changed everything.

  He kissed her again. “Pop and Bruce went out to get breakfast, but their asses so slow I’ll probably get back before they do.” He leaned up and began heading out of the bedroom. “Don’t smash Lucky!”

  Gemma could already feel her son’s feet kicking at her. She turned over and pulled Salvatore Luciano Gabrini, Junior, better known as Lucky, into her arms. He snuggled against her and settled back down. And she closed her eyes again too.

  Outside, Sal drove his high-powered Bugatti Chiron up to the massive security gate that surrounded his property, pressed the button inside his car that opened the gate, and then waved at his two men at the guard station as he drove away. He drove to the end of the private street, to Adler, the main road.

  On Adler, at a not-yet-opened Chinese takeaway a half-block from Sal’s street, was an SUV with darkened windows parked and waiting. Inside the car: four men in armored suits from head to toe with silencers on all of their weapons. One of them, their leader on the front passenger side, answered his ringing phone.

  “He just left,” the caller said.

  “We’re eyeballing him now,” said the leader of the pack, in a heavy eastern-European accent, as Sal’s Bugatti made a right onto Adler and sped off past their location. “Show off motherfucker.”

  The leader ended the call. The driver, his English heavily accented too, looked at him. “Now?” he asked.

  “Wait,” the leader said.

  And just as he said it, a car, with Sal’s security detail inside, drove from the opposite direction following Sal. When Sal’s car, and his security detail’s car were clean out of sight, the leader gave a nod. “Now,” he said.

  The SUV drove out of the restaurant parking lot, with two other vehicles a couple stores further down following, and made its way around heavy traffic. All three vehicles turned onto Sal’s private street. Once on the street, they drove up to the closed security gate.

  One of the armed guards walked over to the SUV. One of them remained inside the fortified guard station. The leader in the SUV pressed down the passenger side window.

  “Nice day today, isn’t it?” He then handed the guard two thick envelopes.

  The guard looked inside the envelopes and then smiled. “It is now,” he said, and then nodded to the guard inside the station.

  Within seconds, the security gate opened and the SUV and the two other vehicles drove through. The guard inside the station then quickly flipped all twenty switches on the control panel to off, removed the key, grabbed his jacket, and walked out.

  The guard outside of the booth tossed him one of the thick envelopes, and then both men headed to their personal vehicles on the side of the guard station. They got in, and didn’t hesitate. They sped away from Sal’s street. From Sal’s house. From Sal’s wife and child that they were paid to protect.

  They burned rubber getting away from there.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Trina made her way across the landing and into the master bedroom. Although she was professionally dressed and ready for work, she still only planned to work half-a-day and then spend the rest of the weekend with Reno alone. Carmine, their baby boy, was still in Florida spending an entire month with Trina’s happy parents. Dom and Soph would soon be with Sal and Gemma. It was going to be a perfect break. They’d been working on their marriage, and spending time together was a big part of that effort.

  But when she entered the double doors that led into their bedroom, she knew they were not getting off to the smooth start she had hoped for.

  “Reno!” she yelled. She hurried over to the bed and shook him. “Reno! You’re still in bed?”

  Dominic “Reno” Gabrini, Senior, the patriarch of the Gabrini clan, quickly lifted his head from under the covers. His hair was spiked in all directions. His eyes were wide and wild. When he saw that it was Trina, he laid his head back down.

  “Boy, get up! I thought you were in the shower.”

  “What time is it?” Reno’s voice was still hoarse from sleep.

  “Time for you to get your ass up,” Trina said. “Get up, Reno! You have a meeting in ten minutes.”

  Reno was not a morning person and hated to budge, but he threw the covers off of his naked body and then swung his legs out onto the floor. He stretched and yawned.

  “What happened?” Trina asked.

  Reno frowned. “What you mean what happened? Nothing happened.”

  “You know what I’m talking about. When I was headed downstairs, you said you were getting up.”

  “I said it,” Reno said, rising to his feet, and then yawning and stretching again. “But I didn’t do it.”

  Trina couldn’t stop herself from looking down the length of that body as he stretched. Reno was still fine, she thought, even though his ass never exercised at all! She also couldn’t help but notice how his dick was already long and thick, and stiff as a pole, that early in the morning. So stiff, and so thick, that it reminded her of those wonderful feelings she felt whenever it was deep inside of her, fucking her. Just the thought caused her vagina to pulsate.

  But it was too late for that! “I’ll chair the meeting until you get downstairs,” she said, “but then I’ve got to get over to Champagne’s. So hurry up.”

  But as she turned to leave, Reno reached over and grabbed her from behind.

  Trina grinned because she had been taken by surprise. “Reno, stop. Reno, the meeting!”

  “Fuck the meeting.” His penis was rock-hard against her tight ass. He reached his hand inside of her panties and began massaging her clit. “I’d rather meet with you.” He kissed her on her soft, brown neck. “And the meeting will be held right here.” He pushed a finger into her vagina. “Right now.”


  Trina loved the feeling, and her umbrage about Reno’s lack of progress began to fade. “That’s just a piss-hard, boy,” she said, although she didn’t believe that herself.

  Reno grinned. “Piss-hard my ass.” He kissed her again. Massaged her clit even harder. She was wet already. “Just you and me, kid,” he said, humping his dick against her. “Right here. Right now.”

  As much as Trina would have loved to, she knew one of them had to be responsible. “Those Japanese didn’t come all this way to talk shop with me. It’s you they need to talk to, and you’re not going to keep them waiting. This afternoon it’ll just be the two of us. We can go at it for the rest of the day if you want. But we can’t do it now.”

  “Says who?” Reno shoved down her pants and panties.

  “But the Japanese, Reno.”

  “Fuck the Japanese. If they had you in their bedroom, they’d be getting some too.”

  Trina laughed, but when he entered her from behind with a hard and deep shove-in, her smile was gone. It felt sudden and painful, and then suddenly great. And her complaints turned to moans. “Oh, Reno, it’s late,” she said again, in a moaning voice, but he was already fucking her.

  They both were breathing hard as he did her. She laid her head back and over his shoulder, and he stared into her eyes. Her beautiful hazel eyes, he thought.

  Trina had been with him a long time. She was his ride or die to the very end. And the more he thought about how much he loved her, the harder he fucked her. But it wasn’t an ordinary fuck. He wanted to put a hurting on her pussy. He wanted to put his mark on her again.