Reno Gabrini: For His Lover (The Mob Boss Series Book 14) Read online

  Andre sat erect. “There’s a speedster,” he said as a car zoomed past the diner and turned into the school’s parking lot.

  Zell’s eyes sparkled. “It’s him,” she said anxiously as she sat her coffee in one of the cup holders and grabbed the binoculars. She zoomed in as Reno’s Porsche parked alongside his wife’s Mercedes. He jumped out, in his dress pants and dress shirt that was half tucked in and half tucked out, as if he made only an absentminded attempt to dress properly. He also wore sunglasses as he ran up the steep steps toward the school’s entrance.

  Zell removed the binoculars and nodded her head with satisfaction. “And now it all begins,” she said with what her brother could only describe as a smile. But a smile most reptilian.

  Reno pulled open the double doors of Dommi’s school and ran across the hall to the main office. His heart was hammering when he saw Trina standing at the reception desk with her arms folded. She was dressed primly, in yellow heels and a pair of light-gray dress slacks, a yellow sleeveless shirt, and a gray sweater flapped down her back with its arms tied around her neck. She was dressed beautifully. But he could see the fear in her eyes.

  She hurried toward him as soon as he hurried in. “Reno,” she said as if his name alone gave her relief.

  He pulled her into his arms. “Where is he?” he asked.

  “In Principal Ansley’s office,” Trina said. Reno looked beyond her. The school’s resource officer, a local cop, was guarding the principal’s door. “They’re questioning Dommi, Reno. They wouldn’t let me in. I contacted Vic Vereen and he’s on his way, but he said the police and social workers have a legal right to question Dom out of our presence if we’re the ones being accused of abusing him.”

  Reno frowned. “Abusing him? How the fuck are we abusing him?”

  The receptionist and others behind the desk looked at Reno, as if the F word were foreign to them. But Reno didn’t give a fuck.

  “You wait here,” he said to his wife as he hurried toward the principal’s office. But Trina was right behind him. When the officer saw them coming, he stood erect. “You have to wait out here, sir,” he said.

  “I want to see my son,” Reno said. “They have my son in there and I demand to see him.”

  “I don’t care what you demand to see,” the officer said. “You aren’t going in this room.”

  Reno’s anger flared. “And who’s gonna stop me?” he asked. “You?”

  “That’s right,” the officer said confidently. “You may play gangster in that casino of yours, but you aren’t getting away with that behavior at my school.” Then a voice laced with contempt came out. “Now sit your ass down and wait your turn,” he added.

  Reno couldn’t believe this clown was talking to him that way. Trina couldn’t believe it either. And when Reno defied him, when Reno pushed his arrogant ass aside and went into that office anyway, Trina was right behind him. She knew they were in trouble now, defying a cop like that, but she also knew the stakes. Once those social workers got their child in state custody, there would be mountains to climb to get him back. If they ever got him back! Reno was right. They weren’t about to let some misguided strangers take their son away from them. Not without a fight.

  When Reno and Trina barged into the office, Dominic, who had been sitting in a chair against the wall, being drilled by some female and what appeared to be a plainclothes detective, ran to his parents as soon as he saw them.

  Principal Ansley rose to his feet in umbrage. “What is the meaning of this, Mr. Gabrini? We already told your wife we had to do this outside of your presence!”

  “I don’t give a fuck what you told my wife!” Reno blared. “What right do you have interviewing my son like this? He’s a kid! You can’t just take him in some backroom and question him like he’s some gotdamn criminal!”

  “Actually we can,” said a tall, thin woman with an unusually long face. She rose to her feet. “I’m Sharon Blum, and this is Sergeant Crowston.” He rose too.

  Reno didn’t care who they were, and wanted to tell them so, but he knew he had to get his anger back under control. But before he could get there, the disrespected police officer barged in. “You’re under arrest, Mister,” he said angrily, his fat face beet red as he grabbed Reno’s hands to cuff them behind his back. “You are so under arrest!”

  But the cop’s superior, Detective Crowston, called him off. “Just hang on,” he said.

  “Hang on? But he manhandled me, sir,” the officer decried.

  “A man with a gun let a man without one manhandle him?” Reno asked. “I don’t think so.”

  “I do,” Crowston, who couldn’t stand those gangster Gabrinis, replied. “I know my officer is not lying.” But he also knew, if they were going to ever get their paws into this wise guy, it wasn’t going to be because he manhandled some beat cop. “Wait outside,” he ordered the cop. The cop looked hard at Reno, seething with anger, but he obeyed orders and left the office.

  “Now will you tell me what this is about?” Reno asked the long face woman.

  “The Abuse Registry received an anonymous report this morning, sir,” she said, “and we have to investigate the allegations.”

  Reno frowned. “What allegations?”

  “Allegations of child endangerment and child neglect,” she said.

  “They asked me questions about what happened at Jimmy and Val’s when I was driving the getaway car,” Dommi said.

  Trina’s eyes stretched and Reno’s heart pounded when Dommi spoke out loud about a situation that occurred a few months earlier. Reno knew he had to play it off. “What are you talking about, boy?” he asked.

  “What are you talking about, child?” Trina asked, playing it off too.

  But Dommi, to their horror, obliged them. “They wanted me to tell them about the time when I had to get Sophie away from the killers. So I put Sophie in Val’s car and drove it away. But it didn’t do any good. They caught her anyway. And then they kidnapped me too. These people here, including that horse-face lady, told me they already knew all about it.”

  The principal angrily corrected Dommi on using impolite verbiage to describe the social worker, but Trina looked at Reno. It wasn’t as if Dommi was lying. Not about that woman’s face, but especially not about what happened that day. Everything he said had, in fact, happened! But they were cooked if these sanctimonious do-gooders discovered that they were actually on to something.

  Reno removed his shades. They worked to shield his eyes from the morning sun, but his eyes still looked bloodshot and drained. “Are you telling us,” he asked, “that you believe these fairytales?”

  Good move, Trina thought, and nodded her head. “And that’s all they are,” she said. “Fairytales.”

  “Monumental fairytales,” Reno echoed. “And you’re standing here telling us that you believe this nonsense? Getaway cars and killers? Kidnappings? Our ten-year-old innocent little child driving a car? Are you serious? You made me leave my busy office to come down here for this bullshit?”

  “Watch your language, sir,” the principal insisted.

  “I’ll watch my language when you watch your step,” Reno fired back. “This shit ain’t funny. How would you feel if I accused your kid of this kind of foolishness?”

  “Who called this in anyway?” Trina asked. “Some prankster? Maybe it was our son trying to get some days off from school. But our child wouldn’t do anything like that.”

  “We were simply asking him if any of the allegations were true,” the principal said.

  “And I told them they weren’t,” Dommi replied. “I told them. Then they told me what happened.”

  “You see,” Reno said. “I’m telling you it’s all a pack of lies. My son is telling you it’s a pack of lies. My wife is telling you it’s a pack of lies. What more do you want? And if you still won’t take our word for it, then where are the police reports? If all of this crazy shit went down the way that anonymous report claims it did, where are the police reports? You can’t
have getaways and gunmen and kidnappings without some kind of police involvement. So give. Show me what you have.”

  But he knew they had nothing, even as he also knew every word of that anonymous report was true.

  But practicality won out. The social worker nor Principal knew anything about the kind of lifestyle the Gabrinis were forced to lead. And because it was so foreign to them, they accepted Reno’s premise. This was nonsense. A fairytale. Bullshit.

  Detective Crowston believed every word, but without Dommi’s cooperation they had no proof whatsoever. They had no choice. They released Dommi to his parents.

  But as Reno and Trina took their son out of the school and made their way down the steps, they were concerned. “Who could have called it in?” Trina asked as they hurried away.

  “Hell if I know,” Reno said. “But they had a lot of details.”

  “A lot, Reno,” Trina said. “But how is it possible?”

  “Hell if I know,” Reno said again. Then, when they arrived at Trina’s car, he looked at Dommi. “Did you tell somebody at your school about that incident?” he asked him.

  “No, sir.” When his parents looked at him doubtfully, Dommi became even more animated. “I swear! Do I look like I have stupid on my forehead?”

  “You’re going to have dead on your forehead,” Reno replied, “if you don’t watch your mouth!”

  “But how did they know?” Trina asked. She was still vexed. “Every one of those crooks who pulled that stunt died that day.”

  “Apparently not,” Reno said, looking vexed too.

  Trina exhaled. So did Reno. “I don’t like it, Tree. I don’t like it one bit.”

  She grabbed him by his chin and kissed him on his lips. “I’ve got to go,” she said. “Is Dom going to work with me, or with you?”

  “With you, Mommy,” Dom said, leaning against Trina. He knew he could have the run of his mother’s place of work far better than his father’s.

  But Reno knew it too. “Me,” he said. Then he looked at his manipulative son. “Get your ass back over here.” Dommi reluctantly moved back over.

  But Trina could still see the worry in Reno’s eyes. “Stop worrying so much, Reno,” she said. “Just look into it. Maybe you’ll have a better read on who would have reported something like this in a few days.”

  “Yeah, maybe.”

  “I’ll be safe.”

  “Yeah, maybe,” Reno said to her. “I’ll put an extra man on your detail.”

  “Can I go with you, Mommy, when you go to New York?” Dommi asked.

  “That’s not for another couple months,” Trina said.

  “But I want to go. I know we’ll have to make the arrangements.”

  Reno smiled. That boy.

  “I would love to take you,” Trina said to her son, “but I can’t. When I go to New York, I’m going to work, baby, not to play.”

  Dommi looked sad. “I don’t want you to go at all,” he said.

  Trina’s heart melted. “Ah, sweetie,” she said, moved away from her car, and surprisingly given her size, lifted him up and into her arms.

  Across the street, in the diner parking lot, Zell was still watching through her binoculars. She saw Trina as she hugged Dommi and then sat him back on his feet. She saw Reno kiss Trina, and then she saw Trina get into her Mercedes, the top down, and drive away. Reno put back on his shades as he and his son got into his Porsche, and drove away too.

  Andre didn’t have to have binoculars to see what was happening. He was crestfallen. “It didn’t work,” he said. “Gabrini’s son is with him. It didn’t work, Zell!” He looked at Zell. “I told you your old man didn’t know what he was talking about! Now what are we supposed to do?”

  Zell was surprised too, but she wasn’t crestfallen like her baby brother. She was made of stronger stuff than that. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “We’ll call Father.”

  “Not him again!”

  “Yes, him again!” Zell responded. “He’s all we have, isn’t he?” She settled back down. She didn’t mean to let her desperation show, nor her unquenchable need to take down Reno Gabrini as if his fall was on par with her air to breathe. “Just go,” she said disgustedly, and shook her head. Gabrini won this round. But she knew her father. This shit was far from over.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Two weeks later and Val glanced at her watch again as they sat in the restaurant. They were waiting for Reno. Jimmy was preoccupied, fielding calls from his office, and Trina, sitting across from them, was preoccupied too: she had Madison, Jimmy and Val’s beautiful baby girl, on her lap. But Trina wasn’t so distracted that she couldn’t see Val glance at her watch less than twenty seconds after her last glance. “He should be here any minute now, Val,” she said.

  Val looked at Trina as if she was so consumed with her own thoughts that she had no clue what she was talking about. “Excuse me?”

  “Your father-in-law? My husband? He’s on his way.”

  “Oh that!” Val smiled. “Dad has never been on time for anything lately. I’m used to him.”

  Trina could hear a little dismissiveness in her tone, as if she was more annoyed by Reno’s lateness than she was letting on. But when Val checked that watch yet again, Trina became annoyed herself. “Why do you keep doing that, Val?” she asked.

  Val looked at her with a puzzled expression on her face. “Doing what?”

  “Checking your watch,” Jimmy responded, as he ended his phone call. “Every two seconds you’re checking your watch like you’ve got somewhere to be. I noticed it a long time before Ma did.”

  “I just don’t want to keep the baby out too late, that’s all.”

  “Neither do we,” Jimmy said, then looked on the side of Val. “Dad’s here!” He could see his father coming toward their table. He rose to his feet. “Finally,” he added.

  Val looked too. What surprised Trina wasn’t the fact that Val was looking, but that she didn’t have that lustful look she used to be unable to conceal whenever Reno showed up. But instead of being a comforting development to Trina, as if Val had finally grown-up and out of her crush on Reno, it bothered Tree. Who, she wondered, had her daughter-in-law’s attention now?

  “Hey, Dad,” Jimmy said gaily on seeing his father, and he and Reno hugged. Since Reno promoted Jimmy to a Senior VP position, they’d been closer than they’d ever been. Jimmy called Reno constantly for advice. Reno loved it.

  “Hey, Dad,” Val said, too, as she rose and gave Reno a hug also.

  Reno removed his shades and then leaned down and kissed Trina on the lips. He unbuttoned his suitcoat. Val felt a tingle in her vagina when she saw that bundle between Reno’s legs, and Kapper Cole’s own bundle crossed her mind.

  “Hey little princess,” Reno said as he sat beside his wife and leaned down and smiled at his grandbaby. “Hey Maddie May.” Then he took the baby from Trina and placed her into his arms.

  “Where were you?” Trina asked.

  “Something came up,” he said, smiling at his grandchild. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “Something always does come up in our line of work, Dad,” Jimmy said as he sat back down too, beside Val. “Nothing to be sorry about.”

  Trina smiled. “You weren’t always so forgiving of your father, Jimmy. Quite a change.”

  “I learned from you,” Jimmy said with a smile of his own. “I could remember the time Dad hardly ever came home, and the rumors all over Vegas was that he was sleeping with all of these different women. But you kept forgiving him. You said he was worth it. I agree.”

  Reno looked at Jimmy. What the fuck was he talking about? He was talking as if Reno was running around Vegas cheating on Trina with impunity. As if he didn’t give a damn about Trina’s feelings. He was about to set his son straight, but Trina did it for him.

  “There was nothing to forgive,” she said. “Reno worked hard to provide for us, and all those rumors were just talk.”

  “But it was so widespread,” Jimmy said. “It had to hurt
on some level.”

  Reno didn’t interrupt. He wanted to hear the answer himself. He continued to bounce the baby, and listen.

  “It hurt on a lot of levels,” Trina said. “Of course it hurt. But I knew Reno. He wouldn’t do me like that.”

  Jimmy smiled, and took Val’s hand. It was only then did Trina realize he wasn’t attempting to get into her feelings, but into his own. She saw it earlier, and decided not to pursue it. Now she decided to go there. “So how long has this been going on?” she asked them.

  Jimmy and Val both were puzzled. Even Reno didn’t get it. “How long has what been going on?” Val asked her.

  “This tension between you two,” Trina responded.

  It was instructive to Trina that both Jimmy and Val immediately glanced at Reno when she made that comment, as if they were more afraid of his reaction than each other’s. Jimmy even smiled and squeezed his wife’s hand. “What tension?” he asked.

  Val smiled too. “There’s no tension between us.”

  “I can cut it with a knife,” Trina said. “Don’t play games with me. What’s going on?”

  Their smiles didn’t last. It was then that Reno knew Trina was on to something. “You heard her,” he said. “What gives?”

  Jimmy was the first to crack. “Ask Val,” he said.

  Val frowned and looked at him. “What do you mean ask Val?”

  “You’re the one who isn’t happy.”

  “I am happy,” Val insisted.

  “You could have fooled me.”

  “We just moved to another part of the country, Jimmy. And yes, that’s a big adjustment. Dover and Manchester together feels smaller than the Vegas Strip alone. But for you to take that and insinuate that I’m unhappy is a low blow even for you, Jimmy.”

  Reno and Trina stared at Val. Damn, Reno thought. There was some serious bite in her tone. But Jimmy still tried to sound conciliatory. “It’s an adjustment for both of us,” he said. “But you have to work at it.”

  “You mean like you?” Val asked. “You’re the one who works all day and all night and doesn’t have time for his own family. You’re the one who thinks my real estate career is just a little hobby.”