Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (30 page)

He moved his dick in and withdrew, loosening
her up, getting her juices flowing.
 
Then
he moved in deeper, his big head clipping the walls of her folds as it made its
way further down.
 
He wrapped her in his
arms as they both felt the connection.
 
And then his rhythm increased.

This wasn’t about Trina, and she wasn’t trying
to make it about her.
 
This was about
Reno.
 
He was in search of the
familiar.
 
He was in search of something
so familiar and special that it would feel the exact opposite of pain.
 
He found that feeling when his rhythm caused
his dick to throb as he plunged down into her deepest fold, and spilled out.

He leaned against her as the throbbing
continued to pulsate.
 
When the throbbing
stopped, and Trina finally turned around, she realized that Reno was
crying.
 

They jogged their normal morning jog as if
that phone call in the middle of the night never happened.
 
They never talked while they jogged, and this
morning was no exception.
 
But by the
time they reached the old steel mill, where they always took their break, Trina
knew Sully was beyond curious.
 
He wanted
answers.

Sully smiled.
 
“
You
 
know
what you look like?”

“Let me guess: some beautiful angel?”

“You look like hell,” Sully said, and Trina
laughed.
 
“I’m not kidding,” he added,
smiling.
 
“You look like a woman who
stayed up late last night and then got up early this morning to jog
with
 
her
beloved
partner.”

“For real though?”

“For real!”

She laughed.
 
Because she knew it was the truth.
 
This was the side of Sully that she liked the most.
 
When he kept it honest.
 
“I want to thank you for calling the
Chief.
 
You really came through for us.”

“You know I’m good for it, Tree.
 
All I’ve ever tried to be was a good friend
to both you and Reno.
 
I’m glad I could
be of help.” Then he paused and waited for her to give some juicy details.
 
None came.
 
She simply drank from her bottled water and relaxed.

“So what was that about last night?” Sully
decided to ask her.
 
“I read about the
rape in the paper this morning.
 
About that Jimmy Ridgeway.
 
It was really shocking.”

Trina looked at him.
 
“Do you know the Ridgeway family at all?”

“Only in the sense that everybody knows
everybody here in Crane.
 
I knew Fred’s name and if I saw him somewhere
we might speak to one another, but that was about as far as it went.”

“Who’s Fred?”

“The boy’s father, according to the paper.”

“Oh.
 
Right.”

“The paper says he just got married and now
lives in Nebraska.
 
Jimmy attended the
wedding and spent his entire summer with his father and his new
stepmother.
 
At least that’s what the
paper says.”

“Yeah.
 
He just got back home, from what I
understand.”

Sully shrugged his shoulder.
 
“Some homecoming,” he said, and Trina agreed.

“So is Fred coming back to deal with
this?
 
To help out his
son?”

Trina looked at Sully.
 
“I don’t think so, no,” she said.
 
“But then I don’t know anything about that.”

Sully nodded.
   

Trina decided to take advantage of his local
knowledge, although Blossom would probably know more of the juiciest
gossip.
 
“What about Fred’s ex-wife,
Shanell?
 
Jimmy’s
mother.
 
Did you know her?”

“Don’t think so.
 
I saw in the paper where they said she worked
at Clauson’s.
 
I used to go there years
ago when it was actually a pretty good place to eat, and I might have seen her
there a few times, but I don’t remember her.
 
And I haven’t been to Clauson’s in years.”

Trina nodded her head.
 
Then she thought about something.
 
She looked at Sully again.
 
“What about Jimmy, the son?
 
Heard much about him?”

Sully shook his head.
 
“Honestly, Tree, I didn’t even know Fred
Ridgeway had a son.
 
Although,” he said,
and then hesitated.

Trina looked at him.
 
“Although what?”

“I saw the boy’s picture in the paper this
morning.
 
He apparently was on the track
team at the high school and I guess the paper used that photo.
 
It was a pretty clear photo.
 
That’s why it was so baffling.”

“What’s so baffling?”

He looked at Trina.
 
“Is Shanell white?”

Trina looked at him oddly.
 
“No.
 
She’s black.
 
Why?”

“Because Fred’s black, too.”

“So?”

Sully exhaled.
 
Here goes, he thought.
 
“Don’t
take my head off, okay?
 
But I’m going to
go there.”
 
He exhaled again.
 
“Is Jimmy Ridgeway Reno’s kid, Tree?” he
asked her.

Trina’s heart began to pound.
 
She stared at him.
 
Did he see something in that photo?
 
“Why would you ask a question like that?”

“Because, if I didn’t know who his father was,
I’d declare that kid was white.
 
He looks
like one of his parents have got to be white.
 
And the fact that Reno would call me at one in the morning asking if I
could get him in to see the kid, I don’t know.
 
I saw the photo this morning and started putting two and two
together.
 
Or am I way off base?”

“Shanell works for him,” Trina said
shakily.
 
“He was trying to help a sister
out.”

Sully shook his head.
 
“I heard the desperation in Reno’s voice,
Tree.
 
That was more than a sister he was
helping out.”
 
Then he looked at her.
 
“You sure that’s not his baby mama he was
helping out?”

Trina didn’t know what to say.
 
She just stood there.

Sully’s heart went out to her.
 
“Is that the real reason why y’all came to
Crane?” he asked.
 
“So Reno could be
closer to his son?”

Trina knew she had to nip this in the
bud.
 
There hadn’t been a DNA test and
they hadn’t told Jimmy anything about it yet. It wasn’t her place to tell Sully
first.
 
Although, in the time she’d been in
Crane, he was really her closest friend.
 
“We didn’t know anything about any son when we came here, so I don’t
know where you’re getting your information.”

“So you’re telling me you found out since
you’ve been here?”

“I’m not telling you any such thing,
Sully!
 
That’s Shanell Ridgeway’s
child.
 
I don’t know why you’re throwing
Reno all up in it.”

“Reno was the one who called me this
morning.
 
Reno put himself all up in it.”

“He was helping his manager.
 
Anybody works for Reno, he looks out for
them.”

It was Sully’s time to lean back and stare at
Trina.
 
He suddenly realized the real
picture, and it was startling to him.
 

“What are you staring at?” Trina
asked,
her discomfort level rising.

“You didn’t know,” Sully said.
 
“You didn’t know Reno had a child in Crane.”

Trina shook her head.
 
“That’s ridiculous, Sully. I told you Reno doesn’t
have---”

“You just found out,” he said to her, ignoring
her admonition.
 
Then he frowned and
shook his head.
 
“You deserve better,
Tree.”

“I deserve better?”

“You deserve better than this.
 
That’s what I said.
 
That man has put you through literal hell,
Katrina.
 
He has taken you down all of
these roads of death and destruction and now here’s a new road.
 
Some troubled kid he probably claims he
didn’t know he had, who’s now been accused of raping and trying to kill one of
his classmates.
 
When
that’s why Reno probably moved here in the first place.
 
Because Shanell probably told him the kid was
troubled.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Trina said.

“Yeah, I’m sure Reno told you it was because
he wanted y’all to have a slower pace life, but what kind of slow pace is
this?
 
A rape and attempted murder
charge?
 
Those articles I read online
said it best.
 
Death and destruction
seems to follow Dominic Gabrini wherever he goes.”
 
Sully shook his head, his eyes sincere.
 
“You deserve better than this, Tree,” he
added.
 
“For real.”

Trina just stood there.
 
She could have set him straight and told him
that he didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.
 
She could have lied and said Reno and Jimmy
Ridgeway had no connection beyond the fact that Nell worked for Reno.
 
She could have pretended it hadn’t been a
rough marriage and a rougher life after marriage because of all of Reno’s
mob-related problems.
 
She could have
given Sully a real good song and dance.
 

But she didn’t.
 
Because everything he had said, she had already
said to herself.
  
Almost every fiber of
her being knew that Reno didn’t know shit about some troubled kid living here
in Crane.
 
This was just a big fat
coincidence.
 

But another part of her, almost too tiny to
even consider, wondered about that.
 
She
wouldn’t be human if it didn’t cross her mind.
 
And with Sully reinforcing that very thought
,
it was now crossing her mind big time.

She pushed away from the building, tucked away
her bottled water, and stretched.
 
“Ready
for the last leg of this run?” she asked him.
 

He grabbed her by the arm before she could run
away.
 
She looked at his hand first, and
then into those sincere eyes of his she had so easily grown fond of.
 

“I know you love Reno,” he said to her.
 
“Other than that one incident we had, I’m
cool with him, too.
 
But don’t let love
blind you.
 
You’re a beautiful woman with
everything going for you.
 
You shouldn’t
have to settle for all of this pain and drama just because of Reno.”

“He didn’t come here to help some troubled kid,”
Trina made clear.

“I’m sure that’s what he told you,” Sully made
equally clear.
 
“I’m not asking you to
have faith in what Reno’s been telling you.
  
I’m asking you to have faith in your common sense.
 
The fact that y’all would
move to this tiny town that just so happens to have this undiscovered child of
Reno’s in it should be your wakeup call.
 
That’s some heady coincidence there, Tree.
 
That’s some damn-near impossible
coincidence.”

Trina stared at Sully.
 
It wasn’t like that.
 
Reno didn’t just put his finger on a place on
a map and then decided to come where his finger landed.
 
He had been here before.
 
He owned a restaurant here.
 
He remembered it as a friendly, slow-paced
town.
 
He had history here.
 
It wasn’t the way Sully was making it out to
be.
 

But the fact that Reno might have a son here,
and that son would be accused of rape and attempted murder, was
disconcerting.
 
She couldn’t pretend it
was anything less than disturbing.