Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (31 page)

And seeing Sully, a man who seemed so
convinced that Reno was a liar from way back who orchestrated their move to
Crane as an underhanded way to ease his way into his son’s life, was just as
disconcerting.
 
Jazz, back in Vegas, had thought that Trina
was blinded by love, too.
 
Reno had
plenty women, let Jazz tell it.
 
And
Trina, Jazz insisted, was becoming just like the airheaded women she used to
despise.
 
Now Sully was saying
essentially the same thing.
 
And it
stunned her.

“Goodbye, Sully,” she said, and ran away from
him.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Dirty had the entire bar staff around him as
he showed them how to properly mix drinks without giving away the bank.
 
None of them had it down, especially not
Barkley, and
Dirty
was getting impatient.
 
Not because they were that bad, they weren’t
exactly terrible, but he and Jannie had had another long night of motel sex and
drinking and he was exhausted.
 
All he
wanted to do was crawl back in bed and sleep till noon.

But Reno didn’t play that.
 
If he paid you to work, you had to work.

“All right, guys,” Dirty said as he grabbed a
beer and headed from around the counter.
 
“I’m taking a break.”

Barkley shook his head as Dirty left the
pit.
 
If this guy was the best Reno had
to offer, Bark thought, they were in trouble.
 
“Okay,” he said to his assistants.
 
“Let’s do this.”

And again they began practicing once again.

Dirty sat at a window booth and put his feet
across the table.
 
And yet another guy in
a suit came out of Reno’s office and left, while another guy in a suit went
into Reno’s office.
 
Jannie walked up,
and rubbed against Dirty.

“Cut it out,” he said curtly.
 
“I told you I’m married to Reno’s
sister.
 
He
find
out what we’ve been up to then I’m toast and so are you.
 
Don’t you forget
that.
”

Jannie rolled her eyes and sat in the booth
seat across from him.
 
“You are such a
killjoy.”

“Whatever.”
 

Then yet another guy in a suit arrived and
headed for Reno’s office.

“Wonder what’s with all the traffic?
Dirty asked.

“What traffic?”

“The guys in the suits.
 
What’s
going on?
 
Reno looking
to sell this place?”

“He’s helping Nell,” Jannie said.
 

“Helping Nell do what?”

Jannie smiled.
 
“You are such a dunce, Richie Marcasi.
 
Didn’t you hear?
 
Nell’s son was
arrested for murder last night.”

“You’re shitting me.”

“Well, not exactly murder,” Jannie corrected
herself, but for attempted murder, which is just as bad, and for rape,
too.
 
Mr. Gabrini’s trying to get him out
on bail.”

    
When
it finally registered what she was saying,
Dirty
jumped up, spilling his beer.

“What’s the matter?” Jannie asked, but
Dirty
was already hurrying to Reno’s office.
 
When he burst into the office, Reno was
leaned back, talking with two attorneys.

He frowned.
 
“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” he asked his wayward brother-in-law.

“We need to talk,” Dirty said.

Reno stared at Dirty.
 
He knew that look.
 
“Give us a minute,” he said to the attorneys.

The attorneys, accustomed to Reno’s bluntness,
gathered up their gear and waited outside the office.

Dirty sat down.
 
“He’s.
. . They said Nell’s kid is in jail.
 
They say he’s been accused of trying to kill somebody?”

“And rape, that’s right,” Reno asked.
 
“What’s it to you?”

“I didn’t think . . . I didn’t know.”

“What?”

“I didn’t think he’d do that.”

“You know Jimmy Mack?”

“Who?”

“Nell’s kid, Dirty.
 
What’s wrong with you?
 
You said you didn’t think he’d do it.”

“Johnny Drago,” Dirty said.

Reno frowned.
 
“Drago?
 
What does the Drag have to do with anything?”

“I didn’t think he’d do that to the kid.
 
I didn’t think . . .”

Reno stared at Dirty.
 
“What did you do, Dirt?”

“He wanted to know why you came here.
  
He thought you were laying low.
 
I told him you
wasn’t
.
I told him you just wanted a change for Tree.
 
But he didn’t believe me.”

Reno leaned forward.
 
“Dirty, tell me what you told the Drag.
 
What did you tell him?”

“I told him about Nell, and your son.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?
 
How would you know about
Nell and my, and Jimmy?”

“Somebody mentioned that she had a half-white
son, and he was seventeen, and I just put two and two together, Reno.
 
You fooled around with her seventeen years
ago so I figured---”

“So you figured you’d tell the Drag this bit
of information?”

“I figured that’s why you came to Crane.
 
To be closer to your son.”

Reno couldn’t believe it.
 
“When did you tell him this?”

“When I found out.
 
A
couple, two-three days ago.
 
I told him
he was in Nebraska, though.
 
Because that’s what people were telling me.
 
Then he came back yesterday.
 
He came over here to Clauson’s to say hey to
Nell.
 
So I called Johnny and told him
the kid was back in town.
 
Johnny had
told me to call him when the kid came back.”

“He wanted to know when Jimmy came back in
town?
”

“I don’t know what he’s up to, Reno.
 
He wanted to know why you came to Crane.
 
He’s obsessed with knowing it.
 
It’s some score settling mob shit, I’m sure
of that.
 
But then again, maybe I’m
reading too much into it.
 
Maybe what
happened with Jimmy has nothing to do with the Drag.”

“Are you a fucking lunatic?” Reno roared,
nearly jumping out of his seat.
 
“This
kid that Drag believes to be my son gets back in town.
 
A day later this same kid,
who
‘d
never been in trouble a day in his life, is accused of raping some
pretty girl who happens to call him out of the blue and invite him over.
 
Yeah, the Drag had nothing to do with that.
 
Nothing whatsoever.
 
You worthless piece of
shit, Dirty!”

“What did I do?
 
I was just telling what I heard.
 
That’s all.
 
I was just---”

“Shut the fuck up!” Reno blared.
 
“That’s what you do.
 
Shut the fuck up!”

Then Reno calmed back down.
 
Because he knew he had to think this
through.
 
Drago was involved?
 
That motherfucking drug
dealing maniac Drag?
 
And why?
 
What did
Reno ever do to him?
 
He barely said five
words to him in five years.
 
What the
fuck was going on?

Reno didn’t know.
 

But he knew he needed backup.
 
That much he knew.

He picked up the telephone, rested it on his
forehead, and then dialed.

Less than two hours later, Darla was pointing
to the pearl white Mercedes that had just pulled into the parking lot.
 
“Who’s that?” she asked.
 
She was standing against the front side of
the bar, looking out of the window.
 

Barkley, who had been behind the bar cleaning
glasses, leaned over the counter and looked out of the window, too.
 
“Probably another one of those lawyers,” he said.
 
“Mr. Gabrini’s trying to help Jimmy get out
on bail.”

Darla shook her head.
 
“I still can’t believe that.”

“I don’t believe it,” Barkley said.
 
“Jimmy Mack raping some
girl?
 
Please.
 
I ain’t buying it.
 
That’s why I think Mr. Gabrini’s helping
them, because he ain’t buying it, either.”

When Trina stepped out of the car, removed her
shades, and began walking toward the entrance, Barkley was impressed.

“Nice looking lawyer,” he said.

“She’s a lawyer?” Jannie asked as she came
over to the bar counter, looking out of the window, too.
 
“She doesn’t look like
no
lawyer to me.”

“Nice bag,” Darla said as Trina entered the
restaurant and Barkley and Jannie both looked down at the Dior bag she had on
her arm.

“May we help you?” Darla asked as she walked
toward the bar.

“Yes, hi,” Trina said with a smile.
 
“I’m looking for Mr. Gabrini.”

“And may I tell him who’s looking for him?”
Barkley asked.

“His wife, Mrs. Gabrini,” Trina said, still
smiling.

All three staffers were visibly surprised.

“Right this way, Mrs. Gabrini,” Barkley said,
and began escorting Trina to Reno’s office in the back.

Darla looked at Jannie.
 
“You didn’t tell me Mr. Gabrini went that
way.”

“Why would I know what way he went?
 
Whatever that means.”

“Dirty never told you his brother-in-law had a
black wife?”

“No.
 
Never.
 
And we hang
out almost every night.”

“Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Darla said,
nodding.
 
“Conversation is probably the
last thing you two be doing when y’all, quote-unquote, ‘hang out.’”
 
Darla said this and laughed.

“Kiss it, Darla,” Jannie said, and left.

As soon as Trina entered Reno’s office, Reno
and Dirty, who seemed to have been standing toe to toe, quickly separated, with
Reno going one way, and Dirty the opposite way.
 
Trina could tell by the redness in Reno’s face that he was angry as hell.

Trina slowly closed the door.
 
“What’s happened?” she asked.
 
“They won’t grant bail?”

Reno exhaled, and began moving toward his
wife.
 
“They’re still working on it,” he
said as he took her by the hands and kissed her on the lips.
 
“The lawyers were here earlier.
 
How you doing, babe?”

“I’m okay.
 
But you and Dirty obviously aren’t.
 
What’s wrong?”

Reno shook his head in frustration.
 
“Don’t ask,” he said as the cell phone on top
of his desk began ringing.
 
Reno moved to
answer it.

Trina, knowing her goof-prone brother-in-law
too well, sat her purse on the chair and looked at him.
 
“Is it about you?” she asked him.

But Dirty, as usual, took offense.
 
“Is what about me?
 
What are you talking about?”

“Are you driving my husband crazy?” Trina
asked.
 
“You know what I’m talking about,
Dirty.”

“But it ain’t my fault,” Dirty said as if he
was finishing the argument he had been having with Reno.
 
“That’s the point I’m trying to make
here.
 
I didn’t know.”

“You didn’t know what?”

Dirty looked at Reno.
 
Trina
saw, through her peripheral vision, Reno shaking his head no.
 
It seemed to her as if Dirty was seeking
permission to tell her what was really going on, and Reno wasn’t giving that
permission.
 
She hated when Reno held
things back from her.
 
She just hated it.