Mob Boss 4: Romancing Trina Gabrini (36 page)

“Hell if I know,” Tommy said.
 
“But he may be involved, Reno.
 
Mob revenge is always complex, you know
that.
 
It’s never what it seems.
 
I mean, they were plotting something
underhanded before you even left Vegas, if Richie is to be believed.”

Dirty took offense.
 
“I wouldn’t lie about a thing like that,
Tommy,” he said.

Reno ran his hand across his face.
 
Then he pulled out his cell phone.
 
“Only one way to find out,” he said, and
searched for Vito’s private number.

Tommy and Dirty exchanged a glance as the
phone, on speaker, began to ring.
 
Reno
stood in the middle of the room.
 
After
numerous rings, it was finally answered.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The laughter was deafening as Trina and some of
the kids from Ponder watched Sully do his celebrity imitations.
 
It was after the pickup game, a game Ponder
won, and they were all at Sully’s house, eating pizza, and clowning around.
 
With Sully, Trina realized, as the head
clown.

“How you doin’?”
Sully asked with puckered lips, his hands on
his hips, as he did a Wendy Williams imitation.

“That was lame, Sul,” Trina said, shaking her
head.

“Okay, okay,” Sully said, having a ball.
 
“How about this?”
 
He then began walking around the living room,
like a
woman,
again, stuffing whatever he could get
into his mouth.
 
“Why is that a
foul?
 
Why does he deserve a free
throw?
 
Why are they
calling that a three-pointer?”

Everybody stared at him.
 
“Who is that?” one of the young men asked.

“Come on, guess,” Sully said.

“A referee?”
Trina asked.

“No, Tree!
 
You.
 
Tonight at the game!”

The boys laughed.
 
Trina took a pillow from the sofa and threw
it at Sully.
 
But the point wasn’t the
perfection of his imitations, but the silliness of them.
 
It was all silly.
 
And Trina was having the time of her
life.
 
From dinner with Sully, to the
game with the boys, to this time of silliness, Trina felt carefree for the
first time in a long time.
 
And she loved
it.
 

But then she thought about Jimmy Mack, and
Nell, and all the drama Reno was going through, and her joy was tempered.

By contrast, Reno’s joy was nonexistent as he
stood in his living room, in front of Tommy and Dirty, and phoned Vito
Giancarlo.

“Reno!” he said jovially.
 
Then he added: “I didn’t do it.”
 
Reno rolled his eyes.
 
“How are you, Dominic?”

“Hello, Vito, what’s up?”

“You called me.
 
What’s up with you?”

Reno decided to be blunt.
 
“The heat’s back on me.
 
Why?”

There was a definite pause.
 
“What kind of heat, Reno?
 
I haven’t heard a thing.”

“I hear the Drag’s interested in my new life
here in Georgia.
 
I hear he’s real
interested.”

“Funny, I didn’t hear
nothing
.”

Yeah, right
, Reno’s look said to Tommy.
 
“Not a thing?” he asked Vito.

“Not a thing,” Vito replied.
 
“I think that Georgia sun may be frying your
brain cells, my son,” Vito said with another chuckle.
 
“I mean come on.
 
Why the fuck would the Drag care about you?”

“You tell me.”

“There’s nothing to tell,” Vito insisted.
 
“And I hear everything.”

“Okay,” Reno said.

“That’s it?” Vito asked.
 
“You don’t even ask how I’m doing, how’s the
wife, nothing?”

“How you doing, Vito?”

“Terrible.
 
My hemorrhoids are driving me nuts.”

“Okay,” Reno said.
 
“Talk to you later.”
  
And he killed the call.
 

“You don’t believe him?” Tommy said.

“Hell, no,” Reno replied.
 
“He’s shit deep in this.
 
Whatever the fuck it is.”

“He didn’t even ask what the heat was, or what
was going on.”

“Because he already knows,” Reno agreed.
 
“Dammit.”

The front door was unlocked, and Trina stepped
inside.
 
She smiled when she saw Tommy.

“Hey, Tommy,” she said.

“Katrina!” Tommy said as he got up, went to
her, and kissed her on the mouth.
 
“How’s
my favorite lady?”

“Your favorite my ass,” Trina said with a
smile.
 
“Even with ShoShawna standing you
up at the altar, she’s still your favorite lady.
 
Let’s keep it real, Tommy,” she said and
Tommy laughed.

But Reno wasn’t amused.
 
“Where you been?” he asked her.

Trina looked at him.
 
No he didn’t ask her that.
 
He came home late almost every night,
sometimes he didn’t come home at all when they were in Vegas, and he was
questioning her?
 
“I was out,” she said.

“Out where?” Reno asked angrily.
 
“It’s eleven fucking thirty at night!”

“Don’t you talk to me that
way.
”

“Then tell me where the fuck you were.
 
I need to know where you are twenty-four-seven,
Tree, until I can get a handle on this here thang.”

Trina frowned.
“On what
thang?”

“You just stay close to home for now.”

“What’s happened?”

“Nothing’s happened.
 
I haven’t seen you since early this
morning.
 
Where were you?”

“I told you I was going to the basketball game
tonight.
 
You said it was okay.”

“What basketball game around this hick place
last this late?”

“We had pizza afterwards, to celebrate our
victory.”

“Pizza?
 
I thought he took you to dinner before the
game.”

“He did.”

“Then what’s this about pizza?”

“We had pizza.”

“Where?”

Trina hesitated.
 
“At Sully’s house.”

Reno didn’t like it.
 
“No more volunteer work for you right now,”
he ordered.

But Trina was astounded.
 
“Why not, Reno?”

“Because I said so.”

“Those kids are great kids and they need
help.
 
And I’m going to help them.”

“You’re going to do what I just told you to
do.
 
You’re going to keep your ass right
here in this house until I can figure out what’s going on around here.”

Trina looked at Reno with surprise in her
eyes.
 
He was changing again into that
alpha male, overprotective man she wasn’t sure she liked very much.
 
“Good seeing you again, Tommy,” she said, and
then headed up the stairs.

“Where you going?”
Reno asked her.
 
“Tree?
 
Where you going?
 
Tree!”

But Trina kept going.
 
When she made her way to their bedroom, she
entered and slammed the door.

Reno jumped at the door slam, and it angered
him more.
 

“I’ll be back,” he said, and then took two
steps at a time as he made his way to their bedroom.

He opened the door forcefully and slammed it
behind him.
 

“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” he asked
her.

“What the fuck’s wrong with you?” Trina asked
him.
 

 
Reno
exhaled, and walked to her.
 
“I’m just
trying to keep you safe, Tree.
 
That’s
all I’m trying to do here.
 
That shit has
followed me here and I don’t want you involved in it!”

Trina stared at Reno.
 
He was anguished.
 
She knew most of it was the guilt he felt
about Jimmy Mack, but there was more to it.
 
She knew Reno.
 
Something more
than guilt was going on.

“Why’s Tommy here?” she asked him.

Reno wasn’t ready to reveal anything to
her.
 
Not yet.
 
Not when he didn’t understand what was going
on himself.
 
“He’s my cousin.
 
He’s visiting.”

“Bullshit, Reno.
 
You hate bullshit, so don’t tell it to
me.
 
Why’s Tommy here?”

Reno exhaled.
 
“Because old wounds are slow to heal, Tree.”

“You think what they claim Jimmy Mack did to
Kandi Tucker has something to do with you?”

“I do, yeah.
 
This ain’t
no
coincidence, Tree.
 
I think the Drag set the kid up.”

Trina frowned.
 
“The Drag?
 
Johnny Drago?
 
What would Johnny
have to do with this?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“But if it’s the Drag. . . Does that mean
Vito’s involved?”

Reno nodded his head.
 
“Me and Tommy, we think so, yeah.”

“Oh, Reno!”
Trina said and ran into his arms.
 
Johnny Drago was small potatoes compared to
Reno’s so-called godfather Vito Giancarlo, and she knew it.
 
Reno held her tightly, too, because he needed
her.

When they stopped embracing, she looked at
him.
 
“What’s the game plan?”

“Intel is everything,” Reno said.
 
“I racked my brain, Tree.
 
I have no clue what beef the Drag has with
me.”

“But maybe it goes back to Vito, and what
happened with Marbeth.”

“I thought about that, too.
 
Vito denies it.
 
He denies knowing anything about anything.”

“You talked to him?”

“Yeah.”

“You believe him?”

“Hell nall.
 
He’s involved, all right.
 
And
I’ve got to find out why.
 
It ain’t about
what happened with Marbeth.
 
But it’s
about something.
 
I’ve got to find out
what.”

Trina rubbed the side of Reno’s face.
 
“I don’t want you to get caught up again,
Ree.
 
You know what that does to
you.
 
The last time you left me for
months.
 
I don’t wanna go through that
again.”

“I’m not getting caught up, all right? I know
what that madness does to you.
 
And I’m
not letting those fuckers steal our joy, Tree.
 
Not this time.
 
I’m gonna find out
what Vito and Drago’s up to, put an end to it one way or another, and that’s
that.
 
I promise you.
 
This ain’t about to be no dragged out mob war
or nothing like it.
 
I promise you that.”

Trina looked doubtful.

“I mean it, Tree.
 
That’s why I want you to stay put.”

“I’ve got to stay busy, Reno. I can’t sit
around this house in some self-imposed lock down, you know I can’t.”

“I don’t’ want any craziness from Sully.
  
I can’t deal with that shit right now,
Tree.”

“You won’t get any craziness.
 
He knows better.
 
He
know
I don’t play
that musical beds they like to play around here.
 
He knows I’m off limits.”