Mob Boss Eleven- The Wrong One (The Mob Boss Series Book 11) (11 page)

“What
did I do for you?” Trina asked.

“You
brought out the best in me, and you showed me that there were still good,
decent people in this world who said what they meant and meant what they
said.
 
That’s how I view Valerie in
James’s life.
 
But then this unfortunate
miscarriage happened and suddenly their marriage is on the rocks.
 
Suddenly the one woman I thought could
reaffirm his faith in his fellowman, doesn’t want him either.
 
And that’s a heartbreaking thought.”

Trina
agreed.
 
“And there’s not a damn thing we
can do about it,” she said.

Reno’s
cell phone began to ring.
 
He pulled it
out and looked at the Caller ID.
 
“I’d
better take this,” he said, stood up, and began talking and walking around the
living room.
 

Trina
continued to sit there, since she was tired anyway, but then she thought about
that unfinished business she had with Val.
 
Val was in a bad place, and she understood that.
 
But she had to understand Trina too.

Trina
got out and went into the kitchen.

Val
was just pulling her roast from out of the oven.
 
Val smiled as Trina approached.
 
“Hey,” she said.

“Smells
good in here,” Trina responded.

“Jimmy
likes my cooking, believe it or not, so I thought I’d let you guys taste it for
yourselves.”

Val
began to base the roast with its own juices.
  
She also sat the asparagus aside.

Trina
was never one to mince words.
 
“I
understand you met my husband at the door when he came over earlier,” she said,
and then looked Val in the eye.

Val’s
heart dropped.
 
She was stunned that Reno
would have told her about that.
 
She
continued to base her roast, and sauté her asparagus.
 
“I thought it was Jimmy coming home,” she
lied.

“That
asparagus looks scrumptious too,” Trina said.
 
“Ask next time,” she added.
 
“Before you open that door, make certain it’s your man, and not mine.”

Val
looked at Trina.
 
“Please don’t think I
was trying to make a play for Mr. Gabrini or anything like that, because I
wasn’t.
 
It’s just that I wasn’t being
myself.”

“Yes,
you were,” Trina said firmly.
 
“You were
being yourself.
 
You have been attracted
to Reno for quite some time now, Val, and you saw an opportunity.
 
The fact that you were in that
I don’t care
state of mind did
exacerbate things and cause you to actually put into action what you would have
normally kept as a fantasy.
 
But you knew
what you were doing.
 
And if my husband
would have been willing, you would have been able.
 
He saved you from yourself today.
 
Because he loves his son, and he loves his
wife, and he loves you, Val.
 
Very much.
 
But those other men out there are not going
to show that kind of restraint.
 
You try
that stunt and prance around half-naked in front of them, they will be more
than willing to take you up on your offer.
 
What I’m saying to you is simple: if you still love Jimmy, don’t offer
it, Val.”

Val
nodded her head.
 
“I do love him.
 
I just. . .”

“Just
stop making excuses, and love him,” Trina advised.
 
“He truly loves you, and he doesn’t deserve
this treatment.”

“Wow,”
Reno said as he entered the kitchen.
 
“Something smells like real food in here!”

Trina
smiled.
 
“Real food,” she said to Val
with a shake of the head, and Val smiled.

Then
Trina looked at Reno. “Well what were you expecting, Reno?
 
Fake food?”

“No.
 
But nothing this appetizing,” he said,
licking his lips at that juicy roast.
 
“I
was expecting food that was more along the lines of what you cooked, Tree,” he
added.
 
Val laughed, and Trina hit him
playfully on the arm.

But
then Jimmy came tearing into the kitchen, grabbed his father by the catch of
his shirt collar, and ran with him until he was slamming him against the
kitchen wall.

“Jimmy!”
Val and Trina both yelled.

But
as they were yelling hysterically, Reno was reversing the maneuver.
 
He, instead, grabbed his son, turned him
around, and shoved Jimmy’s back even harder against the wall.
 
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Reno
yelled angrily.

“That’s
the word,” Jimmy said.
 
“Your favorite
word.
 
Fuck.
 
As in are you fucking my wife, Dad?”

“Jimmy!”
Val yelled in horror.

Reno
frowned.
  
“What are you talking about?”

Jimmy
jerked away from his father and shoved the suit coat, the one nobody realized
he had in his hands, against his father’s chest.
  
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Jimmy
yelled.
 
“It was upstairs on our
bed.
 
How did it get there?
 
What were you doing upstairs in our
bedroom?
 
And don’t tell me it’s not
yours because your cologne is all over it.
 
It’s yours!”

“It’s
not what you think, Jimmy,” Val said, and hurried between the two men.

Jimmy
looked at her.
 
“Oh yeah?
 
So what’s the story then, Val?
 
What’s the story?”

Reno
and Trina both looked at Val.
 
They were
depending on her to tell the truth to her husband.
 
This was about character now.
 
This was about morality and doing the right
thing even if it cost her.

“It
wasn’t about him,” Val said.
 
“It was
about me.
 
He came over just after I got
out of the shower.”

Jimmy
frowned.
 
“Yeah, so?”

“So
then I hurried downstairs to answer the door.”

Jimmy
hesitated.
 
“Naked?”

“With
nothing on but a towel, yes,” Val admitted.

Jimmy
was puzzled.
 
“But why, Val?”

“She
thought it was you,” Reno said, intervening on Val’s behalf.
 
He knew it wasn’t true, but he couldn’t bear
seeing his son hurt.
 

But
Trina stared at Val.
 
It was now or
never.
 
She was going to show Trina what
she was made of, or continue to live in her lies.

“No,”
Val said after some hesitation.
 
“I knew
it was your father.
 
I told him I thought
it was you, but I knew it was him.”

Jimmy
couldn’t believe it.
 
“You knew it?”

“Yes.
 
I knew.”

“So
you wanted him to see you . . . like that?”

Val
was ashamed to admit it.
 
But she knew
she had to.
 
“Yes,” she said.

“But
why, Val?”

“Because
I didn’t care enough, Jimmy.
 
My world
just felt so useless and uneven and I didn’t care about the consequences!”

Jimmy
steeled himself.
 
“So what happens?” he
asked.
 
“You show up in a towel and what?
Dad takes you upstairs?”

“No!”
Val shot back. “He took off his coat and put it on me, and sent me upstairs to
put on some clothes. I forgot about that jacket.”

Jimmy
nodded.
 
“I knew my Dad would never
betray me,” he said, more as a knock against Val than a nod to Reno.

Then
Jimmy turned to leave.
 
Val grabbed him
by the arm. “Jimmy, don’t just leave.
 
Where are you going?”

It
was Jimmy’s time to jerk away from her.
 
“Where do you think I’m going?” he asked.
 
“Away from you, that’s for sure!”

“But
nothing happened!”

“Because
my dad wouldn’t allow it to happen!” Jimmy shot back.
 
“That says something about my dad, that’s
true.
 
But it says even more about you!”

Then Jimmy
left the kitchen, and his home altogether.
 

Val
burst into tears, and ran upstairs.

Trina
was about to go after her, but Reno stopped her.
 
“She said she didn’t care about the
consequences, Tree,” he said.
 
“Think
about what those consequences could have been if she would have gotten her
wish.
 
Jimmy’s marriage would have been
ruined, and ours too.”

“I
know that,” Trina said.
 
“But I also know
that she’s young and she’s in pain.
 
She
knows she messed up. I made that clear to her myself.
 
Jimmy just made it clear to her.
 
She doesn’t need any more consequences.
 
She’s going to need a little love.
 
I’m going to make sure she gets it.”

And
against Reno’s advice, Trina removed herself from his grasp, and went to her
young daughter-in-law.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Reno,
Trina, and Jimmy made their way across the tarmac to Reno’s private plane.
 
He was leaving Vegas to handle business in
Georgia, and neither his wife nor son wanted to see him go.
 
Especially after what happened at Jimmy’s
place last night.
 
When they made it to
the plane, Reno turned toward them.
 
And
addressed his wife.
 
He felt unsettled
too.

“Don’t
have too much fun while I’m gone,” he said.

Trina
smiled.
 
They both wore shades against
the glaring sunlight, but Jimmy also suspected that they both wore shades to
shield the emotions they often felt when one of them had to leave town.
 
It didn’t seem to have gotten any easier for
them with each passing year.
 
It seemed
to have gotten harder.

“And
don’t let my staff bug you about anything,” Reno went on.
 
“Make them wait until I return.
 
You have enough to do already.”

“Yes,
sir.”

“And
don’t smile at the opposite sex.”

Trina
wanted to smile.
 
“Yes, sir.”

“Don’t
nod your head, don’t even laugh at their jokes.”

Trina
laughed.
 
“Don’t deny me at least a little
fun,” she responded.
 
“At least while
Grace is in town.”

“Okay,
a little is fine,” Reno responded with a smile of his own.
 
“But with Grace only.
 
And where is she anyway?
 
She’s in my town.
 
Why didn’t she come with you guys to bid me
farewell?”

Jimmy
shook his head.
 
“Like you’re some rock
star, hun, Pop?”

“Damn
right,” Reno replied laughingly.

“She’s
at Sal and Gemma’s,” Trina replied.
 
“She
wanted to spend some time with them.
 
We’re going to meet at the club as soon as I can ditch my old man here and
finally be free to roam.”

Although
Jimmy laughed, Reno failed to see that particular humor.
 
“That’s not funny,” he said.

“Neither
are all of your edicts, Reno.
 
I’m going
to be fine.
 
I’m not going to suddenly go
out and act a fool, I don’t know why you’re tripping.
 
I want you to go and seal that deal.
 
And then get your ass back home to us.”

Reno
laughed.
 
“Yeah, that is the important
thing, isn’t it?”

“It
is,” Trina said.
 
“This will be new
territory for us.
 
The PaLargio
South.
 
It’s going to be exciting.”

Reno
agreed.
 
Then he looked at his wife with
a lingering look.
 
He didn’t know why,
since he was always going on business trips, but he hated to leave her on this
particular trip.
 
He kissed her on the
lips.
 
Oh that taste of her!
 
But he knew he had to go.
 
No more lingering.
 
“See you soon,” he said.

“Have
a good trip,” Trina replied.
 
She wasn’t
exactly thrilled to see him go either.
 
But she stepped aside and allowed Jimmy to say his goodbyes.

Jimmy
extended his hand. “Good luck with the deal, Dad,” he said.
 

Reno
shook his hand and then hugged him.
 
When
they stopped embracing, he looked into his eyes.
 
“Talk to your wife,” he ordered him.

Jimmy
nodded, but he knew he wasn’t ready yet.

Trina
gave Reno a blow-kiss goodbye and then she and Jimmy began to move away from
the plane.
 
Reno began to head up the
steps that led to the plane’s entrance, but he stopped, turned around, and
looked at his wife again just as she was looking back at him.
 
Their eyes met, and suddenly their separation
felt as real as rain.

“Come
here,” Reno said to her.

Trina
didn’t hesitate.
 
She knew what he
wanted, and she instinctively knew exactly how he felt.
 
Because she was feeling it too.
 
She walked back up to the plane, with Jimmy
following her, and then she walked up the steps to Reno.

Reno
took her hand and looked beyond her at his oldest child.
 
“I’ll have her back out in a minute,” he
said, and then took her inside the plane.

Jimmy
smiled.
 
It amazed him how the two of
them, after two babies and a solid marriage, still couldn’t get enough of each
other.
 
But then he thought about his own
marriage, and that little stunt Val tried to pull with his father, and his
smile slowly, but surely evaporated.

Inside
the plane, Reno walked Trina into his private cabinet, locked the door, and
then walked up to her.
 
He placed his
arms around her waist and began kissing her passionately.
 
He could feel his erection expanding with
every second of their kiss, and all he could think about was how wonderful she
tasted, and how wonderful she smelled, and how wonderful she was going to make
him feel.
 
He lifted her into his arms
and sat her back down on the double-seat.
 
He bent down, removed her panties, opened her legs, and began to lick.

Trina
rested her high heels on his shoulders as his mouth gave her a mouthful.
 
Reno loved the taste of her, that was no
surprise to her, but the way he was doing her now was surprising.
 
He usually ate her slowly, building his
momentum.
 
But tonight he was licking her
vigorously.
 
So vigorous that Trina’s
heels were digging into Reno’s shoulders and her stomach was pushing in as the
licks intensified, and pushing out as the feelings those licks produced settled
in.
 
And then he was eating her.

He
ate her so hard he was biting into her.
 
He ate her so hard her small body rammed against the back of the seat
and was still banging against it as Reno mouth-fucked her as if his life
depended on that feeling.

And
he felt it.
 
He felt it with every throb
of his dick.
 
His mouth devoured
her.
 
This was his woman and she
satisfied his massive appetite in ways he didn’t think any one woman ever
could.
 
But Trina did.
 
Every time he fucked her, she did.

And
that was what he had to do right now, he thought as he stood up.
 
He had to fuck her.
 
He unbuckled his pants.
 
He unzipped and dropped his pants and
briefs.
 
Trina felt her eyes become
hooded as she looked at his magnificent dick.
 
Reno held it tightly and watched her watching it.
 
Her hair had fallen into her dark brown face,
partially covering her left eye, and she looked so sexy to Reno just her look
alone caused his dick to pulsate to the point where he could not wait a moment
longer.

He
put it into her.
 
Trina’s hooded eyes
closed.
 
Reno leaned against her and
closed his eyes too.
 
He was in that
place again where his deep love for Trina, and his constant need to fuck her,
converged.
 
There was no better feeling
to Reno and Trina.
 
And they fucked on
that plane as if they were into each other for the very first time.

Time
was running out.
 
Reno was already late
taking off, but he kept putting it on her.
 
For ten
 
minutes, twenty minutes,
nearly thirty, he put it on her.
 
Until
the finally came.
 
Together.
 
And it felt like their first time all over
again.
 
Reno had to hold onto the back of
the double seat, to steady himself as they came.

Jimmy
was still waiting outside of the plane.
 
He was flipping through his phone’s text messages and trying with all he
had not to think about Val.
 
But all he
thought about was Val.
 
Why would she do
something like that, he wondered.
 
She
was grieving, and so was he, but to try and seduce his father was crazy to
him.
 
Instead of trying to move on, she
was camping out, staying in that place of misery, and trying with all she had
to get him to join her.
 
His feelings
didn’t matter.
 
She was in pain and that
was all she wanted to deal with.
 
Her
pain.
 
Never his.

It
reminded him of so many of his previous girlfriends.
 
They always became little seductresses
whenever his father would come around.
 
It was no longer about pleasing Jimmy.
 
It became all about pleasing Reno.
 
Or, at least, acting the way they thought would please him.

Now
Val was pulling that same shit too.
 
And
she was pulling it in the name of her grief and despair.
 
And what did she expect Jimmy to do?
 
Accept it?
 
Get over it?
 
Forget about it?

Jimmy
didn’t know what he was going to do.
 
He
loved Val.
 
He wasn’t going to pretend he
didn’t.
 
But their marriage was rocky
even before last night.
 
He could leave
her.
 
But that wouldn’t be easy
either.
 
She made a mistake.
 
One stupid mistake.
 
Leaving her wasn’t even on the table as far
as he was concerned.
 
In truth, he was
more concerned with what she might do.
 
He was more concerned that she might leave.

Reno
and Trina finally reappeared at the door of the plane.
 
Reno had already cleaned her up.
 
Now he kissed her, and she headed down the
steps.

“Take
care of her while I’m gone,” Reno ordered Jimmy.

Jimmy
smiled.
 
“The same way you just did,
Pop?” he asked.

Reno
didn’t find that funny at all.
 
He didn’t
crack a smile.
 
Trina and Jimmy, however,
were laughing.

Trina
and Grace Gabrini relaxed in the VIP section of the mellow club and sipped
their wine.
 
Grace was Tommy Gabrini’s
wife and the mother of a bouncing baby girl, and they spent a big portion of
their girls night out talking about little Destiny Gabrini.

“Here’s
a picture of her laying on Tommy’s stomach,” Grace said, showing Trina yet
another picture on her smartphone.

Trina
smiled.
 
The brown little girl was on Tommy’s
stomach, as he lay on the sofa.
 
“She’s
fab, Grace,” Trina said.
 
“Just so
precious.”

“And
here’s a picture,” Grace said, sliding her phone’s screen past three other
pictures, “of Dez on the patio.
 
Isn’t
she adorable?”

“Yes,”
Trina agreed with a knowing smile.
 
“She’s so adorable.
 
Every one of
these thousands of pictures of your baby girl is adorable.”

Grace
looked at Trina.
 
“I’m not overdoing it,
am I?”

“Showing
me two thousand pictures of the same little girl?” Trina asked sarcastically.
 
“No way is that overdoing it!
 
Now if you would have shown me three-thousand
pictures, then yeah, you’d have a problem.”

Grace
laughed.
 
“Sorry about that.
 
But I know I can’t discuss her at all when
Val gets here.”

Trina
looked at her.
 
“And why the hell not?”

“Why
not, Tree?
 
You know why not!
 
Gemma told me---”

“Gemma?”
Trina asked.
 
“The same Gemma who didn’t
show up for our girls night out?”

“She
planned to come.
 
But she’s got this
crazy case, and the trial begins Monday.
 
She plan to work all night to get herself ready to go to trial.
 
And you know, Gemma.
 
She doesn’t want any distractions when she’s
about to go to trial.”

Trina
nodded.
 
“Don’t I know it.”

“It
doesn’t matter if the defendant is innocent as a dove or guilty as sin.
 
She gives it her all.”