Mob Boss Eleven- The Wrong One (The Mob Boss Series Book 11) (17 page)

“But
she didn’t start at okay,” Tommy reminded his brother.
 
“She started at near-death.
 
You can’t expect Reno to recover just like
that from something that terrifying.
 
It’s
going to take time.
 
He almost lost his
wife.”
 
Tommy almost choked up.
 
Then he looked at his brother.
 
“You won’t let Gemma go to work, and she
wasn’t even at that club that night.
 
Imagine how Reno feels.”

Sal
and Jimmy looked at each other.
 
And they
knew Tommy was right.
 
Sal leaned
back.
 
“Fuck it. What was I thinking?”

“We’ve
got to do more,” Tommy said.
 
“Our men
have got to redouble their efforts.
 
And
when Reno’s ready, he’ll get on that battlefield too.”

“Reno’s
ready,” a voice said, and everybody turned to the sound.
 
Reno was standing in the arch of the hallway.

Jimmy
frowned.
 
“Pop!
 
How did you get in here?”

“That’s
for me to know and you to never find out.”

Tommy
smiled.

Reno
pushed himself off of the wall and headed toward them.

“You
look awful,” Jimmy honestly noted as Reno walked by him.

“Thanks
for that observation,” Reno responded.
 
He sat next to Tommy, and he sat so close that Tommy knew he was in need
of the contact.
 
Tommy placed his arm
around him.

Reno
took both hands and rubbed his face.
 
He
needed a shave, his eyes were bloodshot, and his hair looked as if it had never
seen a comb.
 
But he actually seemed
upbeat.

“How’s
Tree?” Tommy asked him.

He
nodded.
 
“She’s going to be okay.
 
Her parents are there with her now.
 
I’m arranging for her to be transported here
tomorrow morning.”

They
were all thrilled.
 
“That’s great, Pop!”
Jimmy said happily.
 

“As
early as tomorrow?” Gemma asked equally happily.

“Yep,”
Reno responded.
 
“She’s progressing
really well.
 
Better than those doctors
thought she would.
 
I’m proud of her.”

“I
take it you’re going to hire nothing but the best doctors and nurses for her
aftercare here,” Tommy said.

“I’ve
already hired them,” Reno responded. “They’re flying in as we speak.
 
It’s amazing what those doctors will do if
the price is right.”

“And
I’m sure the price was right,” Sal said.

“Oh
yeah.
 
Bob Barker ain’t got nothing on
me.”

They
laughed.

Reno
ran the back of his hand over his eyes.
 
“So I take it,” he said, “that I’ve been the topic of this conversation
today.”

“The
main topic,” Tommy said.
 
“All of our
people have been turning up zero.
 
Trina
may be making great progress, but we aren’t.”

Reno
pulled out his phone and handed it to Tommy.
 
“What’s this?” Tommy asked.

“The
video,” Reno said.

“Of
that night?” Sal asked, shocked.
 
“I
thought the cops had that locked up?”

“They
did,” Reno said.
 
He got up and headed
for the bar.

“So
how did you get it?” Sal was floored.
 
“None of our people could get it.
 
I thought the cops had it hermetically sealed and shit.
 
I thought they had it locked up in
 
a fucking vault.”

“I
unlocked it,” Reno responded.
 

“When?”
Sal wanted to know.
 
“We thought you were
at the hospital still.”

“That’s
what you get for thinking,” Reno responded.

“Ah,
fuck you,” Sal said as he and Jimmy sat on either side of Tommy.
 
Sal didn’t like Reno, but he damn sure
respected him.

“I’ll
get you a drink, Ree,” Gemma said as she hurried behind the bar.
 
“What would you like?
 
Wine?
 
Sherry?
 
Gin and Tonic?”

“A
beer,” Reno said as he sat on one of the bar stools.
 
“I feel like a cold beer and a cold shower.”

“Beer
first,” Gemma said and proceeded to pour him up a glass.
 
“And then you can take your shower.”

“Fucking
pricks,” Sal said as they watched the video.
 
They saw one of the men arguing with Trina.
 
And then Trina stood up.
 
Then the men in black pulled out weapons and
all hell broke loose.
 
They all flinched
as Trina was hit repeatedly.

Tommy
looked up at Reno.
 
“You saw this?” he
asked him.

Reno’s
jaw tightened.
 
It still took all he had
to contain his fury.
 
“I saw it.”

“So
where do we begin?” Tommy asked.

Reno
took a swig of his beer.
 
Then he wiped
his mouth. “Everywhere,” he said.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The
back door of a local row house flew open and Denny Dunston, the manager at
Scrolls, was on the run.
 
Jimmy ran out behind
him, and then Reno and Sal behind them, but Denny proved a fast and elusive
target.

Jimmy
was fast too, and he tried with all he had to close in as they ran behind row
houses, a pool hall, and through alley after alley, but Denny remained out of
his grasp.
 
Until he ran through yet
another alley, and Jimmy got an assist.

At
the end of the alley, just when Denny seemed to have a second wind and was
about to run out of the alley and across a busy street, a big Bentley slung in
front of the exit and slammed on brakes.
 
Jimmy saw that it was his father’s car, and that his Uncle Tommy was
driving it.
  
But when Tommy got out of
the car looking more like a Ralph Lauren runway model than a gangster, with his
blondish-brown hair perfectly wind-blown just like the male models in the
commercials, Jimmy was certain that the fast-moving Denny Dunston was all but
assured to get away.

But
his certainty was wrong.
 
Denny slid over
the trunk of the Bentley and was about to jump down and make that final run for
it, but Tommy grabbed him and flung him back across the trunk with so much
force that Denny lost all balance and landed right into Jimmy’s arms.
 
Reno and Sal arrived too, both winded, but
not so overcome that they couldn’t handle their business.
 

Jimmy
handed him over.

Sal
threw Denny against the brick wall of the alley and held his arm at his throat
as Reno walked up to their target.
 
Tommy
pulled a thick, steel pipe out of the trunk of the car and, as smoothly as
Tommy knew how to do, slid his lean body over the trunk of the car too, and
entered the alley.
 
He ordered Jimmy to
stand guard, although Jimmy thought the car hid enough of the alley to provide
the perfect shield for their activities.
  
But he never argued with his Uncle Tommy.
 
Of all the Gabrini men, Tommy was the least
bombastic and furious, but he was also the one Jimmy least enjoyed butting
heads with.
 
Tommy had that way about him
that made Jimmy feel as if he wouldn’t get him on the spot, but later, while he
was sleeping, he’d get him then.
 
Reno
and Sal were always out front dishing their dirt.
 
Tommy would let his dirt fester until, when
he decided to strike, he was dishing mud.

So
Jimmy stood at the mouth of the alley and watched his father and his uncles do
their thing.
 
And they were a sight to
see: three businessmen in business suits who looked as if they would be better
suited at an Opera than some alley that smelled like piss.
 
And as he stood there watching, he realized
how much he loved and admired those three men.
 
They weren’t evil men.
 
They
weren’t men who picked fights with weaker people just because they could.
 
But they never backed down.
 
Not ever.
 
They didn’t care who, what, when or where.
 
Especially his father, who never played when
it came to somebody harming his family, as he got all up in Denny’s grill.

“I
want you to take this opportunity to clear yourself,” Reno said to the nervous
and winded young man.

“Clear
myself for what?” Denny responded.
 
“I
didn’t do anything!”

“Wrong
answer,” Reno said.
 
“But I’m going to
give you another chance.”

“But
I didn’t do anything!”

“Cut
the bullshit, Denny D!
 
What do you think
we’re fucking idiots here?
 
You think we
decided to track your ass down because we didn’t have anything else to do?”

“But
I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“That’s
why you ran, right?” Sal asked him as he tightened his grip around Denny’s
neck.
 
Denny gritted his yellow teeth in
pain and tried to remove Sal’s arm.
 
But
even Jimmy knew the guy was wasting his time.
 
Uncle Sal had biceps of steel.
 
That arm was unmovable.
 
“Is that
what you expect us to believe?” Sal added, tightening his grip even more.
 
“You think we actually believe that you ran
as soon as you saw our fucking faces just for the hell of it?”

But
Denny was still in denial. “I ran because I knew y’all were mad about what
happened at the club.
 
But we had nothing
to do with that
.
 
I had nothing to do with that!”

“We
saw the list,” Tommy said.

Denny
looked at Tommy. Compared to the other two, Tommy looked like he could be the
voice of reason for Denny.
 
But he still
played dumb.
 
“What list?” he asked.

“The
VIP list,” Tommy said.
 
“You must have a
reservation to sit in the VIP section at Scrolls.”

“So
what?”

“So
what, dickhead,” Reno responded, “everybody’s accounted for.
 
Every person who sat VIP that night was on
that list.
 
Everybody except the two men
who tried to ice my wife.”

“You’re
the only one who records the VIP reservations,” Tommy reminded Denny.
 
“You’re the only one who handles that at
Scrolls.
 
We checked.
 
We’re very thorough.
 
So tell us why it is that you recorded every
table in the VIP section the way you always do every night, except that
night.
 
And your error only accrued to
the one table in particular.
 
The
assassin’s table.
 
Why is that, Mr.
Dunston?”

“I
didn’t,” Denny started.
 
“I couldn’t. .
.”

“You
didn’t, you couldn’t what?” Reno asked.

“He
told me not to.”

Now
they were getting somewhere, Reno thought.
 
“Who told you not to?”

“This
guy.
 
He came to the club earlier that
day and asked me if any Gabrini had a reservation there.”

Tommy
frowned.
 
“Any Gabrini?”

“Any
Gabrini,” Denny responded.
 
Tommy and
Reno looked at each other.
 
“When I told
him to get lost, he told me he’d throw me a thousand dollars to check.
 
I checked.
 
Then he told me he wanted to reserve the table closest to them.
 
When I told him all of the tables close to
them were already booked, he said he’d pay me a thousand more to change the
reservation of the party with the table nearest to the Gabrini table.”

“And he
told you not to put a name on the reservation?” Tommy asked.

“No.
 
He didn’t give me a name.
 
So I left it blank.”

“And
he paid you on the spot?” Tommy asked.

“One
thousand, yes.
 
But I had to go and
collect the other thousand only after the Gabrinis showed up and sat at that
table.
 
Then I went and got paid.”

“So
you left the club and went and met the guy?” Tommy asked.

“Yeah.
 
I wasn’t even there when that shit went
down.
 
I didn’t know they were planning
anything like that.”

“Bullshit!”
Reno blared.
 
“What the fuck do you think
they were planning?
 
He told you to put
his people next to the Gabrini people and he’d give you two grand.
 
What do you think they wanted?
 
A fucking autograph?”

“No,
but, I didn’t think they’d try to kill anybody!”

“What’s
the guy’s name?”

“What?”
Denny asked.

“Give
us the name of the guy and give it to us right now.”

“But
I don’t know his name!”

“More
bullshit!” Reno said, and Sal tightened his grip.
 

Denny
struggled to breathe.
 
“Joe,” he finally
said between breaths.
 
“Joe Nathan.”

“And
where can we find Mr. Nathan?” Tommy asked.

Sal
automatically tightened his grip again, and Denny gave up.
 
“On Bledsoe.
 
A green four-unit complex.
 
His
apartment is on the top floor.
 
The one
on the right.”

Sal
finally removed his arm.
 
Denny bent over
hyperventilating.
 

“If
you’re lying,” Sal said to him, “we will hunt you down and you will die.”

Denny
nodded. “I understand,” he said, and began to hurry away.

But
Reno grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back.
 
He frowned.
 
“Where the fuck you think you’re going?” he asked him.

Denny
looked at Sal and then at Tommy.
 
Then he
looked at Reno.
 
“I understand I’m not to
tell.”

“You
facilitated those fuckers who tried to kill my wife.
 
And you think I’m going to stand here and
just let you leave?”
 
Reno took the steel
pipe from Tommy’s hand.
 

“But
I told you I didn’t know they were going to do anything like that!” Denny
cried.
 
“I didn’t know it was going to be
your wife!”

“But
it was my wife!” Reno blared.
 
“Who the
fuck cares what you knew?
 
You
facilitated it.
 
You participated in
it.
 
You allowed those killers to get
next to my wife so they could take her out.
 
You knew something was going down.
 
You knew it!
 
And you think I’m
going to let you get away with that?”

“Please,
Mr. Gabrini!”

“Don’t
please me!
 
I can’t let you get away with
that.
 
You will not be getting out of
here alive.”

Denny
fell to his knees.
 
“Oh, please,” he
begged.
 
“Please let me live, Mr.
Gabrini.
 
Please let me live!”

Reno
took the pipe and rammed it against Denny’s face, taking him completely down
and a chunk of the side of his face with him.
 
The blood gushed out like rain.
 
Then Reno got busy.
 
He took that
pipe and beat on Denny Dunston until he broke his arm.
 
Then he broke his other arm.
 
The more he thought about what happened to
his wife while this asshole was collecting his cut, he got angrier.
 
And he broke Denny’s leg.
 
Then he broke his other leg.
 
Then he broke both kneecaps.
 

Denny
was screaming in so much pain that Jimmy had to jump into the Bentley and turn
on the car stereo to drown out the screams.
 
When he turned it on, Neil Diamond was singing
Sweet Caroline
.
 
Jimmy shook
his head at his father’s taste in music.
 
But it was a loud, ballsy song and perfect as a cover for Denny’s
screams.

But
Denny kept on screaming in unspeakable pain.
 
Reno bent down to the now immobile man, and looked him dead in the
eye.
 
And that same man who had begged
for life, was now begging for death.
 

“You
made a costly miscalculation,” Reno said.
 
“You thought you were going to leave that club, take that blood money,
and wash your hands of what happened next.
 
And I was going to pat you on your hand and appreciate those clean hands
of yours.”
 
Then Reno shook his
head.
 
“Nobody’s that clean. Not when it
comes to harming my family.
 
Especially
not a fucker like you.”
 
Reno stood up.
 
He pulled out a handkerchief and wiped the
pipe clean of blood and fingerprints.
 
“But hey,” he said.
 
“Who knew?
 
I could be generous too.
 
And I feel generous today.
 
I’ll grant you your request.
 
I’ll let you live.”

“No!”
the man screamed.
 
“Kill me!
 
Kill me now!
 
I don’t want to be some fucking invalid!
 
I can’t live with this kind of pain!
 
Kill me now!”

But
Reno, Sal, and Tommy all walked away.
 
Denny’s screams were still muffled by the sound of Neil Diamond’s
melodic voice: