Reno and Son: Don't Mess with Jim (The Mob Boss Series) (12 page)

But Buddy wanted to hear it from the
horse’s mouth.
 
“Is that true, Mr.
Gabrini?”

“Is what true?”

“You have no mob connections?”

“I have plenty mob connections,” Reno
said.
 
Jimmy and Val both looked at him,
stunned that he would go there.

Jimmy was especially distressed.
 
“Pop, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I have connections.
 
So what?”

“So what?” Buddy asked.
 
“Are you serious?
 
How can you think that’s okay?”

“Because it’s my business, that’s how it’s
okay.
 
It has nothing to do with you or
your daughter, or Jimmy either.”

“But you’re his father.”

“That’s right.
 
I’m definitely his father.”

“And you admittedly have mob connections.”

“That’s right.”

“Well, Mr. Gabrini, I’m sorry, but I
absolutely do not want my daughter to marry somebody with that kind of
background.”

“Good. I wouldn’t want her to marry somebody
like that either.
 
But since I’m not
marrying her, what difference does it make?”

“What my Dad is trying to say,” Jimmy felt
a need to explain, “is that I’m not involved with whatever he may have going
on.
 
Which isn’t anything, really, because
he’s not a mob boss or anything like that.”

“But his father, your grandfather, was a
mob boss,” Buddy said.

Enough of this, Reno decided.
 
He uncrossed his legs and leaned
forward.
 
“Look, Mr. Wellstone, either
your daughter wants to be with my son, or she doesn’t.
 
But if you think for a second that I’m going
to sit here and pretend she’s hooked up with the Brady Bunch, you can forget
that.
 
The Gabrinis are not the Bradys.
 
Never was and never will be.
 
But if she wants an honest young man with a great
future ahead of him, then Jimmy’s her man.
 
If she wants an everyday Joe with everyday parents, then he’s not the
one for her.
 
It’s as simple as that.”

Buddy stared at Reno.
 
What amazed him was how blunt the man
was.
 
There wasn’t a slick bone in this
man’s body.
 
He was even upfront about
his connections.
 
Buddy could appreciate
a man who didn’t bow just to con somebody.
 
He didn’t appreciate the connections, and he was still wary of his
daughter getting mixed up in a family like this one, but at least he heard it
straight.

He stood up, prompting Reno, Jimmy and Val
to stand too.
 
“I know you’re a busy
man,” he said, extending his hand.
 
“I’ll
get out of your way.”

Reno shook his hand.
 
“They’ll be fine, Mr. Wellstone.
 
Young people always are.”

Buddy nodded and said his goodbyes, but
Reno could still see that doubt.
 
He
could also see the dread all over Jimmy’s face.

And sure enough, within minutes of their
departure, Jimmy returned to Reno’s office overwhelmed with dread.
 
Reno was seated behind his desk, talking
quietly with one of his female staffers, when Jimmy walked in.

Reno looked beyond the young lady, who was
around the desk standing next to him.
 
“I
thought I’d see you again,” he said as Jimmy walked up to the desk.
 
Reno then looked at the young lady.
 
“Give me a few minutes,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she said, she spoke to Jimmy,
and then she left.
 
There were still
about ten people in the office, working the phones regarding some big project,
but at least he had his father’s attention.

“I don’t get it,” he said.

“You don’t get what?”

“How could you say that to Mr.
Wellstone?
 
You know how people feel
about the Mafia and all of that mob stuff.”

Reno smiled.
 
“Mob stuff?
 
Get a load of you!”

“But Dad!”

“Don’t
but,
Dad
me!
 
I’m not lying to that man!
 
Her daughter needs to understand what
marrying you will mean, Jimmy, if that’s where it’s headed.
 
You’ve done a lousy-ass job telling her
apparently, given all of her sensibilities, but you need to lay it on the line
just like I did.
 
They can take it or
leave it, but at least it won’t come as any shock to anybody after the
fact.
 
We are who we are.
 
And we ain’t the Huxtables.
 
I told them so.
 
I told them the truth.
 
So what is it that I did wrong?
 
Tell me that?”

Jimmy felt as if he was making a mountain
out of a molehill.
 
Because his father
was right.
 
His face betrayed his
anguish.
 
“I just don’t want to lose
her,” he admitted.

Reno stared at his son.
 
“You won’t lose her,” he said.

Jimmy needed that hope.
 
“What makes you so sure about that?”

“Because I know women.
 
Val isn’t going anywhere.”

Jimmy frowned.
 
“How can you be so sure about that?”

“It’ll be a cold day in hell before that
woman gives you up.
 
You hear me?
 
You’re smart, you’re talented, you have a big
heart.
 
And you have gold between your
legs, son, like every Gabrini man.
 
Big,
juicy gold.
 
She’s not giving that up,”
Reno added confidently.

Jimmy laughed and shook his head.
 
Leave it to his old man, he thought.
 
It would take more than Gabrini
gold
to keep a girl like Val around, and
he knew it.
 
But he also knew that it
certainly couldn’t hurt.

EIGHT

“A peace offering,” Reno said as he stood
in front of the bedroom mirror and tied his tie.
 
“That’s all this is.”

“Call it whatever you want,” Trina said, as
she sat in front of Reno at the same mirror and applied her makeup.
 
“But Jimmy’s concerned.”

“He’s always concerned.
 
What else is new?”

“He doesn’t want to lose her, Reno.”
 
Trina looked at him through the mirror.
 
“He loves Val.”

Reno exhaled.
 
Then he nodded his head.
 
“Yeah, I know.
 
But I don’t see how I ruined that for him.”

“Jimmy sees it.”

“How?
 
Because I told the truth?
 
That
man wasn’t going to fall for my bullshit.
 
He wanted the truth and I gave it to him.
 
If Val is the kind of gal that’ll listen to
her father more than her own heart, then to hell with her.
 
Jimmy doesn’t need that kind of woman
anyway.”

Trina looked at Reno.
 
She could see right through all of that
bluster.
 
He was just as scared that he
blew it for Jimmy as Jimmy was.
 
Maybe
even more so.
 
He so wanted Jimmy to find
true love.
 
“Anyway,” Trina said,
standing up.
 
“We’d better get going.
 
For once, let’s be on time.”

Jimmy and Val sat quietly at the table
inside the small restaurant.
 
The
overhead music, of Kim Carnes singing
Bette
Davis Eyes
, wasn’t exactly to their taste, but it provided the only real
energy in the half-filled space.
 
Val
immediately doubted her choice, and Jimmy could see her distress.

He placed his hand on top of her hand.
 
“It’s fine, Val.
 
I like it.”

“But will your parents like it?
 
It isn’t anything fancy.”

“They don’t want fancy.
 
Ma said for you to pick a restaurant you
liked.
 
And you have.”
 
Jimmy looked around.
 
“It’s perfect.”

Val smiled.
 
“You’re just being a gentleman, aren’t you?”

Jimmy smiled and removed his hand.
 
“Okay, it’s lousy,” he said and she
laughed.
 
“But it’s our lousy.
 
They get fancy all day long.
 
They can use a little downhome every now and
then.”

Val nodded and lifted her drink.
 
“Agreed,” she said.

Jimmy watched her as she took a sip.
 
When she finished her sip, he exhaled.
 
“So,” he said, “what did your father say?”

Val didn’t respond.

“Come on, I can take it.”

“He said he appreciated Mr. Gabrini’s
honesty.”

“And?”

Val looked at Jimmy.
 
“He said if I know what’s good for me I’ll
get as far away from you as fast as I can.”

Jimmy’s heart dropped.
 
“He said that?”

“He said that.”

“But my dad’s connections have nothing to
do with me.
 
Why is he blaming me?”

“For some strange reason he thinks you and
your father are extremely close.
 
I told
him you weren’t, but he doesn’t believe me.”

Jimmy felt that he and Reno were extremely
close, so he didn’t understand why Val wouldn’t, but that wasn’t the issue
anyway.
 
“Whether we’re close or not has
nothing to do with anything.
 
My father
runs one of the largest hotels and casinos in Vegas.
 
He knows a lot of people.
 
He has connections to a lot of people.
 
But I’m not my father.
 
I would have thought your dad was smart
enough to understand that.”

He could tell Val didn’t like him
insinuating that her father wasn’t smart, but he didn’t care.
 
Buddy Wellstone couldn’t possibly be the
brightest bulb in the box if he thought a father’s connections automatically
translated into a son’s connections.

“He loves me,” Val said, “and he’s looking
out for me.”

“By telling you to stay away from me?
 
You call that looking out?”

“Put yourself in his shoes, Jimmy.
 
Your grandfather was a mob boss.
 
Your father owns a casino, which, I mean
let’s face it, has had its mob issues too.
 
Your father is reputed to be a mob boss himself.”

That sounded ridiculous to Jimmy.
 
“A mob boss?
 
My
Dad?”

“Don’t pretend you’ve never heard that
before, Jimmy.
 
There are some people
around here who would declare up and down that your father took over when his
father was killed.”

“I don’t care what they declare.
 
People lie on people all the time.
 
But it’s not true, Val.
 
Just because
 
people say it’s true doesn’t make it true.”

Val stared at Jimmy.
 
“I know that.
 
That’s why,” she added, taking Jimmy’s hand, “I told my father what he
could do with his suggestion.”

Jimmy stared at her.

“I told my father that I love you very
much, that I want this to work between us very much, and that you’re your own
man and will live your life your own way.
 
I told him I wasn’t kicking you to any curbs, so he could forget
that.
 
It wasn’t happening.”

Jimmy continued to stare at her.
 
“And what did he say?”

Val smiled.
 
“He said good. It’s about time I grew a pair.”

Jimmy frowned.
 
“What?”

“Just kidding,” Val said.
 
“But I’d bet that’s what your father would
have said.”

Jimmy laughed.
 
“For real though.
 
But really, what did yours say?”

Val exhaled.
 
“He told me he loved me, and to be
careful.
 
And I told him that I always
am.”

Jimmy leaned closer to her and kissed her
on the lips.
 
“I love you, girl,” he
said.

“I love you more,” she said.

And just like that the ice was broken.
 
Jimmy was relaxed again, and Val was pleased
again.
 
They had both suffered after
their fathers met, each with their own doubts, but now it felt as if they’d
turned a corner.
 
Jimmy would make it up
to Mr. Wellstone.
 
He’d do everything in
his power to prove the man wrong.
 
But
right now, tonight, it was all about Val.
 
Trina told him that if he made this night all about his woman, then he
couldn’t go wrong.
 
Since Trina never gave
him bad advice, he decided to take it.

He kissed her again, and began to give her
several small kisses as the music changed, from
Bette Davis Eyes
to the Bee Gees singing
How Deep Is Your Love
, which caused Jimmy to grin.
 
“Damn, girl,” he said.
 
“The
Bee
Gees
?
 
Really?
 
You sure Mr. Wellstone didn’t pick this place
to sabotage us?”

Val hit Jimmy hard, and they both
laughed.
 
But the music was a hit inside
the restaurant.
 
The dance floor began to
fill up.

After about ten more minutes of laughter
and kisses, Val, who was looking out of the window, noticed a Porsche drive up
to the restaurant’s main entrance, apparently realized there was no Valet
service at a place like this, and then drove into the restaurant’s parking lot.
“Is that them?”

Jimmy looked out of the window too.
 
When he saw the car, he nodded.
 
“That’s them.”
 
He looked at his watch.
 
“On time for a change.”

He and Val watched as Reno stepped out of
the car in shirtsleeves, grabbed his dark brown suit coat out of the backseat,
put it on, and then walked around and opened the passenger door for Trina.
 

Trina stepped out too, in a form-fitting
blue dress, and then she and Reno began heading toward the entrance.
 

Val was always impressed with Mrs.
Gabrini’s style.
 
She never overdid
it.
 
Her clothes were never excessively
tailored or bedazzled with jewels and frilliness, but were often so simple that
they screamed elegance.
 
Like
tonight.
 
Her dress had nothing but a
nice shape to recommend it, but it fit oh-so-perfectly along her curves.
 
She wore understated white pearls around her
neck, and carried a small red clutch that complimented her gray, with a streak
of red, stilettos.
 
And the way Reno
placed his hand in the small of her back, as if he wanted the world to know
that she belonged to him, warmed Val’s heart.
 
That was what she wanted too.
 
A
man who would love her like that.
 
Although Jimmy showed some signs many times, he was not nearly as
affectionate as Reno was.
 
But that’ll change
, she thought
mischievously, as she looked at Jimmy while he continued to look at his
parents.

Jimmy was just as impressed with them as
Val was.
 
More so even, if he was to be
honest about it.
 
Despite men like Buddy
Wellstone who would always view Reno as some immoral gangster who went around
wreaking havoc on innocent people, he loved that Reno was his father.
 
He loved his strength and his honesty.
 
He loved the fact that, whenever he was in
trouble and needed him, he dropped everything to help him.
  
Buddy Wellstone could kiss Jimmy’s ass if he
thought for a second that he would disown his father or feel embarrassed by his
father’s actions.
 
Nothing could be
further from the truth.
 
Jimmy loved Reno
so much that he sometimes wondered if there was a human being alive that he
could love more.
 
He loved Val, and he of
course loved Trina dearly, but Reno was in a different category from even
them.
 
That was why Reno infuriated him
more than anybody else.
 
That was why
Reno aggravated him more than anybody else.
 
That was why Reno’s approval, more than anybody else’s, meant the world
to Jimmy.

And the way Reno cherished Trina.
 
That was a plus in his favor too, as far as
Jimmy was concerned.
 
As his parents
entered the restaurant, and began heading toward the table, and Reno was
watching the men who were giving Trina that extra look, Jimmy smiled.
 
Although Reno loved and cherished his wife,
Jimmy sometimes felt that Reno didn’t always treat her right, mainly because he
was a little too familiar with the ladies, but that didn’t mean Reno would
tolerate any stuff from any man alive when it came to Tree.
 
Not even a too-friendly look would he
tolerate.
 
Which was so hypocritical that
it wasn’t even funny to Jimmy.
 
But that
was his Dad.

“Hey you two,” Trina said jovially as they
arrived at the table.
 
Val and Jimmy
stood up, and Val and Trina embraced.
 
Reno and Jimmy also gave each other a hug.

“I’m stunned you’re on time,” Jimmy said to
him.

“What stunned?
 
I’m always on time, are you kidding?”
 

Jimmy knew Reno had to be kidding himself,
and that fact was proven when Reno smiled and winked.
 
Jimmy smiled too.
 
“As I said: I’m stunned you’re on time.”

“Hi, Mr. Gabrini,” Val said and she and
Reno gave each other a one-arm hug.
 
After Trina and Jimmy gave each other a brisk hug, they all sat back
down.
 

“You two look so cute together,” Trina said
with a smile.

“Thank-you,” Val responded.
 
“You and Mr. Gabrini look . . . cute too.”

Jimmy laughed.
 
“Dad, she says you’re cute.”

“Puppies are cute,” Reno said, although he
did have a smile on his face.
 
“There’s
nothing cute about me.”

“Then speak for yourself,” Trina said.
 
“Thank-you, Valerie.
 
I’ll take a compliment any way I can get it.”