Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 (6 page)

Trina wasn’t buying that either.
 
“I have plenty to fear,” she said.
 
But then she placed her hand on the side of
his face.
 
“But I know your slick
ass.”
 
He smiled.
 
She smiled too.
 
“And I know you won’t leave us.
 
I know you’ll do everything within your power
to come back home to us.
 
Because you’re
strong, you’re tough, you’re mean as a motherfuck.”

Reno grinned.
 
“That’s what I love most about you,” he said.
 
“You’re such a meek and mild little lady.”

Even Trina had to laugh at that.

But then Reno turned serious.
 
“I do what I have to do, Tree,” he said.
 
“But it’s not about doing it for the hell of
it, or to prove some damn point.
 
It’s
about survival.
 
It’s about making sure
I’m around for you and the children.
 
So
if some prick come at me with a gun, I’m coming at him with a canon if that’s
what it takes.
 
And I’ll never flinch
from that.
 
You show weakness, they
pounce, Tree.
 
And nobody’s pouncing on
me.”

Trina smiled and rubbed the side of his face.

“You know I like basketball,” he said.

“You like every kind of ball.”

“But do you know when a basketball player is at his
weakest point?”

“No,” Trina said.
 
“But I’m sure you’re going to tell me.”

“A player is at his weakest point,” Reno said, “when
he’s out on that court trying to save himself from injury.
 
He won’t go hard for the rebound.
 
He’ll come up short on the lay-up.
 
He’ll sit back and let somebody else score
the goal.
 
But every time he backs off,
somebody else is coming full steam ahead.
 
And his guard is down.
 
And guess
what happens to that player who was trying to protect himself from injury?”

“He gets injured.”

Reno nodded.
 
“And it’s a bad injury because he didn’t see it coming.
 
He couldn’t brace himself.
 
He couldn’t protect himself.”
 
He looked into her eyes.
 
“I go hard, Tree, because that’s the only way
to protect myself and my family.
 
And I
teach you and the children to go hard too.
 
To pay attention to your environment.
 
To trust nobody but family.
 
So
laying on this bed crying about me is a waste of your tears.”

Trina stared at him.
 
She knew he spoke the truth.

“You remember how I used to show you who was boss when
you would try to get all emotional on me?”

“How could she forget?
 
Reno used to spank the shit out of her.
 
“I remember,” she said.

“I was hard on you like that,” he said, “because I
couldn’t allow you to go weak on me.
 
You
are not a weak woman, you never was a weak woman, and I’ll continue to kick
your ass if you try to become weak.
 
We
have children who need us.
 
We have to go
all-out in everything we do because we have to be on the lookout for any
bullshit.
 
We have to see it coming.
 
That’s why I told you I was fine.
 
Yeah, I had a rough day.
 
But I saw it coming and was able to do it to
them before they tried to do it to me.
 
I’m fine.”

Trina understood.
 
“Another day at the office?” she asked.

Reno nodded.
 
“Another day at the motherfucking office.
 
The Gabrini office.
 
That’s right.”

Trina’s girlfriends used to complaint endlessly about
how tough Reno was on her.
 
He didn’t
treat her right, they used to complain.
 
He expected too much from her.
 
But she told them then, and was reminded by him just now, that he had to
be tough on her.
 
She was a Gabrini
woman.
 
Nobody was going to go easy on
her, and Reno knew it.
 
He wanted to make
certain she knew it too, and was equipped to handle it when it happened.

She wrapped her arms around him.
 
He was expecting her to say something
profound.
 
“You’re wet,” she said,
instead.

Reno smiled, laughed, and then laid on his back and
pulled her on top of him.
 
“And so are
you,” he said, grinding his wet, naked body against her.

She laughed.
 
“Quit, Reno!
 
This is an expensive
outfit!”

“Get out of it then,” he said, “before I rip it off of
you.”

Trina looked at him.
 
“You would, wouldn’t you?”

“Hell yeah I would.”

“Even though this is my favorite outfit?” she asked.

Reno began kissing her mouth and face and sweet
neck.
 
“The problem is,” he said as he
kissed her, “this favorite outfit is hiding my favorite body.
 
A body I want naked and beneath me.”

“But what about what happened?
 
Why did they try to kill you?”

“They weren’t trying to kill me,” he said.
 
“They were enemies of Sinatra.”

“The man in the Presidential suite?”

“Yeah,” Reno said, unbuttoning her blouse.

“Who is he?
 
I
didn’t know we even had a dignitary coming this week.”

“He’s not a dignitary,” Reno said.
 
“He’s a gangster.”

Trina lifted his head from her chest, and looked at
him. “You allowed a gangster to reserve the P suite?”

“He’s not just a gangster,” Reno said.
 
“He’s a man who put my father in his
place.
 
I’m talking top of the food chain
gangster.
 
Where I come from, he’s
royalty.
 
He is a dignitary.
 
I gave him the best room in the joint.”

Trina knew this was going to get her in trouble, but
she loved when she got a rise out of Reno.
 
“I know what you mean,” she said as Reno continued to kiss her
cleavage.
 
“He’s certainly easy on the
eyes.”

Reno suddenly stopped kissing and looked at her.
 
Trina smiled.
 
“What?” she asked.

Reno proceeded to rip open her blouse, the buttons
flying.

“Reno!” she yelled as she fought back laughter.

“He may be easy on the eyes,” he said as he lifted her
bra and revealed her big brown breasts, “but I’m not easy.
  
And just for that little comment, I’m not
going to be easy on you.”
 
He began
sucking and squeezing her breasts so hard that Trina had to inhale from the
sudden jolt of sensations.
 

But when he tried to ease up, she wasn’t having
it.
 
“Go hard then,” she said to him,
enjoying every second of his mouth.

And then Reno, without unbuttoning or unzipping her
pants, pulled them down, along with her panties, until they were off of her
body.
 
He continued to suck her breasts
hard, as he opened her legs.
 
He placed
his digits into her pussy and started massaging her as he sucked her.
 
She could feel his erection against her
stomach get harder and harder as he massaged her, and as he felt her wetness
cover his fingers.

Then he moved her onto her back, got down between her
legs, and his tongue did the rest.
 
She
sighed in joy as his tongue licked her as if he was licking something beyond special.
 
It was all a slow, long lick that felt like a
sweet, hot burn.
  
Reno was scorching her
with every lick.
 
She opened her legs
wider, lifted her body even closer to his mouth, and ran her fingers through
his wet hair.
 
She was loving her some
Reno.
 
She was loving the masterful way
he did her.
 
Until he did her too
well.
 
Until he mastered her too
much.
 
And she came.
 
Right in his mouth.
 
Her body started wiggling and her vagina
started having spasms, as she lifted up and down and moved around to handle the
feelings.
 
And Reno’s tongue kept
flicking her clit.

But in the middle of her cum, Reno got on his knees,
pulled her body closer to him, and shoved his dick inside of her with a push
that nearly took her breath away.
 
And a
cum she didn’t think could be any more intense, became even more heightened
that it had her trying to get away from him.
 
It was too intense.
 
But Reno was
fucking her full-force now, and kept pulling her back in.
 

Trina’s cum continued to apex as Reno fucked her.
 
He watched her with such love and affection
that he thought he was going to cry himself.
 
He loved being inside of her.
 
He
loved feeling the familiar tightness of her vagina and the way she hugged his
penis with every spasm her body produced.
 
And she was still cumming.
 
He was
making it his promise to make her continue to cum until he caught up with
her.
 
He knew how to hang.
 
His hang time was great.
 
But all he wanted right now was to fill her
up.
 
He wanted to pour into her until he
was pouring out of her.

And he did.
 
He
released a torrential flood into her pussy that caught even him by
surprise.
  
He had to lean down and grab
her, as the sensations overwhelmed him, and he continued to pound into
her.
 
“
Tree
,” was all he could say as he pumped and poured and fucked her
hard.
 
“
Tree
!”

It took several more minutes, and a lot more pounding,
before they finally felt the last of their cum.
 
Reno laid on top of her as heavy as dead weight, but Trina didn’t
mind.
 
He wasn’t heavy to her at
all.
 
He was her man.
 
A man with more problems than a Trigonometry
book.
 
But even with all of his issues,
and his history, being his wife, his one and his only, still made her feel as
if she was the most fortunate woman in the world.
 
There were ladies out there who would give
their right arm to be Reno’s woman.
 
She
knew it when she was a waitress trying to make it and he chose her above all
others, and she still knew it now.
 
She
wrapped him into her arms, and held on too.

“Hey,
Ma.”
 
Jimmy and Val were seated at the
kitchen table, with Dommi and Sophia beside them.
 
They were all eating dinner when Trina, in a
bathrobe, walked in.

“What are
you guys eating?”
 
She looked over
Jimmy’s shoulder.

“Omelet,
what else?” Jimmy responded.

Val looked
at him.
 
“What do you mean
what else
?
 
I cook many different dishes all the time.”

“You cook
lots of food,” Dommi said.

“Tell him,
baby,” Val said to Dommi.
 
“I cook lots
of food.”

Jimmy looked
at Trina and shook his head.
 
“Don’t
believe it, Ma.
 
Eggs are her
specialty.”
 
Jimmy lifted his fork filled
with yolk.
  
“Messy, runny eggs.”

Trina
smiled.
 
Although Jimmy was her stepson,
the fact that he was biracial just like Dommi and Sophia made most people
assume she was his biological mother.
 
She never disputed it.
 
“Thanks
for feeding my children, Val,” she said, as she headed for the
refrigerator.
 
“You’re a good girl.”

“Thanks,
Ma.
 
I’m glad somebody appreciates me.”
She gave her husband a playful jab.
 
“Oh,
and I made two extra omelets for you and Mr. Gabrini,” Val added.
 
“They’re in the microwave.”

“Thanks,
baby,” Trina said.
 
She was hungry.
 
She made a beeline for the microwave.

“Where were
you all this time?” Jimmy asked Trina.

“With your
father,” Trina said as she opened the microwave door, and pulled out one of the
two plates.

“What were
you doing with my father?” Jimmy asked mischievously.
 
Val elbowed him.

“They were
doing what they always do,” Dommi said, to the shock of everybody except
Sophia.
 
Sophie was too busy enjoying her
meal.

“And what do
they always do, little man?” Jimmy asked him.

“What they
always do together,” Dommi said.
 
“They
make noises.”

Jimmy
started laughing so hard he had to bend over.

Trina looked
at Dommi.
 
“You talk too much, little
boy,” Trina said to him.
 
“What do you
know about it?”
 
It was no laughing
matter to her.

“I know you
and Daddy make a lot of noises.”

“What kind
of noises?”
 
Jimmy asked him.

“Never mind
that,” Trina said.

“Loud
noises,” Dommi responded to Jimmy.
 
“They
play a lot together.
 
Like when I’m with
my friends at school.
 
Loud noises like
that.”

“Oh,” Trina
said, feeling better that she wasn’t turning her little boy into some
pervert.
 
“Right.
 
Play noises.”
 
She made a mental note to remind Reno about creating a way to close off
the entire wing whenever they were “playing together.”

Just as she
stood at the center island and began eating one of the two omelets, Reno came
into the kitchen.
 
Unlike Trina, he was
dressed.
 
Only he wore a pair of jeans
and a sweat shirt.
 
But as soon as he
entered, Dommi, and then Sophie, ran to him.
 
They hadn’t seen their father all day.

“Daddy!”
Dommi said, and Reno lifted him into his arms.

“There’s my
son!” he said.

“Daddy!”
Sophia said, following Dommi.
 
Reno
lifted her into his arms as well.

“There’s my
baby!” he said.

“This my
daddy,” Dommi said, as if to remind Sophia that he was the true special one.

“This my
daddy,” Sophia said, copying Dommi.

“He was my
daddy first,” Dommi responded.

“He was my
daddy first,” Sophia copied.

“No, he
wasn’t,” Dommi said.
 
“Jimmy said you was
still in Mommy’s oven when I was already cooked and seasoned with salt and
pepper!”

“Lord,”
Trina said, shaking her head.
 
Jimmy and
Val laughed.

Reno,
carrying both of them back to the island, shook his head too.
 
“Leave it to Beaver,” he said of his little
boy.

“They don’t
cook a boy,” Sophia said.
 
“Do they,
Daddy?”

“Not
usually,” Reno responded.
 
“But when it
comes to my boy---”

“Reno!”
Trina warned.

Reno
smiled.
 
“No, baby, they don’t cook
little boys,” he said.
 
“Not even mine.”

He sat them
both back down at the table.
 
Only he sat
them in the wrong seats.
 
Dommi handled
that.
 
He took his plate from in front of
his baby sister and placed it back in front of him.
 
But he shoved her plate out of his way
entirely.
 
Sophia began to cry.

“Don’t cry,
Lexie,” Reno said, kissing her on her forehead.
 
Lexie was his nickname for her. He pushed her plate in front of her and
then he looked at Dommi.
 
“Keep on,” he
warned him.

Dommi,
afraid, immediately tried to help feed his sister.

“Hey, Dad,”
Jimmy said.
 
Then he smiled and looked at
Dommi.
 
“That’s
my
daddy,” he said.

“Don’t get
him started again,” Trina said, and Jimmy laughed.

Reno stood
behind Trina, resting his hands on her waist, and looked at the omelet she was
eating.
 
“Eggs?”
 
He frowned.
 
“Who in the hell cooked eggs for dinner?”

Val blushed
to the roots of her hair.
 
Jimmy saw it
and looked at his father.
 
“My wife
cooked eggs for dinner,” he said.
 
“You’ve got a problem with that?”

Reno glanced
at Val.
 
He knew how terrified she still
was of him.
 
“I don’t have a problem,” he
said.

Jimmy
continued.
 
“She was just trying to feed
your children while you were off, quote-unqote, ‘
playing
’ with Mom.”

Reno
frowned.
 
“What are you talking?
 
I don’t play with my wife.”

But Trina
looked at him and shook her head.
 
“I’ll
explain later,” she said.
 
Then she
lifted her fork to his mouth.
 
He ate a
heaping helping of the omelet.
 
But when
he ate it and didn’t comment, she ribbed him.

“Oh, it’s
good, Val,” he quickly said.
 
“The best
pile of shit, I mean eggs, I’ve ever eaten.”

Jimmy
couldn’t believe him.
 
He looked at his
father.

“I mean
eggs,” Reno said.
 
“I meant eggs!”

Jimmy shook
his head.
 
“You are terrible at going
along to get along, you know that?”

The intercom
sounded.

“What are
you talking?” Reno asked.
 
“I gave her a
compliment.”

“Backhanded
if ever there was one,” Jimmy responded.

“It’s okay,
Jimmy,” Val said.

“No, it’s
not okay.
 
He called your wonderful meal
a pile of shit.”

“He didn’t
mean that, and you know it,” Trina said.

“No, now,
Mom.
 
You can’t let him get away with
that.”

“I’m not
letting him get away with anything.
 
You
weren’t bragging about those eggs either, until Reno showed up.”

“That is so
true,” Val said with a laugh as the intercom sounded again.
 
“So don’t even try it, Jimmy.”

“What did I
do?” Jimmy asked.

Reno walked
over to the intercom on the kitchen wall and pressed the button.
 
“Yeah?” Reno said into the speaker.

“Your guests
have arrived, sir.”

Trina looked
at Reno.
 
He closed his eyes and exhaled.
 
“I’ll be there,” he said into the intercom,
and then released the button.

“What
guests?” Trina asked him.

Reno didn’t
even want to discuss it.
 
“Guests,” he
said, and began heading out of the kitchen.

“Aren’t you
going to eat something first?”

“No,” he
responded, and left.

“Can I go
with Daddy?” Dommi asked Trina.

Since Trina
was reasonably certain Reno wouldn’t let her go with him at this point, she
shook her head.
 
“Maybe next time, baby,”
she said to her son.
 
And then she looked
after her husband.
  
Her only prayer was
that, whoever wanted a favor from him, and she was certain, given his mood,
that it was those kind of guests, he told them no.

In the
beginning he wasn’t going to tell them anything, he decided, as he entered his
suite of offices.
 
His staff was
enormous, and every one were busy, except for the three men who sat like
soldiers against the wall.
 
Palameri,
Parks, and Balentino.
 
Three men he knew
for years.
 
They stood to their feet when
he entered the suite.

“Hey, Reno,
how you doing?” Balentino had a grand smile on his face, as did the other two.
But they weren’t friends and Reno knew it.
 
They were mere acquaintances who desperately needed his help, or they
wouldn’t be there.
 
And he was not the
kind of man to play those kind of games.

“Hold my
calls, Peg,” he said to his secretary as he walked pass the men and headed for
his office.

The three
men looked at each other, with that
I
told you he was an asshole
look on their fat, white faces.
 
But they didn’t hesitate.
 
They followed him into his opulent office.

He wore
jeans, a sweatshirt, and tennis shoes, which annoyed them even more.
 
He was treating them as if they were a
nuisance and not worth treating as fellow businessmen.
 
As if they were interrupting his life when their
very lives were hanging in the balance.
 
But he was all they had.
 
They
continued to smile and were going to continue to play the game.
 
They needed him.

But Reno let
them do the talking.
 
He needed more
information first.
 
He had a gut feeling
about it, and he took under advisement what Sinatra said about Provensano, but
he needed to hear what they had to say.
 
And they talked their hearts out.

They sat in
front of his massive desk with solemn looks on their faces.
 
They told of all the territory they had
already lost.
 
They told of all the
revenue that had been snatched from their coffers.
 
They were headed for financial ruin, they
told Reno.
 
They needed him.

“To do
what?” he finally asked them.

They looked
at each other.
 
They’d already told him
what.
 
They’d told him what a hundred
different ways.
 
But they knew he was
that kind of asshole.
 
He would help, but
not before he made you beg.
 
“We need you
to stop Provensano,” Palameri said.
 
“He’s going to ruin us if he keeps taking our territory.
 
We’ll have nothing left!”

Reno stared
at Palameri.
 
He was the ring
leader.
 
He was the one driving this
train.
 
“Why is he taking it?” he asked
him.
 
“From what I’ve heard, taking
territory isn’t Provensano’s style.”

“People
change, Reno.
 
It’s desperate times out
here.
 
People are taking what they need.”

“Why is he
bothering you guys?
 
No offense, but why
would he box down like this?”

“Because
he’s a fucking lunatic!” Parks said.
 
“Why are you asking us all of these questions?”

Parks’
comment offended Reno greatly.
 
“You come
to me for help, to put my reputation on the line to help you guys, and you
don’t expect me to want answers first?”