Reno Gabrini: A Family Affair (13 page)

“Yes, sir,” the driver said, and did as he was
told.
 

Reno arrived back inside of the penthouse later that
night.
 
When he saw Trina’s beautiful
black body in bed, he removed his clothes and got in behind her.
 
But she wasn’t having it.
 
She didn’t know where he’d been.
 
She was half asleep, but she was still
Tree.
 
“You’d better get your ass in the
shower,” she said to him.

Reno smiled.
 
“You don’t let me get away with shit!”

“Not ever,” Trina responded.

Reno shook his head, but he got out of bed, and
showered.

By the time he returned to bed, Tree was fast
asleep.
 
But Reno knew her.
 
He knew exactly how to wake her up.

When he removed the covers, slid on top of her, and
began sucking her breasts, she began to snap out of it.
 
When he moved up further, and began kissing
her furiously, she began coming back to life.
 
When he put his cock inside of her, and began to gyrate slowly, and then
a little more, and then in full rhythm, she was wide awake.
 

She wrapped her legs around him as they kissed and
fucked.
 
They made love for a wondrously
long time.
 
He pushed into her and kissed
her and she returned his strokes and affection.
 
She had no idea where he had been.
 
It was late at night and she knew for a fact he had not been at the
PaLargio all night.
 
But as he continued
to fuck her, she wasn’t interested in questioning him about his
whereabouts.
 
She trusted Reno.
 
She loved him so much, she loved how he put
it on her so completely, that she had no choice.
 
She had to trust him.

“There’s my gorgeous grandbaby,” Reno said the next
morning, a big grin on his face.

Little Madison smiled when she saw her grandfather
approach, and began flapping her arms and leaning toward him.

Val, carrying Madison, had just walked into the
lobby of the PaLargio just as Reno and Quinn were about to walk out.
 
“Hey, Reno,” Val said with a smile.
 
“Hey, Quinn.”

“Hey,” Reno said to his daughter-in-law as he took
his granddaughter in his arms.
 
“Hey,
little baby girl,” he said jovially as he bounced her.
 
“Look at Maddie Mae.
 
Look at my Maddie Mae!
 
I’m your grandpa.
 
That’s right!
 
I’m your grandpa.
 
And I know
already.
 
You’re wondering how in the
world could a man my age be anybody’s granddaddy?
 
I’m too young to be anybody’s daddy, let
alone your
grand
daddy.
 
But here’s the trick: I had your father when
I was only five years old.
 
That’s
right.
 
I was a baby myself!”

Val laughed and shook her head, and Madison grinned
and put her knuckle in her mouth, staring at her grandfather.

Quinn looked at Val with whimsy in her eyes.
 
“Did you realize how humble your
father-in-law can be?”

“I’ve heard,” Val said as Reno continued to bounce
and play with Madison.
 
“He gets more
modest every day.”

Quinn and Val laughed.

“It’s so good to see you again,” Quinn said to
Val.
 
“And what a nice sight to
behold.
 
Don’t you look all sexy today!”

When Quinn made that comment, Reno glanced at Val’s
sizeable cleavage coming out of the waist-high zip-up jacket she wore.
 
Val blushed when he looked at her that
way.
 
She still hadn’t been able to shake
her attraction to him, and she never ever wanted him to know it.
 
But she knew how she always made it a point
to dress extra-sexy whenever she visited his turf, the PaLargio, and that fact
flew in the face of her desire for secrecy.

“You’re here to see Jimmy?” Quinn asked her.

“I am actually,” Val responded.
 
“He left so early I forgot to give him the
tickets for the game this afternoon.”

“The one at UNLV?”

“Right,” Val said.
 
“I picked them up yesterday for him and his friends.
 
But knowing Jimmy, I just knew he was going
to head straight to the game without even realizing he doesn’t have the
tickets.
 
That’s why I knew I had to drop
by.
 
Is he around?”

“He’s on the floor,” Reno said as he kissed his
grandbaby one more time and then handed her back to her mother.
 
The
floor
, Val knew, meant that Jimmy was working inside the Casino.
 
“We’d better take off,” Reno added.

“See you around, Val,” Quinn said, and headed out in
front of Reno.
 

Reno began leaving too but stopped once he was side
by side with his daughter-in-law.
 
Val
could smell his aftershave, he was so close.

“Zip it up,” he ordered her.
 
“Your husband will get to enjoy the view, but
so will every flesh pounding joker in this joint.
 
Zip it now.”

 
Anger filled
Val’s heart and she looked at Reno.
 
How
dare he tell her how to wear her own clothes!
 
But when she saw that look in his big, blue eyes, and realized he was
showing concern for her rather than any kind of judgment or slight, she
relaxed.
 
She was naked in front of Reno
once, begging him to fuck her by her actions alone, but he didn’t take the
bait.
 
And he even counseled her on what
was then her failing relationship with Jimmy.
 
She knew what kind of man he was, and she respected him to the
highest.
 
“Yes, sir,” she said, and
zipped up her jacket.
 
Her overexposed
cleavage was secured.

Reno knew Val had a schoolgirl crush on him.
 
But not because of him specifically, he felt,
but because of Jimmy’s inattentiveness.
 
Reno told that boy time and time again that he had to make love to his
wife, not just give her a quick bang that paid no attention to her needs.
 
But Jimmy was one of those big cock young
bucks who was too sex crazed to hold back.
 
He was the wham bam king.
 
If he
could get off in five minutes or less, he figured Val had better learn how to
get off in that same timeframe too.
 
He
was going to change as he got older, Reno knew, but he prayed he changed before
Val’s patience ran out.
 
Because Val was
a good girl, a beautiful girl, worth holding onto.
 
The fact that she zipped that zipper without
giving him any lip was more evidence of it to Reno.
 
“That’s my girl,” he said to her, squeezed
her arm, and left.

Val let out a bullet-dodging exhale after he walked
away from her.
 
She almost exposed more
than her cleavage, and she knew it!
 
That
foolish crush on Reno was going to be the death of her,
or her marriage
, yet.
 
“Pull
it together, Val,” she said to herself, and hurried to find her husband.

Reno’s Porsche pulled up alongside the big Dodge and
Ford trucks at the construction site, and he and Quinn stepped out.
 
They were standing in front of the upturned
ground for Reno’s new office building, and Bob Ernst, his Project Manager, was
making his way across the mounds of dirt toward him.
 
He was a muscular black man who wore a
hardhat and big, steel-toe boots.
 
Quinn
had come onto him once too, but he rebuffed her.
 
Reno threw a lot of business his way.
 
Reno looked out for African-American contractors
that way.
 
Bob wasn’t about to let any
entanglement with some cute assistant harm his bottom line.
 
“What do you think, Reno?” he asked as he
approached.

Reno wore sunglasses and didn’t bother to remove
them.
 
“I think you’re making good
progress.
 
Although I was hoping for
more.”

Bob smiled.
 
“You’re killing me, man.
 
Nothing
satisfies you!”

Reno smiled too.
 
“Just keeping you honest,” he said, and Bob
laughed.

“I told Reno about the joist problem,” Quinn said to
Bob.
 
“I told him you said it could pose
a delay.”

“That’s right,” Bob said.
 
“They delivered the wrong ones, Reno.
 
I’m talking by the tons.
 
I’m working on correcting that issue as we
speak.
 
But it will delay us a bit.”

“How long?”

“Two, three days, given the size of the order.
 
I’m praying no longer than a week tops.”

Reno nodded.
 
“Keep praying.
 
A week I can give
you.
 
But no more.”

Reno’s cell phone rang.

“There won’t be any more screw ups, I promise you,”
Bob said, as Reno checked his Caller ID. When Reno realized who it was, he
answered and moved away.

Although Quinn continued to smile and chitchat with
Bob, she was worried.
 
She had no idea how
it went with Chap last night.
 
He was
supposed to call her afterwards, but she received no call, no text, not a
thing.
 
She had been blowing up his cell
phone all night and early this morning, but he wasn’t answering.
 
She couldn’t track him because his tracker
was disabled.
 
She knew he checked out of
the hotel yesterday, in preparation of the drop, and they were supposed to meet
up at her place afterwards.
 
But Chap
didn’t show up.
 
Now they were breathing
down her back asking if her brother took the money and ran.
 
She assured them he had not.

When she saw Jimmy this morning he was behaving as
if the drop had gone well enough.
 
He had
no idea Quinn was involved, or that Chap was her brother, so he didn’t have to
put on any show for her.
 
That was why she
felt confident the drop had been successful.
 
Jimmy was behaving as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
 
He was behaving as if he gave up the money,
and got the reassurance that his secret would never be exposed.

But where was Chap?
 
He wasn’t dumb enough to run off with the money.
 
He knew he’d be dead within the hour if he
tried that shit.
 
Or did he?

Reno returned to their side.
 
“I’ve got to run,” he said.
 
“Bob, have one of your men take Quinn back to
the PaLargio, will you?”

“I sure will, Reno,” Bob said.

Quinn looked at Reno.
 
“Everything okay?” she asked.

“It will be.
 
I’ll talk to you later,” he added, and Quinn and Bob watched as he got
into his car, and sped away.

“Wonder what that’s about?” Quinn asked, still
gravely concerned.

“Whatever it’s about,” Bob responded, “it’s got
nothing to do with us.”

But Quinn wasn’t so sure.

It had everything to do with Dominic.

Reno sat in the principal’s office with the
principal, a parent introduced as a judge, and a little boy no older than Dommi
himself.
  
The principal wouldn’t discuss
the affair until Dommi arrived from his classroom, which made the judge comment
just who exactly was running this school.
 
But Reno remained mute.

When Dommi finally arrived and saw his father
sitting in the principal’s office with his legs crossed, his arms folded, and
sunglasses still on his face, he knew he was in deep shit.
 
He also knew he had to stand up for himself.

“What’s this about?” Dommi asked, playing as dumb as
possible.

“Have a seat, Dominic,” the principal ordered.

Dommi didn’t particularly respect his
principal.
 
Unlike Reno, the principal
was a man who would often threaten to punish Dommi in all kinds of ways, but
never did.
 
Dommi figured it was because
he didn’t want to lose that tuition money his parents paid every year for him
to attend such an expensive school.
 
If
his father wasn’t there, he would ask more questions of the principal before he
sat down.
 
But his father was there.
 
He sat down in the chair across from
him.
 
“What’s this about?” he asked again.

“You know your father,” the principal said, “and you
know Roger, your classmate here.
 
This is
Roger’s father, Judge Zanderfeld.
 
He
says Roger informed him last night of something very troubling.”

“Yeah?” Dommi asked.
 
“Like what?”

“Stop asking questions and listen,” the principal
said.
 
But Dommi also saw the principal
glance over at Reno after he said it, as if he was wondering if he had sounded
too harsh.
 
Reno didn’t move a muscle,
and the shades he wore didn’t give away anything.
 
Dommi decided to unnerve his principal even
more.

“I thought you said we couldn’t wear sunglasses
inside the school house,” he said.

The principal frowned.
 
“What are you talking about?
 
Of course you cannot.”

“Nobody can?”

“You know the rules, Dominic.”

“Then why can my daddy wear sunglasses in the
schoolhouse if nobody else can?
 
The
rules don’t apply to him?”

Reno wanted to smile but kept a straight face.
 
Trina always warned him about encouraging
that boy’s outrageous behavior.

But the judge looked at Dommi with alarm.
 
“What is the meaning of this?” he asked
Reno.
 
“You allow your child to speak to
his principal so rudely?”

Reno ignored the judge.
 
“Why am I here?” he asked the principal.

The principal exhaled.
 
“You are here,” he said, “because your son is
running what they perhaps call in your world, the casino world, an extortion
ring.”

Reno frowned.
 
“A what?
 
What the fu . . . what
are you talking about?”