Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full (24 page)

“Sing or die, those were his options,” Reno said.

Compton laughed.  “Yeah, I heard about you Italians.  Respectful thugs is what y’all think y’all are.  But you know what?  I say you’re just thugs like the rest of us.  Coldblooded thugs.  But what do I know, right?”

“Why did you send Jody to Mississippi?”  Reno couldn’t gather a lot of intel on this guy, but he did find out from several sources that he was no bullshit artist.  He was a man who didn’t beat around any bushes. 

“He owed me money,” Compton responded, true to his rep.

“He owed you money for what?  His accounting business?”

“For drugs.”

That stopped Reno cold.  “Jody was an addict?”

Compton smiled, revealing a front row of gold teeth.  “A very good customer.  He plunged his business into bankruptcy buying blow from me.  And then later, he started buying on credit from me, claiming all kinds of big paydays that never paid out.  He owe me big time.”

“So you recruited him.”

“Didn’t have to.  The homework was already done.  His debt would get paid by a certain third party if he successfully cozied-up to Mrs. Gabrini.  That was the deal.  I’d get my money, since I for damn sure wasn’t going to get it from him, and he’d be debt free.  At least free to rack up another trail of debt with me.”  Compton said this with a smile too.  “But he’s a smart cat, that’s why I kept letting him buy on credit.  I knew he would be useful eventually.  And he was taking care of business just like he was supposed to take care of business.  Ladies like Jody and your wife was no exception.  She liked that big, strapping, handsome black man.  Until you interrupted his flow.”

“Fuck his flow,” Reno said, and Compton laughed. 

“But that’s the deal, man.  He was supposed to get close to your wife.”

“Why would anybody want him close to my wife?”

“Inside intel, if you ask me.  But I’m just guessing.  It’s not for me to know, and I for damn sure don’t care.”

Reno didn’t want to ask the ultimate question too soon.  That could end the conversation before he had all of his questions answered.  “What about Shay Grayson?” he asked on a hunch.  “She one of your customers too?”

“Most definitely,” Compton said without hesitation.  “One of my most faithful customers.  But I’m sure you already knew that.  Considering.”

“Considering what?”

Compton didn’t respond to that.

“You recruited Shay too?”

“Like I said, the work was already taken care of.  I didn’t have to recruit anybody.   They were already recruited.  This certain third party knew I could persuade them to handle it.  So I was paid to persuade.  And I’m very persuasive.”

“Are you saying Shay Grayson owed you money too?”

“Come on, man!  Money isn’t her issue.  Being found out is.  Being exposed is.”

“As an addict?”

“Among other things.  Oh, I’ve got a treasure trove on that girl.  She’s a freak from another planet!  She was an easier recruit than Jody Parks.”

Reno was impressed with his candor.  But he knew that could be a set up too.  “Why would you do this certain third party all of these favors?” Reno asked him.

“Money.”

“Your business is doing well, from everything I’ve heard.  You aren’t exactly starving.”

“Yeah, but it’s not every day somebody’s got the guts to go after the Gabrinis.  That’s why they came to me.  They knew I would be, how do I put it?  A sympathetic ally.”

“My son didn’t kill your brother,” Reno said flatly.

“I don’t know that.”

“Like hell you don’t.  Those cops killed the kid that iced your brother.”

“Yeah,” Compton said, “or they silenced the witness that could have fingered your son.”

Reno knew trying to convince him of Jimmy’s innocence was pointless.  “Who’s pulling the strings?  Who’s this certain third party?”

Compton frowned.  “Lee Jones,” he said matter-of-factly.  “Who the fuck else?”

Reno’s heart slammed against his chest.

Compton smiled when he sensed Reno’s distress. “Everybody in Vegas knows he can’t stand your ass.  Everybody knows, that is,” he added, “except you.”  Then he laughed.  “That’s why I loved it.  The PaLargio’s main man has been playing the great Reno Gabrini like a fiddle, and your Mafia ass didn’t have a clue!  In the name of my brother’s memory, in the name of revenge alone, it doesn’t get any better than this!”

Jimmy woke up later that next morning alone in bed.  Which wasn’t unusual.  Melita was an early bird.  He was certain she was already in the kitchen as she usually was, preparing breakfast or just working on her computer. 

But when he got out of bed and saw a thin trail of blood on the hardwood floor, he frowned.  “What the fuck?” he asked.

He stood up, and began following that trail as it continued out of the bedroom, down the hall, and into the kitchen.  But Melita wasn’t in the kitchen the way she usually was in the mornings.  But that trail of blood was there. 

He continued to follow the trail across the kitchen floor.  He wanted to call her name, but words wouldn’t come.  He couldn’t take his eyes, his hammering heart, or his concentration, off of that trail of blood.

When he opened the kitchen door that led into the mudroom, where the trail still led, his heart dropped.  No longer was there a trail of blood, but a bloodbath.  On the walls, on the door, all over the floor.  Blood everything.

And that was when he panicked. 

“Melita!”  he yelled.  “
Melita
!”

He searched the home, outside the home, calling her name.  But there was no Melita.  There was no response.  Just the echo of his own voice.

Reno sat on the front edge of his desk, his arms folded, as he listened to one of his young staffers make a pitch for why he felt he should become his chief of staff.  The office was filled with such staffers, all hard at work, but this young man had an audience with Reno.  Reno’s mind, however, was a million miles away.  He had to think this thing through.  Something was off about the whole thing, and he had to think it through.

They were pointing the finger at Lee.  First Shay accused Lee, and now Compton Durail was declaring Lee Jones, Reno’s best friend and right hand man, was out to get him.  Lee Jones, Comp said, was playing him like a fiddle.  Reno hadn’t told a soul.  Not even Tree.  She’d be as devastated as he was, and he was already devastated for both of them. 

But the young man stayed in his face, making a compelling case for himself.  He wasn’t his smartest staffer, he was telling Reno, but he was his toughest.  “And in our line of work,” the young man had the nerve to say, “toughness trumps smarts any day of the week.”

Reno glanced at Boz, his security chief, who was also in the office.  “Get a load of this kid,” Reno said jokingly.  “Think he’s got the balls to move me out?”

“He wish,” Boz replied, only he wasn’t joking at all.

And that was when Jimmy entered the office, walked straight up to his father, and put a gun to his father’s head.

The staffers gasped and jumped from their seats and Boz immediately moved to pull out his own weapon.  But Reno held up a hand, ordering his man to stand down.  Reno kept his eyes on his son.

“Jimmy,” he said calmly, “pull that trigger now, or put that gun down.”

  Jimmy was trembling with anger.

“Jimmy,” Reno said again, “pull that trigger now, or put that gun down.”

Jimmy’s anger was already frayed, but when Reno repeated those words, his anger dissolved into despair.  Which was what it looked like to Reno all along. 

Jimmy’s hand went limp and he removed the gun from his father’s head.  Boz hurried over and took the gun out of Jimmy’s hand.

Reno was still staring at his son.  His despair was palpable.  He looked at his staff.  “Everybody out,” he said to them.  And he didn’t have to ask twice.  They were glad to go.

“You too, Boz,” Reno said to his security man.  Boz didn’t like it, but Reno was the boss.  He left too.

Now it was just father and son.  And son was anguished.

“What happened?” Reno asked him.

“You know what happened,” Jimmy replied.  “What did you do to her, Pop?  How could you do that to me?  You know I love her!”

“Tell me what happened.”

“Just tell me she’s alive.  Tell me your men didn’t kill her.”

Reno stared at his son.  What the fuck!  “Jimmy, what happened?  Tell me what happened!”

Jimmy looked at his father.  It was the first time he realized his father might not have in Melita’s disappearance.  Which scared him even more.

A puzzled look engulfed him.  “What are you talking?” he asked his father.

“What are
you
talking?” his father asked him.

“You don’t know?  You didn’t order it?”

“Order what, Jimmy?  Tell me!”

If Reno wasn’t behind it, Jimmy thought, then who was?  Knowing that his father wasn’t the mastermind made it more, not less, terrifying.

“Melita,” Jimmy said.

“What about Melita?”

“I woke up.  There was blood.  In the mudroom, everywhere.  And I can’t find her. I searched the house, I searched the neighborhood, I called her cell phone fifty times.  But I can’t find her.  I thought you. . . I thought you. . .”

Reno ran his hand through his hair.  Ever since Shay Grayson made that allegation against him, he’d been on edge, waiting for that next shoe to drop.  He knew it wasn’t over.  Jody Parks proved that.  He had his people listening for chatter, to find out if any heat was on the street behind him, but nothing was turning up.  Now this.  They snatched Jimmy’s girlfriend just after Reno made clear there would be no marriage.  As if whoever snatched her wanted to make sure Jimmy blamed Reno. 

It was all coming back to Reno.

Somebody had a powerful motive against Reno.

And he remembered what Compton said.  Lee Jones was the one.  He was the hater.  He couldn’t stand Reno’s guts and everybody knew it.  He was playing Reno.  And everybody knew it.

“Let’s go,” Reno said to his son, as he began walking toward the door.

“Shouldn’t we call the cops, Pop?” Jimmy asked, still reeling by what he witnessed this morning, by the implications of a stranger abduction.

“Let’s go!” Reno ordered this time, and Jimmy didn’t hesitate this time.  He followed him.

Lee Jones looked up from his desk when Reno and Jimmy walked in.  He started to smile and welcome them, but he saw that cold look in Reno’s eyes.

“Reno, hey,” he said.  “What are you doing here?”

But Reno wasn’t in the mood for conversation.  He walked past Lee’s desk to the window behind him.  Then he lifted the window, grabbed Lee violently, and slung his upper body out of that window.

“Pop!” Jimmy yelled, stunned witless.

“Reno, I can fall!” Lee was shouting.  They were on the thirtieth floor and there wasn’t even a ledge outside.  “What are you doing, Reno?  Reno, I can fall!”

But Reno knew exactly what he was doing.  He had to hear the truth.  Not some watered down version of the truth.  But the gospel truth.  “Admit you lied to me!” he yelled to his best friend.

“Reno!”

“Admit you lied!”

“Reno!”

“Pop!”

“Admit you lied, motherfucker, or I’ll splatter your ass on that sidewalk, you know I will!  Admit you lied!”

Reno pushed Lee’s body further out of the window.

“Okay!” Lee yelled.  “I lied! I lied!  I
lied
!”

It broke Reno’s heart to hear him say it, but he pulled him back in.  Jimmy was able to breathe again, and Lee moved over to the side wall, and then slid down to the floor.

“Get up,” Reno ordered, but it was impossible.  Lee’s legs were like mush and his heart felt as if it had been rammed down his throat.  He could hardly speak, let alone move.

Reno sat down too, behind Lee’s desk, and turned the swivel chair to face him.  This wasn’t exactly easy for him either.  But he had to know the truth. He was tired of this shit now.

“Tell me,” Reno said

Lee leaned his head back and stalled, like a man who knew he was on borrowed time.

“Where’s Melita?” Jimmy asked him.  “Do you know what happened to Melita?”

“No,” Lee said.  “I don’t know anything about that.  I don’t. . .”  He looked at Reno.  “They made me,” he said.

“Who made,” Jimmy started, but Reno cut him a look that stopped him cold.  And Reno looked at Lee.  He stared at Lee. He had to hear everything now.  No more half-tales.  Everything.

And Lee continued telling it. “They said they’d kill her if I didn’t do it.”

“Kill who?” Reno asked.

“Melita?” Jimmy asked.

“Tracy,” Lee said.  “Our daughter.”

Reno couldn’t believe his ears.  “Your daughter?  What daughter?  You don’t have a daughter!”

“Yes,” Lee said, nodding his head.  “I do.  And they found out about her.  And they took her.”

Jimmy looked at his father.  Reno leaned forward, staring at Lee.  “Somebody kidnapped your child?”

“Yes.  They said Shay had to make that public accusation against you, or they would kill Tracy.”

Reno frowned.  “But why would Shay agree?” he asked.  “Why would she care?”

Lee grimaced, as if the pain of just saying it was excruciating.  “Three years ago, Shay was staying here, at the PaLargio.  She was taking a few days off from her world tour, you remember.   We. . . we hooked up.  It was nothing to either one of us.  She just had to have it all the time and I was just as good as anybody, I guess.”  He exhaled.  “But she got pregnant.”

Jimmy was astounded.  “Shay Grayson is the mother of your daughter?” he asked.

“That’s why she made that accusation,” Lee continued.  “To protect our child. We kept Tracy away from the spotlight.  Far away from it.  Shay went to Paris to have her, in a private villa, and we kept her away from the limelight.  Nobody knew.  Not even my best friend,” Lee said and looked at Reno. 

“But somebody took the kid?”  Reno asked.

“They took her.  They found out where she was and took her.  That’s why we had to do it, Reno.  They already had Trace when they contacted me.  They already had her.  They let her go as soon as Shay’s allegations against you went public.  And we put our child into hiding again.  That’s why Shay was able to recant her story so quickly.”