Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 (7 page)

“Answers,
answers,” Palameri said.
 
“What’s to
know? There’s nothing to know.
 
Provensano is trying to muscle us out of our areas and we need a heavy
weight to muscle him back.
 
We need your
muscle, Reno.
 
We wouldn’t be here if
there was another way.”

“What did he
do to you?” Reno asked Palameri.

“What are
you talking about?
 
This shit ain’t
personal!
 
It’s all of us involved in
this.”

Reno stared
at Palameri.
 
“What did he do to you?” he
asked again.

“He didn’t
do anything to me!
 
What’s with you?
 
Why are you trying to make this out of what
it’s not?
 
We need your help.
 
You can help us with the lift of a
finger.
 
Why are you acting like this?”

It used to
be automatic for Reno.
 
He didn’t like
bullies and if anybody bullied the little guys, they always ran to Reno Gabrini
because they knew he would help them.
 
He
sat there and looked at those assholes treat him as if he was some punk for
wanting simple answers, as if his help didn’t come at an enormous price to
himself and his family, and he had a different feeling.
 
Because Trina was on his mind.
 
Because just before these losers came to see
him, she was crying in his arms.
 
His
actions were taking an emotional toll on her now.
 
It was getting to be too much.

She
understood how he lived his life, and there were going to be many times in the
future when she wasn’t going to like the risks he took.
 
She understood that.
 
But she didn’t have to change.
 
He did.
 
And that was why, going forward, the men he helped were going to have to
deserve his help.
 
Being bullied wasn’t
going to be enough.

Reno stood
up.
 
“I can’t help you,” he said.

The three
men stood up too.
 
“How can you turn us
down?” Palameri was shocked.
 
“We just
tossed our very soul out to you, and you tossed it back?
 
What are you afraid of?”

Even the
other two men looked at Palameri.
 
Then
they looked at Reno as Reno’s jaw tightened.
 
But he wasn’t getting in any balls-squeezing contest with this
prick.
 
“Get out,” he said.

Parks tried
to pull Palameri along with them, but Palameri jerked away from him.
 
“You used to be the shit, Reno,” he
said.
 
“Men used to fear you with a
trembling fear.
 
What happened to that
man?
 
Why is he running around like some
hen?”

Reno began
walking from behind his desk.
 

“Palmie,
come on,” Parks said.
 
He was terrified
for his friend.

But Palameri
wasn’t thinking about anybody else.
 
His
eyes were on Reno.
 
“I used to look up to
you like that too.
 
Reno looked out for
the little guy.
 
We could always count on
Reno.
 
Shit, he’s the most powerful man
in Vegas, even that magazine said so.
 
Why wouldn’t we look up to a man like that?
 
Now look at you.
 
Caught jungle fever and became a patsy.”

Reno was in
his face now, and Palameri stood his ground.
 
The other two men quickly backed away.
 
But Palameri needed Reno’s help far more than the other two men did.
 
He was out the most by Provensano’s
moves.
 
He stood his ground.
 
Reno had to respect a man who stood his
ground.

But instead
of respecting the man who just called him a patsy, Reno took his hand, placed
it on the back of the man’s neck, and then shoved his face down onto the desk
so hard that it immediately gashed and drew blood.
   
And Reno showed no mercy.
 
He continued to pound Palameri’s face into
the desk.
 
“This patsy,” he said, “told
you to get your ass out of his office.
 
This patsy,” he continued to pound, “is not going to tell you
again.”
 
He lifted Palameri’s bloody head
up once and for all.
 
“Now get the fuck
out of my life and stay the fuck out.”
 
Reno tossed him toward his buddies.
 
“Before I really kick your ass,” he added.

The other
two corralled Palameri as they hurried out of Reno’s office.
 
Palameri looked back at him, with an eye
already nearly swollen shut, but he quickly looked away.
 
He had forgotten who he was talking to.
 
He had forgotten who he was dealing with.

And when the
door closed shut, Reno ran his hands through his already messy hair and
exhaled.
 
This shit was taking a toll on
him too.

He went to
his adjoining bathroom, grabbed a towel, and cleaned up the blood stains from
his desk.
 
Then he went back into the
bathroom, tossed the towel in the waste basket, and washed his hands.
 
Then he walked back behind his desk, and
plopped down.
 
He was too emotionally
spent to work.
 
He pressed his intercom
button, and asked for Quinn to come in.
 
She was in his office in seconds.

“Yes, sir?”
she asked, hurrying to his desk.
 
She had
seen the state of one of the men who had just left the office.
 
She wanted to know what had happened
too.
 

But Reno
wasn’t sharing his personal business with her.
 
He wanted to know about the cops.
 
“Are they still upstairs, or have they cleared out?” he asked.

“They’re
gone,” Quinn said.
 
“Mr. Sinatra, of
course, was moved to a different room while the police cordoned off that area.”

“Any
complaints from Sinatra?”

“No,
sir.
 
None.”

Reno
nodded.
 
“Good.
 
I’ll invite him to dinner tomorrow night, if
he’s still in town.
 
That’s the least I
can do.”

Quinn was
pleased to hear it.
 
She was going to
figure out a way to wiggle herself an invitation too.
 
Mick, understandably, didn’t want to bother
with her tonight, but she would see to him bothering her tomorrow night.
 
After dinner.

“Anything
else?” she asked her boss.

“That’s it,”
Reno said, and Quinn left.

Less than
five minutes later, while Reno was still trying to decompress, Trina walked
through his office door in what he considered was her usual perfect timing.
 
He felt a great sense of relief, when she
walked in.

Like Reno,
she was casually dressed too, in a pair of cuffed shorts that highlighted her
gorgeous brown legs, and a puce-colored tucked-in blouse.
 
The little belly she developed after having
Sophia was gone.
 
Reno leaned back and
smiled.
 
“Hey, beautiful,” he said as she
approached him.

But Trina
was like Reno: she didn’t play games either.
 
She could see the stress all over his face.
 
She walked behind his desk, stood beside his
chair, and leaned against the desk edge.
 
She folded her arms and crossed her legs at the ankle.
 
Reno put a hand on her thigh.

“What was it
about?” she asked him.

He ran a
hand through his thick hair.
 
Trina
noticed how, once it dried, he didn’t bother to comb it.
 
“They need help,” he said.

Trina prayed
he didn’t say yes.
 
“And what did you
tell them?”

Reno
exhaled.
 
“To take a hike.”

Good, Trina
thought.
 
“But they didn’t like your
answer, did they?”

Reno
smiled.
 
“To put it mildly.
 
One of them, Palameri, called me a Patsy and
a hen.
 
He said I caught jungle fever and
went all soft on him.”

“That
bastard.
 
Was he able to walk when he
left out of here?”

“He could
walk.
 
Whether or not he could see?
Questionable.”

“He had some
nerve.
 
All you do for people around this
town, but it’s never good enough for them.
 
I say fuck’em.”

“I’m
beginning to say the same thing,” Reno agreed.
 
“I was sitting here listening to them go on and on about what some
big-shot mobster was doing to their small-time asses, and how badly they need
my help, and all the while I’m wondering why do I do it.
 
Why do I keep putting my neck out for
assholes like them?
 
They wouldn’t do it
for me.
 
Not one of those pricks would
dream of helping me.
  
And
appreciation?
 
Forget about it!
 
Like you said, I help them out, then they
come back for more and more and more of me.
 
But the first time I don’t have anything left to give, they turn on
me.
 
Just like that.
 
You’re right.
 
Fuck’em!”

“But don’t
beat yourself up, Reno.
 
You helped them
all those times before because it wasn’t about them.
 
It was all about the principle to you.
 
You didn’t like the big guys trying to squash
the little guys.
 
You hate it.
 
But most of those little guys you help, Reno,
are stone-cold gangsters.
 
I hate to say
it, but most of them get what they deserve.”

Reno
smiled.
 
“You sound like Mick.”

Trina
frowned.
 
“Like who?”

“Mick
Sinatra.”

“The guy in
our Presidential suite?”

“Right.”

“The
dignitary you didn’t bother to mention to me was paying us a visit?”

Reno
smiled.
 
“Right,” he said.
 
“And before I forget,” he added, “he may be
coming to dinner tomorrow night.”

Trina
considered him.
  
“You almost never
invite non-family members to dinner.
 
Not
even the real dignitaries.
 
What is it
about this guy?”

“Well, he is
family in an off-hand way,” Reno said.

This
surprised Trina.
 
“How so?”

“He’s Sal
and Tommy’s uncle on their mother’s side.”

“Oh.
 
The mother that hated their guts?”

“Right.”

“The mother
that Sal had to take out before she took out Gemma?”

Reno
nodded.
 
“Right.”

Trina
frowned.
 
“Why would you want to cater to
him?
 
Are he and Sal close?
 
I know he’s not close to Tommy.
 
Tommy has always refused to have anything to
do with that side of his family.”

“And he
doesn’t have, or want to have anything to do with them either.
 
It’s not about that.
 
I heard about him when I was a kid.
 
He’s a legend where I come from.”

“Just
because he stood up to your father?”

“And because
of his toughness.
 
But standing up to my
father was a big-ass deal.
 
Don’t
minimize it.
 
Remember now, he was a kid,
he’s not that much older than I am, standing up to a major mob boss.
 
That was like Dommi standing up to me.”

Trina
laughed.
 
“That’ll never happen.”

But Reno
didn’t agree.
 
“Someday it will,” he
said.
 
“Jimmy’s tough like that too, but
he’s coming around.
 
I don’t think Dommi
ever will.
 
I’m going to have to go
toe-to-toe with that kid one day.
 
He’ll
know who’s boss in the end, but it’s going to be a battle royal.”

The idea of
her precious little boy battling her precious husband was a thought Trina
couldn’t begin to accept.
 
But she knew
Reno was right: Dommi was going to be a rough one.
 

Reno could
see the concern in her eyes.
 
“Come
here,” he said, and pulled her down onto his lap.
 
He held her and kissed her on the lips.
 
“I’ll have to set him straight one day,” he
said, “but don’t worry.
 
He’ll get out of
it alive.”