Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) (27 page)

“You’re
light as a feather,” he said after sitting her down.
 
He sat down beside her.
 
“I couldn’t lift Trina that easily even if my
life depended on it.”

Grace
smiled.
 
“I’m sure she wouldn’t care to
hear you say that.”

“Like
hell.
 
She knows how I feel about
it.
 
That’s why I make her ass eat.
 
I don’t like skin and bones on a woman.
 
I like curves.
 
Trina has curves and she’d better keep’em
too.”
 

And
Reno meant it.
 
He loved how his wife
felt in his arms, and how he felt lodged inside of her.
 
He was a man who had to have something to
hold onto.
 
And it had better not be
bones.

Like
last night when he took her to bed.
 
The
way he fucked her.
 
He got a hard-on
when
 
he woke up this morning just
thinking about last night, and fucked her again.

“What
about you?” he asked Grace.

“I’m
enjoying myself.”

“I
heard that punk-ass ex-boyfriend of yours tried to ruin your day.”

Grace
smiled warily.
 
“He didn’t try, he
succeeded.
 
Admirably.”
 
Then she frowned.
 
“But I don’t even think about that.”

“You’d
better think about it,” Reno said.
 
“That
was a horrible thing to witness.”

“No,
I know it was.
 
That’s not what I
mean.
 
I mean I can’t let it ruin my
day,
 
not one second of it.
 
Cam knew what he was doing.”

“Damn
right he knew!”

“He
wants me to be traumatized and devastated.
 
And yeah, I was for a minute.
 
But
then Tommy came to town and he hasn’t gone out of town on any business trips
since it happened.
 
I feel very fortunate
actually.
 
It’s brought Tommy and me
closer.”

“Which
means,” Reno said, staring at her, “you weren’t as close as you could have been
to begin with.”

Grace
looked at Reno.
 
“We’ve been working on
it.”

“What’s
the problem?”

“I
don’t think there’s a problem.”

“Then
you’re deluding yourself,” Reno said firmly.
 
“There is a big-ass problem if you’re still working on a relationship
with a man you’re supposed to be marrying soon.
 
The relationship work should have been over and done.
 
Now it’s time to start working on the
marriage.”

“It’s
still the same relationship,” Grace said.

“That’s
where you’re wrong, sweetheart.
 
The way
I treat Trina versus how I treated that tail I used to chase is the difference
between night and day.
 
And you know
why?”

“Because
she’s your wife.”

“Right.
 
She’s the only one.
 
That’s why I’m telling you it’s a huge
difference between before marriage and after marriage.
 
If you’re still putting out the garbage in
your before-marriage relationship, then you’re not ready for marriage.
 
Because all you’re going to do is bring that
garbage right into that marriage.”

Grace
covered her mouth as tears appeared in her eyes.
 
“I know,” she said.

Reno
frowned.
 
“What are you so concerned
about, Grace?
 
Tommy loves you.”

“I
know he does.
 
And I love him.
 
But . . .”
 
She looked at Reno.
 
“The women.”

“From
his past?”

“Some,
yes.
 
But mostly in his present.
 
I mean they’re falling out of the woodwork,
Reno.
 
You would think I had stolen a
million dollars from them.”

“Well,
hell, you have!
 
We’re talking Tommy
here.
 
He’s the real deal.
 
That man has the look, the style, the heart,
the money.
 
He’s the total package.
 
You think those chicken headed females gonna
let that get away without a fight?
 
I’m
surprised they haven’t been camped out outside of your house after he made that
engagement announcement.”

Grace
smiled.
 
“You’ve got a point,” she said.

“So,
please, Grace, don’t let those women play with your mind.
 
They were the ones screaming for an open
relationship when he didn’t have anybody.
 
But as soon as he commits to someone, they suddenly want him to commit
to him.
 
They can kiss your ass,” Reno
said.
 
“And you need to make it clear to
them.”

Grace
felt so inexperienced and almost petty.
 
To have a man tell her what she should have known all along was
embarrassing.
 
But she agreed with him.

“Yes,”
she said.
  
“You’re certainly right.
 
I can’t let them see me sweat.”

“Now
we’re talking.
 
Because trust me.
 
Tommy’s my best friend.
 
Outside of my wife and children I love him
above any other human being.
 
I would die
for that man.
 
He’s worth it like
that.
 
So for a man of integrity like
Tommy to ask you to marry him is all you need to know.
 
He asked you.
 
You said yes.
 
End of
discussion.
 
Get your ass married and
really give them something to talk about.”

Grace
laughed.
 
“You’re a very . . . hard
person, but very warm too.
 
If that’s
even possible.”

Reno
laughed.
 
“No, it’s not,” he said and
Grace laughed.
 
“But I get your
point.
 
My wife says you’re afraid of
me.”
 

Grace
didn’t deny it.
 
She thought about it
though.
 
“I wouldn’t say afraid of
you.
 
You’re just a little more
hard-charging than I’m used to.
 
But I am
getting used to it.”

Reno
nodded as his cell phone began ringing.
 
“Yeah,” he said, pulling it out, “you’re afraid all right.”

Grace
looked at him with a smile on her face.
 
He was so unpretentious and honest that she found him refreshing.
 

“Speaking
of the devil,” Reno said when he saw his Caller ID.
 
“It’s the wife.”
 
He answered his phone.
 
“Yes, love,” he said into the phone.
 
“I was just complaining about you.”

Trina
was in her office, seated behind the desk, and tears were in her eyes.
 
Many of her female friends said she was blind
as a bat, and that Reno was cheating on her left and right.
 
They didn’t have proof, but they’d heard this
rumor about him and some woman, or that rumor about him and some other woman,
and loved to run and tell her.
 
Even
Jimmy said people were asking him about it too.
 
Sometimes she wondered if she was the biggest fool this side of living
for trusting her husband so completely.
 
She knew she wasn’t, but sometimes she couldn’t help but wonder if she
was.
 

“Hey,”
she said into the phone.

Reno
hesitated.
 
He knew her.
 
“What’s wrong?” he asked.

There
was a hesitation.

“Tree,
what is it?”

“Belle
Patrone came to see me,” she said.

Reno
glanced at Grace.
 
Then he jumped down
from the banister and began walking a few feet away from her.
 
“Did she?”

“She
did.”

“What
did she want?”

“She
wants you,” Trina said.
 
“What do you
think?”
 
Trina calmed back down.
 
She didn’t mean to snap.
 
“And she says you want her,” she
continued.
 
“She says you had her when
you and Jimmy were in Atlantic City, and you had her again when we were at the
mayor’s house the other night.”
 

There
was a pause.
 
A long one.
 
“Why didn’t you tell me you saw her while you
were in Atlantic City, Reno?”

“It
doesn’t matter.”

“Why
didn’t you tell me, Reno?”

“What
the fuck difference does that make?”
 

Grace
heard him raise his voice.
 
She looked at
him.
 

“You
know I didn’t bother with that woman, why do
 
you keep acting like that shit matters?”
 
Then he settled down too.
 
And
frowned.
 
“But it is curious as hell,” he
said.
 
“Why would she claim something
like that?”

“Because
she wants you for herself just like all of these other females around here I’ve
had to contend with.”

Trina
said that and then placed her fingers on her forehead, rubbing it.
 
Sometimes being Reno’s wife was a burden in
more ways than one.

Reno
could feel her frustration.
 
He
exhaled.
 
“I didn’t touch Belle like that
when I was in Atlantic City, and I certainly didn’t touch her like that when we
were at the mayor’s house.
 
You know
that, babe.
 
Don’t you?”

Trina
nodded her head.
 
“I know.
 
But sometimes it . . .”

“Sometimes
it’s more than you signed on for.
 
Isn’t
it?” Reno asked this and then steeled himself for the answer.

Trina
wasn’t going to lie.
 
“Yes,” she
admitted.
 

Reno’s
heart dropped, but what could he do about it?
 
His past was messy as hell and the blowback always blew back on
Tree.
 
That was why he spent so much time
toughening her up.
 
She had to be tough
to be his woman.
 
Just like Grace was
going to have to toughen up too to be Tommy’s girl.

“I
think it’s about time for me to pay Miss Patrone an unannounced visit,” he
said.
 
“Especially since she might have
also had a hand in our little accident the other night.”

Trina
was floored.
 
“Belle?” she asked.
 
“Why would you say that?”

“This
guy we went to see led us straight to the mayor’s house.”

“Where
Belle’s staying.”

“Right.
 
So either our good mayor is trying to do us
in, or Belle is.
 
My money’s on Belle.”

Trina
exhaled.
 
This changed everything.
 
“You think she wants to kill you?”

“No.
 
I don’t actually.”

“But
that’s exactly what could have happened if that fool in that car the other
night hadn’t been so inept.”

“I
know.
 
But he was told to ram us, not
kill us. No. I think she was trying to send a message.”

“Or,”
Trina thought, “since he hit us on the passenger side, maybe she was trying to
send me a message, by getting rid of me.”

“She’s
not that crazy.
 
What, she think I’m
going to lose the love of my life and then just forget about it and fall in her
arms?
 
Not bloody likely!”

“But
maybe you should take Sal with you, or Tommy?”

“I
can handle Belle, Tree, don’t worry about that.”

“But
Isn’t Grace with you?” Trina asked.

“Yeah,
she’s. . .yeah.”

“Bring
her to the store.
 
She can spend the rest
of the day with me.”

“Like
hell she can,” Reno said.
 
“If she wants
to be a Gabrini, she needs to know what that means.
 
She needs to be tried in the fire.
 
Tommy’s been babying her ass too long.
 
He treats her like some kid.
 
He’s too possessive with her.”

“Oh,
really, Reno?
 
And you aren’t possessive
with me?”