CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Trina, Jimmy, Dominic and young Carmine, along with Tommy’s wife Grace, sat around the dining room table as if they were at a Wake.
Other than Carmine, the younger members of the family were in the game room and family room, but you could hear a feather drop around that table.
They were all sipping coffee. Even Carmine.
They were all too afraid to even discuss what was going on with Reno.
Trina knew more than they knew, but she knew Sal wasn’t telling her all he knew. That’s up to Reno, he continued to say. And he also implied that that woman, that Lydia, wasn’t the whole story.
Then why would Reno bark out that D word if it wasn’t about Lydia? Who, then, was it about?
Trina felt more uneasy the more she learned.
She couldn’t get out of her head the way Reno looked.
He’d been spooked. That was for damn sure.
And probably had been into some kind of altercation that scared him too.
But Reno was never the kind of man who would tell Trina everything.
That was never going to happen. But if she ever saw him again, he was going to tell her something!
He was going to tell her way more than she already knew.
Grace looked at Jimmy. She knew how close he was to his father, and how often he had to defend him against evidence to the contrary. She could see how worried he truly was. She placed her hand on Jimmy’s hand and squeezed it. “He’ll be okay, Jimmy. He’s Reno. He always lands on his feet.”
Jimmy smiled and placed his other hand on top of Grace’s small hand. “Thanks, Auntie Grace. I know you’re right.”
“Although that’s not the point,” said Carmine.
Dom looked at him. “What your lil’ ass know about that? And why aren’t you in the back with the other kids?”
But Grace, like most adults, valued Carmine’s insights. “Why isn’t it the point, Carmine?” she asked him.
“Our father is a grown-ass man,” said Carmine.
“Watch your language, young man,” ordered Grace.
“But it’s a fact, Auntie Grace,” Carmine shot back. “All of this talk about how he always lands on his feet is not germane to the more salient point.”
“Which is?” Grace asked him.
“At our father’s age he shouldn’t still be landing on his feet,” Carmine said. “He should be grounded by now. That’s the point.”
Trina nodded her hand. “Carmine’s right as rain. Reno’s ass should be tired of landing on his feet or his ass or wherever else he lands. He should be grounded. He should be beyond all of this cloak and dagger bullshit he knows I hate.”
Grace was astounded by the way Trina and Reno used profanity around their minor son.
They did it when Jimmy and Sophia and Dominic were minors too.
Tommy would set Grace straight in a heartbeat if she even thought about speaking that way around their children.
Which she would try her best to never do anyway.
But that was Reno and Trina. They were like going to a car race when you know there was going to be wrecks all over the place because of the recklessness of their driving, but somehow they escape unscathed. That was Reno and Trina.
Grace’s prayer was that they would make one of those same escapes this time too.
But by the way Tommy was looking during their entire flight to Vegas, and wouldn’t even discuss it with her, she doubted if it was possible.
And then the door to the penthouse could be heard opening and without hesitation everybody jumped up and raced out of the dining room to get into the living room.
Trina moved the slowest as her heart wasn’t beating anymore, but was hammering against her chest. She was terrified of what kind of news was on the other side of that foyer.
Was the other woman, that Lydia, on the other side?
Was bad news on the other side? Was Reno and that woman on the other side?
When Sal, Tommy, and Robby Yale walked around that foyer looking as if they’d been in a life-or-death struggle, Trina’s heart didn’t feel any less mortified.
But when she saw Reno walk around that foyer and enter the living room too, a sense of relief came over her.
At least he was still alive. And wasn’t with that woman. That was something positive, she hoped.
“Daddy!” Carmine was the first to yell as soon as he saw his father. He, Dom and Jimmy all ran to Reno and threw themselves into his arms. So much so that they forced him several steps backwards.
But Reno held on. He was as happy to see his children again as they were happy to see him.
Trina saw his eyes squeezed shut as he held onto all three of his children.
She wanted to cry she was so happy that he came back home.
But when she looked over at Tommy, who was pulling Grace into his arms, she could tell it wasn’t as simple as that.
Especially when Grace looked up at him. “Is all okay?” she whispered to him, but Trina heard her.
She also heard Tommy’s response: “Not quite,” he said. Which was the way Tommy spoke. He was never melodramatic. Unlike the rest of the family, he always spoke in understatements.
Then Reno and his children stopped embracing. Reno looked at Carmine, and then Dommi, and then he looked at Jimmy. “Y’all alright?” he asked him.
“Yes sir,” Jimmy said as he wiped away a tear. “We’re just glad you’re back home.”
“Where you belong,” said Carmine.
Reno ruffled Carmine’s thick head of hair.
They never got along on any day of the week, but Carmine, like his other children, was Reno’s heart.
And Reno, like his siblings, was Carmine’s heart and soul and everything.
He was a terrible father with all of his Florence Nightingale cracks at Carmine just because Carmine loved to knit, but he was a great Dad.
And Carmine knew, by his actions rather than his words, that Reno loved him dearly.
That was why he fell into Reno’s arms again.
Everybody viewed Carmine as an adult because of his brilliant mind. But he was still just a kid.
And Trina and Reno knew it too. That was why Reno finally looked at Trina when Carmine hugged him again. He was fighting back tears too.
And in that moment he was sorry he came. Because he was getting their hopes up again, only to have to dash them again. Trina wasn’t going to want him. She was going to be the one to kick his ass out. And he wouldn’t blame her for a second.
“Anybody heard from my wife?” Sal asked.
“Her security detail chief called and said she’s still in court,” said Jimmy, “and probably will be for the next several hours. I ordered them to keep at least four men in court with her at all times.”
“Good looking out, Jimmy,” said Sal.
“Where’s Sophie?” asked Reno.
“In the back with Destiny and all the others,” said Dom. “Want me to go get her?”
“No,” said Tommy. He knew Reno and Trina had to have a conversation. “Let’s go in the game room.”
Sal frowned. “What for?”
Jimmy and Dommi looked at Sal and then motioned toward their parents. “Oh, right,” said Sal. “Sure, why not? I wanna play a . . . a game,” he said incredibly unconvincingly, as everybody left Reno and Trina alone in the living room.
Reno began to move slowly toward Trina. When he made it in front of her, she didn’t stutter. “Where’s Lydia?” she asked him.
Reno didn’t expect such directness, given the emotions of the moment, but he wasn’t surprised. Direct was Trina’s middle name. “She tried to get away,” he said, “but she didn’t.”
“What do you mean? She’s dead?”
Reno nodded. “Yes.”
Trina was floored. “What happened?”
“I told you what happened. She tried to get away.”
“To get away from what?”
Reno hesitated. “Me,” he said. “She was trying to get away from me. And I had to handle that.”
“Handle it? But I thought she was your woman. That she was the woman you wanted to leave me for.”
Reno closed his eyes and leaned his head back. If only it was that simple! “I wouldn’t leave you for another woman, Tree. And especially not that woman.”
“But you said that’s why you wanted a divorce.”
“You asked if a woman was involved. I said when it comes to our problems, there’s always a woman involved: You.”
“Reno, you’re not making sense. Make it make sense to me or shut the fuck up. Now what are you talking about? If your decision to leave me and our children isn’t about her, then what’s it about?”
“She came to me with information that her old man knew something. But it was a setup. We went to the hotel where she claimed she was staying, and that was when two of her goons tried to take me out.”
Trina’s heart dropped. “Were you harmed in any way?”
Reno shook his head. “I wasn’t, no. But they were.
And Lydia got away. Well, she thought she got away, but I had a tracking device on her body.
I was able to pinpoint her location. That’s when Sal and Tommy and Robby showed up.
Lydia had a small army of men with her and we were able to take them all out. ”
“And that’s when she tried to get away?” Trina asked.
Reno nodded. “Yes. That’s when Lydia tried to get away. But we plan to use her as leverage to smoke out her old man.”
“Moose Vatelli?”
Reno nodded. Sal told him that he told Trina about what Reno’s father did to Moose’s daughter, and how Reno covered it up. And about that fake will he and Lydia tried to pawn off on him that led to a mob war that Reno won.
“But why are they coming after you now?”
“Lydia said some guy that used to work for my old man recently got out of prison and needed ready cash. He sold his story to the Moose. A story that included what my Pops did to Moose’s little girl.”
But Trina could see the hesitancy in Reno’s eyes. “And what else, Reno?” she asked him.
Reno shook his head. “You don’t wanna know,” he said.
But Trina was adamant. “Nope. No, Reno, no. We are not doing that today. Not today. You’re going to tell me everything and you’re going to tell me now.”
Reno stared at Trina. She had that look in those sexy hazel eyes that made clear she was not going to be trifled with. She was not going to accept half-truths. He knew it was now or never. He knew he had to come clean.
“Sit down, Tree,” he said to her.