CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Reno and Trina sat up in bed surrounded by their children. They were at their suburban mansion near Sal and Gemma’s house, the home they rarely visited, still trying to recover.
The TV was on, with what seemed like around-the-clock coverage of the PaLargio fire, and one reporter ended her segment this way: “I can only imagine how Reno Gabrini is feeling tonight after seeing his beloved penthouse go up in smoke. And there was a gun battle, and then a small explosion before the big explosion? What in the world is going on at the PaLargio?”
Trina grabbed the remote. “You bitch,” said Trina as she was turning off the TV. “That’s what’s going on at the PaLargio. You.” Then she tossed the remote onto the nightstand. “Some people can be so insensitive!” she added.
But every one of their children knew exactly what that reporter meant. They were asking themselves that same question too.
But they didn’t want to discuss it anymore than their parents did. They wanted to forget. They wanted to keep going.
“Now that the penthouse is gone, at least for now,” said Carmine, “where are we going to live Daddy?”
We’re going to live here,” Jimmy responded. “In our home.”
“Which is fine by me,” said Sophia. “I was never that big on living in a hotel anyway.”
“Me either,” said Jimmy.
“Since both of you are grown and can live anywhere you want to live,” said Carmine, “I see your complaints as moot points. But by virtue of my age, I’m not allowed to make my own decisions even though I’m as capable, if not more capable, than everybody in this room.”
Jimmy and Dom laughed.
But Sophia rolled her eyes. “You are so full of yourself, Carmine Gabrini,” she said.
“And you aren’t?” Carmine shot back.
“Okay, everybody out,” said Reno. “Go check on hour cousins. What are you laying around here with us anyway? You should be with your cousins, not with your parents.”
But they still were reluctant to go. All four of their children very much wanted to be certain that any talk of divorce, or their parents splitting up even temporarily, was over. But they dared not ask it. They left.
When they left the room, Reno slid down in bed and laid his head on Trina’s lap. They showered and ate and got in bed. That was their routine after the cops cleared them to leave the currently-closed PaLargio. Now Reno was so tired, he couldn’t even sit up anymore.
Trina softly rubbed his hair as he closed his eyes and relaxed. They remained where they were for the longest time. Their home at the PaLargio was gone, as were the two floors beneath it, but they felt at peace.
There was no peace for Reno after it first happened. He was so enraged that he was ready to go it alone again and handle it himself. He would have gone all the way to Rome to get that bastard Moose Vatelli if he had to.
It got so bad that Tommy had to call Mick Sinatra to talk Reno down from the ledge.
It was obvious Moose Vatelli had more reach than they thought for him to be able to reach all the way up to Reno’s penthouse.
All the various security mechanisms had to have been paid off for anybody to get beyond the lobby of the PaLargio, let alone all the way up to his penthouse.
But if Lydia was telling the truth and her father had just found out that it was Reno, not some rival gang, that took out his sons and their entire families, then Moose was returning the favor.
But even Reno didn’t realize he had the muscle to return that favor to the degree he tried.
But he was obviously wrong. Going after a man with that kind of power, with both guns blazing, wasn’t going to work.
But Reno was still ready to go.
When they explained what was happening to Mick, he, too, knew they had to have a strategy first and foremost. And they needed him.
Mick never bragged, but if Moose Vatelli was able to even come close to pulling off what he just tried, they were going to need the king of the mountain to knock off a man who was behaving as if he was the king of the hill.
“I’m on my way,” Mick said. “Now shut the fuck up, Reno, and wait!”
To the outside world, it sounded cruel and uncaring considering what Reno and the rest of the family had just gone through.
But Mick was angry that they hadn’t called him in sooner.
He didn’t give a damn that he sounded cruel and uncaring.
They didn’t give a damn either just as long as he was on his way.
Besides, his style of handling the crisis worked. Reno seemed to respond to power that matched his power. And energy that matched his energy. He shut the fuck up, and was waiting.
Mick was in Philly, so his plane wouldn’t be arriving in Vegas for nearly six hours.
But Tommy and Sal saw that as a good thing too.
They first needed to find out where the breach in security happened, and they all needed time to decompress.
All of them were at Reno’s house in the burbs with only Sal’s men on guard duty.
The breach came from Reno’s end. All of his security details were under investigation.
None of them were allowed anywhere near the family.
But despite all that they’d gone through, Reno and Trina, in their bedroom alone for the first time since the attack on the PaLargio, felt at peace.
But Reno, being Reno, still couldn’t entirely let it go. “I’m going to get him Tree. I’m going to take him down and everything even remotely associated with his fat ass when I get through with him.”
To Reno’s surprise, Trina agreed with him. “You have to,” he said. “Or he’ll still be gunning, not just for you and me, but for our children.”
Reno looked up at her.
“Nobody’s coming for our children,” she added.
It was moments like that when Reno loved Trina more than words could ever say.
She understood him. She never tried to sugarcoat it.
She never tried to tell him to back down and calm down and don’t overdo it.
There was no such thing as overdoing it when it came to their family. Trina was as gangster as Reno.
He leaned her face down to his face and kissed her with a kiss that made it clear to her exactly how he felt about her. No words were needed.
And then he moved her on top of him and continued kissing her.
He even prepared her with his fingers and with his mouth.
He even unzipped his pants and tried to enter her.
And it worked initially. He had a strong penetration.
But his mind was all over the place. He couldn’t sustain an erection. He eventually pulled back out.
Which was fine by Trina. She wasn’t trying to have an orgasm either. They were at peace, but that didn’t mean they were in fantasyland. They knew they were truly at war.
But with Trina still on top of Reno, and still in his arms, they didn’t have the juice to make love. But they plenty of juice to fall asleep. And they slept until nightfall.
Until they were awakened by Sal hurrying into their bedroom and shaking Reno furiously.
“Reno? Reno?!”
Reno opened his eyes. So did Trina. Both of them frowned when they saw that it was Sal.
“What your ass waking me up for?” Reno asked him.
“We got company.”
Reno knew Mick should have been there by now. “What company? Uncle Mick?”
“Moose is here.”
Trina lifted her head when he said that name.
But Reno was certain he heard it wrong. “Moose is where?” When he realized by the look on Sal’s flustered face that he heard it exactly right, his rage returned.
“I know that motherfucker not at my house,” he blared as he lifted a stunned Trina off of him, and got out of bed. “You got to be shitting me!”
“Do it look like I’m shitting you? He’s here,” Sal said as Reno was zipping his pants and hurrying for the exit. “He’s at the gate. He wants permission to see you.”
Reno glanced back at Sal. “What you told him?”
“I said hell yeah you wanna see him. At gunpoint. And I told my guys to check inside, outside, and underneath his car for explosives, or people, or anything else,” Sal said.
Reno agreed with Sal’s approach.
But Sal looked at Reno because Reno wore a pair of pants only, no shirt and no shoes, but it was obvious he didn’t care. Moose Vatelli was at the gate? At his gate? Had he been butt-naked he would have still been rushing out of that room. And Sal was rushing out right behind him.
Trina was wearing one of Reno’s big dress shirts as she got out of bed, but she quickly put on a pair of shorts and a pair of Sketchers slip-ins before running out behind them. But even as she was hurrying toward the foyer, she was as flabbergasted as Reno was.
Moose Vatelli at their house as if it wasn’t a big-ass deal?
As if his ass wasn’t the most wanted man in the world to them?
As if he had no shame?
Even Trina had to see this to believe it.