CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
They had him in the guest house, under tight security, in one of the bedrooms. He knew they wouldn’t tie him up.
Capos had a deference to bosses. Especially one as big as Moose use to be.
All of them heard stories about his legendary status.
All of them knew before Mick, he was the king of the mountain. He was counting on that deference.
When they locked him in that bedroom with nothing in it, not even a bed, he knew it was a safe house masquerading as a guest house. But that was alright by him too. He wasn’t going to be long. He had everything he needed at the touch of his finger.
He was a large man, and those flabby batwings behind his triceps seemed befitting for a man his size.
And half of it was natural flab. But the other half was a moveable part.
Moose removed what looked like his natural skin from beneath the flab of his triceps and pulled out the remote that would change the course of Gabrini history. It would end it right here.
It was a remote control, a GPS system, and a communication device all in one.
He pulled up the GPS first and went to Google Earth.
They thought they were disarming him when they removed all weapons and his phone from his person.
But the flab they left alone. It felt like skin.
It looked like skin. It fit like skin. To those capos who called themselves frisking him, it was a fat man’s skin.
That was why all of his guards felt comfortable enough to stay inside the house, prepare them something to eat, and play cards at the table. It was a deadly mistake.
But it wasn’t their first mistake. Because before Moose even arrived at the Gabrini compound, he had small devices that looked like regular fingernails on his fingers ready to strategically place.
First, it was the guard booth at the gate.
When his limo first drove up, and as his driver was talking with the capos on duty, he casually reached out and pressed the device on the post next to the car.
His driver knew to pull in as close to that post as he could, and that was exactly what he had done.
Now Moose only had to press the number 1 on the remote, and that would be the end of the guards, the post, and the booth. That was set up and ready to go.
Then, when the capos were escorting him into the guest house, he pressed device number 2 from his fingernail against the front door’s doorjamb.
And once they took him into that bedroom, he placed a far less-lethal device number 3 against the back wall of the bedroom after they locked him in.
But then he waited. And as soon as Google Earth showed Reno, Tommy, Sal, and Mick the Tick himself getting into that Escalade and driving away, he put his plan into action.
Now, it was time for him to disable all communications. That would be the first sign of trouble. And all it took was the press of his remote, which he had tied to the utilities for that compound. He pressed button number 9.
When he pressed button number 9, all phone service, wi-fi, and electricity of any kind died on the entire property.
But before any of them understood what was happening, and he could hear the capos up front complaining that the lights and internet just went out, he moved as far away from the wall as he could, and then he pressed number 3 on his remote.
A sudden hole was blown into the back wall in a very small explosion.
Moose hurried to that hole and ran outside and as far away from that guest house as he could get.
But after he was safely away, and just as the men were unlocking his bedroom door to find out what that small commotion was about, he pressed button number 2 and a huge commotion was set off.
The entire guest house blew up with all of those capos tasked with guarding him trapped inside.
Moose’s driver, who was locked in a different room, blew up too. Which didn’t bother Moose in the least.
But before that big explosion happened, Trina was antsy inside the house and felt a strong urge to smoke a cigarette.
She was no smoker. But whenever she was seriously upset, and if the mood hit her just right, she would take an occasional puff.
Reno would beat her ass if he knew, and that was why nobody knew.
She went out back, on the patio alone, and took a few puffs.
But that was when she saw Moose Vatelli running out of the back side of the guest house. She immediately rose to her feet because she didn’t know what was happening, but she knew it was something that wasn’t supposed to be happening.
And that was when she heard the guest house explode.
Before Moose even saw her, she ran back inside yelling for everybody to get outside. She knew what Reno had done to Moose Vatelli’s family. She knew he had blown up that entire house. She was convinced that was exactly what Moose, who was loose, was about to do to their house.
“Everybody get out!” she was yelling from the top of her lungs as all of the children and everybody else, supervised by Jimmy and Dommi, were running for the front exit. “Get out of the house and get out now!”
“But what about the safe room, Ma?” Jimmy was saying.
“No!” Trina cried. “No safe room. It’s going to blow. Get out now!”
And everybody did as she ordered. They all ran out of the front of the house even as Moose was running toward the side of the house to plant his device number 4.
But before Trina even had a chance to yell for the family to get out of the house, and before the guards at the gate could run to the aid of the capos guarding their prisoner when the guest house exploded, Moose pressed button number 1 and the entire guard crew up front were blown up with the booth, the post, and even the gate itself tore apart by the impact of the explosion.
The family was running out of the front door, afraid that they were running straight to another explosion, especially after the guard station exploded, but when Trina was outside smoking and she saw Moose on the backside of the house, she wanted the family to run in the opposite direction.
She wasn’t sending them right into his clutches.
Now Moose had only to get to the main house, place a device on the exterior wall, and press button number 4.
But when he saw family members running outside, he knew he had to trap some inside, and trap those in the yard right where they were.
Those still inside were Jimmy and Dommi, who was checking to make certain everybody had gotten out. When they saw that everybody was safely out, they ran out too.
But as soon as they made it onto the front porch, Moose pressed device number 4 against the front side of the house and showed his remote.
“Don’t move another step,” he yelled at Jimmy and Dom, “or I’ll blow you up just like I blew up that front guard booth and that guest house.
This house is armed with an explosive device the same way too.
I control it. Don’t anybody on that porch and in that front yard move another step, or I’ll press this button and all of you are dead! ”
Those on the front lawn froze, and Jimmy and Dommi froze too.
“You try to shoot me,” Moose warned them, “and I’ll press this button going down. My hand is already on it. All I have to do is apply a little pressure, which it will naturally do. So don’t even try it!”
While he was saying those words, the Escalade drove up outside of the property and the Gabrinis and Mick saw the destruction of the guard booth, the gate, and all of the capos that had been killed.
As their hearts dropped, they jumped out of the SUV with all their guns drawn, and ran onto the property.
And that was when they saw Moose. And that was when Moose yelled for them to put their weapons down.
“Or I’ll blow up both of these black boys on this porch to the outer limits, and every single member of your families in this yard. Drop your weapons!”
They all were amazed that he could have pulled this off while in their custody, as they dropped their weapons.
Everybody was there and all of the younger people were crying and terrified.
“If we move, he’ll press that button, Daddy,” GiGi was crying to Tommy. “He’ll blow up Jimmy and Dommi.”
“It’s alright, baby,” Tommy was saying as Grace pulled GiGi closer, and held onto their children. Tommy couldn’t get to his family. Sal couldn’t get to his family. It was a horrific situation.
And Reno was beyond distraught when he saw what his actions had caused. He looked on that front porch at his two trapped sons, and in that front yard at all his trapped children, and family, and his heart sank. But as he looked closer, it sank even further.
Reno didn’t see Trina.
He saw their children, but he didn’t see their mother.
Mick noticed it too. He and Reno glanced at each other with a look in their eyes that asked the same question: Where the fuck is Tree?
Jimmy and Dommi were inwardly asking the same question.
They didn’t see their mother out on the lawn either.
She was the last in the house along with them.
They thought she had gone out ahead of them like they told her to.
But they didn’t see her in the front lawn, and they knew she wasn’t on the front porch with them.
Was she trapped inside the house? Would he press that button and blow their mother to bits?
But Trina was not a stationary gal. She stayed back on purpose. Mainly to arm herself, but also to find out what Moose was up to.
When she heard Moose talking up front, she ran out of the back door.
When she ran around the side of the house and could hear Moose barking orders to her family, she knew she’d made the right call.
With a Glock in one hand and a Ruger in the other hand, she made her way around the side of the house where his voice was emanating from, as he told them about how he singlehandedly disabled their wi-fi and electrical circuitry with the push of a button, and how he could do so much more if they tried in any way to harm him.
She didn’t know what she was going to do, but she knew she to sneak up on him.
And the only way she was going to do that, was to walk very gingerly and slowly toward his back.
Reno was the first to see her. Mick, Sal, and Tommy saw her too. But they all knew better than to give it away. They looked away from her, to ensure Moose didn’t get suspicious, but they were afraid Reno couldn’t pull it off. Because they could see the fear in his eyes.
Trina was their only hope. But what if it backfired? What if he was able to press that button if she tried a sneak attack? She was too close to that house. She and his sons would be the first to go. Reno was far more on edge than any of them were. Although they all were on edge.
But when Moose was about to tell everybody why he was there and what Reno had done to his family, Trina knew she had to make her move now. She could not allow Moose Vatelli to tell their children what Reno did to his family. It would kill Reno if they ever found out.
“Did you tell them why I’m here to destroy your family, Reno? Did you tell them? Did you tell them what you did to my family, Reno?”
“You picked a war with him,” Sal said, trying to deflect Moose too. “You started it, and he finished it.”
“But that’s not what I’m talking about and you know it, Sal Luca,” Moose said. “You know what I’m talking about.”
And when Moose began saying I’m talking about that night, Trina didn’t delay.
She made the decision to shoot him, not in the head, but in the wrist of the hand that held that remote.
If she missed, they all were dead. But they all were going to be dead anyway, if somebody didn’t do something.
And she was the only one in position to do something.
She ran up on Moose so fast that just as he was turning in her direction, she shot him in that wrist.
Everybody screamed in horror when she shot him, knowing that all he had to do was apply a little more pressure onto that button.
But he never got the chance. As soon as that bullet ripped through his wrist, his entire hand went numb, he lost total control of his hand, and that remote dropped out.
Jimmy and Dommi jumped off the side of the porch. Jimmy grabbed that remote, removed that device from the side of their house. Then he removed the battery out of that remote.
Mick and Reno ran to make certain Moose was dead. Tommy and Sal ran to their young children and their wives, comforting them.
But as they heard the sirens signifying that the police were already on their way, they realized that Moose wasn’t dead. He was still breathing, though raggedly. But Mick looked at Reno, and Reno looked at Mick. Reno wanted to be the one, but Mick wouldn’t allow it. Not with his children nearby.
So Reno knelt down and shielded Mick as Mick pressed his fingers to Moose Vatelli’s throat until he was gone. There was no way they were leaving that stone unturned.
Then Reno got up, went to Trina, looked at her with nothing but admiration and love in his eyes, and pulled her into his arms.
“You wouldn’t let him tell them,” Reno whispered to her. “You acted before he could tell my children what I had done. I will always love you for that.”
And Trina, filled with admiration herself, squeezed her eyes shut as she held onto Reno with nothing but deep affection.