CHAPTER FOUR
Trina looked at the man that sat beside her on the bed.
He was better looking than Reno. Younger.
More athletic. A man who listened to her and didn’t judge her.
Who never flew off the handle over every little thing.
Who treated everybody as if they were the most important person in the world to him.
He was everything Reno was not. It should have been the easiest decision of her life.
But it wasn’t. Not for her. Not even for him.
They both were upset, although she was wiping tears away.
“I didn’t come all this way for this, Trina. We can’t keep doing this. He should be able to understand.”
“But he won’t,” Trina shot back. “And I know I shouldn’t care after all the shit he’s pulled, but I do care. I didn’t want it to come to this, Von. I never wanted it to come to this.”
“It’s been going on too long. You’ve got to tell him the truth, Tree. There’s no two ways about it. You’ve got to tell him.”
“I know what I got to do,” Trina snapped. “You don’t have to tell me what I got to do. You’re making it sound like it’s the easiest thing in the world, but it’s not.”
“It’s not easy. I know it’s not easy. But we can’t keep going on this way. Don’t you understand that? I can’t keep going on this way. This shit killing me too! I’m involved in this too. You’ve got to tell him, Tree. You’ve got to.”
Her tears intensified. She grabbed for more Kleenex tissues from the box on the nightstand, but they were too thin. She got up to go into the bathroom where the real tissue was.
“Tree,” he said as he grabbed for her hand.
“Von don’t,” she said as she snatched her hand away. “Just stop.”
“This isn’t something you can run away from. Not anymore. You’ve been running, and running, and running. That’s over. Either you tell him, or I will.”
“You will?” Trina looked at him as if she was looking at him for the first time. “You don’t know anything about my husband.”
“I know what you’re saying. I know he’s supposed to be this tough guy that’s always voted the most powerful man in Vegas. Used to run his old man’s mob operation. I heard all that shit. But I also heard his bark is worse than his bite.”
“That’s what your ass think. You haven’t seen his bite.” Then she scrunched up her face. “And I love him,” she said with pure emotion in her voice. “I don’t wanna hurt him ever. Not ever, Von. You don’t understand that,” she said as she turned toward the bathroom again.
But he grabbed for her hand again. This time she snatched it away with emphasis and hurried toward the bathroom.
She barely made it half-way there when, as sudden as a flash of lightening, a massive four-by-four pickup truck came barreling through the front of the small motel room and slammed into the bed, knocking Von violently against the back wall as if he was a rag doll.
Trina turned as soon as she heard the crash and was so stunned to see a truck speeding towards her that she turned to get away with such rapidness that she slipped and fell.
Then she sat on her ass backing up as fast as she could, trying with all she had to get out of harm’s way.
Was it a drunk driver? Was it a senior in a medical emergency?
But she quickly realized it was no accident at all when gunmen jumped out of that truck with their weapons drawn.
They fired numerous slugs into Von, as his lifeless body remained caught between the mattress and the wall, and then they turned their weapons onto Reno Gabrini’s wife.
The very reason why they came. And they began firing on her too.
Trina could feel heat and pain coursing through her body as she heard the gunfire.
Then she could feel her consciousness leaving her body as her hands desperately clawed against the wall trying to pull herself up.
But there was no grip to be had, just a smooth, hard surface, and she ended up sliding right back down.
“Reno!” She cried out with a voice that sounded like a scream to her, but it was barely a whisper. “Reno, help me! Reno!”
But as it all faded to black, even she knew it was too late for that now.