CHAPTER SEVEN
Trina saw Von as soon as she entered the diner.
At first she hesitated, as that feeling of dread came over her again.
She’d known this man for decades. There was a time, back in the day, when he comforted her when she needed it the most and they became more than friends. She knew this man in every way.
But sometimes she felt as if she didn’t know him at all.
She knew it was the horror of those memories that slowed her.
It was the wrongness of it. But he was no mirage.
He wasn’t somebody she could forget because of all the baggage that came with knowing him.
He and that baggage would always be as much a part of her life as the air she breathe.
There was no getting around it. She made her way to his booth.
Javon Douglas, a tall black man, stood up when he saw Trina heading his way. Always a gorgeous girl, he still couldn’t get over how sophisticated and elegant she looked as she walked his way. He always wanted her. And when he had her that one night, it was the highlight of his life. And still was.
“Don’t you look beautiful,” he said with a grand smile when she made it to his booth.
“Hey Von,” Trina said as they gave each other a hug. He wanted it to linger. She quickly drew back and sat in the seat across from him.
“Those glasses are giving serious sophistication,” Von said as he sat down too.
“I’m wearing these glasses because my ass half-blind,” Trina shot back. “Sophistication has nothing to do with it.”
Von laughed. Always serious. That was the Trina he remembered too.
Trina looked at him. “More came?”
“Plenty more.”
Her heart dropped as she motioned for him to hand them over. Von slid a small stack of photos across the table.
She lifted her glasses on top of her head, revealing even more starkly to Von her gorgeous hazel eyes, as she looked at those photos with unwavering attention.
“I thought you needed those glasses to see.”
“Not up close.” Trina was myopic. She could see fine up close. It was the distant sight that gave her fits.
But not as many fits as those photos were giving her. She even stopped going through the photos and closed her eyes in disgust. Then she exhaled, opened them again, and continued to peel through the remaining ones.
As she did so, the waitress came to their booth. “Coffee black for me,” Von said. Then he looked at Trina. “What would you like to drink, Tree?”
But Trina was immersed in those photos and didn’t so much as glance away or even realize she had been asked a question.
Von looked at the waitress. “Two coffees,” he said, and the waitress left.
The waitress would return with their coffees as Trina was going through those photos for the third time. It was as if she was looking for something that she might have missed. Like the camera angles. Like something in the background of one of those photos that might give her some clue.
But nothing was there. That was why she exhaled, put back on her glasses, and slid the photos back over to Von.
“Something else, isn’t it?”
Trina was nodding her head. “I should have known it would start up again,” she said. “I knew that shit would. But I was so afraid.”
“You did the right thing. You kept them at bay for a whole year. But this was inevitable.”
Trina nodded again. “And I knew it even then. But . . . I felt like my back was against the wall. I felt I would have told Reno by now. But I couldn’t.” Then she looked at Von with a seriousness that caught him short. “This shit can’t come out.”
“You don’t think I know that?”
“No matter what,” said Trina with a look that could not hide her sense of urgency, “this cannot come out.”
“I’m involved in this too, remember?” Then he shook his head. “It’s a mess, Tree. Just a mess. It’s a nightmare.”
“What’s the ask this time?”
“The same thing they wanted before they settled for what they could get last time.”
Trina was shaking her head even before he finished his sentence. “That’s not happening and their asses know it.”
“It’s absurd,” agreed Von. “And if they don’t know it, then they’re idiots. They have to know it. But that’s the ask. And Trina?”
Trina looked at him. “What?”
“They said this time they will not settle. And they mean it.”
Trina’s heart dropped. She leaned back in her seat.
“At some point you’re going to have to tell him, Tree.”
Trina didn’t respond. Her anguished face spoke for her.
“Maybe if I go to him and tell him,” said Von.
But Trina frowned. “You stay away from my husband, are you crazy? You don’t seem to understand what this will cost me. I’ll lose everything, Von. My husband, my children, my life! They will never want to have anything more to do with me, don’t you get that?”
Von got it. “Do you think, if he found out, that he’ll give in to their demands to save his reputation?”
“Hell no!”
Then Von said what he really wanted to ask. “To save yours?”
Trina looked at Von and her face turned even more anguished. “Yes,” she said as tears appeared in her eyes. “He would do that for me, yes. That’s the worst part of this. He’s done it for me before.”
Von frowned. “What do you mean?”
“He had to choose which one would die: me or Dominic, who was a baby at the time, or his son Jimmy. Sophie and Carmine weren’t even born yet. But Reno chose Jimmy to die and not me.”
Von leaned back in shock. “He what? How could he choose his own son?”
“He begged them to take him out. He begged them. But they wouldn’t do it. He had three choices and only those three choices: I had to die, Dommi had to die, or Jimmy had to die. And he chose Jimmy.”
“What was he thinking?”
“He was certain they were going to take him out anyway and Dommi would be without a mother and a father. That’s why he said he let me live. But everybody said I would have been the last one he chose anyway.”
Then she looked at Von. “And you’re asking me if he’ll make that sacrifice for me? Yes, he would. But I’ll never let that happen again. I was helpless before. I’m not helpless anymore.”
“So what do you plan on doing?”
Trina had a plan. She had a plan to go to Mick Sinatra. But she wasn’t about to tell him or anybody else about that plan.
When Trina didn’t answer him, he sighed. “We can’t keep saying no to these people, Tree.”
“I know that. You don’t think I don’t know that?”
“So what’s the plan? What are we going to do about it?”
“Did they give you a deadline?”
“Not yet. But I’m sure one’s coming.”
“Then call me when they give one,” Trina said as she began standing up.
“And in the meantime?”
“Keep living our life. That’s all we can do. And call me when they contact you.”
“Will do,” said Von. “But Tree?”
Trina looked at him.
“Why are they contacting me? You ever thought about that? How would they even know I knew about it?”
A distressed look came over her face. “You came over that night, remember? I cried in your arms.”
And one thing led to another thing, he wanted her to add, but she didn’t.
“Maybe they put two and two together,” she said. Then her face scrunched up. “I don’t know. That’s the worst part about it. I don’t even know who these people are. But anyway,” she said as she gave him a hug goodbye. And then she left.
Von watched her leave while his very soul was begging her to stay. He almost got up, ran to her, and told her how he truly felt. But he didn’t make any such move.
But it was only a matter of time.
Trina wondered about Von, too, as she was leaving. She always wondered why was it that they were contacting him instead of her directly. Or was he the contact? Was he the one pulling this shit?
She even had the private eye firm of Mick Sinatra’s half-sister Amelia Sinatra check him out without telling Amelia why. But he came back clean as a whistle. No alarm bells whatsoever. Yet it still bothered Trina. She was missing something that was right in front of her. That was the feeling.
But as soon as she walked out of that diner and saw Reno getting out of his Porsche and then walking straight for her, she realized that that feeling might have had nothing to do with Von at all. And everything to do with Reno. Because Reno, even from a distance, looked pissed.