CHAPTER EIGHT
Although Reno wore dark shades that covered his big blue eyes, she could tell he was pissed by the way he was walking toward her all aggressive with his hands stretched out to his sides as if he was confused as hell.
“What are you doing?” He was speaking before he made it up to her. “This don’t look like no Champagne’s to me.”
Trina hated lying to Reno. She hated it with a passion. But there was no way she could tell him the truth. There was no way. “I decided to grab some breakfast.”
After leaving her own breakfast table? Reno knew better than that. “Your ass ain’t been in there long enough to eat no breakfast.”
“I know that, Reno. I changed my mind.” Then she decided to turn the tables. “And how did you know where I was anyway? You told me your security guys are not allowed to spy on me. That’s the only reason I let them hide around and follow me everywhere I go like I’m some damn child to begin with.”
“They aren’t spying on you,” Reno said. He didn’t mention that he used the GPS he secretly placed on her car to find out where she was located without being forced to ask the security detail he had on her.
He didn’t want them to think that they had permission to police her.
He would hate some employees doing that to him too.
But he was no employee. He was her husband.
He felt he had every right to keep tabs on his own wife.
“If it’s not spying,” Trina asked, “then how did you know I was here? And what are you doing here?”
“I was worried about your ass the way you left the house.” He still didn’t tell her how he knew where to find her. But it was true: He was worried about her. Seeing his wife in such distress bothered him.
Trina could see that he was very concerned too.
And it was touching, but she felt so unworthy of it.
“I’m okay, Reno,” she said. “I’m good.” But when he still looked worried, she hugged him around his neck with one of her arms. That cologne scent of Reno always calmed her down. “For real. I’m okay.”
Reno hugged her with both his arms and squeezed his eyes shut. His ass needed this woman like he needed air to breathe, but why didn’t he act like it? Why was he treating that gotdamn casino better than he treated his own wife? Was he leading her into the arms of another man on purpose?
But when he opened his eyes again and saw a tall, younger-than-Reno black man coming out of that same diner Trina had come out of, and then he just stood there staring at them, Reno’s antenna started flashing red and he felt a sudden sense of panic. Was she already in another man’s arms?
He stopped embracing her and began staring right back at that nosey-ass man. “Who is that?”
“Who is what?” Trina asked, confused, until she turned and looked where Reno was looking. When she saw Von staring at them, her heart dropped. And Von, suddenly realizing his error, began to walk in the opposite direction.
“Reno, that’s nobody,” Trina said as she grabbed for his arm. But Reno was nobody’s fool. He snatched away from Trina and began hurrying toward Von.
“Oh Lord,” Trina cried out as she hurried behind him. “He’s just an old friend, Reno. Reno!”
“Hey you!” Reno yelled to Von.
Von knew his quick getaway wasn’t going to work, so he stopped walking and turned around. “You’re talking to me?” he asked.
Reno, with Trina right behind him, made his way up to Von. Reno removed his shades to get a good look at the guy. “Who the fuck are you?”
Trina couldn’t believe he went that hard. “Reno, you don’t talk to people like that!”
“Like hell I don’t. Who are you?” he asked Von again.
“I told you he’s an old friend of mine. Now leave that man alone.” She grabbed at Reno’s arm again, but Reno snatched it away from her again.
He was staring daggers at Von. “Who are you?” he asked him yet again.
Von knew all about that tornado called Reno Gabrini. He knew he wasn’t the kind of man to mess with. And he didn’t want to have to mix it up with him either. But he would if he had to. “My name is Javon.”
“Javon what?”
“Javon Douglas. And you are?”
“I’m Katrina’s wife. That’s who I am.”
Von smiled. Trina looked at Reno. “My wife, Reno?”
Reno frowned. “What are you talking?”
“You just told him you were my wife.”
Reno knew it was his underlying insecurity that caused him to make such a blunder.
It was black guys like this Javon, with his great looks and easy manner, the kind of man he knew Trina had always been attracted to, that made him feel less-than.
Reno would never claim to be some great-looking pretty boy.
That was not his persona and never would be.
But it was those pretty boys that got to him the most. “How do you know my wife?”
Von was looking around as people walking past were beginning to view them as a spectacle. “Perhaps we can take this inside,” he said.
But Reno didn’t give a fuck about those nosey-ass people. “Perhaps you can answer my question. How do you know my wife?”
Von glanced at Trina. This was who a sophisticated sister like her settled for?
This bombastic human being? Yeah, he knew he was super-rich, and he heard from other women around town how sexy he was and all of that bullshit, but why would she put up with this?
There were plenty other rich fish in that sea for a woman like Trina.
“We’ve known each other for a long time,” he said. “We’re friends.”
“With benefits?” Reno asked him point blank.
Trina was appalled. “Reno!”
But Reno was serious. And scared. “Are you friends with benefits motherfucker?” he asked him. Javon was a hotshot in Reno’s view. He’d love spilling the beans if there were beans to spill.
And sure enough, Von was about to do just that. But he looked over at Trina, and she was mortified. “We’re just friends,” he ultimately said.
Reno could tell that was a lie. A dirty lie. But he couldn’t bring himself to pursue it. He pointed his finger directly at the younger man’s handsome face. “You stay away from my wife,” he said to him, “or just as sure as I’m standing on this earth, you’ll be buried beneath it!”
Reno stared at him with such a chilling look that even always-confident Javon was suddenly not so confident.
Reno Gabrini was Mafia. All those Gabrinis were.
And they were related to Mick and Teddy Sinatra too?
And Amelia Sinatra? What was he thinking!
“I have no interest in your wife that way,” he felt a need to say.
But Reno wasn’t buying it. An attractive woman like Tree? That player couldn’t wait to jump her bones. If he hadn’t already! “Stay away from her,” Reno told him again in no uncertain terms.
Von gave a slight nod, glanced over at Trina, and then he walked away. He was glad he had parked around the corner. He couldn’t get away from Reno Gabrini fast enough.
Trina was relieved that at least a shitstorm was averted, but she knew Reno didn’t buy a word Von had said. And that was why, when Reno turned and looked at her, she began heading for her Bentley. “I’ve got to get to work,” she said.
But Reno grabbed her by the arm and turned her back to him. He was searching her eyes as if he could find the truth somewhere inside of them. “Is he your lover, Tree?”
“No!”
But Reno continued to search her eyes. And Trina felt bad for him because she knew, despite their problems, this man loved her. “We knew each other before I even met you, Reno. He’s not my lover or anything like that. He’s just an old friend.”
“With benefits?”
“Didn’t I just tell you no? No, Reno. No.”
“Not ever?”
Trina wasn’t going to lie about that. But she wasn’t going to admit it, either, because she knew Reno.
Her silence said it all to Reno. But her anguish spoke more. “Trina, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“How can I help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on with you?”
“Because there’s nothing to tell.” Then she exhaled.
“I’m just tired, Reno. You’re supporting me like you did when I was a struggling waitress and we first got married.
After all those years, you’re still supporting me.
You’re paying my employees. You’re paying for all my inventory.
You’re paying me! We aren’t anywhere near breaking even and if it wasn’t for you we wouldn’t even still be in business. That’s a lot.”
“Is that why you were meeting with Javon at this diner?”
“He was in town, Reno, that’s all. Why do you keep bringing him up? I tell you my business is bleeding to death and you bring him up? This has nothing to do with him.”
If Reno didn’t trust Trina, he would track down that Javon and kick his ass.
But he trusted Trina. That was why, when she kissed him on the mouth and headed for her Bentley, the Bentley, he reminded himself, that he brought for her, he let her go.
He could see guys taking peeps at her as she walked by them.
That went with the territory. But for her to meet with some ex-lover without so much as mentioning it to him didn’t go with the territory.
That was out of the ordinary. And when it was out of the ordinary, in Reno’s world, it was a problem.
As Trina drove away, he made his way back to his Porsche, got inside, and called his security chief.
“I want a deep background on a Javon Douglas,” Reno ordered. He knew a bigger man would have let it go. But when it came to Trina, Reno left no stones unturned. There was nothing big about him. He was petty as hell.