CHAPTER TEN
Last night was a crazy night for Reno as a massive flash mob of young people tried to take over his high-end jewelry stores with a grab-and-go, while another mob was tearing up his casino with fight after fight after fight as a distraction.
It was so bad that Reno had to get in the middle of the melee.
It was so bad that Reno had to call in Vegas Police, which he never liked to do, to give them a helping hand.
But what all that meant was that he didn’t make it home at all last night and Trina, he knew, was pissed.
Even that next morning, that aftermath had him flying by the seat of his trousers too and the best he could do was to hustle upstairs and see her before she left for work, but she had already gone. He tried to phone her twice after that, but she wasn’t answering his calls.
“Gotdammit Trina!” he yelled out loud as he slammed his desk phone down.
But his office was so much its usual chaotic-ness, times two, that nobody heard him.
All of his aides were busy fielding calls from worried jewelers that had their merchandise in the PaLargio stores, and other casino patrons who claimed they were among those attacked last night.
All of that in addition to the acts already booked inside the PaLargio entertainment complex that were afraid that a mob could disrupt their shows and were requesting additional security, to agents who wanted their performers to be given extra compensation as a just in case, to future acts who wanted to cancel. It was a nightmare.
Reno plopped down in his chair and tried to get at least a moment’s break from the action. But the head of Legal came into his office and up to his desk. “We got a problem, Reno.”
“Tell my ass something I don’t know, Jeremy.”
“This is different.”
As if Reno needed any new issues. “What?”
“Those casino patrons from last night have hired a lawyer. A class-action lawsuit is underway.”
Reno frowned. “Already?”
“Those ambulance chasers jumped on it, and those patrons were more-than-happy to participate.”
“Damn lawyers.”
“I’m a lawyer too, Reno.”
“Then fuck you too!”
Jeremy smiled. He knew Reno too long and too well.
“What are we talking if we settle?” Reno asked him.
“Depends on how many end up in the class. Of course, our cameras will have to prove that they were there and were, in fact, jumped on. But if it’s proven, it’s going to be north of ten to twenty million easy.”
Reno leaned back in his swivel chair and began rocking. And thinking. Then he looked at Jeremy. “This is what we’re gonna do. Your ass is gonna file a lawsuit against the ones the cops were able to catch and arrest last night. But we aren’t asking for compensation.”
“Then what are we asking for?”
“We’re asking a judge to rule that every person involved in that shitshow last night will be the only ones responsible for all damage to person or things since they’re the ones who inflicted the damage, and that The PaLargio and Dominic “Reno” Gabrini, Senior will be held blameless.”
“That’s asking a lot, Reno.”
“Why the fuck you think I pay you ten times above scale? For it to be easy for you? Get it done!”
Jeremy nodded. “You’re the boss.”
“And don’t you forget that,” Reno said. And Jeremy left.
Reno paused a few seconds. The nerve of those people trying to sue him, he thought. And then he phoned Trina again. It just rang and went to Voice Mail again.
Reno called his daughter. She worked at Champagne’s, working for free, to help her mother out.
“Hey Daddy.”
“Your mother at work?”
“Yes sir.”
“Put her on the phone, but don’t tell her it’s me.”
“She already knows.”
“How does she already know?”
“I told her before I answered.”
“And what did she say?”
“Don’t answer it.”
Reno exhaled. He knew he should have phoned her sometime last night, or at least didn’t wait until today to run upstairs to let her know what transpired. But when he was into something, he was all in. It didn’t even occur to him last night. “Why did you answer it?” he asked her.
“Because you’re my daddy and your issues with Ma are not my issues.”
Reno smiled. “That’s my baby right there,” he said.
Fuck Trina, he wanted to add, but he didn’t.
Because he knew that Sophia knew, and the entire world knew he wouldn’t have meant it.
“Tell her I said to call me when she’s over her little tantrum,” he said and ended the call just as Malcolm Zock, his security chief, walked in with a short, straggly-haired white woman Reno didn’t recognize.
From the look on Malcolm’s face, he knew it was serious.
“Clear the room, Boss,” he said to Reno.
Reno didn’t ask why. He knew if Malcolm made such a request, it was needful. “Everybody out,” Reno said and his staff, who knew he meant business all the time, didn’t mumble. They left.
“What’s going on?”
Malcolm waited until the last person was gone and the office door was closed. Then he looked at Reno. “I want you to meet Kasi Arvanatti,” Malcolm said.
Reno frowned. “What I need to meet her for? Does it look like I got time to meet and greet?”
“My father sent me,” Kasi stepped forward and said.
“Your father? Who the fuck is your father?” Then Reno caught the name. “Lolo is your old man? Lolo Arvanatti?”
She nodded. “Yes sir.”
“Okay.” He had her attention. “What’s it about? And why couldn’t his ass come and see me himself?”
“He’s in town,” she said. “But he’s in hiding.”
“Why’s he hiding?”
“There was an attack on the head of the Arvanatti crime syndicate early this morning,” Malcolm said.
“The head? What head? I thought after Dolphus got his ass killed Lolo said the new head of that family wasn’t decided yet. He said his ass was too old to take it on, but he didn’t decide who would take it on.”
“That changed a few months ago,” said Malcolm. “That’s the thing.”
Reno was puzzled. “What’s the thing?”
Malcolm took a deep breath. “The head of the Arvanatti Crime Family is Dommi.”
Reno just sat there. He couldn’t even wrap his brain around what Mal had just said to him. “What?”
“Dommi is the head of the--”
“I heard your ass the first time! But what Dommi? You can’t mean my son.”
“It’s your son, Boss.”
Reno frowned. “What are you talking? Dommi’s the sheriff of ---.”
“That’s his cover, yes sir,” said Kasi.
“What cover? I was there when he decided to take that position.”
“It didn’t start out as his cover,” said Malcolm.
“But it became his cover when Dolph died and they needed a new leader. They wanted somebody with instant credibility. They knew the Gabrini name was that instant credibility. And they knew Dommi used to work for Mick Sinatra. That’s why they recruited him heavily. ”
Reno was stunned. Utterly aghast. Was this why Trina and Jimmy kept urging him to call Dom? But it couldn’t be. They wouldn’t keep something that monumental from him. Or would they? Sometimes he felt as if he was surrounded by secrets and lies.
But why were they there? And why was Lolo in hiding? “You said there was an attack. What’s happened?” he asked them.
Kasi looked at Malcolm.
“What is it?” Reno asked in his softest voice yet. It was as if he was afraid of the answer. “Is my son alright?”
“A rival family,” Malcolm said, “snatched Dom before day this morning.”
Reno jumped up so fast his chair fell backwards. It was the very reason he didn’t want any of his children anywhere near that life. “What rival family?” he asked anxiously. “Have you heard from Dommi?”
“Yes, he’s okay. They called.”
“What about Mariah and the baby?
“She’s fine,” said Kasi. “They killed the two live-in capos at Dom’s house, so even before we heard from them we sent a detail from Jersey to Vegas to stay with Mariah and the baby until this is settled.”
“Vegas? She and the baby are in Vegas?”
Kasi looked at Malcolm puzzled.
“Boss, Dom and Mariah tried to work it out, but it didn’t work out. She took the baby and came back to Vegas months ago. I think it was right around the time he became the head of that family. She didn’t want that life.”
Reno knew it was an indictment against him that he didn’t know his own grandchild was in town, but Mariah wasn’t crazy about having that grandchild around him either. Like he was poison too. Which, he knew, he was. “What’s their demand?” he asked Kasi.
“No police involvement for one.”
Reno frowned. “Who gives a fuck about the police?”
“And they want territory.”
“What territory?”
“All of the Arvanatti territory. They want to shut us down. They gave us forty-eight hours to get it done.”
They wanted them to give up their entire territory?
And to do so in forty-eight hours? Reno knew that was an impossible thing to ask of any syndicate.
Even a small one like Arvanatti’s. He opened his suit coat and placed his hands on his hips.
He had to think fast. “You said it was a rival family that has him? Who are they?”
“The Scorvino family,” said Kasi.
“Shit. Their asses smaller than your outfit. How they suddenly got the balls to come for you?”
Kasi nodded her head. “That’s what we wanna know.”
“You said Lolo is in town?”
“Yes sir. But he’s in hiding.”
“Take me to him,” Reno said as he began hurrying from around his desk. He looked at Malcolm. “I want my children on lockdown and I want my wife’s detail to blanket her until I get there personally to pick her up. That’s her son too.”
“Yes, sir,” Malcolm replied as he began following Reno and Kasi out of the office. “And I’ve already ordered highest-level security on all of your children, including Jimmy. Security has tightened around Sophia and Carmine upstairs.”
“Jimmy’s daughter Madison is in Florida visiting Gloria Sinatra. Call Glo’s brother-in-law Alex Drakos and tell him to put Maddie on lockdown. On my order.”
“Will do that right away, sir,” Malcolm said as he began getting on his phone.
Reno was pulling out his phone, too, as they got on his private elevator.
“Who are you calling?” Kasi asked him. “We really don’t want too many people to know about this. It could get out of hand if too many people get involved. My father’s working on it.”
“No offense,” Reno said, “but you just waltzed your ass into my office and told me somebody snatched my son. Excuse me if I need a boss above your old man’s paygrade to be working on this. Well above it,” he added.
Then he pressed the icon on his phone. “I’m calling Sal Gabrini,” he said as he finally answered her question.