CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The three SUVs drove up to a boarded-up strip mall on the outskirts of Vegas.
Reno, Trina, Sal and Robby got out of the middle SUV, while Kasi Arvanatti got out of the third SUV.
Then she escorted them across the sidewalk to the last door.
A guard from inside unlocked the door and they, along with Sal’s capos, were allowed passage in.
The guard locked the door back and they made their way down a small corridor that led to an inner office.
Lolo Arvanatti, a big man in his seventies, was standing in the empty room with a cane for support, and the man Reno and Sal knew as the underboss for the Arvanatti syndicate was standing beside him with six of their capos standing behind them.
Kasi moved over against the wall. By all accounts, she was her father’s consigliere. She stayed out of the fray.
Sal had eight capos with him in total, along with Robby Yale.
Because the code of conduct made clear that whenever there was a meeting at the bosses level each boss was required to have the same amount of backup with them, Sal ordered two of his capos to wait outside.
Then Reno, Trina, and Sal, along with Sal’s capos standing behind them, walked over and stood in front of Lolo and his crew.
“It’s been a long time Reno,” said Lolo. “How you doing, Sal? I didn’t know you were gonna bring your wife, Reno.”
But Reno wasn’t interested in niceties. “How the fuck you gonna let my son become the boss of your organization and not bother to tell me, Lolo?”
“What are you talking? He’s a grown man, Reno.”
“Don’t give me that shit. You recruited his ass. You took advantage of my name and recruited his ass.”
But Trina didn’t care how or why. She just wanted her son back. “Where is he?” she asked Lolo. “Do you know where he is?”
“We know who snatched him,” Lolo said. “And we know where to find him. But there’s a problem.”
“What’s the problem?” asked Sal.
“We don’t have the firepower to get in there.”
Reno frowned. “In where?”
Lolo stood erect as if he knew he was about to say something monumental. “Fort Knots,” he said.
Trina frowned. “Fort Knox? The place where they keep the money?”
“No, Tree, no,” said Sal. “Not k-n-o-x, but k-n-o-t-s. It’s a conglomerate of what they call money mobsters.
Businessmen. Celebrities. People like that.
They’re giants in the corporate or entertainment worlds, but they’re wimps in the mob world and need protection.
They are nots. Hence the term Fort Knots.
A billion dollars gets you a gold pass in and the illuminati, whomever they are, will protect you from enemies foreign and domestic.
It’s not a brick and mortal place. It’s unmatched firepower should one of their members need assistance. It fortifies them.”
“And you’re telling me,” Reno said to Lolo, “that Rats Scorvino is in Fort Knots?”
“That’s what I’m telling you.”
“And you’re telling me a gotdamn lie,” said Reno. “How the hell that motherfucker gonna afford a billion-dollar entrance fee? He ain’t even as big as your small-ass organization.”
“I don’t know how he did it, but he did it. And that’s who has Dominic.”
“How do you know that for certain?” asked Sal. “Did they contact you?”
“They contacted me,” said Kasi, and everybody looked at her.
“They told me they broke into his house in Mississippi, took out our two capos that live with him, and then they took him with them. The only reason we found out right away was that Dominic’s girlfriend was hiding at the residence when it all went down. ”
His girlfriend, Reno thought. He had a woman that wasn’t Mariah? He had no idea about his own son’s life! He exhaled. This was too much!
Trina was beside herself with anguish too. “What are we going to do, Reno, if it’s not a physical location? Is it possible to just show up and snatch him back?”
“You go anywhere near the members of Fort Knots,” said Sal, “and they will have a dragnet on your ass. We may snatch him back, but not for long. You can consider yourself dead, and your whole family, if you even try it.”
Trina looked at Reno. Reno opened his now-well-worn suit coat, placed his hands on his hips, and let out a disgusted exhale.
“What are we gonna do, Reno?”
Reno knew it was beyond them if what Lolo said was true. He pulled out his phone.
“Who are you calling at a time like this?” Trina asked.
“Uncle Mick,” Reno said.
Trina’s heart dropped. She’d just phoned him herself. “He’s out of the country,” she told him. “He’s coming back tomorrow.”
Reno looked at her as the phone on the other end of his call rang. “How would you know his schedule?”
But then Mick answered the call. “What?”
Reno placed the call on Speaker. “Uncle Mick, we’ve got a problem. Rats Scorvino snatched Dommi.”
“He snatched him? For what reason?”
“He’s back in the business again. But this time he’s the boss of the Arvanatti syndicate. Or did you know that already?”
“That’s my business what I know. Why would they snatch him?”
“They want the Arvanatti syndicate to pony up all their territory.”
“All of it?”
“All of it. They, in essence, want them out of business.”
“Which will never happen,” said Lolo. “Hey Mick.”
“What do you know about this situation, Lolo?”
“I know we’ll be going up against Fort Knots if we even try to penetrate their territory to get Dominic back.”
“Fort Knots? What are you talking about?”
“Rats Scorvino’s in Fort Knots, Mick,” said Sal.
There was silence on the other end of the phone.
“Mick?” asked Reno. “Are you still there?”
“Who told you Rats was in Fort Knots?” Mick asked.
“Lolo just told us,” said Sal.
“That’s not true,” Mick replied.
“That’s exactly what I said,” said Reno. “How a fucker like Rats is gonna afford that billion-dollar entrance fee?”
“Is that the reason, Unc?” asked Sal. “He can’t afford it?”
“No.”
“Then why?” Reno asked him.
“Because I’m the motherfucker that owns Fort Knots,” Mick said angrily, “and Rats Scorvino has nothing to do with that organization. That’s why!”
Reno and Sal looked at each other. They had no idea Mick had anything to do with Fort Knots! They also realized immediately that Lolo was running a number on them. Why he was running it, they didn’t know. But he was running a number on them. And Reno’s eyes made it clear: It’s a set up!
Reno grabbed Trina and fell to the floor as Sal pulled out his gun with Robby and his capos following his lead. Lolo ducked out of the way as his men began pulling out their weapons to meet Sal’s firepower.
But there was no match. Sal and his men were already firing before Lolo and his men were ready for the blowback. Reno laid on top of Trina firing too.
Reno, with a barrage of bullets, took out Lolo as he tried to escape out of a back door, while Sal and his capos took out Lolo’s capos.
When the smoke cleared, the only person remaining alive of the Arvanatti crew was Kasi. And that was by design.
Reno got up and hurried to her. And even though terror was in her eyes and she immediately placed her hands in the air, Reno put his gun to her head. “You have one second, bitch, to tell me where you have my son!”
But she was crying and shaking her head. “I don’t know. My father didn’t tell me this was going to happen. He didn’t tell me Rats Scorvino in Fort Knots was all a lie.”
“Where’s my son?!” Reno screamed at her.
“I don’t know,” she said again. “I’m not lying to you, Mr. Gabrini. I don’t know!”
Her eyes told Reno she was telling the truth. He looked at Sal. And that was when they both realized that if Lolo was lying about Scorvino snatching Dommi, then that would mean?
“His ass snatched Dommi,” Reno said. Then he looked at Kasi. “Did your father want Dominic as the head of the family?”
Kasi shook her head. “No. He was going around telling people he didn’t want it, but he wanted it for himself. But the syndicate voted him down. They wanted Dom to lead them. He had no choice but to accept it.”
“Only his ass didn’t accept it,” Sal said.
“But that would mean,” Trina said as if she was still thinking it through.
“That would mean what?” Reno asked her.
“If her father abducted Dommi, then that would mean when he came to Vegas, he had to have taken Dommi with him. For leverage. Which means Dommi is with him.”
Reno and Sal looked at each other. And then they took off running out of the small room.
“Wait your ass in here, Tree,” Reno ordered as he was running out. “Robby, guard Lolo’s daughter and don’t let my wife out of your sight!”
“Yes sir,” Robby said.
Reno, Sal, and the rest of Sal’s capos began running from store to store inside that vacant strip mall. It took several stores and the opening of even more doors before Reno and Sal finally opened the right door.
And there he was, sitting in a closet in what used to be a shoe store, was Dominic Gabrini, Junior: Reno’s son. Tied up and gagged.
Reno’s heart finally began to go back into a normal rhythm as Sal quickly removed Dommi’s gag.
Dommi looked at his father as if he was the most entitled young man on the planet. “What took you so long, Pop?” he asked him.
Reno’s heart had been hammering so fast, and with such ferocious fear, that he leaned against the wall and then slid down to the floor to prevent himself from stroking out.
By the time Sal yelled for Trina to come, and Trina ran into that room, too, Reno was still on that floor just trying to regain some semblance of steadiness. All he could do was watch as Trina ran to Dommi, fell down on her knees, and held her son.
The satisfaction of seeing his son and wife together again steadied him, and his hammering heart began to ease. And although Reno was willing to wait, Dommi’s ass was nowhere near off the hook. A mob boss? What the fuck! Reno was still getting over that shit.
Dommi was telling his mother everything was alright while he held her tightly, as if everything was hunky-dory. But Reno still saw the fear in Dommi’s eyes. He still saw the little boy in that supposedly big man.
He had a load of explaining to do.