CHAPTER FOURTEEN #2
Everybody stared at Dom because they knew Trina was telling him the truth. He was going to lose respect for his men if he didn’t toughen up even more than he thought he already was.
But Dommi was no patsy. And he knew it. “I know how to handle my men, Ma. Am I gonna get in Daddy’s face? No. Not if I wanna live.”
They all laughed. “I know that’s right,” said Reno.
A hard look came over Dommi’s face. “But they ain’t my daddy. I can handle them.”
“You’d better,” said Reno. “Me and your mama don’t like this shit, Dommi, I’m just gonna say it. But if you gonna be in it, you’d better be all the way up in that shit or it’ll blow up in your face.”
“Now that’s the truth,” said Sal.
“But no son of mine is gonna be selling no drugs. That’s also the truth,” said Reno.
Dommi didn’t respond. Jimmy, Sal, and Tommy knew why. Dommi was going to do what Dommi was going to do. He’d always been that way.
And he’d always been slick with it too. “Yes sir,” he said to his father as if he made a good point.
For the sake of Trina, Reno stayed quiet. But he knew his son was full of shit.
“Pop, can I borrow your plane? I need to get to Jersey to have a meeting with my organization.”
“Speaking of Jersey,” said Sal, “does Frankie Paletti know you’re a new boss in his state?”
“Monk Paletti does not own the state of New Jersey, Uncle Sal.”
“Like hell he doesn’t, said Reno. “Get in his crosshairs. You’ll find out.”
“Contact him,” said Sal. “Let him know what’s going on, Dominic. And make an alliance with him. Or you’ll regret it.”
“Dolph never made any alliance with Frankie,” said Dom. “And neither did Lolo.”
“That’s because Frankie Paletti wouldn’t fuck with their asses,” said Reno. “But you’re a Gabrini. He’ll fuck with you. Call him!”
Trina could tell that Dommi didn’t like the way his father and uncle were trying to run his organization from the sidelines.
But he knew they would knock him through that wall if he even tried to dispute them.
So he nodded in his old, familiar, slick-ass way.
“Yes sir,” he said without meaning it at all.
He hugged Reno and Trina, said goodbye to his half-brother Jimmy and to his two uncles.
“What about Kasi Arvanatti?” asked Sal. “What are you gonna do about her?”
“She knew nothing about it,” said Dommi.
“How would you know that?” asked Reno.
“I heard Lolo talking with his hired hands while he was transporting me here to Vegas after they snatched me out of my house. He said he was gonna fly out with Kasi while they left ahead of him to put me in that vacant shopping center. He said she didn’t know shit and he was going to keep it that way. She’s in the clear.”
“But what if he said that just in case your ass lived?” asked Sal. “No boss takes what people say at face value ever.”
They could tell Dommi had not even thought about that possibility. Which only worried them more. Was he even ready to take on such a major role? Arvanatti might be miniscule compared to Sal’s outfit, but it was still a well-known outfit.
“I’m taking her back to Jersey. Before we get off Pop’s plane, I’ll know what she’s about.”
“You’d better,” Reno made clear.
And after further small talk, Dommi eventually left.
When he was gone, they all looked at each other. “Damn,” said Jimmy. “Dom back in the business. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“You?” Reno walked back behind his desk and sat down. “His ass don’t know what he’s getting into.”
“Is there anything you can do about it, Reno?” asked Trina.
Reno was at a loss. He looked to Sal.
Sal hunched his shoulders too. “I’ll call Frankie Paletti myself and see if he can keep an eye on him. I’ll call my guys in Jersey and have them do the same. But Dommi’s a stubborn ass and always has been. He’s gonna do that shit his way.”
“What about Uncle Mick?” asked Jimmy. “Does he know Dommi’s a boss now?”
“He knows,” said Reno. “He was on the phone when Lolo’s guys ambushed us. I called him back after we rescued your brother.”
“What did he say?”
“He was the one who told us that Lolo blaming Rats Scorvino and claiming that Scorvino was in Fort Knots was bullshit.”
“When Mick said that,” said Sal, “me and your father knew we were being set up. That’s the only reason we were able to draw our hardware first and take Lolo and his men out before they took us out. If Reno hadn’t phoned him,” Sal added, “no telling what would have happened.”
“That’s why I hate that life and was happy to get out of it,” Jimmy said. He worked for Tommy at the mammoth Gabrini Corporation. He was on the straight and narrow and Reno would have it no other way. “And what’s Fort Knots?” Jimmy asked.
When nobody would answer him, Reno looked at his son. “So why do you hate it so much? You can’t just say that you hate it and don’t say why.”
“It’s too full of serendipity,” Jimmy said.
Reno frowned. “What the fuck is serendipity. It sounds like a whore who likes to go skinny dipping.”
Trina frowned. “What?”
Sal shook his head. “He’s crazy.”
“Then what it mean, Sal?” Reno asked him point blank. “What does serendipity mean?”
“How should I know? I never said I knew.” Then he looked at Jimmy. “What that shit mean, Jimmy?”
“Providence,” Jimmy said.
Reno and Sal still didn’t get it. They looked to Tommy to break it down further.
“Too much happens in the mob life by chance,” said Tommy. “If A or B didn’t happen, then we’d be dead. That’s what it means.”
“And that’s the truth,” said Reno.
“And that’s why I hate it,” said Jimmy. “Because what will happen if A or B didn’t happen?”
“We’d be dead,” said Reno.
“Exactly,” said Jimmy.
It was a casual joke to the men as they all laughed.
But to Trina, it was agonizing. Her son was now a full-fletched mobster.
Change the b to an n and it summed it up perfectly for her.
It summed up just what her son could morph into just as easily as transposing one letter. And that wasn’t funny at all.
Talk about serendipity.