CHAPTER NINETEEN
But tonight, he was eyeing a big one. They’d already stolen half-a-mill in thirty minutes. But he wanted to see how far they were willing to push it. He wanted to see if it was a test run, or the real thing. “It’s a no-go,” he said to Security. “Let’s wait and see.”
But while he waited, and while he eyed those high-tech crooks as he searched for the move that would give him more insight into their calculations, he occasionally allowed his bodyguard to let vacationers come over and shake his hand or take a selfie with him or gripe about how his casino ruined their good time by taking all of their money.
But when one particular lady came over, and Reno’s bodyguard looked to see if he wanted to be bothered, he quickly gave the nod to let her through.
She was the talent agent for one of the more popular circus acts appearing at the PaLargio and he liked her spunk.
She was never above pushing the envelope as far as she could for her clients, and he respected that too.
“The answer is no,” he said as soon as she made her way up to his seating area and sat beside him.
“You’re a bastard,” she responded with a smile. “You know that right?”
“Who me?” Reno asked, and then they laughed. “What’s up this time, Bev?”
“More money, more money, more money. What else?”
“Forget it.”
“This isn’t working out, Reno. That flash mob tried to tear this place down to the ground. It shook my clients to their core.”
“What that had to do with them? Those kids weren’t looking to steal no gotdamn elephants.”
“But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to disrupt our shows. What if they scare the audience away? It’s treacherous out there. They want combat pay.”
“Shit,” said Reno. “I got their combat pay right over here,” he said and squeezed his balls.
“Nice. A grown man squeezing his balls in front of a sweet little lady like me. You ever hear of the Me To movement, Reno?”
“I got that right over here too.”
Bev laughed. “You’re incorrigible!”
“Takes one to know one.”
“But I’m just the lil’ old messenger. I’m innocent in this situation. That’s all I am. Miss Innocent.”
Reno smiled. “Yeah right.” Then he looked over near the entrance and saw Trina heading his way. And his smile was gone. “Ah shit!” he said.
“What?” asked Bev.
But Reno jumped down from his perch and hurried toward Trina. “I forgot, Tree,” he said as they met up in the middle of the casino.
“Don’t even try that, Reno.”
“I forgot. I honestly forgot.”
Trina clenched her teeth. “Reno!”
He took her by the arm and escorted her into one of his side offices because he knew Trina. She was not above showing her ass when she was angry enough. “We got a lot going on tonight. Going to dinner didn’t even cross my mind. I got a lot going on.”
“When do you not have a lot going on? I told you we were going to have dinner with Sal and Gemma. I told this morning. I told you that repeatedly. But you still forgot? I don’t wanna hear that shit again, Reno. I don’t wanna hear that bullshit!”
“I forgot. I got a lot going on, yes I do. Dammit, Tree, what more you want from me?”
“What more? As if you give anything at all!”
“I forgot gotdammit!”
“Okay you forgot. But now you know. So let’s go.”
Reno leaned his head back. “You know I can’t leave right now.”
“Why not?”
“I’m monitoring a big steal, okay? Those motherfuckers--”
“I don’t even wanna hear it! Every time I turn around you declare you wanna do right by me, you’re gonna change, I don’t have to worry about going into the arms of another man because no man will ever do me better than you do me.”
“And that’s the truth!”
“That’s bullshit!” Trina yelled. “And I’m tired of, Reno.
” She looked him dead in the eyes. “I’ve had it up to here, Reno!
” She demonstrated where here was by lifting her hand so far above her head that she could feel the strain in her muscles.
And then she walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Reno hurried to the door and angrily opened it. It was his intention to grab Trina back into that room and tell her a thing or two. Who did she think she was talking to that way? But Security whispered in his ears. “They’re up to a million, Boss. Is it a go?”
Reno exhaled as he watched Trina hurry out of the casino. That work/play balance had eluded him all his life. It was more a work/work balance for him. Now it was catching up to him big time. But even then he knew Trina was all talk. She would never leave him.
But was she flirting with the idea by renewing contact with her ex-lover?
No, he decided. But was he deciding that because he needed to remain at the casino to handle those thieves, or because he truly believed that?
Either way, he knew he had to stay. “Do we know their calculations yet?” he asked Security as he headed back toward his perch.
“No sir,” Security responded.
“Then it’s a no-go,” said Reno. He tried to call Trina as he made his way back to his perch, but she didn’t answer him.
But that was on purpose. Trina was too angry to answer his call. But less than an hour later, after driving to the restaurant alone to meet up with Sal and Gemma for dinner, she would get a text from Von to meet her at the motel. The blackmailers, he said in his text, had contacted him again.
She hurriedly left a perplexed Sal and Gemma and arrived at that motel. Nearly three hours after meeting up with Von, and after they discussed over and over how she was going to respond to those blackmailers, all hell suddenly broke loose.
A truck would drive through the front of the motel room, tearing down the entire front wall.
Gunmen would hop out and shoot Von repeatedly, and then they would turn their weapons on Trina.
And that secret she tried with all she had to keep buried for the rest of her life, revealing it to no one in the family, not even Reno, would be exposed in spectacular fashion.