CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Reno, Trina, and Sal took Reno’s private elevator to the Bowels: Another name for the basement of the PaLargio.
When they stepped off and made their way down the long corridor, Trina cringed. “It’s always so creepy down here,” she said.
“Then take your ass back upstairs where you belong,” said Sal.
Reno glared at Sal. “Who do you think you’re talking to like that?”
But Sal didn’t back down. “I’m talking to Tree. That’s who I’m talking to. What business she got down here? She’s a lady. This is no place for a lady.”
Of all the men that were in that bedroom four months ago when she told them what happened, Sal was the only one who didn’t tiptoe around Trina. He was the only one who still treated her the exact same way he treated her before he found out about her. And she would always love him for that.
“But you allow your lady to come down here anyway. Nobody can tell your ass a thing. Let you tell it, she has every right to be down here too.”
“She does,” said Reno. “She knows this person. She’ll know when she’s lying. She’ll know what time it is.”
“I still say it’s inappropriate.”
Reno laughed. “Since when did your slick ass become the arbiter of virtue? Since when did our Sal become Sally?”
“I’ll show you Sally,” Sal said. “Keep talking.”
Reno laughed again until they walked up to the heavily guarded room. Then all levity was gone. The guards stepped aside and allowed the bosses and, to their shock, Mrs. Gabrini, inside.
But when they walked in, they weren’t surprised to see Mick, suited-up in his long, white, tricked-out coat, was there.
And they weren’t even surprised to see Monk Paletti there.
And Latoya Brunson, sitting there looking so heavily drugged and worn out that it broke Trina’s heart, wasn’t a surprise either.
But Reno and Trina were shocked to see their son in that room too.
“Dom?” Reno was especially floored. “What the fuck you doing here?”
“Why do you think I wanted out of your lockdown?” Dommi responded.
“Because you wanted to get to Jersey so you could get your syndicate in order.”
“You think I gave a damn about getting a syndicate in order after somebody tried to kill my mother? Fuck that! I wasn’t doing anything else until we got some answers.”
Reno and Trina stared at their son. In a way that was remarkable to them, he fit in with Mick and Monk. Somehow he fit right in!
“When I found out this lady that everybody was looking for was from Mississippi,” Dom continued, “and since I was a sheriff in Mississippi, I knew I could find her. I have all kinds of connections in that state. I was determined to find this chick.”
“And he did,” Monk said.
“Where was she?” asked Trina. “In Flowood?”
“She was holed up in a convent in Jackson,” Dom said.
“A convent?” asked Reno. “Her? This straight-up junkie?”
“We caught her alone and had to sedate her to get her ass back here,” said Monk. “She’s no junkie.”
Trina could see the fear in her eyes. She went to her and knelt down. She put her hand on top of Latoya’s hand. “Hey, Toya. Remember me?”
Latoya looked at the woman knelt in front of her. And she nodded. “Yes.”
“Nobody’s gonna hurt you okay? They just need you to tell them what happened that night. That’s it. Okay?”
“Then they’ll let me go?”
“Yes,” Trina promised although she knew nobody in that room would agree to that.
“Dom,” said Reno, “go upstairs.”
Dom frowned. “Why I can’t stay down here?”
“Because I said you can’t. Go upstairs.”
“Pop, I’m in charge of an entire syndicate now. You can’t treat me this way!”
Reno gave Dommi a look he knew too well. And although Dommi was highly upset, his father was still his father. He didn’t love, respect, nor fear, any man more. He left the room.
“You go too, Frankie,” Reno ordered. “I’m still holding your ass personally responsible for my son.”
“Reno, whatta you nuts?” Sal asked. “Monk Paletti’s not one of your children. He’s your equal!”
“I didn’t say he wasn’t. That’s why I want him upstairs guarding my family because I know who he is. But I’m still holding him personally responsible for Dommi. He said he would and I’m holding him to it.”
“But there’s a way you talk to people, you moron,” said Sal.
But Monk smiled. “No worries, Sal Luca. I can handle Reno.” But Monk Paletti always picked his fights very carefully.
And arguing with Reno the way Sal did on the regular was never something he was going to do.
He wasn’t all up in that family like that and wasn’t ever going to be.
He left and headed for the penthouse too.
After Dom and Monk left, Latoya told them everything that happened with the same information Trina had told them. But they were all certain that she knew more.
“Why would you ask Trina to come out there in the boonies like that when you knew it was dangerous?” Reno asked Latoya. “She thought you was her friend.”
“I was. But he made me do it. These were vicious people.”
“Who made you do it?”
Latoya hesitated. But then she answered. “Javon,” she said.
That got everybody’s attention. “Javon Douglas?” Reno asked anxiously: to be certain.
Latoya nodded. “He paid me to lure Trina out there. He told me when I saw a van coming, I was supposed to yell to her that they were coming to kill us and that she had to do something. Everybody knew Javon gave Trina a gun and she always kept it with her, although I don’t think she knew how to shoot it or anything like that. ”
“What else did he tell you?” Reno asked.
“After he told me to tell her to shoot up that van, then he told me that before she start shooting, I was supposed to tell her that it’s a family inside that van and for her not to shoot.”
Reno frowned. “Why would he want you to tell her to kill’em, and then to stand down? That shit don’t make no sense.”
It made no sense to Trina either. “Javon didn’t want me to shoot?” she asked her.
“Yes. No. I don’t know!” She was getting distressed.
“I’m just telling you what he told me to do and I did it.
He told me to tell you that the people in the van were going to kill us, and you had to do something.
Then he said, as soon as you got ready to shoot, I was to tell you not to shoot because a family was in that van.
It was crazy to me, too, but that’s what he said.
But after I told you not to do it and you did it anyway, I ran back into those woods like I was told to do. Because I was scared of you too now.”
Reno’s heart squeezed. The idea that somebody would be afraid that sweet Trina would harm them was agonizing for him. Because he knew she was never that girl and would never be that girl.
But Latoya continued. “I was supposed to wait in those woods, by the house, until a ride came and picked me up. After you got in your car and drove away, that’s when my ride showed up.”
“Let me guess,” said Reno. “Your ride was Javon?”
Latoya nodded. “It was Javon, yes sir.”
Reno looked at the others in the room. None of them knew what to make of it either. “Why would he want her to tell Trina not to shoot after telling her to shoot?” Reno asked them. But it made no sense to any of them either.
“Where did Javon take you?” Trina asked her former friend.
“He put me on a plane for some compound in New Mexico. It was a sex trafficking ring. Scotty was there when I got there.”
“Scotty Labaray?” asked Reno. “Trina’s ex?”
“Yes,” Latoya said with a nod. “He was running that compound. I was held there for almost a year. Until they started talking about shutting it down and moving it overseas. That’s when I knew it was going to get even worse, so I escaped.
Me and a lot of girls did. I went from town to town and from state to state, and I got by however I could.
After a couple decades of that, I went back to Mississippi.
I was so messed up that I ended up in this charity house for people who had been trafficked.
It was run by nuns, but it wasn’t a convent. It changed my life.”
Trina squeezed her hand. “I’m glad, Toya. I’m glad you found some peace. I am so sorry you had to witness what happened, and then for you to have to go through what you went through.” Trina shook her head. “I am so sorry.”
Latoya smiled. “You was always good to me though,” she said. “Scotty didn’t beat on me when you was around.”
“Was Javon at that New Mexico compound when you got there?” Sal asked her.
Latoya shook her head. “I never saw him there, no. I never saw him after that night. I never saw Trina either. That’s why I don’t understand why I’m here.”
Reno knew her usefulness to them ended when she gave them Javon’s name. But he wasn’t ready to just send her on her merry way. Not until he was certain. He went to the door and opened it. “Come get her,” he ordered his guards. “Put her in room 2 until you hear back from me.”
Two of the guards came in, but Trina spoke to Latoya first. “They’re going to have to keep you here a little longer. But only until we can find Javon. Okay?”
Latoya nodded, but Trina could see the apprehension in her eyes. And then the guards began escorting her out.
“Don’t mistreat her,” Trina warned those guards. “I mean it.”
“Yes ma’am,” the older guard said as they led her out.
“We need to bring Javon in,” said Sal.
“No shit, Sherlock?” said Reno. Then he let out a hard sigh. “I knew that fucker was involved.”
“But if he’s involved,” Trina said, “why would he allow them to shoot him in that motel? They could have killed him.”
“They were professionals. That’s why those bullets only grazed him,” said Sal. “They knew what they were doing.”
“But why would he wait so long to blackmail me?”
Nobody could answer that one.
“How were they paid?” Mick asked.
“Bitcoin,” Trina said.
“Yeah, I figured that,” said Reno. “Completely untraceable.”
“His ass knew what he was doing,” said Sal.
“Who all are going because it’s time to go,” said Mick.
“I’m going,” Trina said immediately.
“No hell you aren’t,” Reno replied even faster. “You’re going to stay in that penthouse with Dominic and the rest of our children until we bring him in. We’ve got to keep this tight and right. And be on the lookout for blowback.”
Nobody, not even Trina, could argue with that.
But as they were leaving out of the Bowels, Reno could see the pain on Trina’s face. He pulled her back. “You trusted an asshole,” he said, “because you had no one else to trust. You did nothing wrong.”
“I could have trusted you.”
But Reno shook his head. “No, you couldn’t have. I would have been an asshole too. Just like I’ve been over the past four months. And besides,” he added with a frown, “you didn’t know if our marriage could have survived all of that.”
Trina stared at him. “What changed?”
Reno placed his hands on both sides of her arms. “Nothing changed. I always knew our marriage would survive that. It’ll survive anything. You just didn’t know it.”
Trina was threatening tears again. “How could you be so sure, Reno?”
“Because it survived all my shit. If it could survive all my shit, it’ll survive yours.”
But Trina searched his eyes. “Even mine?”
“Even yours. It’s hard, Tree. I’m not gonna lie. This shit is hard. Especially when I know you didn’t do it.”
“Toya just confirmed it too, Reno. You have to believe it. I did that shit. I did it!”
But Reno still wasn’t convinced.
“And because I did it, will our marriage survive even what I’ve done?”
Reno didn’t respond to that. He wasn’t going to ever accept that. “I’ve got to go,” he said, kissed her on her lips with a lingering kiss, with his eyes squeezed shut, and then he left.