CHAPTER EIGHT
When Reno finally walked out of Ingrid’s house, Tommy was seated, with his legs crossed, in the backseat of that limousine far longer than he thought would have been the case. “About time,” he said out loud to only their driver and bodyguard since Reno was still coming down the steps.
When their bodyguard opened the back door and Reno got into the limo, he leaned his head all the way back as if he’d just been traumatized. Then he closed his eyes.
Tommy looked at him. He looked stricken. “Go,” he said to the driver.
“Where to, sir?”
“Airport.”
They both knew they would be leaving Alberta after the meeting, so going straight to the airport wasn’t a concern. But the length of time Reno remained in that house after Tommy had had it and walked out was. “What took you so long?” he asked him.
He could tell Reno didn’t want to discuss it, which concerned Tommy even more. “Reno?”
“Alright already,” Reno snapped at Tommy. “Whatta you clamping down my throat for?”
“What happened in there?”
Reno looked at his cousin and best friend. “Why your ass couldn’t just charm that psycho for a few minutes longer? That’s all it took! But nooo. Not Dapper Tom. He’s too cute to get his hands dirty.”
“Fuck you, Reno! I told you I hated that shit before we got out of this limousine. I told you that!”
“And I told you we’ve got to have her buy-in or we’re out. I told you that!”
“Just tell me what happened after I left.”
Reno shook his head as if it still disgusted him. “It was simple. Since she can’t have your ass, she decided mine would have to do. She decided since I got a big-ass rod, even bigger than yours by the way, and yours is huge--”
“Reno! Enough of that macho shit and just tell me what happened.”
“She propositioned me,” said Reno.
Tommy stared at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Just what I said. I give her some of that aforementioned rod, and she’s in.”
“She would sign that contract if you gave her some? You? The weasel?”
Reno gave him a hard him. “Call me that again and you’ll be weaseling my foot out of your ass.” Then he settled back down. “According to her, I’m legendary in the bedroom. She wanted a taste of that legend.”
Tommy smiled. “Yeah right.” But when he saw that there was real pain in Reno’s eyes, his chest squeezed. “Reno, you didn’t. What have you done, Reno?”
Reno frowned. “Why I had to have done something? Why everybody always gotta act like I’m the villain?
I’m just trying to do business in this motherfucker.
Is it my fault that I use every tool available to me to get the job done?
You can smile and they give your ass whatever you want.
Sal can muscle his way to get whatever he wants.
But I have to plan and plot and scheme and connive to get what I want.
Nobody complains when I get the job done.
Oh no. They love my results. But they always complaining about my methods. ”
Tommy was even more worried. “What happened after I left?”
“I told you what happened.”
“You told me she came onto you.”
A look of regret appeared in Reno’s eyes. “Yeah.” Then he looked at Tommy. “Big time. I’m talking down to the studs.”
“Naked?” Tommy was floored. “She got naked?”
Reno nodded. “She said I’m the boss in the bedroom, which I am.”
“And?”
“I already told you and. And she said if I give her what she wants, then she’ll sign the contract. Are you not listening to me?”
Now Tommy was scared. He knew Reno. Men might have been Ingrid Hawken’s weakness, but women were Reno’s. “And you caved? You gave her what she wanted?”
Reno tossed the folder containing the contract over to Tommy. Tommy slowly opened it. He just knew what he was going to see. He just knew it! And when it was confirmed, he looked at Reno. And he exhaled. Because he knew Reno would not have done that to Trina. “She didn’t sign it.”
“No, she didn’t sign it.”
“Why not?”
Reno frowned. “Whatta you mean why not? She didn’t sign it because I wouldn’t go along with her bullshit.”
“She’s gorgeous. She’s naked. I know your ass was tempted.”
“Hell yeah I was tempted!”
“But?”
“But I couldn’t do it. I kept seeing Trina cutting my balls off while she was shooting me in the head.”
Tommy burst into laughter.
Reno, smiling too, shook his head. “That shit looked good, but it ain’t worth that!”
But then the laughter died down and both men looked at each other. “Damn,” said Tommy.
“Damn is right,” said Reno.
“What are our options?”
“We ain’t got no options, unless you know another uber-rich European willing to put up a billion bucks.”
“She was our last hope,” said Tommy.
“Right,” said Reno, “and we both blew that. She hates our guts now.”
Tommy exhaled. “Well at least we have our virtue,” he said as his phone began ringing.
“Virtue?” asked Reno. “What the fuck is that? I could have been wilding out with that very attractive blonde bombshell, but instead I’m riding to the airport with your ass. Who that?”
Tommy looked at his Caller ID. “It’s your wife.”
“My wife?” Then Reno frowned. “I declare if that woman don’t have GPS in my dick!”
Tommy smiled, placed his phone on Speaker, and answered the call. “Hey Trina, what’s up?”
“There’s been a school shooting, Tommy.”
She said it so fast and with such urgency behind her voice that both Tommy and Reno immediately knew it was tragic. “A school shooting?” asked Tommy.
“Yes.”
“What school?”
It was as if she hated to say it. “It’s at TJ’s school.”
Tommy’s heart began to pound. “Tell me my son is okay,” he said with urgency now himself. “Don’t tell me anything else, Tree. Tell me my boy is okay!”
But Trina hesitated, which horrified Tommy and Reno both. “What are you hesitating for?” Reno yelled at her. “TJ alright?”
“He’s not alright,” said Trina.
Reno looked at Tommy. The driver and bodyguard looked through the car mirrors at Tommy too.
“Did he get shot, Trina?” Tommy asked in an eerily calm voice.
“As far as I know, he hasn’t been harmed,” said Trina.
Reno frowned. “Then why ain’t he alright?”
“What is it, Trina?” Tommy asked her, even though he didn’t want to hear her answer.
“The cops are saying he’s the shooter, Tommy,” she said in a voice that cracked. “They’re saying TJ is the shooter!”
It was as if a sledgehammer had slammed into Tommy’s heart. “The shooter?” he asked in disbelief.
Reno was stupefied too. “Are you joking?”
Trina lashed out. “What the fuck I look like joking about a thing like that, Reno?” She was feisty again.
“Where’s Grace?” Tommy asked.
“They just picked her up to take her to the school. I’m in the car speeding trying to keep up with those slick-ass cops.”
“You be careful,” Reno said. “This kind of bad news usually comes in threes, and we already had twos.”
“What twos?” asked Trina.
Tommy knew he had to keep his wits about him.
“Call Uncle Mick,” Tommy managed to say to Trina.
“And call my brother too. Tell him to bring Gemma. If it’s true, TJ is going to need a lawyer.
I’ll call my team in Seattle to get to that school too, but Gemma will take the lead.
We’ll get there before they get there, but we need them there. ”
“Okay,” Trina said.
“I’ll call Grace.”
“You can’t. I have her phone,” Trina said. “And I don’t think they’re gonna let her talk to anybody right now.”
“Then make those phone calls, Trina,” Tommy said.
“Okay, I will.”
“Okay my ass,” said Reno. “Tommy isn’t thinking straight. Your ass don’t call nobody. You just get to that school and be there for Grace and TJ. We’ll call everybody that needs to be called. You just find out what’s going on and then let us know.”
“I will,” Trina said. “I will.”
“And be careful, Tree, and I mean that!” Reno ordered. Now he was scared for her life too. Trina was a tough broad, he knew, but when it came to family she was mush. “Don’t do all that crazy speeding. You’ll get there when you get there and that’s all there is to it.”
“Oh, Reno, I wish you was here,” Trina said in a voice that defied her image.
Reno sighed. “I wish I was there too, babe. But we’re on the way. You got this, you hear me?”
“You just should have seen Grace’s face. She looked like she was going to die where she stood when they said TJ did this. It’s just awful! Pray, Reno. You and Tommy pray.”
Tommy’s heart dropped to his shoe because he knew how devastated Grace had to be. “We will,” Tommy said and ended the call even as Reno was already making a call.
Then both men looked at each other. They thought losing that contract was the worst thing that could possibly happen to them that day. They were wrong. It paled in comparison.
Tommy got on the phone too.