CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
And Reno Gabrini finally shed all of his defenses and told Trina the full story.
“After I tricked Lydia into signing over to me any rights she claimed to have in the PaLargio, which she didn’t have but I was taking no chances, I was spooked by what Moose tried.
If it went to probate, my lawyers said I could have lost everything based on some bullshit will.
Then I get word that Moose was still making noises about me.
I hear how his family was plotting another hostile takeover of the PaLargio.
And that this time, they weren’t going to leave it up to the courts.
They were going to take me and everybody associated with me out instead.
And that when I knew I had to strike first this time to put an end to this bullshit once and for all. ”
Trina was afraid to know, but she knew she had to know. “What did you do, Reno?”
“Moose had two sons who were set to eventually succeed him as boss and underboss in his organization. He was preparing both of them for their roles. He wanted to take it easy and let them do all the heavy lifting. Which meant they were deeply involved in the scheme too.”
“What did you do, Reno?” Trina was now dying to know. “You ordered a hit on his sons? Is that what you did?”
Reno hesitated, but then he answered her. “I didn’t order a hit on Moose’s two sons, no, I didn’t do that. That would have involved too many people. I handled it myself.”
She didn’t expect to hear that. “How did you handle it yourself?” Her voice was no longer animated. Her voice was low and deliberate. And scared.
Reno was staring as if he was staring back into yesterday.
“I waited until the early morning hours. Four a.m. was my go time. I had already set my traps and was able to penetrate his weak-ass defenses easily. And I took out both of his sons, which were his heirs, and everybody else in that house. I set it off. I blew that whole motherfucking compound apart. I didn’t leave anybody alive to come after me or mine years later. ”
“What do you mean everybody?” She was certain he couldn’t possibly mean what it would normally mean.
But it meant exactly that, Reno was ashamed to admit. “By everybody, Trina, I mean everybody that had a pulse on that property. His two sons. Their wives. Their children. Everybody.”
Trina’s heart fell through her shoe. “Their children? Reno, you didn’t!”
“They were children today, but they were going to be my executioners tomorrow if I left their stones unturned.”
“They weren’t stones!” Trina yelled at him. “They were children,” she said in a lower voice. “They were babies, Reno.”
Reno knew it was monster behavior. He knew it! “That was the kind of man I was back then, Trina. They were plotting and planning to take the PaLargio away from me, and my life right along with it, and I wasn’t allowing that. I killed every motherfucker that moved. Yes I did. I took them all down.”
Trina’s stomach was churning. “But how did you do it?”
“I bombed the place,” he said. “I blew it up.”
“But you didn’t know the children were inside at the time, right?”
Reno didn’t answer that. Which Trina knew meant he knew.
“Unfortunately,” he said, “Moose and his daughter Lydia weren’t there. They were in New Mexico checking out a boatload of cocaine they wanted to ship overseas, I later found out.”
Trina couldn’t believe what he was saying. Was this some kind of a sick, perverted joke?
But Reno’s bright blue eyes, filled with unshed tears, had no joke in them. “And that wasn’t all,” he said.
Trina couldn’t believe it. “What do you mean that’s not all?”
“Because my strike on the Vatelli compound didn’t happen after that fake will bullshit with Lydia, but it happened sometime after that, I was never blamed for what happened to their family. It wasn’t my m.o. They were certain I wouldn’t take out little kids.”
Trina was certain of it too. But he was telling her that was exactly what he’d done. The babies were fair game too!
“So I was never blamed,” Reno said again. “Moose was in a tussle with a rival gang, with Billy Stallini’s gang, and they were blamed. They killed Billy, his underboss, his senior capos, and every single member of their families.”
Trina frowned. “Children too?”
Regret filled Reno’s eyes. But he nodded his head. “Their children too, yes.”
“Oh Reno!” Trina looked devastated. “And what did you do about it?”
“What was I gonna do about it, Tree? Tell them no, you got the wrong thug? I did it? Don’t go for Billy ad his, come instead for me and mine? They wanted the PaLargio and I wasn’t giving it up. They wanted me and I wasn’t ready to die. I meant business. Moose never again came for me.”
“Until now,” Trina said.
Reno hated to admit that too. “Until now, that’s right.”
“Back then, he never once thought it was you?”
“He was certain it wasn’t me. But what happened to his family shook him to his core.
He had a daughter that was still missing thanks to my old man.
And after what I did to his family and his retaliation on Billy Stallini’s family, he went underground for years.
He came back strong, but never like he was even after the war he had with me earlier.
He gave up on trying to take what wasn’t his.
I never heard another peep out of Moose Vatelli. ”
“Until now,” Trina said again.
Reno nodded, again, with regret in his eyes. “Until now.”
“Is that why you left me? Because you didn’t want me to know about what you did?”
“Yes! Only two people on this earth knew about what I did.”
“Tommy and Sal?”
Reno nodded. “And that’s it. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell Uncle Mick.
And the only reason Tommy and Sal knew was because I told them that Moose and his sons were plotting to try another takeover of the PaLargio.
They put two and two together after my hit, and they confronted me about it.
That’s the only reason they knew. But I had to leave you, Tree.
I failed to take out Moose and Lydia the first time around.
I knew I had to get those bastards this time around or it would begin again and never end. I had to handle it once and for all.”
But Reno could tell Trina was still thinking about those innocent children.
Reno couldn’t believe that he was so hard back then either.
“A part of me was still my father’s son back then, Trina,” Reno said in what sounded to her like justification.
“The PaLargio was all I had. It was my identity back then. And I wasn’t allowing any motherfucker on the face of this earth to just snatched it away from me.
And I knew Moose Vatelli and my intel was spot on.
If he came for the PaLargio the second time, it wasn’t going to be with some fake will or shit like that.
It was going to be with weapons. He was going to take me out and everybody around me.
I couldn’t sit around and let that happen. ”
It still sounded like justification to Trina.
“It was the wild, wild west back then,” Reno continued.
“There was no honor among thieves. We were all just thieves. They were armed, I was double-armed. That was my mentality back then. And it’s still my mentality, Tree.
If I don’t do it to them, they’re gonna do it to my family.
And I’m not sitting back and letting that happen. ”
But Trina was staring at him as if he was a stranger to her. And she had to know. “If the PaLargio was threatened that way today, would you do it all over again, Reno?”
Reno didn’t answer her question.
“That would be a yes,” she said, answering for him. And then tears appeared in her eyes.
“Oh Tree,” Reno said heartfelt as he reached out to her.
But Trina pushed him away from her. “Get away from me!” she cried out. “Who are you? Get away from me!”
Reno stood up. He could see the disgust all over her beautiful, anguished face. All because of him. It was because of him again.
He knew he should have left their home and never looked back. Any self-respecting man would have done so. But he was too tired to run any further. He was just too tired.
He went upstairs, took a shower, and then took himself to bed.
He got away from her.