A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy (14 page)

“Goodnight, son,” Reno replied, giving him a hug as
he walked by.

“Night, Tree.”

“See you tomorrow, Jimmy.
 
And thanks.”

When Jimmy left, Reno just stood there, and then he
went and sat beside Trina.

“Did you eat something?” he asked her.
 
“You know how you feel in the mornings if you
don’t eat something at night.”

“I ate a few crackers,” Trina said.
 
“That was all I could stomach.”

Reno leaned back.
 
“He got away,” he said to her.
 
“But
I’ll get him, don’t you worry about that.
 
Nobody’s beating crap out of my sister without getting some crap beat
out of him.”

Trina shook her head.
 
“I don’t know what Dirty was thinking.”

“And I don’t care,” Reno said.
 
“Dirty motherfucker.
 
He’ll get his.”

Trina wrapped her arm around Reno.
 
“For a man who hates violence,” she said
sadly, “you’re always knee-deep in it.”

A grim look came over Reno.
 
“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to
do.
 
I let Dirty get away with something
like this they’ll be no telling what he thinks he can get away with next.
 
I should have kicked his ass a long time
ago.”

“I told you he was bad news.”

“But he’s my sister’s husband.
 
What was I supposed to do, make her divorce
him?”

“No, of course not,” Trina said as Reno leaned
against her.
 
She wrapped her arms around
him, and kissed his hair.
 

And soon he fell into a deep, exhaustive sleep.

CHAPTER SIX

Two days before Christmas and Trina walked across the
huge casino showroom floor on her way to a meeting with her front line
managers.
 
It was a meeting Dirty would
have attended if he hadn’t made the foolish mistake of forgetting who Reno was.
 
Now he was on the run, and Reno aimed to keep
it that way.

And just as she was thinking about Dirty and what he
did to Fran and what Reno was undoubtedly going to do to him, she saw who she
considered to be a blast from the past.
 
It was Nathan, her old friend Jazz’s ex-beau.

“Nathan?” she asked as she approached the slot
machine where he was sitting.
 
He was
playing away, with seemingly no thought for those swirling around him.
 
But he looked up when he heard somebody call
his name.
 
When
 
he
saw that it was Trina, he smiled.

“Talk about a stranger!” he said and stood up,
grabbing her hand into both of his and shaking it vigorously.
 
“How you doing, Trina?”

Trina grinned. This was the Nathan she
remembered.
 
Always
full of life.
  
“I’m doing great,
what about
yourself
?”

“Good now that I see the boss of this particular establishment.
 
Long time no see, Tree.”

“It’s been a minute, hasn’t it?”

“Oh, man, longer than that.
 
I haven’t seen you since I was fooling with
Jazz.
 
You’re sure looking prosperous.”

“Why thank-you, sir.
 
You don’t look bad yourself.”

“That’s because I got a few days off.
 
I started to go out of town, you know, to
visit relatives, but then I started thinking about that. I live in Vegas, for
crying out loud.
 
All of this fine entertainment
right at my fingertips.
 
So I booked me a
room here and I’m living the life of Riley in my own backyard.
 
At least for a few days.”

Trina laughed.
 
“Well, we’re very glad to have you.”

“Thanks.”

“So you still live around the way?”

“Yep.
 
Still in the same place.
 
Got me an old lady and her kids there with me
now, but I’m still there.
 
I thought you
wouldn’t be here anymore though, the way Jazz was talking.”

That made no sense to Trina.
 
“What do you mean?”

“She talked like you and Reno were getting a
divorce.
 
She said he was cheating or
something.”

Trina wasn’t even going to dignify that
nonsense.
 
“No, we’re still together.”

“Good,” Nathan said.
 
“And I figured y’all
was
.
 
Jazz just be jealous sometimes.
 
She ain’t got shit going for her, and
look
at you.”

Trina didn’t care for comparisons like that,
either.
 
But for the grace of God she’d
be in a similar boat as Jazz.
 
“Seen her
lately?” she asked Nathan.

“Oh, I see her all the time.
 
She’s always trying to hit me up for a few
bucks.
 
I told her I got me a good old
lady now, and I don’t want
no
mess.
 
But I help her out when I can.”

“I saw her over at Boyzie’s in early summer.
 
She wasn’t in a real good place when I saw
her last.
 
She was stripping, Nathan.”

“I know.
 
Now
she can’t even get a job doing that.”

Trina looked at him.
 
“What do you mean?
 
Boyzie got her
back waiting tables?”

“He fired her.
 
She
don’t
work there no-more.”

“What?
 
Get out
of here!”

“He had no choice, Tree.
 
For real, though.
 
She got in a fight with a customer, and I’m
talking a knock down drag out, Tree.
 
She
got arrested for it, too.
 
Did three months at County.”

Damn, Trina thought.
 
“So what’s she doing now?”

“Struggling, what else?
 
Going from pillar to post.
 
She’s staying at some rooming house for the
homeless now.”

Trina couldn’t believe it.
 
Jazz homeless?
 
She used to be Trina’s best friend. They used
to have so many dreams.
 
They used to
strive for so much better.
 
When Trina
first came to Vegas, it was Jazz who befriended her and showed her the ropes
and treated her like she was her blood relative.
 
Now she was homeless, while Trina was living
in a penthouse at the PaLargio?
 
Yeah,
Jazz had her issues, her gossiping ways chief among them, but Trina couldn’t
forget her kindness when she did have it together.

“What’s the name of the rooming house, Nathan?” Trina
asked him.

“Better Alms,” he said.

Trina parked her Bentley across the street from the
dilapidated looking rooming house.
 
Christmas decorations lined the windows, but they were thrown together
so haphazardly that they looked as if they were left-overs from Christmas
past.
 
Just like the men, some young,
some old, that stood around the stoop holding beer cans and cigarettes and
seeming to just be wasting away.
 

It was a tough looking area, no doubt about that, but
Trina was no stranger to tough areas.
 
She’d lived in the best and the worst in her lifetime.
 
She was just heartbroken that Jazz, two days
before Christmas, was living in the worst.

Trina snuggled up in her parka and made her way
toward the front entrance.
 
She already
had every man’s attention.
 
Her Bentley
already made certain of that.
 
But Trina
carried herself in such a way that even they could tell she was no easy to
manipulate, pushover bitch.
 
You mess
with her you were going to be messing with somebody.
 
Every man on that stoop saw that.

“Good evening,” she said as she approached them.
 
Some spoke, some didn’t.
 
All of them stared.
 
“I’m looking for a girl named Jazz.”

“Upstairs,” one of the older men said.
 
“Second room on your left.”

“Thank-you,” Trina said and began to walk up the
steps.

“I got three dollars,” one of the younger men
said.
 
Trina looked at him.
 
“I got three dollars,” he said, “if you suck
my dick.”

Trina almost slapped the little idiot.
 
He didn’t look much older than Jimmy
Mack.
 
“I’ve got three hundred dollars,”
she replied to him, “if you let me cut it off.”

The other men yelled out “
oooh!
and
covered their mouths with
laughter.
 
The young man looked angrily
at Trina.
 
Trina kept going up the steps.

“She told you!” one of the men said.

“Fuck you!” the young man responded.

Trina followed the directions and made her way to
Jazz’s room.
 
When she knocked, the door
was eventually opened by Jazz herself.

“Y’all need to stop bothering me,” Jazz said before
she realized who was standing at the door.
 
When she saw that it was Trina, she could hardly believe it.
 
She frowned.
 
“Tree?”

Trina attempted to smile, but she couldn’t manage
it.
 
“Hey.”

“What the. . . What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.”

“But how did you know I was here?”

“I ran into Nathan.”

Jazz hesitated.
 
“Nathan?”

“That’s right.”

But Jazz still seemed hesitant.
 
And embarrassed, Trina also noticed.
 
And then she relented.
 
And allowed Trina passage
in.

Danny Petuiccio, better known as Danno, walked
briskly into Reno’s office with a concerned look on his face.
 
“We’ve got a situation, boss,” he said as he
headed for his desk.

Reno looked up.
 
One of his executive assistants was standing beside his desk handing him
a series of documents to sign.
 
Jimmy
Mack was seated in front of the desk, talking with his father about college and
whether or not it was necessary.
 
Reno
said it was.
 
Jimmy wasn’t so sure.

“What situation?” Reno asked without looking away
from the documents he was signing.

“Mrs. Gabrini,” Danno said and Reno and Jimmy and
even Reno’s assistant looked at him.

“What about her?” Reno asked.

Danno looked at Reno’s
assistant
.

“I’ll finish these later, Bess,” Reno said and the
assistant immediately gathered up the remaining documents and left.
 

Reno looked at Danno.
 
“What is it?”

“Our guys followed her to a rooming house.”

Reno frowned.
 
“A rooming house?”

“Yes.
 
It’s
supposed to be for homeless people but it’s more like a haven for crack heads
and drug dealers.”

Reno’s heart began to pound.
 
“Where is she?” he asked.

“She’s gone inside.
  
They didn’t know if you wanted them to grab her, or stand down.”

Reno had to think about that.
 
If Trina found out just how much security he
had on her, including GPS, she might not speak to him again.
 
Ever.

“No,” he said, moving from around his desk.
 
“Tell your men to remain in position, but to
stand down.
 
I’ll grab her.”
 
And
shake her, too
, Reno thought with some degree of anger as Danno gave him
the address and he hurried out of the office.
 
Jimmy Mack, without bothering to seek permission, followed behind him.

Reno blew his Porsche through another intersection
and drove as fast as the heavy traffic would allow him.
 
Jimmy Mack was on the passenger seat, and he
looked as concerned as Reno.

“Who could live in a place like that?” he asked his
father.

“I have no idea.”

“You think Dirty could have gotten a word to her and
he wanted her to meet him?”

“Hell nall.
 
Trina wouldn’t meet Dirty, other than to show him to me.
 
He wouldn’t dare call her, because he knows
it too.”

“Then why would she be in such a rough area?
 
Danno said it’s one of the worse areas in
Vegas.”

Reno shook his head.
 
“Damn if I know,” he said.
 
“But
I’m sure gonna find out.
 
Then I’m gonna
kick her narrow ass,” he added as he overtook another slow car, and then
slammed his hand on the steering wheel.
  
Why did Tree keep putting him through this shit, he wanted to know.