Authors: Mallory Monroe
work. That was why they had to do it this way. Because they were counting on Reno being Reno and Reno, on Reno being the saint he was deep down.
And after she told him why she needed him, why she was back, he couldn’t, he wouldn’t be able to let her down again.
NINE
It was just after midnight when Trina clocked out and made her way home. Only she didn’t go to the PaLargio’s penthouse, Reno’s place, but to her apartment on the twentieth floor, the apartment
he had given to her when she was stil his girlfriend. She’d been with Amos Logan, the hotel’s general manager, al evening, visiting al of the clubs in the PaLargio, putting out fire after fire after fire, and she was exhausted. She showered, brushed her teeth, and was in bed before one am.
Before she could finaly drift off to sleep, however, she heard the door of her apartment creak open. The bright lights of the Vegas night shone through her curtain-less windows and created a
room, an entire apartment, that was never plunged into complete darkness. That was why, when Reno appeared at her bedroom door and leaned against the doorjamb, she could see him as clearly as
he could see her.
“Hey,” he said, sounding as exhausted as she felt.
“Hey yourself.”
“Want to tel me why you’re in that bed, and not mine?”
Trina, lying on her back, looked over at him. “I just came here, that’s al. I just felt like being alone.”
Reno’s heart dropped. He was always concerned that it would come to this, that she’d take a closer look at his lifestyle and decide it was not for her. He hesitated to get his emotions under
control, and then slowly walked over to the bed. He sat on the edge of the bed. “Being alone,” he said, “or being away from me?”
Trina shook her head. She honestly didn’t know if it was one, the other, or both. “I just don’t understand it, Reno.”
“Understand what, sweetheart?”
“How we’re going to live. They hit your family, you hit their family, they hit your family, you hit their family. When does it end?”
“It’l end, Tree. We’re getting more and more information. Tommy’s here now and he’s learned a lot.”
Trina looked at him. “Like what?”
“Like we may know who the man behind the curtain is. We may have the organization’s brain trust in our sights.”
“Is it the guy you had watching me in Dale?”
“JoeJoe Ralston? You must be joking.”
“Have you found him?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t harm him, Reno, when you do. He may know something.”
“The only thing he knows is where do I pick up my paycheck. But don’t worry about him. He’l get his.”
Reno sat there staring at her. And she knew that look. “What?” she asked. “What is it?”
Reno exhaled. “I’ve got to go to Jersey in the morning.”
Trina frowned. “But why? I thought you got your family out of there. I thought Frank Partanna’s people were operating on the east coast now.”
“They are. It’s just that I’ve got a meeting I have to attend. That’s al. I’l be back as soon as I can get back. Carmine wil stay here, if you need anything.”
“To be my bodyguard you mean.”
“That too,” Reno said with a smile so weak even he realized how pitiful he was. Especialy when Trina closed her eyes as if she could blot out the way of life she was now a part of. “Look,
Tree,” he said, his heart hammering at just the thought of her rejection, “I know you didn’t sign up for this. I know you want us to go on our honeymoon and live like normal newlyweds, I know you do.
But until I get this situation under control we can’t go no-where.”
Trina opened her eyes. “You mean I can’t go anywhere. You go al over the place. Jersey no less.”
Reno didn’t know what to say. “Look, Tree,” he started, but she turned her back on him. Reno wanted to explain and explain, he wanted to excuse and excuse, but even he was tired of his
own excuses. He decided to give her some space. To let her have some time alone just as she said she needed.
He left. He walked out of her apartment, caught the private elevator up to his penthouse, and entered his quiet home. Tommy and Sal Luca, who would accompany him to Jersey later, were
holed up in their own hotel rooms, and he was alone. Before he met Trina, he didn’t mind being alone. Now he hated it.
He brushed his teeth, showered, and fel naked in bed. He wanted to cal Trina, he wanted to explain himself again, but he didn’t bother. She’d come around, was his only hope. He, in fact,
prayed that she would, as he drifted off to sleep.
His prayer was answered within an hour of his drift off. Trina entered their penthouse, as she was cleared past al the different levels of security that always surrounded Reno, and entered with
her own key. When she saw him asleep in bed, she just stood there. Her initial urge was to turn around and leave, that there realy wasn’t anything more to say.
But she didn’t turn around. And she didn’t try to say anything. She simply removed the sweats and t-shirt she had slipped on, and laid in Reno’s bed on the front side of him. When her stirrings
caused him to open his eyes, and he saw that it was Trina getting in bed with him, his heart soared.
“Oh, Tree,” he said, a very happy man, and puled her into his arms. “Oh, Tree,” he said again, fighting back tears. They fel into a hard embrace, with Reno holding her so firmly that it was at
first uncomfortable. But she understood it. She placed her hands on either side of his gorgeous face and looked at him, looked at the strain that was always on that face lately, at the pain deep within his big blue eyes. And she kissed him on those eyes, as if she could kiss the pain away.
“I don’t like what’s going on right now, Reno, I realy don’t. I hate it, in fact. But I love you. I love you dearly. And I knew going in that being married to a great man like you wasn’t going to
be normal or simple or easy or none of those things.” She said this with a smile, a smile that alowed Reno to smile too. “But I trust you and I know you know what you’re doing. So do what you have
to do. Just don’t do anything foolish, don’t do anything based on emotions. That’s when you’l mess up and end up in prison or dead or something. And that’l break my heart, Reno. So you do what
you have to do, but remember I’l be here waiting for you. You have to come back to me every time you go away, and you have to come back to me in one piece.”
Reno loved her so much at that very moment that he could barely speak. But he did. “I promise you I’l always come back.”
“And in one piece.”
He smiled. “And in one piece.”
“Good,” she said. “Good.” Then she paused. “Now,” she said, smilingly, “if you wil do me the pleasure of taking that mammoth rod of yours and sliding it inside of me, I would be greatly
appreciative.”
Reno played dumb. “What?” he asked. “What rod? Are you asking me to fuck you, Tree? Is that what you’re asking me to do? What do I look like a boy toy to you?”
Trina roled on top of him, smiling greatly too. “That’s exactly what you look like,” she said, feeling for his rod and, finding it, sliding it inside of her, her eyes turning hooded and lustful as she did.
She looked so sexy to Reno that he was getting a serious hard-on just gazing at her. “Now take this toy, boy,” she said as the rod continued to slide in, “and do what you do.”
Reno wrapped her into his arms, laying her body down on top of his, as he began to gyrate, to move in and out of her, as he could feel her plump breasts press against his chest. He closed his
eyes too. For him it didn’t get any better than this. “I love you, Katrina Gabrini,” he said. “And don’t you ever forget that.”
His movements began to increase, as he thought about how much he loved her, as he thought about what her decision to come to his bed tonight truly meant. He finaly had a woman he could
trust with his life. He finaly had a woman who wasn’t after his money or power or influence or any of those things so many women of his past were after. Trina was after him. Period. And he knew, if
he lost everything tomorrow and had nothing but his love to give to her in return, she’d be right here, loving him, she’d never let him down.
And just the thought of it, that he was the luckiest man alive, caused his control, which was barely there to begin with, to completely leave. And his rod began to slide deep within her, and he felt
the currents of her sweetness, and like a magnet he glommed onto that sweetness, glommed on the way a drowning man held onto a life raft. He felt as if he had been drowning, and then she rescued
him. He turned her onto her back, kissing her hard on her wonderful lips, admiring every inch of her gorgeous face, of her beautiful body, and he began to do it the way they both preferred. Rough.
Hard. He began to pound.
***
and Sal Luca who, along with a security detail, accompanied him on this trip, were also in the suite, with Sal Luca opening the door for Vito.
But Vito walked in with a female by his side, a woman Tommy had never seen before, so he immediately got his attention.
“It’s Vito,” Tommy said, “and a young lady.”
Reno immediately looked up. Vito with a female? That didn’t even sound right. But when he saw who the young lady was, that it was, in fact, Marcy Davenport, his heart pounded against his
chest.
“What the fuck,” he said in a voice too low to be heard, as his eyes could not believe what they were seeing. Marcy? Marce Davenport? This had to be some kind of joke. What was she
doing here?
“Tommy Gabrini,” Vito said as he walked further into the room, extending his hand. “Looking dapper as usual.”
“Helo, Vito,” Tommy said, shaking his hand. “It’s been a while.”
“Too long. Always too long. How’s your old man? How’s Benny? Stil with the cops?”
“He’s good. And yeah, he’s stil with the police.”
“But not you. Reno says you took a walk.”
“I resigned to do my own thing.”
“You’re the only honest cop I’ve ever known, you know that, Dapper Tommy? You and your old man the only two. Could have had it made, you and your old man, if you was wiling to get on
the pad, to help out the families. We need men like you, men like your old man. Would have had it made.”
“They do have it made,” Sal Luca said as he came further into the room. “Tommy’s got his own successful security firm, got restaurants too, and pop’s the chief. What more do you want?”
“For a certain party to mind his own business,” Vito said, eyeing Sal. “Speak when you’re spoken to, Sal Luca. You’l go far in this life.”
Reno remained behind the bar, as he couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of Marcy. Marcy seemed to know it, too, and she therefore never once looked in his direction.
“Reno!” Vito said to Reno’s dismay. “What’s with al the subterfuge? Come meet me at the hotel, Vito, like I’m some errand boy. Can’t come to my home. Can’t let me entertain you the way
you’re entitled to be entertained. Instead, you ask me,
me
, Vito Giancarlo, to come to some hotel room. What you thought you were walking into a trap? Is that what this level of disrespect is about?”
“Nothing like that, Vito,” Reno said, coming from around the bar, a glass of wine in his hand. “Sal, get the people some drinks.”
“Do I look like a bartender, Reno?”
“Get the people some drinks,” Tommy said.
Sal Luca didn’t like it, but he exhaled. “What’l you having, Vito?”
“Campari and soda, what else?”
“And you, Miss?” he asked Marcy. Reno immediately looked at her. He hadn’t heard her voice in over six years.
“This is Marcy, if you don’t know her,” Vito said. “She and Reno used to fool around six years ago. Marcy, this is Tommy and Salvatore Luciano. Reno’s cousins.”
“Nice to meet you,” Marcy said. Reno was taken by her easy manner, by how classy she stil pretended to be. “I’l take a martini,” she said to Sal, “if you have it.”
“If I have it?” Sal asked as he headed for the bar. “I don’t have any of it. This ain’t my spot.”
“You gonna answer my question, Reno?” Vito asked. “What’s behind this level of disrespect?”
“It’s not disrespect. I just don’t know what I don’t know right now, so I have to be careful. Have a seat.”
“You remember Marcy,” Vito said casualy as he moved to take a seat on the sofa.
“Helo, Reno,” Marcy said, extending her hand.
Reno’s heart was pounding for some reason, and his penis throbbing. He hated that this woman could stil get a sexual reaction out of him. He didn’t shake her hand, however. “Marcy, hey,
Reno’s heart was pounding for some reason, and his penis throbbing. He hated that this woman could stil get a sexual reaction out of him. He didn’t shake her hand, however. “Marcy, hey,
how you doing?”
“I’ve seen better days,” she said, withdrawing her extended hand.
“Yeah? You’ve seen better days?”
“That’s why we’re here, Reno,” Vito said as he sat down. “Sit down, sugar,” he said to Marcy.
When Marcy was seated beside Vito, Tommy took one of the flanking chairs and Reno the other, and Sal Luca returned with their drinks. After everyone was served and Sal was seated on the
arm of Tommy’s chair, Vito looked at Reno.
“Her boy’s been snatched, Reno,” he said.
Reno’s eyes immediately flew to Marcy. “What boy? You got a kid?”
Marcy nodded, as tears appeared in her eyes. “Yes,” she said with a nod. “And they took him.”
Reno frowned. “Who took him?”
“We believe Partanna’s people,” Vito said.
“Partanna?” Reno asked.
“Whoever’s running his organization, yes,” Vito said.
It made no sense to Reno. “But why would Partanna’s people want her kid?”
Vito exhaled, as his age and big bulk always made him prone to do. He looked at his cocktail. “You and Marcy need to talk Reno,” he said. “Why don’t you take her in the bedroom.”