Authors: Mallory Monroe
ordinary, strange or whatever, you check it out. Don’t tel me you didn’t think anything of it at the time, I don’t wanna hear that shit. This should be an easy assignment, I don’t anticipate any problems, but that doesn’t mean you come here and relax, take it easy, let your guard down. There’s no room for error, you hear me? This my wife we’re talking about, not some easy lay girlfriend of the
moment, and I’l track you down to hel if you don’t protect her in my absence.”
“Come on, Reno, you talk to me like I’m not family, like I wouldn’t lay down and die for you. For your new bride. Have I ever let you down?”
“No,” Reno said matter-of-factly, “or you wouldn’t be here. Just take care of her, al right? And do it discreetly. I don’t want her seeing you al over the place because she may not like it. She
may rethink her decision to hook up with a bad news joker like me.”
“She’s protected, Reno, don’t worry,” Joe said, tired of al of his threats. “I know how to protect, that’s why I’m here. Fort Knox don’t have better protection. On this you have my word.”
Reno looked at Joe. He wasn’t the best. The best was in Vegas. But he was the closest, a man who happened to be in Birmingham on business when Reno was caling around this morning for
backup, and was able to get here before Reno left town. His Vegas backup was on their way, but they wouldn’t be here for hours.
“Just do it, JoeJoe,” he said with al sincerity, “or your ass is mine.” Reno then hopped on the plane, and Joe stayed on the ground.
Reno Gabrini was the strangest dude Joe had ever met, a man with the moral compass of a saint but the ruthlessness of the most sadistic of sadistic kilers. Crossing him wasn’t going to be as
easy as crossing his old man. But man was Joe going to love it when Reno did get his due. The asshole. Treating him like his bitch! Who did he think he was?
“Yeah,” Joe said aloud as Reno boarded the plane and was completely out of earshot, “I’l take care of that nigger wife of yours al right. I’l take care of her real good. Don’t worry about a
thing. I got that nigger wife in my crosshairs you bastard!” Then he grinned and waved at Reno, kept waving and grinning at the man he hated, as the plane lifted up, and carried Reno away.
***
you want.”
“Eighty-nine cents for a can of early peas,” her mother grumbled, “is outrageous. I remember when they were ten cents a can, ten cents. Now eighty-nine cents? Who can afford that? I’l not
pay it. I tel you I won’t.”
Then don’t
, Trina wanted to scream. Her mother would try the patience of a saint, when patience was always Trina’s shortcoming. But while dealing with her mother, patience was exactly what
was caled for. “This can of corn is cheaper,” she said. “Three for a dolar, Mama, that’s cheap enough. What about corn?”
“I want early peas, not corn. Early peas.”
“Then get it, Mama, goodness. I told you I got it. I’l pay the eighty-nine cents.”
“With that mob money, no you won’t. They ain’t putting me in no prison for laundering money or whatever it’s caled, no ma’am. I ain’t never seen the inside of a jail in sixty-odd years on
God’s green earth and I’m not about to see the inside of one now. Daughter or no daughter. Mob boss or no mob boss.”
“Wil you stop saying that?” Trina implored, then lowered her voice. “Reno is not a mob boss. He’s a legitimate hotel and casino owner, Mama. Al right?”
“Yeah, and Marlon Brando was legitimate too. Him and that Scarface character. I seen them movies. He’s as much a mob boss as they were. I seen them movies.”
Trina roled her eyes. “I’l wait over at the drug store, Mama,” she said, and then added, in the interest of patience, “but take your time.”
“I seen them movies,” her mother yeled after her, as if to prove that her departure didn’t change the facts.
Trina walked across the street to Pexal Drug Store which, in Dale, was also the local soda pop shop. She purchased a bottle of Coke and took a window seat near the front entrance. From
where she sat she could clearly see when her mother exited the grocery store.
It was an unusualy humid Fal day in Dale, with temperatures expecting to top nearly eighty-five degrees, and she was prepared in her shorts and halter top. An outfit, she also realized, that was
getting her a lot of male attention. Reno would not have approved, she knew. She even smiled at how much he would have disapproved. Since she’d known him, he’d already insisted she change
clothes a time or two, declaring she was showing too much “skin,” even though every time they were alone together her “skin” was al he wanted to see.
And just thinking about being alone with Reno, and the way he did her before he left this morning, made her want him inside her again. That man had her so dick-whipped it wasn’t even funny.
She’d never been this taken by another human being before in her entire life, never felt so attached, so connected like this. But Reno had her lock, stock, and over a barrel. And she actualy loved the fact that she was his, loved the fact that he was so protective of her.
“My my, what are
you
doing here?” a familiar voice spoke up and Trina, startled, turned to the sound. To her amazement it was Jeffrey Graham, the young man she had run away from Dale with
years ago, coming up to the banquettes from the back of the drug store.
Trina smiled. It had been years since their breakup, and their last contact ended in a fight, but she was stil surprisingly glad to see him. Before they became lovers, they were childhood best
friends. “I could ask you that same question,” she said.
“Didn’t expect to see you here.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here.”
He smiled, motioned toward the seat opposite her. “May I?”
“Sure, Jeff, have a seat.”
He looked the same, she noticed as he slid into the booth seat across from her. He stil had that beautiful dark-brown face, those gorgeous white teeth, those maddening bright brown eyes, that
physique that could rival Reno’s.
“It’s been a while, girl,” he said, sitting his prescription refil on the tabletop. “How you been?”
“I’ve been great, Jeff, how about you?”
“Oh, I can’t complain. Or at least I won’t.” He smiled that devastatingly gorgeous smile of his. “When did you get back in town?”
“Oh, I can’t complain. Or at least I won’t.” He smiled that devastatingly gorgeous smile of his. “When did you get back in town?”
“Yesterday. I’m just visiting. What about you?”
“Oh, I been back for years now.”
“No shit? You left Nevada?”
“Oh, yeah, girl, where you been?”
Trying to survive after your doped-up ass tried to jump on me, Trina started to say. “When did you leave Nevada?” she said instead.
“Just after our big blow up, just after you left. I was a mess then, you know I was. Strung out on drugs, running around with everything in a skirt, I wasn’t used to that kind of lifestyle.”
Trina nodded. “I hear ya’, bud,” she said. “I wasn’t used to it, either. Only I didn’t leave Nevada. I just landed in a different place.”
“Yeah? Where?”
“Vegas. Got a job waiting tables at a strip joint of al places.”
“A strip joint? You? But why? You had skils. You used to be a club manager.”
“I know. I’m in training to be one now.” Although she wasn’t sure if Reno was going to stil sanction her apprenticeship. Before they hooked up for real she had a sneaking suspicion he had
hired her as a management apprentice to keep her under his thumb. And even as his girlfriend she believed he liked the fact that he could keep an eye on her if she worked for him. Now, however, she
was his wife. He might not see the benefits of his wife working for him. But that was too bad, Trina thought. She had every intention of continuing to work, especialy in a field she enjoyed. Although she also knew she would have to battle Reno first.
“So you’re in training to manage which club?”
Trina sipped more Coke. “Don’t know which one yet. But it’l be at the PaLargio,” she said.
“Whaaat,” Jeffrey said, the word strung out as if it were a song. “Get outta here. You serious? The
Pa-Lar-gi-o
?” He sounded out every sylable. “Dang, girl. I didn’t know places like that even hired people like us.”
Trina knew what he meant. Jazz, her best friend back in Vegas, felt the same way. It was as if they had placed themselves into a box and had no real hope of getting out of it. Jazz eventualy
stepped out, when Trina helped to get her a job at the PaLargio, but somebody like Jeffrey, who actualy believed his attainments were limited, never would.
“It helps to be married to the owner,” Trina said, mainly to show him that life wasn’t as limiting as he thought. But also to tel it to somebody. Normaly she wouldn’t flaunt her happiness around
like that. But Jeffrey was her home boy, was good to her back in the day, before he got on drugs.
But Jeffrey didn’t seem to understand. “What you mean?” he asked her. When Trina showed him her diamond wedding ring, he looked at the ring, and then back into her eyes. At first it stil
didn’t dawn on him. But then, as she kept smiling, it did. “Are you trying to tel me,” he said, “are you teling me that you, are you saying that you, Tree Hathaway, married the owner of the Pa-Lar-gi-o
?”
Trina smiled. “That’s right.”
“Whaaat?”
“For real though.”
“But I thought. . .”
Trina’s heart dropped. Did he know about Reno’s mob connections too? Was it common knowledge that even an outsider like Jeff would know about it? “But you thought what?” she asked
him.
“I don’t mean to be funny,” he said, “but I thought the owner of the Pa-Lar-gi-o, like al of those other casino owners, was white.”
Trina smiled. Oh, that. “He is.”
Jeffrey nodded. His smile was stil there, but not as warm. “And that’s okay with your folks? You marrying a white boy, I mean?”
“They’re stil getting used to it. Especialy Ma. But she’l come around.”
Jeffrey nodded again, his smile becoming warmer again, as if he was slowly coming around too. “This is some news, Tree,” he said. “I expected you to land on your feet, but damn, girl.” Trina
laughed. “The owner of the
Pa-Lar-gi-o
? Wow. I don’t know what to say, I’m serious. But congratulations. That’s what I’l say. Congrats. And by the way, does he have a sister?”
Trina laughed again. “Two of them, but they’re both married.”
“Damn. But lightening never strikes twice anyway, right?”
Trina didn’t know if she liked her marriage to Reno being compared to lightening striking, but in a way she understood what he meant. “I guess not,” she said.
“Main question,” Jeffrey said, holding up a finger, “is he good to you?”
This was an odd question coming from him, Trina thought, especialy considering the major fight they had the night she left him, and al of the women he ran around with while they were together.
But she’d moved on from Jeffrey a long time ago. “Yes,” she said. “Real good. He took me to Paris, J.”
“Paris? Paris, Texas?”
Trina laughed. Jeffrey was always good for a laugh. “No, sily. France.”
“Wow. For real, though? So you’ve seen Paris since last we met.” Trina smiled. It was a line they used to use as kids. Whenever one of them went away for summer vacation or something,
they’d come back and claim that they saw Paris the last time they met. It was from a poem they once had to read for a school project, and became their running gag.
“Yes,” she said as a sadness washed over her. She missed that old Jeff, the best friend, the school mate, before they made the biggest mistake of their lives and became lovers. “I’ve seen Paris
since last we met.”
“That’s great, Tree,” he continued. “If anybody would, I knew it would be you.” Then he smiled. “You certainly look good,” he said, his gorgeous eyes scanning the length of her. “Real good.”
Trina smiled, but felt uncomfortable with his scan. “So what about you?” she said. “What you been up to?”
“Was working over at Maxi’s garage for a minute.”
“Was working over at Maxi’s garage for a minute.”
“Realy?”
“Was, yeah. Got laid off a few weeks ago. The economy, you know.”
“I know. It’s bad al around.”
Jeffrey stared at her, as if something had suddenly dawned on him. “Tree?” he asked.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“You don’t think your husband, I mean the owner of the PaLargio, could consider hiring me, could he? I mean, I worked casinos al up and down Reno, you know I did. Was good at it too.”
“Until that drug culture, which you know is a major part of every show town like Reno, like Vegas, took control.”
“But I been clean for over two years now, Tree. I can’t stand that shit now. I just wanna make it now.”
Trina stared at him. Who was she to judge anyway? “Yeah, sure, Jeff. I’m sure there’s some place we can find for you.” That was a bold statement, she knew it. But she also knew Reno
would do that favor for her.
Jeffrey grinned. “Oh, Tree,” he said, unable to hide his elation, “you don’t know what this means to me. I been wanting to leave this town since I got back here, but the job kept me here.”
“Where’re your folks?”
“They’re here too, but they’l be happy when I’m able to give them some real cash again.”
Trina laughed. “I hear that,” she said.
“I see your folks around town sometimes, but I don’t think they remember me. So I just don’t even bother to speak.”
“They know your name, that’s al,” Trina said. “I don’t think they ever knew your face. They just knew that I hooked up with the club bouncer and took off with him. But anyway,” she added,
puling a pad and pen from her purse, “I’l give you my cel number. Come to Vegas in a couple weeks, to the PaLargio. I should be back in town by then. Ask for me. I’l hook you up.”