MOB BOSS 3: LOVE AND RETRIBUTION (5 page)

“Run, Franny!” she yeled, thinking about Reno, thinking about how he would blame himself when he found out his mother was dead. They weren’t taking his sister too.

“Run!” she yeled again and Francine did just as she said. But before she could even make it out of the dining room, she was gunned down too. Shot in the back by the man who had folowed Trina in the bedroom and was now coming back up the back hal.

He shot at Trina too, who dived behind the chair, but not before a bulet whizzed past her ear, just missing her, and she knew her nightmare wasn’t anywhere near over yet. She started firing again, hitting him this time, his gun flying from his hand as he fel like a sack of potatoes to the floor.

“Trina!” Francine cried and Trina crawled to her, thanking God she wasn’t dead. She held Francine in her arms as she puled out her cel phone to cal 911. The part of Trina’s brain stil working knew that, given al of the commotion, somebody already had to have surely dialed 911, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Everything seemed so upside down. Where was security, she wondered? Where was Dirty? Where was Reno? She wanted Reno! Tears began to pour from her eyes.

But just as she thought this nightmare could not possibly have any more twists, it did. The barrel of a gun was placed against the side of her head. She thought there was only one man running down the back hal after her, but now she realized there had been two. And he was locked and loaded and ready to take her away from here.

“You’re the one we wanted, anyway,” he said. “So drop it and drop it now, bitch.”

She dropped her gun. And suddenly everything became real to her. Not surreal the way it had been. Real. Bele Gabrini was dead. Francine was shot. She had kiled two people. And it was as real as the death that clung to the air.

Time was real again. It at first felt like this nightmare had been dragging on for two or three hours, only to now realize it was more like two or three minutes. And it was about to end here and now, with her brains splattered al over their beautiful marbled floor.

And just as she looked down, just as she was thinking about that floor, she heard the gunshot, and it was the loudest of al the shots that had been fired that morning, inside the PaLargio.

And as blackness overtook her, al she could think about was Reno. And it wasn’t rational anymore. It wasn’t deliberate anymore. It was unreal. It was raw and bare and emotional. Just feelings. Just blackness. Just lifelessness.

And she found herself praying, as it al shut down, that Reno, of al people, would not be the one to find them.

THREE

MarBeth wanted to confront Reno as soon as he boarded the plane in Jersey, but Carmine had already reminded her how Reno was. He wouldn’t tel her anything if she came on too strong. Give him a chance to decompose, Carmine advised, and then go talk to him.

It took al MarBeth had to heed her husband’s advice, but she heeded it. Her brother was an odd fish and always had been, somebody who everybody turned to because he was the strongest of them al.

But that strength came at a price, and often he had to be alone, to come down from whatever height he had just reached, and MarBeth would give him that time.

Reno was settled in his seat in the back of the private jet for nearly an hour, trying to relax on the flight back home. He had already phoned Trina. She had said that she, Ma, and Francine were doing fine. They were just getting up and would be sitting down to breakfast soon. She was thriled to know that Reno was heading back, and he was thriled that soon he would be seeing her face again.

“Take care of yourself,” he had said to his wife. “And don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Trina had laughed. “So if you would do it, then I can do it?”

“I didn’t say that,” Reno said with a smile. “Let me rephrase what I said. Be a good girl, a nun even, that’s what I mean.”

“Bye, boy,” Trina had said with a laugh and Reno, laughing too, had kiled the cal.

That was an hour ago. MarBeth looked at Carmine.

“I’m going to talk to him now,” she said. “He should have been decomposed by now.”

“I don’t know, MarBeth. He looked pretty pissed to me when he got on this plane. You might wanna wait until we land in Vegas.”

“Land in Vegas?” MarBeth said. “You must be joking! This is my life we’re talking about and I have a right to know what Reno and Vito decided.”

Carmine’s cel phone began to ring. “If he tels you off, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

MarBeth shook her head, she realy had no respect for Carmine, and made her way al the way to the back of the plane.

Reno had expected her sooner than this, so he wasn’t surprised by her visit. She sat on the seat across from him.

“What happened, Reno?” she asked. “Did he forgive me?”

Reno didn’t say anything. But MarBeth wasn’t about to let that be the end of it

“Reno, did he forgive me?” she asked again.

Reno hated that whine in her voice. “Yeah,” he said

“And you believed him?” Again, no response from Reno. “You believed him, Reno?”

Reno looked his sister dead in the eyes. “No,” he admitted, and she slumped down in her seat.

Carmine came running to the back of the plane, his face as white as a sheet.

“What is it?” Reno asked and MarBeth looked too.

“There’s been a hit,” Carmine said, breathing heavily, his cel phone stil in his hand.

“I knew it!” Reno yeled.

“Not at Somers Point, Ree,” Carmine said.

Reno’s heart began to pound, because he knew, if he would alow himself to go there, that there was only one other place. “Where?” he asked.

“The PaLargio,” Carmine said and Reno jumped from his seat and snatched the phone from Carmine’s hand.

“Who is this?” Reno asked anxiously into the phone.

“It’s me, Ritchie.”

“What the hel’s happened, Dirty?” Reno asked. “Where’s my wife?”

“They hit us, Ree,” Dirty said, breathing heavily too. “They got Ma. They got your mother---”

“My mother?” Reno asked, frowning.

“What about Ma?” MarBeth asked, standing too.

“What the hel are you talking about, Dirt?” Reno asked.

“They got her,” Dirty was saying in a crying voice. “The paramedics pronounced her dead on the scene. Ma’s dead, Reno!”

Reno couldn’t believe it. He started shaking his head. His mother?
Dead
? Was this fucker out of his mind?

“That ain’t possible,” Reno irrationaly proclaimed. “How can you say that?”

“Say what, Reno?” MarBeth asked. “What’s happened to Ma and Franny?”

“She’s dead, Reno,” Dirty said. “I’m teling you she’s dead. She got it right between the eyes.”

Reno again started shaking his head. “It can’t be.”

“What can’t be?” MarBeth said anxiously.

“Ma,” Carmine said to his wife. “She’s dead, MarBeth.”

MarBeth, too, started shaking her head. “No,” she said. “Noooo!” she screamed. Carmine ran to her, puled her into his arms.

“This can’t be happening, Dirt, tel me this isn’t happening.”

And then he thought about Trina. And his heart suddenly stopped. He held the phone with both hands. “What about my wife?” he asked with a nervous quiver in his voice. “Where’s Tree?”

“It was so bloody, Reno.”

“My wife, where’s my wife?” Reno was about to jump out of his own skin.

“She and Franny were rushed to the hospital,” Dirty finaly said.

“But they’re stil alive, right?” Reno asked.

“Yes,” Dirty said, and that one word resuscitated Reno.

“But it’s bad,” Dirty continued. “Real bad. It was like a bloodbath in that penthouse, Reno.”

A bloodbath? And his mother was in it? His baby sister? His
wife
?

Trina was in that penthouse? Was in that bloodbath?

Reno lost al control and dropped the phone. He would have fainted, would have died where he stood, had Carmine not released MarBeth, and grabbed him.

As soon as the doors to the hospital in Vegas flew open and Reno, Carmine and MarBeth hurried through, Dirty came running down the hal. The hospital was overrun with security, but they were men Reno didn’t recognize. He had so many questions about how this could have happened at the PaLargio of al places and how Dirty wasn’t hit when al three of the women were, but those were the least of his concerns right now.

“They kiled Ma, Reno!” the always dramatic Dirty was yeling as he came. “They kiled Ma! And Franny’s fighting for her life.”

“Where’s Tree?” Reno asked.

This stopped Dirty cold. “Tree?” he asked as if he was offended. “I’m teling you that Ma’s dead and that my wife, your own baby sister, is fighting for her life, and al you can ask about is some Tree?

Some black bitch?”

Reno took his fist, slung it across Dirty’s jaw, and knocked his brother-in-law to his knees.

“Reno!” MarBeth yeled, getting down to help Dirty. “His wife’s fighting for her life.”

“That’s the only reason why I didn’t take his,” Reno said. “Now where’s Katrina?” he asked the downed Dirty again.

“This way, Reno,” Dr. Cabrew, one of Reno’s private physicians, said as he approached the group.

“Dr. C,” Reno said, relieved to know that he was taking care of Trina, and stepped over Dirty heading toward the doctor.

“How is she?” Reno was asking as the doctor escorted him down the hal.

“She’s traumatized, of course, it was quite a scene, Reno. We’l want to keep her for a few days, run tests and observe her, because she did, at one point, pass out. But she’l be fine.”

“Oh, thank God,” Reno said so heartfelt that the doctor glanced at him, to make sure he was going to be al right.

When they entered the room, and Reno saw that Trina was not only al right but wide awake in bed, looking completely al right, his heart sweled, and he hurried to her.

“Reno,” she cried, sitting up and reaching her arms out to him as if they would fal off if he didn’t grab them. He hurried to her and grabbed them, and her, into his own arms.

He puled back, looking her al over. “Are you realy okay, Tree?” he asked.

“I’m okay, Reno, but Ma and Franny---”

“I know,” he said, pain al over his face. “Franny’s stil hanging in there, though.”

“She’l pul through, I know she wil.” Then she frowned. “It was a nightmare, Reno. Just terrible. But I thought about you, and what would you do. And that’s how I was able to do it.”

Reno was smoothing down her hair, stil looking her over as if his first perusal might have missed something. “To do what, sweetheart?”

Trina looked at him, her bright hazel eyes as big as those old Kennedy Fifty Cents. She had that look he always had when he had to go there too. His heart dropped.

Trina looked at him, her bright hazel eyes as big as those old Kennedy Fifty Cents. She had that look he always had when he had to go there too. His heart dropped.

“What did you do, Tree?” he asked her nervously.

“I had to do it, Reno. I had to shoot three of them.”

Reno’s heart dropped through his shoe. Trina’s death would have been the worst possible outcome, the absolute worst. This, the fact that she, too, now had blood on her hands, was the second worst.

Tears came into his eyes.

“I had no choice, Reno,” she said, tears appearing in hers too. “I know you hate it, I hate it too. But I had no choice.”

He nodded, puled her body against his, her head now lying on his chest, his hand on the side of her head. “I know, babe,” he said.

“It was like it always is with you. They brought the fight to me and I had to fight back. It was kil or be kiled. They had already shot Ma Bele.”

Reno closed his eyes. He grieved for his mother on the plane, but that pain, that ache, was stil there.

Trina continued. “So I ran down the back hal into our bedroom, grabbed your gun, and ran up the front hal. I wanted to get them before they hurt Franny. And I did. I shot both of those guys. But then there was this third guy, the one who had folowed me into the bedroom. He shot Franny before I could shoot him. But I did shoot him, I did get him.”

Then she paused, as if re-living that horror scene al over again. She frowned. “I thought that was it, Reno. I thought he was the last one. But he wasn’t. There was this other guy, came up from behind me. And he put that gun to my head.”

Reno puled her back. “To your head? He got that close to you?”

Trina nodded. “He was going to kil me. I heard him cock the gun, his hand was on that trigger, he was going to take me out like they did Ma, Reno. He said I was the one they wanted anyway.”

This stunned Reno. “You?” he asked. “He said they were after you?”

“That’s what he said. He would have kiled me, I felt the barrel of that gun, I smeled that barrel. He would have kiled me if Tommy wouldn’t have kiled him first.”

Reno wasn’t sure if he heard her right.

“Tommy showed up,” she said. “And he shot that man. They said I passed out after that.”

Reno was stumped. What in the world was Tommy Gabrini, his cousin and closest friend, the man he turned to when he left al behind seven months ago, doing at the PaLargio?

And as soon as he thought about it, as soon as he tried to make some sense out of it, Tommy Gabrini came walking into Trina’s room.

“Helo, Reno,” he said, and Reno turned around. And there was Tommy, looking his usual dapper self in his always perfectly tailored Italian silk suit and imported dress shoes. His tal, lean, athletic body, and his not-a-strand-out-of-place blondish brown hair that framed his gorgeous face, often made even Reno wonder how a guy could be that freakishly good looking. And the relief that washed over Reno was like a tension breaker. As soon as he saw his cousin it felt as if a load was lifted. It now felt as if he wouldn’t have to bear this unbearable burden alone.

“Tommy,” he said like an exhale and hurried to him, hugging him. Tears were once again in Reno’s eyes, as he looked at his cousin; as he touched his face, touched his arms.

“It’s me, Reno,” Tommy said with that rakish smile of his. “Not a ghost.”

“What are you doing here, man?”