Reno and Trina: In the Shadows of Love, Book 12 (14 page)

Trina was
stunned that Jimmy felt that way about her.
 
“I’m not putting up with anything.
 
Your father is working.”

“Where?”
 
Jimmy asked.
 
“He’s not here, at the PaLargio.
 
I just clocked off.
 
So where is
Dad doing all of this big work?”

Trina
considered their oldest child.
 
“What are
you trying to imply, Jimmy?”

“You need to
get stricter with Dad.
 
You need to make
him tell you where he is at all times.”

“Oh, really
now?
 
And I’m sure Reno will gladly allow
that.
 
I’m sure he’ll check in with me
every time he’s about to make a move.
 
That is so Reno.
 
That sounds so
much like my husband and your father.”
 
Then Trina got real.
 
“Come on,
Jimmy.
 
Reno will kick my ass and yours
too before he have me controlling him like that.”

“But he
should be here with you, Mom.
 
He’s the
boss, and I mean the final boss.
 
He can
clock off early sometimes.
 
You shouldn’t
have to sit home alone by yourself all the time.”

“Quit
exaggerating, boy,” Trina admonished Jimmy.
 
“He’ll be here if he could.
 
He
apparently had work to do.”

Across town,
Reno had work to do.
 
He had Shaun
Connors by the catch of his two legs, upside down and dangling out of a tenth
floor empty office building, and Shaun was wiggling and begging for mercy so
hard that Debrosiac had to grab hold of his feet to prevent him from slipping
out accidentally.
 
But it was no accident
why they were there.

“It’s not my
fault!” Shaun was pleading.
 
“I had no
idea Mag knew anything about your wife!”

“But you
approached my wife with lies, didn’t you?
 
You were trying to set her up, weren’t you?”

“No!” Shaun
cried.
 
“I wasn’t trying to do any such
thing, Mr. Gabrini!
 
You have to believe
me.
 
I was just---”

“You were
just what?”
 
Reno pulled him a little
further out of the window.

“I was just
talking to her, that’s all.
 
I wasn’t
trying to set her up.
 
I swear!
 
I was just talking to her.”

Reno pulled him
back up into the room.
 
Shaun was
weak-kneed when his feet touched back down.

“Why did you
lie about being mistreated at my hotel?
 
Why did you lie?”

“Because it
was a way for me to talk to your wife.
 
It was a way for me to get her attention.
 
But I didn’t know Mag would try something
like that.
 
I broke up with her weeks
ago!”

“She didn’t
break up with you,” Reno said.

“But I broke
up with her!
 
I didn’t want her.
 
I don’t know what she was thinking!
 
You’ve got to understand that!”

“Your
decision to try and steal my wife from me, which is enough for me to beat your
ass alone, is what caused that woman to try what she did.
 
What the fuck am I supposed to
understand?
 
If it wasn’t for your horny
ass my wife would not have been in that river fighting for her life.
 
Your actions brought that about.
 
You can claim you had nothing to do with it
until you’re blue in the face.
 
But your
actions started this whole shit-ball rolling, and it almost rolled over the
most important person in this world to me.
 
What do you think I’m going to do about that?
 
Nothing?”
  

“That would
be great,” Shaun said.

Debrosiac
laughed.

“Yeah, that
would be peachy I’ll bet.”
 
Reno looked
at him hard.
 
“Oh, you’re going to get an
ass-whipping.
 
That goes without saying.
 
You’d better be glad that’s all you’re
getting.
 
Because if you go anywhere near
my wife again, she’ll be the last sight you ever see on the face of this
earth.
 
Do I make myself clear, Mr.
Connors?”

“Yes,” Shaun
said, his head bobbing almost hysterically. “I can’t stress how much you’ve
made yourself clear.”

Reno stared
at him.
 
He was a chump in the end, he
decided.
 
He nodded for Debrosiac to take
care of it.
 
Then he walked out.

Shaun felt a
false sense of security when Reno left.
 
“He didn’t mean that, did he?” he asked Debrosiac.
 
“He wasn’t really going to drop me over that
ledge because of some woman, was he?”

“Man, shut
up.”

“Because if
I wanted the bitch,” Shaun said boldly, refusing to shut up.
 
“I would have had the bitch.”

“On second thought,”
Reno said, and made a beeline back to Shaun before Debrosiac could commence his
ass-whipping.

When Shaun
saw him returning, he pointed in that direction.
 
“No!” he yelled, prompting Debrosiac to look
too.
 
But it was a diversionary tactic
because Shaun then grabbed the gun out of Debrosiac’s hand and pointed it at
Debrosiac’s head.
 
“He’s dead if you come
one step closer,” Shaun warned.

Reno stopped
in his tracks.

“That’s
right,” Shaun said.
 
“I’m not as lame as
you thought I was.
 
Even I can shoot and
maim from this distance.”

But Reno was
so quick that he pulled his weapon and fired it into Shaun’s shoulder before
Shaun realized Reno had made a move at all.
 
The gun flew from Shaun’s hand as his instinct caused his hand to hurry
and cover his wound.
 

“But can you
shoot and kill,” Reno asked as he made his way up to Shaun.
 

Debrosiac
grabbed his gun from the floor and pointed it at Shaun.
 
“You bastard!” he said.

But Reno
didn’t bother with any more conversation.
 
Shaun had crossed that line.

“What are
you doing?” Shaun was asking as Reno lifted him out of that window, but this
time Reno didn’t even tease.
 
He let
go.
 
Shaun flew like a bird without
wings, with his cries growing fainter and fainter, until he splattered across
the sidewalk.

Even Debrosiac
was stunned.
 
He looked out of the
window, and then looked at Reno.
 

Reno stared
at the body a moment longer, a drained look appearing in his cold eyes, and
then he left.

Debrosiac
still stood there in disbelief.
 
He
looked at Shaun on that sidewalk, and then back at Reno’s retreating form.
 
And he shook his head.
 
He’d never met a more vicious man than Reno
Gabrini.

And it
wasn’t the other way around.
 
Because the
older Reno got, Debrosiac thought has he hurried behind him, the more vicious
he was becoming.

Reno was
surprised to see Trina was still up.
 
Usually when he had one of his late nights, she and the children would
be fast asleep.
 
The children were
asleep-the silence in his home proved that.
 
But Trina wasn’t.

She was
seated in the living room wing chair, her legs hanging over one of the arms,
with her iPad in her hands.
 
She removed
her reading glasses and looked at Reno when he walked in.

“You’re up,”
he said, as he walked up to her.
 
He sat
near her, on the edge of the sofa.
 
“How
are you feeling?”

“I thought
you would be home for dinner,” Trina said, not interested in any small talk at
this late hour.

“I thought
so too.
 
But I couldn’t make it.”

“You could
have phoned.”

Reno looked
at her.
 
Since when did he have to phone
her?
 
He didn’t say he’d be home in time
for supper.
 
He usually wasn’t home in
time for supper.
 
He usually wasn’t home
in time for anything but bed.
 
“So what
gives?” he asked.
 
“What happened?”

“Who says
something happened?”

“The fact
that you’re still up says it.
 
The fact
that you’re pulling this
where were you
shit says it.
 
Now tell me what’s on your
mind.”

Trina didn’t
like his tone.
 
She looked at him, and
then put back on her glasses and looked back at her iPad.
 
“Sal called tonight looking for you.”

Reno knew he
had upset Trina.
 
He exhaled.
 
“Yeah?”

“He and
Gemma wants to take us out to dinner tomorrow night.”

“I thought
they were going to Japan tomorrow night.”

“They
were.
 
They still are.
 
But they wanted to have dinner with us before
they left.”

Reno
smiled.
 
“Knowing both of them the way I
do, I’m certain this dinner date is more about eyeballing you before they leave
the country.
 
They want to make certain,
after that hit-and-run, that I’m taking care of you right.”

Trina smiled
weakly.
 
She was certain that wasn’t it,
but why argue about it?

Reno
considered her.
 
She deserved an answer
to her question.
 
“I was out taking care
of business,” he said.
 
“I was taking
care of that hit-and-run business,” he added.
 
“I found out who hit and ran.”

Trina looked
at him over her reading glasses.
 
“You
found who did it?”

“I found
her.”

“A woman?”

“A
middle-aged woman named Maggie Vinson.
 
Heard of her?”

Trina
thought about that name, then shook her head.
 
“No,” she said.
 
“Should I have?”

“She was
Shaun Connors sugar mama.”

“Shaun
Connors?
 
The guy who---”

“The guy who
claimed the PaLargio wasn’t shit and all of that bullshit, yeah.
 
Him.
 
Seems his old money bags thought he was having an affair with you.”

Trina was
stunned.
 
“With me?
 
Just because I was talking to him?”

“Because you
were talking to him twice.
 
She wasn’t
taking any chances.”

Trina shook
her head and thought about how such an obvious misunderstanding nearly got her
killed.
 
Then she looked at Reno.
 
He wouldn’t stand for that.
 
She knew it.
 
“I take it payback was in order?”

“You better
believe it was.
 
I’m not a heartless man,
Tree.
 
But when they fuck with you, I
am.
 
I don’t take mercy and I don’t give
none.”

Trina
nodded.
 
“I know.”

“What about
Shaun?
 
Have you spoken to him?”

“I spoke
with him tonight.”

“And what
did you do about him?”

“I was going
to let an ass-whipping be enough.
 
But he
started talking that bull about how he could have any woman he wanted and if he
wanted you he was going to have you and I wasn’t risking it, Tree.
 
The Gabrinis have a family motto: if you
leave a stone unturned, it’ll turn on you.
 
His ass caused everything to go down.
 
I turned on him.
 
And it was a
good thing, too, because his ass had taken my man’s gun and put it to his
head.
 
If I would not have turned back, a
good man would have been dead.
 
I took
care of business then.”

Trina looked
at her husband.
 
“You’re a cop without a
license, Reno.
 
You give street
justice.
 
Because cops operate within the
law, they get to pat themselves on the back when they gun down the bad
guy.
 
They get metals and raises.
 
You get nightmares and guilt.
 
But you do the right thing, Reno.
 
I know you do.”

Reno felt a
wellspring of love for Trina when she said those words.
 
He stared at her with nothing but affection
in his eyes.
 
But he knew her like he
knew his name.
 
She still needed to talk
to him.
 
Something was bothering her.
 
“Why did you wait up for me, Trina?” he asked
her.
 
“What did you want to talk to me
about?”

Trina didn’t
know how to say it without getting him upset, even after she had just praised
him, so she removed her glasses, looked over at him, and just said it.
 
“Amy came by to see me today,” she said.

Reno
hesitated, which Trina knew usually meant what she said had hit a nerve.
 
Then he leaned back on the sofa and crossed
his legs.
 
“What did she want?
 
I told her ass to stay away from you.”

“She said
the real reason you fired her last month wasn’t because of your business
partners, but because she refused to sleep with you.”

Reno
hesitated again, which concerned Trina.
 
“That’s a lie,” he finally said.

“She said
the reason Quinn was promoted was because she slept with you.”

“That’s a
lie too.
 
She’s lying.
 
I never slept with Quinn.”

“Did you try
to sleep with Amy?”

“I never
slept with Amy either.”

“That wasn’t
my question.”

Reno gave
Trina a hard stare.
 
“I never slept with
her, I never tried to sleep with her.”

But then he
had that flashback again.
 
It was a month
ago and he was in Hawaii.
 
He closed the
deal for a PaLargio in the Pacific and was celebrating.
 
Amy was his senior executive assistant and
was on the trip with him.
 
She was his
designated driver.
 
And he needed
her.
 
She got him back to the hotel in
one piece.

But the rest
of the night was a blur.
 
He couldn’t
remember shit.
 
And then that next
morning.
 
He woke up in bed, with Amy
beside him.
 
He didn’t realize she was
naked until she got out of bed.
 
She
denied anything happened, and his penis wasn’t moist.
 
She gave him some cockamamie story about
sleeping in the same bed with him to prevent him from trying to get more
booze.
 
Why was she naked?
 
She always slept naked, she claimed.
 
But he never told Tree.
 
His story would sound as cockamamie to Tree
as Amy’s sounded to him.

“What,
Reno?” Trina asked.

Reno looked
at her.
 
“What?”

“What were
you thinking about?”

“What are
you talking?
 
I told you I never had sex
with Amy, and Quinn neither, and didn’t want to have sex with either one of
them.
 
I don’t cheat on you.
 
Never have, and I never will.
 
Now are you going to believe me, the man who
loves you, or some desperate trick trying to get herself employed at my
expense?
 
Which is it going to be, Tree,
because I’m not dealing with this Amy nonsense over and over again.
 
I don’t want that woman.
 
I never wanted that woman.
 
What’s the problem here?”

It was that
simple, and that complicated to Tree.
 
Because Reno sized it up perfectly the way he usually did.
 
Who was she going to believe?
 
Her husband, whom she knew loved her and
respected her above anybody else, or Amy?
 
A woman she didn’t really know at all.

She put her
iPad aside, and her glasses aside, and she went to Reno.
 
He pulled her onto his lap and kissed
her.
 
She made her choice.
 
She was casting her lot with Reno.

Sal and
Gemma actually applauded when Reno and Trina entered the restaurant.
 

“Very
funny,” Reno said as Trina and Sal hugged, and Reno and Gemma hugged.
 
They all sat back down.

“You’re
late,” Sal said to Reno as they sat down.
 
“Which I expected.
 
You’re always
late.
 
But you outdid yourself this time,
Pal.”

But Gemma
was more concerned about Trina.
 
“How are
you feeling?” she asked.
 
“When Sal told
me what happened, I was shocked.
 
I mean
I can’t imagine how terrifying that had to have been.”

“It was
tough, girl,” Trina said.

“For real.
 
But Reno found a way.”

Gemma
smiled.
 
“He always does when it comes to
you.”

“Tell her,
Gem,” Reno said.
 
“Tell her what a
special man she has.”

“Nope,”
Gemma said.
 
“I’ve got a special
man.
 
She’s got you.”

Trina and
Sal laughed, and Trina and Gemma high-fived.

“Okay,” Reno
said, nodding his head.
 
“Gemma got
jokes.
 
Gemma’s blind too, if she think
Sal’s something special. But that’s cool too.”

“Yeah,
sure,” Sal said.
 
“She got you good.
 
Just admit it.”

“He admits
to nothing,” Trina said, and even Reno had to laugh about that.

“So how’s
Tommy?” Reno asked.
 
“He’s still in South
America?”

“He was in
South America.
 
He’s in Japan now with
Liz.”

“You and Gem
still headed that way?”

“Yup.
 
After dinner.
 
It’s mainly a business trip, Tommy and I have a merger meeting, but I’m
sure Gem and Liz will get in some fun time.”

“You and
Tommy need to have some fun too, Sal,” Trina said.
 
“Japan is a beautiful, romantic place.
 
Have some fun while you’re there.
 
You work too hard.”

“He hardly
works,” Reno corrected her.
 
“What are
you talking?”

“Whatever,
Reno,” Sal said.

“Anyway,”
Trina said.
 
“I know I just got here, but
I need to freshen up.”
 
She grabbed her
purse.
 
“You’re game, Gem?”

“Always,”
Gemma said and grabbed her purse too. Their husbands stood as they headed for
the ladies room.
 
Then Reno and Sal sat
back down.

“Everything
okay with Trina?” Sal asked.

“Yeah.
 
She’s good.”

“What’s the
line on that hit-and-run?
 
You buying
that accident shit?”

“Hell
no.
 
It was no accident.
 
That Maggie Vinson, the lady I told you
about, she thought Trina was having an affair with her boy toy.”

Sal was
surprised.
 
“You’ve got to be kidding
me!”