MOB BOSS 6: THE HEART OF RENO GABRINI (Mob Boss Series) (25 page)

“I’m
telling you the truth,” Dirty insisted.
 
“Look it up.
 
Tony Tufarna is a
manager in the Department of the Interior or something like that.
 
He’s a presidential appointee.”

Reno
could hardly believe it.
 
But he knew
Dirty.
 
He wouldn’t lie about a thing
like that.

Dirty,
in fact, was laughing.
 
He relished the
thought that Reno was blindsided.
 
“Yeah,
you’re dealing with the big boys now, boy.
 
You’re dealing with the big boys now.
 
In a way, by my working for Tony, that means I work for the president
too.
 
I work for the president!
 
You gonna beat up a man who works for the
president, Reno?
 
You gonna be that
stupid?”

Reno
looked at Dirty.
 
“Where’s Tony?”

“In
Washington, where you think?
 
I don’t
deal directly with Tony.
 
Never have.”

“Who
do you deal with then?”

“Nobody
now that the plan didn’t go right.
 
Used
to deal with one of Tony’s goons.
 
He was
the one who gave me the hundred thousand to deliver to Eddie.”

“A
hundred thousand?” Reno asked.
 
“I
thought it was fifty.”

“A
hundred thousand up front.
 
Another
hundred thousand when he got Jimmy arrested for murder.
 
I got fifty for my part.”

Reno
couldn’t believe it.
 
“Where Tony get
that kind of dough?”

“He’s
a politician now,” Dirty said.
 
“Where
you think?”

Reno
and Sal exchanged a glance.
 
This shit
was beyond serious now.

Dirty
looked at the pipe in Reno’s hand.
 
“Got
your pipe like the thug you are,” he said.
 
“So what you gonna do, Ree?
 
Gonna
beat my ass again like you did in that hospital?
 
You gonna take that pipe and disfigure the
president’s man?
 
That’ll make a big boy
like you feel better, Reno?
 
That’ll make
you feel better?”

“No,”
Reno admitted as he tossed the pipe aside.
 
Then he pulled out his gun.
 
“But
this will,” he said and shot Dirty between the eyes.
 
Dirty grabbed for Reno as if he was grabbing
for a life preserver that wasn’t there, and then fell straight back, kicking up
the dust as he did.
 

Dirty
was willing to set up his son.
 
Reno
wasn’t letting him get away with that.

Jimmy
was on the floor of the penthouse playing with Dominic.
 
Trina was seated at the Queen Anne desk near the
back of the room reviewing talent contracts that she or Reno needed to
approve.
 
And then the phone rang.

Trina
and Jimmy looked at each other.
 
Trina
pressed the desk phone Speaker button and Jimmy stood up and came over.
 

Reno
was riding on the passenger side inside his Porsche.
 
Sal was driving and Lou and his men were
following in an SUV.

“Hello?”
Jimmy answered Reno’s phone call.

“Where’s
Tree?” Reno asked into the phone.

“I’m
right here,” Trina said.
 
“You talked to
him?”

“We
talked to him.
 
That motherfucker works
for the president, Tree.”

“Dirty?”

“Tony
Tufarna.
 
He’s a
got
damn government official!
 
A
got
damn Fed and not one
fucker knew it!”

“What
we gonna know about somebody working for the president?” Sal asked.
 
Tree and Jimmy heard him.
 
“That ain’t our territory.”

“Working
for the president,” Trina said.
 
“That
changes everything.”

Reno
agreed.
 
“Tell me about it.
 
Here I am thinking I’ve got some twisted,
vengeful fuck with money to throw around, when I really have a twisted,
vengeful fuck with money
and power
to
throw around.
 
I’d call that a change,
yeah.
 
Big time.”

“What
are we gonna do?”

“That’s
the part I haven’t worked out yet.
 
I’ve
got to find out where he is first.
 
I’ve
got to---”

And
then there was what could only be described as an explosion.
 
It was so loud that Reno had to move the
phone from his ear.
 
“What the fuck was
that?” Reno asked when he put the phone back to his ear.
 
“Trina?
 
Katrina?
 
Tree?!!”

But
not another sound could be heard.
 
Reno’s
heart felt as if it was going to stop.
 

He
looked at Sal.
 
“Zoom this motherfucker,”
he ordered, his heart pounding at a dangerous rate.
 
And Sal put the petal to the medal and nearly
lost traction as he flew that Porsche toward the smoldering Vegas Strip.

Artie
came into the penthouse just as Jimmy had grabbed Dominic and was hurrying out
of the front door.
 
Trina was hurrying
behind them.

“What
happened?” Trina asked Artie as they hurried toward him.
 
“What was that noise?”

“An
explosion like you wouldn’t believe, Miss G.
 
It was on the other side of the PaLargio but the whole hotel has to be
unstable now.
 
We’ve got to get outta
here.”

They
ran out into the corridor.
 
Not one
guard, when Reno had left an army, was still there.

“Where’s
everybody?” Trina asked in shock, looking around.

“They
heard the explosion and took off.
 
I
thought you guys were already gone.”

“Let’s
go,” Jimmy said as he began running with the baby toward the elevator.

“The
elevator’s out, Jim,” Artie said. “We’ve got to take the back stairs.”

But as
Jimmy ran back toward Trina to get to the private stairs, Trina knew something
was wrong.
 
Reno didn’t hire
cowards.
 
They wouldn’t have ran just
because there was an explosion.
 

And
she knew she had to make a decision.
 
Reno said, to protect the family, sometimes you had to make that
over-the-top decision.
 
Trina felt that
this was that time.

As
Jimmy was about to hurry past her, she stopped him, pulled the gun she knew he
had in his pocket, and pointed it with both hands at Artie.
 

Jimmy
looked at Trina, amazed.
 
“What are you
doing?” he asked her.

But
just as Jimmy asked that question, Artie reached for his own gun.
 
But Reno had trained Trina well.
 
He had dragged her to the shooting range many
times before.
 
And she shot Artie through
the heart with practiced precision.
 
His
gun fell out, as he fell back.

Jimmy
looked at Artie, stunned, and then looked at Trina.

“We
leave,” she said, “but not by the back stairs.”

And
Jimmy asked no further questions as he followed Trina toward the stairs farther
away.
 
They were private stairs that led
to the side, rather than the back, of the building.
 
As soon as she pulled the door open, her
suspicions were confirmed.
 
The bodies of
all of the guards that had been protecting the penthouse, including Lou’s body,
were piled up in the stairwell.
 
That was
why Asshole Artie wanted them to go down the back stairs, she thought.
 
It had nothing to do with that explosion, and
everything to do with a set up.
 

She
held the door, looking back, while Jimmy held Dommi tight and stepped over all
of those dead bodies.
 
Trina thought she
would faint, too, just walking across such carnage, but she held it
together.
 
She had to.
  
Reno wasn’t here, which meant she was in
charge.
 
She moved in front of Jimmy, and
led her family through.

And
initially it worked.
 
She and Jimmy and
the baby made it downstairs fine.
 
It was
a long trip down, but they made it.
 
They
even made it out of the side door and into the alleyway.
 
Into the sunlight.
 
They were even able to begin running toward
the front of the PaLargio as the sirens could be heard in the distance and the
sound of chaos and confusion began to fill the air.

But
they didn’t quite make it.
 
An SUV
swerved into the alley and began speeding toward them.
 
They turned and started running toward the
back of the alleyway.
 
But another SUV
entered the alley from the back and started speeding toward them.
 
Trina backed Jimmy and the baby up against
the wall, and then she started shooting.
 
But she didn’t hit anyone.
 
She
was no Reno.
 
She was shaking too
badly
 
to hit a thing.

The
men in the back SUV jumped out, she couldn’t even count how many, and
overwhelmed them.
 
Then they grabbed
them, they grabbed Reno Gabrini’s family, and threw them into the back SUV as
if they were tossing in trash.
 
The SUV
then began backing out of the alley in a long, frantic drive-out that would
have made NASCAR proud.

Trina
grabbed her baby, and Jimmy, and held on for dear life.

“Dear
Lord,” Reno said as soon as Sal drove up to near the front of the
PaLargio.
 
But there was no front.
 
It was all blown away.
 
And the fire was still billowing up to the
point that Reno feared the entire structure would topple.
 
The police and fire trucks were just arriving
by the dozens, and hundreds of the PaLargio guests were just beginning to pour
out into the streets.
 
The PaLargio had
nearly twenty-five hundred rooms and almost all of them had been occupied.
 
Which spelled disaster.
 
And all Reno could think about, as he jumped
out of his Porsche, was his family.
 
Trina, and Jimmy, and Dominic.

His
cell phone began to ring as he began walking hurriedly toward the
entrance.
 
Sal jumped out and hurried
beside him.
 
The police was just
beginning to hold people back and he knew they weren’t about to let even the
owner anywhere close to the entranceway.
 

But
it didn’t matter.
 
Reno’s cell phone
rang.
 
Hoping it was Trina, he answered
it immediately.
 
“Tree, is that you?” he
asked.

“No,”
the voice on the other end said.
 
“It’s
not Tree, which, I must say is an odd name for a woman.
 
It’s not your wife, Reno.
 
It’s your nightmare.
 
It’s Tony.”

Reno
stopped in his tracks.
 
Sal bumped into
him and looked at him.

“What
do you want?” Reno asked him.

“I
have what I want,” Tony said.
 
“You and
Sal are invited to a party. I have a car waiting for you right across the street.
 
It’s a tan van and the driver is right now
waving at you.”

Reno
and Sal looked across the street and saw the driver waving.

“Don’t
worry,” Tony continued.
 
“Your life isn’t
in danger.
 
But your family’s is.”

Reno’s
heart stopped. “What have you done?”

“Say
hello to your father, Jimmy,” Tony said onto the phone.

“Fuck
you,” Jimmy could be heard replying.

No,
Reno thought nervously.
 
Don’t fight him,
James.
 
Don’t fight that fool!

“Your
son seems to be a tad belligerent,” Tony said.
 
“But he is black, after all.”

“Don’t
do it, Dad!” Jimmy could be held yelling.
 
“Don’t give him what he wants!

“Shut
the fuck up!” Tony yelled back, and Reno heard a sound of a slap.

“Mrs.
Gabrini,” Tony said, and Reno realized he had his entire family. Trina would not
have left without her baby.