Reno leaned back in his swivel chair and began rocking. And thinking. Then he looked at Jeremy. “This is what we’re gonna do. Your ass is gonna file a lawsuit against the ones the cops were able to catch and arrest last night. But we aren’t asking for compensation.”
“Then what are we asking for?”
“We’re asking a judge to rule that every person involved in that shitshow last night will be the only ones responsible for all damage to person or things since they’re the ones who inflicted the damage, and that The PaLargio and Dominic “Reno” Gabrini, Senior will be held blameless.”
“That’s asking a lot, Reno.”
“Why the fuck you think I pay you ten times above scale? For it to be easy for you? Get it done!”
Jeremy nodded. “You’re the boss.”
“And don’t you forget that,” Reno said. And Jeremy left.
Reno paused a few seconds. The nerve of those people trying to sue him, he thought. And then he phoned Trina again. It just rang and went to Voice Mail again.
Reno called his daughter. She worked at Champagne’s, working for free, to help her mother out.
“Hey Daddy.”
“Your mother at work?”
“Yes sir.”
“Put her on the phone, but don’t tell her it’s me.”
“She already knows.”
“How does she already know?”
“I told her before I answered.”
“And what did she say?”
“Don’t answer it.”
Reno exhaled. He knew he should have phoned her sometime last night, or at least didn’t wait until today to run upstairs to let her know what transpired. But when he was into something, he was all in. It didn’t even occur to him last night. “Why did you answer it?” he asked her.
“Because you’re my daddy and your issues with Ma are not my issues.”
Reno smiled. “That’s my baby right there,” he said.Fuck Trina, he wanted to add, but he didn’t. Because he knew that Sophia knew, and the entire world knew he wouldn’t have meant it. “Tell her I said to call me when she’s over her little tantrum,” he said and ended the call just as Malcolm Zock, his security chief, walked in with a short, straggly-haired white woman Reno didn’t recognize.
From the look on Malcolm’s face, he knew it was serious.
“Clear the room, Boss,” he said to Reno.
Reno didn’t ask why. He knew if Malcolm made such a request, it was needful. “Everybody out,” Reno said and his staff, who knew he meant business all the time, didn’t mumble. They left.
“What’s going on?”
Malcolm waited until the last person was gone and the office door was closed. Then he looked at Reno. “I want you to meet Kasi Arvanatti,” Malcolm said.
Reno frowned. “What I need to meet her for? Does it look like I got time to meet and greet?”
“My father sent me,” Kasi stepped forward and said.
“Your father? Who the fuck is your father?” Then Reno caught the name. “Lolo is your old man? Lolo Arvanatti?”
She nodded. “Yes sir.”
