She felt relieved. “Thanks so much, Mick. Thank you.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Oh, and another thing.”
Another pause by him. “Yes?”
She hated to even say it. “Reno doesn’t know I phoned you.”
“That went without saying,” he said in his usual harsh bluntness, and he ended the call.
Trina hung up, too, and exhaled. She tried to handle this all by herself a year ago, but it did nothing but delay them a year. Now they were back again. Which meant, if she gave in to their demands again, they would be back for a third time next year. That wasn’t happening.
Besides, their demand was so outrageous that there was no way she could meet it. No way.
Then suddenly there was a quick knock on her door and then it was opened almost immediately after that knock by the man she knew was her security detail chief.
“Yes?What’s wrong?”
“Mr. Gabrini has ordered us to blanket you until he can get here, ma’am.”
“Blanket me why? What’s wrong?”
“We were only told to blanket you until he gets here. You will have to remain in this store until he arrives. Two men will be on the door outside of your office, another man is overlooking the entrance to this store, and I’ll be inside the store in case something occurs in the interim.”
“What about my children?”
“They’re fine, ma’am. They’re all under tight security. They’re fine.”
“And you don’t know anything about why all of this is necessary?”
“Absolutely nothing ma’am,” he said. “But Mr. Gabrini is on his way.”
“But my children are okay?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Trina sighed relief about that much. But not much else. Because something obviously had gone terribly wrong. Was it her blackmailers? Had Reno somehow found out? Did they reach out to him this time? Did they send him a copy of that video they weren’t supposed to have anymore? What about those pictures they just sent Von?
Her heart was pounding. If it was true, and they went to Reno, that meant he knew. That meant he was coming to do what to her? To end it right then and there? And then he’d deal with her blackmailers? Was that why she was on lockdown?
If it was all true, what on earth, she wondered, was she going to do? And what if her children found out?
Tears began to roll down Trina’s anguished face. Her heart felt as if it was going to burst. It was more than she could bear.
But she knew she had to face it someday. Was today that day? She wasn’t ready. Lord knows, she wasn’t ready to face any of it. She still wanted to wait for the weather to break. She wanted to wait until she and Reno were in a great place of sunshine and bright skies before she laid anymore of her burdens on him. But time was a bitch and it wasn’t waiting for any weather to break. It was breaking. Time, she feared, had run out.
CHAPTER TWELVE
It would be another twenty-five minutes before her detail chief hurried back into her office.
“It’s time to go, Ma’am,” he said, and Trina didn’t say a word. She hurried from behind her desk ready to go.
Two additional detail crew were waiting outside of her office and, along with their chief, they escorted her down the stairwell that led to the back of Champagne’s. Three SUVs were just pulling up when they made it outside, and a man Trina recognized as Sal Gabrini’s underboss Robby Yale hopped out and opened the back passenger door of the middle SUV. When Trina got inside, Reno and Sal were already in there.
Her heart began to pound. Sal was in on it too? He brought his cousin along? It had to be even more dire than Trina thought if Reno brought Sal along too. “What’s wrong, Reno? Tell me our children are okay. Tell me!”
“Everybody’s fine,” Reno said as he held her hips to guide her to the middle seat between he and Sal. When she sat down, Robby Yale got on the front passenger seat and ordered the driver to drive.
