And then he still wouldn’t believe it!
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Private planes were flying into Vegas at an enormous clip, and everybody on those planes appeared to be related to the Reno Gabrini family.
First, it was Trina’s parents that Reno immediately had his men escort and fly in from Miami. Both were so distraught they could hardly stand up. Both cried in Reno’s arms and Reno cried in their arms. But they held on: For Trina.
Tommy Gabrini and his family were next to arrive at the airfield. Then Big Daddy Sinatra, Jenay, and all of his sons in Maine and their families arrived on Big Daddy’s plane. Then Teddy and Nikki arrived with their children from Philly.
Alex Drakos flew in from Apple Valley on his plane with Mick’s daughter Gloria and her child, along with Jimmy’s daughter Madison. Oz Drakos, who was in Greece when the word came down, flew over to Rome on his private jet to escort Mick’s wife Roz and their twins to Vegas too.
Frankie “The Monk” Paletti flew in from Jersey with Dominic and Big Daddy’s adopted daughter Ashley, while Trevor Reese flew in from Boston with Big Daddy’s other adopted daughter Carly and their child. Even Sophia’s man had flown in too.
Amelia Sinatra showed up with her children. Hammer Reese, the father of her children, was on assignment for the White House and couldn’t make the trip. Which angered her, but she was used to his absences.
And although Vegas native Gemma Jones-Gabrini, Sal’s wife, showed up as soon as she got out of court and heard thenews, Robby Yale had already escorted their children to the hospital before she arrived. It made for a massive amount of people waiting inside the space of one hospital floor.
It was bad enough for Reno before their arrivals, especially after he heard what Javon had to say, but it got way too real for him when family members started arriving at a rapid pace, one after the other one depending on how far away they had to come. Seeing so many people back-to-back-to-back made him feel worse, not better. Because seeing that EVERYBODY was showing up only reminded him of just how dire it was for Trina. Reno could see on their faces that they’d been told to expect the worst. That they’d been told to prepare themselves for the unthinkable. And that kind of hopelessness devastated him.
And he lashed out. “Who stays in surgery this long?” he suddenly yelled out with so much anguish in his voice and so much fear in his eyes that many of the women were in tears. “It’s been twelve hours!What are they doing to my wife?!”
His anguish devastated the whole room. Nobody was accustomed to seeing strong Reno that way. They were looking at each other, wondering what on earth to do, as Tommy quickly went to Reno and pulled him into his arms. He sobbed in his best friend’s arms. He was a basket case.
But Jimmy, seeing his father’s unbearable sorrow, made the decision that all of the young people and the little ones, including Sophia and Carmine, were to be moved into separate spaces at the hospital. They didn’t need to see the adults in tears, and Reno in such an understandably bad state.
Trina’s parents went with the younger set. They couldn’t bear the heaviness of it either.
But even those spaces they were moved to became so crowded that the hospital brass had to step in and politely askJimmy to ask them to leave. There were too many family members for the hospital to absorb.
Even Dominic, who was usually aggressive when there was pushback, could see that their large presence wasn’t sustainable for any hospital to endure. He talked with Jimmy and Jimmy contacted the PaLargio and arranged for a large section of suites to be made available so that the family could stay together at the hotel until Trina made it back home. “Because Ma’s coming home,” Dommi, who was distraught himself, made clear.
Mick’s big brother Big Daddy Sinatra agreed with Dom and Jimmy. And everybody, except for the men and women recognized as the main heads of the family, had to go to the PaLargio, under heavy guard, and wait it out there. That Included Sophia and Carmine because, after what Javon had told Reno and Mick, tough conversations needed to be had and they couldn’t be a part of any of those discussions. They were better off being comforted, at home, with their cousins.
Although Reno wasn’t capable of overseeing anything, he was proud of Jimmy and Dominic. Despite some of the most powerful men in the world in that room, his two oldest sons took charge in a way that solidified his belief that they both were going to be just fine. Jimmy was a rock star in the corporate world and always would be, and Dommi, unfortunately, was an up-and-coming terror in the mob world and always would be. He was finally settling into who he was all along. It still stung Reno. He would have given anything for Dommi to choose a different path. But he knew once somebody like Dommi tasted that level of power, there was no going back.
Jimmy Gabrini, along with Oz Drakos and Trevor Reese, were chosen to go to the PaLargio to supervise security for the families. And after they and the families had piled into a large convoy of SUVs and left, the principals that remained at thehospital sat quietly for a good long time. Reno, along with Mick and Roz, Sal and Gemma, and Tommy and Grace were there. Although young Ashley was ordered to go to the PaLargio with everybody else, her not-young husband Monk Paletti, the third most powerful mob boss in the world, was asked to stay.
Dommi wasn’t asked, but he stayed anyway.
Alex Drakos had to fly back to Florida to handle some business, and Teddy and Nikki had to go back to Philly to handle Mick’s syndicate. But Big Daddy Sinatra and his half-sister Amelia, stayed too.
But whenever anybody broached the subject of Javon Douglas and what he told them, Reno would shut it down. He didn’t want to deal with that right now. Hecouldn’tdeal with that right now.
It got so bad that Mick had to motion for Sal, Monk, and Dommi, the other mob bosses in the family, to come with him. They had to go into a separate private waiting room just to be able to discuss the situation.
Although all of them were doubtful that Javon’s story was true, they knew something was going on. They had to find out at the very least who gunned her down in that motel room and why was she in that room, with Javon, to begin with. And they also agreed to send teams nearly seven hours away to Reno, Nevada to see if they could find out what happened all those years ago. Mick already had his background team, looking for a Latoya from Trina’s past, heading to Reno too.
And then the door to the room opened, and Big Daddy peeped in with the news they had been waiting for. Trina had survived surgery, he said, and Reno was on his way to see her in ICU.
Although the surgeons made clear that she was not out of the woods yet, and that she wouldn’t be for at least forty-eighthours, they were rejoicing anyway. She survived the knife. That was a plus in her favor.
But when Reno walked into that recovery room and saw all of those tubes coming out of her and the noise of all of those machines, and that she had still not awaken from her aesthetic, his heart sank once again. It all looked so hopeless to him! But he sat beside her bed, holding her hand.
They allowed him to remain by her side for hours on end. Nobody else was allowed in because she was still asleep. But they let him stay.
And then, after nearly three hours of Reno just sitting there with his legs crossed as he held her hand, as he told her repeatedly that she was going to be just fine even as the sound of those machines drowned out his weary voice, she finally opened her eyes.
When she saw Reno, she at first stared at him as if he was a stranger to her. Which scared him. But then her eyes seemed to recognize him. And he relaxed again.
