Although they all spoke to him, he didn’t respond the way he usually did as he walked past them and entered his penthouse from the corridor. Because he had only one thought in mind: He had to look Trina in the eyes and make her talk it out. She left hot as hell earlier, all because he wouldn’t drop everything and go to some damn dinner with her. His hope was that she’d cooled off and that maybe now, after missing his dick if not the rest of him, she was ready to settle her ass back down and have a conversation. At least that was his hope because he rarely evercame to the penthouse when the casino was nearly packed solid. He almost never came upstairs that early.
But he didn’t see Trina anywhere. Nor anyone else. Until he heard his youngest child’s voice coming from his office. He hurried back across the living room and down the hall.
Reno opened the door and walked on in. “Where’s your mother, Carmine?” he asked as he walked in. “And who gave you permission to be in my office?”
Carmine, seated behind the huge desk, quickly pressed the mute button on his computer. Then he looked his big bright eyes up at his father. “I gave myself permission. You never come home this early.”
“I asked you a question.”
“I answered your question. Now may I get back to work?”
Reno frowned. “Work? What work your lil’ scrawny ass doing?”
“I’m teaching quantum physics online.”
Reno didn’t even know what that was. “Teaching it to who?”
“To whom. And I’m teaching it to my students. Now do you mind leaving so that I may get back to work?”
Reno shook his head. He still couldn’t get over the fact that he and Trina birth a genius like Carmine when they barely had one brain between the two of them. Street smarts? Both of them could run circles around anybody alive. But book smarts like what Carmine had? They couldn’t run at all. Cripple as hell! “Where’s your mother?”
“How should I know? I’m just a kid.”
“A kid with students?”
Carmine looked at his father as if such an oddity went without saying. Reno gave up. “Whatever,” he said. “Did she call you?”
“No, Daddy, she did not phone me.”
“This time of night and she didn’t call and tell you why her ass isn’t home yet?”
“No sir.”
“Lexie here with you?”
“Sophia is, yes sir.”
Reno sometimes wanted to strangle that boy. He knew Reno called his only daughter by her nickname Lexie, but Carmine always had to correct him. “Just get your ass back to work,” Reno said, and left the office, slamming the door behind him, and then made his way to Sophia’s room.
Sophia was sprawled across her bed on the phone with one of her friends when Reno barged on in without knocking. “Daddy geez. Have you ever heard of boundaries?”
“In my own home? Hell no. You heard from your mother?”
“No. She’s not home yet?”
“Why would I be asking you if you heard from her if she was home, Lexie? No, she’s not home. When was the last time you spoke to her?”
Sophia had to think about it. “I don’t think I spoke to her today.”
“Don’t your ass work for her now?”
“Yes, but I only worked part time. She was in her office when I got there and was still there when I left.”
“And you didn’t bother to go upstairs and say hello to your own mother?”
Sophia looked at him as if she didn’t see what the problem could be.
Some family they were, Reno thought. As he pulled out his phone and called Gemma, Sophia told her friend that she’d call her back. Then she ended the call.
