Every day she got stronger. Every day, with the help of her medical team, she healed. Three days turned into three weeks turned into three months. And then she no longer needed a medical staff. By month number four, she was fully back to normal.Whatever normal was.
The family members that had flown in on the night of the shooting had long since packed up and gone back to their own cities and their own lives. But Reno kept their family on lockdown. Even Jimmy wasn’t allowed to leave the PaLargio. Reno made him work from home.
Sophia and Madison and Carmine weren’t allowed outside either, as all three were forced to live in the confines of the penthouse. The only person Reno allowed out from under his thumb was Dominic, and that was only because he was a new boss who had a syndicate to run. And it took Monk Paletti guaranteeing Dommi’s safety for Reno to agree to that.
During Trina’s absence, Reno also sent members of his staff over to Champagne’s to run that entire operation, under co-owner Gemma’s supervision. It was a normal so new to Trina that it didn’t feel normal at all.
Especially since they had no idea where Latoya was. And all the GPS tracking and wiretaps they had on Javon Douglas produced nothing. The blackmailers had apparently gone underground while the heat was on, with no demands whatsoever, and all of the principals’ efforts to uncover thetruth turned up blanks. That was why Reno kept his family on lockdown.
And although he made it his business to have occasional meals with the family, he no longer slept in the master bedroom with Trina. He slept, when he did bother to come home to the penthouse at all, in one of their guest bedrooms.
By the fourth month, Trina had had it. Tired of playing the helpless patient role, which was beginning to feel more like the helpless victim role, and tired of living in the guilt and shame of what she’d done and had to confess to doing, she left the penthouse.
Although she remained inside of the PaLargio, her stunned security detail had to quickly scramble to keep up with her. They lifted their wristwatches to their mouths and quietly called for backup. And then they called for Malcolm to call Reno because they were too afraid to call him themselves. They raced to stay up with their asset and to keep a wall of protection around her. If anything happened to Mrs. Gabrini, they knew it was going to be their asses. Maybe even their lives.
But Trina wasn’t thinking about those men. She got on that elevator, with those same men getting onboard right along with her, with Reno on her mind. And she was determined to give him a piece of hers.
She had showered and dressed into that little light-blue-and-white dress she knew Reno loved to see on her, and part of her was hoping it would ignite something within him. Even when he was home for breakfast or came home for dinner, and she tried to talk to him, he would shut her down, or say he was busy, or just leave. They hadn’t had a real conversation since the night she was last in his casino, which was the night of the shooting, and that little appearance resulted in a heated argument.
But when she walked into his casino this time, and she saw Reno sitting on his perch chatting it up with a beautiful woman, her movement slowed and her heart sank. Why would he want her, and that terrible baggage she had unloaded on him, when he could have MissYoung and Gorgeous and Carefreesitting next to him? Trina felt so inadequate that she almost took off her prescription glasses to try and give herself some advantage. But she wasn’t that kind of woman. He had to take her as she was or leave her. That was always her style.
But that was before she was forced to show Reno her true colors.
She knew Reno saw her walking toward him because he looked her way. He almost always hurried to her side whenever he saw her. And even though she had her security detail blanketing her, he would always give her that level of respect.
But not this time. He just stared at her as she made that long trek across that massive casino. It was as if to hell with her was nowhisnew normal.
But that wasn’t how Reno saw it. His heart was squeezing when he saw Trina in his casino. A part of him was relieved that she was back to her old self again, but another part of him wondered if she’d ever be her old self in his eyes again. Who was this woman that did what she did? It wasn’t his Tree. She would never do that. Nobody was going to convince him, not even her, that she would have done something like that. Because he still couldn’t believe it himself. He just could not believe it. He just couldn’t!
“Who is that?” the woman seated next to him asked him.
Ironically, it was the same woman Reno had bumped into the night he was heading to the penthouse to see if Trina had made it home from her dinner date with Sal and Gemma. The night of the shooting. She had a familiarity about her that he couldn’t place, although she insisted they’d never met. But shestill had that familiarity. That was the only reason, when she approached his perch, that he allowed his guard to let her sit next to him.
“Reno?” the young woman said to him when he didn’t answer her question.
He looked at her. She was a gorgeous girl alright. Young. Confident. Certain every man wanted her. And she had that familiarity he still couldn’t place. Making a move on her would be easy as pie. They’d be in one of his hotel suites fucking their brains out in no time flat. All he had to do was get up and escort her there.
And she wouldn’t come with any requirements or put any demands on him either. All he would have to do was take care of her financially. Just give her shit. Which he could easily do. She wouldn’t mind at all being his side piece. She wouldn’t mind at all being his bed mistress just like so many other gorgeous young women who tried to get next to him on a daily basis.
But he didn’t give a shit about any of them. Because none of them were Trina.
“Did you hear me, Reno?”
“Did I hear what?”
“Who’s the old black lady walking this way and staring at you like that?”
Reno frowned. “What old black lady?” He knew she wasn’t talking about his wife that way!
But in addition to being young, she was dumb. She grinned. “Is she one of your jungle bunnies? Is that what she is? I heard you swing that way too.”
Reno wanted to slap the shit out of that girl. But he allowed her to keep talking. He allowed her to hang herself with as much rope as she was willing to gather in.
“Not that she’s ugly,” she continued talking. “She’s actually very pretty. And dignified-like. I’ll give her that. Butwhy would you settle for somebody her age when you can trade in that forty for a pair of twenties any day of the week?” She laughed. “Just saying,” she added.
Reno found her so utterly ridiculous that she wasn’t worthy of the energy it would have taken for him to respond to her nonsense. He, instead, continued to watch Trina. His heart bled for Trina. Especially since they still knew nothing about those blackmailers, or who attacked her at that hotel, or who tried to do her in during the ambulance ride home. Nothing had been resolved at all over the past four months, and it was driving Reno insane. That was why he was pounding that pavement himself running down clues. But nothing from nothing leaves nothing and that what he felt they had: nothing. That was why he stayed away. He didn’t want to take his anger, and his mounting frustration, out on his family.
When Trina saw the woman sitting up there laughing, she wondered if the bitch was laughing at her. And Reno, eager to please that sweet young thang, was letting her get away with it. Which fueled Trina’s anger even more. She knew she messed up. She knew she didn’t deserve his love. And even if she deserved his disrespect, she wasn’t going to allow it. Her horrific past was her horrific past and she couldn’t change that. She couldn’t change how he or anybody else responded to her past either. But she could change how she responded to them.
