Page 1 of Trina Gabrini: Bring Him Back Home to Me

PROLOGUE

DECADES EARLIER

Reno Gabrini, with a fat cigar between his polished-white teeth, was a young man full of himself. One of his buddies was getting married and he, as the brand-new owner of the PaLargio Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip, offered up his penthouse apartment for the festivities.

His first big mistake.

It started out innocent enough. Everybody was in the huge space having a blast. Reno, along with his cousins Tommy Gabrini and Sal Gabrini, were in a private room playing poker with a group of other guys. You couldn’t even hang around the table unless you were willing to cough up two hundred grand off the bat. It was an exclusive room. But it all changed when the fun arrived.

The door opened and one of Reno’s assistants peeped in. “The girls are here, Reno.”

Sal Gabrini looked at his cousin. “What’s he talking?” Sal, like Reno, spoke with an accent so heavy that it sounded as if they were two Italians straight out of Jersey. Which they weren’t. “What girls are here? The girls already here.”

“I ordered more,” Reno said as he threw in his sorry-ass deck and made his way to check them out.

“Go with him, Tommy,” urged Sal. “Leave it to Reno and he’ll pick a bunch of barf broads again just so long as they’re blondes.”

“Yeah, you go Tommy,” said another man at the table. “We want some good-looking dames this time around.”

“Cover my deck,” Tommy said to Sal as he left the table to go check out Reno as Reno checked out the ladies.

When Tommy made it into the living room, there were another twenty or more women lined up for inspection. It seemed demeaning to Tommy, and he could see that some of the ladies didn’t like it either, but Reno was an efficient man. He wasn’t wasting time just to make them feel better or to make it look better. They were there to be entertainment at a bachelor party. What did they expect? Respect? A wedding proposal?

“You, you, and you,” Reno said as he picked out three blondes.

Tommy had no problem with his selection. All three women were beautiful. But they didn’t bring any spice as far as he was concerned. “And you,” Tommy said, as he pointed to a gorgeous black woman. “And you.” Another black. “And you.”

Reno looked at his cousin. “All black,” he said. “Why am I not surprised? What is it with you and these black chicks?”

“Same thing it is with you and these blonde chicks. I like what I like.”

Reno couldn’t argue with him. Tommy had great taste and every one of his selections were all gorgeous too. “I was gonna pick’em,” Reno claimed. “You just didn’t give me a chance.”

Then he looked at the remaining ladies. “Those of you who wasn’t picked can go downstairs to my casino and mingle. You’re still on the clock. I want you to get some of those old geezers to gamble more. You do that, and my pit bosses give you a good report, you’ll get extra pay. You don’t make a difference, you won’t get any pay. Now go.”

The ladies left.

“Now as to you fortunate few,” Reno said, “I want you to mingle with the guys up here. You can turn down anybody you don’t wanna be with, and if anybody gets too aggressive you come see me. But otherwise, do your jobs. I didn’t hire you to sit around looking pretty. I hired you to work. Understood?”

They nodded their understanding and began heading for the various groups of men. But Tommy pulled one of the black ladies back. “You’re mine,” he whispered to her. When he said those two words, the gorgeous black girl beamed since “Dapper Tom” was known as one of the best-looking men ever created.

But Reno wasn’t so enamored with the idea. “Whatta you mean she’s yours, Tommy? She’s everybody’s.”

“But mine first,” Tommy said.

But Reno removed his hand from her arm. “Go mingle,” Reno ordered the lady. “You can hang out with Tommy later. Go make some money.”

She knew Reno was the one who buttered her bread so she did as she was told. But not before making it clear to Tommy with her eyes alone that she wanted him too. Which made Tommy nod and smile.

Sal came up. “Who we got?” he asked.

Reno pointed them out to Sal. “Your brother, of course, picked only the black dames. He thinks only black women are hot.”

“Compared to those ugly blondes you favor,” said Sal with a grin, “they are.”

“Damn,” said Tommy.

“What?” asked Reno.