Reno Gabrini: A Man in Full Read Free Page A

destroyed.”
    Reno frowned.  “So why is he calling me?  Tell his ass to call Security!”
    “Yes, sir,” the female on the other line said, but Reno had already slammed down the phone.
    “They bother you about every little thing, Reno,” Trina said.  “I told them over and over to cut that shit out.  I told them over and over that you have too much on your plate as it is.  They leave you alone for a minute after I get on their case, but then they start right back up again.  You need to start firing people.  That’ll change things.”
    Reno looked at her.  She was one to talk.  “Speaking of things that need to change,” he said, and Trina immediately realized she had stepped right into it.  She smiled and shook her head.  She wasn’t getting any breaks, she thought.
    Reno kept her on his lap, and kept his fingers lodged inside of her folds, but this was too important for him to dismiss.  He had to make himself clear.
    He looked into her tired eyes.  “What time is it, Tree?”
    He asked this in that Jersey-style, Italian accent that Trina called his calm before the storm voice.  And she wanted to roll her tired eyes.  Because she knew where he was going with this.  “You know what time it is,” she said.
    “We have a problem.  We have a problem that has got to stop being a problem.”
    She gave up and attempted to close her unbuttoned blouse, but Reno, with his free hand, pulled it back open.  He loved the sight of her juicy, wet, delicious brown breasts in his face. 
    “It’s nothing,” she said.  “We don’t have a problem, okay?”
    “Oh, it’s a problem all right.  It’s definitely a problem.  My wife coming home after midnight, night after night after night, is a big fucking problem.  You’re working yourself to death, Katrina.”
    “I’ve been working a little late for the last few weeks, okay?  I’ll admit that.  But I’m fine.  I’m only doing what I have to do for my business.  It’s no different than what you do for the PaLargio all the time.”
    “Don’t compare yourself to me!  You’re my wife!  You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to let my wife work as hard as I work, slaving herself, and for what?  For some got damn clothing store?”
    His lack of respect for her boutique was beginning to annoy her.  “Not just for any clothing store,” she reminded him.  “I work hard for a business I started on my own, and that I intend to make successful on my own.  That takes time, Reno.”
    “Not this much time.  That place is bleeding money, and more importantly it’s sapping everything out of you.  And what about Dommi?  He’s just three years old, Tree.  He rarely sees you anymore.  Fran is my sister, and I love her to death, but I don’t want Fran raising my son.”
    “Oh, Reno, you act like I come home late every night and you know that’s not true!  I’m trying to make Champagne’s a success.  It’s not going to just happen.  I have to make it happen.”
    “But what did you promise me?”
    “It’s been hectic lately, but it’ll get better, Reno.”
    “That’s not what I asked you.  What did you promise me, Tree? When I agreed to let you open your boutique you promised me what?”
    Trina exhaled.  “I promised that I wouldn’t let it interfere with my duties as your wife.”
    “And?”
    “And as the mother of your sons.”
    “And?”
    Trina wanted to roll her eyes again.  “And as president of the PaLargio.”
    “I made you president of my business not to give you a title.  I depend on you to be here, and to have my back.”
    “Now wait just a good got damn minute here, Reno,” Trina said, with fire.  “I have your back.  So don’t even go there.  You know I have your back.”
    “I need you to be here,” Reno replied, refusing to back down too.  “That’s the fucking point!  You weren’t in your office at all today.  Your staff was coming to me because they couldn’t find you.”
    “Oh,