Reno's Gift (Mob Boss Series) Read Online Free PDF Page B

breath,
Jimmy’s juices were just beginning to flow.   He looked as if he hadn’t broke a sweat.  
    “You’re
getting old, Pop,” he said with a smile as his father bent over
hyperventilating.
    “Fuck
you,” Reno said, not so far gone that he’d lost his feistiness.  
    Jimmy
laughed.   “Not a day goes by when I don’t
hear those wonderful words from your lips.   Reno “Fuck You” Gabrini.   What a
legacy you’re leaving your sweet, innocent son.”
    “Sweet
and innocent my ass,” Reno said with a one-syllable laugh as he stood erect
again, brush his hair out of his face, and then made his way into the café.
    Reno
stood at the entrance and began looking around.   Jimmy walked in and stood beside him.
    “I’ve
got to pee, Pop,” he said.
    “The
language!” Reno said seriously.   “We’re
in mixed company here.   The proper phrase
is, ‘I have to use the bathroom, Pop.’”
    Jimmy
rolled his eyes.   His father was about as
“proper” as a pig in a sty, but he humored him.   “I’ve got to use the bathroom, Father.”
    “Okay,
you go pee,” Reno said without realizing what he had just said.   “I see somebody I need to talk to.”
    Jimmy
smiled and shook his head as he made his way for the restrooms.  
    Reno
headed in the opposite direction, around the bar and up to a window seat near
the back.   Belle Patrone was seated at
the table, smoking a cigarette in a no-smoking café, looking out of the
window.   Reno knew she had bodyguards in
that restaurant with her, but if they were any good he would not be able to
pick them out.   He picked out every one.
    “Belle!”
he said as he approached her table.
    Belle
looked at him and smiled.   “Well,
well.   My favorite mobster.”
    Reno
grinned and leaned down to her.   “That’s
my line,” he said as he kissed her on the mouth.   Then he sat down in front of her.   Although she was always a few years older than
Reno was, she had aged beautifully.   He
sat there staring at her beauty.   He was
still fond of her.   “It’s been a minute,
hasn’t it?”
    “A
minute my foot,” Belle said, tapping her ash onto the saucer on the table.   “It’s been more like hours and days and
months and years!   You don’t stay in
touch when you promised you would.”
    “What
can I say?   Life got in the way, Belle,
and it was a motherfucker.”
    Belle
laughed a loud, throaty laugh and then shook her strawberry blonde head.   “Same old Reno.   I missed you, my friend.”
    “I
missed you too.”
    “Yeah,
sure.   Is that why you didn’t bother to
call me all those other times you were in Atlantic City?”
      Reno threw up his hands.   “Guilty as charged,” he said as the waitress
arrived to take his order.   “Nothing
yet,” he said to the waitress and then she hesitated before leaving.   Bad move, Reno thought.
    “Ma’am,”
the waitress finally said to Belle, “I’m sorry but we don’t allow smoking in
this establishment.”
    Belle
gave the girl her best blue-eyed devil look.   “Get the fuck away from me,” she said.
    The
girl, undoubtedly stunned, scampered off.  
    Reno
shook his head.   “You need to cut that
shit out,” he said.   It was that side of
Belle, that crass, uncaring side, that made Reno dump her all those years ago.   The only reason they remained friends was
because he had an affinity for Belle’s father, who was a mob boss just as
Reno’s father, and Reno promised that he would look out for her when her old
man died.   But when he died such a promise
proved completely necessary.   Belle
looked out for herself.
    Reno
leaned forward.   “So what made you text
me this time of morning when you never bothered all those other times I was in
town?”
    Belle
had seen him last night.   He didn’t see
her, but she saw him.   And remembered
him.   Every inch of him.  
    “I
wanted to see you before you left town,” she said.   “I wanted to make sure you were okay.
Especially after