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Reno Gabrini and two of his pit bosses ran through his massive Vegas casino like a man who wasn’t tolerating misbehavior. Not in his house.

He ran over to the blackjack tables, grabbed the middle-aged man who thought he was getting away with a heist in plain sight and jerked him across that table as if he was a feather. With his hands clutching the man’s white shirt, he ran with him and slammed him against the wall.

“You wanna cheat?” he was yelling as he repeatedly slammed him. “You’re big and bad enough to steal from me? That’s what you wanna do, tough guy? That’s what you wanna do?!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” the customer was pleading. “I wasn’t trying to steal from anybody. I’m just a regular joe.”

“Sure you are. A regular joe with ninety thousand dollars of my money in his pocket. Almost made it to a hundred grand, didn’t you? Then you was gonna bow out and come back tomorrow for more. Weren’t you hot shot?”

But the guy was still protesting his innocence when he had to know that the owner of the largest casino on the Vegas strip would not be jacking him up for no reason. His cameras caught the entire scheme. He had it all on video.

That was why he didn’t want to hear it. “Get him out of here. And get my money!” he ordered his crew..

“We’ll handle him, Boss,” the supervising boss said as they grabbed the thief and manhandled him out of a side door.

Reno looked at the others at the table, to make it clear that they had better not even think about it, and then he made his way back to his perch near the back of the casino where he sat and watched the events of the afternoon unfold.

His oldest son Jimmy Gabrini, who was already sitting beside his father, grinned. “Kind of excessive, wouldn’t you say?”

“He was stealing from me.”

“I know that. But that’s really chump change in the larger scheme of things, Pop.”

“Like hell it is. Ninety thousand dollars is still ninety thousand dollars even to me. And it better be to you too. That’s money. That’s the yearly salary of two low-level employees combined in this very casino. Chump change my ass.”

“I said in the larger scheme of things, Pop. You take in that much money in a couple minutes.”

“Then he stole a couple minutes from me, and I want’em back.”

Jimmy laughed and nodded his head. “I hear you.”

Then Reno looked over at him. “Why aren’t you at work, anyway, this time of day?”

Jimmy let out a harsh exhale. “I needed a break. Uncle Tommy working me like a Hebrew slave.”

“Why he got to be Hebrew?” Reno asked. “They worked our asses off too.”

Jimmy looked at his father as if he’d lost his mind. “What you mean we , white man?”

“You’re half-black right?”

“I’m black, yes,” said Jimmy.

“You’re my son, right?”

“Far as I know, yes.”

Reno gave him the mean eye. “What far as you know? Your ass my son, right?”

“I was just kidding, Pop. Yes.”

“Then that’s what I mean by we . But I thought you loved all that work Tommy put on you. You was the one who wanted to be his corporate go-to guy.”

“I know that.”

“So now you’re complaining that he goes to you too much?”

“I’m not complaining, Pop. I’m just tired today, that’s all. I needed a break.”

Reno continued to stare at his oldest child. “How’s your love life?” he asked him.

“Don’t you even,” Jimmy warned his father.

“What? Don’t even what?”

“My love life is none of your business.”

“But do you have one,” Reno said as his phone began ringing. “That’s the question.”

“None of your business,” Jimmy said as Reno pulled out his phone and looked at his Caller ID. When he saw it was Sal, he answered right away. “Don’t you see I’m working here?”

“How can I see you doing anything when I’m at home?”

“At home? I thought Trina said your ass was missing again.”

“Missing?”

“You know. On the road, or whatever she said.”

“Have you seen Gemma?”

Reno thought he saw another one. “Hold on, Sal,” he said into his phone and then pulled out his walkie talkie and pressed the button. “Check table 52. White guy in checkered shirt.”

“Yes sir,” his security chief said over the radio.

“What’s that about Gemma again?” Reno then asked Sal in his cellphone.

“Have you seen her, Reno?”

“No. Why would you ask me that? You haven’t seen her?”

There was a hesitation. “I saw her.”

“You saw her where?”

Another hesitation. “At one of my lake houses.”

“One Gemma knows about, or don’t know about?” Reno asked.

“Don’t,” said Sal.

“Was another woman there when Gemma got there?”

“Did you see her or not, Reno?”

“I told your ass I didn’t. What have you done now, Sal?”

“What have I done now? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“What have you done now. You know what it means.”

“Fuck you, Reno! Is Trina there?”

“Do you realize it’s the middle of a work day? No she’s not here.”

“Could you call Gemma for me?”

Reno exhaled. There was trouble in paradise again. He would declare that if it wasn’t him and Trina going through it, it was Sal and Gemma. Like broken records. “Yeah. Hold on.”

Reno put the call on three way and phoned Gemma. The phone went straight to Voice Mail. “She turned it off,” Reno said, removing her line from the call. “She turned it off to avoid you. Now are you gonna tell me what happened?”

“Zam got iced last night,” Sal said.

Reno frowned. “Zam Manetti? Damn Sal.”

“And I went over to let Alice know.”

“Who’s Alice?”

“His new bride. They hadn’t been married three months and he’s gone. So I knew she was gonna take it hard. And she did. But since some of those jokers are still at large, I decided it was best to put her up in a safe place.”

“But why would you take her to one of your lake houses? Since when your lake houses were safe houses?”

“They aren’t. Zam was very important to me. I was looking out for his widow, that’s all I was doing.”

“You had to be doing more than that for Gemma to show up there and then ghost your ass. What happened?”

The call wasn’t on Speaker, but Jimmy could hear his father’s end of it. And that was intriguing him enough.

But Reno wasn’t intrigued. He was scared. “What happened, Sal?” he asked him again when he didn’t respond.

“Ask Tree. She was there.”

“Tree was there? My wife was there?”

“Nearly beat the shit out of me. Didn’t even give me a chance to explain.” Then Sal exhaled. “Will you find out where she took Gemma? She’s the one that brought her there. She won’t answer my calls either.”

“Yeah, I’ll see what I can find out.”

“Then do it now. Put it on conference call.”

Reno was upset that Trina was involved at all in their mess. And what did Sal mean by Trina jumping on him? He put the call on conference and called Trina’s phone. But it rang and went to Voice Mail. “She’s not answering me either,” Reno said.

“This is a nightmare!” Sal bellowed out. Then he settled back down. “Call me when you hear from Tree. Or if you hear anything at all about Gemma.”

“You know I will,” Reno said. He was now extremely worried for his cousin. They fought like cats and dogs almost every time they laid eyes on each other, but when the chips were down they were each other’s biggest defender. Just keep your cool,” Reno said before they ended the call.

“What was that about?” Jimmy asked. “What did Uncle Sal do now?”

“He won’t tell me. But it ain’t smelling right,” Reno said as he crossed his legs, turned sideways in his chair, and attempted Trina’s phone again. Again, it went to Voice Mail.

But half an hour later, and after Reno had to toss another cheater from yet another blackjack table, Trina walked through the south entrance of her husband’s massive casino.

“Ma’s here,” Jimmy said as he looked over and saw the woman most people assumed was his biological mother because of Jimmy’s biracial heritage.

But Reno had Jimmy when he was a teenager, long before he knew Trina existed, and Jimmy would be a teenager himself before Reno found out he was his son. Trina was Jimmy’s stepmother.

“Get lost,” Reno said to Jimmy as they both were staring at Trina as she made her way across the room. “I need to talk to her alone.”

Jimmy understood what that meant. There was going to be an argument between the two of them, which was normal for them. But Jimmy didn’t want to be in the middle of it. He gladly made his way out of the back end of the casino. He wanted no parts of their turmoil. He had his own problems.

But Reno didn’t even notice his son’s departure.

He was too busy staring at his wife. A gorgeous woman still, he was getting hard just watching her.

And watching how other men were giving her second looks as she sashayed those hips in her body-fitting designer dress.

Reno’s suits, though expensive, were often wrinkled and well-worn before noon every day.

But Trina, he thought as she made her way up to his perch, always looked fresh even at the end of the day.

But this wasn’t the end of the day. This was early afternoon when she was supposed to be working at her clothing boutique, at Champagne’s, all day long.

But he was glad to see her. So glad that he wanted to take her upstairs.

But first he had to find out why on earth would she be involved with Sal and Gemma’s mess.

Trina knew Sal had already called Reno. That was why she didn’t answer her phone. That was why she came to his casino to make certain she gave her side of the story before Reno got on her case and wouldn’t get off. She sat in the chair that Jimmy had just vacated.

After she sat down beside Reno she looked at him. She would declare all day long that the older Reno got the better looking he became. Or the more she fell in love with him. But she’d never tell him that. He wouldn’t let her live it down. “Hey,” she said to him.

“I thought you was gonna be at Champagne’s all day.”

“I was.”

“But?”

“I know Sal already told you so don’t even front, Reno.”

“Sal told me your ass tried to beat him down. He told me that.”

“Did he tell you why?”

“No, because you’re gonna tell me. Why?”

“He has a lake house. Did you know that?”

He did, but that was his business. “Stop changing the subject. Why did you jump on Sal?”

“He had a woman at his lake house. A house Gemma knew nothing about.”

“You do realize one of his longtime capos was iced last night and that woman was his widow? He was setting her up in his house until they caught whoever was responsible for her husband’s death.”

“He was setting her up alright. Or should I say laying her down?”

“Make yourself plain woman. What are you saying?”

“I’m saying me and Gemma caught Sal Luca in bed, and naked, with another woman.”

Reno just sat there. “They were in bed together ?”

“You may as well say so.”

Reno frowned. “What does that mean?”

“She answered the door with her robe open to reveal to us her nakedness. Then we went in the room and caught Sal, fast asleep, in bed. He was naked too. And you could tell somebody else had been sleeping beside him. And nobody else was in that house but him and her. And he spent all night in that house. That’s what I mean. ”

But Reno frowned again. “How would you know where he spent all night?”

“Because I hired an investigator. He had him under surveillance all that night. He was there, with that so-called grieving widow, all night long.”

This wasn’t the run of the mill craziness they’d had in the past. This was a ten on a scale from one to ten. Reno, who had every intention of giving Trina the business for getting involved in other people’s business, was anguished too. “Damn,” was the only word he could manage to say.

But he knew how Sal felt. Even when he messed up himself, it would break his heart to not know where Trina could be. He looked at her again. “Where’s Gemma?”

“That’s her business.”

“Sal and that woman was her business too. But that didn’t stop you. Now your ass gonna tell me where is she.”

“She doesn’t wanna see Sal right now, Reno.”

“She doesn’t have to see Sal. But she’s going to see me. Now where her ass at?”

Now Trina was getting hot and bothered too. “Will y’all leave her alone for two minutes for crying out loud? She just need some time to think.”

“Trina!”

“If you think I’m gonna snitch on my best friend,” she said as she stood up, “you are out of your fucking mind.”

Her plan was to state her case and get out of Reno’s sight before he could react to her defiance.

Her plan didn’t work.

Reno jumped up just after she had spoken and grabbed her by the wrist and all but dragged her to one of his offices off from the casino proper.

He slung her into that room and when he slammed the door, he pushed her against it and got so close to her that his entire body was pressed against hers.

“I’m not asking your ass anymore. I’m telling your ass. Where is Gemma?”

Trina felt trapped like a wounded dog with no escape routes. Because Reno wasn’t about to let her say her little piece and walk away in one piece. It didn’t work that way with him.

“This is the last time I ask your ass,” he said to her. “Where’s Gemma?”

She was no snitch, but she was no fool either. She told him.

When she told him, Reno smiled. “You’re kidding me.”

“But you can’t tell Sal, Reno. I mean that. Gemma will never forgive me if you tell Sal.”

“You could have told me that when you first walked in.”

“But you can’t tell Sal. She’ll be home once she cools off. But Sal can’t know yet.”

“If you would have told me where she was it wouldn’t have been an issue. I just wanted to make sure she was safe and okay.”

“Safe and okay?” Trina was offended. “Now you know good and got damn well I wouldn’t have left her in any unsafe place, Reno, give me more credit than that damn. What do you take me for?”

Reno was staring at his wife. “You wanna know what I take you for?” he asked her. “I take you for the sexiest bitch alive when you’re angry.”

Trina smiled. That was unexpected. But by the way Reno was staring at her, she knew he wasn’t getting there, he was already there. And although she wasn’t even thinking about anything like that just a few seconds ago, his look made her get there too.

Before any other thoughts entered either of their minds, they were kissing in that nothing-else-mattered space and time that had them groaning in each other’s mouth and then dropping clothes, lifting bras, and Reno entering her with a thrust that got both of them going.

He was pounding her against that door, and she wanted him to pound harder.

By the time he finished with her, they both were hoping to make it upstairs to bed. Sal’s antics had drained Trina, and those cheaters in the casino had drained Reno. They had no more juice in the tank.