Page 27

Two SUVs drove up to Robby Yale’s home. Sal’s capos got out of one SUV and stood guard outside of the house as Sal, Reno, Mick and Tommy made their way toward the front door.

“What a pretty house,” Reno said purposely sarcastically as they walked up the steps of the beautiful baby-blue-and-pearl-white big house in an upscale Vegas neighborhood. Before Sal could ring the bell, Reno was pounding on it.

Sal frowned. What’s wrong with you, Reno?”

“His ass was implicated in all of this. Until he’s no longer implicated, I’m treating him just like I treated that scum Danny Testa.

Because if it’s true, Sal, his ass tried to take you out and your own son.

” Reno shook his head. “I don’t have shit against Robby and you know it.

But no way that’s gonna be excused. Not on my watch it’s not,” Reno added.

“This my watch,” said Sal. “You ain’t got no got damn watch over here.

” But then Sal’s hard expression changed and Reno, Tommy and Mick caught that look in his eyes.

He was scared to death that it could all be true.

He was terrified because he truly loved Robby.

And trusted him. The whole family loved Robby.

If it turned out to be true it would devastate them all. But none more so than Sal.

The door was opened by Gemma’s always-flustered office manager and Robby’s boyfriend Curtis.

“Does my front door look like a drum to you?” he was saying as he flung open the door.

Until he saw the Gabrinis and Mick Sinatra standing there.

He couldn’t stand Sal most of the time: he was just too brash for him.

But he liked Tommy. He was so good looking in Curtis’s eyes that he could just stare at him all day.

And he was a nice guy, too, who found out about Robby’s orientation and kept it to himself.

But Sal and Reno and Mick the Tick? He could do without.

“May I help you?” he said as he dropped his annoyance and put on his professional hat.

But Sal opened the door further and pushed past Curtis.

“Yes, of course you all may just come on in,” Curtis said derisively as Sal walked on in and the others followed him. “How rude of me.”

“What a pretty living room,” Reno said, looking at all of the perfectly-matched furniture and the super-clean space they stood in.

But Curtis ignored him. He worked for Gemma long enough to be well-accustomed to all of that Gabrini testosterone.

As a black male activist, he used to think all of them were racists.

Especially Sal. But when he realized their female preferences were all black like him, he eased up on that suspicion.

But they still were too extra with all that chest-pounding maleness for his taste.

Although Tommy, he thought fondly, was an exception.

“May I help you?” he close the door and asked them again after they had barged into his home.

“Where’s Robby?” Sal asked.

“He’s in the shower. He wanted to get that hospital off of him.”

“Tell him to come here,” Sal said.

“I will after he gets out of the shower,” Curtis said.

Sal gave him a chilling look. “Your ass better go get him right now or I’ll drag him out here. Pick your choice.”

Sal showed Curtis that he would beat down a motherfucker if you crossed him long ago, and he believed what he saw. He quickly went and got Robby.

Apparently Curtis made it clear that Sal was pissed because Robby came out in his bathrobe within a couple minutes of Sal’s warning. And he looked worried. “What’s wrong, Boss? You found Big Dan?”

All of them had taken seats. “Sit down, Robby,” Sal, who was on the edge of his seat, said.

Robby sat on the sofa beside Tommy and Mick. Curtis sat on the arm of the sofa beside Robby.

But Sal wasn’t trying to agree to that. “Get your ass out of here,” he said to Curtis.

Curtis placed his hand on his chest with that excuse you look on his attractive face, but Robby responded before Curtis could. “Boss, you don’t talk to him like that. This is his home too.”

Sal knew he was being a bastard, but it had been that kind of day. He leaned forward. “This is private business,” Sal said, which meant it was mob business.

Robby understood that language. He looked at Curtis. Curtis understood it too. “Okay, okay, I’ll be in the back,” he said, got up, glared contemptuously at Sal, smiled at Tommy, and left the room.

Reno looked at Tommy. “Why they all love your ass so much?” he asked him.

Tommy hadn’t even noticed that smile. He had just as many men as women who found him unusually attractive on a daily basis and told him so, but he wasn’t interested in any of them.

He had his wife, although everybody and their brother kept telling him he could do way better than Grace.

But he loved Grace. That was the issue.

He loved her and he wasn’t messing that up he didn’t care how cute the package was that presented itself to him.

He knew it was still going to blow up in his face in the end.

Robby was staring at his boss. He could tell something else was going on. “What’s the matter, Boss? How did it go with Danny?”

“He’s dead,” Sal said as Reno, Mick, and Tommy were staring unblinkingly at Robby.

“Did he give us any intel before he croaked? Did he say why he ambushed us?”

“ Us ?” asked Reno with that sarcasm still in his voice.

Robby looked at Reno, confused. “You may have forgotten this, but I was shot too, Reno.”

“You were grazed according to the doctor. But everybody else were killed or would have been killed had Lucky not put his body between those bullets and his old man.”

Robby frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Danny said you set it all up,” said Sal bluntly.

Robby was seriously upset. “He said I set it up?”

“He said you want to take over my operation and you needed me and Lucky out of the way. He knew if you would have put a rush on the meeting while Lucky was with me, then I would rush on over and leave Lucky in the SUV. But he implied you also knew Lucky wasn’t gonna stay in no SUV.”

Robby looked dumbstruck. “That’s not true, Boss. I declare to you on my own life that’s not true!”

“Then why would he say it, Robby?” Reno asked. “Why would he create a story like that when his ass was already cooked? When he knew he was going to get fried? What was in it for him?”

“I don’t know, but I know he’s lying on me.”

“What about Consalvo?” Sal asked. “You mentioned him when you rushed me out of that Foot Locker, and Big Dan mentioned him too.”

“That’s what Danny told me. He said he was making a hook up with Junnie. He claimed at the meeting that it was just a ruse to get you to the table, but that’s not what he told me. I didn’t make that up. Besides, Danny mentioned Tito Franzino and Dickie Lamm too.”

“Is there a connection between those three?” asked Tommy.

“Other than they’re all mob,” said Robby, “no sir. Not that I know of.”

“They’re all mob,” said Mick, “and they’re all in the same mob,” he added.

They all looked at him. “What do you mean?” asked Sal. “They’re in an alliance?”

“They merged a couple years ago,” said Mick.

“Under who? Junnie Consalvo?”

“Under Dickie Lamm. Dickie’s the boss.”

They were all floored. “You know what else Big Dan mentioned?” said Robby.

“He mentioned that Dickie had a crazy old lady. Remember that, Boss? He said it in his club that Dickie and his crazy as fuck old lady wanted to merge with him too. Just like Consalvo and Tito Franzino. But you’re saying,” he said to Mick, “that Dickie had already merged with Tito and June? That don’t make no sense. ”

“What don’t make no sense is you trying to deflect all of this away from you,” said Reno. “Let’s get back to your part in this.”

“I didn’t have any part in this, Reno. I know you’re overprotective of Sal, but I had no parts in it.”

Reno didn’t like his characterization one bit when he and Sal were supposed to be archenemies. “ Overprotective ? Who the fuck I’m overprotective of?”

“Does anybody know who Dickie Lamm’s old lady is?” asked Mick.

“Wait a minute,” said Tommy as if he was just remembering something.

“What?” Sal asked him.

“You know who Dickie’s old lady is?” Reno asked him.

“I heard he was visiting her in prison,” said Tommy. “That he’s in love with her. Seriously in love with her. But I didn’t think anything of it.”

“Who are you talking about? Who did he visit? Who would that slimeball be in love with?”

Tommy was still working it out in his head. But it was beginning to make sense to him. He looked at his brother. “He’s in love with Bianca, Sal.”

Sal couldn’t believe it. “ Bianca ?”

“Isn’t she that dame that went up for one of your guys that time?” Reno asked Sal.

“That’s the one,” said Tommy. “She’s Dickie’s old lady now. They hooked up while she was still in prison. I hear he truly loves her.”

“But she never mentioned . . .”

They all stared at Sal. Tommy frowned. “What do you mean she never mentioned it?”

“Are you telling us you’re fooling around with that nut wagon?” Reno asked him.

“Nut wagon? Why are you calling her that?” Mick asked.

“Because she’s nuts. Always has been flaky-like. At least to me,” Reno added. “But she used to give good intel, that’s why Sal kept her around. Maybe gave up other stuff too, I don’t know.”

Sal frowned. “Fuck you, Reno!”

“If she’s such a nutcase, why would you trust her to do hard time for one of your guys?” Mick asked Sal.

“She volunteered,” said Robby. “She’d do anything for Sal.”

They all looked at Sal. “What did you do for her?” Reno asked him.

“The usual, Reno.”

“Which is?”

“Money.An apartment.A car.That’s it.”

“But I remember something about you and her,” said Reno. “Didn’t you use to have a thing for that snitch bitch, or she had a thing for you?”

“Hell no. She was a good informant. That’s it.”

But Reno looked doubtful the way he usually did.