thinking. And this belt,” Reno said, buckling his belt, “is gonna do my talking.”
Trina suddenly stopped dressing. “Reno?” she asked.
He looked at her because he could hear the anguish in her voice. “What?”
“You don’t think she was targeted,” she said. “Do you?”
“Targeted? By the cops?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would they target her?”
“Because she’s your daughter, Reno. A daughter who’s now an adult in the eyes of the law. A daughter they know they can use to get under your skin.”
Reno frowned. “You think that’s what this shit is about?”
“Think about it, Reno. These Vegas cops got their hands full with all that’s going on in this town. All this major crime. But yet in still they have time to raid some club because of a few underage kids?”
Reno hadn’t even thought about it. But that was why he loved Trina so much. She thought of everything! “You got a point there, Tree. But to what end?”
“Maybe to see your reaction,” said Trina. “Maybe to see if their suspicion is right and Sophie, as your only daughter, holds a special place in your heart. Somebody they can target. They know you love the boys. But Sophie? Your daughter? This may be the test.”
“And they may try to set her up later?” Reno asked.
“If you respond the way they need you to respond when you go to pick her up, yeah,” said Trina. “They may try that shit.”
Reno nodded. “They want a show,” he said as he grabbed his cell phone, keys, and wallet off the nightstand where he had placed them. “I’ll give them a show.” And then he began hurrying toward the exit.
Trina continued to hurriedly get dressed. “Wait on me, Reno!” she yelled after him.
“No time to wait,” he said as he hurried out of the bedroom. “Your ass should have been ready.”
“Your ass better not leave me!” Trina yelled after him. Because she knew her husband all too well too. He wouldn’t leave her.
CHAPTER FIVE
Reno was anxiously revving up the engine on his Porsche Panamera as Trina hurried out of the lobby of the PaLargio Hotel and Casino putting on her skirt jacket. Their valet hurried to the car and quickly opened the front passenger door for her, and she jumped inside. The valet was still closing the door as Reno sped away, forcing Trina to finish closing it.
But they didn’t speed off alone. As Reno pulled out from under the portico of his hotel and casino, a car filled with members of his security detail pulled out behind him. Both cars sped in and out of the early morning traffic on the Vegas strip, on Reno’s Strip, as one newsmagazine called it, as they headed for the police station.
As the traffic bogged down again and there was no in and out of lanes, Reno glanced over at Trina. She was silent, which, he knew, meant she was worried. He took her small hand and squeezed it. They’d had knock-down-drag-out level arguments their whole marriage, including a painful separation that lasted nearly a year, but their love for each other remained as strong as newlywed love. And even though Reno would be the first to admit that he’d done a lot of ass-backwards shit in their marriage, including having a lot of flirtations he knew he should not have had, he also knew he’d never been unfaithful to Tree. He never allowed it to go that far. And he never would.
When he stopped at a red light, he glanced over at her again. She was wiping a singular tear from her eye. Reno knew the pain she was feeling. Their baby girl in jail? Just the thought of it scared both of them. He squeezed Trina’s hand tighter. “She’s a smart girl, Tree,” he said. “She ain’t like me. Our boys are like me, unfortunately. They’ll do that dumb shit. But Sophie, she ain’t like that. She don’t get into shit. She’s like you.”
“When I was her age,” Trina said, “I was in plenty shit and you know it, Reno.”
But Reno was confused. “You? What are you talking?”
“When I first met you I was trying to get out of shit.”
Reno frowned. “Like what? What were you trying to get out of?”
“I fled from my crazy-ass boyfriend in the middle of the night, remember? I had that waitressing job at that strip joint when you met me? Remember that?”
“Yeah, but you were a grown-ass woman then. Sophie? She’s a baby!”
Trina knew, of all of their children, Reno would have the hardest time