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

of town.”
    Reno
was pleased to hear it.   He didn’t want
his son to become an echo chamber where he said whatever he thought his old man
wanted to hear.   He was fast becoming his
own man, and Reno liked his progression.   “So your advice to me is that I shouldn’t build?”
    “That’s
my advice, yes, sir.   And it’s not just
because of what I’m seeing now, either.   I’m talking the whole package.   I
just don’t think this area would be good for our brand.”
    Reno
nodded and inwardly smiled.   “I like
that.   You’re going with your gut.   Good.   That’s how your old man does business, and that’s how I want you to
conduct business.   If you don’t feel it,
you don’t do it.   You know why?”
    Jimmy
could recite chapter and verse why, thanks to the way Reno constantly drilled
it into his head.   “Because if you aren’t
emotionally invested,” he said, “then that lack of passion will show in your
business.”
    “That’s
right,” Reno said, proud that Jimmy was finally internalizing what he had been
preaching to him.   “It’ll show from the
foundation to every brick laid.   The
tourists won’t understand why, but they just won’t get a connection to your
place.   Something will be wrong to them,
and eventually they’ll stop coming.   So
good,” he said as he led them up a ramp to a bench that overlooked the shore.   “I’ve been toying with this idea of building
here in Jersey for years and years and still haven’t pulled the trigger.   Now that I have you feeling pretty much the
same way I do, I just might keep it holstered for a little while longer
still.”   
    They
sat on the bench and watched the barely populated white sand beach as the early
tide rolled in.   The ocean breeze had
Reno’s thick brown hair blown forward, framing his face and squinting his blue
eyes, and Jimmy, looking at his father, was taken aback by his old man’s
beauty.   He always knew he was a good
looking man, but here in Jersey, not far from where he was born and raised, he
never looked more relaxed and attractive to Jimmy.   And Jimmy got it now.   He finally could easily see why so many of
his female friends had been trying foolishly to give him their numbers to give
to his father.
    For a
long few minutes they stopped talking and chose to take in the ease of the
morning instead.   Reno had one leg
crossed over his knee and his arm across the back of the bench, effective
hugging his son without touching him.   Jimmy sat straight back and still, with his arms folded and his eyes
straight ahead.   Reno looked at his
oldest child.   He didn’t raise
Jimmy.   He didn’t even know his son
existed until a few years ago when his mother, who was now deceased, finally
came clean.  
    But
as he looked at his son he saw a mixed-race version of himself.   He had Gabrini eyes and Gabrini intensity,
and although his complexion was closer to his African-American mother’s complexion
than his father’s Italian heritage, his nose and lips and cheeks were all
Reno.  
    It
wasn’t in looks alone, either.   But in
style too.    He had his old man’s
swag.   He had it in spades.   And although he wasn’t half the natural
leader his old man was, he was no follower either.   The way Reno saw it, Jimmy Mack was a young
man who danced to the beat of his own drum, and didn’t give a damn who liked it
or didn’t.  
    Reno
liked his style.   He liked his strength,
too.   That wasn’t the problem.   It was that fearlessness, that death wish
Reno sometimes wondered if Jimmy had, that concerned him about his son.   And after that awful episode that had Jimmy
fighting for his life, Reno could see it even more starkly now. It was as if
Jimmy cared even less about this life and therefore had it in him to take the
kind of risks that could cost him his life.   It was that side of his son, that reckless, devil-may-care side, that
still kept Reno up nights.
    But
it wasn’t as if Reno was