Reno made his way into his casino with what looked like an entourage behind him.  His right-hand man, Bo Jackson, was right behind him, along with a handful of his seasoned security.  And he was singularly focused.  It was early morning, and only the diehards were in the massive showroom, but it wouldn’t have mattered if the place was packed.  Reno didn’t countenance anybody cheating on him.  And to have some lowlife wazoo trying it at his casino wasn’t going to fly.  That fool had to be taught a lesson.  And it was a lesson Reno was going to personally teach.

Reno’s oldest son, Jimmy Mack, was already in the casino joking around with one of the pit bosses.  When he saw his father hurrying toward the back of the massive space, he got instantly curious.

“I’ll holler at you later, Stu,” he said, and made his way to cut his father off at the pass.

He was able to join his father quickly, and began walking stride for stride.  “What’s up, Pop?” he asked him.

Reno looked at his biracial son.  He worked for his Uncle Tommy now, as head of Tommy’s Vegas corporation, but he wasn’t in his usual suit and tie.  “Why aren’t you at work?”

“I’m off,” Jimmy said.  “Unlike you, regular humans take days off every now and then.”

But Reno wasn’t convinced.  “Tommy know you’re taking this day off?”

“Pop, come on!  I run his Vegas office.  I’m the head man in charge.  I don’t have to answer to him like that.”

Reno looked at Jimmy.  They both knew Tommy Gabrini.  As in Backdoor Tommy.  As in Don’t-Play Tommy.

Jimmy came clean.  “I asked, okay?  He said I could take the day off.”

Reno nodded.  At least he asked, he thought.

“What’s going on, Pop?  What’s with your appearance this morning in the casino?  And Bo and the Pips behind you?”

“We’ve got ourselves a cheater,” Reno said.

“I thought Wonder Boy Bo shut down all of that.”

“He did,” Reno said.  “That’s why I’m here.  To make sure it stays shut down.”

Jimmy shook his head.  “When will these fools ever learn?” he asked.

“One is about to learn right now,” Reno said, and quickened his stride in direct proportion to his rising anger.  Jimmy and the entourage quickened their steps too.

When they made it to the Baccarat table, Reno grabbed the cheater from his chair and threw him against the wall.  The entourage immediately formed a circle around the action.

“What the fuck you think you’re doing?” Reno asked as he held the man by the catch of his collar.  “Are you fucking serious?”

The people in the casino, mostly old men in Hawaiian shirts and old ladies with walkers or in wheelchairs with oxygen tanks, didn’t even look up.  They were too busy trying to make their fortunes to be concerned with somebody else’s misfortune.  And the cheater was very unfortunate that morning.

When the cheater didn’t respond, Reno punched him.  “I asked you a question,” he said.  “What the fuck you think you’re doing?  Think you’re going to steal from me?  You think I’m going to allow that?  This is a respectable establishment.  I don’t run no fucking grind joint! How the fuck you thought you was gonna get away with taking from me?”

“Fuck you!” the cheater yelled angrily, and swung on Reno.  Although Reno ducked and the blow missed entirely, it was too much for Jimmy.  Because as soon as he saw the cheater try to take a shot at Reno, he lifted the cheater up and body-slammed him onto the floor.  Then the beat down commenced.

Jimmy got down and began beating the fire out of the cheater.  The cheater tried to fight back, but he was no match for Jimmy.  Jimmy beat him until blood came.

And then Jimmy stood up.  And he and Reno both began to kick the cheater and stomp on him.  Cheating was the highest wrong you could do in Reno’s casino.  He didn’t countenance it in any way, shape, or form.  And Jimmy had a lot of Reno’s innate traits.

When Reno put a halt to the beatdown, as the man looked to be nearing his last gasps, he looked at one of his men.  “Get his ass out of here,” he ordered, and then turned to leave, “before I finish him off.”

Jimmy gave the cheater one last kick, and the men began to gather him up.  But when Reno and Jimmy turned to leave, not toward one of the side rooms where the entourage planned to house the cheater until they could get him back on his feet to throw him out, but in the opposite direction, they saw Trina, along with Dommi and Sophie, heading their way.

Reno frowned.  “What the fuck?” he asked.  He was always happy to see his family, but not like this.

He pulled out his handkerchief and wiped his hands and the sweat that had formed over his upper lip, and made his way toward them.  He glanced back, to make sure his perp was sufficiently walled off, as he walked.  And he was angry with Trina.  Where did she get off bringing his children into the casino?  She knew better!

Jimmy, however, wasn’t all that surprised.  He’d done it himself before.  Reno had a tendency to work so hard that he could zone out anything and anybody.  Including his own children.  But children were going to be children.  They didn’t understand.  They just wanted to see their father.

And as soon as Sophia saw her father, she broke away from her mother and ran to him.  Dom ran too.

“Daddy!” she said, running to him super-fast.

Reno couldn’t help but forget his anger when he saw his daughter.  He lifted her into his arms.  “Hey, baby!” he said.

“Hey, Daddy,” Dom said.

Reno ruffled his thick, curly hair.  “How are you, boy?”

“I’m good now that I’ve seen your pretty face.”

Reno laughed.

“He got that from a movie,” Sophia said.  “He’s crazy like that, Daddy.”

Reno laughed.

“I’m crazy like a fox,” Dommi said with a grin.

“No truer words ever spoken,” Jimmy said.

And then Reno looked at Trina.  She looked gorgeous, in her bright red power suit, but that didn’t excuse what she had done.  “Hey, babe,” he said to her with little affection in his voice.

“They wanted to see you before they went to school,” Trina said.

“We don’t hardly see you,” Sophia said to her father, “but we know you work hard.”

“You don’t come home much,” Dommi said, “but we aren’t criticizing you or anything like that.”

Trina and Reno exchanged a glance.  His children were making excuses for him, and neither one of them liked it.

“Why don’t we do this,” Reno said, kneeling down to his children.  “Why don’t you go with Jimmy now, to the lobby, so that I can talk to Mommy.  Then I’ll come and take you guys to school.  How about that?”

Sophia and Dommi both liked that.  “Sounds great, Daddy,” Sophia said.

“That’ll work,” said Dommi.

“Come on guys,” Jimmy said.

Dommi grabbed his sister’s hand and they headed for the exit.  Their bookbags were almost as big as both of them, but they walked happily, knowing their father would be taking them to school.  Jimmy glanced back, at his parents, as he followed.  Those two together, he thought as he walked, could be combustible if they got mad enough.

When his children cleared the exit, Reno gave Trina a stern look.  He wanted to give her a piece of his mind right then and there, but he didn’t want to offend her in public.  “Come with me,” he said, as he made his way toward one of his side rooms off from the casino.

Trina wasn’t in the mood for Reno’s lectures on what she should or shouldn’t have done, and she had built up enough capital in their relationship that she knew she could give him some lip.  But she also knew she’d never build up enough capital in her lifetime to just ignore an order from Reno, and walk away.  He still was the head of their household.  He still was the head of her.  She followed him into the side room.

And as soon as Reno closed the door, he pounced.  “What kind of backward bullshit was that, Trina?”

“Backward?  Bringing your children to see their father is backward?  Then what is your neglect, Reno?  What is your absent father shit?”

“I’m working here, gotdammit!  I have a hotel and casino to run during our busiest season of the year, and you know it!”

“Don’t give me that busy season nonsense,” Trina fired back, “because you’ve been this way all year long.  You’ve been this way long before the summer began. And I’m telling you I’m getting tired of it, Reno.”

Reno frowned.  “What the fuck are you getting tired of?  I just had to beat the crap out of a cheater.  Our children could have seen that shit.  How would that have helped them, Trina?  How would that have helped?”

“At least they would have seen you!”

“You sound like a fucking idiot.”

“Don’t you call me an idiot!”

“I’ll call you whatever the fuck I wanna call you!”

“Yeah, okay, you can call me whatever the hell you want.  But I don’t have to answer to it.”  And she turned to leave.  But Reno grabbed her by the arm, and flung her back to him.

They were now face to face, within an inch of each other.  And the pain of constantly being at each other’s throats lately was beginning to show on their faces.  Reno saw the strain in Trina’s eyes.  Trina saw the strain all over Reno’s face.  And it made both of them slow down, and stop the sniping.

“You’re not an idiot,” Reno said.

Trina couldn’t quite smile.  It wasn’t that easily dismissed.  But she could at least see her role in their problems.  “And I guess I should not have brought them to the casino.”

“You wanted them to see Daddy.  I get that.”

“They weren’t the only ones who wanted to see Daddy.”

Reno smiled.  “I love you, Tree,” he said, “but man-oh-man, sometimes your ass drives me nuts.”  Then he added: “Except when I’m pounding it.”

Trina couldn’t help but smile.  “That is so gross, Reno,” she said.

Reno smiled too, and then leaned over and kissed her on the mouth.  She tasted sweet.  He wanted more.  But when he leaned in for another kiss, she pulled slightly back.  “We’re going to be late,” she said.  “The children are going to be late.  And you promised to drive them to school.”

“About that promise,” he said, and Trina was ready to pounce.  But Reno wasn’t serious at all.  “Just kidding!” he said, and kissed her again.  “Our baby boy okay?”

“Yeah, he’s sleep again.  He’s with Nanny.”

“And what about you?  You okay?”

Trina considered him.  His hair was a mess.  He had a five o’clock shadow.  His expensive suit was wrinkled and well-worn.  And he reeked of cigarettes and alcohol.  “I’m okay,” she said.  “It’s you I worry about.”  She rubbed the stubble on his face.  “You need a shave.”

“I need a lot of things.  Most of all you.”

Trina felt warm inside.  But that still didn’t excuse the fact that they had issues.  Major issues.  “We’ve got to do better, Reno.  You’ve got to do better.”

“I know.  And I will.  I’ll start right now, by taking the kids to school.”

“Take the limo,” Trina insisted.

“The limo?”

“Yes, Reno, the limo.  You’ve been up all night.  I don’t want you falling asleep behind the wheel.  Take the limo, or at least have a driver.”

“I can handle it, Tree, come on.”

“Are you going to take a limo?”

“No.  I got this, alright?  You married a very strong man.  I’m not going to be falling asleep behind any wheels.”

Trina shook her head.  She knew it was useless.  “Whatever, Reno,” she said, and they headed out of the room.

But as soon as he opened the door and they made it out of the room, Bo was coming up.  And his look alone made Trina know there was serious trouble.

“We’ve got a situation, Boss,” he said.  “Good morning, Mrs. Gabrini.”

“Good morning, Bo.”

“What situation?” Reno asked.

“It’s about the cheater.”

“What about him?”

Bo glanced at Trina.

“Don’t even try that, Aube,” she said to him.

“You can talk in front of my wife,” Reno echoed her.  “You know that.”

“It’s about the cheater,” Bo said, refusing to discuss it in front of Trina.

Reno frowned.  “What is it?”

Bo leaned over and whispered in Reno’s ear.  Trina saw Reno’s already big eyes expand.  “Heart condition?”

“He’s even wearing a medic alert thingie,” Bo said.

Reno was stunned.  He looked at Trina.

Trina was already shaking her head.  What kind of life was this?  “Me and Jimmy will take the children to school,” she said disappointedly, and began leaving.

But Reno was still too stunned to even say goodbye to her.  He and Bo took off, in the opposite direction, hurrying for the side room.