The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (3 page)

She saw not one, but two black SUVs driving by slower than usual, and she stepped behind the marble pillar, watching as they rolled by her and kept going.

“You sure you’re all right, lady?” the doorman asked. “I can call the cops.”

Brianna paused at that, wondering if that might be a consideration, but just as quickly she dismissed it. For one, she had spent a little too much time around Carina and Tino to be comfortable with the idea of police intervention. For another, she was fairly certain the Morettis had dirty hands all over the NYPD.

Her phone chimed, and she looked down to see Carina’s text.

I’m on my way.

“No, I think I’m okay.” She winced in apology. “Can I just sit here for a little while?”

“Whatever.” He shrugged and sat back down, even though Brianna knew he was breaking the rules by letting her loiter in his lobby.

Brianna sat on the bench to the right of the door, peering out into the rain the entire time. Her heart never stopped beating hard and fast. Several times she silently cursed Carina for working way the hell out in Brooklyn when there were plenty of places in Manhattan willing to feature her.

But Brooklyn was where it was at this year.

So Carina was commuting to Brooklyn.

Brianna bet Tino got a good laugh over that, because Carina spent most of her teenage years trying to get out of Brooklyn. Yet even as Brianna thought about Tino, she felt the gravity of everything hit her, and oddly enough, she didn’t feel as terrified as she should.

In that one moment, shivering in the too-cold lobby, still dripping wet, she almost felt relieved. Like no matter what happened, she knew her farce of a marriage with David was over.

Even a mafia bullet sounded better than staying married to him.

She wasn’t totally sure how it had happened. How she could’ve let a man like that into her life. One who claimed to have been sent by the mafia, and for what? To keep her distracted? To keep her away from Tino?

And she’d fallen for it.

Not really. There had never been any delusion of love between her and David. It had been a marriage of convenience, a trophy wife for him, and security for her because marrying David was the only way to stop herself from doing something drastic.

Like running back to Tino.

Despite the consequences.

“You sure you’re okay?” the doorman asked.

She was shivering, but she nodded and said, “I’m okay,” hoping she would start believing it.

Chapter Two

Brianna’s phone was almost dead by the time she spotted Carina’s black BMW slowing down in front of the apartment building that had been Brianna’s haven for the past hour.

She called a thank-you to the doorman and dashed out into the rain before Carina had time to pull up. She jumped into the sleek black sedan and jerked the door shut with more force than necessary in her anxiousness.

Carina’s eyes were narrowed. Her thick dark hair, usually so neatly styled in a bob that curled just past her chin, was unruly, making it obvious she’d left the gig without her umbrella. Brianna glanced into the backseat, finding Carina’s guitar lying there, minus the case, as if Carina had just grabbed it and run out of the club without looking back.

“
Aiuto
is life-or-death. It’s a code that means you are in deep shit,” Carina reminded her. “It means there are motherfuckers with guns chasing you down the street. Is that what happened? Were there motherfuckers with guns chasing you? ’Cause if I just skipped out on my gig for another fight with Broccoli—”

“Have you swept the car for bugs?” Brianna asked as she looked around in paranoia, unable to shake the high-strung nervousness that running for her life had caused.

Carina did a double take, because normally the FBI’s nosiness wasn’t too big a deal. It wasn’t like either of them was actively involved in anything illegal. Tino was gone. Carina didn’t really speak to her other brother. The rest of her family was usually careful not to discuss business around her.

Carina’s face lost some of its color as she asked, “Why?”

“Have you swept it?”

“Tony did it before he left.”

“That was over a week ago!” Brianna shouted. “Carina!”

“Really?” Carina gave her a look of disbelief. “You have issues that require a sweep.”

“Is anyone following you?” Brianna asked as she turned to look out the back, because more often than not, Carina’s grandfather had someone watching her. “Are you stuck with babysitters this week?”

“I ditched the babysitters. Faked going to the bathroom and snuck out the back.” Carina gave Brianna another glare. “
What
is going on?”

Brianna felt the first tears of the night sting her eyes as she looked at her best friend. Then she tugged down her turtleneck, showing off the marks she was sure were still there. “I have so many issues that require a sweep.”

Carina sucked in a hard breath as she stared at Brianna’s neck. Carina reached out and grabbed Brianna’s face when they stopped at a light. Her dark gaze narrowed in fury.

“
Figlio di puttana
,” she cursed as she studied Brianna’s cheek that probably looked horrible. “Broccoli did that?”

Brianna nodded and covered her mouth with her hand, feeling herself wanting to unravel and just sob now that some of the adrenaline was draining out of her. “But that’s not the worst of it. There was a reason I used
aiuto
, and it wasn’t because of Broccoli.”

Carina looked back to the road when the light turned green. She kept her gaze straight ahead, but there was a tic in her jaw that showed the fear in a way her face wouldn’t.

“You’re tired. Sleep. I’ll get us somewhere, and you can tell me,” Carina finally decided, not leaving any room for argument.

Brianna just looked out the window rather than respond. She didn’t trust herself to speak. There were a million things on the tip of her tongue, number one being the question Brianna never wanted to ask.

Did Carina know her grandfather had been playing Brianna and Tino all along? Did she know he told David to marry Brianna? Did Carina know her
nonno
was a man who could have Brianna killed just to get back at Tino for whatever he did to piss their grandfather off this week?

Yet even as she thought it, she wasn’t as shocked as she should be.

Look at what Tino had endured at the hands of the mafia. Was she really surprised they would consider her an easy pawn in the game? If they hurt their own blood that severely, one Irish Catholic girl from Dyker Heights wasn’t such a big loss.

Carina could make a new friend.

Brianna kept staring out the window, the lights blurring red and white through the rain as her eyes got heavy, and her heart finally stopped its constant pounding against her chest.

Simon and Garfunkel played on the radio, soft and melodic, lulling her into a false sense of security as if a bridge over troubled water was really something girls like her could still dream about.

She couldn’t talk about what happened, not until Carina swept the car for bugs, so as they approached the Lincoln Tunnel, Brianna gave up thinking about it and slept instead.

* * * *

Brianna had a kink in her neck, but she was warm and still so very tired she wanted to keep ignoring it. Instead, she shifted and blinked, surprised by the early-morning sunshine. She blinked a few more times, and it wasn’t until they drove past an old-fashioned horse and buggy that she woke up fully.

“What the fuck?” Brianna looked out the window, seeing nothing but farmland, miles of it, broken up with the occasional house, barn, or silo. “Where are we?”

“Good morning, starshine,” Carina said in response as she took a sip of coffee out of a Styrofoam cup. “Lancaster, PA. Quaint, right?”

“We’re in Pennsylvania?” Brianna gaped at her for one long moment before she asked, “Why?”

“I figured distance might be good.”

“Distance?” Brianna repeated as she gestured to another barn. “No shit, distance. When did you plan on stopping?”

Carina shrugged noncommittally, which sent up a million red flags. As if she sensed the suspicion, she took another sip of coffee and said, “It’s
merda
. This coffee. You wanna try and find breakfast?”

Brianna ran a hand over her face and winced at the sting in her cheek. She pulled down the visor to stare at herself in the mirror. She couldn’t help but grimace at what she saw. “I
look
like merda.”

“Mmm,” Carina hummed in agreement. “Like a drowned rat. A little ginger rat who has
very
bad taste in vegetables.”

Brianna just arched an eyebrow at her, deciding that only a true friend would be that honest. “Did you sweep the car when you stopped for coffee?”

“Yes, I did. Thanks to our taxpayer dollars, I found not one, not two, but three bugs. That never stops being annoying. That’s why I let Tony do it. He’s so sweet. He lies to me every time, and he does it so believably. Enforcers are, by far, the best liars in the Borgata.”

“No kidding,” Brianna said sullenly, wishing she wasn’t stuck on thoughts of Tino. “Why are we in PA? Where are we going, Carina?”

“Are you gonna tell me what happened?” Carina countered.

Brianna pulled up the jacket that had somehow found its way over her, and snuggled into the seat that was nice and warm thanks to Carina’s fine taste in luxury vehicles. “Did you sweep my side?”

“Yes, I did.”

“How did I not hear you?” Brianna asked in surprise. “How did I sleep all the way to PA?”

“Overworked, overstressed. Who knows? I was starting to worry you had a concussion.” Carina took another sip of coffee. “Maybe a part of you knew I’d get you somewhere safe.”

“Ominous,” Brianna whispered, though she was afraid she already knew the reason they were heading west through Amish country. “Did you know your nonno told David to marry me?”

Carina whipped her head around so fast the car swerved. “What?”

Brianna stared at her for a long time. Carina was as good an actress as just about anyone, but that was a genuine reaction. Brianna wasn’t sure what was worse, thinking her friend had somehow been involved with the attempted assignation or having to break the news that Brianna probably had a price on her head thanks to Carina’s family.

“When David was choking me, he told me your grandfather had him marry me to keep me and Tino apart,” Brianna explained simply. “I’m pretty sure he was telling the truth.”

Carina shook her head. “No. Bri—”

“Carina.” She cut her off. “Your grandfather’s guys were waiting for me in the lobby. I recognized one. They were coming up to either finish the job or to make sure I was dead and hide my body. Maybe take pictures and text them in typical fucked-up Cosa Nostra fashion. It has to do with Tino. Have you talked to him?”

“Yeah, he’s”—Carina held up her hand to the windshield—“living the good life in Bumfuck. He was in Miami for his friend’s wedding. He’s fine. He’s outta trouble. David’s gotta be full of shit.”

Brianna could hear the denial in Carina’s voice, because her grandfather spoiled her rotten. She was willing to overlook a lot of things for her nonno, but the facts were pretty hard to deny.

So Brianna told her everything. In detail. When she got to the part where she was describing the hit men in the lobby, Carina pulled into a gas station and got out without another word.

The car rattled with the force Carina used to slam the door.

Brianna watched her best friend storm across the parking lot. The sound of high-heeled boots clicking against the pavement echoed until Carina jerked open the door to the convenience store so hard she probably had the poor guy behind the counter scared to death of the five-foot-nothing ball of Italian fury that had invaded his store.

She reappeared a few minutes later, furiously pulling the wrapper off a pack of cigarettes.

“Shit!” Brianna cursed as she jumped out of the car, bringing the jacket with her. She slipped her arms into the sleeves as she ran across the parking lot. “Carina Maria Moretti! No!”

“I will cut you,” Carina warned, grasping at the box like a lifeline. “I swear to God, Bri. I don’t like to kick a girl when she’s down, but—”

Considering she had seven inches on her, Brianna decided she was willing to risk it and swiped for the box of cigarettes. She got it too, and was diving for the garbage can when Carina jumped on her back. For the second time in less than twelve hours, someone was trying to choke her. Brianna fell back against the wall to the convenience store, keeping Carina trapped there and relieving some of the pressure on her neck.

Carina just hung on to her, breathing heavily, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. “I need one.”

Brianna stared ahead in annoyance. “I’m the one who should be falling apart. I probably have a price on my head and—”

“I have guilt. I feel like this is my fault.” Carina let out a low moan of agony. “I have too much already and—”

“You are a drama queen,” Brianna reminded her, though she supposed Carina had a point. She looked down, nearly choking herself in the process because she was supporting all of Carina’s weight. She pulled out one cigarette and held it up as a peace offering. “I’m throwing away the pack.”

“Fine.” Carina snatched it and slid to her feet behind Brianna.

Carina’s hands shook as she lit the cigarette, but when she tilted her head back and blew out the smoke, she looked so wholly pleased Brianna almost felt guilty throwing away the pack.

Almost.

They stood there in silence as Carina had a moment with her cigarette, and Brianna watched her. She had a unique, distinctive way of smoking that always intrigued Brianna, like something out of a black-and-white movie, making Carina look like a starlet preserved in time, but that wasn’t what was intriguing to Brianna.

“You smoke just like Nova,” she observed not for the first time, even knowing Carina hated to be compared to her other brother almost as much as Nova did. That alone wasn’t weird, but the fact that Nova could look like such a badass doing it, and Carina could look like a starlet, yet watching them side by side was like staring at mirror images. “It’s so strange.”