The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (52 page)

Tino just stared at him, wondering why he was so shocked.

“What do you think I do for a living, Casanova?” Tino kept his voice low so Romeo wouldn’t hear, and went back to speaking in Italian on instinct like he did when they wanted to keep things private. “I end tough guys who think they’re too badass to get caught. You’re not any different from the rest of them,” he said as Nova looked at him in that same confused, horrified way Tino knew so well. Like he couldn’t fucking believe someone who wore boots and jeans for a living could get the better of him. They all thought they were too good for an enforcer. Too fucking smart. Too protected. “Fucking accountants.” He stepped past Nova and opened the door. “Stay out of my shower. It’s the only time I have to myself. I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not. It’s
my
time.”

He was halfway down the hall before something else nagged at him, and he turned back around to glare at Nova, who was getting to his feet. “Brianna has a name too. You use it when you speak about her. I don’t want to
ever
hear that snarky, smart-guy tone when you talk about her. I want you to be reverent when you say her name.”

“Reverent?” Nova raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Valentino, do you really know what that means?”

“Like you’re talking about the goddamn Madonna,” Tino assured him rather than get pissed about his condescending tone, because it was obvious Nova was still angry about the shower door. Nova usually started flexing his brain when he felt threatened, but Tino knew him too well to fall for it. “No one’s allowed to disrespect her in front of me. I’ve put up with too much in my life to listen to it,” Tino growled, and then he turned and walked to his room in Romeo’s apartment before he knocked Nova out a second time.

* * * *

Their cousin Angelo showed up for breakfast. He was the only family member they kept up with from their mother’s side, and Tino used to think he had a sixth sense for Romeo’s cooking since Romeo got out of the pen. Then Tino busted Romeo texting him. Something about Romeo, he liked having people around him. He liked having others to take care of. Maybe it was a prison thing. After being alone so much of the time, it changed him. Same with the fighting, and not the structured karate they grew up with, but the down-and-dirty MMA fighting Romeo did now. The anger and loneliness left a stain on Romeo’s soul that he was always trying to find a way to scrub out.

Tino understood, so he never said anything about it.

That was part of the reason why he camped out in the second bedroom of Romeo’s apartment instead of getting a place of his own. Not like he didn’t have millions of dollars in the bank thanks to the Brambinos and Nova’s guilt that had him investing it just to watch it double.

Tino could get another apartment in the building like Nova did, but he didn’t, though he liked his space more than Nova. He didn’t want to leave Romeo alone when he knew Romeo hated it. So Tino sucked it up, even if he had to be a guy for Romeo he wouldn’t understand on a good day.

Always on.

Always pretending to be what he should’ve been.

At first it was sort of fun, to create him, this great, fun-loving little brother. Tino liked to imagine he was what Harlem Tino would’ve grown into if Romeo hadn’t gone to prison.

If they hadn’t moved to Dyker Heights.

Without the basements and Mary.

“Okay, so I got one,” Tino said to Angelo, who was sitting across from him in his police uniform, already dressed for his shift. “This is a good one. You ready?”

“Hell, yes, I’m ready.” Angelo grinned, already rapt and waiting. “I love living vicariously through you.”

“I met this chick at La Bomba.”

“Hey, I heard they got raided last night,” Romeo cut in from the kitchen as he worked on cooking the bacon.

“Yeah, they did. ATF got ’em.” Angelo nodded as he took a sip of his coffee. “Made a lotta arrests too.”

“Thanks for the heads-up, motherfucker,” Nova snapped at Angelo, while he held ice to his head on Romeo’s orders. “You know Tino hangs there.”

“Do I look like ATF?” Angelo threw up his hands. “You think they stop by the station and discuss their raids before they do them? Speaking of that, I want a fucking raise for doing what I do for you. Everyone’s already looking at me like I’m on the pad because I’m your cousin.”

Tino snorted. “You are on the pad.”

“That doesn’t mean I like them thinking it,” Angelo barked at Tino before he turned back to Nova. “I want more.”

Nova just looked at him dully. “You think your information at NYPD is really that valuable to me? Get a job at the FBI, and then we’ll discuss more money.”

“Do you know how fucking hard it is to get into the FBI? Do you know what kinda degrees you need?”

“Oh, well.” Nova snorted. “We all know how that’ll turn out.”

“Wow, you are a prick this morning,” Angelo said with a glare. “Sorry I’m not a fucking genius like you.”

“You’re the one asking for more money,” Nova reminded him. “You have to do more work to get more money. I’m pissed about the La Bomba thing. Do you know what would’ve happened if Tino went down?”

“What does he have to go down for?” Romeo cut in as he put a plate in front of Angelo first since he had to get to work. “Not like he’s drinking.”

Tino raised his eyebrows but looked down at the tablecloth instead of saying anything.

“Are you drinking?” Romeo barked at him.

“Nah.” Tino shook his head, giving a mock look of being disgusted. “I hate drinking. Gross. Yuck.”

Angelo burst out laughing.

“Valentino—”

“Shirley Temples all night,” Tino assured Romeo, but cracked and started laughing with Angelo, even though Romeo looked like an angry bear. “Okay, come on, we can’t all be perfect like you, Rome.”

“You’re underage.”

“No shit?” Tino pulled out his wallet and looked at his fake ID in surprise. “The DMV lied to me.”

Romeo picked up Tino’s wallet and looked at his fake ID. Then his shoulders slumped, like all the energy was sucked out of him. “This is my fault.”

Tino was just considering pulling it back and admitting he really didn’t drink much. Which wasn’t a lie. He preferred blow to booze, but Tino tried to keep it a little real with Romeo. He couldn’t let him walk around thinking Tino was lily-white. A few things were good for him to know in case the truth ever did come out; he wouldn’t die of shock.

“I’m pretty sure Tino would be right where you see him if Dyker Heights never happened,” Nova said, though there was a haunted sound to his voice like he understood this lie Tino created was what he thought would’ve happened. What Tino should’ve been, which was the exact opposite of who he actually was. For the first time, Tino realized Nova had believed it too. Seen what he wanted to see and ignored the rest that was too painful to deal with until Tino flat-out told him in the hallway that it was a lie. “This is where he’s supposed to be.”

“Drinking and partying his ass off all night?” Romeo sounded miserable at the notion.

“There are worse things,” Nova said distantly. “There are a lot worse things, Rome.”

Tino felt guilty.

He’d let the anger get the most of him, and he probably shouldn’t have admitted to Nova that it was all a carefully designed lie. He understood wanting to believe it, even knowing how untrue it was. Sometimes Tino almost believed it too.

“You wanna hear my story or what?” Tino asked the table. “It’s gonna shock the shit outta you.”

“Yeah, man, tell us your fucking story,” Angelo agreed as he took a bite of his eggs. “It’s too early for things to get this intense.”

“I met this chick, right? She was hot too. You gotta remember that. So we’re dancing, and she’s on my shit. She wants it—”

“Oh Jesus,” Romeo groaned from the kitchen. “I hate these fucking stories, Valentino. I’d almost rather go back to Angelo bitching about not getting enough dirty money.”

“Stai zitto.” Angelo threw up his hands at Romeo and then looked back to Tino. “So she’s up on your shit.”

“Like fucking glue.
On me.
” Tino waggled his eyebrows at Angelo, all the while feeling Nova’s intense stare and Romeo’s annoyance. “And I’m like, hey, why the fuck not, right? I ask her if she wants to take off. We can go to my place or—”

“Your place?” Romeo barked.

Tino rolled his eyes. “Relax. I don’t fuck here. I go to Nova’s.”

Nova was quiet rather than argue that Tino had never brought a woman over. When Romeo put a plate in front him, Nova said, “Grazie,” still looking very distracted. Then Romeo hit the back of Nova’s head, and he grunted. “What?”

“You let him bring women over?”

Nova held up his hand, like he didn’t understand the problem, even if his gaze was still haunted and distant. “Who am I to tell him what to do?”

“No shit,” Tino mumbled under his breath, keeping to himself that he’d modeled half his fictionally bad sexual behavior after Nova at eighteen.

Nova at twenty was much more reserved.

Sort of like the ecstasy that disappeared out of his life like he’d never loved it to begin with. Nova just gave up partying after the fallout in the Savios’ basement. Like he was punishing himself, even though the Savios’ basement wasn’t his fault any more than Mary was.

Now Nova’s life was nothing but work and family.

“So anyway,” Tino went on with a pointed look at Romeo for ruining his punch line. “I ask her if she wants to take off, and she says to me, ‘I’ll go home with you, but only if you promise me one thing.’”

Angelo leaned forward in anticipation, and even Nova dropped the ice and looked at Tino curiously.

“She says, ‘I’ll only fuck you if you promise’”—Tino stopped rather than go on. Angelo held up his hand, and Tino waggled his eyebrows—“‘to come on
my face
.’”

“Valentino!” Romeo shouted.

At the same time Angelo slid his chair back with a loud screech across the marble. “Get the fuck out! No!”

“What the fuck?” Nova shook his head and agreed with Angelo, “No. She wants you to come on her face or she won’t fuck you? You’re making that shit up.”

“My hand to God.” Tino raised his hand. “On Ma’s grave.”

Nova hit his shoulder the second the words left Tino’s mouth.

Romeo practically jumped over the kitchen counter to smack the back of his head. “You don’t swear on Ma for something like that!”

Tino leaped out of the chair and dodged a genuine hit from Romeo. Except Nova was helping him and grabbed Tino’s sleeve. Tino had to kick Nova’s thigh to break free. By some miracle he managed to get away from both of them, cleared the table, and ran into the living room, laughing his ass off.

When he took to the couch, Romeo shouted, “Valentino! No!”

He jumped up onto the edge of it so that he was towering over all of them. “Dare me!” he told Angelo, who was the only one not totally disgusted with him.

“No!” Nova shouted before Angelo could dare him. “You’re gonna bust your ass. Don’t you fucking dare him, Angelo!”

“Go for it!” Angelo shouted.

So Tino did it, a full front tuck off the edge of the couch. He should’ve busted his ass in such a small area, but life had taught him how to land on his feet even when it should be impossible.

Both his brothers shouted as he did it, and stood there pissed when Angelo came up and gave Tino a high five after he threw up his hands in triumph.

Then Angelo asked, “Did you do it? On her face?”

Tino pulled back and looked at his cousin. “Of course I did it.”

Romeo just crossed himself rather than say anything.

“If it’s her thing, who am I to begrudge her,” Tino went on as his phone beeped in his pocket. He pulled it out, seeing that it was a message from Carlo, who borrowed neighborhood teenagers’ phones to text since he was old-school and hated cells. “Gotta go, kids. It’s been fun.”

“It’s eight in the morning,” Romeo said in disbelief. “You’re getting booty calls before noon?”

“There’s no wrong time for a booty call.” Tino grabbed Romeo’s face and tugged him down to kiss his forehead. “Ti voglio bene.” Then he reached out and hit Nova’s shoulder. “I gotta go down and grab my helmet from your place.”

“I’ll walk you,” Nova said.

“What about breakfast?” Romeo asked.

“I’ll take it with me and eat it on the way down.”

Tino ended up holding a plate in the elevator, swallowing his breakfast whole in a way Romeo would definitely bitch about, as Nova stood silently beside him.

Tino was still eating as they walked down the hallway to Nova’s apartment, when his brother asked, “Was it true?”

Tino frowned at him. “Was what true?”

“The story?”

“That I met a girl at La Bomba? No. I was with Bri and Carina at La Bomba. I don’t pick up women when I’m working.” Tino took a bite of his bacon but then glanced back at Nova, who was standing there staring at him instead of opening the door. “What?”

“You tell it like it’s true,” Nova whispered. “You just lie like it’s easier than telling the truth.”

Tino held up his hand, because what did Nova expect from him? “You lie too, motherfucker.”

“Not like you.” Nova opened the door, clearly still miserable. “I’m not a different person for everyone. I’m still me. I just don’t tell them everything.”

Tino took a mental note not to knock Nova out again if it made him this sulky and introspective. Not exactly how he wanted to go out on a job. He was superstitious. It’d be his luck to get iced the one time he was fighting with Nova and leave his brother miserable for eternity.

“It was half-true, if that makes you feel better,” Tino said as he walked in. He went to the kitchen and stood there, quickly finishing his breakfast. “All of it’s half-true, Casanova. They’re not all lies.”

Nova shrugged. “What half?”

Tino smirked and looked up at him. “The coming-on-her-face part. That was true. I did know a chick who was into it. Didn’t even want sex. Oral. Nothing. All she wanted was that. I’ve done a lotta weird shit, but that was easily top ten.”

“When—” Nova shrugged again, obviously uncomfortable, because they didn’t talk about the past much. “With the Brambinos. For them.”

Tino nodded. “Yeah.”