The Enforcer (Untamed Hearts Book 3) (59 page)

It was so totally unfair that everything with Tino had clicked beautifully into place and the rest of her life went to shit.

Just like that.

After working since she was a little girl to get where she was.

All the hours and hours of practice.

All the injuries and sore muscles.

All the perfect eating to keep her body as strong as possible, and those assholes were going to yank it away from her because they didn’t like her friends.

She slid down to sit against the wall in the hallway and cradled her bag in her lap as she searched through it, looking for a lifeline. She fished her phone out and called Tino while she tried to catch her breath, but it didn’t work very well.

When Tino answered the phone with, “Hey, baby,” she came unglued.

“They want me to flip or lose my scholarship, and I just told them, fuck you, ’cause who the hell do they think they are? Where the hell do they come from? They want me to turn against the Borgata. I’m not gonna do that. I’ll give it up, but it’s not fair and—”

“Whoa,” Tino cut her off, and his voice got low and concerned. “Do we gotta go to pay phones? Someone’s trying to flip you?”

“Just the school officials.” Brianna took another shuddering breath. “They took me in their office and told me I need to move out of Carina’s apartment and promise not to associate with the Morettis. They’re using that one tiny slap with Miranda as leverage. They’re blackmailing me. They’re gonna take my scholarship money.”

“What the fuck?” Tino sounded as shocked as Brianna felt. “That can’t be real.”

“I tried to explain it to them that your Borgata is your family, and you don’t just turn your back on your family because someone told you to. How fucking far are we from Brooklyn? I feel like I’m on another planet here.”

“I’ll give you the money,” Tino said in a soothing voice. “I’ll pay for your school.”

“That’s not the point. The don offered to pay too, but I worked for that money, Tino. It was my thing that I did all by myself. Now they’re spitting on all my hard work. Where are you? Can we go back to your walk-up?”

“Shit, baby, I’m working. I’m sorry.” Tino seemed genuinely torn up about it. “I’m gonna be home tomorrow. Carina’s got her gig. I’ll stay the night. I’ll make it up to you. I’ll make it better.”

She sighed, trying not to sound too disappointed. “Are you gonna be safe?”

“Yeah, I’m always safe. Carlo’s here. He’s got my back,” Tino promised her. “We’re good.”

She took another deep breath, because she didn’t want to distract him while he was working. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called with my dumb school stuff.”

“Hey, it’s not dumb. That’s fucking bullshit,” Tino said quickly. “They just spit on your hard work. I don’t like hearing that. They oughta be very happy I’m not in Manhattan right now.”

Brianna knew he couldn’t say where he was.

“Go,” she whispered. “Go work.”

“I love you,” he surprised her by saying, even though Carlo was obviously in the car with him. “Okay?”

“Okay.” She nodded. “I love you too. Miss you.”

“Don’t worry about school,” he said softly. “I’ll be home tomorrow. I’ll spend all night making it better.”

She smiled in spite of everything. “Be safe.”

“I promise,” he said before he hung up.

* * * *

“Those cunts took Brianna into their office.” Tino put his phone back in his pocket. “They’re threatening to kick her outta school, and they gave her shit for being associated with the Borgata. They said that merda out loud.”

“No shit.” Carlo sounded as shocked as Tino. “They said our name when they were talking to her.”

“Yeah, like it was fucking dirty. They took my girl into their office and reprimanded her for being associated with us,” Tino growled. “They made her feel like a criminal. Who the fuck do they think they are? We’ve been here longer than New York’s Premiere Center for the Arts. So they’re the oldest performance college in the country. We’ve
still
been here longer.”

“Well, that doesn’t fucking work,” Carlo agreed. “We should do something about that.”

“Right?” Tino nodded, glad Carlo wasn’t trying to talk him out of it, because the truth was they were in Manhattan. “We won’t clip ’em. Just scare ’em a little. I told her I was working till tomorrow.”

Carlo was silent for a moment and then looked to Tino hesitantly, because the two of them had never decided who they were going after before. Someone else did it and handed them the names.

Being judge and jury was way outside their job description.

“This is a Nova problem,” Carlo whispered. “We should talk to Nova.”

Tino groaned, because he hadn’t even told Nova he was seeing Brianna again. “That’ll just cause a big fucking issue.”

“We got to tell him,” Carlo pressed. “You can’t send two enforcers to deal with school officials. We can’t just beat them up. These are, like, real guys, Tino. If they’re saying the old man’s name with disrespect, then they’re just fucking clueless about how things work. You gotta send Nova in for something like that. He’ll show up in his suit and explain things. He’ll just iron it out like he always does. You send us in, and there will be blood and cops, and the old man will freak, and Nova will need quaaludes. There’s levels.”

Carlo took one hand off the steering wheel and held it up. “Like, here’s the real world and the school officials who’d call the heat in a fucking heartbeat if we showed up.” He lowered his hand a little. “Here’s associates and all those motherfuckers who benefit off Cosa Nostra. The cops on the pad. The dirty government. The other half of New York who’s not clueless.” He lowered it a little more. “Here’s Nova. He can still speak their language. He’s like a Cosa Nostra translator. Then here’s us.” He dropped his hand way down near his thigh. “In the lowest dredges of the underworld. You can’t just throw us at officials. They keep us separate for a reason. It’ll mess up the entire symbiotic ecosystem of society.” He looked back to Tino. “You could single-handedly destroy civilization, or at least a small section of Midtown.”

Tino stared back at him and did a very good job of not cracking up. “That was deep, Zio.”

Carlo shrugged. “I’m a deep guy.”

“I could be Nova,” Tino assured him. “I could be an awesome Nova.”

Carlo was quiet again, before he turned back to Tino. “I believe you could.”

“Let’s go back to Harlem,” Tino said with a wide smile. “Romeo’s training. It’ll give me time to grab one of my suits. You could borrow one of Nova’s.”

“Hell, no, I’m gonna be your muscle.” Carlo pointed to Tino’s pocket, because Carlo didn’t carry a cell phone. “Call Rocco and tell him to bring the limo.”

“What if the don needs it?”

“The old man’s in the Hamptons. Frankie never does anything important enough to require the limo, and Nova always drives himself,” Carlo said as he turned around. “Let Rocco earn his keep.”

* * * *

Tino needed one of his own suits, because he was taller than Nova. He also wasn’t quite as broad. He didn’t have that thick, pit-bull build like the Morettis. Not that Tino was super thrilled he took after his mother’s side, but he was sorta glad he didn’t have an eighteen-inch neck.

Nova had to have all his suits tailored like Romeo did. Tino was an off-the-rack guy. Clothing salesmen loved him. They told him he was built for suits, and since they said it, Tino usually made their day a little brighter and bought two or three.

“Why do you have so many?” Carlo mumbled as he stood in Tino’s closet. “I mean, really, Tino, this is a disorder. You don’t even wear them.”

“I go to Mass with Nova sometimes. Besides, I worked hard for the money in my bank account. I feel like it’s my obligation to spend it,” Tino said simply. “And I don’t think a guy who has over a hundred classic cars ditched all over the city can criticize my closet.”

“It’s not a hundred,” Carlo mumbled.

Tino turned to give him an unamused look as he threaded his tie through the collar of his shirt.

“Okay.” Carlo held up his hands in defeat and then eyed Tino’s tie. “You should wear a gold one.”

Tino arched an eyebrow at him. “I don’t own a gold tie.”

“Nova does.”

“No.” Tino started tying the purple one he had on. “There’s a reason I don’t own a gold tie.”

“But you’re being Nova,” Carlo reminded him. “Nova wears gold ties.”

“Nova
shouldn’t
wear gold ties.”

“You think Nova doesn’t know that? He knows it, but it’s an image. It’s Siciliano. You gotta wear the gold tie.”

“It’s Siciliano, all right,” Tino agreed with him. “And one of the main reasons those northern motherfuckers have so much material.”

“Wear it!”

“No!”

Carlo jumped at him and physically jerked the purple tie out of Tino’s collar. Tino threw his elbow back into Carlo’s chest and kicked him for good measure, but then he stepped back and smoothed his hand down his chest. “Do you attack your zu? Check yourself, motherfucker.”

“Yeah, I got no respect. I’m just not inspired,” Carlo agreed. “Now if you were wearing a gold tie…”

Tino looked down at himself and studied his suit before he whispered, “Merda.”

He was forced to shrug out of his gray jacket and put it back on the hanger. He hung it up and reached for a black, pinstriped suit.

“Yes!” Carlo pointed at it. “That’s a Nova suit. It’s gotta have the vest, though. Does it have the vest?”

Tino pulled the jacket back, showing off the vest, even though Tino never wore a three-piece suit. He wasn’t even sure how he got this one. It must’ve been one of those moments when he was just buying to boost the salesperson’s commission.

“That’s the suit. Put it on, and then we’ll raid Nova’s closet downstairs for the tie.”

* * * *

Once they got to Nova’s closet, it was over.

Carlo decided he was going as high-class muscle like he did for the don. He stole one of Nova’s suits, because Carlo
did
have an eighteen-inch neck.

It wasn’t easy to find a suit a little less formal then the three pieces Nova had been favoring for a while now, but in the back corner Carlo found a simple, black, double-breasted suit that hadn’t been donated yet.

After he changed clothes and slipped the jacket on, Carlo stretched his arms. He gave Tino a look of annoyance as he ran a hand under his arm. “I think his lats are bigger than mine.”

Tino snorted, because it was obvious Nova’s lats were bigger than Carlo’s, but Nova did all his working out at the dojo and that was a muscle group largely ignored with free weights.

Even by a personal trainer like Carlo.

“Do more martial arts. It’s a better total-body workout. If you don’t like karate or judo, try something else. You quit every single time.” Tino lifted his arms and said, “I got awesome lats.”

“I don’t like people telling me what to do,” Carlo said by way of explanation and obviously gave up on his lats.

Carlo was trying on watches, and Tino was looking through Nova’s money clips when they heard Nova get home, but they weren’t too concerned about it.

When Nova pulled back from walking into his bedroom and stood at the entrance to his closet, Tino turned to him wearing his three-piece pinstripe, the gold tie, and an unapologetic smile.

Nova arched an eyebrow at him and said, “What the fuck are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Tino shrugged. “Just looking at your shit.”

“Bullshit,” Nova growled as Tino picked up one of the gold money clips. “Are you trying to be me? Is that supposed to be me?”

“I told you,” Carlo said with a smile at Tino. “It’s the tie.”

“Hey, lemme see the money clip in your pocket,” Tino asked, but knowing Nova, he went ahead and jumped at him. Tino reached into his pocket despite Nova smacking his head. “Stop it, stronzo! You’ll mess up my hair.” Tino leaped back, money clip in hand, now much more realistic with all those hundreds shoved in it. “I need this.”

“I wanna know what the hell is going on,” Nova barked at him and then yanked his money clip back. “I like this one. No.” He reached over and picked up one of the silver money clips he used to take with him when he did crew work a million years ago. “You can have that one.”

“I have a gold tie on.” Tino gestured to the tie pointedly. “I need one of the gold ones to match.”

“You can’t have one of my gold money clips. Get the fuck outta my closet!”

Carlo caught Nova’s hand when Nova tried to yank a Rolex away from him. He looked at Nova’s sleeve and told Tino, “You need to get some of his cuff links too. Oh, you should get those dollar-sign ones. Those are so fucking ghetto. They’re perfect.”

“Holy shit, yes.” Tino laughed with him. “The ones with the little diamonds in them.”

Carlo cracked up. “It doesn’t get more Siciliano than that.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Nova shouted at the two of them. “Whatever the hell you two are doing, I promise it’s a bad idea. If you have to dress up like me, that means it’s something you can’t tell me about, and it’s a mistake.”

Since Tino was sort of working on this truth thing, and he figured Nova would find out eventually, he went ahead and admitted, “The school officials are trying to push Brianna outta school for being associated with us.”

“Madonn’.” Nova groaned. “So what, you’re gonna go to the school and do what?”

“Well, I wanted to go in and dent them a little.” Tino gestured to Carlo as he fished in another drawer through all the neatly displayed cuff links. “But he said I’d ruin the symbiotic levels of society if I did that and destroy the ecosystem of Midtown. So I thought I’d do it like you do it.”

“What?” Nova scowled at them like they were speaking another language. He yanked the dollar-sign cuff links out of Tino’s hand. Then he paused and stared at the cuff links. “Do you really think they’re ghetto?”

“Oh my God, Casanova,” Tino said with an incredulous look.

“I love these ones. The don bought them for me,” Nova mumbled as he stared at them in his open palm.

Tino rolled his eyes.

“He bought you the playing cards too,” Carlo reminded Nova. “With the rubies for the ace of hearts.”

Tino laughed but didn’t say anything.

“I love those ones too.” Nova looked like his world was ending. “Am I one of them? Have I turned into one of them? Am I a fucking pirate now?”