Page 114 of The Enforcer

“Thatisweird. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’ve been trying to tell you,” Brianna snapped at her, even if she was very relieved to finally have someone to talk to. “That’s why he freaked tonight, ’cause I wanted to touch him.”

“You wanted to jerk him off, and he got pissed with you?” Carina looked at Brianna like she was speaking another language. “Is that why he made the cash comment?”

“Yeah, he said he just wanted to hold me.”

“Maledizione.” Carina’s eyes grew wide. “What if he’s gay?”

“He’s not gay,” Brianna said without a doubt. “He wants it. He just won’t take it. Not from me, anyway. Apparently the rave girls are perfectly fine.”

She left Carina sitting there and went to the bathroom to wash her hands. She looked in the mirror, seeing that her eyes were swollen and her cheeks were splotched.

Ugh.

That was the last thing she needed to see when her self-esteem was already shattered.

“Are you sure?” Carina asked as Brianna came out of the bathroom. When Brianna frowned at her, Carina clarified, “If a Siciliano is turning down a handjob from a beautiful woman, I’m pretty sure that means he’s gay.”

“He’snotgay. I’ve made out with him. There is no way in the world he is gay. He made me come without feeling skin. He’s really good at it, Carina. Unnaturally good. And when he kissed me, he did it like a guy who knows he’s awesome at it. He’s confident. Too confident. I can’t explain it, but I promise he’s not gay.”

“Well, huh.” Carina sounded mystified. “Maybe that’s his thing, a power trip, making you beg for it. Maybe he’s just kinky.”

“Maybe.” Brianna considered that for a bit as she crawled back into bed and snuggled under the covers. “He licked my feet. It was sort of nice, actually. He made it nice. He makes everything nice.”

“Porca puttana.” Carina held up her hand. “We’re done now.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway.” Brianna turned over in bed as fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. “It’s over before it even started.”

“Aw, sweetheart.” Carina came to her, obviously abandoning her cigarette in the ashtray. She crawled into bed and hugged Brianna from behind like a sister. “Fuck ’em. You don’t need a man. One day we’ll be out of Brooklyn. I promise.”

Brianna nodded. “Okay.”

“It’ll work out. One way or another,” Carina whispered into the night. “Trust me, I know Tino. He’s my cosmic twin. He’s got a good soul. He wouldn’t hurt you like that unless he had a good reason.”

“I don’t think you know Tino at all,” Brianna argued as she closed her eyes. “I don’t think any of us do.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Tino stared at the ceiling, watching the flashes of color dance across it in rhythm to the rave music. He was so fucking tired, and he blinked heavily as Meilei ran her fingers through his hair.

“That’s what you get for fucking a Dyker Heights girl,” she chastised not for the first time, and with no little amount of bitterness. “Stick to your own kind.”

“True that,” Bobby agreed and squeezed Tino’s knee, because somehow he ended up taking Carla’s place with Tino’s feet in his lap. “Was she a virgin?”

“Sì,” Tino answered in Italian, because he was still trying to keep his eyes open.

It was three in the morning, and he had been smoking weed all night. Dangerous when he was dealing, but the entire week was sort of hazed out for him.

Not only was Brianna ignoring him.

Carina was too.

Which made life really fantastic when Tino was still fucking to keep his sister from being sold off by her cuntface mother. Now he didn’t even have his escape. He couldn’t close his eyes and visualize Brianna when he knew she hated him.

So it was either drown himself in drugs or end it all.

Sounded overly dramatic, but his life wasn’t exactly stellar to begin with.