Page 119 of The Enforcer

“I realize that now,” Lola whispered miserably. “He lied to me too.” She wiped at her cheeks again. “Maybe he’ll understand and—”

Tino shook his head, because there was absolutely no way it could work. “No.”

“Are you going to tell him?”

Tino considered that for a while before he sighed. “I have to.”

“Figlio di puttana,” she cursed, but it held no threat. Instead she looked at him with deep betrayal. “I made you,” she said passionately in Italian, obviously afraid of someone walking in and understanding her. “They would’ve sold you to men a long time ago if it wasn’t for me. Women want you because of me. I made you beautiful to them.”

Tino closed his eyes, because he knew Lola was probably right.

“He kept coming back. I know a Siciliano is asking for trouble, but he was different. He reminded me of you in a way. An older you.” She said it like a dark confession. “I guess now I know why.”

“Lola—”

“I know.” She let out a sob. “I know, okay? I know.” She covered her face with her hands. “Just please don’t tell him. Let me break up with him. I don’t want him to see me like that. I want to keep it beautiful. You don’t understand, Tino. When he looks at me—”

“I understand.” Tino felt tears stinging his eyes too when he thought of Brianna. “I do understand.”

“He makes me feel like I matter.Really matter,” she said like it was the only way she could find to explain it. “When he touches me—”

“Cazzo, Lola, you have the worst fucking luck of anyone I ever met, and that’s saying something.” Tino sighed and then did something incredibly stupid. “I won’t tell him, but—”

“I’ll break up with him,” she said quickly. “If you promise not to tell him, I’ll break it off.”

“I promise, but—”

“I’ll do it,” she said so solemnly. “Just give me one more night.”

“I can give you more than a night. Take a week.” He shrugged, because at this point, what the fuck could it hurt, and he was still high enough to believe in love. “A week for making me beautiful to the rich cunts and keeping me out of men’s bathrooms. I owe you that much.”

She smiled, which made her face light up despite the tears. “Grazie.”

“Sure.” Tino crawled down until he was sitting on the toilet in the stall next to her. He was silent for a moment before he remembered the conversation with Meilei and Bobby earlier and confessed, “Did you know you were my first?”

“What?” she asked in surprise. “But Mary—”

“I wasn’t fucking her yet. Just—” He shook his head, feeling sick at the mention of it. “Other stuff.”

“Minchia,” Lola whispered in the stall next to him, sounding as sick as he felt. “That was your first time?”

“Yeah.”

She took a long, shuddering breath. “I should’ve made it better.”

“Hard to make it better when you’re doing it in front of a hundred sick assholes drinking champagne.”

Lola was quiet again, before she said with a smile in her voice, “You did pretty good.”

“Thanks. So glad.” Tino snorted sarcastically. “I know you were pissed at your father. Why the fuck shouldn’t you be? Sick fucker, even he should have limits. First time on display like that, and he sticks you with a guy you didn’t know. You could’ve taken it out on me, but you didn’t.”

“We made you beautiful instead,” she whispered. “Now look at you.”

“Yeah.” He held out his hands and stared at the tiled floor. “Look at me. In the women’s restroom, selling my zio to the wrong woman for the week. My life is so shredded.”

“Your pretty girl, Brianna, that’s something.”

“She hates me. Hooked up and broke up in the same week.”