Page 125 of The Enforcer

Brianna pulled herself up to her full height. “I never said that.”

“What about his friends? Has anyone called them?” Carina cut in. “All his rave friends. The girls we saw him with that night we ended up staying in Harlem.”

“I called them.” Nova sounded breathless with panic. “I talked to Bobby and Carla. Neither of them has seen him.”

“What about the other girl?” Carlo asked. “The one from breakfast this weekend?”

“I talked to Mei too. No one knows where he is.”

The four of them stood there exchanging looks of horror.

“Have you called Nonno?” Carina asked Nova.

“Yeah.” Nova tossed up his hands. “He has people listening, but—”

He didn’t have to finish. It was such a big city. They couldn’t call the cops. They all knew it. In their world there were no cops. They had to find him on their own.

“Let me drop off my bags,” Carina said quickly. “Then I’ll help you.”

“I will too.” Brianna’s heartbeat was still thundering in her ears, and her chest felt like someone had just shoved a knife into it and turned the handle. “We’ll find him, Nova. We have to find him.”

“Okay.” Nova nodded, looking more lost than Brianna had ever seen him. “Grazie.”

* * * *

Except they didn’t find him.

Nova had pulled out all Tino’s old phone records and was paging through them, looking for clues, because once they started talking, they all started to suspect there were things each of them was missing.

“Maybe he has a girlfriend we don’t know about,” Carlo said and then winced at Brianna. “Or a boyfriend.”

“He doesn’t have a boyfriend,” Brianna snapped at him, because her nerves were long since raw. “He’s not gay. I don’t know why you all keep saying that.”

“He had his feet in that Bobby kid’s lap, and dollars for doughnuts that one’s got a sugar daddy on the side.”

“Bobby’s definitely gay,” Nova agreed, still flipping through the phone records that he had stacked in piles around him. He set aside one page after another in such rapid succession Brianna didn’t understand how he could be reading them, but it seemed like he was. “He’s been Tino’s friend for years, and he’s been after Tino the whole friggin’ time. Before he should’ve been. It was weird.”

“Bobby’s not totally gay, though,” Carina argued. “If you’ll remember—”

“Oh, I remember,” Nova said before she could finish. “Thanks for that, princess.”

“He says he does it with girls,” Carina went on. “He said—”

“He said they like to watch.” Nova lifted his head and looked at Carina. “He said sometimes they like to watch. Sometimes they liketo play.”

Carina frowned at her brother. “What are you talking about?”

“Bobby,” Nova clarified. “That’s what he said to you on the train, and Tino told him wrong crowd.”

Carina moved to pick up one of the pages of phone records, and Nova smacked her hand. She scowled at him. “What?”

“They’re organized. Stop being so twitchy.” Nova looked at another page, but suddenly it was like he wasn’t seeing it. “Tino said the same thing to you.” Nova pointed at Brianna. “On the train that night. He said he thought about you all the time. Every time. He pretends it’s you. It makes himplay better. Then he saidwrong crowdagain.”

“I don’t remember that,” Brianna argued. “Are you sure that’s what he said?”

Nova tilted his head and gave her an annoyed look. “Even if I’m not paying attention, I still remember it. Yes, I’m sure.”

“Who’s the right crowd, then?” Carlo asked all of them since they were sitting in a semicircle on the floor in the apartment over the garage. “And what’s he playing?”