Page 127 of The Enforcer

“Maybeyoushould stay in the car,” Nova added, and he was staring dead at Carlo.

“Maybe you should,” Carlo countered as he glared at Nova.

“Maybe.” Nova shrugged. “He’s had that band on since he was twelve. Maybe Ishouldstay in the car, because I already feel like eating a fucking bullet, and I don’t even know why.”

There was dead silence in the car after that, and then Carina opened the door and got out, making the decision for all of them. After that brief pause, when reality felt too hard to deal with, they ended up running to the building.

This Lola had a doorman, but the weird thing was, he referred to her as Miss Lola.

No last name.

They might have ignored it, but when they all walked over to the corner, Nova asked Carlo, “Whatisher last name?”

Carlo looked at Nova for a long moment before he admitted, “I don’t know.”

“You’re gonna marry this girl, and you don’t know her last name?” Nova asked incredulously, his voice low enough that the doorman wouldn’t hear them.

“I haven’t asked yet,” Carlo corrected him. “It’s not a huge deal. She doesn’t know my last name either.”

“You sure about that?” Nova quirked an eyebrow at Carlo. He walked up to the doorman, who was calling up for Lola, to ask, “What’s her last name?”

The doorman just looked at all four of them, the phone in his hand, and then said something into the receiver in French.

Which was very slick of him.

Except Nova spoke French.

The doorman never answered the last-name question. He just said very politely, “Miss Lola is coming down.”

The doorman looked extremely disapproving as he said it, though.

But they didn’t argue. They just sat over in a corner, all four of them eyeing this man until he turned his back, and Carlo asked Nova, “What’d he say?”

“He said,‘Should I call your father?’” Nova whispered under his breath. “You probably should’ve asked her last name, strunzu.”

“She probably should’ve asked mine.” Carlo looked very hard all of a sudden, very angry as they all stared at the elevator and waited.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

So that was where they were at.

One dangerous enforcer/pissed-off uncle.

One powerful capo/freaked-out brother.

One near hysterical sorta ex-girlfriend.

And Carina.

The elevator dinged, and before any of them could do anything, Carina was up off the bench in the lobby. Brianna was temporarily stunned by the woman who stepped out because she was so incredibly beautiful. Like cover-model, movie-star, drop-dead-gorgeous, stop-in-the-middle-of-the-street-to-look-at kind of beautiful.

Her dark hair fell in long, tight curls that hung clear down to the middle of her back. She wore a long, flowing cream-colored dress that made her look like she was supposed to be on a yacht in the Caribbean. It was cut low, showing off an hourglass figure that really shouldn’t be normal because it made her look too perfect.

Maybe it wasn’t real, because if anyone looked like a kept woman, this one did.

“Where’s my brother, you plastic Barbie-doll bitch?” Carina growled in a voice shaking with fury.

Lola pulled back, looking down at Carina like she was one of those annoying, yappy dogs. Then she turned and arched an eyebrow at Carlo and Nova. “Who is her brother, and why does she think I care?”