Page 17 of The Enforcer

Tino arched an eyebrow at that. “Do you care?”

“Not particularly.” She couldn’t help the wince. “But I know you do.”

“He’s probablynotokay,” Tino answered with a sigh. “In fact, I’m almost positive he’s right behind us. That’s why I figured West Virginia would be a good place to stop.”

Brianna frowned. “What’s the significance of West Virginia?”

“We’re about twenty miles out from where Romeo and Jules got caught by the Borgata.” Tino said it quietly, but the impact was huge. “It’s where—”

“Nova killed your father,” Brianna finished for him.

“Yeah.” Tino nodded. “West Virginia is the last place in the world Nova would wanna stop. He nearly went down here. He won’t talk about getting arrested, but I know it wasn’t pleasant. West Virginia, can you imagine? The only place worse would be—”

“Kentucky.” Brianna laughed and then had to ask, “Did you hate it there?”

“Nah, it’s okay.” He laughed with her. “Actually, I’ve been arrested in Kentucky. Just the other week. And it’s been a wild ride ever since. I guess it was a bad omen.”

“What did you get arrested for?” Brianna couldn’t hide the catch of fear in her voice. “Are you out on bond? Were you allowed to leave?”

“He didn’t charge us. I know the sheriff. He’s my sister-in-law’s twin brother. We’re all pretty tight. Wyatt just had to arrest us because me and my friend Chu were fighting in public.”

“Oh.” Brianna tried to process all of that but decided to give up. “Why were you fighting with your friend?”

“He said I looked like I was from Jersey.”

Brianna scowled. “Nice friend.”

“I sorta had it coming.”

“Well.” Brianna gave him a smile. “I don’t find that too terribly hard to believe.”

Tino snorted in amusement. “Thanks, baby.”

Brianna took a deep breath, shocked by the endearment and how naturally it still came to him. She was fairly certain she was mad at Tino, but she wasn’t too sure why.

Had he really done anything except abandon his family and friends to save her from a mafia hit?

“Tino—”

“Bri, no,” he cut her off before she could say anything, as if he heard a lifetime of pain and need in that one word. “You’re supposed to be sitting there thinking about what an asshole I am for taking you with me.”

She pulled back in surprise. “Is that what I was supposed to be doing for the past five hours?”

“Yes.” Tino looked at her as if he thought it was obvious.

“You’re stupid, Tino,” she huffed. “Really stupid.”

“Ditto, Brianna,” he snapped back. “You probably deserve an award for bad life choices.”

It wasn’t like she could argue with that.

So she just held up a hand and flipped him off as she went back to being silent.

After a while, they pulled into one of those small travel stops off the interstate, which was unnervingly empty now that it was dark.

Tino was predictably careless of imminent death at a mostly abandoned, super creepy travel stop as he turned on the dome light. He played with the GPS, searching for a place to stay. Then, after he found a spot and programmed it in, he turned to her. “We need to pool our supplies. What have you got with you?”

Brianna reached down and grabbed the travel bag. She handed it to him without saying anything, because she was still pissed off.