Page 173 of The Enforcer

“If it’s her thing, who am I to begrudge her,” Tino went on as his phone beeped in his pocket. He pulled it out, seeing that it was a message from Carlo, who borrowed neighborhood teenagers’ phones to text since he was old-school and hated cells. “Gotta go, kids. It’s been fun.”

“It’s eight in the morning,” Romeo said in disbelief. “You’re getting booty calls before noon?”

“There’s no wrong time for a booty call.” Tino grabbed Romeo’s face and tugged him down to kiss his forehead. “Ti voglio bene.” Then he reached out and hit Nova’s shoulder. “I gotta go down and grab my helmet from your place.”

“I’ll walk you,” Nova said.

“What about breakfast?” Romeo asked.

“I’ll take it with me and eat it on the way down.”

Tino ended up holding a plate in the elevator, swallowing his breakfast whole in a way Romeo would definitely bitch about, as Nova stood silently beside him.

Tino was still eating as they walked down the hallway to Nova’s apartment, when his brother asked, “Was it true?”

Tino frowned at him. “Was what true?”

“The story?”

“That I met a girl at La Bomba? No. I was with Bri and Carina at La Bomba. I don’t pick up women when I’m working.” Tino took a bite of his bacon but then glanced back at Nova, who was standing there staring at him instead of opening the door. “What?”

“You tell it like it’s true,” Nova whispered. “You just lie like it’s easier than telling the truth.”

Tino held up his hand, because what did Nova expect from him? “You lie too, motherfucker.”

“Not like you.” Nova opened the door, clearly still miserable. “I’m not a different person for everyone. I’m still me. I just don’t tell them everything.”

Tino took a mental note not to knock Nova out again if it made him this sulky and introspective. Not exactly how he wanted to go out on a job. He was superstitious. It’d be his luck to get iced the one time he was fighting with Nova and leave his brother miserable for eternity.

“It was half-true, if that makes you feel better,” Tino said as he walked in. He went to the kitchen and stood there, quickly finishing his breakfast. “All of it’s half-true, Casanova. They’re not all lies.”

Nova shrugged. “What half?”

Tino smirked and looked up at him. “The coming-on-her-face part. That was true. I did know a chick who was into it. Didn’t even want sex. Oral. Nothing. All she wanted was that. I’ve done a lotta weird shit, but that was easily top ten.”

“When—” Nova shrugged again, obviously uncomfortable, because they didn’t talk about the past much. “With the Brambinos. For them.”

Tino nodded. “Yeah.”

“This woman paid you for that?”

“Well, she didn’t pay me. She paid someone.”

“It wasn’t—” Nova started, still looking uncomfortable. “Was it—” Nova looked away and nearly choked when he said, “It wasn’t Mary?”

“Are you fucking kidding?” Tino laughed. “Mary would lose her mind if someone came on her face. In her hair? She’s a freak about her hair. Madonn’, just talking about it makes my stomach hurt.No.No one is coming on Mary’s face. Not even Frankie. She’d cut it off in his sleep.”

Nova was silent for a moment before he said, “You never talk about what happened with Mary.”

“That’s by design,” Tino assured him as he took another bite of eggs.

“I know that you probably need therapy, Valentino. It’s unfair to you that you can’t have the same help we’ve gotten for Mei and Carla and the others, but I’ve been reading books, psychology books. So I thought maybe if you started talking to me—”

“No.” Tino cut him off with a stern look. “I’m never telling you what happened with Mary. That is a line we’re never crossing. So forget about it.”

“It’s about privacy. Your fucking hang-up over the shower?” Nova growled at him, making it obvious this was a subject he’d been trying to broach for a while. “You have no one else to talk to, Valentino, and I think you need to get it out. You’re angry. Youshouldbe angry, but who else do you have to talk to about it? How are you ever gonna heal from that?”

“I appreciate that. Truly,” Tino told him softly, and he did, because Nova gave a shit, and Tino had been stepped on for too long not to genuinely appreciate someone giving a shit enough to talk about something so uncomfortable. “But you couldn’t handle it.”