Page 176 of The Enforcer

Tino laughed. “We should form a union.”

“We should.” Carlo laughed harder. “We need to talk to Nova about that.”

“Yeah, go call Zu. He’s the one you’d be fighting for the benefits.”

“Then forget it.” Carlo shook his head. “We’d lose. Nobody wins against Nova.”

“Nope,” Tino agreed, not knowing why he thought of his father’s basement. Why did it flash back at him at the worst possible times? “Not usually.”

* * * *

“Holy Mother of God, I would have a dozen of his babies.”

Brianna laughed as she flipped the page of her choreography book and took a bite of her banana. She’d started grazing more instead of eating big meals, trying to get the most nutrition she could out of each bite to keep her body strong, because she couldn’t afford to get injured.

“Forget dancing.” Miranda, one of the girls Brianna had met at dance camp over the summer, sighed. “I wanna be his full-time love slave.”

“Yeah, you’ll probably have competition for that.” Aaron nudged Brianna’s shoulder as they sat in the cafeteria. “Hey, your boy’s here.”

Brianna looked up at Aaron. “Huh?”

He pointed across the cafeteria. “Might wanna save him before Miranda pounces.”

Brianna followed his gaze and then ended gaping like Miranda was, banana paused midair as Tino made his way across the cafeteria. His motorcycle helmet was in his hand, sunglasses hid his eyes, and he was wearing the black-leather-jacket-jeans-and-boots combo she was starting to suspect was as much an enforcer uniform as suits and ties were for the rest of Cosa Nostra.

His shoulders appeared even broader than usual,too broad, making her realize he’d come to her school packing heat. She gave him a wide-eyed look as he stopped in front of her. “Hi.”

Tino flinched, making it obvious he understood her shock. Then he pulled off his sunglasses and hooked them on his shirt.

“Introduce your friend, Bri.” Miranda slid down in her chair and used her long dancer legs to kick out the empty one on the other side of Brianna. “Take a load off.”

“This is Tino. Tino, this is Miranda. She’s a first-year dance major like me. You know Aaron.” Brianna pulled the chair out farther and gestured to it. “Sit. I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“Hi, Miranda.” Tino nodded in greeting at Miranda and sat, looking a little disoriented, which wasn’t like him. He glanced for half a second at Aaron and said, “Hey,” before he turned back to Brianna. “I was actually hoping you could take off for the rest of the day.”

“Is everything okay?” Brianna gave him another wide-eyed look, because Tino showing up in full-on enforcer mode, antisocial and intimidating, was scary to her in a way it wasn’t to the rest of the table. For all she knew, some sort of mafia war had broken out, and he was here to pull her underground. “Where’s Carina?”

“Oh, shit, she’s fine.” Tino looked down at himself and flinched again. “Everything’s okay.”

“You know Bri’s friend Carina?” Miranda asked from across the table, completely oblivious to their real conversation.

“Yeah.” Tino gave Miranda a look, like she was annoying white noise. “She’s my sister.”

“No shit,” Miranda mumbled, raising her eyebrows as she let her gaze run over Tino. “So it’s TinoMoretti, then?”

“That’s what my driver’s license says.” Tino said it lightly, but there was a tenseness to him that made Brianna defensive.

“Exciting,” Miranda decided for the table.

“Excuse you,” Brianna snapped with a look of disgust. “You said that out loud.”

“It’s okay.” Tino still sounded haunted, out of place, an enforcer who wasn’t supposed to be social, rather than the fun-loving guy he was for clubs and parties. “She’s not the only one to think that.”

“We’re going now.” Brianna tossed her banana on Aaron’s tray and shoved her book into her bag with shaking hands before she said something she couldn’t take back three months into school. She was still out of place and trying to find her footing, because these kids were nothing like the ones at St. Francis. It was like she’d landed on another planet with a completely different set of rules than she grew up with, and she’d been looking for nice, normal friends to help her blend, but she decided right then Miranda wasn’t her friend anymore. “Come on, Tino.”

“I want details,” Miranda said without apology.

Brianna surged across the table and smacked Miranda before she could stop herself, angry, open-palmed against her smug face, hard enough to make Carina proud when her head snapped to the side from the force of Brianna’s anger.