Page 188 of The Enforcer

But the payoff was worth it.

The buildup was so long. The release took everything from her, and when it was over, she wound up curled into Tino’s arms, sleeping under his thousand-dollar sheets while he stroked her hair.

Brianna slept hard, dreamlessly, when usually she was restless. She was a naturally light sleeper, maybe from too many nights at the don’s mansion or at Carina’s house, but right then she felt very safe.

Very stable.

As if nothing in the world could hurt her.

Like bullets would just bounce off her because Tino was there. Enforcers could do that. Everyone at the don’s mansion relaxed when Carlo was there. Parties felt a little more festive. The don always laughed more, like bullets would just bounce off him if Carlo was protecting him.

If the grim reaper was on their side, then for the moment, they were invincible. It was a dumb idea, but they all sort of needed it.

* * * *

It was dark by the time she woke up.

She could hear the partiers outside the walk-up, heading off to whatever club was happening that week. They were loud. Laughing. Making it obvious they probably did shots before they left, in the name of thriftiness.

Brianna’s eyes were heavy, and she had to blink several times before she realized Tino wasn’t against her, but she still sensed him somehow. Guarding her. Creating that safe feeling that was so addictive in their world. She rolled over to find him wearing only jeans, sitting in the middle of an impressive spread of Chinese food.

He ate noodles with chopsticks out of the container but stopped when he saw her. “I didn’t know what you’d like. You’re so weird about food.”

“None of it.” She winced as she watched him eat. “Chinese is the worst. I don’t know how you and Carina eat as much of it as you do and stay so perfect. It should be physically impossible. Do you know how much MSG is in this?”

“I made sure none of it has MSG.”

“That has MSG,” she said as she pointed to his container. “I know it does.”

“This is mine,” he reminded her with a look. “’Cause I like it. MSG rocks my world.”

Brianna sat up and then started opening folded white boxes and plastic containers. She found steamed vegetables and pulled the lid off a container of brown rice while Tino unwrapped her chopsticks. He even got the splinters off for her, breaking them apart and rubbing them together several times before he handed them to her.

She took a bite of the broccoli and nodded.

“Good?” Tino asked hopefully.

“Yeah,” she decided as she looked in the rest of the boxes. “There’s not any good protein, though.”

“I bought at least five things with protein.”

“It’s all got sugar in it. Look at this.” She held up a box of sweet-and-sour chicken. “There’s like five thousand calories in that. I’ll feel that for a week.”

“Oh, that one’s mine too.” He took it back and put it in a white container pile of food sins next to him.

“You should not be able to eat like this,” she mumbled, because he was about as physically perfect as a man could be, sitting there in only jeans, with those rock-hard abs on display and the edges of his Omertà tattoo showing. “This is totally unfair.”

“I’m sorry, baby.” Tino leaned over and kissed her. “I’ll enjoy it for both of us.” He dug into the sweet-and-sour chicken and dipped it into a container of red sauce that was basically a pool of artificially colored sugar, because like Carina, Tino seemed to gravitate toward anything sweet. He looked up when she just sat there watching him. “Am I not supposed to eat this? Am I supposed to only eat broccoli and brown rice and unseasoned chicken now?”

“I season it,” she said defensively.

“Okay.” Tino soaked another sweet-and-sour chicken in the red sauce but then glanced back at her before he put it in his mouth. “I’ll stop eating it. I’d eat brown rice for you. Even though I fucking hate brown rice. I’ll eat it every day.”

“No, it’s okay.” She shrugged. “I live with Carina. I’m used to it. It just defies the laws of physics. You don’t feel it when you’re at the dojo the next day? Even when you’re training really hard?”

“Nope.” He shook his head. “I feel great at the dojo. I’m a god of the dojo.”

“You don’t feel it at work?”