Page 196 of The Enforcer

“What?” Tino laughed. “I thought it was romantic. You don’t think it’s romantic?” When Carina didn’t answer him, Tino shrugged. “That’s funny, ’cause your best friend told me it was romantic.”

“That better not be true,” Carina growled at both of them. She lifted her head, looking past Tino to Brianna. “Is that fucking true?”

Brianna sucked on her Popsicle, contemplating it, because a few days ago the most she could get out of Tino was the idea of keeping it a secret. This felt like a good thing, so she agreed, “Yes, it’s true,” and then gave Carina a devious smile. “I thought it wasveryromantic.”

Tino cracked up, like he couldn’t have planned it better. He sounded so genuinely happy. Brianna didn’t care about anything else in the world and just laughed with him.

Even if Carina was glowering at them.

Neither of them cared.

“That’s where you fucking went the other day!” Carina shouted at her. “Aaron’s dorm, my ass. You bitch! I can’t believe you lied to me!”

“You’ll be okay,” Tino said dismissively, still chuckling, and turned back to Brianna. “Anyway, what were you gonna yell at me about?”

“I was gonna yell at you?” she asked, because in that moment, with the amusement still dancing in his dark eyes, she couldn’t love him more if she tried.

“Sounded like it.” Tino gave one of those wide, heart-stopping grins of his. “Used my full name and everything.”

“Oh.” She remembered now, and even if they were sharing a moment, she did have to scowl at him. “Did you go to my school?”

“Yeah, I went to your school the other day,” Tino said without flinching. “You saw me do it.”

“No, did you go there without me? Did you go talk to some people?”

“If I went to your school, I wouldn’t have been talking.Figli di puttana,” Tino cursed with a scowl. “Why?”

Brianna kept her eyes narrowed. “’Cause they called me into the office and apologized.”

“So what’s the problem?” Tino sucked on his Popsicle again. “Least they could fucking do.”

“And they upped my scholarship money. That doesn’t happen, Tino. I know you had something to do with it,” Brianna accused him, because she hadn’t thought he was going to run with that little promise over something like this. “I know it was you. You’re the only one I told.”

“Maybe they just came to their senses,” Tino suggested. “Everyone knows it’sunwiseto mess with our Borgata. Someone could’ve clued them in.”

“Yeah, maybe, except then Miranda came up and apologized too, like kissing-my-ass apologized.” Brianna couldn’t keep the dismay out of her voice, even when Tino turned to look at her in what seemed like genuine shock. “I could tell she was scared to death. What did you do to her?”

“I didn’t do anything to her.” Tino sounded horrified. “You think I went to your school and threatened some WASP-y girl from Southern California? I wouldn’t do that. I have complete confidence that you can handle that shit on your own. You could take that Miranda puttana in your sleep.”

Brianna paused, because now that he said it, the idea did sound ridiculous.

“Huh,” Brianna mumbled and sucked on her Popsicle again. “Well, you and Carina are the only ones I told.”

Tino arched an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.

“Oh my God!” Brianna shouted and brought her legs down, doing a somersault off the couch and looked toward the kitchen, because Carina had disappeared. “Carina!”

“That bitch ratted on you,” Carina said as she came out of the kitchen. “She ratted you out to the authorities. She’s lucky I didn’t fucking bury her.”

“It’s not the authorities. It’s just a school. This isn’t life-and-death. Even if I got kicked out, who cares? I can still work. There’s a million gypsy jobs on Broadway. You can’t just go cut some outsider because they ratted on me.”

Carina shrugged and looked away. “I didn’tactuallycut her. I might have had a discussion about cutting—”

“Did you tell the administrators you’d cut them too?” Brianna shouted. “Did you go into their office and scare them into giving me more money?”

Carina arched an eyebrow and looked toward the couch, as if considering it, and then shrugged again. “Sure.”

“How much money did you get?” Tino asked curiously.