Page 30 of The Enforcer

“I’m sorry. I fell asleep and—”

“Where are you?” Nova asked before she could finish.

“Where areyou?” she countered when she remembered that Tino had stopped here only because Nova hated it.

“I’m already home.”

She sighed. “That’s unfortunate.”

Brianna considered finding her own way home. She looked to the money again, noticing for the first time a hotel envelope underneath it. She pulled it out and stared at Tino’s messy scrawl.

King

“There’s a note here. To King,” she said as she studied it. “Is that you?”

“It’s possible.” Nova sounded disturbed at the reference. “What does it say?”

“It’s in an envelope.” She flipped it over. “It’s sealed.”

“Open it.”

Brianna slid her finger underneath the flap and pulled it open. She unfolded the letter and stared at it long enough that Nova growled in her ear, “Well?”

She blinked past the tears and finally read it to him.

King,

Endgame.

Protect my queen at all costs. I’m not you. I still need her to win.

Pawn

“Fuck.” Nova’s voice was tight, as if that note had cut him, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it. “Where are you, princess?”

“I’m in West Virginia,” she admitted with a wince.

“Of course you are.” He let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “It makes a special moment between us even more memorable. Gimme the address.”

Brianna read the address off the top of the hotel stationery and gave him the room number. Then she looked at the note, knowing it was code, one that obviously had to do with her, much to Nova’s displeasure.

“Do you know what it means?” Brianna understood part of it, but she’d never heard Tino talk about a king in chess until now. Queens and pawns, yes, but not a king, and something about it bothered her as much as it clearly got to Nova. “I know I’m probably the queen, but—”

“You’re a smart girl, Brianna,” he said rather than answer her. “You just sit there and wait for me. Don’t open the door. Don’t look out the window.You just sit.”

“For eight hours?”

“For as long as it takes me to get there.”

The phone went dead without an explanation.

Chapter Eight

East Harlem (El Barrio), New York

July 2002

“First rule, if you lose your king, it’s game over. You protect your king. If you leave him vulnerable, then that’s it. You lose.”