Page 32 of The Enforcer

“And I’ll stop doing your math for you.” Nova was still speaking Italian, so close behind Tino could practically feel Nova at his heels as he went on, “You can help Romeo explain to the social worker why you’re failing it like a fucking champion next year.”

Well, fuck.

There was no way he was passing prealgebra without Nova.

He also wasn’t getting the ladder to the street down before Nova caught him, so he made a split-second, very stupid decision to crawl over the railing of the first-floor landing.

“Merda, no, no, no!” Nova’s tone changed from pissed off to frantic. “Valentino, don’t!”

“I dare you!” Paco called up as a whole group of kids stood there, eyes wide. “You don’t got the balls,cabrón!”

“Fuck!” Nova slid down the last flight and fell to his knees as he dived for Tino, but it was too late.

Tino jumped.

He made sure to make his knees soft when he landed, but Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, he hadn’t really stopped to consider just how far a fall it was and how hard a landing it was on cement.

He hit the curb but ended up on the street when his ankle gave out. Tino blinked up at Paco when he walked over to him, the basketball still under his arm as he whispered in awe, “You jumped.”

“Yup,” Tino groaned, street cred intact, feeling like his shins had just been shoved up into his brain and his ankle had exploded. He rolled over to his hands and knees. “One game.”

“One game, my ass,” Nova growled as he came down the ladder to the street. “Paco, you better run, you motherfucker!”

Tino caught the basketball when Paco dropped it, using it to hide the fact that he wasn’t all fired up to get to his feet. Instead he would just lie here with this ball and pretend the asphalt was his friend as he watched Nova tackle Paco, forcing him to the street.

“Someone should probably step in,” Tino mumbled when he saw Nova punch him, because Nova really shouldn’t be beating on someone in front of their building. “You know we got the social workers on our asses since we lost benefits.”

“Yeah, you step in.” Jorgie snorted.

“Really?” Tino held up his hand. “Did you see how far I just jumped?”

“Mymamátold me not to mess with Nova.” Jorgie shrugged as he avoided Tino’s glare. “He’s all yours, pendejo.”

“Cazzo.” Tino groaned and pulled himself to his feet. His ankle was on fire, and he was inclined to limp, but everyone was still watching.

The joys of living in El Barrio.

So he walked over slowly to save Paco, biting his tongue the whole time to hide the pain. Nova was cussing Paco out, mostly in Spanish. Nice of Nova to use someone’s own language when he kicked the shit out of them.

“Are you loco, Paco? You knew he’d jump! And youdaredhim!” Nova shouted and then jumped to his feet. “You don’t tell anItalianothey don’t got the friggin’ balls to do something!”

“I didn’t think he’d do it.” Paco rolled onto his back, not looking too terribly put out about the tackle as he grinned past Nova to Tino. “That was awesome, though.”

Nova jumped at him again, but Tino reached out and grabbed his arm. “Come on, Nova. I’m the one who did it.”

Nova turned on Tino and punched him, catching him off guard, nearly knocking him off his feet when he was still unstable. He was suddenly really scared to see his ankle. One punch and he was almost on his ass again.

Though he supposed he deserved the sucker punch.

“We don’t have any benefits, and you jumped?” Nova screamed at him in Italian. “What if you’d busted your ass, genius?”

What if?

Tinodidbust his ass.

Badly.

“Oye,” Jorgie called out to them, and Tino turned to see the white social-worker car they knew so well, followed by not one but two police cars.