Page 34 of The Enforcer

Nova shook his head, still staring at Tino’s ankle. “I—”

“Moretti?”

They looked up when a woman stepped off the curb, eyeing both of them hesitantly. This wasn’t their usual social worker, and she clarified, “Casanova and Valentino Moretti?”

“Yeah.” Nova wiped at his bleeding nose again. He went ahead and wiped it on his pants, but it just made him look worse, with a big red smear of blood down the side of his white pants. “How, um, how did you know?”

Nova seemed casual, but Tino could hear the panic in his voice.

“Have you been attacked?”

“What?” Nova asked, still sounding disoriented.

“You’re bleeding. Has someone attacked you?” The social worker took another cautious step toward him, before glancing back to the police who came up behind her, hands on their guns.

Nova watched Jorgie and Paco make their way quietly back to their apartments. Then he stared down at Tino’s leg again and took a deep breath, as if searching for an explanation.

“I was trying to get Tino to play chess,” Nova started. “He’s, uh, he’s ADHD. The counselor at school told my brother Romeo that Tino’s supposed to be working on focusing his attention in a positive manner and—”

“Then why are you bleeding?” one of the cops asked.

Nova winced, glancing at Tino hesitantly, and rightfully so, because he knew Tino was pissed as hell. Nova had the world’s biggest brain, and the only thing he could come up with wasMy brother’s ADHD, so it’s his fault.

It didn’t matter that in this case, itwasTino’s fault.

And the ADHD probably didn’t help.

Nova was supposed to have his back.

“He wanted to go out and play basketball. But it’s midnight, so I chased him. When he jumped, I fell trying to catch him.”

Tino felt his face heat, and he glared at Nova. “I hate you.”

“He jumped?” the social worker asked in horror.

At the same time Nova whispered to Tino in Italian, “I’m sorry.”

“Where did he jump from?” one of the cops ask.

Nova looked to the first-story landing. All the adults on the street glanced up, their mouths hanging open in shock. It was a pretty impressive jump. Tino was sure he looked badass doing it. Now he wished someone had taken a video of it.

He wouldn’t mind seeing a replay.

“Are you okay?”

“What?” Tino looked back to the social worker, who still seemed completely horrified. “Sure, I guess.”

“No,” Nova cut in. “He’s not okay.” He raised his eyebrows at Tino. “You’re not okay.”

“Oh, right.” Tino looked back to his foot. Jesus, his ADHD was hanging out all over the place, but he was stressed the hell out. He felt like his brain had fractured and gone in a million different places. It was the social worker’s fault, and he couldn’t help but snap at her, “Why are you here?”

“Your brother Romeo had an issue,” the social worker said as she walked up to Tino and tilted her head to study him. “Are you hurt?”

“What sort of issue?” Nova asked. “Where is he?”

“Let’s focus on this brother,” the social worker said in a soothing voice. “We’re here to help you now.”

“Where is he? Where’s Romeo?” Nova asked again, the sharp edge of panic in his voice. “We’ll go with you without arguing, but you have to tell us where he is.”