Page 39 of The Enforcer

He wasn’t real sure how Nova was going to fix this shit storm, but Tino wished he’d hurry up and do it. In the meantime, Tino was hoping to find out more about the sister he didn’t know.

“Asshole,” he called out again, this time in English, but was met with nothing but silence.

Tino kicked the door closed, already sick of these fucking crutches. This room had to be used as a storage area. There were mattresses everywhere, shoved up against the walls, and so many boxes the whole place smelled like mildewed cardboard.

Where the hell were they supposed to sleep? Tino found a room off the kitchen and pushed the door open, seeing one bedroom, with a bed in the corner and a bathroom.

He shrugged at that, figuring it was workable.

Truth again.

He and Nova slept in the same bed until their ma died.

Two bedrooms, three boys. They had one of those bunk beds that was bigger on the bottom. Romeo slept on top; Tino and Nova slept on the bottom. Then when Romeo moved into their mother’s room after she was gone, Tino slept on top.

Nova lost that fucking bet.

Closer to the ground meant closer to the rats.

Tino shuddered and looked around again. Thousand bucks said the only rats in Dyker Heights were in this room.

“Penso che tuo fratello sia uno stronzo.”

Tino turned around, seeing the girl from the fence standing at the front door. He frowned at her, ’cause how could he not? She had on one of those expensive designer dresses Tino saw on the girls uptown, like their parents brought home living dolls from the hospital instead of kids.

Except her socks didn’t match—one was a blinding shade of yellow; the other was bright pink, which in no way matched with the pale blue dress she was wearing. It came down to midknee, which was a poor choice on her mother’s part. The ink looked like it’d been rubbed at a lot, but Tino could still see the giant peace signs she’d drawn on each kneecap.

“Io lo odio,” she said slowly, raising her eyebrows. “E odio anche te.”

Tino laughed. “You don’t even know me. Hating me already?”

The girl looked so shocked he wondered if she tried her little trick on Nova. Tino was sure that went over fantastic, because though he could understand her, her words were stilted and broken. It was obvious her Italian was a work in progress.

“I speak Italian,” he said simply in Italian, speaking slow so she could understand him. “So does my brother. That’s all we speak at home.”

He left out that was all they spoke until his ma died.

“Oh.”

She considered that, glancing down at her shoes that were also colored on with designs of hearts and flowers and peace symbols.

“My ma’s been drinking since he got here.” She lifted her head and stared at him with those dark Nova eyes. “You should stay away from her when she drinks.”

“I plan to stay away from herallthe time,” Tino assured her. “Do you know where my brother is?”

“He made my daddy sign a buncha papers. He said something about a lawyer and a car.” Carina scowled at Tino. “He’s a weird teenager.”

She didn’t know the half of it, but he didn’t trust her well enough to admit anything. He just pulled the pills out from the waistband of his pants where he’d stuck them, and tossed them on the bed.

“My name’s Carina,” she announced as she followed him in the bedroom.

“I heard.” Tino remembered their father saying it.

“What’s your name? Daddy didn’t say. I know your brother’s name is Casanova, but he didn’t tell me there was another one.”

“Valentino,” Tino said and then added, “Tino.”

“Well, which one is it?”