Page 42 of The Enforcer

“They’re temporary,” Tino pointed out.

“I have to be seen in public with you.” Nova sounded a little manic, as if he was on the verge of losing his lunch again. “We have to go back to Harlem and get our shit.”

“They come off after a few showers,” Carina said with the authority of a girl who knew.

“Oh, great.” Nova laughed, though there was no humor in it as he jerked the door closed so hard the frame shook. “That’s gonna be so easy with a cast.” He stormed over to the two of them, the anger pulsing off him so potently Carina shrank back. “What part ofstay the fuck outdid you not get, baby guinea?”

Carina lifted her chin, her dark eyes narrowed, and she did a damn good job of hiding the hurt.

Tino still grabbed the crutch resting against the couch and swung it like a bo staff. It was awkward, but the bo staff was one of his stronger skill sets. Nova crashed like a ton of bricks between them, the papers under his arm flying everywhere.

Then, just because Tino had his own reasons to be pissed off at Nova, he kicked him in the head.

With his cast.

Holy shit!

Tino nearly blacked out from the pain. Then Nova jerked his good foot, forcing Tino onto his back so fast it knocked the air out of him. Carina grabbed a bowl of water and threw it at Nova to stop him.

“Cazzo!” Nova forgot about Tino and jumped to save his papers, most of which were dripping wet. He held one up, staring at it with wide eyes. “This was a power of attorney.”

Carina looked at it in horror. “That sounds important.”

“Do you know what I went through today?” Nova screamed at her. “Do you know what I had to do to get this? Do you haveanyconcept how hard it was to get in to see my brother in lockup without a guardian and have him sign these? GET OUT!”

Carina didn’t have to be told twice. She got up and ran for the door. She left her supplies behind, but Nova made sure she had them when he tossed the entire box after her.

By the time Nova got back, Tino had mostly caught his breath and was about to tell him what a ginormous asshole he was, but then Nova did something Tino hadn’t seen him do since the day they took Ma’s dead body away.

He fell down on his knees in the middle of that storage-filled room. Face in his hands, he let out a sob. Then he just bent in half and pressed his forehead against the floor, his entire body quaking from the pain as if he had waited until right now to let it loose. So Tino did the only thing he could think of. He forgot about his broken foot and Nova being a ginormous asshole and crawled over to his brother.

Nova grabbed him. He buried his face against Tino’s shoulder and cried like their mother had just died all over again. Which made Tino cry. She’d only been dead a year, and the wound was still very fresh.

Plus, he hadn’t slept in a long time.

And he hadn’t eaten since the Jell-O in the hospital.

He knew it was bad, but it wasn’t until Nova finally choked out in Italian, “He’s going to prison. There’s no way we’re getting him off,” that Tino understood why his brother had puked in the street. Nova was still shaking, as if the guilt was seizing his muscles. “His life is ruined. I’m poison. It’s my fault.”

If Tino had an ounce of self-preservation, he would’ve shoved Nova away, because it wasn’t a lie. Romeo was going to prison for trying to keep Nova out of the mafia. His life was pretty fucking shredded.

Turned out, Romeo was the lucky brother.

They just didn’t know it yet.

Chapter Eleven

Thanks to his photographic memory, Nova could do this neat trick.

He could look at something and tell Tino how many there were.

There are forty thousand two hundred seventy-six people in this stadium.

There are two hundred twenty-seven cars in that parking lot.

There are nine hundred seventy-eight temporary tattoos on your body.

Considering there were only four left in the box when Nova got home, Tino used his kick-ass math skills to determine that Carina had run to the castle on the other side of the pool with one thousand eighteen temporary tattoos on her arms, legs, and face.