Page 48 of The Enforcer

“No blood. Nice and neat. The high heat cauterizes it,” Frankie went on as if he were talking about the weather. “Keeps them alive longer.”

Tino scooted back, trying to get away from the black marks. Then he turned around, searching for a fucking blowtorch. He found it hanging on the wall behind him.

That moment when you realize your father isn’t just a drug-dealing asshole, but also a sadistic murderer.

Not too many people can say they know whatthatfeels like.

“Do you know what the punishment is for hitting a made man?” Frankie growled in Nova’s ear. “Someone’s gotta die for it.”

“You kill him. You hurt him. You eventouchhim,” Nova rasped, his voice quivering despite the fury. “I’ll eat a bullet. I swear to God, Tino dies, I’ll kill myself.”

“You still got another brother in jail,” Frankie reminded him. “You die and I’ll rent him out. I’ll get my money one way or the other. Then I’ll sell him to the Brambinos once he gets out. The underground sex trade is such a nasty business. How much do you think Romeo will fetch?”

Nova looked over Tino’s shoulder at the blowtorch, and then he swallowed hard, as if he might be sick. Thank God he didn’t puke again. Instead he whispered, “What do you want? Just tell me what you want. You want me to run your fucking scheme and launder your money.Fine.”

“I want more than that now. You disrespected me in front of my crew. No one disrespects me.”

“I respect you,” Nova said quickly. “I’m fucking stressed out. I’m not handling this well, but I respect you, okay?”

“I want you to grovel.” Frankie wrenched Nova’s head back and got in his face again. “I want you to cry. I want you to lose all that fucking arrogance. I want you to be my bitch. That’s what I want.”

“It’s gone,” Nova assured him, and Tino believed him because he was shaking. “I promise. It’s gone.”

“No, it’s not, but it will be.” Frankie picked up Nova’s shirt, shoving at his face. “Eat it.”

Tino had to give Nova credit. He shoved the shirt in his mouth without complaint. Then he knelt there and closed his eyes, his chest rising and falling harder.

“We’re gonna play a game. You like games, don’tcha, champ? Five-to-one odds.” Frankie tugged at his belt, unbuckling it. He pulled it free from his pants. “For every one you take, Tino wins five. If he lives, we’ll give him a pass. If he dies, the debt is paid. As long as you play along, your brother Romeo will do just fine in prison. If not, things could get very uncomfortable for him in there.”

Nova jerked in shock. He pulled the shirt out of his mouth and turned back to their father.

“Ten to one.” Frankie raised his eyebrows before Nova could say anything. “Say another word, and I’ll get the blowtorch. It’s your choice, but I promise you, he’s not living through it if we get out the blowtorch.”

Tino’s heartbeat was nothing but awhoosh, whoosh, whooshin his brain.

At some point, he’d curled up into himself, hands wrapped around his legs, as Nova whispered, “Oh my God,” and shoved the shirt back in his mouth.

Then Nova folded his arms over his chest, maybe to hide the shake in them.

Truth.

Tino and Nova didn’t grow up in one of those houses where kids got time-out. When they fucked up, they felt it. They weren’t pampered. They really couldn’t be, not where they came from. Babying them would’ve hurt them. They needed thicker skin, and they had it. They could both take a beating.

When that belt hit Nova, buckle side up, the look on his face, the way his eyes went wide, it was like he couldn’t believe how much it hurt.

The second hit had Nova on his hands and knees.

Tino wasnotgoing to be able to do this. He certainly wasn’t pulling it off and maintaining any sort of street cred and pride. He wasn’t going to be kneeling there on his hands and knees and just taking it.

Truth again.

Nova wasnotnormal.

Granted, that was a given. He was a freak by default and most everyone picked up on it pretty fast, but there were little things to his weirdness that only people who lived with him his whole life knew about.

What Tino knew and these motherfuckers didn’t was that Nova had an insanely high pain tolerance. As in, something-wrong-with-his-brain, not-feeling-things-like-a-normal-person type of issue.

Tino asked him once if that affected his jacking off, ’cause yeah, he was curious and he was twelve, and that was sorta what he spent most of his time thinking about before his life went to hell.