Page 60 of The Enforcer

“Hey, guineas!”

Tino and Nova stopped in the parking lot for several long heartbeats.

“What is it with theguineathing?” Tino asked his brother without turning around, because he knew it was the blond from the office. “What is their fucking hang-up?”

“I don’t know, but I’m about over it. These bitches are gonna make me lose my temper,” Nova growled when they started walking again. “I’m having a bad fucking month.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry for your bad month, Casanova.” Tino snorted. “That must be really painful for you.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’m about to scratch my skin off. My back itches so fucking bad. Can I smoke in the car?”

“Yeah, sure.” Nova pulled the keys to Romeo’s ’78 Camaro out of his pocket. “Maybe we’ll get arrested.”

“That worked out really well for Romeo.”

“Good point.” Nova opened the door and tossed the admission folders from the school on the dash. “Get in before I beat these fuckers following us.”

“Did you hear me?” the big blond called out again.

“What is your problem?” Tino asked, because really, he couldn’t believe their persistence. “Don’t you have something else to fucking do with your last week of summer?”

“We don’t like ghetto trash in our school. You think any real mafiosi wants to see you here? You think any of us wants to look at you and know where you came from?”

“We would love to take our bastardi, guinea asses back to East Harlem.” Tino turned around on his crutches and glared at the two blond, preppy Italians when they came up to the car. “Lemme know how you can hook us up with that, since you’re so fucking special.”

“Simple. Pack up your shit and go back to the hood rat bitch of a mother you left in the gutter. No one wants you here.”

“What did you say?” Nova’s voice was low and threatening as he took a step forward. “’Cause it sounded like you just called my dead mother ahood rat bitch.”

They both seemed to pause at that, because the violence pulsing off Nova was tangible. Nova did have a hard month, and he hadn’t exactly had an outlet for the anger. Tino and Nova hadn’t been to the dojo since Romeo got arrested, when usually they were there most every day after school.

Tino wasn’t really surprised by the sucker punch.

Nova seemed to be favoring those lately. Just flat-out trying to kill a motherfucker. This time he slammed his fist into the nose of the one with a mouth, and the splatter of blood was impressive. His friend tried to jump at Nova, but Tino used his crutch as a makeshift bo staff.

He didn’t feel too guilty when the guy crashed to the asphalt.

Then Tino stood there on his crutches, watching his brother work off a shitty month’s worth of anger until the school officials came running out to break up the fight.

Tino expected them to call the cops, because this wasn’t a playful fistfight. It was a bloody, dirty one, like the gangster street fights back home, and it had been painfully one-sided.

Nova had been heavily involved in martial arts since he was five.

These assholes had no chance.

And he was old enough to get into some serious shit for it.

Hell, Romeo was up for attempted murder for using his martial-arts skills to defend himself.

The school just called everyone’s parents instead.

Except Frankie couldn’t be fucked with the problem. So his pop showed up and cleaned up the mess for him, which Tino was starting to suspect was pretty typical.

“What is the problem? Why am I even here?” Aldo Moretti’s voice echoed through the office. “They insulted his dead mother. Why is everyone so friggin’ shocked he took it personal?”

Nova just sat in the chair in the corner, completely unscathed, running his fingers through his hair. His leg was bouncing, making it obvious the fight still had adrenaline pumping through his system.