Page 70 of The Enforcer

He screwed up the sound somehow, which he figured out by testing it with the DVD they had left in the player when they brought it over from East Harlem, but Mary told him they didn’t need sound.

So he put the VHS tape into the slot and then fucked with the controls to switch from DVD. He was so focused on just getting the technical stuff right he actually shouted when he saw the grainy black-and-white footage of a jail cell on the television.

That by itself wasn’t shocking.

But seeing Romeo was.

Tino had just been crying over wanting to see him, but he didn’t want it to be like this. Through cell bars, sleeping on a tiny bed that was too small for his big frame.

Tino turned back to Mary in confusion. “Wha—”

“Watch.” She gestured to the screen. “You’ll miss the good part.”

Tino watched, even if he didn’t want to. When the guards came in and pulled out the clubs at their sides, Romeo sat up in bed.

Tino didn’t think he was ever going find out what Nova felt like that night in the basement, when he watched their father take a belt to Tino. Not until Carina’s mother forced Tino to put in a video that showed Romeo getting the shit beat out of him by two jail guards.

They didn’t hit his face, but they got him just about everywhere else.

And Romeo didn’t fight back.

He couldn’t.

Not when he was up for attempted murder on a police officer.

The footage was so grainy.

It was hard to tell how badly he was hurt.

All Tino could do was squint at the screen through his tears.

Then the guards left, and Tino found himself on his knees, holding on to the television as he watched Romeo pull himself off the floor and sit there with his head in his hands for a long time.

“He’ll be fine. Bruises heal,” Mary said dismissively. “They were just making an example.”

“Why?” Tino asked as he turned back to her, because he couldn’t understand why on earth they would do this to Romeo.

Romeo was a rule follower.

It was Tino and Nova who broke them.

“I can have him killed, Valentino,” she said simply, like she was talking about the weather. “I can have him tortured every day that he’s in there. I can sell him inside the prison system. As a matter of fact, I may anyway. It’s the least your whore of a mother owes me. Maybe I’ll use both of you.”

“Why would you do that to my brother?” he asked in disbelief. “Nova’s doing what the don said! We’re following the rules!”

“Why do I give a shit what the don wants?” she growled at him. “This is about me. It’s about the retribution owed to me. It’s about you two living in my house and going to school with my daughter, and everyone knowing where you came from. Your whore mother screwed my husband and humiliated me in the process. I’m owed something for that. Since she’s fucking dead, someone else has to pay the debt.”

“Nova’s paying it,” Tino assured her as he gestured to the door. “He’s paying it like a motherfucker.”

“Are you stupid? I already told you I’m not interested in Nova. I want you.” She pointed at Tino with one perfectly manicured nail. “You’re bankable. You’re usable. You look like your whore of a mother because youarea whore. Aren’t you?”

Tino’s mind blanked.

For one long minute, he just looked at this tiny woman who had given birth to his sister, and tried to understand.

It would take him years to recognize that the reason he didn’t understand was because it was something too horrible to comprehend, so for a short time, his brain tried to protect him.

Mary sighed in annoyance and put her crossword puzzle back in her purse. “Look, Valentino, you’re a little slow, but that’s okay. You don’t need to be smart. There’s room for everyone in this business as long as you’re pretty, and you arevery pretty.” She leaned back and looked at him. “So I’ll make it simple. You do what I tell you, and your brother doesn’t get fucked by every guard in that jail and sold to every inmate when he gets convicted and sent to prison. You don’t do what I tell you—your brother’s life will be a living hell, and I’ll still find a way to sell you. There’s always a way.”