Page 116 of The Enforcer's Revenge

“Adesso,”Nova’s voice reverberated from beneath them.

They only heard it faintly, but he had to have said it pretty loud. Even if Brianna didn’t understand what he was saying, sheknewit was Nova. His tone was harsh and dangerous with warning, but the two of them still jerked a second later at theshout of raw panic that echoed up the laundry chute from the basement.

It was quickly cut off by a dull, sickening thud.

“That was Nova, right?” Brianna asked Carina in a terrified whisper.

“Yeah.” Carina was still trying to breathe in and out, but it sounded more like she was hyperventilating. “But who was screaming after?”

Brianna didn’t know, and she didn’t have to answer. The clank of something heavy and metal against cement had her falling silent once more. She was listening intently just as the laundry chute door far beneath them was opened.

Brianna held her breath and turned her head to better peer down the shaft. She couldn’t see the face of the person. The light from the basement was dim, but it looked like a man.

He picked up the phone Carina had dropped, and a blue light was suddenly cast over Nova’s features.

The damn thing hadn’t broken, it just landed face down. When Nova tilted his head up, using the phone to light up the laundry chute, Brianna still couldn’t see his face past the shadows.

But she could hear him as he let out a choked, “Cazzo,” when he saw what the cellphone light revealed.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Before Nova could say more, something made him jerk, and he wiped at his forehead with the quick, paranoid action of a man under attack. He stared at his fingers, using the phone to illuminate them.

Next, he shined the light toward the inside of the chute and choked out in horror, “Minchia, Carina?—”

“It’s not me,” Carina whispered quickly.

“It’s me.” Brianna sighed. “I think it was a nail.”

Nova was still shining the phone around the inside of the laundry chute, studying the dark stains against the tan wood. “This is a lotta blood for a nail. Where’d it get you?

“On the inside of my upper arm.”

“You have to come down.” Nova peered up at them again, the blue light making his features ominous and intimidating. “Right now.”

“There are Brambinos up here. It’s not the NYPD. It was a trick,” Brianna warned him fearfully. “We heard them in the closets.”

“I realize that. Do you know how many?”

“Like five or six at least.” Carina’s voice was still quivering, which showed exactly how terrified she was.

“That’s it?”

“That’s enough,” Carina barked incredulously. “We have no weapons. We dumped the whole house. We’re fucked.”

“We have weapons down here. We’re not fucked,” Nova said with the first piece of good news. “Grazie, bella.” He turned away for a second, then dropped something onto the bottom of the laundry chute. “We’re padding it just in case you slip. Start crawling down. Hurry.”

“I hear something.” Carmen’s voice echoed in warning from somewhere in the basement.

“Merda.” Nova had a brief moment of indecision before he said in a rushed whisper, “Carmen, help them. I’ll watch the door. Turn off the lamp again.”

The dim light from the basement went out. Nova set the phone down, leaving a beam of blue shining up at them. Carina’s face was cast in eerie shadows, but Brianna could see the whites of her eyes, wide and terrified in the darkness.

Still, Carina decided for both of them, “We’re doing this.”

Brianna nodded with her. “I’m not going down yet—not over a fucking nail.”

Carina let out a short, desperate sort of laugh and then jumped when the sound of gunshots resonated up from the basement. Brianna jumped with her, and for one long moment, they were both frozen in fear. Carina hugged Brianna tighter, her entire body shaking.