Page 118 of The Enforcer's Revenge

When the other man started untying his shoes, Brianna turned back to watch Carmen help Carina down rather than have to see the man’s humiliation.

“Are you going to freak out?” Nova asked harshly.

Brianna glanced back when she realized Nova was talking to her. He gave her a side-eyed look with the gun still leveled at the gangster shoving his shirt in his mouth.

Brianna shook her head a little too quickly. “No.”

“Good, because you can’t freak out. It’s not an option at this point. Remember, they attacked us first. You think they’d care if you’re a woman? You think they’d cut you a break? ’Causethey wouldn’t. They came here to kill all of us.” Nova turned back to the guy and held up his left hand in disbelief. “Were the instructions too difficult?”

When the Brambino gangster kicked off his shoes and took off his pants, Brianna saw another gun strapped to his leg. A gold watch spilled out on the floor from one of his pockets, and Brianna realized he’d been the one robbing the Don’s closet upstairs. He didn’t even hesitate to unstrap the gun and hand it to Nova. It was easily the most uncomfortable, awkward exchange she had ever witnessed.

Brianna looked away again. This time, she spied the body lying on the floor on the other side of the stairs and whispered, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”

Now she knew where Nova got the weapons.

She turned away quickly from the dead man, but she saw enough. It looked like his skull was crushed. She found herself searching for whatever did that and spotted the fire extinguisher next to her.

It was still bloody.

She scooted away from it.

Brianna stared up at her best friend with wide eyes when she appeared in the cabinet next to the washer.

Carina met her gaze as she took in the carnage of the basement and said in a low, deadpan voice to her brother, “I see you’ve been doing your Zu thing down here. Feeling better?”

“No, princess, I’m not feeling better,” Nova countered without missing a beat. “I feel like fucking merda right now. Would you rather surrender because I might be game at this point?”

“I didn’t say we don’t appreciate the Zu thing,” Carina mumbled as she stepped around the bloody extinguisher. She sat next to Brianna and tilted her head to look at her arm. “Damn, Bri.”

“Is it gross?” Brianna asked fearfully, feeling a little self-absorbed, considering everything else going on.

“No,” Carina squeaked. “I think it’s just bleeding worse than it is.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Brianna hissed at her. “Are you lying to me right now? For real?”

Carina met Brianna’s narrowed gaze with a wince. “It’s pretty gross.”

“How gross? On a scale from one to ten?” Brianna pushed, thinking about her dancing career probably more than she should.

Carina grabbed her elbow and looked at it again. “Maybe a seven.” She studied the upper part of her bicep, obviously trying to get a better grasp of the situation. “It looks like there’s something?—”

Carina stopped talking at the sound of the elevator cranking down from above.

“There’s a guy in the garages,” Carina warned Nova quickly, as though only just thinking of it. “We heard them talking about him upstairs.”

“You didn’t think to tell me that?” Nova ran toward the elevator but stopped to point at the guy in the corner. “Carmen, watch him.”

Carmen didn’t need to be told twice. She pulled a gun from the back of her shorts and walked over to the gangster sitting there in his underwear with wide, terrified eyes.

She pointed it at him, but she kept glancing toward the elevator door. It looked like simple wood paneling, except for the grinding sound from the other side.

Nova stood against the wall. He kept his gun pointed at the closed door to the hidden elevator. He wore suit pants and the purple dress shirt, as though he got dressed very quickly when he heard them bust in upstairs. No tie. The shirt was unbuttoneddown to the third button, enough to see he was wearing a white undershirt beneath it.

Even with it, Nova was obviously still sweating.

Hard.

It glistened on his forehead and was staining his shirt.