Page 33 of The Enforcer's Revenge

“Seeing how Tampa is anything but cold, this sounds suspiciously like business,” Romeo warned. “That’s bad for all of us.”

Lola frowned and ignored Romeo by asking, “How cold is it?”

Nova looked at her over the rim of his sunglasses. “Ice cold.”

“Casanova,” Romeo warned again.

“It’s about protecting her sister, and this is all common knowledge anyway.” Nova took his sunglasses off and set the book on the table to the right of him. Then he leaned forward and stared pointedly at Lola, still wrapped in Carlo’s arms. “The De Lucas hold Tampa. It used to be their home base until their old don retired early?—”

“Retired how?” Brianna asked.

“Car bomb, killed him and his wife.” Nova winced. “But it didn’t take out his two sons, and there’s the problem. They stayed with their mother’s Cuban family in Florida. Now these motherfuckers are grown and building their own fucking empire. My guess is they have very little loyalty to their Siciliano side after their uncle stole the Don position,” Nova clarified with raised eyebrows. “You do not want Carmen to accidentally step on the Tampa landmine that starts a De Luca civil war.”

“God.” Lola looked concerned as she looked out at the water. “I didn’t know it was a De Luca thing. Her life’s complicated. I can’t just tell her to come home. It’s more than that.”

“What if you just had a layover in Tampa?” Romeo asked Nova dryly. “Is that allowed, or will the Cuban De Luca’s just ice you in the airport?”

Nova didn’t appear to notice or care about Romeo’s sarcasm. He was too busy being Zu.

“The Tampa De Lucas do not like outsiders, especially other Borgatas. We look like the authority to them, and no one wants to look like the authority to a bunch of paranoid Cubano-Siciliano gangsters sweating their balls off in Tampa. So, to answer your question, Rome, no, I wouldn’t take a layover in Tampa. I don’t like playing bad hands for no fucking reason.”Nova looked over to Carlo, still sitting behind Lola, and held out his hands incredulously. “Go get your girl’s sister.”

Carlo gave Nova a long stare of silent communication—the look of one man to his best friend that conveyed absolute betrayal. Lola turned sharply, busting Carlo despite his attempt to casually run a hand through his hair as a cover.

“Why don’t you tell everyone why you’re glaring at him?” Lola taunted. “Admit you’re scared of her.”

“I’ll admit it.” Carlo didn’t even hesitate. “I’d have to be stupid not to be. Everyone’s scared of her. Ask Tino.”

“Don’t bring me into this,” Tino snapped at his uncle before he turned to Lola. “I’ve never even met your sister.”

“Stand here right now and tell me you haven’t heard things!” Carlo challenged him.

“You always do this. Just open your mouth and throw up opinions. Sometimes you are so backward,” Lola started defensively. “It was just a bad first impression.”

“A bad first impression?” Carlo choked out. “That was the worst first impression I’ve ever had in my entire fucking life, and I dopersonal trainingfor a living.”

“She has a lot of reasons to be stressed about us dating.” Lola held up her hands to him as evidence. “It doesn’t usually end well for us.”

“She cursed me! Doing what I do, she said that shit.”

“Only because personal trainers make her nervous! You can’t blame her for that!”

“I can’t blame her for doing crazyBrujeriawitchcraft on me? I can’t freak out about that?”

“She’s trying to become more centered. Her life is hard. It's a lot more difficult than you’ll ever know. She needs a positive outlet for all that anger, and?—”

“That makes me feela lotbetter, being the positive outlet for her anger,” Carlo snorted incredulously. “Trust me, Nova,that buttana is more than safe in Tampa. If anything, you should be warning the De Luca’s she’s there and help those motherfuckers out. Fuck that, no, she scares the shit outta me. I don’t hang out with a witch who hates me. In case you forgot, this motherfucker,” Carlo gestured to himself, “grew up in Washington Heights. I know better.”

“Carmen doesn’t hate you.” Lola shook her head in exasperation and looked pleadingly at everyone else. “This is an overreaction because he’s so fucking Siciliano he dramatizeseverything. She’s a little eccentric, but she’s harmless, I swear.”

“First time I ever met her, and she cursed me, Amuri. She wants me to suffer.” Carlo said it like he believed it. “That’s more than eccentric.”

“You know she didn’t actually curse you,” Nova started slowly, like he had this same discussion many times before. “She can’tmagicallydo something to you. It’s not a real thing, and I don’t care what Washington Heights taught you.”

“It felt like a real thing,” Carlo growled, like it still made perfect sense. “Two fucking weeks I couldn’t get it up!”

Carina choked on her water, spitting and coughing while Lola and Carlo kept arguing.

“She didn’t know you were that sensitive about it. She said she was sorry. You need to?—”