Page 77 of The Enforcer's Revenge

He barely answered Carina when she tried to make conversation, and shehadtried. For hours after he woke up, Carina talked about anything she could think of until she finally got tired of Carlo’s one-word, monotone responses and just watched television instead.

The Don tried, too, but Carlo didn’t have much to say to him either.

Carlo just apologized, whispering, “I’m sorry, Pop,” every time the Don would pull up a chair and sit next to him, but they didn’t talk about why he was sorry.

They didn’t go over the arrest or the cocaine.

The Don just sat there with his son, letting him be broken.

Since the house was full of family seeking sanctuary from a possible war, women kept bringing up food that Brianna found herself eating out of nerves and boredom.

Carlo never ate anything—not once.

Brianna spent most of her time alternating between texting Tino when Nova was doing the driving to Tampa and staring at her phone, waiting for Tino to be done with his turn behind the wheel. She hated that Tino had to leave, but she understood why he went with Nova.

He was an enforcer.

Brianna was used to him taking off.

She was used to the worry and the waiting, but this time, it was harder.

Night had long since passed.

The rain was still coming down.

The flashes of lightning mixed with the glow of the television in the dark room. Somewhere in the back of Brianna’s mind, she remembered making love to Tino on this bed under the glimmer of Christmas lights. Now the memory made her sad to think about. Instead, she looked back at Carlo, who still sat there, staring out the window.

At some point, she stopped worrying over him and became nervous instead. Brianna got the impression he wasn’t silently mourning.

He was waiting.

Worse, Tino had stopped texting after he got to Carmen’s job, and Brianna was about to come out of her skin from the anxiety after an hour of not hearing from him.

She couldn’t tell them she was terrified, so Brianna stretched out with Carina on the bed since Carlo wasn’t using it. She let her phone charge as the two of them watched television. Carina was lying sideways above the blankets with her head resting on Brianna’s thigh.

Carina had a pillow hugged to her chest, clutching at it as though she needed the comfort, while her gaze kept darting to Carlo, as if she got the same impression Brianna did.

They both knew that if Carlowaswaiting, it was Brianna and Carina he was waiting on. It was starting to feel more and more like they had an enforcer in the room instead of a trusted friend and uncle.

Brianna didn’t want to be scared of him, but she was.

The danger throbbing off him started to become tangible, like every minute that went by drained the old Carlo out of him, letting a new, terrifyingly furious one grow in its place.

“Are you hungry, Zio?” Carina asked for the thousandth time since Tino and Nova left. “You haven’t had anything. You should eat.”

Carlo didn’t look at her. He just said, “No.”

Carina sighed and tilted her head on Brianna’s thigh to stare up at her, like she expected Brianna to have an idea.

“Lola would want you to eat, Carlo.” Brianna couldn’t think of any other way to convince him. “I know she would.”

Carlo flinched when Brianna said Lola’s name for the first time since she died, but then he surprised them by saying, “Fine.”

Carina sprang up the moment the words left his mouth and headed for the door, warning Brianna on the way out, “Stay here.”

Brianna had taken a few walks, but it was obvious Carina needed a break. She hadn’t once stepped out of this room since she promised Nova she would watch their uncle.

Brianna was back to lying on her side and looking at her phone, waiting for a text from Tino. If Carlo in enforcer mode wasn’t making her nervous, the radio silence from Tino was. She was in the process of checking her last texts to see exactly how long it had been since Tino messaged her when her phone started ringing.