Page 90 of The Enforcer's Revenge

“You’re drugging me! You’re doing it on purpose!”

“They just cut a bullet out of your chest!” Brianna shouted back at him. “You need to sleep, and I don’t give a fuck if you remember!”

“Drop it,” Nova growled as he rolled on his side and squeezed her wrist harder, hurting her, but Brianna and pain were old friends. Most dancers were low-key masochists. She didn’t let it show on her face as he growled, “Do it!”

Brianna dropped it.

Right after she clicked it.

Nova glared for one long moment before he blinked heavily, obviously realizing she didn’t follow his orders.

“You bitch,” he growled.

Brianna shrugged. “Sorry.”

“You’re not sorry.” Nova kept blinking at her, fighting the fresh surge of morphine. “Sadica troia pel di carota.”

Carmen placed her fingers over Nova’s lips and glanced back at Carina, who was standing there with wide eyes, watching the exchange.

“What’d he say?” Brianna asked Carina, since Carmen obviously wasn’t willing to translate the Italian.

Carina winced. “He called you a sadistic, carrot-topped cunt—essentially.”

“It’s the drugs. They’re bad for him.” Carmen ran her hand through Nova’s hair. “He doesn’t mean it.”

“Yes, I do,” Nova assured all of them, his words even more slurred as he looked back to Carmen. “Bella,” he mumbled, like he was holding on to a memory. “I’d do it again, you know?”

Carmen placed her fingers over his lips once more. “Si me quieres hablar, hablame en español, solamente en español. Okay, bello?”

Nova closed his eyes, losing the battle, but still, he whispered, “Lo haría otra vez.”

“Sí, yo sé.” Carmen kept stroking his hair away from his face. “Yo también lo haría.”

Brianna looked at Carina, but Carina shrugged since they’d switched to Spanish.

Then, it didn’t matter.

Nova started snoring.

Carmen avoided looking at them and kept stroking Nova’s hair away from his face instead.

“He hates the morphine.” Carmen sounded genuinely disappointed in them. “I like both of you, but you’re making him weak against his will. In front of his nonno, the doctors—us. I can’t let you keep doing that.” She turned around and glared at Brianna. “You steal his strength every time you push that button.”

“Maybe you don’t know this, but real friends protect each other, and Dr. Acciai told us to push it. He said to keep Novacalm until he came back from his nap,” Brianna reminded her. “He hasn’t slept in days. He lost a massive amount of blood. We still don’t know if he’ll need another transfusion. He could still die, Carmen. He needs sleep, and you do too. You need it more than anyone. I’m worried about you. People die from exhaustion.”

Carmen glanced back at Brianna, light eyes still glassy with shock, rimmed with dark circles, as she said defiantly, “So let us die.”

Brianna arched an eyebrow at her. “Us?”

“What the hell happened in Tampa?” Carina sounded as lost as Brianna felt. “Trust me, Carmen, as your cousin, I’m telling you, Nova is the last man you want to be an ‘us’ with. There’s no way I could let that happen to you.”

“Sweet Carina. So passionate about things. So very Siciliano. Where’s the Brambino in there?” Carmen laughed like she didn’t know what to do with that unexpected development. “You have lots of cousins, sweetheart. I’m not the one to protect.”

“You’re not thinking clearly.” Brianna sighed, because it was blatantly obvious that reality was slipping through Carmen’s grasp. “I’m going to call Dr. Acciai. I think he should look at you.” She walked into the bedroom and grabbed her phone off the bed. Then she walked toward the stairs because she didn’t get good reception in the basement. “Watch them.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Tino’s first stop once he got back to New York was a coffee shop in Brooklyn. It was Carlo’s favorite. A hole in the wall with black and white pictures hanging on the wall, great Italian coffee, and no one playing the guitar and crying about their problems into the microphone. Just coffee, cannoli, and other simple Italian desserts.