Page 1 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

Broadway, New York

“ L emme in!”

Brianna jumped at the knock that rattled her dressing room and the harsh demand of a ballsy New York Italian man who wasn’t used to being kept waiting.

She slipped on her robe and jerked the door open to find Tony De Luca filling up the once-empty space; very tall, broad, and muscular, he looked more than a little imposing in his black leather jacket and jeans.

“What are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be lying low while you’re at the theater,” Brianna snapped under her breath as she went back to the large, well-lit vanity.

He walked in and closed the door while she returned to work on her stage makeup, doing her blush with more force than necessary.

“Are you sure you swept it this morning?”

Tony just gave her a droll, annoyed stare rather than answer, as if the words leaving her mouth were a personal affront. Seeing as Tony was the Moretti Borgata’s current lead enforcer, it probably was an insult.

It made Brianna miss and worry about Tino even more. She had her own enforcer, off somewhere doing God knows what in the name of revenge. She didn’t want to be relying on Tony instead, and the bitterness made her bitchy.

Not caring that he was insulted, she gave Tony an aggravated look in the mirror. “You’re not going to answer me?”

“No, I’m not.” Tony pulled up a chair from the corner, and sat at the vanity beside her, completely oblivious to personal space.

Since it was decided that Brianna should go back to work rather than raise suspicion while the Moretti civil war kept silently brewing, Tony had been constantly underfoot. Brianna understood the inner workings of Cosa Nostra well enough to know Tony’s assignment wasn’t an option.

Not when it was coming down from the boss.

So, she tried not to complain—too much.

“You don’t think it looks strange that you’ve come with me to the last eight shows?” she asked. “Everyone’s getting suspicious.”

“No one’s getting suspicious.” Tony reached over and picked up one of her eyeliner pencils as he sat shoulder to shoulder with her.

He leaned in and started drawing a simple straight line under his left eye.

Brianna stopped working on her blush and just watched because there was something about how it looked on him that was captivating.

He had long, thick eyelashes, and the black eyeliner made his eyes appear even more compelling as he started on the other.

She worked in theater. She saw makeup on men all the time, but Tony made it look phenomenally good. Sexy. Like the eighties glam rock stars—if they were six foot-four and over two hundred and thirty pounds of pure muscle rather than thin and strung out on drugs.

Tony set the pencil down and sorted through her supplies until he found her hair gel.

He started slicking his hair back. It showed off his enhanced eyes, so dark and mysterious, making him seem almost hauntingly beautiful.

His features were intense with his hair away from his face.

It created the strange sensation of wanting to look away and keep staring all at the same time.

“What?” he asked as he looked at her in the mirror, like it was all very normal for a mafia enforcer to be using her makeup.

“What are you doing?” she mumbled, still staring at him under the bright lights. “God, that looks amazing. You should be on stage.”

“I have been on stage. I spent most of my teen years on one,” he said dismissively and went back to playing with her makeup. “You don’t have any clear mascara?”

“I don’t have eyelashes that are three miles long. Clear doesn’t work for me,” she complained because it really wasn’t fair, and then she had to add, “And that wasn’t the stage I was talking about, Tony.”

“Oh, what?” He let out a bitter laugh. “You don’t think it’s a genuine stage. It’s not a true performance to you? Everyone was into it. A lot more than what you’re doing out there. So, what’s the difference?”

“The stage you were on wasn’t a nice stage, and I know you understand that,” she pointed out, which made her an even bigger bitch than usual, but Tony did this a lot, talking about his past as a former trafficking victim in the underground sex market to make her uncomfortable.

It didn’t scare her away like it did others, which seemed to make him want to push it more. “And I get paid for what I do.”

“ Ouch ,” Tony said in a sardonic voice, making it obvious he couldn’t care less. “Twenty bucks says I’m a better actor than you. Let’s test it.”

She would’ve answered, but another knock sounded on the door.

She left Tony there, using just enough clear lip gloss to make his lips look slick, which, like the eyeliner, worked almost too well.

He had lips like Tino, a little fuller, a little more sensual somehow.

It wasn’t his fault, but in a way, she was irritated at him for being too handsome.

She saw him raise his eyebrows in the mirror and say, “Cherry. You naughty girl.”

Her stomach jolted.

“Stop it!” she snapped as she opened the door.

Tino used to call her a naughty girl all the time, with the same teasing inflection, and that was the other thing that made spending time with Tony so difficult.

How bizarrely similar he was to Tino. The two of them had a lot of the same lines, which was made worse because Brianna hadn’t known they were lines until she started spending so much time with Tony.

“Stop messing with my makeup! You know I’m stressed and?—”

“Brianna?”

Brianna’s breath caught when she turned back to see the two police officers at her door. Somehow, Tony had distracted her to the point that she’d missed them, which was pretty amazing because she was raised to fear the government above all things.

“Yes?” she whispered.

She instinctively turned back to Tony, expecting him to do his enforcer thing and make the danger go away. He just raised surprised eyebrows again, looking like a rock star ready for a cover shoot. He slipped the lip gloss back into the makeup caddy and asked, “What’s going on?”

“And you are?” one of the officers asked.

“One of her best friends.”

Brianna frowned at Tony, first because while she’d known him many years and was currently staying in his apartment, she wouldn’t consider him a friend, let alone a best friend.

More than that… he sounded so sassy . Polar opposite from the intimidating, cold and intense enforcer she’d been staying with.

It hit her like a ton of bricks.

He’d seen the cops get here.

The makeup.

The bickering.

He was blending, making himself have a purpose in her Broadway dressing room rather than leaving her alone to face questioning.

Maybe they were friends.

Or maybe his loyalty to Nova extended much further than she anticipated, and he was there to ensure she behaved. Brianna really hoped they were friends, though, because cops made her nervous. It wasn’t the FBI, but it was enough to steal her breath with a rush of blinding fear.

If only Tony’s last name was Moretti instead of De Luca.

She’d feel a little safer.

Brianna was raised to automatically distrust other Borgatas, even Sicilian Borgatas like the De Lucas, but the truth was her own Borgata had turned against her. It’d turned against all of them, even if they were currently pretending it hadn’t.

Carina was in Kentucky.

Tino had disappeared.

There was no one left to truly trust, except Nova.

Perhaps Chuito and Alaine because Tino trusted them.

But it was Tony De Luca who was here now, and she knew she’d have to work with it as she opened the door further.

“Please come in. Is there an issue?” She gave the police officers a wide-eyed look of innocence she imagined young women who hadn’t been raised inside Cosa Nostra would give them. She tried to look at them as help rather than possible attackers. “Has something happened?”

“Perhaps you should sit down, Mrs. Brennan.” One of the police officers gestured to the couch in her dressing room.

“It’s Ms. Darcy,” she corrected because she’d used the excuse of her stage career to keep her maiden name. Everything legal had Darcy on it, so she had to ask, “How’d you know my husband’s name is Brennan?”

“I’m sorry to say, your husband was involved in an accident.”

She sat numbly on the couch, and Tony sat by her, like the good best friend he was supposed to be. He wrapped one muscular arm around her shoulder and pulled her tightly into the curve of his body.

“He had a flat tire,” the officer went on. “He was changing it when the jack gave out, and the car came down on him.”

“I don’t understand,” she mumbled, not feigning her shock. It was completely genuine. David wouldn’t know how to jack up a car if his life depended on it. He had roadside assistance for a reason. There was no way on earth he would try to change a tire by himself. “What are you saying?”

“We received word he was found in a rural area, known for its spotty phone service. By the time someone found him…” The police officer shook his head. “It was just a very tragic accident, and I’m truly sorry.”

“Oh, wow,” Tony whispered next to her, though Brianna thought she heard that hint of bitter sarcasm, like the rest of them were too naive to share the same air with him. Then he squeezed her arm again and whispered, “Jesus, that’s…” He swallowed hard as he choked out. “I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t understand,” she said again. It wasn’t that her husband had died. She had expected David to end up dead the moment Tino disappeared with the knowledge that David had tried to kill her, but not like this. “Is he…” She looked to Tony in confusion. “What?”

“I think they’re saying he’s gone, sweetheart.” Tony sounded nothing but compassionate.