Page 24 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Mills Basin, New York

A fter the shitshow with Brianna and Carina, Tino went cold turkey.

He’d gone this long without it before. He wasn’t typically an everyday blow user, but the Don had been power-hungry and ambitious lately.

Tino had been working hard for months, and he’d been an almost every day user for a while now.

He had to have been and not noticed ’cause two days clean and he felt like shit. Just tired, grouchy, and achy as fuck.

The Don was having a big boat party for the Fourth of July at Carina’s Mills Basin place.

Usually, Tino tried to play the game of including everyone on the holidays.

He’d spend the afternoon on the yacht with the Moretti crew, and then he and Nova would head back to watch fireworks with Romeo in Manhattan.

Today, Tino wasn’t going anywhere.

If Romeo wanted to spend time with him, he could come to Brooklyn and hang out on the water with the rest of the guidos. At six in the morning, Tino was still sucking down coffee and wondering why the fuck he was awake.

“Who wants eggs?” Carina asked from her spot by the stove.

She spoke loudly because she had music blaring and, up until then, had been happily singing along to it.

“Please,” Brianna said quickly, without even the slightest hesitation. “No cheese, though.”

“I’ll take some.” Nova kept looking at his phone and then gulped his coffee like he needed it as desperately as Tino did.

“Me too,” the Don agreed.

Don Aldo Moretti was seated next to Nova, looking worse for wear with his salt and pepper hair standing up at odd angles.

He was bare-chested, showing off his gold crucifix and a broad, cut build that proved Nova would age well as long as he didn’t develop Frankie’s bad habits.

This morning, his chest was tanned and smooth, but usually, the Don, like Frankie, just let it all go.

Tino knew those signs.

And he hoped to God he didn’t knock up whatever new comare he was waxing and shaving for.

The Don had coffee in front of him, too, and he was drinking it like Nova was. Even old Morettis with young comares weren’t supposed to be up before the sun.

“I’m happy you’re cooking.” The Don’s voice was gravelly with sleep. “You remind me of your nonna, but why so early, niputina mia ?”

“’Cause it’s the Fourth of July!” Carina said it like all of them should agree after she woke up the entire house at five-thirty in the morning. “We need to beat everyone out on the water. Boys.” She pointed to the three soldiers who followed the Don from Dyker Heights. “Eggs? Bacon? Toast?”

They all dutifully agreed and gave Carina their orders.

“Where’s Carlo? It’s been half a friggin’ hour,” Carina asked and with her back to him called out from the other side of the huge kitchen, “Tino? What’d you wanna eat?”

“Please don’t make me,” Tino mumbled under his breath, but then Brianna kicked him.

The Don glared. Nova gave him a look of warning.

Carina turned to him expectantly because it was obvious she hadn’t heard him say anything over the blare of the radio.

Tino just shrugged in defeat. “Whatever you wanna put in front of me, sweetheart.”

If he could eat dog food for her mother, he supposed he could choke down Carina’s attempt at cooking.

He was so burned out that he actually gave up pretending and laid his head on the table.

He pressed his cheek against his forearm and let his eyes close heavily.

Carina was singing again, which was soothing.

The other voices that drifted in and out of his consciousness were hazy.

He was halfway toward falling asleep when Carina wandered out of the kitchen to get more eggs from the fridge in the garage.

“What the fuck is she taking?” the Don barked once Carina was out of earshot. “It’s like she’s on amphetamines.”

“She’s always hyper on holidays,” Nova reminded him.

“Not like this. It’s six o’clock in the fucking morning. What is she on?”

“How the fuck should I know?” Nova sounded too sleepy to kiss the Don’s ass properly.

“You’re supposed to be my eyes, Nova. That’s your job.”

“Look, I doubt it’s amphetamines.” Nova sighed like his well-honed survival instincts had kicked in. “She likes downers. Liquor. Weed. Absinthe, merda like that.”

Benzos.

Tino silently filled in the last one, but then just as quickly, it hit him.

He sat up and glanced at the kitchen door in shock.

Then he turned to Brianna, who was biting her lip and sliding down in her chair, as if hoping everyone would miss her sitting at the big kitchen table next to them.

Unfortunately for her, everyone turned on Brianna at the same time.

“What’s she on?” the Don growled at her.

“I think she’s coming off something,” Tino said before Brianna had to.

“What?” The Don narrowed dark eyes at him. “Don’t you fucking lie to me, Tino.”

Tino quirked an eyebrow at him, thinking he lied to the Don all the time. Then Brianna and Nova each kicked one of his legs in perfect timing, and Tino shrugged. “I gave her shit for taking benzos like her mother.”

Nova winced. “That would do it.”

“You think it’s making her high-strung?” the Don asked.

They were all still speaking in hushed whispers, and Nova answered as he looked back to his phone. “Without question. Giving benzos up would make a normal person have a hard time sleeping, and she’s not normal. Thanks, Valentino.”

“No, it’s fine.” The Don reached over and squeezed Tino’s hand. “You watch out for her.” Then he pushed the chair back and leaned across the table to pat Tino’s cheek affectionately. “It’s good.”

It was a minor miracle Tino had the self-restraint not to roll his eyes. He just grabbed the Don’s hand, dutifully kissed his ring, and smiled. “Grazie.”

Carina walked in with a fresh carton of eggs. “Where the fuck is Carlo? He’ll miss breakfast.”

“Paper’s probably here.” Nova tossed his phone on the table. “I’ll check on him.”

“No.” Tino pushed his chair back. He needed to wake up anyway. This tired, he might just tell the Don how he felt about everything. “I’ll get him.”

The signs from Carina’s birthday were still on the doors upstairs, except for Carina’s. She pulled it down before the Don got there because it advertised:

Birthday girl.

Visitors welcome.

Must bring cake and be good on your knees.

Carlo’s door wasn’t any less subtle as it cautioned:

Carlo Moretti

A trigger-happy motherfucker.

You’ve been warned.

Tino didn’t bother to knock; he just quietly turned the handle and walked in. He found Carlo right where he expected him: passed out on the king-sized bed. It looked like Carlo had at least tried to get up because he was sprawled out above the sheets in his underwear, snoring.

He snored like Nova, that soft, growly sound like he was so thoroughly Moretti, there was always a little bite to him, even when he slept.

Tino was tired enough that it gave him mental whiplash. He found himself crawling into bed with his zio, as if he were back over the garage in Dyker Heights.

Or in their old East Harlem apartment.

“Move over, stronzo.” Tino shoved Carlo, but he didn’t roll over automatically like Nova would’ve.

Carlo jerked awake instead, looking on the defense like any good enforcer would. He had slammed his hand against the nightstand, wrapping his fingers around his 9mm.

“The fuck?” he mumbled, frowning at Tino.

“Carina’s cooking,” Tino explained in Italian.

“Oh.” Carlo dropped his head back to the pillow and fell asleep again.

The stronzo still didn’t move over. It must be nice to be raised as an only child. Not like he and Frankie ever shared a bed. Tino didn’t need much space to sleep. He just rolled up in the blankets next to his zio, listening to Carlo snore, and promptly passed out.

He wasn’t sure how long he was out, but the next moment, Tino was jerking awake before he knew why.

His hand flew to the nightstand, but his fingers tightened around nothing but air.

He was tangled in the sheets and blinked in confusion.

Nova knocked the 9mm in Carlo’s hand dismissively, likely because he saw Carlo hadn’t let the safety off.

“ Stronzi ,” Nova snapped at the two of them. “She’s got breakfast waiting for you.”

Tino was still confused. The cocaine crash made his thoughts a little fuzzy.

Carlo didn’t have the same problem, so he asked the question for both of them, “Is something going down? Why do I have to get up?” He tossed his gun back on the nightstand and grabbed the small burner cellphone.

He frowned when he looked at it, bringing it closer to his face before he shouted in Italian, “It’s six-thirty!

Get the fuck out, Nova!” Then he jerked, as if only now noticing Tino sleeping next to him. “Are you two high?”

“You snore like Nova,” Tino explained and dropped his head back to the pillow, thinking it explained everything.

“What the fuck?” Carlo mumbled as the bed shifted, and he sat up. “Okay. I’m up. I think. What am I supposed to be doing?”

“Eating the breakfast Carina made you.”

“But I don’t want to do that.” Carlo still sounded mystified, speaking only Italian because it was his first language. Carlo had spoken it almost exclusively at home until he went to school, and it was his default. “Why is she up this early when we all partied late?”

“’Cause someone decided to give her shit for taking benzos like her mother.” Nova was obviously looking at Tino. “I think she’s off weed, too. I didn’t see her smoking last night. Now she’s like Tino on speed.”

“Oh my God, why?” Carlo let out a pained moan as he rolled out of bed. “Tino, why would you do that? The world needs Carina to smoke weed.”

“Sorry.” Tino was still mostly asleep, but then Nova shoved his shoulder. “Stop.”

“If I’m up, you are too, bitch.” Nova pushed Tino again, and since Tino was already on the edge and wrapped up in the sheet, he couldn’t catch himself before he fell off the bed. Nova cursed, “Oh, merda.”

“ Maledizione !”