Page 27 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

“Oh, sweetheart.” Brianna grabbed her. Carina tried to jerk out of her hold, but Brianna was not only bigger than Carina but considerably stronger.

She didn’t give up, and finally, Carina let out an uncharacteristic sob and hugged Brianna back. “It was so horrible.”

“I’m sorry.” Tears sounded in Brianna’s voice as she kissed Carina’s forehead.

“She looked bad,” Carina choked, making it obvious it was Lola and not the medical examiner’s pictures she was crying over. “She was so beautiful, and look at what Cosa Nostra did to her.”

“Carina,” Nova warned because they weren’t supposed to name the organization, especially in public.

“I’ll say it if I want. I’ll fucking scream it. No one asked me to take an oath,” Carina growled at him. “And someone should be screaming about it.”

“Come here.” Tino just wrapped his arms around both girls because Brianna and Carina weren’t letting go of each other. He kissed his sister’s forehead like Brianna had. “We’ll get Carlo, go to the Don’s place, shower, maybe chill out?—”

“I’m not chilling out!” Carina tried to pull away, but neither Brianna nor Tino was letting her. “I’m not her! You think I’m my mother, but I’m not!”

If there was any day where weed and benzos were justified, this was it, but if Carina was sticking with staying clean, then Tino would too. “Okay,” he agreed. “Me neither.”

“Yeah?” Carina looked at him and then asked what the others probably wanted to. “Why didn’t the dogs get your boots?”

They all knew if Carlo kept his blow in his boots, Tino did too.

“I guess we’re cosmic twins.” Tino shrugged and looked away from his sister. “I haven’t done it since that morning, and I don’t think you’re like your mother, Rina. Not even close.”

“I don’t know what happened that morning, but thank fucking God it did.” Nova sighed. “I gotta figure out how to get the old man outta lock-up. He confessed to that shit. At least he wasn’t on probation.”

“Mr. Moretti.”

Tino and Nova both turned at the same time to see the medical examiner who’d taken Tino’s pictures walk up to them.

“Yeah?” Tino asked him.

With his luck, they were going to ask for that other sample now.

“Um.” The doctor glanced down the hallway. “We can’t get him to leave.”

Tino’s breath caught when he realized they were talking about Carlo.

“We may have to call an ambulance for him. It happens sometimes. He’s in shock, and I don’t think he understands she’s gone.

” The examiner looked really uncomfortable.

“Your uncle doesn’t want to leave her. He heard them bring her in, and he wants to see her.

We can’t allow that.” He swallowed hard, like he was suddenly very intimidated.

“I explained he doesn’t have the right to her body.

I know her mother’s deceased, so it’ll have to be another family member?—”

“Oh my God,” Carina choked.

“Can we talk to him?” Nova asked quickly. “Can you let my brother and me in to see him before you call it in?”

“Yeah.” The medical examiner nodded and tilted his head back to the hallway. “Follow me.”

“We’ll be right back.” Tino kissed both Carina’s and Brianna’s foreheads before he followed Nova and the examiner down the hallway.

They could hear Carlo long before they got to him.

“He’s the one who fucking killed her! He did it!

He wrote her name on a piece of paper and fucking killed his own daughter, and you’re going to turn her over to him!

I’m the one who loves her! I’m supposed to be with her!

I was supposed to protect her! That was my job, and if you think I’m letting him have her now?—”

Nova started running.

Tino did, too.

They both shoved past the medical examiner.

They didn’t ask to be let into the room he was in; they burst in just as Carlo yelled, “Do you know what I could do to you?”

“You could say sorry!” Nova switched to Italian and reiterated, “That’s what you could do to them. You could say sorry to them! Say sorry!”

Carlo was wearing the clothes Nova brought him, but his hair was standing up at odd angles. His face was swollen from crying, and his blue eyes were wild and crazed with pain.

He shook his head in denial and started ranting in English, which made it worse, “Nah, I’m not saying that.

I told them she has a sister. She has a fucking sister.

I just don’t know her number. I don’t have anything on my burner other than Lola’s number.

Tell them I don’t carry a regular phone.

It’s on Lola’s phone, but they won’t let me look at Lola’s phone to give it to them even though we all know it’s in a plastic bag somewhere in this fucking building!

If they try to give her to the Brambinos first, I will help Carmen light the fire that sends this place to hell. ”

“I’ll find her sister,” Nova said quickly as he grabbed their zio.

He wrapped one hand around the back of Carlo’s neck and forced Carlo to focus on him.

“Look at me. Look at who is promising you that. I will personally find Carmen for you, and I will bring her back here. The Brambinos are not taking Lola’s body. ”

Carlo sucked in a hard breath because Nova was so easy to believe when he was making promises like that, but still, Carlo tried to shake his head in denial. He also switched languages and brokenly admitted to Nova in Italian, “I don’t want to leave her here.”

“You have to.” Nova’s voice cracked when he said it.

“But I will get her out of this place, and I will make sure she’s taken care of.

” Nova grabbed Carlo’s face in both his palms. He kissed Carlo’s forehead and went on in whispered Italian, “You have to listen to me right now, paisan. You have to trust me. If you want me to get the job done, you have to do your part, and that means saying sorry to these poor men who have a fucking shitty job without you screaming at them. They didn’t do this. You need to be angry at someone else.”

“I am angry,” Carlo promised him.

“Take a deep breath and apologize.” Nova’s voice didn’t crack this time as he growled, “Now.”

Carlo took a deep breath and looked at the two men in lab coats standing there, looking more than a little nervous. “I’m sorry,” he choked out in English.

“Okay.” Nova didn’t let go of his hold on the back of Carlo’s neck. “Can we take him?”

“Yeah.” They both nodded, and the medical examiner didn’t hesitate before he said, “Take him.”

Nova let out a huge sigh of relief and let go of Carlo, but Tino grabbed him because he knew instinctively they needed to be touching Carlo to keep him grounded. He wrapped an arm around Carlo’s shoulders and pulled him close as he whispered, “I love you, Zio.”

“I know what you did for her.” Carlo choked on the words as he switched back to the Sicilian-leaning Italian of his youth. A sob burst out of him as he crumpled into Tino and buried his face in the curve of Tino’s neck. “I saw the duct tape, and?—”

“Come on.” Nova wrapped an arm around Carlo’s waist. “Let’s get him the fuck out of here.”

Carlo was almost dead weight, but together, Tino and Nova were able to drag him out of the coroner’s office. There were soldiers outside the building, mulling around, smoking, and talking. Tino wished they weren’t seeing Carlo quite this broken, but he couldn’t fix it.

Nova brought the limo, and the three of them crawled into the back with the girls. They had a guy sitting shotgun, but Nova put the partition up, and they were alone when Carlo fell on his side and started sobbing.

Carina moved over and put Carlo’s head on her lap. She started stroking his hair, pushing the dark, sweaty strands off his forehead as he cried openly without shame. An enforcer’s hard reputation was everything, but Carlo broke down like nothing in the world mattered anymore.

It clearly affected Nova, too, because he doubled over.

He put his forehead against his knees, and his shoulder shook in grief while he sobbed.

It was obvious he hadn’t had a chance until then.

None of them held it against him, even if the driver and the guy riding shotgun probably heard it and knew their Consigliere had a chink in his armor like the rest of them.

They all cried.

All five of them.

By the time they pulled into the Dyker Heights’ mansion, Tino had his head in Brianna’s lap, with her tears hitting his face as she caressed his hair.

The engine was shut off, and Tino didn’t want to get out of the car. There would be people everywhere, especially if they were at war. Other members of the family would start showing up. They’d bring their children for safety because the Don’s homes were the most secure on purpose.

Tino would’ve just stayed in the limo because he was an enforcer too, and his rep fucking mattered, but Nova opened the door and jumped out before Tino could pull his shit together.

“And here we go.” Tino rolled off Brianna. “This part was way overdue.”

Sure enough, they heard Nova puking his guts up in the downstairs bathroom as Tino utilized Brianna’s dancer strength to help him drag Carlo to his bedroom.

People looked at them, and a few approached.

Some of the women offered food, but Carina’s bluntness worked to their advantage.

She dismissed everyone as she followed them up the stairs.

Tino fell into the bed next to his zio after they dumped him there, thinking it wasn’t that long ago that he was curled up next to him in Mills Basin, wrapped up in a sheet like this—before their world ended.

Brianna crawled into the bed next to Tino.

Carina lay down on the couch.

They all hid from the rest of the family.

Nova showed up, still looking green, and sat on the floor underneath the window that he opened, letting in the hot July air even though it was evening.

He sat there silently, smoking a joint with shaking hands.

He wasn’t even subtle about it, which meant he was probably still trying to curb the urge to be sick.

Weed was the only thing that helped him stop throwing up when his nervous stomach got him.

Then Carlo whispered into the quiet, “Where’s Carmen?”

“I don’t know whose phone she was communicating with Lola from, but it’s not hers,” Nova explained.

“She keeps herself very off the grid. I had to fish deep in the network to get a hint. She’s still in Tampa, and I have enough leads to track her down, even without a number.

I’ll just drive there and hope I get to her before someone else tells her. ”

“Nova, you can’t go into Tampa. The old man’ll lose his fucking mind,” Carlo argued. “He already got arrested for my blow. I can’t send you into De Luca territory. He’ll never speak to me again.”

“I got a pass. The danger’s minimal.” Nova winced when he said it. “No reason to tell the old man we’re getting her in Tampa. We could say it was anywhere.”

“How expensive was the pass?” Tino asked in concern.

Nova held up his hands, as though ambivalent to his own suffering. “I guess we’ll find out.”

“I should go, especially if all you've got is leads. I should be the one to protect her,” Carlo said softly. “Now I wish I hadn’t been such a dick to her. Maybe it was a nocebo, but I swear to God, Nova?—”

“It was definitely a nocebo,” Nova cut Carlo off before he could dig deeper, and then took another long drag off his joint.

He blew out the smoke, and his voice was raspy when he spoke.

“I know you’re gutted, but please do not give this poor girl shit about her coping mechanisms for this shit life the same week she has to bury her sister. I can’t let you do that to her.”

“I’ll go, Zio. It’s easier if I do it,” Tino volunteered when Nova started coughing. “I’ll keep her safe. You hold it down here.”

“That’s a good idea. I have to set things in place to get the Don out.” Nova gave Tino a look of relief. “And then Tino and I will tell Carmen together, okay, paisan?”

Carlo was silent, and Tino could almost hear the argument, but he nodded instead. “Okay.”