Page 40 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

She didn’t know whether she should feel bad for Carmen Brambino or impressed that the Moretti constitution let Nova drink that much for that long without dying from alcohol poisoning.

To say nothing of surviving a bullet wound to the chest and a car ride from Tampa to Brooklyn without bleeding to death.

Tino pulled into the side garage when Carina waved him in.

Then he asked Brianna, “The doctors are there? They have the blood?”

“Yes.” Brianna nodded and looked back at Carmen and Nova. “They’re ready.”

Carmen was still whispering to Nova in Italian, caressing his face with shaking hands.

Her light eyes were watery, and Brianna realized Carmen was terrified to the point that her entire body started shaking when the doctors jerked open both doors to the back seat.

Carmen looked at those doctors like a caged animal that was being exposed to light for the first time.

“We got him, sweetheart,” Dr. Acciai told Carmen soothingly. “You need to let us take care of him now.”

Carmen pressed harder against Nova’s chest and argued, “I can’t let up. I can’t let go of him. When you do, he could start bleeding again, and?—”

The doctor on the other side of the car reached over and placed a hand on top of Carmen’s, where she was holding the gauze to the wound in Nova’s chest. “I’ve got it.”

Nova said something else in Italian to Carmen, and whatever it was must’ve reassured her.

“ Va bene ,” she whispered to Nova and switched back to English to speak to everyone else waiting. “Okay.” Carmen slipped her hand out from under the doctor’s. Then she looked over her shoulder to Doctor Acciai and whispered, “Just let me get out so you can help him.”

Dr. Acciai helped Carmen climb off Nova while the other doctor slid into the backseat to better assess him.

Brianna jumped out of the car and ran around to Carmen because the other woman was still shaking from head to toe.

Brianna wrapped an arm around her and said, “Let’s sit for a second.”

Together, the two of them sat against the wall in the garage.

Carmen was a stranger, but Brianna hugged her like a friend when she remembered that, on top of everything else she’d been through in the last eighteen hours, Carmen just lost her sister in the worst way possible.

“Jesus, he’s unconscious.” Dr. Acciai sounded nervous as he spoke to his colleague.

“The rum probably helped.” The other doctor didn’t sound so sure.

The two doctors started talking about Nova’s vitals as they quickly tried to assess him. Brianna realized Nova passed out the second Carmen crawled off him, as though she had been holding him together by sheer strength of will until they pulled into this garage.

“How much has he had to drink?” the Don asked, looking pale with fear as he glanced from Tino to the bloody horror show in the car.

“A lot.” Tino leaned against the open door to the back seat while he watched the doctors help Nova. “He passed out a few times before.”

“But he always wakes up,” Carmen added.

“Let’s get him downstairs. Quickly.” Dr. Acciai still sounded a little too frantic for comfort.

He crawled out of the back seat and looked at the Don.

“Honestly, I’d really like to take him in, Don.

I don’t want to do this one in the basement.

Maybe we should just have Tino drive him to the hospital and deal with the fallout.

His pulse is pretty steady. He’ll survive a few more minutes in the car, and I can meet them there. ”

The Don looked at Tino, and the two of them shared some sort of private exchange.

The look on Tino’s face was anguished, his breathing harsh and shallow in obvious fear.

Then Tino shook his head slightly, and the Don groaned before he turned back to Dr. Acciai.

“See what you can do downstairs, but that’s my right-hand man you got there, Doc. I need him to be alright.”

“Okay.” Dr. Acciai sighed. “Let’s move.”

“I gotta stay with him. You gotta let me go down with him, Dr. Acciai,” Tino cut in, his voice shaking. “I can do something. Help with something, or?—”

“You can do something,” Dr. Acciai said without hesitating. “Help us get him on the stretcher.”

It took Tino and the Don working together to help the doctors get Nova on the stretcher because Nova Moretti was a lot of dead weight. Brianna thought she heard Nova grunt in pain a few times, and Tino was talking to him in whispered Italian, but for the most part, Nova wasn’t super responsive.

Carmen was physically shivering, and Brianna got the impression it was taking a lot to sit there and just watch. When they opened the wood panel that hid the secret elevator in the garage, Dr. Acciai stopped Tino from going down with them.

“Go clean up,” Dr. Acciai said in the kind but firm voice of a man who had cared for Tino at his lowest points since he was twelve. “Let us take care of him. I promise you’ll get to see him as soon as possible.”

The Don stepped around Tino, getting on the elevator with Nova and the two doctors.

“Why does he get to go? He’s my brother!” Tino’s voice shook. “Just let me sit in the corner so he knows I’m there. He doesn’t like being outta control, and?—”

“I have to go,” Dr. Acciai said rather than argue. “Take a shower, Tino.”

“I’ve got his back, Chief.” The Don hit Tino’s shoulder. “You did good.”

Tino was still shaking, and Brianna knew he was about to say something that the Don may not forgive, but Carina came up behind Tino and wrapped her arms around his waist. She rested her forehead against his back, and something about it must have communicated enough to keep Tino quiet.

“Okay, I’ll take a shower.” Tino seemed to be choking on every word as he put his hands on either side of the elevator door. “Then, I’m coming down there.”

The elevator closed before anyone could respond, but Tino stood there, clutching the sides, staring at the shiny metal. Carina held onto him, like she was afraid he’d do something drastic if she let go.

“He’ll be okay,” Carina promised. “Nonno will make sure of it.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Tino kept staring at the closed door. “So, he can keep making bank off him once he heals ’cause that’s all your nonno cares about. Right-hand man ,” he repeated with a snort and then shook his head. “Coglione.”

Carina poked his back. “You can’t say that. He’s the Don, Tino.”

“I can say whatever the fuck I want.” Tino said it like he was daring her to argue. “He’s not my Don. He’s never been my Don.”

“Nonno loves Nova,” Carina whispered. “He loves you too.”

“You need a shower,” Brianna reminded him before Tino could argue with Carina about it. “Dr. Acciai wasn’t wrong about that.”