Page 43 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

“More news on the deadly fire in Brooklyn earlier today. The large estate that burned down was owned by Carmine Brambino. There are now five confirmed fatalities, but the identities of the victims haven’t been released.

It is believed that Mr. Brambino was home at the time of the fire, but it is unknown whether there is a connection between the fire and Mr. Brambino’s ties to organized crime.

Authorities have not ruled out arson. They are still on scene and actively investigating. ”

It wasn’t a new report. It’d been looping for at least the past hour. They likely wouldn’t get more information until the evening news started.

Carmine Brambino’s sprawling mansion was now twelve thousand square feet of smoldering rubble, and it looked like their Don was buried underneath those fine Italian marble pillars and stained-glass windows.

They all assumed Carlo did it.

Brianna looked back to Carmen and Nova, who were still talking. Nova followed Carmen’s lead and spoke in softer, more secretive tones. Carmen kept her hand near his shoulder, as though ready to silence Nova if he confessed something else.

Brianna turned back to Carina for more translation since the two of them couldn’t be seen eavesdropping. They were still huddled in the largest basement bedroom, with the door cracked and the television playing.

What else was there for them to do?

Not like Tino was texting back.

“What’re they saying?”

“They’re speaking Spanish now.” Carina gave her a look. “Can’t you tell the difference?”

“I wasn’t paying attention.” Brianna’s shoulders slumped, and she leaned down, resting her arms against the bed. She laid her head in her hands because she was still so very tired. “Do you think it was the Brambinos who shot him?”

Brianna barely whispered the words, and Carina still looked at Nova and Carmen through the crack in the door with concern.

“I don’t know.” Carina sighed. “Maybe we should watch the Florida news.”

“Bad idea,” Brianna said quickly. “I shouldn’t have been asking questions, and we shouldn’t have even been listening. Forget you heard that part. Put it out of your memory. It never happened.”

“How often do you play that little game with yourself?” Carina asked darkly. “I know Tino tells you things.”

“No, he doesn’t,” Brianna lied because she did hear some things, like cutting bullets out of dead bodies. “But I do know it’s better that we don’t have details. Don’t watch the Florida news. It’ll be easier to play stupid that way.”

“I can’t do that.” Carina shook her head, looking furious as she opened her laptop on the bed, clearly intent on finding news from Florida. “I can’t be the dumb little woman at home pretending none of this is happening.”

“So, you’d rather be the reason your brothers go down when you accidentally say something to the Feds in questioning? Find out all the details then. What if the Feds check your laptop and see your search history? Make it easier for them. Good plan.”

Carina shut her laptop more forcefully than necessary, making a sound of disgust.

“Breaking news on the Brooklyn fire. We have received word from officials confirming that Carmine Brambino is one of the five fatalities. The other four names have not been released. Authorities haven’t said if they suspect foul play or if the fire was accidental, but we do know Mr. Brambino’s daughter, Lola Brambino, was tragically murdered ? —”

Carina kept the remote pointed at the television after she shut it off. The two of them looked at the door. Brianna said a silent prayer, hoping Carmen was still hovering over Nova and didn’t hear, but it was too late.

Carmen leaned against the frame, staring at the darkened television. Her light eyes were glassy, but if it was from sadness or exhaustion, Brianna couldn’t tell.

“I’m sorry,” Carina whispered. “That’s a terrible way to find out.”

“I don’t care about my father enough to cry for him.” Carmen’s voice sounded hollow, almost devoid of emotion as she reminded them, “He was an awful person, Carina. As bad as you think he was, trust me, he was much worse.”

“I believe you.” Carina pointed to the television with the remote still in her hands. “And I’m sorry about the other.” She choked rather than saying Lola’s name. “Brianna’s right, we should stop watching. It doesn’t fix anything. Knowing won’t change it.”

“It’s okay.” Carmen still sounded distant. “You can watch if that helps you.”

“You need sleep.” Brianna could hear how absolutely exhausted the other woman was. They were all tired, but Carmen was suffering from something so much worse. “I’ll get you one of the nice feather blankets from upstairs. You’ll like it.”

“Always so helpful.” Carmen smiled, making her look both beautiful and somehow even more tragic. She turned to walk away and said, “If my father had known Tino possessed such a talent for training good girls, he would’ve made him a professional.”

Brianna gaped at Carmen’s back and then looked to Carina defensively. Carina did a very good job of pretending to care about the old, peeling, flowered wallpaper in the basement bedroom.

“You don’t agree with that,” Brianna barked at her best friend.

Carina looked back to her hesitantly and shrugged. “I dunno.”

“Bullshit, you know what you think about it,” Brianna barked.

“Is there anything you won’t do for Tino?” Carina asked softly. “Where’s your line, Bri?”

“I have a line. I have a big fucking line, I promise,” Brianna assured her. “I will never be her for him. It doesn’t matter how badly he wants to be hurt.”

Brianna realized too late that she hadn’t slept either.

She was exhausted, too.

And maybe she revealed more than she should because Carina whispered, “I meant a line to protect yourself.”

Brianna got off the bed, grabbed her phone, and walked out of the bedroom. Fighting would just make everything worse. She knew it, but a part of her still protested not starting something over that.

Carmen was sitting next to Nova again, speaking in those hushed tones. They were still on Spanish because Nova had the ability to just go along, even if he was stoned out of his mind.

It was working until Nova spotted Brianna.

“Where’s Tino?” Nova switched back to English and glared at Brianna. “You know where he is? You always know where he is!”

Brianna remembered again why she and Carina had been hiding in the bedroom after the Don went upstairs to deal with the war crashing down around them.

It was weird how drastically Nova’s demeanor changed the second he noticed other people besides Carmen were there. All his walls came up, and he went back to being Zu, always on the defense and used to being listened to.

Nova stared past Brianna to Carina behind her. “Where’s Carlo? Why hasn’t he come to check on Carmen after he begged me to bring her home?”

“Carmen, I’ll sit with him,” Brianna said rather than answer Nova’s barrage of questions. “Go sleep in the bedroom. We’ll keep the television off and stay quiet.”

Brianna leaned over the bed, reaching for the infusion pump the doctors set up to release morphine into Nova’s bloodstream.

Dr. Acciai said they could push it every ten minutes, but Brianna noticed Carmen tried to keep him distracted in other ways, which was why he was so angry now.

She obviously didn’t like pushing it, even if the doctors told them it was the best way for Nova to heal, at least for the first twenty-four hours since he suffered such massive blood loss and needed rest.

“Don’t you fucking do it,” Nova growled at Brianna, his eyes narrowed. “I see what you keep doing, and I’m not going to forget it. Just because I’m lit now doesn’t mean I won’t remember later.”

Nova grabbed Brianna’s wrist threateningly, which was an improvement—last time he tried to yank the IVs out of his arms.

This wasn’t the first time she came over and pushed the button, hoping Nova would actually sleep long enough for Carmen to let down her guard and rest, too. The problem was that the morphine wore off really fast, and Nova kept waking back up.

Damn Moretti genetics.

“You hurt me, Nova, and we’re going to have a massive issue,” Brianna warned him as she eyed his hold on her. “I’m not scared of you, Zu.”

“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 espanol, solamente en espanol . 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 Nova calm 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.”