Page 48 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Brooklyn, New York

N ow Tino was going down. He just knew it.

He pulled out his phone and looked for Tony’s contact. The fact that Tony lived up the street had to be a fucking miracle from God.

Fuck Nova’s agreement and his conscience.

Tino pissed on both without blinking.

He kept walking, fighting not to look back as he listened to the phone ring, praying for a pickup. Funny how he always found God the moment he thought it was all over. He was still mentally pleading with whoever was in charge of helping enforcers in trouble when the call was answered.

“Tino?” Tony sounded surprised because it’d been three months since he made the offer.

“Yeah, listen, what the fuck? You weren’t at Pietro’s. I’m still here waiting for you.” Tino’s voice was shaking. “I feel stood up, man, and I’m having a really bad week.”

“No, no, it’s cool. I’m close,” Tony said without missing a beat, which was pretty amazing, but then again, he was the master of this particular type of survival game. “Walk toward my place, and I’ll meet you outside. It’s on Hayden. You know where that is?”

Tino looked behind him, letting his paranoia show. “Not really. Maybe you’re not interested anymore. You can just tell me, motherfucker.”

“I’m always interested. I told you that the last time we talked.” Tony sounded deadly serious, making it obvious he understood what Tino was really asking. “I saved myself for you.”

Tino sucked in a hard breath of relief with the confirmation that Tony was still a free agent.

He couldn’t stop himself from looking over his shoulder again.

The couple who’d been arguing in the car were following him.

They were on foot now, walking casually, hand in hand, but the man was on the phone.

They are probably waiting for the all-clear to move in and actually take down Tino.

“Merda.” Tino felt like he was going to drop right there from a heart attack. It was almost worse than the car ride with Nova. He could barely force his brain to work under the fear, but he made his voice louder on purpose. “I’m feeling the heat, Tony. It’s all falling apart. They know about me.”

“Okay.” Tony sounded cool and confident, like he was used to getting calls from strung-out lost kids running from the authorities. “I got you. Where are you now?”

Tino gave him the rundown of where he was and started following Tony’s directions.

Tino glanced behind him, seeing that he was still being followed.

He was desperate to convey how deep this shit was. Praying Tony understood his real meaning, he repeated again, “I really think they know about me. I’m paranoid as fuck.”

“Tino, it’s okay. We’ll figure it out.” Tony sounded breathless, like he was running down a staircase. “I gotta tell you, Maria’s with me, but you know she’s into it.”

“Whatever.” Tino let out a broken laugh that sounded a little more like a sob. “I figured as much.”

Tino turned down Hayden and then looked behind him once more. The couple turned too, still following him. The man continued to talk on the phone. A black van pulled down the road behind them.

Jesus fucking Christ, this was it, he was going down.

And he was taking Tony De Luca with him.

Nova was going to drive back to Tampa and drown himself.

“Did you hear about Lola?” Tino asked, feeling sick as the words left his mouth. “You been watching the news?”

“No.” Tony’s voice caught. “What about her?”

Tino didn’t even have to act as a real sob burst out of him. “Someone got her.”

Tony fell silent.

And Tino was half dead from the anxiety.

For a moment, he thought he had lost his lifeline.

The whoosh, whoosh, whoosh in his ears sounded like his own heartbeat.

Then he saw Tony booking it down the street, running flat out, barefoot and bare-chested, in only his jeans.

The phone was still in his hand but forgotten in the need to get to Tino as quickly as possible.

Seeing him, knowing he hadn’t lost his lifeline, Tino started to run at him.

By the time Tino jumped at Tony, his entire body was shaking. Tony just wrapped his arms around him, clinging to Tino right there on the sidewalk.

“I’m merda. I just needed to see you,” Tino sobbed, then in a softer voice only Tony could hear, he confessed his newest, darkest sin, “I failed her.”

Tony pushed Tino’s hair away from his sweaty forehead and kissed it frantically. “I’m so sorry.”

Tony was shaking, too, his voice choked with emotion that was unusual for him. Until that moment, Tino thought nothing could shake Tony, but hearing about Lola did.

Violently.

Honestly, Tino would look back later and never be one hundred percent certain it was all an act—for either of them.

They were both just so fucking wrecked.

It was Tino who grabbed his face and brought Tony’s lips to his.

He was a motherfucker, using the bomb of Lola’s death like that, but it worked. They made certain that the pictures for the FBI’s wall were really interesting. The two of them kissed on that Brooklyn back street like the world was ending.

Then, Tony suddenly pulled Tino tighter against him, hugging him protectively, and barked, “What the fuck are you looking at?”

The world slowed like it always did right before Tino’s life came close to ending.

“N-Nothing,” a man said behind them, sounding stunned, almost speechless.

“Then you can keep walking,” Tony suggested, like he wasn’t dead certain he was growling at federal agents. “Unless watching gets you off. What are you? Homophobes or just perverts?”

Porca puttana, the balls on Tony.

But the agents started walking past them.

Tino barely breathed; all he could do was listen to the sound of their shoes against the pavement.

He could actually hear the click of them, even under the buzz of city noise.

He thought he heard the van drive past, too, but he couldn’t be certain ’cause he didn’t dare look and fall out of character.

He let Tony lead, and he felt pretty damn confident about it. Tony led this particular dance better than just about anyone.

He was the best for a reason.

It felt like a thousand years before Tony grabbed Tino’s face and looked down at him with a sad smile. “I got you.”

Tino gave him a genuine, strong-armed hug, the kind he reserved for Romeo, Nova, and Carlo. “Grazie, brother, ’cause you matter. You matter like a motherfucker right now.”

Tony actually let out a broken laugh and gestured up the street. “Let’s go.”

Tony’s place was an old-school Brooklyn brownstone, easily a hundred years old, and renovated to look original instead of trendy. The second Tino walked into the apartment on the top floor, he knew Maria wasn’t just hanging out for the weekend.

Everything about it was soft but in an earnest, comforting way that made Tino rock hard. The windows were open, letting the summer breeze blow in. There were flowers on the windowsill, and they perfumed the air that was still humid from all the rain.

Tino wanted to fucking die here.

That was how beautiful it was.

It wasn’t a huge place, maybe two bedrooms, but the white furniture against the turn-of-the-century parquet wood floors made it look open and airy. Tino remodeled brownstones on a regular basis, and this was next-level shit simply because it all felt so natural. Safe. Feminine.

He didn’t have to ask who decorated it.

Only a true Lost Girl could do something like this.

“ Madonn’ ,” he whispered in awe, temporarily forgetting his laundry list of problems.

“Sexy, right?” Tony agreed, like he got it completely. “It even smells top shelf, like the setting for an Italian film. Expensive perfume, coconut oil, dark roast coffee, and sometimes garlic.”

Tino turned to look at Tony in sympathy. “What do you do for the Savios?”

Tony winced. “Mostly this.”

Maria walked in from the bedroom, wearing a black silk robe. She was summer tan, her skin glowing like she had just come in from lying out on the roof. Her honey-brown hair hung down her back in soft curls, and like the apartment, she looked very bright and beautiful in the afternoon sun.

“Look at who the cat dragged in. Hey, stranger.” Maria carried the scent of sunscreen when she hugged Tino, holding him close. She pressed a kiss against the curve of his neck and sniffed. “You smell, and it’s not a compliment.”

“I’ve been sweating a little.” Tino kissed her cheek. “I like your siren’s cave. Legit. It makes me wanna hand you my money clip.”

“Yeah?” She gave him a wide, pleased smile, her brown eyes sparkling. “I went less glitter, more soft filter. Vulnerable but classy. I’m looking for old-school New York. Someone a little more mature, like Cary Grant or early nineties De Niro.”

“Catch anything interesting?”

“He scares away all the big fish.” Maria sent a glare at Tony. “Why do you look awful?” She slipped her hand inside Tino’s jacket and gripped his shoulder. “My God, you’re shaking. Tell mama.”

Tino opened his mouth, but the words couldn’t come out.

He just couldn’t say it again.

“Aren’t you talking to your friends?” Tino asked her incredulously, and he turned to look back at Tony. “How did you not hear? I know they’re talking.”

“We’re on a break from our friends.” Tony gave Tino a wide-eyed look. “Trying to avoid old habits .”

“I’m on a cleanse. Totally willing, doing it myself,” Maria admitted, sounding unapologetic. “My father still pays him to keep me in line and block all unsavory phone numbers while I’m sleeping.”

“Kiss my ass, Maria,” Tony growled, sounding like it was something he was sick to death of discussing. “You should not be this pissed off about it. The cleanse is making you a cunt. I was blocking your unsavory phone numbers for a long time before your father got involved.”