Page 57 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

B efore Nova could say more, something made him jerk, and he wiped at his forehead with the quick, paranoid action of a man under attack. He stared at his fingers, using the phone to illuminate them.

Next, he shined the light toward the inside of the chute and choked out in horror, “Minchia, Carina?—”

“It’s not me,” Carina whispered quickly.

“It’s me.” Brianna sighed. “I think it was a nail.”

Nova was still shining the phone around the inside of the laundry chute, studying the dark stains against the tan wood. “This is a lotta blood for a nail. Where’d it get you?

“On the inside of my upper arm.”

“You have to come down.” Nova peered up at them again, the blue light making his features ominous and intimidating. “Right now.”

“There are Brambinos up here. It’s not the NYPD. It was a trick,” Brianna warned him fearfully. “We heard them in the closets.”

“I realize that. Do you know how many?”

“Like five or six at least.” Carina’s voice was still quivering, which showed exactly how terrified she was.

“That’s it?”

“That’s enough,” Carina barked incredulously. “We have no weapons. We dumped the whole house. We’re fucked.”

“We have weapons down here. We’re not fucked,” Nova said with the first piece of good news. “Grazie, bella.” He turned away for a second, then dropped something onto the bottom of the laundry chute. “We’re padding it just in case you slip. Start crawling down. Hurry.”

“I hear something.” Carmen’s voice echoed in warning from somewhere in the basement.

“Merda.” Nova had a brief moment of indecision before he said in a rushed whisper, “Carmen, help them. I’ll watch the door. Turn off the lamp again.”

The dim light from the basement went out. Nova set the phone down, leaving a beam of blue shining up at them. Carina’s face was cast in eerie shadows, but Brianna could see the whites of her eyes, wide and terrified in the darkness.

Still, Carina decided for both of them, “We’re doing this.”

Brianna nodded with her. “I’m not going down yet—not over a fucking nail.”

Carina let out a short, desperate sort of laugh and then jumped when the sound of gunshots resonated up from the basement. Brianna jumped with her, and for one long moment, they were both frozen in fear. Carina hugged Brianna tighter, her entire body shaking.

“Ignore it. Focus on your own problems,” Carmen coaxed once it was quiet again. “Start crawling down.”

There really wasn’t anything they could do about Nova and the gunshots while the two of them were stuck in this laundry chute, so Brianna decided to trust Carmen.

She took her feet off the ledge on the other side of the Don’s closet and braced them in the corners of the laundry chute.

“That’s it.” Carmen was still shining the burner phone up at them. “You can make it.”

Brianna’s arm was still stabbing her with every small movement, and she stopped trying to use it.

Instead, she utilized her back muscles and leg power to slowly inch her way down.

She tried to ignore how suffocated and trapped she felt, but on some level, Brianna was sure a fear of small places was being planted in her mind to haunt her later if they lived through this nightmare.

She steadied herself with her good hand, still carefully sliding down, and it worked for the most part. It was just very slow work.

Carmen caught Brianna’s ankle once she could reach her. “You’re almost there.”

Brianna was close enough to drop down the rest of the way, and she rested her feet against the ledge above the opening, trying to figure out how she was going to do this with one bad arm.

Carmen touched her thigh and said, “Go ahead and drop your legs down. You’re okay now.”

Brianna realized there was no graceful way to do this. Falling that short of a distance wouldn’t kill her. The arm situation felt more important, but it still wasn’t easy.

She dropped her left foot, braced her right arm harder against the wall, and realized she couldn’t do it. “I think you have to help me. I can’t use my other arm, something’s stabbing it, and?—”

“It’s okay.” Carmen wrapped one hand around Brianna’s left hip. “I’ll help you.”

“I’m bleeding everywhere,” Brianna argued.

“So, bleed on me.” Carmen sounded like she meant it. “I got you, pretty girl.”

It was awkward when Brianna dropped her other foot. She had no choice but to let Carmen bear a large part of her weight, but in that one instant, Brianna realized the other woman was incredibly strong and decided to give in and let her do the work.

Carmen helped her land on the blankets far more gracefully than she would have on her own.

The laundry chute ended in one of the large cabinets next to the washing machine.

When Brianna peered into the darkened basement, she realized she was about three and a half feet off the ground.

Carmen had been standing on a stool and stepped down to give Brianna room.

Before Brianna could jump, a beam of light lit up the basement when the door opened.

Kneeling there, she had a perfect view of the stairs and tensed with fear.

She saw two men and one gun.

The dim light, shadows, and pain made it hard to sort out the other information.

At first, she thought Nova was the one in trouble.

He was the one being forced against the wall, choking and grunting in pain.

There was just no way Nova could be the other guy.

It was the way he had the gun jammed against the back of the other man’s neck, hard and punishing.

A part of her mind couldn’t accept it, because she knew instinctively that he was a genuine killer.

“I will kill you, motherfucker,” he growled at the bleeding gangster as he pulled the door shut, casting them into near darkness. “I’ll shoot you and leave you dead on the stairs if you even remotely irritate me because I don’t have time to babysit. Do you understand?”

Standing there in the darkness, Carmen grabbed Brianna’s foot and whispered, “Jump, sweetheart,” sounding unconcerned about the villain in the basement.

In those three seconds, Brianna realized Nova was the one holding the gun. He was the dangerous one—the killer.

Brianna jumped down and nearly busted her ass on the cement floor because her sneakers were bloody. Carmen caught her and whispered, “Are you okay?”

Brianna just looked at her.

Carmen gave Brianna a sad smile. “Yeah, I hear you.” She guided her over to a spot next to the washing machine. “Sit.”

Brianna sat heavily, feeling disgusting, sweaty, and bloody.

Carmen stepped back over to the laundry chute and called up, “Come down.”

“Already working on it.” Carina’s voice echoed from above.

Brianna was glad for the darkness. She had an excuse to ignore her arm. Then Carmen ruined it by running over to the bedroom and flipping on the lamp, allowing enough light to prevent them from tripping and falling, but still keeping the basement dark from upstairs.

“Take your shirt off,” Nova told the guy when the two men got to the bottom of the stairs. “Pants, too.”

The other gangster took off his shirt, showing off a cut, athletic body. He was pale, and the blood on his chest made him seem all the more pallid. It appeared he was shot in the shoulder, but it was hard to tell. Taking the shirt off had to be agony, but he managed it somehow.

Nova wasn’t impressed by the feat. He simply told the guy, “Shove it in your mouth, and if I see you take it out, I’m killing you. Pants off.”

When the other man started untying his shoes, Brianna turned back to watch Carmen help Carina down rather than have to see the man’s humiliation.

“Are you going to freak out?” Nova asked harshly.

Brianna glanced back when she realized Nova was talking to her. He gave her a side-eyed look with the gun still leveled at the gangster shoving his shirt in his mouth.

Brianna shook her head a little too quickly. “No.”

“Good, because you can’t freak out. It’s not an option at this point.

Remember, they attacked us first. You think they’d care if you’re a woman?

You think they’d cut you a break? ’Cause they wouldn’t.

They came here to kill all of us.” Nova turned back to the guy and held up his left hand in disbelief. “Were the instructions too difficult?”

When the Brambino gangster kicked off his shoes and took off his pants, Brianna saw another gun strapped to his leg.

A gold watch spilled out on the floor from one of his pockets, and Brianna realized he’d been the one robbing the Don’s closet upstairs.

He didn’t even hesitate to unstrap the gun and hand it to Nova.

It was easily the most uncomfortable, awkward exchange she had ever witnessed.

Brianna looked away again. This time, she spied the body lying on the floor on the other side of the stairs and whispered, “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.”

Now she knew where Nova got the weapons.

She turned away quickly from the dead man, but she saw enough. It looked like his skull was crushed. She found herself searching for whatever did that and spotted the fire extinguisher next to her.

It was still bloody.

She scooted away from it.

Brianna stared up at her best friend with wide eyes when she appeared in the cabinet next to the washer.

Carina met her gaze as she took in the carnage of the basement and said in a low, deadpan voice to her brother, “I see you’ve been doing your Zu thing down here. Feeling better?”

“No, princess, I’m not feeling better,” Nova countered without missing a beat. “I feel like fucking merda right now. Would you rather surrender because I might be game at this point?”

“I didn’t say we don’t appreciate the Zu thing,” Carina mumbled as she stepped around the bloody extinguisher. She sat next to Brianna and tilted her head to look at her arm. “Damn, Bri.”

“Is it gross?” Brianna asked fearfully, feeling a little self-absorbed, considering everything else going on.

“No,” Carina squeaked. “I think it’s just bleeding worse than it is.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Brianna hissed at her. “Are you lying to me right now? For real?”

Carina met Brianna’s narrowed gaze with a wince. “It’s pretty gross.”

“How gross? On a scale from one to ten?” Brianna pushed, thinking about her dancing career probably more than she should.

Carina grabbed her elbow and looked at it again. “Maybe a seven.” She studied the upper part of her bicep, obviously trying to get a better grasp of the situation. “It looks like there’s something?—”

Carina stopped talking at the sound of the elevator cranking down from above.

“There’s a guy in the garages,” Carina warned Nova quickly, as though only just thinking of it. “We heard them talking about him upstairs.”

“You didn’t think to tell me that?” Nova ran toward the elevator but stopped to point at the guy in the corner. “Carmen, watch him.”

Carmen didn’t need to be told twice. She pulled a gun from the back of her shorts and walked over to the gangster sitting there in his underwear with wide, terrified eyes.

She pointed it at him, but she kept glancing toward the elevator door. It looked like simple wood paneling, except for the grinding sound from the other side.

Nova stood against the wall. He kept his gun pointed at the closed door to the hidden elevator.

He wore suit pants and the purple dress shirt, as though he got dressed very quickly when he heard them bust in upstairs.

No tie. The shirt was unbuttoned down to the third button, enough to see he was wearing a white undershirt beneath it.

Even with it, Nova was obviously still sweating.

Hard.

It glistened on his forehead and was staining his shirt.

His foot was shaking, reminding Brianna of Tino, especially when he looked toward her and Carina and held up a finger. He mouthed, “ One? ”

Carina held up one finger and agreed softly, “Just one.”

Nova nodded and got very still when the elevator clunked to the basement.

They all did.

For that one brief moment, between when it stopped and the elevator slid open, Brianna didn’t think any of them took a breath.

Nova stayed against the wall so that he was the last thing visible as the door slid open.

They were all waiting for it, but Brianna still gasped when she saw the very tall, broad, and menacing man standing there, and she wasn’t the only one.

Carina did too, and the response was instant.

The stranger in the elevator turned, pointing his gun at them, which was why he didn’t see Nova.

Nova shoved his 9mm right against the back of his neck.

He might have even pulled the trigger… if a second man in the elevator they hadn’t anticipated stepped forward. The other gangster had been hiding the same as Nova, waiting for the door to completely slide back before revealing himself.