Page 62 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

T ino sat on the stairs fifteen minutes later, staring out into the darkness past the blown-open front door.

He was technically doing his job, guarding the door.

Needing something to do with his hands, he started playing with his gun, looking at his last bullet before sliding it back into the chamber.

Over and over. Staring at that last bullet and then loading it again.

Tony leaned against the railing, very calm all things considered. He just silently let Tino deal with his shit.

Tino couldn’t stop seeing Brianna passed out on the basement floor, bleeding out, just like Lola had.

“Are you sure?” Tino asked Tony distantly.

“I’m sure,” Tony promised him for what had to be the fifteenth time. “She’s gonna live.”

Tino nodded because Nova said the same thing.

And if Nova said it, then it was probably true, but still…

He might have asked one more time, but Nova showed up, half-dragging Carmen with him. Things seemed tense between them.

Nova was noticeably pale and looked like he might drop right where he stood.

It was unnerving. Tino couldn’t ever remember Nova getting sick or injured enough for it to actually take him down a notch, not once in their entire lifetimes.

With the exception of his nervous stomach, Nova had always been very immune to shit like that.

Even if he was ill or hurt, it didn’t show because of his high pain tolerance.

It scared Tino.

It made him feel like his world was falling apart.

Even Nova was down.

They were all fucked—for real.

“Boss, you’re looking rough.” Tony sounded concerned, too. “I’m serious, you don’t look well at all.”

“That’s because I’m not well, Tony.” Nova sat one stair below Tino and took a deep breath.

Then he actually leaned back, stretching out over the staircase like even sitting was too hard.

Tino moved over to give him room while Nova sprawled out and breathed through the horrors of the week. “I got shot a couple of days ago.”

Tony eyes grew wide. “Are you serious?”

“Nova,” Carmen barked at the same time.

“It doesn’t fucking matter at this point.” Nova seemed to give up on all of it. He pulled down the white undershirt he was wearing to show Tony the large bandage on his chest.

“You’re bleeding again. It’s going to stain your shirt.” Carmen sat next to him and placed her hand over the bandage, like her touch alone could heal him. “You need rest, bello.”

“Yeah, right.” He just snorted. “Not in this Borgata.”

“Who shot you?” Tony asked, though he looked hesitant. “You don’t have to tell me. I’m just asking ’cause maybe I can help, and?—”

“A Brambino got me,” Nova explained before Tony could finish. “He was protecting Carmen in the strip club she was working at in Tampa, and he took issue with me walking out the door with her.”

“In Tampa?” Tony’s voice got dangerous all of a sudden. “Carmen?—”

“I told him,” Carmen whispered before he could finish.

“Told him what?” Tino turned and looked from Carmen to Tony. “What don’t I know?”

Tony ignored him as he stared at Nova in concern. “You’re in a world of shit, Zu.”

“Yeah, seems like it.” Nova, still sprawled out and breathing through the obvious pain, looked at Tony seriously. “You still want that job?”

Tony nodded. “Absolutely.”

“You sure?” Nova raised his eyebrows pointedly. “I don’t know when, but this could all get very deep—way deeper than what you’re looking at right now.”

“I understand.” Tony sounded sure about it. “I probably get it more than you.”

“Yeah, you probably do.” Nova sat up and grabbed Carmen’s hand, which she had on his chest, as though she was willing him to heal faster. He kissed the inside of her wrist and then looked back to Tony. “An enforcer job just opened up. If it’s cool with Tino, it’s cool with me.”

Tino’s gut clenched. He hated it for Tony, so much so that he could hardly breathe, but he also understood that if Nova made the offer, it would be his only choice.

“He saw too much.” Tino choked on the words. “But you got him a pass from the Don downstairs.” He knew it was true because it had happened once before. “All he’s gotta do is be an enforcer. He’s dead if he doesn’t agree to take it.”

Nova nodded. “Yup.”

“I fucked you, Tony. You were living the good life with Maria, and I fucked it all up by calling you.” Tino closed his eyes and leaned over, pressing his forehead against his knees. “It’s as bad as killing Brianna. It could be worse.”

“She’s not dead,” Nova whispered softly. “She’ll live, Tino. They’ll stitch up her arm and give her some blood. She’ll probably be home in a day or two.”

Tony sighed. “I’ve been telling him that.”

“I should’ve let them take me down.” Tino felt the tears sting his eyes when he thought about the dark reality his brother had signed him up for at seventeen to save his life.

Now, it was Tony’s reality, too. Tino was guilty of the same sin just to keep himself out of lock-up, and there was nothing he could do about it.

“I ruined everything by calling you. I wrecked your whole fucking life—just like that.”

Nova reached over and squeezed Tino’s arm like he understood. “Were the Feds really tracking him?”

“Yeah, it was the Feds for sure,” Tony assured Nova while Tino kept his head bowed in mourning. “He’s not bullshitting. I barely got him out of it. He should be in lock-up right now.”

“Well, something’s not adding up. If they were tracking Tino, why weren’t they watching this place when all these motherfucking Brambino’s showed up and ran into Tino’s 9mm?”

“The Feds have to be in someone’s pocket.

” Tony sounded confident about it. “I think someone wanted to make sure Tino wasn’t here when the Brambinos went after you.

Outside this Borgata, people talk about him—both Tino and your uncle make other gangsters very nervous.

I’m sure they wanted him in lock-up before they raided this place. It just didn’t work out for them.”

“But how would they know Tino was capable of something like this?” Nova argued. “I didn’t know, and I’m his brother. No one in this Borgata knew.” He glanced to Tony. “How many did you get?”

“None.” Tony gave him a wide-eyed look. “He did that shit all by himself.”

“Seriously, what the fuck, Valentino?” Nova looked up at him in stunned disbelief. “Did you kill all those guys with one weapon? ’Cause I don’t see any others on you.”

“Yeah, I just had the one from Tampa. I left in a rush, and I haven’t had time to grab more.

I didn’t even have a second clip,” Tino explained, thinking of the dead Brambino gangster upstairs who blew through his whole clip shooting at a door, hoping to hit something.

“I was careful with my ammunition, and I had Tony with me as backup.”

“The Don didn’t know you were that good. Monte didn’t either.” Nova still looked genuinely stunned. “You just changed the game.”

“I did?” Tino scowled, not fully understanding. “That’s some shit, Casanova. What the fuck do all you accountants assume we’re doing when you give us a job? You think your problems just disappear by magic?”

“It’s not a secret that the Morettis have dangerous enforcers,” Tony assured all of them.

“Even if you guys didn’t know it, everyone else does, and I am sure if the Brambinos were planning an attack, they’d want Tino in lock-up.

They have a lot of powerful people backing them up behind the scenes.

Think of all the blackmail material the Brambinos have.

They rent kids to a lot of government officials and powerful businessmen.

That’s their biggest game, and they are very good at it.

” Tony looked at Carmen and arched an eyebrow.

“Two guesses who it was this time. You know he helps them, and he has a lot of connections with the Feds.”

Carmen nodded but didn’t say anything.

“Either tell me or stop fucking talking about it in front of me.” Tino barked at all of them. “Because there’s clearly shit I don’t know.”

Tino had been in Cosa Nostra enough to understand how it all worked. There were lots of things Nova did that Tino didn’t know about, and there was even more shit Tino took care of that Nova was in the dark over.

It was by design.

To protect each other—and the Borgata—and the entirety of Cosa Nostra above that. Good in theory, but Tino was starting to think all these generations’ old Cosa Nostra rules weren’t working the way other gangsters thought they did, not anymore.

The four of them sat there, the blood of three very different Borgatas running through their veins, and it was obvious they were way more loyal to each other than to their own families.

Even if Tino didn’t know everything, he knew that much.

“You gotta make your bones, Tony. If you’re going to be an enforcer for us, you need to be a made man,” Nova whispered instead of confessing whatever secret the three of them were harboring. “The Don’s waiting downstairs. Sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Tony shrugged like it was no big thing. “I’m the one who asked you to open the books. I’m not new. I understood what I was asking for.”

“You didn’t want to be an enforcer, though. No one wants this job. It’s the worst fucking job in the Borgata.” Tino shook his head and whispered, “Take the bullet, Tony.”

“Valentino,” Nova snarled. “Shut the fuck up.”

“I’m not kidding. I know you’re loyal to the Zu, but still…” He looked Tony dead in the eye, knowing he was one of the few people in this world who understood exactly what he was saying when he promised, “Eating dog food is better than this job.”

Carmen flinched, but Tony didn’t.

“I’m great at eating dog food,” he said confidently. Then he fell down on his knees right there in front of Nova as he sat on the stairs. He grabbed Nova’s hand and kissed it as though a ring was there. “I’d follow you anywhere, boss.”