Page 66 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)

“I swear to God.” Brianna rounded on Carina. “Get fucking lost. Give me a goddamn moment with him.”

Carina looked back at her and just said slowly, “No.”

Brianna held up her hands and felt tears stinging her eyes. She couldn’t stop it when they rolled down her cheeks. She wiped at them, feeling embarrassed. “This medicine they’re giving me is making me shaky, and?—”

“Hey.” Tino hugged her, pulling Brianna tight against him. “Don’t cry.”

She buried her face in his chest and clung to his jacket. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t get yourself upset about it.” Tino kissed the top of her head. “It’s not worth it, okay? I’m not worth it.”

“You look really worn out.” She pulled back to caress his hair once more, but again, he jerked away rather than let her touch him. “Please don’t do that. I don’t like when you do that.”

Tino looked to Carina and then untangled himself from Brainna, unwrapping her arms from him as he took a step back. He swallowed hard and then asked, “Are you gonna be okay?”

She nodded and wiped at her cheeks. “They’re just keeping me an extra day for observation, and then I can go home. They said I can follow up with Dr. Acciai.”

Tino rolled his eyes and whispered, “Maybe he’ll write you a script.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “Just handy to have a mob doctor in your pocket.”

Brianna looked at the open door because she couldn’t believe he’d said that out loud in a public place. “Tino?—”

“I’m fine,” he answered before she could ask. “It’s just been a long couple of days.”

“I know you haven’t slept,” Brianna understood, and then looked to Carina accusingly. “And you’re?—”

“I slept,” Tino said before she could give Carina shit.

“I passed out in the kitchen of one of Carlo’s safe houses looking for blow and slept for about ten hours.

Then, luckily, I found it under the grate of the refrigerator when I woke up on the floor, and I’ve been pretty successfully strung out since then. ”

Brianna just looked at him, and then glanced at Carina, who looked as horrified as she felt.

“Keep her away from me,” Tino said to Carina, and then turned around and stormed out.

“Tino!” Brianna shouted. “Don’t you dare leave!”

“I’m leaving.” Tino snapped his fingers when he got to the door and barked, “Let’s go.”

Tony followed him, no questions asked, and the two of them disappeared down the hallway.

“No! Tino!” Brianna tried to get up, but Carina was suddenly everywhere, fighting to keep her in the bed, holding her shoulders down, and the IV was making it so much more difficult to fight her. “Stop!”

“You can’t help him!” Carina got in her face and shook her. “Let him go.”

“I’m bigger than you!” She threw out her chest and shoved Carina too hard, making her crash to the ground and take the chair down with her.

Unfortunately, Carina’s hand was caught on the IV, and she yanked it right out of Brianna’s arm.

“Fuck!” Brianna grabbed the inside of her good arm when blood started gushing from the wound.

“Are you shitting me? Go fucking get him, Carina! Go stop him.”

“I’m sorry, okay. I really am.” Carina jumped back up and pushed the button to call the nurse. “You gotta chill out. They could call the cops or something.”

“I know that.” Brianna clasped her arm tighter, digging her nails into her skin as tears streamed down her face. “I know that. Oh my God.”

She started hyperventilating and fighting to keep from completely falling apart. The tears streamed down her face. There was no way to stop them as she tried not to look insane when the nurse came running in.

“Oh no, what happened?” the older nurse asked. “Why’d you do that?”

“It was an accident, um…” She dug her fingernails into her arm harder, sick to death of bleeding. “I, uh?—”

“I did it,” Carina said quickly. “I tripped while I was hugging her and pulled it out without meaning to.” She grabbed Brianna and hugged her tightly. “I’m sorry.” She started sobbing, too, her entire body shaking. “I’m really sorry. I’m so sorry, Bri.”

Brianna lost it then and just completely fell apart.

“This is not that big of a drama,” the nurse told both of them as they sat there, clinging to each other and crying like their world was ending. “Is this about those boys I saw walking out of here?”

Brianna just nodded because there was no way she could deny it. “Yes,” she whispered and sobbed harder. “I-I think my boyfriend just broke up with me.”

“Awww, sweetie. I hate to see you young girls always getting so worked up and hurt over these boys. You just hand your heart over and let them stomp all over it.” She touched the top of Brianna’s head. “There’s plenty of other fish in the sea.”

Brianna shook her head, and the entire room was blurry as she tried to see through the tears. “No.”

“One day, you’ll understand. None of them are worth all these tears.

” The nurse sighed and went to get some medical supplies from a cabinet over the sink.

“You’ve got yourself a nice friend there crying with you.

” She pulled on some plastic gloves. “That’s what you can count on.

At the end of the day, that’s all we women have, each other.

” The nurse started grabbing things out of the cabinet and setting them by the sink.

“I’ve lived a long time, and that’s the one thing I can tell you for sure.

Your kids, your boyfriends, your husbands, they’ll all let you down eventually, but your girlfriends, they’ll be the ones to stand by you.

Real friends will hang around a lot longer than some boy will, that’s for sure. ”

“It’s true,” Carina whispered and hugged Brianna tighter. “I love you. I will always love you. Until the end of time, okay?”

Brianna nodded, tears still streaming down her face, but she took a shuddering breath and tried to talk herself down. “It’s going to be okay. He’ll get some rest, and he’ll get over his shit. He’s just being like this cause of what’s happened, and?—”

“Let me see your arm,” the nurse coaxed as she walked over with her supplies to start another IV line.

Brianna lifted her hand where she’d been clutching at the bleeding wound.

She saw that she left bloody half-moon prints from her fingernails on the sides, and the nurse shook her head.

“You’re all wound up. Look at what you did here. ”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Brianna whispered and looked at her bloody hand. She couldn’t even wipe her face. “I’m not usually like this. We had a close friend who died earlier this week, and it’s been really upsetting. Now this.”

“That’s a lot,” the nurse agreed and started cleaning Brianna’s bloody arm with alcohol wipes. “Who’s your guy? The tall one or the other one in the leather jacket.”

“The one in the leather jacket.”

“I was afraid of that. I noticed him when he walked in. I noticed both of them, but him especially.” The nurse sighed, still wiping up Brianna’s arm. “You found yourself a tough one, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Brianna admitted. “But he’s really sweet, too. And funny. He loves me. He just has a lot going on right now.”

“I know, I was young once. It’s all exciting and fun until it isn’t.” She turned away from Brianna’s arm and started opening up the package that held a fresh IV needle. “I’ll give you some free advice. You want to hear it?”

Brianna shrugged and tried to turn her head to wipe her face on her hospital gown sleeve. “Okay.”

“You’re getting yourself all worked up over that chocolate sundae in a leather jacket, but you know, in the long run, no matter how good it tastes, a guy like that will just hurt you,” the nurse explained as she tied a tourniquet around Brianna’s arm. “What you need is broccoli.”

“What?” Carina asked from behind her as she watched the nurse fix Brianna’s arm.

“Help your friend find herself a good piece of broccoli. She’s a pretty girl.

She’ll have no problem getting a nice, low-key man with a dependable job that has good benefits.

” She smiled at Brianna and patted her arm.

“Don’t get caught up in looks and excitement.

Just find an average, hard-working guy who will worship the ground you walk on and treat you right when you end up hurt and in the hospital. You understand, sweetie?”

“I don’t even know any broccoli,” Brianna whispered and hissed when the nurse stabbed her with the needle. “And I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I found it. They’re all chocolate sundaes.”

The nurse looked back to Carina.

“It’s true,” Carina confirmed and wiped at her cheeks again. “We got a real chocolate sundae problem going on in our social circle. There’s no broccoli anywhere.”

“Well, sounds like it’s time to get you a new social circle.

” The nurse finished with the IV and started gathering all her discarded supplies.

“Until then, Dr. Acciai wrote you a prescription for something that should let you sleep a little. At the very least, it’ll help you calm down while you work on getting over the chocolate sundae in the leather jacket. Sound good?”

Brianna just nodded. “I guess so.”

“I’ll go get it,” the nurse offered as she walked to the door.

“He called that,” Carina whispered under her breath when the nurse left.

Brianna looked at her. “What?”

“Nothing.” Carina just shook her head and sighed. “Maybe we do need a new social circle. This is all so fucked, Bri, in a very real way.”

“He’s gonna get over his shit.” Brianna felt confident about it the longer she thought about it. “Lola dying scared him, but?—”

“This isn’t about Lola dying. This has been going on a lot longer than that. Tino has some massive issues that you can’t fix no matter how badly you want to,” Carina said softly. “You’ll just drown with him if it goes on any longer.”

“That’s not true. You don’t understand how it is with us. I do help him.”

“It’s hurting him, too.” Carina’s voice cracked as she said it. “He doesn’t want you to see him like this. He doesn’t want this life to burn you this badly. I don’t either. It’s all just… awful.”

“He’s gonna get over his shit,” Brianna decided for both of them. “And things can go back to the way they were, and we’ll just figure it out together, like we always do.”

The nurse came back in before Brianna could argue more. She watched the nurse put whatever medicine Dr. Acciai thought she needed into the IV.

Brianna looked to Carina. “Maybe you can call Nova while I take a nap.”

“There you go, sweetie.” The nurse patted her shoulder. “A nap’s a good idea. Stop worrying over things and try to rest.”

“Thank you.” Brianna turned back to Carina as the nurse walked out of the room. “Nova needs to know Tino’s having such a hard time.” She dropped her voice and whispered, “He’s been through too much. He could overdose on accident.”

“Tino is an addict, Bri, and behind you, Nova is Tino’s number two enabler. He knows he’s having issues,” Carina reminded her in a harsh whisper. “Besides, Nova hates me, remember? He blames me for Carlo.”

“Don’t say that about Tino,” Brianna snapped. “And Carlo was my fault. Maybe that’s why he left me here.”

She swallowed hard.

It felt like it did when her father left, only a thousand times more painful. All of a sudden, she couldn’t hide how badly it hurt that he walked out. “I didn’t want him to leave me here when I’m sick.” More tears rolled down her cheeks. “I wouldn’t do that to him.”

“Jesus Christ.” Carina picked up the chair she had knocked over. She sat down heavily and buried her face in her hands. “I hope I never find a dick that makes me this stupid.”

“Fuck you.” Brianna tried to sound fierce when she said it, but her words were noticeably slurred. She opened her eyes, shocked when she realized how fucked up she was. “Oh, holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Carina just agreed, giving her a dark look. “Good ol Dr. Acciai.”

That was the last thing Brianna remembered.

She passed out cold.