Page 80 of The Enforcer’s Revenge (Untamed Hearts #4)
CHAPTER ONE
East Harlem (El Barrio), New York
C huito Garcia sat in front of the large, flat-screen television in the penthouse living room of Nova Moretti, the underboss of one of the world's largest and most powerful crime families.
From his place on the couch, Chuito could see the amazing view of Central Park.
The best Italian mob money could buy. Chuito’s wife Alaine still hadn’t stopped commenting on how breathtaking it was, especially on clear nights like tonight.
The lights of the city sparkled back at him, looking like a scene out of a movie.
It was an incredible view, but after two weeks of being stuck in this building, Chuito was officially sick of it.
He was watching a telenovela, an old one that had been his Tía’s favorite back in the day. In the past week or so, he started to become invested in the storylines like his mother and Tía used to. He even called his mother yesterday to talk about it.
Now, his mother was convinced that New York City was making Chuito soft.
And maybe it was.
He jumped when Tony De Luca fell heavily onto the couch next to him.
Chuito looked over at him, sitting there in his black leather jacket and jeans.
This motherfucker packed constantly. Chuito had been a gangster since he was thirteen, and he’d never met anyone in all that time who was more consistently prepared for an incoming war than Tony De Luca.
Chuito had never seen him without at least one gun strapped to his body. Tonight, he had two 9 mms in twin shoulder holsters, one on each side, even though it was ten at night and Chuito was already dressed for bed in sweatpants and a t-shirt.
They all were.
Nova and Alaine were also super casual, wearing sweatpants and old T-shirts.
This night wasn’t different than any other night this week since Alaine was crash-studying to take the New York bar exam.
Nova had pre-paid Alaine to be his exclusive attorney, but she had to pass the bar first, and they discovered that Nova genuinely loved studying for exams, especially ones about New York law.
At first, Chuito was a little suspicious about Nova’s passion for helping Alaine. Nova was a player—a very good one.
And Alaine was too hot for her own good, but it turned out that Nova just really liked helping people study. Chuito suspected it distracted him from worrying about his brother Tino, which made sense. Chuito and Alaine were worried about him too.
Everyone was.
Tino’s ex-girlfriend, Brianna, was also beside herself since she was holed up with them, waiting for a mafia war that may or may not happen, depending on the cards Tino and his grandfather played.
There was a lot of shit to stress over.
As a distraction, Alaine and Chuito developed a habit of hanging out in Nova’s apartment at night. They ate dinner, usually take-out, but sometimes Chuito cooked for everyone since he was bored as fuck.
Then Nova and Alaine would study.
And Chuito would watch his telenovela.
They’d wait for Brianna and Tony to get home from the theater after the final performance, mainly to make sure they were still alive. Then, they’d all go to sleep and start over the next day.
Only Brianna and Tony came home from the theater early today after learning from the police that Tino killed Brianna’s husband by crushing him under his own car—which was insanely well played—even for Tino.
Chuito thought he might just be the best professional killer on the planet because, cono , that was very good.
The cops assumed it was an accident, but Chuito knew the truth, considering Brianna’s husband had tried to kill her a few weeks ago.
She still had healing bruises from the attack, and Chuito was honestly surprised it took this long for that pendejo to end up dead.
Brianna had gone to bed early since it had been a hard day for her.
Now here they were.
Tony was a working mafia enforcer. Most of the time, the weapons made sense.
He took off a lot for work, but it seemed like he was done for the night and apparently had nothing left to do but sit next to Chuito.
Also unusual, since Tony did have an apartment downstairs that he could hang out in, but whatever.
Chuito kept watching his stories.
The episode ended, and a new one started since Nova owned all the episodes. That was the reason Chuito started watching it in the first place. He couldn’t believe Nova owned every episode, and Chuito turned it on for the novelty. Now he was too caught up with it to quit.
Tony stayed where he was, extremely casual, with his arm over the back of the couch. Chuito turned to look at him as the intro music to the next episode played. Tony was still wearing the makeup from earlier, and Chuito had the same thought he had a lot lately.
Tony De Luca was a very different kind of muchacho.
“?Hablas Espanol?” Chuito asked him curiously.
Tony shook his head. “Nope.”
Chuito gave him a look because he didn’t have the subtitles on. “You’re not bored?”
“They all got nice tits.” Tony shrugged. “I don’t need to know what they’re saying.”
Chuito kept staring at him, studying the makeup again. “Do you like tits?”
“Yeah, I like tits alright.” Tony looked over at him. “Do you?”
“Obviously, I do.” Chuito reminded him, “I just got married.”
“I think you’re talking about pussy, not tits.” Tony gave him another side-eyed look. “’Cause if you were a tit man, you would’ve married someone different.”
“What the fuck?” Chuito gaped, unable to believe he heard him right. “Are you insulting my wife’s tits?”
“No.” Tony laughed. “But she does have tiny titties, and tit men love the great big ones.” He held out his hands in front of him, cupping large, imaginary breasts. “That’s not her.”
“What the hell are you doing staring at my wife’s tits?” Chuito growled at him.
“Are you for real?” Tony gave him an annoyed look. “You are the most normie motherfucker in the history of normie motherfuckers. How the fuck are you and Tino friends? I don’t get it.”
“How the fuck are you and Tino friends?” Chuito barked back because he had been wondering.
“What I can’t figure out is, what is your job here?” Tony asked him. “Like seriously, bro, I don’t know what they’re paying you for. As far as I can tell, you just hang out watching titties all day and sometimes make the Zu dinner.”
Chuito opened his mouth to argue when he realized Tony had a good point. That was what he’d been doing for days now. Watching television and sometimes cooking.
“What do you bring to the party?” Tony went on when Chuito didn’t answer him. “Why are you and Tino such good friends? He’d kill a motherfucker for you—he did kill a motherfucker for you—a lot of them. I know because I’m the one who got rid of the bodies.”
Chuito looked behind him, making sure Alaine hadn’t walked in from the office. “I said I was sorry,” he whispered and then took a page out of Nova’s book by reminding him, “And I paid you for that.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the bodies. That’s my job,” Tony snapped, making Chuito feel like he missed the point entirely. “I just want to know why Tino is so fucking loyal to you? What’d you do to deserve it?”
Chuito considered that question, knowing the answer immediately.
He helped Tino get clean.
But he couldn’t tell Tony that.
“I helped him with something once,” Chuito explained with a warning glare not to ask more questions. “That’s it.”
“Well, it must’ve been a fucking spectacular favor,” Tony decided.
“’Cause I’m pretty sure killing someone after he’s been out for over two years would make Tino want to go right back on blow.
To say nothing of several someones, and now one more with Brianna’s cunt husband. That was a lot for Tino to risk.”
Chuito felt an icy cold rush of fear wash over him. “You’re worried he’s back on blow?”
“I’m just saying that was dangerous after a lotta people sacrificed a lotta shit to help Tino get clean,” Tony explained and gave him another hard look.
“The Zu’s been all alone all this time, and Tino’s his right hand—for real.
I don’t think you realize how important Tino is to our entire organization. We need him.”
“I know he’s important,” Chuito argued. “I get it.”
“You think so? ‘Cause I don’t. You’re completely in the dark about a lot of shit. You only know normie Tino, but there’s a whole side of him you haven’t even met yet. He keeps his life very divided—too divided. There’s a real gangster hiding under that mask he was wearing in Kentucky.”
“I know that too,” Chuito assured him. “I’ve always known. I picked up on it the first day I met him.”
“We’re talking about a motherfucker who always made sure the Zu got what he needed, and he didn’t ask for permission before he did it.
I’ve seen grown ass gangsters burst into tears when he walks into a room,” Tony went on like Chuito hadn’t said anything.
“And you don’t even know why protecting the Zu matters to begin with.
” He took a deep breath and looked at Chuito with that dark, intense gaze highlighted with black eyeliner.
“Kentucky Tino, normie Tino, the Tino you know, never had any reason to use blow. The Tino I know, he’s a different guy, and he snorted a lotta blow for a long time 'cause this life hurts him—a lot.”
Chuito looked away, a pain he couldn’t name lodging in his chest as he thought about it.
Tino ran to Miami immediately and went to great lengths to find Chuito when he took off, even if Chuito didn’t want to be found.
It wasn’t until right now that he understood the reason Tino assumed Chuito was in danger of going back on blow the moment he went back to his old life.
Tino knew because that’s exactly what he would do in the same situation.
The realization made Chuito’s already rabid fears multiply instantly.